hello 2010

I'm back! Hope you all had a wonderful christmas full of friends, family, love, food, and general deliciousness. So farewell to 2009 which had its downs as well as the ups, (yes reccession, I mean you) but there were lots of milestones for this little family.

Some highlights of our year- Curt and I managing to grab a few brilliant days snowboarding in France in March, Lila's first birthday in May, an ultra fun and glam holiday with my girlfriends in Ibiza in June to commemorate my last few months as an unmarried woman, our wonderful wedding in August and then then honeymoon in Thailand for some much needed r&r. Wow, it's making my head spin thinking about how we managed to fit so much in.

Wishing you all the best for the New Year and...may the new decade bring you much happiness and fulfillment. I'm excited for what lays ahead.

So here's what we've been up during our holiday break...



...Spending time with family and visiting friends...



...Taking walks through the farmyard to see the cows...



...Enjoying the ridiculously huge dumping of snow...



...Sliding down hills...



...Going for a stroll and a delicious pizza in the picturesque town of Durham....



...Then celebrating the last few hours of 2009 in a very civilised manner with good friends, wine, a game of scrabble, and fireworks (how grown up!)...



...Though the boys did brave the snow for the purposes of an impromptu snow angel- they also did the worm down the length of the back garden which was impressive...



...Spending the first day of 2010 on a snowy beach in the North of England, shivering in the freezing temperatures whilst Curt and his friend Brode went for a surf...yes really!

christmas wishes

Have a wonderful Christmas!

I'm going to take a break from the computer for a good few days. Lila and I are already in the countryside at my parents farm, and Curt is joining us later today when he finishes work. The past few days have been a flurry of snow showers and wintery weather conditions, present wrapping and baking of sweet treats- sugar cookies.. white chocolate and cranberry fudge...truffles. Sugar overload! I had a great night out my girls in my home town last night and am just about to join my mother in the kitchen to bake some mice pies and listen to some christmas songs to get in the festive mood. I'm looking forward to an evening of twinkling tree lights, a delicious dinner and perhaps a movie.

Wishing you a very merry, relaxing and fun few days, whatever you have planned. I basically intend to consume vast quantities of food and curl up on the sofa with a good book at some point though Lila may have other ideas. Hopefully the play kitchen that Father Christmas should be delivering will keep her out of trouble for a while!

Side note: She is currently running around with blue felt tip pen smeared all over her face, looking not unlike a small smurf. Brilliant.

Image by crimson.apple on flickr.

Top image found via we heart it (original source unknown).

amanda's house tour

I enjoy perusing 'Here's Looking at Me Kid'- the blog of Amanda Johnson, a very stylish and crafty interior design student living in Ohio. I especially like her posts which feature photos of her home (in which she lives in with her husband and her brother, and they've practically fully renovated it over the past couple of years). So I got quite excited when it was recently featured as a house tour on Apartment Therapy.

I generally favour a very girly, feminine, dreamy and vintage interior decorating style but there's something about this home that really speaks to me. I love the hardwood floors, the brightness, the combination of antique furniture, graphic modernism and the hint of kitsch. The way they have comnbined this mix of styles is fantastic and it all seems to work so well together. The best thing of all is that they've pulled it all together with next to no funds, gathering items from thrift stores, Craig's list and ebay and friends and family.

There's hope for us all to have such an amazing home regardless of a lack of budget... but with a great deal of hardwork, an eye for a good thrift shop find, and lots of imagination!

All images via Apartment Therapy (click over there to see the rest of the pictures).

bits 'n' bobs

Finally, photographic evidence of the fringe (it's looking a bit seperated here 'cause I couldn't find a comb anywhere before I took the pic!)



Isn't this beautiful little snowflake cupcake so cute...Curt brought it home for me as a little treat one day last week. He is a good one. I could hardly bear to eat it. But of course I did in the end :)



Here are some birthday gifts all warapped up for two of our friends (they provided the chance for some practice for a mammoth Christmas wrapping session which will take place soon!) I love my sweet owl wrapping paper from Paperchase, and I'm pleased with how the homemade gift tag turned out. I recently bought some brilliant stamps so I've been going crazy and stamping everything I can get my hands on.

Today I am enjoying a rare full day to myself (work and child free- the tiny terror is using up an extra day that her childminder owed us), so I intend to tackle the remaining christmas shopping and generally relax and get in a festive mood. Yipeee.

the amazing ann wood

Enter the mythical, magical world of artist and creator Ann Wood (I stumbled across her work on the always brilliant Lovelorn Unicorn blog). I was blown away when I clicked over to Ann's blog and saw the fantastically detailed creatures...lots of little birds and owls... which she painstakingly creates from selvedged materials. She also makes papier mache boats amongst other things and she has also crafted a pretty spectacular cardboard castle which is pictured above. Breathtaking. You can just tell that everything is made with so much love.

On her blog she shares wonderful pictures of her works in progress, and snapshots of her apartment which was also featured as one of Design Sponge's sneek peeks. If you haven't already seen it, you must! She has an online shop, but from what I gather her creations sell out like hot cakes. Which isn't really surprising after all. Here are some of my favourite images of her home...

art and ghosts

Well as as update on my last post, I'm happy to report that the fringe is working out well so far. Sorry for the lack of a picture, I seem to have been slow to seize any of the available daylight hours in the last few days and actually get my camera out. I will apply myself to the task this weekend.

I am devoting this post to the work of one of my very favourite artists, an extremely talented lady called Louise Robinson who goes by the name Art and Ghosts. I suspect many of you are already familiar with her work, if not... enjoy! You are in for a treat.

She has been published in all of the very best magazines (Frankie and Lula, no less) and even has one of her illustrations featured in the highly sought after and generally brilliant Frankie 2010 calendar. I had my eye on one of her own 2010 calendars, but alas I was too slow off the mark and now they are all sold out...booo! I will have to console myself by losing myself in her beautiful images for a while instead.











All images by Art and Ghosts, to see more, check out the Arts and Ghosts blog, and online shop.

fringe benefits

I bit the bullet today and I finally got my hair cut into a blunt fringe! I've wanted to get one for ages but didn't think I should do anything too drastic before the wedding. Seeing as I have had long, straight (fairly boring) hair forever, it felt like quite a big step. Especially since I haven't had a fringe since I was about 6 years old. Well, if you don't count the time a couple of years ago when I walked into a lamp post on my way home from work and my friend Natalie cut me an impromptu fringe of sorts to conceal the massive egg on my forehead...

Anyway, I am pleased with the result, though it does feel a bit weird being able to see the tips of it resting on my eyebrows! It is tending to part a bit in the middle but the hairdresser said this is normal, and I need to 'train' it. Hmm, fringe training, not too sure what this involves but sounds like it could be hard work. Lila also got her first ever hair cut, and sat in the hairdressing chair beside me. She doesn't have all that much hair but she just needed a little trim to get the one longer section out of her eyes. The funniest thing of all was that it took absolutely ages for her to recognise me with the fringe!

I may post a photo of it tomorrow- though maybe not if I wake up and it looks all wonky. The pic of Zooey Deschanel above is the one I took with me as a reference, not actually me, in case anyone was wondering. I should be so lucky :)