Portabello Rd/Golborne Rd Markets

Stuff I want:

Stuff I bought:

Our Day

OUR DAY: I am stealing the format, just for the day, from Rocking Granola Blog. I was inspired!

Breakfast: Oatmeal and Waffle for Tate, Cereal for Paul, Eggs on Toast for me

Morning: Tate went to Peques, and I spent the morning catching up on email. I also discovered
Apartment Therapy. WOW! Check out the home tours.

Not only am I totally inspired to make the most of my home, regardless of space issues, renting and most of stuff being in storage, I am also want my house VERY CLEAN. Which led to the all afternoon clean-a-thon.

Snack: String Cheese and Cashews

Lunch: Leftover Fajita Chicken, Veggies, and Cheese in a tortilla; Applesauce; PB crackers

Afternoon: As I mentioned, cleaning, with Tate helping. Also, I dumped the ginormous bucket of old crayons and organized them by color, put them in those small leftover planting containers, and put them in a box. I left the box and a huge pad of paper on Tate's new table. Oh yea, we found legs for it!!

Dinner: Waitrose (local grocery store) to the rescue! A collection of random stuff and leftovers, to include the homemade hummus.

Evening: Paul and Tate went to the bookstore (hence my ability to blog) and I see Rosetta Stone Spanish in my immediate future.

Went to see Bath, UK this weekend. BEAUTIFUL. I feel my shoulders relax as soon as we get right outside London. I did return home with a weird sensation...I am comfortable here in London at the moment. It feels like home, even if I B*$%@ about the constant noise and traffic.

Made Courtney's homemade hummus with just a little too much garlic, if that is possible. Still yummy, but in a few days it will be REALLY strong.

Courtney's Hummus
1 can chickpeas, drained (set liquid aside)
1 Cup Tahini
1/2 Cup lemon Juice
2 cloves garlic minced or through press
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin
3 TBS olive oil

Blend all of the above in food processor or with hand blender. Add chickpea liquid if you need more liquid while blending.
For garnish: paprika, toasted pine nuts and chopped parsley. All optional, but the paprika really adds something.

We stayed in most of the rainy day, recovering from the weekend and from a cold.

Random Stuff- fashion, food, craft and kid AGAIN

Fashion:

Brooks Brothers Non Iron Shirt-AMAZING. My friend, Katie, introduced me to these. Now on first thought, I'm like Brooks Brothers? Really? A tad too conservative for me and the prices are high. But this shirt is worth every cent! Reading these: We are in love with Nick Butterworth's stories about a Park Keeper named Percy and his animal friends. We stumbled upon one when lived in the states, but didn't know he had a TON of books in the UK not easily available in the US. I want to go to Borders and buy every one.

Made calzones for dinner last night and they were AWESOME. I have been trying pizza dough recipes for awhile and this is my new fave. Roll the dough out thin and it works perfectly:

Tribeca Yummy Mummy's Whole Wheat Calzone/Pizza

Other things we have been making:

Why Dumpster Diving Kicks Butt in London

People have to move suddenly in London.

There is no extra space to store ANYTHING.

For these reasons, people throw away perfectly good stuff every day.

I was inspired watching this show:

Kirstie's Handmade Home

This woman outfitted her entire GORGEOUS cottage in Devon with recycled, reused, repainted, and handmade or local stuff.

And then I found this in the trash across the street. Perfect play table for Tate AND it is orange, his favorite color.

Fashion, Food, Crafts and my Kid

These are the creative things that I rotate through. For instance, I will be on a scrapbook kick, and then I will want to research all things fashion for awhile, etc etc.

Sometimes I hit all 4 subjects at a time. Often.

Here I am today:
1. Inspired by Audrey Hepburn today. Wearing black skinny capris, black t-neck, and deep red mary jane flats. Red lipstick and a long cream sweater when leaving the house.

2. Just threw in Apricot Chicken Crock Pot Recipe*.

3. Gotta work on Andy's (my brother) scrapbook. Stuff sitting on desk.

4. Alphabet Puzzle that I wll set up before he gets home. If I do this, he will walk in, and play without me having to say a thing. It is so worth the time it takes to set up these daily activities before he gets home. Oh, and I am sure he will want to do ANOTHER egg hunt.

*Apricot Chicken *--didn't turn out so great....
2 1/2 pounds skinless boneless chicken
1 TBS cooking oil
2 C onions (small individual or large cut into pieces)
4 carrots sliced 1/2" thick
salt and pepper
1/2 C chicken broth
1/2 C apricot jam
2 TBS quick scook tapioca
1-2 TBS Dijon mustard
1/8 tsp allspice
Hot cooked rice (optional)

Brown Chicken in hot oil. Set aside. In slow cooker, combine carrots and onions. Top with chicken. Sprinkle salt and pepper on top. In small bowl, mix broth, apricot jam, tapioca, mustard and allspice. Poor over chicken and veg in slow cooker.
Cook on low for 8-9 hrs or high for 4-5 hrs. Serve over rice.
**I did not brown chicken, but just put in raw and cooked all day because I am lazy:)

Easter a Few Days Later...

We had a great Easter with friends up at Lakenheath and Mildenhall (about 2 hours north, near Cambridge) to include a great brunch and a scavenger hunt. Tate didn't hunt for Easter Eggs, so we are going to do it today. We got this awesome GLOW IN THE DARK Egg dye kit yesterday, and of course, it was half off being after Easter.

Stuff on the horizon:

• My first London Scrapbook Crop-APR 22!
• Scrapping for my brothers High School Grad Book
• Finish Felting and Embellishing Thrifted Wool Sweater (for Tate- double decker bus needle felted on it!)
• Yoga at least 4 days this week
• Rosetta Stone Spanish-MUST FINISH UNIT 2 today!
• Trip to US- May 28
• Can we fit in Spain before then?

My *Favorite* Comfort Dessert

Cake Mix.
Yep, not the actual cake, but the mix. And sadly, not the made-from-scratch batter, but the stuff that comes from Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines.

My mom makes this AWESOME dessert with yellow cake and pie filling and some sort of cream cheese concoction, and it calls for 1/2 a cake mix. My sister and I used to try to eat the other 1/2. And my mom would let us. We would eat until our stomachs hurt and it was soooooo yummy.

What is your favorite comfort dessert?

*MOM--send me the recipe for the above mentioned dessert so I can post it on my blog!!

Creative Frenzy

Felting!!

The bird was thrifted, the eggs we made by felting roving wool. There are some cool tutorials at crunchyparent.com, youtube and also in Amanda Soule's The Creative Family.

Blog Layout

Can't quite find one that I love....
so I am trying a new one.

April Status Report

Eating: Barefoot Contessa Ribollita and Brown Bread
Listening to:

Reading: It is really, really good. It makes me want to book a trip to SW France just to eat.

Wanting to try:

Wanting to wear: cute summer cotton dresses...(hard to find online, but I'm taking any and all suggestions for cute ones!)

Oxford

Quiter, cleaner, quainter than London. Exactly what you would picture in your head, if you were guessing what Oxford looks like.

Our hotel garden in Bicester. See the cottage to the right?? I want to live in it.

Color Swap and More

Cool stuff from a Color Swap I participated in: My partner was Jenny Fowler from Colorado, who I totally feel like I know after trading emails about the swap! My colors were pink and blue....I LOVED everything! I have already scrapbooked with some of the items. I'll post photos of that layout later.

Knit stuff from Lowie. Bought the dress at fashion weekend and really love it. A very cool space Tate and I found at Bicester Village. It is a venue for special events, and I love how they used pink. A Notepad that I got free at fashion weekend that I altered for Tate. He has already filled its pages.

Been Hibernating...

Waiting for March to be over. I hate Spring...

Happier and Sunnier posts to come.

Too Old for Gossip Girl--but i dont care....

From a Gossip Girl Episode:

Penelope: Kelsey, Kelsey, Kelsey how many times must we tell you? As one of the girls of the steps, you represent Constance royalty.
Isabel Coates: So it should come as no surprise that many girls before you have gotten the ax when their choices reflected poorly on us.
Kelsey: I didn't realize. [crying]
Blair Waldorf: That tights are not pants? Honestly?

CRACKS ME UP! "Tights are not Pants" LOLOLOLOL
I laugh because there are many a girl around here who do not know this fact. I mean, really, if I can see through them, if there are seams, THEY ARE NOT LEGGINGS!!!

Snow Holiday in Germany

A Swan coming to say hello.The hotel near the airport.Snow makes everything magical. We have to walk up where??Cool Barn.
Hot mocha, pretzel, and hot dog on the walk down the mountain while it snowed....it was one of the best parts of the trip! Kind of slushy at the base, but still fun to play in.Warming up near the fire.
Busy hour at the pool, but Tate didn't mind.YUM.

Back from Germany

Snow, Mountains, Castles, Hot Drinks, and perfect "lodgy" resort....

Every time I travel, I return feeling inspired to get my house in order and make it more hotel-like. You know, with the perfect placement of art on walls or a potted plant placed decoratively on a ledge.

The sun is shining again (Wheeeeee!) and we should go outside, but I am feeling crafty and inspired. The house is NOT clean, so that is step one. Paul is leaving for a week, so I have this afternoon to myself and a part of me doesn't want to waste it on cleaning. I have a feeling that Tate and I are going to be eating simple meals this next week, with lots of crafting and creative stuff going on. Or at least that is what I hope.

Germany photos to come.

Things I think that are great: Mar '09

1. Kids that take naps. I don't currently have one of those!

2. Much needed weekends out.

3. Being inspired by Williams Sonoma.

4. The new Elizabeth Arden Bronzer that I got free at Fashion Weekend. Amazing!

5. Waitrose Ripe Avocados--they are perfect!

6. Swaps--getting ready to mail out my package for this color swap.

7. Sparkle Mod Podge.

8. Again, THE SUNSHINE.

9. This little boy.

Sunshine!

Yes, there is actually sunshine outside of my window today. In London, this is rare, and I never knew how solar powered I am. It seems as though EVERYONE is in a better mood. The fact that the sun is up before we get up (at 7:15a), makes it that much easier to get out of bed. I didn't even need my normal 1/2 pot of coffee before speaking.

This weekend I went with 7 girls to Fashion Weekend: SO FUN, spent way too much money, stayed out WAY too late, realized I need to lose 10 lbs.

Have a great Monday and I hope the sun is shining for you!