It's not often that I manage to get the kids in the same picture or even dressed at the same time, so I feel this is quite an achievement. I took these photos one very dreary morning, in fact it was a late breakfast/early lunch of cheese and pickle toasties. Before which, P entertained us to her dance from Moana soundtrack. We then went out to town.

Since Mr Leafy was about two months old, he picked up one of P's cars, and that was that...his passion for cars and anything with wheels is beyond anything I can understand. He is mesmerised by them, but also seems to gain comfort from them. He does like other things like animals, instrument and drawing...but he always comes back to his cars. It's strange but fascinating.

We don't go crazy with car bed linen or car underpants etc... but he does have a LOT of cars now, as well as his beloved 'Encyclopaedia of Vehicles' which I have to pretend to be interested in E V E R Y D A Y.

Little P was never so obsessed with anything in particular, she liked a broad range of things, but I guess she is mostly drawn to anything creative. She was quite early to pick up a pen and start scribbling. She will always chose to make something if she has an opportunity.

She is also keen on dancing, which she shows a deep feeling for the music when she dances. It's all about the 'performance' and we are always offered snacks before she starts the music.

I had Mr Leafy when P was three and a half, so she was old enough to be fully aware of what was happening, and be quite involved in the whole baby thing. Even though she definitely and completely wanted a girl, she decided that she did not want to send him back to the hospital and was quite happy to keep him. 

She loves him 'all around the moon, up to the sun and back to earth again' (her words)

For his first birthday, she bought him a car from the newsagant.

When we go anywhere, she holds his hand.

In the winter we eat breakfast and lunch in the living room because it is warmer and cosier than our dinning room (that has large glass doors to the garden). They always sit on their own chairs at the coffee table to eat. 

Mr Leafy sometimes finishes P's leftovers when she's not looking.

Mr Leafy always eats his veg first, and P always eats her veggies last.

 

She always shares her 'goodies' with him no matter how small it is, and My Leafy does the same in return.

They do get on really well at the moment, unless Leafy interrupts her making project, or if P picks up one of his cars.

Then it's like two alley cats hissing over a fish bone.

I do like to start the year with a clean house and I find pottering around tiding and changing things about really helps me cope with my new year blues which I've always had since I was a child.

I have found that putting away the xmas decorations early has also been really helpful and makes me feel better (we decorate our house much earlier instead!).

As I mentioned in my last post about London, I brought home a few new things I found in the sales, and also a few are my xmas presents. Above is my new watering can from my mister (thank you!) and the wreath I found half price at Petersham Nurseries. I know I could make one similar but actually it's hard to find the right branches when you want them, and it's very nicely made. I'm going to have it on the dining table and put candles in it...very nice for spring!

Two new little ceramic vases for my collection, and the big one was an ebay find. I stopped at a service station on the way home and bought some flowers, the first for the year!

Some of my xmas decorations made into frames instead of the fire!

I LOVE my little gold plant chameleon from my sis in law, climbing up my trailing plant.

I'm in love with Korres Fig moisturiser at the moment and it's not too expensive either (£10). And also the little brass animals from the market! cheap cheap candles from Flying Tiger shop.

Another vintage pottery ebay find awaited me on my return. I'm so in love with it, and it has little holes in the back to take a string for hanging up! It's made by Dartmouth Potteries.

Large glass vases from Ikea, another very happy find.

And this is the plant I bought from Petersham's at half price, so £11.50! I couldn't resist its happy waving arms. I have a nice large clay pot for this one, and I will also straighten it up a bit too.

I have no idea where I am going to put it, but that's not important eh.

We have a few projects that we want to do on our house this year without spending too much, so we will be doing it all ourselves which should be very interesting!

Our kitchen is a naff plastic coated chip board affair, probably the cheapest from B&Q, installed by the previous owner. It is not offensive and it's quite new, but it is just bleurrr. We can't afford a whole new kitchen or even new doors, so we will do a sort of makeover on it hopefully.

I will be in charge of tiling, I have watched you tube videos 😂

I'm also going to repaint our large kitchen cabinet which will be a huge job as I want to paint it inside and out 😬. 

Anyways, updates on all that to follow!

So here is another sort of diary of our trip to London with the littles. As always we are totally knackered, but it is always nice to get off the Island as a family and find some amazing inspiration to take home with us.

As it was New Years Day that we arrived, there were a lot of places still closed. Although I didn't intend to spend ANY money, I did find so many amazing things for not much and they may have accidentally made it into my possession. I will do another post about that after this one.

Little P was desperate to go to the 'dinosaur museum' again (aka The Natural History Museum) but we were not willing to queue half way down the street in the pouring rain and freezing wind. So we managed to convince her that there was another museum the same...so we drove to our old habitat of south east London to visit our fave Horniman Museum (she's been there many times as a baby but she had no memory of it luckily).

By lucky hap, they have opened a new butterfly house, which was small but very impressive we thought!

They also have a small aquarium there too...

 

And a macabre stuffed and pickled animal room, which is very fascinating to a 5 year old.

Outside I spotted this lovely shrub...any one know the name?

(an old post about the Horniman Here)

Day two we decided to entertain the kids and planned a trip to Stratford to the Discovery Story Centre. On the way we stopped at Leyton Village to have look, sadly most of the shops were still closed for the holidays, but luckily this shop was open...

 

I literally could have bought everything had I the funds.

We did buy some small clay rings stands for our jewellery display...two sheets of wrapping paper and a nice tea towel for when we do up our kitchen.

We also had a quick stop by Chatsworth road but also most shops were closed : (

(actually our RUST shop was also closed so we can't really complain about this!)

Then we eventually made it to the Discovery Story Centre, which is the most unique and creative play space for kids. Every where you look is some incredible slightly dark creature or little cave to adventure in. Its on two floors with a cafe and cool looking outdoor playground too! (it was too wet and cold for us to go outside sadly). The kids loved it, it was £20 entrance fee but if you are local its a bit cheaper and you can also buy an annual membership which is a much better deal.

Visit their website for better pictures (it was hard to take photos without other kids in the frame).

The next day of course it's thursday = market day

Spitalfields Antiques market.

(we bought a few of those little brass animals £3 each!)

 

Sadly, they have recently revamped the market space with superdooper street food stalls, which although look amazing, it means that there is not as much space for the market stalls which is very sad. There are street food stalls everywhere in London now, but the antiques markets are all dying out! Poor show London Council!!

 

My absolute favourite stall ; )

I bought these test tubes for propagating some cuttings in! And some nice knives.

 

Little P fell for this rather expensive polar bear, and to be honest I fell for it too! Needless to say, it came home with us.

Mr Leafy found a vintage fire engine of course, then fell asleep, of course.

Petersham Nurseries is also a favourite place of ours and happens to be on our route back to the Island. We quite often stop here for lunch, and I always love it!

Amazing things in their shops, I loved these little ceramics, and their indoor plants were half price! omg.

It's a very widely talked about place, and it is very expensive, but really you cannot not visit Petersham Nurseries because in my mind it is very unique, and has an atmosphere all of its own!

It is great to be home now, and luckily I had the foresight to pack away all the xmas decorations before we left, so we returned to a clean and minimal house, nice!

P.S i have to thank my dutiful Mister for taking most of these photos. In fact he really loves taking pictures these days, you can follow him here if you like>

https://www.instagram.com/jentlemanship/

and his Isle of Wight photography Instagram here>

https://www.instagram.com/wilderness.wight/