lavender

I ordered some more lavender a couple of weeks ago, and so I got back to work on some little lavender-filled hearts. But that's not the only sewing project I have undertaken lately - I am also working on a new baby quilt/playmat, a bit like the one I made for my daughter last winter.
I am cutting all the squares and rectangles up now and figuring out how to arrange the colours and patterns. I think I will wait for another cool spell to start working on the actual quilting bit. It's still too hot for this kind of work at the moment.

our first anniversary

As London celebrates one year gone since the Olympic Games, today is also this blog's Fourth Birthday. It is not always what I would wish it to be, but all in all, I'm pretty happy with it.
I never cease to be amazed by where all my visitors come from, and the comments I get truly mean a lot to me. Thank you so much, and I hope you'll keep on visiting, and maybe even become a follower ; )

Last but not least, yesterday also marked our first anniversary. It seems like a lifetime ago now that our lovely daughter is with us! Still, it is a nice excuse to go through all our pictures and share with you a bit of our wedding in France.   See you soon with -at last- some sewing!

four months old

Onion and tuna quiche, tomato and basil salad and fresh fruit

What I'm not showing you is the big weekly slice of millionaire shortbread I treat myself to - I don't want to break the dream! On this note, rain is due over London any minute now, so that gives me a good excuse to get a batch of chocolate-chip muffins on the way...yummy!
And I promise to try and show a bit more sewing and a bit less cooking in the near future. I just need to get my act together and be a bit more organised. I guess all the women who told me to forget about free time during my pregnancy were right after all...it's amazing how time-consuming such a little thing can be. The same women forgot to say that I wouldn't really care about everything else most of the time. I spend hours looking at her feet, hands, and ears. We play with the same toys everyday, cuddle at the same time and sing ♪ une chanson douce ♪ to go to sleep (bad video, I know, but there doesn't seem to be any good ones around). Sewing just has to wait.
Baby is now four months and two days old and I wouldn't take any of that time back for all the gold in the world.

healthy lunches

For someone not keen on summer or hot weather, the past ten days have been a real challenge. Nonetheless, it's a good excuse to keep having ice creams and it definitely encourages me to have lots of salads and fresh fruit everyday!

this month I love...

♥ fresh fruit salad every night ♥ 

 ♥ my new necklace from Heather Scott ♥

 

♥ handmade presents crafted with love brought all the way across from Spain ♥

♥ seeing Baby finally having fun in her bath for the first time ♥

earth cakes

Last weekend we went for a walk in sunny London and came across the lovely food market behind the Festival Hall on the South Bank. I love the stalls there, they're super nicely presented and you feel like trying a bit of everything on display! However, this lovely item caught my eye more than others, and it soon found its way to our plates for dinner...crumbled chocolate cake with nuts. Yummy.
I kept the terracota pots in case I feel like replicating it one day.

 Then I got thinking about food that doesn't look like what it is, and remembered this Halloween post from a while back. And if you like this, try this Pinterest page. How cute is that bento full of baby pandas?

Anyway, I'm afraid that's all for now folks. The unexpected heatwave is affecting Baby and mother pretty badly, and I'm sorry to report that as a result, no sewing projects have been undertaken/continued/finished in the last week.  There is hope for the weekend though, as temperatures should be slightly subsiding...stay tuned!

English rose

 Wimbledon fever ♥ punnet after punnet of strawberries and raspberries ♥ blue skies everyday ♥ dresses ♥ sleeping with the windows open ♥ rose bushes in bloom ♥ an ice cream a day ♥ more peonies!

simple summer lunch

If you fry chopped spring onions in olive oil, add a handful of blanched frozen peas, mix together with left-over lasagna sheets cut-up papardelle style, and top it all up with serrano ham, you have yourself a very nice, improvised lunch!

give me a break ;)

Last week the three of us went away for the first time as a family. I was dreading breaking the routine we managed to establish, sleeping in different places, driving long journeys, packing and unpacking twice in a week, etc.
In the end things went pretty smoothly, and we sort of maintained a routine with Baby. We went for a few walks, saw family, visited a craft centre, and ended the trip with a long weekend in Center Parcs surrounded by the local fauna of rabbits and ducks, and more importantly, finally had that massage and facial I was dreaming of - heaven!
One week was enough though, and we were happy to come home to settle back into our own rhythm - we're home people really, and no matter how much we love traveling, we have always loved coming back to our base.Still, here's an idea of what the first family break was like: