Greetings from the Road! France and Spain

Greetings from the road! Our road trip has been a wee bit stressful at times with the little bundle in tow, but still a lot of fun, and daddy's done a great job driving. We started in Marseille and made our way south to Barcelona, where we are now. We explored Marseille, took a Mediterranean Sea voyage, explored Carcassonne, drove through the eastern Pyrenees Mountains, hiked up to Chateau de Peyrepertuse, stayed in a cute little town called Cucugnan, then made our way into Spain and stopped for tapas in Girona, and now we're in Barcelona. Whew, we've done a lot in a week and have one day to go. Here's a bit of what we've been up to so far...

In some places the Mediterranean Sea just looks fake it's so beautiful. We walked along the coast and took in the view. But we needed to refuel and had something sweet on our minds. We bought some very good orange blossom cookies from the bakery below. 

Lois had her first boat ride! (Oh wait, it was her 2nd boat ride!) We cruised along the coast to the calanques. 

Before heading out of town we checked out the local fish market. 

Then we headed to Carcassonne, a really neat medieval fortified town. It was very touristy, but we still enjoyed it. 

Back on the road, we stopped at Chateau de Peyrepertuse, one of the Cathar Castles. We hiked to the top  and took in the beautiful view. Lois had her first real hike, and she was a trooper!

Driving through the Pyrenees was really fun and a little stressful at times, like when we encountered this big truck o' logs. Tiny narrow road, on the side of a mountain--we were just praying for cars not to come, but they did anyway. We had to back up for this truck but we all survived. And we weren't even in the BIG part of the Pyrenees. 

We stayed in a cute little town called Cucugnan. Just look at these pictures! Adorable. Below is sunrise in Cucugnan and the valley just below the town. 

After leaving Cucugnan, we headed for Spain. We stopped in Girona where we had some yummy tapas. 

To be continued, from Barcelona. 

Road Trip

When I haven't been playing with Lois or trying to calm her from her little toddler temper tantrums, I've been looking forward to our upcoming road trip. This Sunday we leave for Marseilles, France where we'll rent a car and drive to Barcelona, Spain over the course of 8 days! Above is the general route we'll take. We've planned a few things and have hotel reservations in a few different cities, but for the most part we're winging it. We'll pick out places to eat, and things to see and do as we go. Hopefully I'll take some good pictures along the way too. Won't you join us? We leave Sunday. Better get packed! (The links below are for the sources of where I found these images.)

Marseilles, France. 

Carcassonne, France. 

The Pyrenees, along France and Spain. 

Barcelona, Spain. 

Around London Town

Oh my, I'm a terrible blogger, letting days and days go by! I've lost my blog mojo lately, which I imagine is not very nice for my friendly readers, now is it? It's not your fault I'm in a blog slump. I haven't been feeling too chatty lately, but I'm usually knee deep in pictures, or get that way once I've been out and about on the town for a few hours. So to keep you entertained until I have something more exciting to share, here's a bit of what I've been up to: strolling around town, walking along the river, and having tea. Sounds nice and looks pretty in pictures too. Oh and I did get a fun new lens, a Diana lens and adaptor to use on our regular camera. It's supposed to give off a soft focus or dreamy effect, and so far it's really fun. The first two pictures are with the Diana lens and the others are with my iPhone.

Walking along the Thames in Richmond. 

Strolling around London, crossing the Westminster Bridge, looking at the London Eye.

On the bridge, in the other direction, Houses of Parliament. 

Oh yes, and I had tea at Haymarket Hotel, which I posted about recently. Unfortunately the conservatory room was unavailable (that's the room my friend recommended, the one she said was like having tea inside an Anthropologie), but it was still great. I've become sort of an afternoon tea junkie. 

All Mixed Up

For a while now I've wanted to collect mixed plates and teacups. It's only taken me forever to get started! I'm not sure why. I see pretty plates and teacups at thrift stores and flea markets all the time. But these two above did the trick. One vendor had both of them, and they just looked so pretty together. I'd like to collect mixed plates just to use everyday but also to hang a collection on the wall. My colors are yellow, green, red, and blue, so I'm looking out for any plates that have those colors or combinations of colors. I also bought these teacup trios below.

More on teacups later, though, back to plates for now. I've seen lots of inspiring plate collections, and here are just a few. The last example from Patchwork and Harmony is my favorite, and she also has a good post on how to hang them using invisible plate hangers. 

From top to bottom, I found these here: one, two, three, four, five. 

Lolo's Room

Lois's room is finished! It's been pretty much finished for months, but I wanted to make something to cover the dark fireplace and finally did that this week. I also wanted to finish her bunting. Both are done so welcome to Lois's room! If you saw her room in San Francisco or saw pictures on my blog, it's basically the same, mostly all the same stuff anyway, but I hung things in a different arrangement and she has some different curtains now. Almost everything in her room is either from Ikea, a flea market, or a thrift store. Here's the tour...

Daybed from Ikea and lots of pillows. One can never have too many pillows! At least I can't.

Some of the pillows are store bought, but a few are handmade. My aunt made this red ruffle pillow that I love. 

This bird and tulip pillow came from a thrift store and I made the patchwork pillow behind it from one of Alicia Paulson's patterns. 

Little doll named Lois came from the Alemany flea market in San Francisco. 

Stripes here is from Laku, one of my favorite San Francisco shops. 

Artwork by my nephews. Frames from Ikea. 

Artwork from a high school friend. You can see it larger here.

Vintage books in a pew holder and "L" is for Lion vintage fabric from my friend Alex. 

The wheels on the bus go round and round! Bus painting my Mose Tolliver. One time when I was in, I dunno, maybe middle school, I painted over one of his watermelon paintings--eek! I guess I just thought I could improve it. Woops. 

You are Beautiful by Cathy Nichols on etsy. 

Vintage Child Life magazines. Lisa gave these to me. I love them (just look!) and wish I could win bids on them on ebay, but I never do. The magazine holder is from Anthropologie. 

Bunting! I made this bunting with her name on it this week. This is above her crib (which is from Ikea). My mom found the apron in an antique store. The dress on the far left is from Vintage Touch on etsy and the one on the right is from a shop in Atlanta, but I can't think of the store right now!

Curtains and her dresser (the top of it anyway). My aunt made the floral curtain, but I can't remember the name of the fabric right now. It's an older Amy Butler fabric. I think it's from her Gypsy Caravan collection. I made the yellow gingham panels to go underneath. 

Custom bookplates from Oiseaux on etsy. 

Lots of vintage books on a spinning rack my mom bought at a flea market (this thing weighs a ton and has been all over the place).

Above the book rack is artwork by my friend Michelle. 

Flea market treasures and a party hat made by moi.

One of her birth announcements that I made. 

My solution to a very dark red brick and black fireplace. It's actually very pretty under the curtain, but it just didn't go with the room. The curtain isn't perfect by any means, and I couldn't find a pole to fit close enough to the top, so I should have made a wider hem at the top to let it ruffle out, but this is at least better than before!

That's all for the show, folks. Hope you enjoyed it!