may, 28th - style with substance.....

day 1195 / 294:

the joy of moving is that we have more space......in the Shoebox many of our treasures had been boxed and put away.....but now, we have the joy of digging them out and finding the right spot for them.....we are slowing getting there.....

i have also been trawling auction sites (ebay, you old friend) to find gems (storage mainly). things that just need a good sanding, lick of paint or repurposing......not only do we have a tiny budget for furnishing the new house but i also want to find things that we will happily take into a future.....i keep coming back to this book above and the idea of finding things that are stylish, yet have substance. i think that this means different things for different people but for me it's things that are: tactile; full of history; timeless and generally, i'm a sucker for handcrafted.

this week, i've painted a sweet old wardrobe to put in the girls room, convinced the local auction house to give away two old lampshades (perfect for stripping) and asked our genius (and very reasonable) electrician to change some of the plastic hanging lights to silk flex and metal ceiling roses (it makes such a difference). i also found this collection of vintage bobbins that were paid for with my coin purse and yet make me so very happy...the wood feels wonderful and they make great drumming sticks for Claya. 

now, just to find a battered, wooden table that can seat ten but still fit down the narrow Victorian stairs.....

may, 26th - 21/52....

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

day 1193 / 292:

Claya: she is turn-your-back-and-she's-across-the-room fast and also pulling herself up on all the furniture, trying to climb the stairs, climbing onto the coffee table and getting very frustrated that she can't get herself up onto the couch.....we are doing intensive 'this-is-how-you-climb-down-again' training (below, is a bonus pic of tiny feet that are now more and more, flat on the ground)

Limi: she has a cold so i invoked the tv-on-the-ipad treat. the girls still don't watch any tv (Limi only occasionally watches a film or some episodes on my ipad). sometimes, we wonder whether we are doing the right thing (who knows...maybe it will come back to bite us).....but we agree that it actually forces us to get creative when we play with the girls and Limi will play for hours by herself.

you can read more about the 52 project here. or check out other beautiful portraits across at Jodi's blog.

may, 24th - wisdom of a three year old....

day 1191 / 290:

A. said that instead of 'conversations with a two year old' these days, these post should be called 'wisdom of a three year old' as Limi comes out with her own logic on the world every day......

some recent ones are:

'you can't put your shoes on the wrong feet as then they make your shoes walk funny'

'mama, i can't cross the road by myself now because i'm too small but when i'm twenty then i can maybe cross the road by myself' (twenty is the age that Limi is also going to go on holiday with just Claya and also when she'll do the big, twisty slide at the park)

'you can eat pea skin, strawberry skin, blueberry skin and cheese skin but you can't eat banana skin or egg skin'

'maybe when i'm twenty i'll like tomatoes'

'Spring is lovely because it gets warmer,

Summer is good because you don't have to wear warm clothes,

Autumn is when the air is fresh,

and Winter is good because you can build snowmans.'

may, 17th - typography and signage.......

day 1184 / 283:

something that i could have lingered on for ages during our visit to the London Transport Museum Depot {see yesterday, day 1183 / 282} was the typography and the signs....especially the old advertising on the routemasters and the maintenance signs......

London Transport take their typography seriously, you can read more about the the Johnston typeface that they use, here. 

may, 16th - london transport museum depot......

day 1183 / 282:

a few weekends ago, London Transport Museum had their annual, family, open weekend at their depot in West London.......the depot houses things that don't fit into the museum in central London.  we stumbled across this event by chance but i could see it becoming a definite favourite.

there were an array of vintage routemaster buses....showing how the years have shaped our transport.....i was especially taken with the bottle green and metal versions.....

there were old tube carriages of all shapes and sizes (that were a little harder to capture).......an incredibly intricate Lego, train scene, amazing signage.....and plenty of industrial, machinery to excite an upcycling, Pinterest board. there were also plenty of people which made negotiating a buggy and keeping track of a toddler particularly tricky. so, if you decide to go.....as with most events in London, go early.

possibly Limi's favourite part was getting to eat giant smarties when she normally only gets the mini version........followed by the Lego (although she, along with every other kid, didn't understand why she couldn't rearrange the pieces).

you can read more about the Depot and their open weekends, here.

may, 12th - 19/52....

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

(although, i seemed to have missed a couple already)

day 1180 / 279:

these are two portraits from our trip to Italy a few weeks ago.....

Limi: eating the real deal.....with her 'splash boots' on the wrong feet of course......

Claya: still doing her gecko impression....rubbing her tongue along her teething gums...

you can read more about the 52 project here. or check other portraits across at Jodi's beautiful blog.

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.

may, 2nd - the view on the ground....

day 1170 / 269:

Claya's view from the picnic blanket.

may, 1st - the simple things in life....

day 1169 / 268:

we had some chores to do at a friend's house in Italy and they have a beautiful garden so we took the girls up to enjoy the fresh air. while Claya tried to escape the blanket and eat the dandelions....we taught Limi how to shell the fresh peas that we bought from the market in Rome {see day 1168 / 267}. i do remember doing it once or twice as a child and loving the process of breaking open the crunchy pod and dislodging each small pea......

she did brilliantly and managed to shell almost half the bag before her attention was distracted by the cat and the tricycle.....living such an urban existence in London, i think that it's wonderful that she is starting to get a better idea of how our food grows and gets onto the plate (and that it's not just a delivery by a man in a van once a week).....it's a good reminder for me, that i should take her to more of the amazing produce markets around the city and get her to help me pick out our fruit and veg.