feb, 28th - home......

day 387:

with all this biting and damp weather we've been experiencing lately.....i am dreaming of some African heat....

dusty roads......

open spaces.....

and simple, homemade food.....

we've book flights home and i can't wait to introduce Limi to part of her heritage.

feb, 27th - cats and dogs....

day 386:

another weekend of rain. will spring ever come.

spied this fantastically British, Sunday takeaway at the food market....

rare roast beef with horseradish, served in a large yorkshire pudding.

brilliant.

feb, 26th - bistrotheque......

day 385:

i have read so much about Bistrotheque.....and been dying to try it. it's in my favourite part of London (see day 230). the creative buzz-spot of the city right now.....where people can afford to do things differently and with some much needed pizzazz.....

we had brunch here today with some wonderful friends. what struck was the interesting mix of people eating in the dining-room. 

an eclectic crowd across all the ages......(although Limi and Oats were probably two of the youngest)....

my dish was wonderful....parmesan polenta, with a field mushroom and fried egg....an italian-field-breakfast.....

and to round up a leisurely morning, we were entertained by a tea drinking, piano player....if you listened closely, what sounded like classical playing was in fact tunes from sound garden, blur and lou reed.....

definitely worth the trek from west to east.

and if you're planning a celebration lunch.....they have the loveliest private room......

how did you spend your saturday?

feb, 25th - ceilings: part i......

day 384:

everyone has that something that makes them salivate when it comes to decorating.....for some it's floors: tiled, wooden boards, cement, painted...for others, it's walls: exposed brick, plastered, painted, distressed, adorned, unadorned.....for A., it's storage. show him a room and he will immediately be drawn to the book shelves, cupboards, hidden clutter (definitely due to living in a Shoe-box). anyway, for me it's ceilings.....

maybe it comes from lying in the grass as a child and starting into the blue African sky, or it might be because whenever i think deeply about something i subconsciously look up. it could be that it feels like the hidden part of the room, or my love of flying.......whatever it is, a beautiful ceiling will captivate me every time......

as a result....decorating the ceiling has always been a thread that has woven it's way through my homes and celebrations (see day 363). 

for our wedding, it was all about the ceiling. 

i didn't want cluttered tables....or extravagant bouquets of flowers that for me are so transient and wasteful..........i wanted to use found and created objects....a little bit of whimsical-imagination-let-loose....

i wanted the space above each table to be unique and with the help of the amazing group from Okasie, to transform our dinnertime ceiling into our own 'Sistine Chapel'.....

my sister and i collected things here and there and then gave Okasie free rein.......A. and i were blown away with the result.....literally wandering between tables trying to absord all the small details.

we loved everything about what they did.....(although if they had been able to incorporate a book shelf....A. would have been just that tiny bit more excited.)

anyway......what is your favourite part of a room?

[all pics by our wedding photographer: Jean-Pierre Uys]

feb, 24th - braces.....

day 383:

braces.......are they the equivalent of ledehosen and knickerbockers? 

hmmmmm.....wondering.

but i love them.....always have. always will.

on guys....definitely.

but especially on girls.

{these are from zara boys' section}

oh, and we kept the grass from Limi's birthday [see day 364]. it's amazingly real. we bought it from here. for the moment it's our living-room rug and Limi's play-patch.....it's delicious to feel grass between my toes in the evening and we're definitely planning some rainy day picnics.

feb, 23rd - iconic london....

day 382:

this city.......i love the idea that it's Limi's city....her birthplace. whereas, i was born in a tiny backwater town in South Africa......Limi will always have a connection with this vast, vibrant, diverse, historic city. 

here are some iconic glimpses of London from my wanderings today....love the crown references everywhere...

royal mail....delivering our letters the old fashioned way.......

classic red telephone boxes.....hard to find these days.....

the red London bus. every child needs to ride in a red London bus.

tube map. getting us places

black cabs...definitely the nicest way to travel in London

a red London post-box. making posting a letter an occasion.....

and finally one last royal reference.......

feb, 22nd - windows....

we've been blogged by my favourite blog-crush over at 16house today.
how lovely is that.


day 381:

we've been teaching Limi to wave and blow kisses and she's addicted......she blows kisses to check-out staff, people on red London buses, us when we walk into another room and even the mannequins in the shops. 

but my favourite time is in the morning when i walk out the door.....after waving and throwing kisses my way inside...she goes to the huge sash window that looks out onto the street and madly waves again...repeating it all when A. leaves.

she loves that window (and i do too. when we renovated - see day 376 - it was the single most costly thing we did. we now refer to it as the please-don't-throw-a-ball-through-this-window window) i love that it gives us a view of London. and changes through the seasons. and drenches us in sunshine like this.....

Limi could spend large chunks of time pressed up against this window waving at strangers passing by....whether they are on a bike, across the street or walking by just in front of her they get a shout of glee and some arm-flapping, enthusiastic waving.....

of course, it completely makes my day to sometimes come home to see a madly, grinning little face pressed up against the pane.....

feb, 21st - doilies....

day 380:

i love a bit of crochet/ lace trim........

{Limi in her lace trimmed headband made by her LoLa}

and all this talk of sewing has inspired me.....i saw these designs by J W Anderson SS/11 (see here)

and i love the doilies.....i'm picturing some Limi sized clothes with doily accents....in fact i think that if anything stays still for awhile, i might just stitch a doily to it.

so, off i go to find some vintage doilies.....if anywhere should have them then it's here in England.

wish me luck.

feb, 20th - weekend....

day 379:

limi and i.

we had a fun weekend. hope yours was just as good. x

feb, 19th - v&a....

day 378:

we spent the afternoon at the V&A (Victoria and Albert Museum). it's a wonderful place to spend a rainy day......we used to come here quite a bit. on the last Friday of every month they have a late night which is themed around their current exhibition....there is a bar, a collection of interested and interesting people and little events throughout the museum that tap into the theme......and the shop is definitely worth a browse.

i'll definitely be back for this.....