Treasures for my troubles

What a week to run out of coffee... both kids have decided to have some kind of ill advised circadian rhythm shift and start rising at 6ish - a full hour and a half earlier than usual. Simultaneously I'm in recovery from the brunch pop up I did on Sunday (think 200 red velvet waffles, endless cauldrons of hot blueberries and bourbon syrup, very very sore feet by the end) and have been lent a lump of new Game of Thrones episodes - which means bed before half past midnight is a thing of the past. As is staying up late for valid, cool reasons...but that's another issue. It's another almost-week before the next delivery of my absolute favourite coffee, so I was powerless to refuse an invitation to join my friend Hannah for a relaxing (with two toddlers - ho ho ho) dose of caffeine at our local cafe. The cafe, Arts & Crusts, exhibits local artists and the lovely gal who served our coffee had her beautiful work up in the window - lovely, quirky embroidered vintage handkerchiefs. I might need to own one and hang it on my wall. Check out Poesie Grenadine

these two were my fave

these two were my fave

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crush of the week...

Bit of a lull in the Crush of the Weeks of late, as I read Hattie's amazing blog Free Our Kids and decided to stop being such a wanter of things! And actually it worked, and I haven't wanted or bought much for a few weeks now. But this blog is a bit overburdened with pictures of cakes and babies if I don't publicly desire some gorgeous stuff once in a while, so I've forced myself to get back in the saddle.  

Ok, so it's another mum and baby matching outfit post. I KNOW - I need to stop. I am not sure it's a good or a bad thing that all of the gorgeous bits of clothing I stumble upon for Indy are magically available in my size too. I've been in love with Beatrice Valenzuela's stuff for ages (and totally follow her rad looking life on Instagram) but just recently re-stumbled across it and remembered how badly I want want want it. All the shoes are handmade from naturally dyed animal skins. I'm all about these ladies' 'Botines' and some hightop 'Combinados' for the kids please. Please?

 

oranges and lemons

After being very dramatic  for the past year about my absolute need for some extreme exposure to the sun, we finally got a mega-hit when we made a long overdue visit to my mama's idyllic little farm in Spain at the end of April. We must have picked the perfect time of year because wildflowers were everywhere (even in our salads) and the air was warm, full of bees and the scent of orange blossoms. The kiddos were in heaven, pottering about semi (or totally) nude, picking and eating oranges from the trees and catching frogs by day, stargazing and sleeping SO soundly by night. There was no TV to turn to and it wasn't missed, and with my mum and her partner Quinto about I got some very luxurious rooftop sunbathing spells and finished an entire book! 

The hippies who live down on the riverbed through a Children's festival that perfectly coincided with our visit - think Shamanic drumming lessons, Geodesic domes, Kids trapezing at dusk and lots of daal. On other days we made home made strawberry granita with berries so naturally sweet they made me dizzy, or paddled with the tadpoles in my mum's pool, filled with river water. Pablo fell in love with his first ever pet, a snail, and got his first kiss from the neighbour's two year old daughter, Umi, by the festival campfire. Dreamy days...

We made doughnuts...

Sickeningly easy, and luckily we had a BBQ to attend so a good excuse to gift them to someone else before we ate them all... 

If you're hunting for a good recipe for raised doughnuts I highly recommend Lara Ferroni's. Or you can make yummy English jam doughnuts via this post on my blog... 

A prince of thieves

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Very proud of Pablo for raising £200 for Barnardos in The Big Toddle. I had to rustle up a Robin Hood outfit in about 30 minutes (ok, so we had most of the hat and a bow and arrow thanks to Konch having been deployed on a business trip to Nottingham vaguely recently. Inspiration clearly more Men in Tights than Kevin Costner) so not just a little bit proud of myself, too. He really loved learning about where the money would be going and glowed at the thought of helping children who have had a tough start. Plus he got to show off his impressive arrow firing skills to the girls at school, who were all dressed as fairy princesses. It was gorgeous. Special mention to his friend (King) Alfie who held his hand throughout the nursery rhyme procession and acted out some awesome battle scenes with him afterwards. Also to Ida's mum for bringing the biscuits...

crush of the week

Another week, another want. Beautiful mini Ace & Jig-lets from Darling Clementine, now available for pre-order. Just perfect...

As usual I am also lusting after the mama-sized versions for my essential imaginary wardrobe of dreams...