Lake District Road Trip

We bought a car, woohoo! Though I realize the photo above is of a sailboat not a car... getting to that. It's a pretty big deal since we've not had a car for almost 6 years, and with two children, I'm amazed we made it that long without one. Granted our neighborhood has just about everything we need on our doorstep: butcher, baker, candlestick maker (not really that last one but I couldn't resist adding it because I'm a goof), fishmonger, wine shop, school, doctor, playgrounds, parks, all of these things within a 15 minute walk and a few of them a one minute walk, just around the corner really. We order our bulky groceries online (laundry soap, paper towels--you know, the boring stuff) and the rest we get locally, so that part of life without a car is pretty easy for us. Sometimes, though, it's been a royal pain! I have been reduced to tears on more than one occasion, standing at a bus stop in the freezing rain with two equally wet, freezing children and thought, this is nuts! We'll still take the bus to many places, but I'm really happy we finally decided to buy a car. It will make some short trips in the neighborhood easier, like picking up a very tired Lois from playdates after school rather than having to practically drag her home walking. And it means more road trips! We usually rent a car when we want to take a road trip, but that gets really expensive and is a bit of a hassle. Gotta go get the car, do the paperwork, pay the deposit, hear the sales pitch about insurance and whatnot, install the carseats each time, etc. I'm still not completely comfortable driving on the other side of the car and road, but I'm getting there. So, for our first road trip, we decided to go to the Lake District.

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.

Back to Sewing

For the last few months my sewing machine has been collecting dust. That's not to say my head wasn't completely immersed in sewing. I was actually more involved with sewing more than ever while working on London Stitch and Knit. I have never been to so many great fabric and haberdashery shops in such a short amount of time or written about so many all at once. My head has definitely been deep in fabric, thread, needles, patterns... I've just not been on the actual sewing machine again until last week. I really have not had any extra time. I completed photos in more than 45 shops and wrote features on all the shops, including chapter introductions and a resources section for my book in 3 months, mostly working on it after our girls went to bed and on the weekends (when I wasn't visiting the shops taking photos). If Ellie had been in school full-time that would have been a bit easier, but I had her two full days a week and she can't watch Peppa Pig all day after all. But now the book is just about finished and I've had time to do some actual sewing. One project that's been on my list for about a year is the Sew Over It Betty dress. I have some vintage curtain fabric that used to be in Lois's room that reminded me of fabric I saw on Mad Men, so I thought it would make a good Betty. It was really easy to make. I didn't get the zip to the top well the first time, though, so I re-did it. Other than that, the fit was good and I didn't need to do too many adjustments. Here's to getting back to sewing!

ACE Camp Days

I had a great time with my friend and chef Alison Bell hosting an ACE Camp London culinary tour. The group was great and we ate and ate and ate! We went to soooo many good places: St John, NOPI, Borough Market, Maltby Street Market, Marylebone farmer's market, Neal's Yard Dairy, lots of exploring in Shoreditch, Soho--where we had a great tour by Jenny Linford--and Everyone had plenty of time to explore and venture out during free time. Lots of campers went to the V&A, Selfridges, and plenty of other shops and restaurants that weren't on the itinerary specifically. One highlight was going to Alastair Hendy's home, where he has an amazing kitchen (the whole place is amazing, but the kitchen in particular is dramatic because you can look down into it from the upper floor where his living room is). Above is my delicious lunch at his house. He gave a talk about his food styling and photography work and then he cooked us an amazing lunch, which he let us all style. So much fun! Now I want to take an ACE Camp. I'm looking forward to seeing what camps Angela Ritchie has planned for the rest of the year and 2016. Here's a look at our London culinary tour.

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?

Workshop Update

I've only just realized how long it's been since I wrote a blog post! But here I am again now. We've packed a lot into these last weeks of summer. After my mom's visit, we went to Cornwall for a week, then after coming home just a few days, we went to San Francisco for two weeks and Baltimore for one week. I also managed to do a good bit of sewing before we left to go to the US. I made another pair of trousers and two dresses. But more on all those subjects later! Before it's a distant memory, I wanted to share some photos from the food styling and photography I assisted Béatrice Peltre with at Hawthbush Farm in June. We had a wonderful time, and all the students did as well. We could not have asked for better weather! I was soooo happy the weather was beautiful. And Hawthbush Farm is amazing. It's a beautiful glamping destination on an organic farm about an hour and a half from London in East Sussex.

Days out with Mom

I still need to go through my workshop photos! I'm sorry to be so slow to post those photos. But I haven't had time to do that yet because my mom came in town the day after our workshop ended. I quickly washed sheets, cleaned house and tried to make things pretty for my mom's arrival (the bathroom looks quite clean here, doesn't it? I stashed away all the kiddy stuff!) Whew. I managed to tidy up well enough and then almost as soon as she got here, we were busy out and about most days that she was here. We had a great time. We mostly visited some of our usual favorite places. Liberty is always a must, shown below, but I also took her to a few places she hadn't been before.

A Few Days In Marrakesh

Last February, to help keep our minds off the cold, grey days, we decided to pick out a warm, fairly exotic place to go in spring. We have a long list of places we'd like to visit while we're living on this side of the world, and Marrakesh is just one of them. It's always good to have something to look forward to, especially a holiday! So earlier this week we spent a few days in Marrakesh. We stayed at a beautiful place called Jnane Tamsna 15 minutes outside the medina, which I read about on Mr. and Mrs. Smith. We needed no further persuading after reading more about them on their web site and reading many good reviews.

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.

An Easter Dress for Little Miss

Here is Ellie's finished Easter dress! I'm so happy with it! I think after this dress I can now consider myself an intermediate sewist. I've been sewing since 2006 but only recently pushed myself in garment sewing. When I've gotten frustrated in the past, Andrew reminded me that sewing is not a linear learning process and not to be so hard on myself, which I've probably mentioned before. One thing at a time! For this pattern, I did just that. I took it one step at a time and tried not to read ahead and get overwhelmed by the two separate huge pages of instructions front and back. The pattern was actually very clear and easy to follow despite the lengthy number of steps.

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.

Motivation

Lately I've had the urge to hit the fabric store, but then I look at my pile of unfinished projects and tell myself I have no business buying anything new! In general I'm much better at starting something than finishing and it often drives me crazy. Last week my desire for new fabric for a new project thrusted me into sewing mode. Before setting foot in a fabric store I was determined to finish at least one thing. I made a round cushion that I started a while back and now I'm finishing the Miette skirt, which I started last fall. I only need to finish the waistband and hem so I hope to post that next. It's looking really cute! But until then I thought I'd show you the little cushion.

Tote Sewing

Last week I made a tote bag for a friend. I used a grain sack I bought from the flea market from Trinovante Trading. They are the vendors who have piles and piles of amazing grain sacks and bolts of grain sack fabric at Kempton Park. Scroll down on this post to see part of their space. Heaven in a grain sack! I wanted to use some Liberty fabric for the trim, but I only had a small strip and not enough to make proper bias tape, but I managed to make it work well enough.

Food Styling and Photography Workshop with Beatrice Peltre

What a beautiful photo, don't you think? It's one of many incredible photos from food stylist and photographer Beatrice Peltre, a great inspiration to me and writer of one of my favorite cookbooks. The last few months I've been working with her to put together a food styling and photography workshop this summer here in England and I'm so excited to be able to share that today! We will be staying at lovely farm to host the workshop. How amazing is this kitchen we will be using?!!

(photo above from farm)

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. 

Selvedge Report

Two weeks ago I went to the Selvedge Fair and had a wonderful time. I love the Selvedge fair! I'm sorry I'm only now getting around to posting photos. It's been a bit busy around here as I imagine it is for most people this time of year. Selvedge is more in the art category in my mind as far as art and craft fairs go. I marveled at the craftsmanship and the amount of thought and time that must have gone into so many of the beautiful creations I saw. I left feeling incredibly impressed and inspired by so much of what I saw there.

A Peek at Kempton Park

Kempton Park, or Sunbury Antiques as it's also known, is one of my favorite antique markets. It's not especially close to our neighborhood, though, so I don't get there often (it takes me about 1.5 hrs to get there by bus and train). It's twice a month, on Tuesdays from 6:30AM to about 1PM. Monday night before a market day I tell myself I will try to go (if I don't already have other plans) but unless I've arranged a sitter for the little one, time usually gets away from me in the morning and then I often feel it's too late to go. And the idea of going with a one year old is a bit daunting. She's at the squirmy age and she has no interest in looking at old junk, other than trying to put any bits and bobs in her mouth. And I'm not about to bring the buggy there with me due to lots of stairs at the train station and crowded isles at the market. But last week I got up early enough and so did little miss, so I strapped her on and we headed out and had a great time.

A Healthy Appetite

We've had some ups and downs the last two weeks with a round of colds and tummy bugs, which affected the little ones. But for the most part everyone's managed to keep a good appetite, especially for sweets. The kitchen has smelled pretty good lately. I love cooking smells. It's one of my best memories growing up, that is, lying in bed smelling my mom's cooking, which would lure me downstairs. It was usually onions or bacon I could detect first. But just about all food cooking smells would make me pop out of bed. Maybe that was my mom's tactic to get a teenager out of bed. Lois is up before us 99% of the time, but every now and then either I or Andrew will get up first and start making something. I made crepes the other morning before Lois woke up, and she walked downstairs and said, "ooh, what are you cooking? it smells lovely!" So cute.