a foggy day....

in london town...
i fell in love with london when i was 10, with visits to liberty's and west end shows. when i was 19, it was the place i found my independence, the energy and excitement of a modern city. now i visit as a tourist, absorbing the history of my native land, and feeling every bit at home. the chill of autumn weather, offers another crisp outlet to all the excitement i feel when i'm there. to me, no other city is yet to top it!

i've never been a huge fan of poetry, but i do love this one:

earth has not to show more fair:

dull would be the soul who could pass by

a sight so touching in it's majesty:

this city now doth, like a garment, wear

the beauty of the morning; silent, bar

ships, towers, domes, theathers and temples lie

open unto the fields, and to the sky:

all bright and glittering in the smokeless air.

-william wordsworth

england here i come...

i'm off home in the morning, to celebrate this witchy woman turning 90!

see you in two weeks, don't have too much fun with out me!

lego

i'm such a huge fan of lego. as a child i remember having boxes and boxes passed down from older brothers. me and my siblings would spend weeks building quaint towns or space cities, fully emerged in our imaginations and conversations. i'm thinking that me + the mr should start our own collection, coz let's face it...there's nothing better on a rainy day!

harry potter + lego = really cute, you have to check out the collection here

bff's

today i have been thinking of my siblings, my best friends. this october, we're hopefully going to all be together for the first time in about 16 years...i'm sooo excited. what are you looking forward to this fall?

this is the one and only portrait with all 8 clayton kids, taken 21 years ago. i'm prepping for a much needed update, we're all much taller now!

postcard tradition

i love traditions; whether their my families, brock's or the next door neighbors! traditions can bring generations together, make strangers into friends, and ordinary days special. one of the exciting aspects of marriage is learning the traditions of another's family, and starting your own as a new unit. here's one of my favorites that i've started in the past couple of years...postcards.

in my living room i have two frames dedicated to postcards from our most recent trip. before i place the postcards in the frames i write on the back a brief description of our trip and what's going on in our life's. when i pull the old ones out to replace, i put them in a scrapbook. in years time i can image a huge book full of postcards, each with a couple of lines reminding me of all the good times and great places we've been. here are some of my favorites, since these are our original homes:

a couple from england:

some from our most recent trip:

seattle with brock

there's nothing like a long weekend away, in a place you love, with the person you love.

we spent 2 days in the city: exploring, shopping and eating. then we headed to snoqualmie to spend a night at the salish lodge where we stayed on our honeymoon. in the words of ferris "if you have the means, i highly recommend it"!

liberty of london

a girl never forgets her first visit to liberty's. i was about 10 when my parents treated me and my two sisters to a surprise day- trip down to london. the smell of mahogany, and visions of colourful patterns has been cataloged in my mind forever. each of us girls picked out our patterns (mine is below), and shopped in the stationary section. we left with matching pencils, pencil cases, and other little accessories.

i wouldn't mind owning this little beauty

the other night we were relaxing by the telly, and low and behold an advert came on, that made my two worlds of past and present collide. liberty has created a line for target, and it may lack the mahogany scent, but that can be sacrificed where low prices are concerned.

i can't wait to see the whole line, until march look HERE.

pancake day

today is pancake day, a national celebration in england; and as a child one of my favorite days of the year. traditionally it marks the night before the beginning of lent, but to me it simply meant we'd be eating pancakes for dinner.


the memories of this day are filled with the smell of frying oil, and a vision of my mother stood for hours at the stove, juggling two frying pans at once. the result: mountains of beautifully stacked, golden, steaming hot pancakes; for me and my seven siblings to devour. in our family it was required to have at least one 'savory' pancake first, which was usually filled with some sort of cream of chicken sauce, then we were free to go to town on the 'sweet' options: lemon + sugar, jam + butter, and golden syrup.

every time i say "it's pancake day" i'm reminded of this song from a popular show of my childhood:

wow, i remember that being a lot better back in the day!