Jonah Day

Today has been a terrible day, starting with not enough sleep last night. Then it continued... I did laundry, and went to the post office. I kept dropping things, and was told that my parcel was too large (but it's the same size I've been using since I started the shop!) and would be more expensive to mail. Upon leaving the post office, it was raining, on me minus my umbrella, and on my laundry hanging to dry in the back garden.

Sigh.

But it wasn't all bad... I managed to help my buddy Isa find a shop she'd been looking for fruitlessly. It was nice to succeed at something, and to help someone (in a very small way) who has been very kind and helpful to me.

And I also got some work done on a new project. Do you want a sneak peek?

 

I'll give you one small hint... I'm making this project for the nursery, but it just might end up in the shop (post maternity leave) as well.

Oh, and there's something else nice, too! Max the Cat is snoring on the couch behind me as I type this... and kitty snores are second only to baby snores on the cuteness scale. (Some days, you have to mine the small things for all the joy they contain.)

I Spy Friday

Yesterday I popped into my favorite paper store here in the UK, Shepherd's (or is it Falkiner's? I really don't know.) to pick up some paper for a client. On my way out I stopped to get myself organized because a. I'm a little scattered these days and b. it was raining like nobody's business yesterday. (Seriously, don't even ask.) And because I'm a. (a little scattered these days), I got distracted from boring organization by some beautiful little greeting cards by Hannah Battershell. Which prompted a dive down the illustration rabbit hole this morning, and led to today's I Spy. (Because, to be frank, I had no I Spy topic picked out when I woke up this morning. Sometimes it happens like that. Hooray, procrastination!)

(This is a very parenthetical post, isn't it? Anyway, here's what I came up with...)

 

From top to bottom:
Insect Buttons by Hannah Battershell, available from Artists & Illustrators
With Nothing On by Jessie Willcox-Smith, available from All Posters
Water Dandelions II by Melissa Launay (get in touch with her for purchasing info.)
Passing Shower by Eloise Renouf
Swift Fox by Oh My Cavalier!

Wedding Wednesday

It's probably not surprising that, although I'm hard at work on several orders, I've got babies on my mind a lot recently. Specifically baby girls, and cute clothes for them. I try to keep it off the blog because I really doubt that's what most people come here to read about (with the exception of a few people who know me irl, like my mom, but maybe I can start a baby blog just for them).

But it's getting harder by the week, so, as I enter the third trimester, I made a little compromise with my baby-addled brain: one post on flowergirl dresses. It's not baby clothes, but close enough. And still ridiculously sweet and cute. Maybe I'll celebrate my eighth month of pregnancy with some awesome ring bearer outfits...

From the top:
Vintage pear daisy vine dress, available from Boden (US or UK)
Chiffon cascade dress by Blush (US Angels), available from Bloomingdale's
Pewter gray silk plaid dress, by Beane and Co.
Giovanna dress, available from Monsoon
Trapeze chiffon dress by Rare Editions, available from Choochalicious

A feature! of me!

Local(ish) wedding planner, Clare Beckwith, was kind enough to feature me on her blog! Check it out!

Go for the paper flowers, stay for the rad vintage bus...

In the Garden

As I said on Friday, spring has been lovely this year. Not too warm, but very sunny. As a result, our garden is growing well ahead of its normal season. I took a little tour around it this morning.

There's a young apple tree right behind our back door.

The cherry tree in the back of the garden put on a spectacular display about a month ago, and now it's covered with lots of lovely young cherries. We're still not sure if they will be edible or not.

The black currants look like they're well ahead of schedule. Their season usually starts in late July or early August, but these look like they're only a few weeks from being ready to harvest.

Of all the fruits, I'm possibly most excited about the gooseberry bush we inherited from our landlords. I've never had gooseberries before, and I've read that they making amazing jam and desserts.

This little pepper plant doesn't look like much, but it's more than twice the size of the seedling we planted about a month ago, and it has a few months' worth of growing left to do.

This will apparently turn into a head of iceberg lettuce in about four weeks. Somehow that seems incredible to me.

I love the way the raspberries look, the starry topsides...

...and the hairy, juicy underbellies.

Some of our strawberry plants were inherited, and so are probably too old to yield much, but it looks like it'll be a decent crop so far (if we can keep the birds off of them).

Of course, the garden also came with plenty of lovely flowers, but I'm not much for flowers. Even so, the pink and red poppies in our back garden are stunning.

I Spy Friday

Spring has been unbelievably beautiful in London this year. It's hard to believe that last year we had to keep the heat on well in to May, and it only started to warm up around this time.

This year we've actually been wishing for rain, for our poor little garden. I've started having anxiety dreams about lettuce. Every silver lining has its cloud, I suppose.

But the silver lining this spring is pretty enormous: perfect picnic weather, every weekend. We've been grilling almost every weekend, making s'mores and drinking homemade limeade (the best--I'll have to post the recipe soon). Now I'm just wishing for a few little extras to make for the perfect backyard picnic...

 

Recycled glass holder by Garden Boutique, available from Not On the High Street
Jackie Oval Sunglasses in gray, available from ModCloth
Striped outdoor cushion, available from Greening England
Carnival Hamper, available from Online Basket Company
Picnic Blanket, available from Mulberry Hall
Links Adjustable Deck Chair, available from Mufti
Floppy Hat, available from Accessorize

Wedding Wednesday

I'm so in love with the nautical trend this summer, and I think it makes for gorgeous bridesmaid outfits.

 

From top to bottom: 

Phase Eight striped maxi dress, available from John Lewis

Phase Eight Eton stripe dress, available from John Lewis

Cotton Rope Headband, available from Marcela Camargo

Gull Wing dress in red, available from Anthropologie

Yellow Seersucker shoe clips, available from Black Satin Shoes

Semaphore dress, available from ModCloth

Lorelei cotton dress in alabaster, available from j.crew

Wedding Wednesday

I had a really cute post planned for today, but I just found out about a really cool service that Dessy has started up, called Newly Maid, and all my other plans just fell to the wayside.

Basically, it works like this...

Say you have one of these in your closet:

Yikes.

You send it in to Dessy (they accept special occasion dresses from about 20 different labels), and provided it's in good condition, they then either turn it into something new or send it to charity. And they give you a discount on one of these:

Of course, even with the discount these dresses aren't exactly cheap ($110+), but it beats having a puce dress you'll never wear again taking up space in your closet.

After all, there's no such thing as a must-have LPD, is there?

I Spy Friday

*Okay, I totally scheduled this to come out on Friday, when M. and I were in Madrid. And clearly I also totally did something wrong, because here I am on Sunday posting it. Oops.

My birthday is coming up! Only 10 8 more days, and I can't wait! M. and I are heading to Dublin for our 2nd annual birth-a-versary trip (we got married exactly one week after my birthday), and we're going for a lovely afternoon tea on my birthday.

This week for I Spy, I put together my birthday wish list. Since I already know what I'm getting from M. for my birthday, this one is likely to stay a wish list. But that's okay, dreams are nice too.

From top to bottom:
Sophie Conran pitcher, available from Gifted (perfect for the homemade limeade I've been making recently)
Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag in Deco Dandelion, available from Amazon
Fragrant Outdoor Firelighters, available from Cox & Cox (for all of the grilling we've been doing)
Drawing Nature journal, by Jill Bliss, available from Amazon (but check your local bookstore first)
Charleston Cloche, available from Anthropologie (we're in the middle of a serious heatwave here--it hasn't rained for weeks! hadn't rained for weeks, until the day we left for Madrid.)

Wedding Wednesday

For my wedding, I wasn't too interested in having a huge, ornate cake. I was much happier with the thought of something a little simpler and, perhaps because of that, more fresh. And, of course, less expensive.

Maybe it's a good thing for our budget that I didn't come across these two cakes while planning our wedding.

Meringue Mushroom Cake from Martha Stewart.

 

Mushroom cake, by Erin O'Brien, via Once Wed.

mushrooms + meringue = amazing

The Royal Wedding

Or, "What I Was Doing When I Should've Been Blogging on Friday"

On Friday, M. and I took a bit of a holiday along with the rest of Britain. We weren't particularly interested in the Royal Wedding, but it would've been madness for him to go to work in central London, and I'm always happy for an excuse to hang out together and bake scones.

We did watch the wedding while we were eating breakfast (homemade bagels) and pretty soon I found myself getting into the spirit of things.

I accessorized my pjs with my lovely Yellow Bird fascinator. They're totally regretting not inviting me to the wedding.

After the wedding, we grabbed some lunch and got down to making scones. This was my first attempt at making plain scones, and they turned out alright. They looked nice, but I think I'll make a few changes next time. 

Everyone else must've had the same idea we did, because there was no clotted cream to be found in any of the stores. So I whipped up a mock clotted cream, using cream cheese, double cream, and a little sugar and vanilla. It wasn't too bad, but next time I'll get my clotted cream well ahead of time.

After tea, we headed out for a walk over to Wanstead. We'd heard there were several street parties going on and even though you're not supposed to participate if you haven't contributed, we thought it might be okay to wander by and take a few pictures. (And we did get a few weird looks, but I think it was alright in the end.)

Fortunately, we came across one party just as I was starting to get a little tired. It looked like everyone on the block had dragged their kitchen tables and couches out into the street for the pot-luck lunch.

 

There were also plenty of games for the kids, and even a bit of dressing up. I love the wig and hat on the girl in the center.

The Brits don't seem to come over all patriotic too often, but they do it right when it does happen.

And to make the day perfect, we stopped for a rest (for me) and a beer (for M.) at our favorite pub in the whole of Britain, the Cuckfield. It has Blue Moon, that elixir from heaven, on tap. I love Wanstead.