jul, 31st - beautiful baby-shower....

day 903 / 2:

my girlfriends threw me the most beautiful baby-shower over the weekend. they set up a delicious picnic under a tree in Holland Park and we were lucky to have amazing weather.

a wonderful spread, fabulous friends, sunshine, great conversation and some lounging on blankets is obviously the recipe for bringing on labour. an hour after we got home, my contractions had started and by midnight we had bathed Limi, put her to bed, repacked the hospital bag, pumped up the Swiss ball, called Kelly to come over and were heading into the hospital.

impeccable timing on the shower by the girls and 'thunderhooves'......

jul, 29th - it's a girl....

day 901 / 0:

i was meant to post about the beautiful babyshower that my girlfriends threw for me over the weekend but instead an hour after i got home on Saturday, i went into labour.....very good timing 'thunderhooves'......

we had a baby girl early on Sunday morning.....we are still to name her but i'll share some pics this week....

she is the sweetest thing and Limi is just beside herself with excitement....we all are.

jul, 26th - torch fever....

day 898:

blue skies and olympic fever has reached London. we went to see the torch today as it passed through West London.....more pics tomorrow.

jul, 24th - tweet....

[bird 1, holland park by Limi (2)]

day 896:

if i could freeze a development stage, it would probably be this stage of Limi's drawing. i am love with her spontaneous style.....her people that are generally just faces with arms and legs and the freeform squiggles and circles that depict whales, buses, 'thunderhooves', boats, caterpillar {see day 813}......

it seems a shame that this has to 'develop' into a more prescribed way of drawing....especially when we spent so much time at art school trying to 'let go' in our drawing.

[bird 2, holland park by Limi (2)]

i found this article on the six stages of a child's drawing style which is worth a read. these two drawings of birds, done in Holland Park, are probably stage three as described by Nicole Avery: moments of a specific subject followed by squiggles and circles afterwards....i love them. especially the beak in the first one and those tail feathers in the second but then again, i love her squiggles and circles as well {see day 827}.

jul, 23rd - more portobello....

day 895:

first......thanks for all the lovely comments on the last post. like a lot of people (it seems), i have the same uneasy relationship with blogging, on one hand i love the community, the creativity that exists in blogging (i'm constantly astounded by the brilliance out there) and the chance to share our everyday experiences in a way that hopefully Limi will appreciate in the future. on the other hand, i sometimes feel like a slave to the blog and wonder whether it's wise to share so much of our lives out there. so, your encouraging comments are always welcome.

these are a few more pics from Portobello Market {see day 890}. London has really come alive over the past 18 months with the Royal Wedding, Jubilee and now the Olympics.....it's a great time to be in this amazing city. hopefully i'll get a chance to capture some of the Olympic spirit before thunderhooves arrives.

• Singer sewing machines en masse in the All Saints store on Portobello Road.

• the 'what's-showing-now' sign below. is outside the wonderful Electric Cinema which recently suffered a devastating fire....hopefully it will be back up and running soon.

jul, 20th - 38 weeks....

day 892:

i've reached the spectacle phase.....where taxi drivers get nervous when they pick you up, strangers start saying 'whoa, you look ready to pop' and women smile at you in that knowing 'you're-about-to-go-on-a-rollercoaster-ride' way......

the problem is that i keep forgetting and wondering why people are staring at me.

at least it's a decent ledge for Limi and as a friend said, probably the only time that we'll allow her to sit on her sibling's head.

have a great weekend and see you back here on Monday. x

jul, 18th - portobello road....

day 890:

we headed off to Portobello Market last Saturday. we used to live walking distance from the market and I would head down there early in the morning to nab the best vintage linen, old silver and bone china tea-cups before the hordes arrived (but always after the stall owners had completed their own trades).....i figured that if i wasn't going to live in London forever it was the perfect opportunity to collect these treasures.

when i was planning our wedding, i collected old, handmade lace for my dress and veil which will always give me a lovely association with this market.

definitely the secret to enjoying Portobello is to head down there early. arrive after eleven am and you will generally queue just to get down the road but get there by nine am and you can take a leisurely stroll, browsing the wares and then head to one of the lovely cafes on Westbourne Grove before the tourists descend.

i tend to stick to the antiques section on upper Portobello Road these days but the market has five main zones: vintage/ antiques which becomes food/fruit and veg as you head further down the hill, then onto new goods under the bridge and onto second-hand wares as you head past the bridge.....quirky fashion can be found throughout.

you could easily spend more than two hours strolling the different zones but as i said: GET THERE EARLY!

jul 17th, conversations with a two year old....

[Panda's on the left, above and Noah is getting a shoulder ride

p.s. the other pics are in the park rather than on a road]

day 889:

me: Limi, why is Panda in timeout?

Limi: because Panda was saying 'whaa, whaa, whaaa'

me: what did you say to Panda?

Limi: i said that is NOT 'acceppetil' Panda

later.....

me: Limi, why is caterpillar in timeout?

Limi: because i opened the door and caterpillar went out and was running around outside and not listening to me.

me: what did you say to caterpillar?

Limi: i said: 'caterpillar i gave you two warnings and you are NOT listening so you have to go into timeout', then i went and got caterpillar and said: 'i love you very much caterpillar'

yikes, you would think that Limi is forever in timeout by the amount of discipline that she dishes out to her toys.....

and yes, i have been known to say 'that is not acceptable behaviour Limi' :)


p.s. thanks for all the votes below.....i'm looking forward to those back tickles!

jul, 16 - pimping the crib....

day 888:

so, the crib has been painted {see post, below}. i bought a sturdy but basic, wooden crib from one of the big, online children's stores, sanded it back (with Limi's help) and covered it in blackboard paint. i love the matt result and can't wait to see it with crisp white linen. next step is to add some wheels so that we can easily move it around the Shoebox.

to me, it's perfect, A. is not as convinced by blackboard paint so perhaps you can solve our style debate by leaving a comment below......we'll count the scores and the loser will have to give the winner ten full minutes of back tickles....

help, i love back tickles.

jul, 12th - siblings....

day 884:

it's all getting very real now. i'm 38 weeks pregnant so really it could happen at any time (hopefully after the crib has been painted, the bag packed and the swiss ball pumped up again........we always were a bit of a last minute couple)

the pics above are of Limi on the right (at about 31 weeks) and thunderhooves on the left (at 27 weeks)