may, 9th - new home....

day 1177 / 276:

we have been moving out of the Shoebox over the past few days......we still love it and i have felt very nostalgic and a little sad about leaving it but alas, as a family, we have just outgrown it and i think all our stuff was starting to seriously split its lovely seams.....

we have almost tripled our space in TheHouse and now we have the fun of decorating new rooms and finding new pieces of furniture. it's taking some adjusting though as we have gotten so used to trying not to accumulate anything else......it seems almost decadent to have so much space.....(and especially to have my very own work space)...

so, here's to new beginnings....

these pics were taken at the Sensational Butterflies exhibition at the Natural History Museum....it's on again, all summer long (last time we went, Limi was still tiny {see day 497})....

and this is the reality of how i take my pics these days...one-armed, with a baby draped across the other.

oct, 23rd - and so to bed....

day 983 / 82:

i love bed-scenes {see day 171, day 567 and day 434}. i think that if i had the time, i would love to capture a series of portraits of families in bed. i think that it would show the 'behind the scenes' view that posed family portraits don't often capture.

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, 9th - snippet from the weekend....

day 881:

our weekend was pretty quiet. i met up with a great bunch of girlfriends on Friday night for dinner. we went here. for the rest of the weekend, the weather was fairly wet and sludgy and more suited to Autumn than high Summer.......(thank goodness for the roof on Centre Court at Wimbledon.)

we seem to have been stock piling dry ingredients for months now and our Shoebox kitchen is struggling to contain our for-a-rainy-day-rations...so, A. and i have been trying to use what we can to make some space......with plenty of desiccated coconut, oats, syrup and flour, i decided to attempt Anzac biscuits with Limi on Saturday. a brave move as a South African, to tackle an iconic Australian biscuit. not sure i nailed them or matched A.'s nana's version but Limi and i had fun (and they're a great dough-eating-recipe as there are no raw eggs).

it may also have been Limi's first milk and biscuit-dunking experience. by the way that she was  protecting her mug she may have been worried that i was going to wrestle this new-found joy out of her grasp.

hope your weekend also uncovered new-found delights. x

may, 13th - glimpses of the weekend....

day 826:

a fairly quiet weekend......breakfast with friends at this favourite spot {see day 773}, plenty of park time and some Spring cleaning......

here are snippets of what caught my eye inside and out........

my roses in a smoky vase that i picked up in a market years ago. can't even remember which market it was.

Limi's table and chairs.....still trying to decide whether to paint those chairs.....

some beautiful tilework spotted on the stroll home from the park.

ball time in the park.

loving the fresh herbs in our Spring window boxes. we have mint, thyme and rosemary.....need to think about adding some basil.

blank canvases.......taunting me. i'm desperate to get painting again.

our collection of kitchen tools in the Shoebox.

a pony-bank that we picked up from this great store {see day 677}

and finally, my favourite place to work.

hope you had a lovely weekend. x

may, 11th - lightness of being....

day 824:

my sister has taught me many things {some of them mentioned here on day 185}, including cultivating a love of huge messy bunches of fresh flowers. i once had a conversation with A. about fresh flowers....did they also make him feel all light and blissful inside? he said fresh flowers were pretty but no bliss....so it must just be me then?

today was the most gorgeously Spring-like day in London and one where you want to throw open the doors and windows, let the light stream in and be surrounded by blooms. i normally go to this market {see day 230} when i have the urge to fill the house with flowers but today i wandered down to the local stall and bought a huge bunch...and then, because he knows me well, A. arrived home with another big bunch. so i am happily sitting filled by lightness and bliss.

.......well, as light as you can feel when you're 28 weeks pregnant (it's flying by....)

have a great weekend and see you on Monday. x

apr, 30th - black and white with a hint of green....

day 814:

i'm constantly drawn back to black, white and green....okay, and butcher's brown paper....and rough string.....and shades of grey..... and crisp green and white flowers. it was our starting point for the Shoebox {see day 376} and our wedding (although we used dark chocolate brown as well as black) {see day 384}. 

i never seem to get bored of these colours and the combination of natural textures against a monochromatic backdrop. throw in some industrial steel and my interior heaven is complete......

p.s. i also think that i'm going through a small online-balloon-ordering frenzy. i now have 100 of these black balloons (minus the above 12). i went looking for black versions of these oversized ones but no-one seems to stock them. although let's hope that i don't find any as we are fast running out of space in this Shoebox.

jun, 28th - tippity tap....

day 503:

it's been one of those days. a day where only music, dancing or a good book can help....or alternatively chocolate cake, a large glass of wine or an over-zealous bubble bath. 

i chose dancing...well in fact Limi's dancing. Jae had her tap shoes shipped from Oz and bought Limi her own pair so that they could step-ball-change around the Shoebox. it brings back so many memories of step-ball-changing around my own room growing up. 

Limi absolutely loves the sound they make....especially when stomping....good thing that they do most of their 'practising' while the neighbours are at work.

i would never force Limi to go in any direction.....so, if she loves dance as much as I did growing up then I will happily sew on sequins and sit in the audience at every show.....but if she just likes to stomp or make music then we can do that too.......

for now, it certainly gets you out of a funk watching her eyes light up as she clippity-clops around the living-room. who knew that tap shoes even came in such small sizes....... 

ps. although, Limi is determined to put on her own shoes at the moment they do generally end up on the wrong feet.....