Alexandra Nurseries

Recently a friend told me about Alexandra Nurseries and offered to take me one day. She said it was a great nursery that also sold vintage things and had a cafe. She said I'd love it. Pretty plants, old stuff, and cake? No need to talk me into going! The selection of plants is great and they also have some wonderful vintage goods and a cozy cafe. Here are a few photos from Alexandra Nurseries. It's not exactly in the middle of anything in particular, but it's worth a diversion to discover this little gem. My mom's coming to visit in a few weeks and I can't wait to take her here!

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.

A Measured Heart

Yesterday I bought some very adorable and slightly impractical measuring spoons hearts. I love them! I saw them a few days ago at a local shop and really wanted them but resisted the urge. I don't really need new measuring spoons, and I try to avoid impulse buys (well, I do right now anyway). But they kept creeping back up in my mind so I decided to go back and get them. I just want to measure and measure and measure! Lois loves them too. I threw out the tag and can't remember the company who makes them right now, but I'll add a link if I think of it.

I made a recipe from La Tartine Gourmande, a yummy chocolate cake topped with seasoned plums. I've made the cake a few times and love it and thought I'd try them as little fairy cakes. I started to cut the plums as heart shapes but it wasn't working out so well, so I did slices.

Amsterdam!

We're just back from a short trip to Amsterdam. I love Amsterdam! I've only been once before, but it's a top city on my list. It's cozy but doesn't feel too small (not to me as an outsider anyway); it's classy but laid back; it's edgy without falling off a cliff; it has a great mix of old a new, and it's just so pretty! I love the architecture of the houses and how the canals make their way between them. If you've read my blog a while you'll know I love them so much I made this, which is also one of my favorite things I've ever made.

Muffin Morning

I love blueberry muffins, especially Mark Bittman's recipe for them. The little bit of lemon zest and little bit of cinnamon make these stand apart from some other recipes I've tried in the past. Actually I've made these so many times I can't really remember what other blueberry muffins taste like. And sometimes they are cause for celebration! I never buy blueberry muffins when I'm out because I know I won't like them as much as these. This recipe is also great because he gives some nice variations. And you can use fresh or frozen blueberries (I used frozen here). So, if you like blueberry muffins, try this recipe. Remember to read all the way through, though, because the ingredients vary a bit from the original base recipe.

Decorative Living Fair

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of going to the Decorative Living Fair at Chelsea Old Town Hall, hosted by Caroline Zoob. It was like going to a wonderful antique mall with the best selection of vendors. Normally held in Kent, this year's event was in London, so I made arrangements to go, (which means I hired a babysitter so I could go solo!) and had a few happy hours browsing beautiful vintage housewares and some really great handmade items as well. I met so many nice people and bought a few trinkets. Here are some snapshots from the fair. I liked so many stalls, but it was quite busy when I was there, and it was hard to squeeze into many of them to get photos. But here are a few! Photos above, in clockwise from top left, are from Blue Linen Cupboard, Old Rectory Sales, Lois Kirsten, Gazehound Vintage, Old Rectory Sales again, and Sam Lindsay.

Weekend Market

One thing I really like about our neighborhood is our little Saturday market. It's on Northcross Road in East Dulwich, a few blocks from us. Although it's small, with only a handful of vendors, it has a good variety of food, crafts, and vintage treasures. When we first found this neighborhood, the market was a big selling point for us. Here are some market pictures from when we first moved here.

Follow Your Heart

Although we've lived here 3.5 years, I still feel a little out of place sometimes, or rather just not quite at home. This is due to a variety of factors, I think, but when I'm not quite feeling at home, I remind myself of all the things I love about living here, and one of those many things is Jessie and Buddug's shop. I definitely feel right at home at their shop. Both Jessie and Buddug have so many new things since I last visited. And they are busily working on stocking the shop for Christmas. Last week I went to their annual tea party and had a wonderful time looking around the shop.

The Perfect Scoop?

If I had an ice cream shop, I'd have to have a display like this one above! Only mine would read "ice cream" of course. Ice cream and fabric? Yes, please! A perfect scoop indeed. (It appears those are scarves to me, but I'd be happy just to ball up some fabric). And of course my ice cream dress would be the uniform. I wonder if I could have a few made in different colors? Because at the rate I'm churning it out, I'd need a number of different styles. And then we'd need ice cream cups... I think Lois would agree these would complement our cart.

Gone Glamping

For this past bank holiday weekend we went glamping in East Sussex. It was so much fun! (Okay, well, we are a family traveling with kids, so naturally it included a few tantrums, whining, spills, and general disagreements, but I imagine that's a given. But the weekend tilted on the fun side of the scale.) I had been looking around on the Cool Camping web site for a few weeks to try to find something that suited all our needs, mainly to be fairly close to London, near a train station, and with things to do in walking distance. It's not easy to find glamping sites that meet those requirements and are available on a holiday weekend with fairly short notice (I started looking about 3 weeks before the holiday weekend). But I happened to get a booking with The Original Hut Company because they had a cancelation. Lucky us!

Birthday Dress!

This week I made Ellie a birthday dress to celebrate her upcoming first birthday. Already one! I can't believe how fast this year has gone by. I've had the Oliver + S Family Reunion pattern for a while now and have been meaning to make one for Ellie and Lois. I finally got motivated with her birthday coming up and got to cutting and sewing. I was tempted to buy some nice, new fabric, but really I have plenty to work with, and especially for such a wee dress, you don't need much fabric. I used some navy stripe shirt fabric my mom gave me a while back and some Liberty fabric for the neck facing and buttons. I've been looking around for a while now at what sorts of fabrics I like for this dress (lots of ideas here on pinterest), and found I like simpler fabrics for the base with a bit of contrast. It was so much fun to make!

Gone Pickin'

Yesterday I packed up the girlies and headed out to a PYO farm (pick your own) to pick strawberries. I was sooooo happy my friend invited us to go and to drive. Her daughter goes to nursery with Lois and it sounded like a great playdate outing. We get out and about quite a bit for a no-car family, but it's a totally liberating feeling to hop in a car and go someplace quickly after not hoping in a car and going someplace quickly very often (we're working on the license thing). For our PYO day out we went to Hewitt's farm in Kent. The weather was perfect for berry picking--a bit overcast and very mild. They had plenty of produce available for picking, but we went for strawberries and moved on to have a picnic afterwards. The weather was also great for photos. I took the opportunity to use our new-ish little camera, a Sony DSC RX100.

Brixton Outing

Earlier this week I went to one of my favorite places near our neighborhood, Brixton Village Market. I've been fighting a cold (actually, I think I've had a series of colds and I'm so tired of them!), but I decided to go anyway because I needed to get out of the house. I've also been wanting to test out our new little camera, a Sony DSC-RX100. We have a nice SLR but it's massive and now with 2 kids, it's just one more big, heavy thing to carry, which is why I've become so accustomed to using my iPhone (that and filters are fun!).