Holiday Cheer

I love holidays and Christmas is a favorite. This year we're staying in London for Christmas, which we've only done one other time in the 5 years we've been here. Even when we go away, we always decorate a bit, 2013 being a favorite, before we re-arranged our house. I thought we'd go all out decorating like mad, but I'm a little behind in all the things I had planned. But it's still quite festive and we've done a good bit of Christmas crafting and baking. We made a lot of paper snowflakes, which are addictive and really easy to make. They're in our front window and so pretty to look at in the evening light.

Little Christmas Dresses

I'm so happy I finished the girls' Christmas dresses! I wasn't sure I'd get them finished in time (I'm pretty slow at sewing actually) but I got them done with about a week to spare before Christmas. These actually went a lot faster than I was expecting. Since I've made the pattern once before for the girls for Easter, I was already familiar with it so I knew they wouldn't be too challenging but they do have a lot of steps, and I needed to make two, so there was that to consider time-wise.

Summer Days

Ah, I wouldn't mind having that view again today! Beautiful blue water, warm breeze, sunshine, sand... all with family. We're back in London and have been for almost two weeks now. Alas, it seems like so long ago that we were in the US at the beach! We had a great time though, and I'm grateful we get to go home every summer for a few weeks and see our families and try to make the most of our time. We went to Cape San Blas in Florida, which was perfect. It's a bit remote compared to other summer beach cities in Florida, so it wasn't packed with people, which made being there all the more relaxing. Our girls had a great time with their cousins--lots of time body boarding in the ocean, swimming in the pool, games on the beach. We also drove to North Carolina to go to Asheville, a city we like a lot, and then up to Baltimore to see more family.

Snapshots from Cornwall

I've been so busy lately that our holiday in Cornwall with friends almost seems like a distant memory. The days just seem to rush by and it's hard for me to keep up with everything that I need and want to do. I imagine many people feel the same way, juggling the responsibilities of housework, kids, work and play. (I feel like I say that all the time!) It was great to have a break from our regular routine, though, and I wouldn't mind being back there now. The weather this week there is amazing. Unfortunately the weather wasn't great most of the time we were there, but we all had a wonderful time anyway. Our girls played with their friends from morning till night and had so much fun together. We went on some lovely short hikes, went to the beach, went to the Eden Project, Rick Stein's fish and chips, we cooked, played in the garden at the house, had an Easter egg hunt, and had a relaxing time just lounging around. The house we stayed in was amazing. I highly recommend it if you're looking for a place to stay near Bude. Here's a look at our holiday in Cornwall though instagram.

Pretty In Pink

Right now we're in Cornwall with some friends in a beautiful rental. More on that soon! It's a nice little break from life at home. I'm happy to be away from our own house to escape our daily routine and to have some time with friends.

Merry and Bright

Even though we always go home to the US for Christmas, we still like to get in the spirit at home and decorate the house a bit and I always send Christmas cards. We use Tiny Prints for our photo cards. Sometimes I have photos of all of us, but this year I chose two photos of the girls. I always find styles I like from their selection. This year we bought a small tree and put it on a table. It's just about the same height as Lois and fits our favorite ornaments perfectly. Lois actually carried it home herself! 

Snapshots from New York

I had a GREAT time with my mom and sister in New York! Four days with no kids (as much as we love our kids, it's nice to have a break!), just shopping, eating, drinking and exploring.  I couldn't have asked for a better girls' trip! And New York during the holidays, well, it's just magical, isn't it?

Cottage Hideaway

This morning when I woke up, I was scanning my Pinterest for a few minutes before I knew Lois and Ellie would wake up (a rare occurrence for me to be up before Lois). Lying in bed, I was looking over at our desk and the area around it in the corner of our bedroom, which needs a lot of work. I wanted to look at some office inspiration photos while looking over at the desk, but of course it's Pinterest so I got a little sidetracked and found this adorable cottage hideaway on the Isle of Wight instead.

Happy Easter

I love Easter decorations and really just love any holiday that makes for fun crafting. We haven't done much this year for Easter, though, other than make some cookies and a simple Easter egg tree, but I have a lot of Easter inspiration on pinterest. The girls' dresses are both finished. I'll post some photos after their Easter fashion show reveal tomorrow. Until then, here's a peek at our cookies (using a great, basic butter cookie recipe) and our little Easter tree.

A Weekend at Hawthbush Farm

This past weekend we went to Hawthbush farm for a few days and had a really nice time. It's an organic farm in East Sussex that I read about last year when trying to find a shepherds' hut to stay in. How amazing are their shepherds' huts? So cozy! I wanted to stay there, but they were all booked up when I inquired. So I decided to plan ahead for a visit there this year. The farm looked so pretty and I also really liked the look of one of their cottages called the cowshed. The amazing light-filled kitchen in the cowshed is one of the reasons we chose it for the upcoming photography workshop I'm helping to host with Beatrice Peltre. I'm glad we were able to make time to stay at Hawthbush Farm this month for a weekend and explore the property and surrounding area, which turned out to be really lovely.

We stayed in the piggery, which is a one bedroom, charming cottage. Though it's small, it was just enough space for a weekend away with two little ones. 

Easter Dresses in Bloom

Spring is definitely in the air! Little blossoms cover the trees and leaves are sprouting everywhere. I think we're nearing the end of all the pretty blossoms so I'm making sure to look up wherever I'm walking. I finished making my trousers. They are so cute and turned out really well. I'm really happy with them. I meant to get Andrew to take a decent picture of me wearing them, but we didn't get around to it over the weekend, so I'll wait till I have a better photo than a mirror reflection selfie. I also started on some Easter dresses for the girls. I'm making the Oliver + S fairytale dress for each of them. I've just about finished with Ellie's and it's a-dor-a-ble! I'm super excited to have practically completed it and I'll start on Lois's tomorrow. I'll be sure to post some photos when I'm all done.

Happy Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day in the UK, which is a bit odd to me as I'm always used to it being in May in the US. I had noticed Mother's Day type signs and whatnot in stores lately, but it didn't occur to me it was actually this weekend until a friend mentioned it last week. Andrew and Lois got me some pretty gerbera daisys, which I think look really pretty in our front room. Of course motherhood is not always roses and sunshine and often has me about to yank my hair out, but as frustrating and hard that it can be, it's also very enjoyable and rewarding. It's definitely harder than I expected though. I read this on Facebook today and could relate to much of what she wrote.

Home Again

Long time no post! We are back home from our trip to the US now but had a great time. Although we were there three weeks, time flew, as it often does of course when you're having fun. One thing I did with Lois and my mom is make peg dollies or at least try to. The one above is one of my inspiration peg dolls by Jess Quinn. I also love Alicia Paulson's peg dolls. So cute! This little "home" gal greets us in our front hallway. We haven't finished ours yet, but I hope our sweeties will be almost as cute. But peg doll making just took up a teensy fraction of our time. So lets see, what did we do? So much really!

Decking the Halls

We've been getting in the spirit of the holidays and have had fun the last few weeks decking the halls. We'll be in the US for Christmas but wanted to decorate a bit around the house anyway. We haven't had our own tree since 2009 because we're always away for Christmas. And in the weeks leading up to Christmas I often wish I had decorated more. It might seem silly to have a tree when we will be away for Christmas, but we've planned to give our tree to our neighbors who've just moved back into their house after renovating it since summer. I didn't go crazy with the decorations, but here's a little bit our holiday cheer around the house. I have soooo many Christmas craft and decorating ideas on Pinterest and this wreath is just one thing I wanted to make inspired by a photo I've pinned. I've hung it in a few different places in our front room, which is basically my craft room. I love it and love that it was simple enough for Lois to help me make it. Our front room looks really pretty in the evening when the sun is going down, which is when I took these photos. 

New From Jessie Chorley

I recently had the pleasure of doing some photos for Jessie Chorley, one of my favorite crafter-artists. She wanted some photos of new products to add to her online shop and we had a fun day chatting and shooting. Of course since these items are for sale, we needed to get nice full crisp photos of the products (all in a vertical orientation because that's what is needed for her site platform), but Jessie and I both really like the soft touch of an open aperture and I think the dreamy quality that results in a wide open aperture suits her style.

For Father's Day

Andrew doesn't wear suits often, but he recently bought a new one, and a new dress shirt. But he didn't get a new tie so I thought I'd try to make one for him for Father's day. Yes, it's a bit of a lame Father's day gift. It might be the least original idea for a Father's day gift! But if it's handmade, that is something else all together, isn't it? I've been looking around for a tie pattern lately and found a few, like this one from the Coletterie blog, which I was planning on trying out until I saw that Sew Over It had a tie kit. It came with a nice dark floral print, but I decided to use some Liberty fabric I received in a bundle. I like the Liberty fabric but wasn't sure what I'd use this particular bit for. It looks nice with his new shirt, which has similar colors. It was sooooo easy to make this tie!

Belated Valentine's

Happy after Valentine's day day! I meant to write this post yesterday, but as is often the case, the day flew by and I didn't get to it before I was too sleepy. Ah, well, hearts are always pretty, right? And love, that's a daily thing too, or should be anyway. I really like this blog post about Valentine's day and what celebrating love and gratitude should be about. I had fun the past two weeks making heart-shaped things with Lois, most of which were edible! She loves to help in the kitchen and though it can be extra messy with her "help" and a little frustrating sometimes, I pretty much always let her help with something.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! We're back from Atlanta now and getting settled into our house again. We had a great time in the US these last seven weeks but we're happy to be home now. I hope you had a great Christmas and a happy, safe New Year. We watched the big London fireworks show on TV, which was amazing (photos below, of the TV!) and we also watched a wonderful documentary on happiness over the weekend called Happy. If you haven't already seen it, and you have an interest in being happier (and who doesn't?), I recommend watching it. You can get it on Netflix or the documentary's web site. The photo above is from Jessie and Buddug's shop and is one of my favorite quotes. I've posted it before, but it's one that I think of when I think of happiness, a reminder that you often have to be proactive to achieve it. (More of their shop photos here.) So if you're interested in more happiness, I think the documentary is wonderful. Also, two books I like on the subject are Authentic Happiness and Flow. Is that happy overload? This week I'll be working on making our house a happy one, doing a lot more that needs to be done, like making some curtains. I was going to buy them, but I can't find what I want, so this will be my first attempt at making some. Fingers crossed. I need to make some for our bedroom and Lo's bedroom and might make some for the front room too. I have a fun idea for her curtains that involves her help. Pictures to come.

Ornament Making

Some of my favorite ornaments are ones my mom made from an old quilt. They are in the shape of bears and very cute. We've had them since I was very little. When I saw these on Pinterest, they reminded me of the little bears and I thought I'd try to make them. My mom had an old quilt top she bought for $1 (can you believe that?) and said I could cut it up. I've made a few trees and have some kitties in the works too. Good thing these are soft because our tree has fallen down twice! At least these won't break.

Falling into Winter

We had a great time in San Francisco, and time does fly when you're having fun! We went to some of our favorite places--parks, restaurants, etc. and discovered a few new spots. We also had a great time seeing some of our friends there. After San Francisco we headed to Baltimore to spend Thanksgiving there with my husband's family. It was great to spend time with family there. I took this photo above when we went to the playground to take the kids. There was a nature trail right next to the playground, and it was a beautiful day. It was a good time to stop and take in the scenery. Now we're in Atlanta and will be here through Christmas. I'm so excited to be here. My mom and I have been planning some fun crafts to make. We started with some snow globes today. They didn't turn out quite as well as I hoped, but I'm happy we gave it a go. I've also made a list of some recipes to make. Here's to the holidays!