And then the holiday began

After a long 6 & 1/2 hour drive south we arrived at the house. Once there we cooked a simple dinner and were pleased with the peace and quiet of the place, only to discover we were sharing the house with a colony of flying ants (thousands of them crawling on the walls and the ceiling). They even managed to crawl in under the mosquito net, warming up the bed for us; gee, thanks ants! There was also a family of bats living in the bedroom but luckily they moved out after the first night. Ahhh, country life! Things got better the next day. One of my favourite moments in the house was when I knitted by the window whilst watching a thunderstorm working it's way across the horizon; who needs a TV?! Happy Friday mes amies!

Ferry interesting

We were supposed to do our France-trip by train and car hire but after being mucked around by the hire company we changed our plans; we'd take the overnight ferry to St Malo and do the drive south in our own car, a week earlier than planned. I haven't been on an overnight ferry since I was a kid and nothing much has changed since then, it was like being on a floating time warp; the perfect place for a camera warm-up!

There's definitely something in the French water :)

Le retour

We're back! I have a lot of pictures to sort through and a film (yippie!) to develop so whilst I rest up (you know how it goes, sometimes you need to recover from a holiday) I give you the sunset in St Malo from Monday night. It was a beaut!

Les vacances

To escape the heat we're heading further south (!), France to be exact. But at least we'll be staying in a house with a pool; or maybe that should be a pool with a house? Not sure I'll be blogging from there, so if not, hope you have a wonderful week! Bisous!

The golden hour

Summer seems to have arrived here in London and the other night I noticed how beautiful the light was in the spare room. They say you really feel the heat when you're pregnant and I have to agree, normally I'd be basking in the sun but now all I want to do is take cover in our - luckily - cool house. As you can see I'm getting quite big (in a brilliant maternity dress that Hannah sent me) and the little fellow in there is apparently big and healthy too. Yes... turns out we're having a boy! We haven't decided on a name yet (there's still plenty of time) and now I'm curious; which are your favourite boys names? Have a great weekend everyone!

This post made me smile, what a great way to commemorate MJ. The music will always live on and make us wanna dance!

Down South Bank

As the CSM show was by South Bank I was only too pleased to be walking around one of my favourite parts of London. It's been way too long since I was down there and we're planning on going back there soon to see the Walking in my mind exhibition at the Hayward Gallery. Yoshitomo Nara's one of the artists - woohoo!!

Graphics 2009

Went to the Central Saint Martins BA Graphic Design graduate show on Monday night. It was very hot and heaving but we managed to make our way round the different floors anyway. These are some of the things that caught my eye.

KristopherH - the last pic is one of his illustrations. 

Within in a minute

These were shot 50 seconds apart; whilst I took the pic of Little Mo chilling out upstairs the hubby called "Come down and look at this!". That cat and that man are weirdly in synch.

Saturday part II

After the surprise of seeing so many naked people in one place we continued over to Covent Garden on a special mission to get to Scoop (proper gelato in London!) where we ordered way too much (and yes, there is such a thing as too much ice-cream). A posse of ladies in pink hats (a hen-night party) strolled past us just as we were leaving and once we got back to my sister's, Min the cat was only too happy to be let back out on the roof terrace. A good day indeed!

Same girl - my favourite song at the mo courtesy of Bret & Jemaine :)

Saturday part I

Finally got to spend a day with my sister (and her man) - it's been months since we've had the chance to hang out - so on Saturday I went round their neck of the woods for a spot of lunch. On our way to the pub it suddenly got very noisy and as we looked up fighter jets flew over us, on their way to Buckingham Palace to salute the Queen for her birthday celebrations. We didn't really have any plans for the rest day, but after talking about Swedish sweets we decided to make our way over to the Scandinavian Kitchen to stock up. To our surprise we managed to time our crossing of Oxford Street just as hundreds of naked people zoomed by on their bikes. They were taking part of the World Naked Bike Ride and we couldn't quite believe that the traditionally prudish Brits were so happily letting it all hang out. These are two of the more respectable pictures I took, I didn't want you to choke on your breakfast first thing in the morning! More pics tomorrow.

The result

Thought I'd show you the result of our hallway carpet dilemma... We decided to go with the middle paler colour out of the three original swatches but were then told that it had been discontinued! As a result we had to bring samples back and forth for a few days to see what would fit (at one point we were looking at green carpet - ehh??). Anyway, turns out it was a blessing the paler colour didn't exist. We went with a warmer darker grey and we're very pleased with the result! Happy Friday chums!

Making shapes

The second I saw it over on Amy's gorgeous blog All the mountains I knew I had to have it! Kinda like love at first sight... sigh. Check out the charming Shapemaker film here and buy their stuff here. Little four year-old O (in the last picture) liked it too, can't wait to have fun with it in a few years time with our own little one :)

My milk toof - this blog has left me speechless... I just can't find the words to describe it but one thing is for certain; you'll LOVE it.

Ours

Trying to get the whites white and trainers clean, finding boy names, watching Little Mo sitting just so, enjoying another homemade cake with friends and having fun on the Xbox. How was your weekend?

Yum yum gimme some!

Went to Wahaca last night with some friends, the third time in less that two weeks no less! One of us was particularly keen as you can see in the first picture :) 

It's the last pairing ever today over on how we say hello! Both me & Sandra are sad to end the project but I'm sure we'll do something else together in the future. Happy Friday y'all!

Sweet tooth

Got my bake on this weekend. I've been wanting to bake for months, just waiting for my energy to come back (which it has, I'm even back in the gym - hooray!) so I could get on with it. I made an apple & hazelnut loaf from an old recipe book and whilst I was loading the loaf with the apples I thought "Surely this is too many?!", but the recipe said that the key to a great loaf was tons of them. Wrong!!! It should have taken 35 minutes to bake in the oven but I had to keep adding more and more time as it was nowhere near cooked. Two hours later I gave up. In the end we had a few soggy but delicious slices and I now know to halve the amount of apples in future. I must learn to trust my inner baker...

In the details

Went round to my friend T's house the other day and after a while there I confessed that I was really fighting the urge to pick up the camera and take pictures. I got his blessing and started snapping away. There were so many wonderful things to look at and it made me yearn to scour eBay and markets a bit more. But there is only one room left to decorate in our house... the nursery! Oh boy, am I going to live out my vintage fantasies in there!

My Friday morning

I've just had a wonderfully long and drawn out breakfast on my lonesome. The hubby is in Paris just for the day (for work) and Little Mo has been busy sunbathing in the bedroom. It looks like it's going to be a fine summer's day and what better way to start than with a bit of surfing, a bit of Barry Humphries' Desert Island Discs on Radio 4 and the background noise of birds twittering in our garden. Now if you excuse me, I have to iron my summer wardrobe, I'll be needing it right about now :) Happy Friday peeps!

Bills bills bills II

Remember this post from last year? Well, since then I've been stockpiling more envelopes and it's about time I posted some of them. I like how most of them look like 1950's and 6o's patterns, but I've also added a couple contemporary ones; 

they kinda stand out don't you think?

Update: I keep losing the link to this flickr set of envelopes but someone kindly sent it in one of the comments. I reckon someone has to make a book about them! Seriously.

Funny face

Let's start this week with a laugh or two!

Real life twitter

via A cup of Jo

Babysitters

I had yesterday all planned out. I was going to the Barbican to see the Le Corbusier exhibition (the last day is Sunday, but I don't fancy going at the weekend) whilst the hubby baby sat the niece. Yet as soon as she arrived in the morning I knew I'd have more fun hanging out with them. I mean, it's not everyday you get to have a cat join you at your picnic table now is it? Have a great weekend folks!

At a wedding last week I saw...

... a chu chu train with a very excited passenger aboard,

a sun and a moon,

2 & 1/2 pairs of feet and 2 pairs of toes,

a rather strange looking man

and a little fellow/lady enjoying his/her dinner al fresco. I don't think I'd be a very good wedding photographer, do you?

Help!

Dear friends, we need your help! We're about to re-carpet our hallway and are completely stumped as to which colour it should be. It seemed so easy in the shop, we'd get a grey carpet to go with the walls but once we got the samples home we became very uncertain. I would love to have a really colourful carpet; petrol blue, turquoise, yellow or a deep pink but couldn't find a carpet the right shade. The hubby is now keen on black which I find a bit scary. We both hate the colour it is now and will be so happy to see it go! My man also suggested having the stairs in a contrasting colour which could be fun... Anyway, I'm rambling. We didn't bring back a black carpet sample so you'll have to do with some black paper. So... out of these three, which one do you prefer? Your thoughts will be much appreciated!

Weekender

Spent the weekend eating and hanging out with friends & family, and for once I remembered to actually take some pictures. Hmmm, that picture of all the cold-cuts is making me hungry right now... and I've just had some tea and biscuits! I guess what I'm lacking in the energy department I make up for with my appetite department :)

The last few days

1. Got a lovely package (including a maternity dress I forgot to photograph - doh!) from the lovely Hannah, we did a little swap but Hannah's package put mine to shame :) 

2. Little Mo started a ballet class.

3. A little bit of bird watching at breakfast.

4. Healthy lunches at home.

5. It was the hubby's birthday on Saturday. His mum's sponge cake was so gooooooooood!

Outtakes IX

First of all I want to say a heartfelt thank you to all of you for your lovely comments on the previous post! I'm really overwhelmed by your response and if I could I'd give you all a hug :) Secondly, as I'm struggling to pick up my camera, which is very much connected to me not having the energy to leave the house, I'm yet again doing a lucky dip into my photo library. These are all from my Stockholm trip last October, I'm not sure I'll get the chance to go to back there before November, but there's always next year, this time with the bubba in tow!

My excuse

Regular readers of this blog might have noticed quite a bit of inactivity here recently... Well, the reason why I have been so slack over the past month is because I've been busy growing a little person inside of me! Luckily I've been spared morning sickness but I've been struck down badly with fatigue and nausea, so it's been difficult to keep up appearances here. I'm hoping I'll regain my energy soon, I've been pretty much housebound for the past few weeks and I'm going a bit stir-crazy. The hubby, I and Little Mo will be joined by the little bubba in the beginning of November and I have a feeling the next six months will fly by. I can't wait!

Colour therapy

I think Brick Lane has to be the most colourful neighbourhood in London. It's always a joy to take the camera for a walk around there and yesterday was no different. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

The simple things

In the last couple of days I've had the pleasure of visiting friends and enjoying home-cooked food. It's such a simple and lovely thing to do but we never seem to invite people over for dinner anymore. I think we just got lazy; when the hubby and I were in our twenties we had people round all the time and enjoyed cooking for them. I should try and make the effort from now on... Happy Friday y'all!

My cousin sent me this link yesterday; my jaw hit the floor... Thanks cuz! Oh, and don't forget to click on HQ to see it in high quality :)

BFF

These toys make me laugh! They're called BFF (best friends forever), except in this case they shouldn't be. I think we've all had a friend or a partner at some point in our lives that we know are bad for us but that we for some reason still see...

A do run run run

On Sunday we went to cheer on my sister-in-law who ran her first marathon (in 4hrs 12 mins, I'm so proud!). I have never seen the point of marathons, I just thought of the runners as crazy people running way too far, but as soon as we arrived at the race I immediately changed my mind. I fell in awe of the thousands of people who were taking part in the purest form of exercise there is. And it actually looked fun. Luckily the weather held up and the crowds were cheering with all their might. I actually came away thinking "I want to do that!"... I think I will, one day.

We also thought we might have seen something like this. It's quite horrible, but also very funny (please excuse me if you don't find it funny) and very stupid; always listen to your body!

Flashback

The weather has been amazing this past week and I'm pretending I'm on holiday. Every day I sit in the garden reading, pausing occasionally to watch a little bird sing or watch a bee hover right by my face. Unfortunately it's not the stuff of exiting blog posts, so here are some pictures from 1996, on film no less! It's such a treat to look through old pictures don't you think? Now please excuse me, I must to get back to my book and the sun, rain is apparently on the way so I have to make the most of it... Hope you all have a relaxing weekend!

Where did everyone go?

Went into town yesterday to run some errands and on my way home I walked from New Oxford St to Holborn. The whole area is a bit run down and deserted; a piece of real estate that is most probably suffering from the economic downturn. In better times someone would have snapped it all up and turned it into generic shops and coffee bars but for now time is standing still. I reckon that's a good thing.

Ian Stevenson

Give me the sunshine

Guess who's a happy girl? Oui, c'est moi... The sun has come round our way and yesterday I got to do one of my favourite things... sit out in the garden and read all day. I finished A wild sheep chase (thank you peeps for writing that I should stick with it) and started on London - the biography by Peter Ackroyd. It's a whopping 8oo and something pages, so I guess the next couple of months will be very informative. Whilst I was reading I went through old playlists on my iPod and came across this, it fit the day perfectly and I named this post in it's honour. Oh, and as our garden isn't particularly photogenic you'll have to make do with some pics from the weekend.

Outtakes VIII

I have to admit I'm feeling a bit uninspired at the moment. The days roll by and I find it hard to pick up the camera, but as I have a huge backlog I can always find some pictures that I can use for times like these. I'm sure I'll be more enthusiastic once the nice weather returns (when? when?)... Hope you all have a lovely weekend, whatever you're doing!

Evolution is Convenient - a bloody brilliant flickr set.

On the waterfront

Went to visit some friends last weekend who live right on the Thames. I was gobsmacked, in all my years of living in London I had never been in a home where the garden almost touched the river. I couldn't quite get over the view either and even though it was a grey and wet day I was completely enchanted (and a bit envious, hee hee). Our little trip down West made me realise that my London is tiiiiny... Time to expand me thinks!

Walking the camera

Apart from taking pictures of Lottie & Claire the other day my camera sniffed out some other shots too. I reckon it's the best kind of walk there is :)

Flickr buddies

Yesterday I met up with two of my flickr friends for the first time, Claire (who's in town at the moment) and Lottie. It's was so nice to finally meet as I've been following their photostreams for a loooong time now. We started off with cinnamon buns at Nordic Bakery and I quickly felt a bit like an impostor. Claire had five cameras on her and Lottie three. I had two, both of them digital... They were shooting away on film and on Polaroid and I felt like the odd one out, I mean why am I so digital? Years ago I swore I'd never desert film, but I guess I forgot... Afterwards we wandered around Soho and popped into the Photographers' Gallery where we all agreed that the new building is pants. Such a shame. We then continued on to Maison Bertaux and out came their lovely cameras again. I have to learn to leave my digi at home more, I have to. Happy Holidays everyone!

Afternoon holiday

Went for a little holiday yesterday... to our spare bedroom. It gets the afternoon sun and I hardly ever spend anytime in there so I thought I'd join Little Mo for a couple of hours. She sang for a bit (OK... she yawned but it looks like she's singing opera or something) as she was so happy to share the sun with me and I watched the clouds sail by, then read for a bit and finally had a lovely nap. Holiday bliss.

Players

Sundays seem to have become the day we spend with the in-laws, which means having fun with the nephew and the niece. Yesterday was no different! How was your weekend?

The Master

Click on any of the images to see them larger.

A friend of ours gave us this book for xmas and I'd been meaning to share it with you but I kept forgetting. It's called Early Colour and it's by Saul Leiter. It's definitely my favourite photography book that I've seen (sorry William Eggleston!). Leiter, like Eggleston, was one of the early pioneers in colour photography, in a time when it was sneered at. I hardly ever shoot portrait format but looking at this book I realise that I've been missing out on something. It changes everything. A few weeks back we had portrait as a theme on how we say hello and I really enjoyed it, it was like I'd been given new eyes... I guess you can see how much my pictures (on the left hand side) were inspired by the great man, although of course they're nowhere near as good! You can get the book here. Happy Friday!