Coffee Table Books

The mister and I are planning to build a floor to ceiling bookshelf in our dining room and I love to think about all the beautiful books we'll buy to fill it. Because neither of us moved to London with many books and because we both use the kindle these days, we don't actually own that many books. I've just been browsing and bookmarking coffee table books. I might buy a few to get us started. :)

Paris in Color

American Beauty

My Father's Daughter

Pictoral Webster

A History of the World in 100 Objects

Kate Spade: Things We Love

New Zealand Landscapes

The World of the Polar Bear

Annie Leibovitz At Work

36 Hours. 125 Weekends in Europe

Sushi and a movie

The rain has returned and that means we're going to be having a lot more weekends inside. The other weekend it was rainy and gross so the mister and I decided to head over to Wimbledon to have lunch at our favorite sushi spot and see a movie near Centre Court. After paying my dues with Iron Man 3, this time I got to pick the movie and I chose About Time. I thought the trailer might have given away the whole movie but I got totally sucked in and shed a few tears at the end. It was a really beautiful film about living your life to the fullest - something I think we all forget about when we so easily get tangled up in the complications of everyday life.

Bakes sushi - a Maki Yaki speciality

Kew Farmers Market

At the start of each month Kew puts on a Farmers market and as a break from the usual Barnes Farmers Market, the mister and I checked out the Kew market a few weeks ago. It had many of the same vendors as Barnes but the whole market was much more spread out, giving you a bit of breathing room.

The more time I spend in Kew the more I fall in love with it. Perhaps the next time we go to Kew Gardens we can swing by the weekend farmers market.

The Glasshouse (on the left) where we'll be celebrating our 3rd wedding anniversary. 

Hamburg

The mister was taking a trip to Hamburg for a conference this year and I thought, hell, why not join him. I had few expectations of Hamburg and to be honest it's probably not a place I would have chosen for a holiday but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I loved Hamburg. It's a really beautiful city with so many canals and waterways and a generally chilled out vibe. Nothing was ever too crowded and we were able to walk absolutely everywhere. Here are a few snaps from our trip. 

Tota

The weeks have been flying by! Not necessarily a bad thing as we inch closer to fall, my favorite season ever! The other weekend I met up with one of my girlfriends in Tooting for lunch at Tota and a whole bunch of girly chat. 

According to Time Out, Tooting is the new Shoreditch (!). When I first read that I was really surprised but after my most recent visit, I can confirm Tooting is definitely brimming with cute shops and places to eat. And Soho House's Dirty Burger will open soon as well!

And the food was so delicious I didn't even think to snap a pic - so here's a few snaps from their twitter

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Need to get back into baking

I've taken a break from baking (nearly a year!). I still bake for occasions (e.g. birthday or when we have people over) but since we still try and follow the Whole 30 at home, I've refrained from baking too much stuff, 'just for us'. But now my Pinterest board is brimming with goodies, I have to get back in to it!

Salted chocolate-pretzel peanut butter cookies

Cupcake milk shake

Lemon Yoghurt Cake

Lemon Poppyseed doughnuts

Mocha chip cinnamon rolls

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Brunch at Providores

Even though this weekend has still has been slightly busy with pesky life admin I do feel like I've actually had time to relax. On Saturday morning the mister and I had a scrumptious brunch at The Providores and Tapa Room on Marylebone High Street which was a great way to start the weekend (with a bellini!)

Turkish eggs from Changa restaurant in Istanbul – two poached eggs on whipped yoghurt with hot chilli butter and sourdough or seeded granary toast

Granola, Greek yoghurt, toasted coconut and NZ clover honey