Strawberries!

Look who is finally turning red!

Summer in London

I have been moaning about how cold the summer in London has been, but this place definitely does one thing right: gardens. 

All of London is in bloom. Even my own front garden looks magical! 

People take care of their modest gardens in a very impressive way. Nearly all the houses on my block grow roses in their front gardens, including my neighbors who's flowers drape over the fence into our front garden. Fine by me! 

Walking past them a few days ago, I had to stop and take a long drink of their delightful fragrance. There are so many and they are so beautiful, I decided to take pictures of all the roses and other lovely flowers on my way to work:

Welcome to my studio!

There's one corner in my house that is devoted to my creative pursuits. It's right next to the window with my flower box and I have this mini cyclamen to keep me company too. Space is at a premium, so I've butted my desk right up against the wall. Instead of being supported by two legs, it's actually resting on books which lie on the first shelf. This shelf also hosts a print I made of the Hudson River and a beautiful drawing of my sailboat made my bestie/sailing partner in the states. 

The second shelf is never very organized... it's all the art supplies. But I try to group things together into piles at least. The window just in front of my desk gives me a great view of our front garden, so the bird chart in the middle of this shelf helps me identify any avian visitors. 

The third shelf houses a couple of books and all my MakeOrBreakShop supplies. There's not too many on the shelf at the moment as I am figuring out product lines and how much of what I need to keep in stock. 

The first product line will be the t-shirt dye kits. I think the second will probably be an at-home screenprinting kit with a few patterns to try. I can't wait to put that one together! 

Ohmygod. I love you.

Don't give up.

Welcome home, baby!

Sometimes you are just in the right place at the right time.

My flatmate sent me a bike advertisement that her friend put up on Facebook. It wasn't quite what I was looking for, but since I was on the site already, I did a quick search. This lil beauty had just been posted and the seller offered to bring it to East London. This solved both the problems I'd been having finding a bike: getting the right size and finding one in a place where I could easily pick it up.

He brought it right to my office! After a quick test ride, I noticed the rear brakes were a bit spongy and the gears were a bit sticky, but the wheels were true and the frame was solid. I talked him down.

I took it on the train a fair way, to get through central London and then rode from West Brompton. The streets were pretty quiet. It actually wasn't hard staying on the left at all.

I definitely need some more practice to get the balance of this new bike and I need to do some maintenance on it. But I am so happy! The weather was so pleasant riding home. It was quick. It felt good to get a little work out. This is def going to change my perspective on living here.

Yay! The whole family is coming!

Garden Update

The beautiful kale plants have begun to find their mature shape. From between their initial seedling leaves are spouting distinctive curly-edged shoots. 

I love watching the transformation in the plants. Only a few days ago, it would have been hard to tell what this plant was going to be, with it soft, anonymous seedling leaves. Now its kale-y-ness it undeniable as a very tiny spike-crowned leaf is appearing. 

This is my first year growing plants from seed. I hope I don't fall so in love with them that I can't eat them. 

Beautiful things continue to appear in the garden like these delicate pinky-purple flowers on tall stalks. 

I'm also happy to report that at least one of the four enormous white bean seeds that I planted directly into earth has taken root and is growing by leaps and bounds - much faster than its potted brothers. Can't wait to help it find its way to the trellis soon!

Best Friends are good to have

Got a lovely lil care package in the mail from my sailor partner stateside - a beautiful handmade journal with a Lightning sailboat cover. Amazing!! Handmade things are just so much better. 

It's Friday night, baby!

It's been a pretty chilly spring here in London. I tried to start seeds outside mid-May since the frost was over, but they just wouldn't come up. So I started some seeds inside about a week later to supplement the later-bloomers. 

Well they are both finally coming up. I'm so excited that my little seedlings are finally getting stronger! I can't wait to eat them. ;) 

Here you see Siberian Kale in the foreground, curly kale next to it and a green basket of lettuce seedlings in the rear. 

I also noticed my strawberry plant is getting its first fruits! YUM!

Round the Island Race

I was lucky enough to find a spot on a boat last minute for the Round the Island Race this past weekend. This is an annual race of all the sailors in Britain (or just about), with over 1600 boats turning out to sail around the Isle of Wight this year. It was truly amazing to see so many boats sailing at once and all in the same direction!

We had phenomenal weather - blue skies, warm and windy. The wind was predicted to drop off in the afternoon, but it held 15-23 knots all day. Can't ask for better than that really.

Our boat was very comfortable and got us around safely but wasn't very fast. The sails were pretty baggy and she was a bit beamy, but we did our best and managed to avoid being completely last place, although not by much. Our crew wasn't too focused on being competitive however. We were there to have fun.

I was trimming jib most of the trip but got to do main sheet trim for about 45 minutes during a very gusty portion of the journey. Everyone commented they could really tell I was a dinghy sailor because I was so in tune. The drivers never had to ask me to ease or sheet in. They could just hold their course and I would ride the puffs. I can't tell you how happy it made me to do a real job like trimming the main on a 40' yacht and have other people give me a pat on the back. Maybe I am just a big softie, but I actually cried with happiness behind my sunglasses at one point.

Took this just after my stint on the main as we were coming around the Needles.

Banner done!

Did some good work on the shop this week. Check out the banner I made:

Photo shoot is scheduled for this weekend. Hopefully I'll have my first listings up next week!