Sailor Suit £40 from Tulip and Nettle
also loving…
Chelsea Dress in sale here
And while we’re on semi-traditional clothes that make children look ADORABLE and not mini-adults… I have finally found a source for shoes that are scrumptious, practical and don’t involve pink glitter, flashing lights or silver butterflies… Something tells me I’d better indulge myself before the little one gets an opinion of her own…
All by Baby Op via Amazon – ranging from £14 to £30… BARGAIN!!!
The weather here is so dull and grey that getting any light at all that is not artificial is incredibly difficult.
Hence I’ve had lots of bits of time to collate ideas, images, ephemera and gluesticks to come up with my Valentines’ Day card.
Just not enough light to photograph to do it justice!
Available here for the bargain price of £3.00 with NO POSTAGE!
Let the orders roll in… :-)
Continuing on from my obsession with the glorious and decadent site that is Net-A-Porter, here are a few of their offerings for on-trend understated bridal attire…
ALBERTA FERRETTI Lace-trimmed silk-chiffon gown £4,390
ALBERTA FERRETTI Draped silk-satin gown £3,645
ALBERTA FERRETTI Multi-layered tulle skirt £1,555
ALBERTA FERRETTI Silk-radzmir strapless gown £4,705
And then onto my new favourite actual store, Satin Bow Bridal in sunny St Albans…
Currently loving:
Sienna by Shanna Melville
Lace jacket over dress by Lynn Ashworth
Wowsers.
What a predictable post.
I’m going to turn 30 this year.
In nine months, actually.
What did I used to think I ‘had to’ have done before I was 30? When I was a teenager (middle, above!!) I bored anyone who would listen that I wanted to be married and have had my first kid before I was thirty. That ended up happening, didn’t it??? That’ll teach me…
I wanted to have climbed the Inca Trail. I wanted to learn Italian. I wanted to be creative in my work. I wanted to smile alot.
It’s going well so far…
I want to go white-water rafting. I want to go to a festival (currently lusting after Latitudes). I want to go to the Pacific Islands and watch fabric being dyed. I want to be much less dependent on the internet.
Hmmmm…..
I’ve been mooching around various ‘Things to do before you’re 30’ lists and have come up with my own that I would like to try to do before September 12, 2011…
NB: If I were without child and/or utterly minted, this list would be much more geographically broad and include much more extravagance… As it is, these are more ‘things that may make me a better person’ rather than ‘things that will make me bankrupt’
With thanks to Paola and her various links for ideas and suggestions for the above.
Maybe it’s the advent of spring, an air of austerity, a reflection on the classic columns and precision cutting of the 1920s and 1930s… Maybe it’s the coming awards season with all its red carpet opportunity…
I don’t care what is causing it. This rainbow of restrained civility has utterly brightened the hideously gray day that is sitting outside my January window.
D&G (yes, really, I know, but isn’t it pretty??)
And of course, the exception that proves the rule… Dark, embellished, fabulous… I can kinda see this one on Catherine Zeta Jones, do you think?
Lots of ideas here for bridesmaids, guest dresses, party frocks and general frivolity…Bring on the sunshine so we can bare those arms. Quicksmart!
In addition to the peg bag, fudge and cinnamon buns, there were some other crafty moments this winter…
First foray into socks, albeit worked in the flat… Pattern free here, made in a now discontinued shade of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino 4ply…
First foray into homemade lemon meringue pie using this Waitrose recipe (though I did bake mum’s pastry blind first rather than use a bought crust..). Delish indeed!!
And my second foray into the Granny Stripe for my Mum, who’s ability to drop hints for crafty present requests is nearly as good as mine! I learned from the best…I forgot to take specific pictures – can you tell??
Also – as with all good things in life, what goes around, comes around, and Tilly received some mightily pretty homemade pressies herself…
An amazing replica of a family heirloom made by my Mother-in-Law for the Boy, now duplicated for the Tilster… Fabric alphabet with velcro-ed motifs to be made and added to over the coming years…
And Tilly’s very clever Auntie Cate knocked up this little pinafore in her spare time this autumn, job hunting. I’m delighted to say that she managed great success on both fronts: the frock is a great hit, and she has landed her dream job too, albeit too bl**dy far away, on the other side of the Atlantic…
Oh well, you can’t win ‘em all…
At the risk of being overly poetic, I was watching Eddie Izzard's documentary Believe this afternoon and his theory is that you have to believe you can be an acrobat [or whatever] before you can achieve at being an acrobat... Maybe that's what this year has been about: believing that I can actually be a mummy and not just pretend at playing with babies. I'm really starting to enjoy Tilly now (and hopefully, she me) and I'm touched by the responses I have had in person and online. It's hard to know what 'everyone else' is doing behind closed doors and you imagine everyone else is experiencing some version of the Von Trapps/Supernanny ‘success’ at parenting far beyond your own efforts. Or maybe that's just me.
I also attempted fudge this afternoon too, in an 'oh crikey need more presents for unexpected people and have no pennies' moment... Hoping it will set slightly beyond its current state. The consistency of Marmite is not ideal for cutting and jarring purposes.
I’ve also been productive on a more long-term present-giving basis in the form of peg bags for the Mummy-in-law and another one for one of my BFFs. Vintage fabrics, found coathangers and a bit of internet tutorial… Very pleased indeed. Thrifty, useful and pretty.
In a further bout of pre-holiday (or are we now mid-holiday) gluttony, I've managed to purchase a packet of yeast that I'm dying to try out - never worked with yeast before - but actual bread scares me... I’m debating starting out with a sweet recipe (quelle surprise) in the form of Nigella’s Snail Bun recipe…I may have to hand them out to passersby if they actually work. All the domesticity doesn't half take its toll on my behind!
NB: Update: These were made from the first edition hardback recipe, which further internet research revealed was missing a crucial line after the ‘Knead well’… Online instructions include the words: ‘Knead well for ten minutes by hand or six by dough hook, adding flour if necessary to get a rollable consistency’.
After covering my hands in yeasty gloop and no small amount of swearing, we finally managed to salvage the batch into these. Suffice to say, they were thoroughly enjoyed. Woops. There goes the rear-of-the-year awards…
The Tilster has a cold.
Bleurgh.
I need a giggle today.
£2.25 each from fabulous Papermash.
Not sure if I would prefer the £2.25 to be spent on a more expensive bottle, but all the same…
