My Book! London Stitch and Knit

Lately I've been working on a big project that I'm super excited about. I'm writing a book! It's a guide to London's fabric, knitting and haberdashery shops and will be published this autumn. I'm also doing the photos for the book, which is wonderful because I get to go to so many amazing shops and capture how beautiful they are. It's been hard though to keep my wallet from jumping out of my purse at every shop! I've had the idea for the book for a while and I'm really happy that it's now a reality.

Melanie Barnes for 91 Magazine

A few months ago I had the pleasure of meeting Melanie Barnes of the beautiful blog Geoffrey and Grace when I went to shoot her cozy house and cute makery beach hut in Worthing for 91 Magazine. In addition to being a busy mom, Melanie is also a talented crafter who sews children's clothes and accessories from vintage fabrics. She also runs a shop with two other talented crafters out of their beach hut studio / shop named Margot.

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.

Workshop Update to Come

I'm just back from Hawthbush Farm where I assisted Beatrice Peltre in one of her food styling and photography workshops. We had an amazing week, and of course I have so many photos to share! Today though I was rushing around getting our house ready for my mom, who's coming in town tomorrow. Not much time to rest! I'll sort though my photos in the next few days and write a longer post later in the week. Until then, here's an Instagram pic of mine, a sweet peek of a pavolva our amazing chef, Alison, made for the group. In the photo it may look like it's small, but it's actually quite large with a huge serving spoon from Zara Home's picnic line. More soon...

Making Time

It always seems hard to make time to do everything I want and need to do (I'm sure I'm not alone here in feeling this way). I'm a fairly productive person but I still often feel like a rat running on a wheel, leaving me frustrated at the end of the day for not having gotten more done. It puts me in a panic sometimes feeling time slip away! I'm glad that yesterday I decided to stop and smell the roses, or rather document the daffs and granola, as it were. It's been a while since I pulled out our macro lens. It's really fun to use. Ah, I love it! I should use it more often. I also used our 50mm 1.2 lens, which is wonderful as well. Much more lens for me really, but I'm very grateful to have it. Lately we've been eating lots of granola. Yum! I love homemade granola. I've been using the recipe in La Tartine Gourmande, which is delicious, but Beatrice also has a version here online. Though that one is a bit different and includes millet puffs, rice puffs and chocolate, everything else is about the same but also the one in the book includes pecans and walnuts. I like the idea of the puffs for cereal though, so I might have to try that one. I often eat quickly in the morning and usually just standing at the counter as I'm cleaning at the same time. Always busy, busy in the morning it seems. And messiness kind of makes me feel crazy so I'm pretty much constantly cleaning. But it's nice to look out the window and see the little daffodils blooming while I eat, even if I am standing and eating quickly. The last few times I made granola and stared out the window I thought, "I really should be taking a picture of this pretty sight!" But then it's rush, rush, rush and I don't get to it. So yesterday while Ellie napped I made afternoon granola and took time to take photos of it as well as flowers in the garden. Then I took some photos of Miss Ellie after she woke up. She's also long overdue for some proper photos. It reminded me of my blueberry breakfast with Lois when she was about the same age. How time flies! Here's a bit from our granola afternoon in bloom...

At Home in 91 Magazine

Also in the current craft issue of 91 Magazine is our little abode! I was really happy to have our place featured in the craft edition and happy Caroline wrote the article. I've not shared many photos around our house on my blog because I don't feel like anything is ever finished (I know I always say this), and I often hesitate to take photos thinking things look too unfinished. It seems each room is a perpetual work in progress! But I imagine that is how many people feel about their houses. We're renters so that's one thing I have to keep in mind as well. My dream of painted white floors will have to wait! Part of the fun in making a house home, whether you rent or own, is finding things at different places at different times, and I just have to remind myself of that when I look around the house a bit frustrated that it's not "done." I have the thrill of the hunt to look forward to. But things are coming together around here and everyday it feels more homey.

The Making of Kedgeree

This week I received my copy of Pretty Nostalgic in the mail (a wonderful British magazine) and was especially excited about this issue because I have two articles in it, one of which is on Kedgeree, a delicious indian inspired British dish. Ah, kedgeree is sooo good! It has smoked fish, rice, coriander, lime, egg, cinnamon, and onions among other things. Sound strange or delicious? I had not heard of it before moving to London, and it's one of those dishes I wasn't too sure about after hearing the ingredients, but then once I tasted it, I became a kedgeree devotee!

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)

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.

Hire Me!

Recently I've had a few photography commissions and feel a bit in the dark ages for not having a proper web site dedicated solely to my photos. For a while now I've been meaning to give my photos a better and more professional home than sloppy o'l Flickr (I'm not a huge Flickr fan). And now, thanks to Squarespace, I've done just that! I'm not a web designer by any means. Sometimes I'm surprised I can even write my own blog. I'm quite the granny when it comes to some aspects of technology, but Squarespace was super easy and fun to use. And they are lightning fast when it comes to responding to help queries. I needed to email them a few times for some basic troubleshooting and received replies within minutes each time. Gotta love some good customer service! Although my site is about as simple as it gets, I can tell it would be easy to use any of their templates (which are all very customizable, by the way). I still have some tweaking to do, like on my title name and the "writing" page, which is a jumble right now. But this is a start! Let me know what you think. Here is the site. I've tried to include a good variety of photos and styles, using different lighting situations and lenses. I have a lot to learn, but the beginning is always a good place to start! 

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.

France Photography Workshop Update

I'm back from France now but had a nice time at the photography and food styling workshop. Unfortunately the weather was a real drag. It was rainy, windy, and cold for 4 out of the 5 days of the workshop, which threw off the itinerary and prevented us from getting outside much. It was a shame in such a beautiful place (southern France, in the Languedoc wine region) where the weather is normally sunny and about 75 degrees most days this time of year. Alas, we can't control weather, so nothing could be done about that but make the best of our indoor time. But it was great to meet and learn from Beatrice Peltre and Lara Ferroni, and I met a lot of nice people who came from all over the world for the workshop. Here's a peek into our workshop days.

Some Recent iPhone Favorites

It's been a while since I unloaded the photos from my phone, but I got around to doing it over the weekend. Instagram is still my favorite photo app lately, and I really like that they've added tiltshift as an option. Here are a few favorite instagram photos over the past month or so. 

I'm also experimenting with larger photos. I wish there was something between the blogger "large" and "xlarge" settings. They do look huge! What do you think? Do you like so see larger photos or is this too big? (Update: they just looked too big in xlarge to me! So I went back to large for now.)

Instagram

One iPhone photo app that I love lately is Instagram. Have I mentioned it already? I can't remember! Just thought I'd tell you about it in case you have an iPhone and didn't already know of it. It's intended for easy sharing, I think, but I really like it for the filters. I usually just save the images to my camera roll rather than sharing the images via one of the sharing options like facebook. They've added a tilt shift option too, which is really nice. Here are a few pictures I took this week with Instagram using tilt shift and then another filter. If I were in the market for a basic, nice point and shoot camera, I think I'd just get an iPhone! There are so many great photo apps. You can also send someone a Postagram now, a real postcard using one of your Instagram images. For .99 you choose the image, type the postcard, add the address, and sent it on its way all via the app. I'll have to try it out. 

Le Chandelier

Yesterday I visited Le Chandelier, a beautiful cafe-restaurant and atelier in East Dulwich. I always love discovering new tea spots here in London, and when I read about Le Chandelier on Tea for Joy, I put it at the top of my list. It was as beautiful in person as it is in pictures. The light-filled space, with white washed walls is narrow and long, with high ceilings, and the cosy atmosphere and decor make you feel like you're in a 17th century salon. You can choose from more than 25 loose leaf teas, which are selected by Le Chandelier's very own tea master. They also serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner (dinner on certain nights), as well as a beautiful selection of sweet delights from their patisserie. As you sit and sip your tea and indulge in a nibble, it's easy to be dazzled by all the beautiful chandeliers overhead, which are for sale, and sourced primarily from France. Le Chandelier also has a vibrant Moroccan room, which can be reserved for private parties, and the entire space can be made available through 1st Option for photoshoots as well. If you go to Le Chandelier, I'm sure you'll leave feeling refreshed and inspired like I did. I can't wait to go back.

Le Chandelier

161 Lordship Lane
London
SE22 8HX
Tue-Thrus 9:30am-6pm
Fri and Sat 9:30am-11pm
Sun 10am-6pm

The Other Rainbow

I love contrails. They're sort of like rainbows to me. More like rainbow-lite. By their less frequent nature (and more colorful nature), rainbows are simply more exciting and desirable to see, but still, I just love contrails. Swoosh!  Since we live fairly close to an airport, I get to see contrails often. I usually snap a few pictures with my iPhone as I walk Lois to school. Not related to home, vintage, or crafts, but they do make for pretty pictures. Here are just a few recent favorites (some in our neighborhood and some in the city).

iPhone Favorites

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know I love iPhone photos. This week I've been working on sorting some of my photos, and what a mess! I have lots in iPhoto, others in Lightroom2, Flickr, Picassa. A mess. I don't know how people keep their pictures organized these days with all the different options. It's really hard to keep everything organized, but in general I try to keep one folder of just iPhone photos. Every time I look at them I'm wow'd by that little piece of technology. I think part of my brain can't catch up to the fact that these days it's no big deal to have 2 really neat kinds of technology in one, both doing what they do well (sometimes the camera part is even better than the phone part). My brain is usually like, whoa, a phone took that picture! My brain must be trapped in about 2003. After looking through the iPhone pictures folder, I thought I'd share a few favorites (though I'm sure you've already seen a lot of these). These are all with different apps. Some of the ones I have and use most are CameraBag, PictureShow, TiltShift, and ShakeIt.