mar, 31st - 13/52....

"a portrait of the girls, once a week, every week, in 2013"

day 1138 / 237:

Claya: she was more keen to eat the bunny mask than wear it.....

Limi: the mask was just getting in the way of eating the Easter egg that they were given at ballet.....

you can read more about the 52 Project here.

mar, 30th - an easter present....

day 1137 / 236:

inspired by this image on Pinterest using egg cartons for packaging, i wanted to create an Easter gift for a creative friend. i've always had a thing for egg cartons....probably left over from from my preschool, crafting projects (oh, my mum must have loved those) or the idea that these boxes contain precious, fragile cargo......for the Pinterest idea they filled the carton with small, breakfast treats. i also loved this use for cartons in a cafe in South Africa.

anyway, i did think about putting different bulbs into each egg recess that my friend could plant in her garden but decided to go for biscuits instead. i put most of the ingredients for a simple, iced biscuit recipe into a painted carton (all that's missing is the unsalted butter for the biscuits and the icing) and then finished it off with the recipe and a cookie cutter on the outside. 

i loved the result, but my mind is now whirring with ideas for future egg cartons? any suggestions?

 

mar, 29th - easter friday....

day 1136 / 235:

happy Good Friday....

mar, 26th - our weekend....

day 1133 / 232:

family and good friends....we miss them when we are all so spread out across the globe....last weekend we were lucky to have them both in town. 

the pic above, is Limi with my brother, Shels. she still calls him 'Yay Shels' because we always used to say 'Yay, it's Shels' when he called. it was the first time that he had met Claya, so it was a special time for all of us.

we also had some fantastic friends in town who are Limi's godparents {see......she loves the concept of a god-mama and god-dadda.....and she had a ball with these guys who were so patient with her demands to play hide-n-seek, visit the garden, show them the small details in the Shoebox and watch their daughter doing ballet over and over again on the phone.....

we feel quite bereft now that they've all gone.

p.s. we had lunch at a favourite {see day 518}

mar, 24th - 12/52....

"a portrait of the girls, once a week, every week, in 2013"

day 1131 / 230:

Claya: she's learnt to play peek-a-boo and is so chuffed with herself.

Limi: her very first plaits.......ever...(and yes, i did get an 'ouch mama')

you can read more about the 52 Project here.

mar, 20th - conversations with a three year old....

day 1127 / 226:

A [talking to Claya]: say Li-mi, Li-mi....can you say Li-mi?

Claya: aaah-ah

Limi [in complete seriousness]: Dada, she calls me aaah-ah

mar, 19th - concrete bar....

day 1126 / 225:

after bemoaning the fact that I only get to see the concrete cafe/bar as a daytime cafe {see day 1100 / 199} (i feel like i've been slightly housebound for seven months)....i managed to see it as a bar when we stayed on the boat a couple of weeks ago {see day 1123 / 222}.

i love that cement mixer even more at night.....

mar, 18th - 11/52....

52 Project - "a portrait of the girls, once a week, every week, in 2013"

day 1125 / 224:

Limi: the first bit of sunshine this week and we were outside drawing on the tiles with water and a paintbrush

Claya: plenty of tears this week and rubbing her mouth with a fist...teething sucks.

you can read more about the 52 Project here.

thanks to Rebecca and Steph for including me in their week's picks. 

mar, 16th - a room for london....

day 1123 / 222:

so, for our anniversary, i managed to book us into a room for london.......this is a 'hotel installation' by the Living Architecture group {see day 1119 / 218}. the installation, is a boat-hotel-room perched on top of the Queen Elizabeth Hall on London's Southbank and was only meant to be in place as part of an Olympic feature for 2012. the plan after that, was for the boat to pop-up in other locations around London and the UK. the boat's residence has been extended into 2013 but you can only secure a night via a ballot......so, having ticked the 'any night' option back in December it was more by sheer chance rather than any cunning plan that our winning night happened to fall close to our anniversary...

due to the logistics of staying on top of a working performance hall, you have to go for  a full briefing before you can stay......so, one thursday evening, a couple of weeks ago, i was strolling across a sunlit bridge looking across the Thames at where we were going to spend the night. 

after our briefing and being led to our very own lift.....we emerged on top of the building to check in to our room....

as you expect with any of their properties, it's unique and well executed......spacious for two, it combines luxury with a strong sense of still being on a boat....books are piled everywhere and if you're not studying the spines close-up then you are completely distracted by the amazing, panoramic view....there is intelligence in the architecture and design but to be honest, I would have missed the references to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness if I hadn't read the following in this review:

The boat is called the Roi des Belges, after the vessel in which Conrad himself sailed up the river Congo, in the journey that would inspire Heart of Darkness. Inside there is a cabinet containing old maps of the Thames and the Congo, in reference to the parallels that Conrad made between the two rivers. An octagonal table and a box of dominos echo similar objects described in the master's novels.

I like the fact that there are still things that are being revealed to me even after my stay.

after a fantastic night out and having the luxury of strolling home through central London....we enjoyed coffees on the roof in the morning and then hotfooted it to meet the girls....

staying in a room for london, makes you feel like you are inside a london kaleidoscope....like you are living in a scene from Mary Poppins. it conjures up both the past and the present.....romance and grit.....poetry and reality (watching people on their daily commute to work)....

and, if it's next locations are even half as spectacular then i will be following this boat as it sets sail across the capital.

our room at night........

mar, 13th - a neon bright birthday....

day 1120 / 219:

we went to O's second birthday over the weekend. it was full of neon bright touches which was a tonic against the icy cold conditions that don't seem to be yielding at the moment. we ate cake, caught up and did some hula hooping....all good activities for a Sunday.

i loved the multi-coloured candles perched on top of the two rainbow cake towers (it was a joint birthday with one of O's best friends). i definitely think that blowing out ten candles beats two every time.

the kids decorated party hats (for the patient ones, these were set aside to dry) but Limi's decorations all fell off within seconds and she was left with a minimalist three dots. there was also a hand-drawn table'cloth' for them to colour in......such lovely touches.... 

what is even more impressive is that our friends have very recently welcomed twin boys into the family...and they still manage to throw an impressive, joint bash.....welcome to the world boys...we can't wait to get to know you. and, happy birthday O! not only are you a very grown-up two but you're now a big sister too.