Merry Christmas!

Happy holidays everyone! I can't believe Christmas is here! It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating Thanksgiving. At the beginning of December the mister and I hosted a tree trimming party that put just the right amount of festive spirit into our flat. My favorite ornament on our tree this year is the little door with the number 2012 over it. A sweet gift from a friend reminding us of our first flat purchase.

I hope you all have an amazing holiday!

And may all your Christmas' be white..

Christmas day boozing

It's not a big tradition to have cocktails on Christmas day in my family, but the mister's family brings out the champagne promptly at 11am (which I love!). Do you have a special festive cocktail? 

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UP

I sort of love this story.

Ballard, a neighborhood in Seattle, has boomed with development over the last 10 years; new flats and shops everywhere. One of the developments, Ballad Blocks, tried to buy Edith Macfield's house back in the early 2000's but she wasn't selling out to developers. They offered her a staggering $1 million for it too! (Go Edith!) So they built around her (see below)

After Edith's passing she apparently left her house to one of the construction workers who checked up on her a lot and looked after her during all the construction. For a while the property lay dormant but back in October I read an article that said the property had been purchased and they were in the process of renovating it so they could rent it out as a vacation rental. They are even talking about elevating the house off the ground (in my opinion, to give it a bit of an UP feel to it) and putting in a garden underneath.

I'm not sure Edith would have wanted it to be a vacation rental but hopefully she's chuffed that her house is still standing.

Mr & Mrs Travel

The year is winding down and I'm literally counting the days until we board our plane to the US for Christmas and I'm finally on holiday. The mister and I are notoriously poor at planning our travel ahead of time but I'm trying to break that cycle for 2013. We've been throwing around a lot of ideas of places we'd like to go, Russia being at the top of our list. 

Are you travelling anywhere next year? Any places that you would recommend? Especially if it's a bit off the beaten path.

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Hello Monday

knick knacks

Last weekend was the Barnes Christmas Fair (have I mentioned how much I adore Barnes!). Never one to miss a Christmas market I left the mister at home to watch the rugby and headed up to the Pond to check it out. I was hoping to score some Christmas ornaments but unfortunately this Christmas fair was more of a Christmas gifts fair - only 1 stall selling Christmas stuff! I was really disappointed as none of the other stalls really had anything of interest, well until I spotted these guys.

I'm usually not one to buy knick knacks but for some reason they really caught my eye and for a steal of £4 I thought even if I hate them in a few months it's still a good deal.

Now to find them a good home in the flat.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year I have so much to be thankful for - my friends and family near and far, our work-in-progress flat, my job (even though sometimes I don't really feel that thankful for it) and the list goes on. I love all holidays and really don't care how commercialised they become because at the core of any holiday is the celebration of life and all the gifts it brings. So happy Thanksgiving everyone and thanks Vale for a beautiful Thanksgiving meal!!

Martha's pumpkin chocolate chip sqaures

Vale's amazingly styled Thanksgiving feast

My favorite dish of the night - mac and cheese!

The main event.

Festive table runner

I saw this no sew/DIY table runner over on Poppytalk and thought that it would be perfect for our ginormous dining table. I bought my painters cloth from Robert Dyas and it's SO big that I think I can probably get another 10 craft projects out of it. Now to decorate the table (inspiration from Cupcakes and Cashmere)

Bring on Thanksgiving!

World Press Photo Exhibition

On Friday after work I stopped into the Royal Festival hall to check out the World Press Photo Exhibition. The subject matter is real and haunting. The beautifully buzzing atmosphere created by the jazz festival musicians at Royal Festival Hall stood in stark contrast to so many of the photos. 

Many of the photos are of extremely serious subjects and having a walk around the festival hall made me realise just how much has happened in the world in 2011. 

If you have a chance, I'd definitely recommend popping in. It's free and powerful.

World Press photo of the year

 

 

 

 

  

  

 

 

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Arundel

If you're ever looking for a little weekend get-away, I would highly recommend Arundel. About a hour and a half outside of London (depending on where you live I suppose) Arundel has everything you really need for a great break. A cute little farmers market, a few antique shops, an amazing castle and at least one superb restaurant! 

The mister and I stayed at the Town House. Our room looked out over one of the main roads which meant quite a bit of drunken noise but we had one of the loviest meals there, so all and all a wonderful place to stay. 

Farmers market

Main drag

View from the castle

One of the best castle's I've ever been to

Dinner at the Town House - perfect!

The mister finishes his dessert before I even start mine.

Decorative items

After several months of not really doing anything with our flat, we're back on track with buying furniture and decorating it. It's been a long process that has been slowed continuously by the fact that the mister and I don't agree on a lot. Today we bought a desk, which is one of the last major pieces we need (besides a bed for our guest room). 

I of course, could spend hours looking through home goods stores (both online and in person) and one of the shops I recently came across, I am total smitten over - Samantha Robinson. (and of course, it's in Australia!)

So beautiful! I wish there was no import duty...

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