ahh london. it seems like it was all a dream. this trip was somewhat of a last minute thing but i’m so glad i ended up going. i tagged along with some of my close friends and we went to colour conference which was pretty amazing. after a few days at the conference in london i headed south to worthing to visit my british bestie, maggie. maggie and i have been friends for almost 20 years. on my very first trip to england i stayed with her family and we’ve stayed great friends over the years. i spent time with her sweet family, drank lots of tea and chatted and chatted and chatted.
+the colored houses get me every single time. made a super quick trip to the portobello market with a friend. could have spent hours wandering about
+we stayed right in the piccadilly circus area which was perfect. with paul + laduree near by my taste buds traveled to france.
+i brought along my baggu pouch which is my new favorite thing. it was perfect to slip on my wrist and it held all my essentials. i have the medium gold pouch and the neon strap. i’ve been using it almost everyday since i’ve been home too.
+maggie’s mom, Pam Weaver, has written several books and it was fun to see them at the bookstore
so, i had a bit of money saved up for a new couch and i spent it on this trip instead. usually, if given the choice, i’ll take the trip every time. things come and go but memories last a lifetime. my sister, who kept pushing me to go, said i should be able to live on this trip for a good 6 months and i believe she is right. i shared a bit about why i went and i can’t tell you how happy i am that i did. now instead of geting annoyed every time i look at my mangy old couch i just smile.
hi lovelies. i’m back from england with a tired body but rested heart. i can’t wait to share photos and stories with you next week. but, before i begin that i suppose i should start with, at least, one of the reasons why i traveled across the sea. a few weeks ago i wrote this in my journal :
i am tired. inside and out. the list of to do’s (mostly ones i’ve brought upon myself) is pretty long and i want to blow them off, almost, as much as my high school geometry homework.
all i want to do is read and write. write and read. look at words. hear them. ponder them. and think them. all the while, making making my own with an inky pen or the punchy click of my computer keys. stringing words together to make sense of my soul.
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i recently did an interview with the lovely laura tremaine, aka the hollywood housewife (love her blog), about mom’s who blog for all parenting. it was pretty fun!
so . . . if you’ve ever wondered what a normal day looks like for me, when + where i blog, how i met my husband and few time management tips than it’s all right here.
image / noelle ann photography
LONDON! i didn’t want to make it so obvious with an obvious landmark, that is. and, really, because my eyes are going to be looking here and there and everywhere to seek out this type of inspiration. the last time i was in england i was totally mesmerized by all of the colored doors and went home and painted my front door a bright color.
anyhow, i’m here attending a conference and then taking a few days to visit my english bestie on the south coast. i’ve left my computer at home and plan to have a personal retreat of sorts. i can’t wait to fill you in when i return.
you can follow along on instagram and i also have some really great posts lined up right here!
cheerio, loves!
image / Neals Yard
hi lovelies. i’m on an adventure today. one that entails my passport. as these things are usually planned out way in advance this was pretty last minute. i LOVE travel, as it’s always so exciting, but it can make me a wee bit nervous too (so say a prayer).
pop back in tomorrow to see where in the world i’ve landed (i kind of just felt like a cross between carmen sandiego – my favorite childhood computer game – and matt lauer when i said that – ha).
and since we are talking travel….
the last place i traveled to
my tips for traveling with kids
and my travel quirks (do you have any?)
image / La La Lovely
do you like your name? i hated my name growing up. i’m sure not an uncommon woe of a 9 year old. honestly, i have a strangely clear memory of being in the elementary school bathroom, waiting in line, talking to other little girls and thinking to myself, “why can’t my name be jennifer or heather. and, remember when you’d play house, store or restaurant and you always had to have a pretend name? i usually went by nicole (due to my admiration of my older cousin). i wasn’t happy with my cabbage patch kids name either…willma. so since i could, i re-named my cabbage patch kid to sandy nicole (sandy after my dog that died and nicole, again, after my cousin. i think i even asked her if it would be ok to used nicole for the middle name – oh boy!) and i even remember my friend jill and i used to play “vicki and nickie” whenever we hung out. we just pretended to be older girls driving around and having boyfriends (ughh… i know)….just don’t ask me about acting like kirk cameron was my boyfriend at the park in front of other kids or how i would “pretend” to drive the mini van when someone came over to my house (yes, i have a lot of stories?).
anyways, i wish i could say that my name was after a distant relative that did something noble, but it’s not. if i was a boy i was going to be timothy (timothy tompkins- yuck) and i’ve been told that my mom wanted to name me katherine. however, one day, at church, my dad heard the pastor announce his new granddaughter’s name, which was trina and he liked it. so that was it….trina tompkins. i’m not catrina. just trina. in high school i saw a trina turk label and felt much better about my name. a fewllow “trina” and a fellow “t.t.”
of course, as you get older you settle into your name and don’t make such a deal out of it. you just, sort of, become it.
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so, after our normal trip, La La and i snuck over to L.A. (with my mom) for a few days to celebrate her 10th birthday. we had a really fun time. and, although i wish i could have explored, all the places i read about from blogs and my goop app, there just wasn’t time for it. we stayed in santa monica and rode bikes by the beach every morning (gosh i could get used to that), got as close to the oscars as we possibly could (we saw many a black suv’s escorting the stars but no stars themselves), shopped (because that is what girls seem to like to do, even 10 year old ones), went to disneyland, and ate lots of great food. we even got to stay an extra day because our flight got cancelled, due to snow back home (many a tears were shed – tears of joy!). it’s definitley a memory i will always treasure. i’ll take a trip over things any day. memories and experiences are pretty much priceless. i’m hoping to make many ad to my menagerie that i’m carefully curating.
if you are headed that way here are places to eat at that i would return to in a minute:
+blue plate taco
+the ivy by the shore
+hillstone
+pizzeria mozza
and yes…. i pretty much need to go on a major diet, now yesterday.
and the only downside to travel is that it only makes you want to travel more. i have a few ideas of where i’d like to go next just not sure how it will happen….yet.
FOR MORE L O V E L Y +
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hi lovelies. how have you been? it’s been a fun two weeks for me. i’ve been popping in from time to time to say hello while traveling. but today, i am back home in the winter wonderland that i call home. i love traveling and i love coming home. i always find myself overwhelmed with a sense of appreciation and find that i fall in love with my home all over again, pretty much, every. single. time. it’s just that feeling of domestic duty that always sneaks back in, within about 90 minutes time, that steals all those lovely endorphins.
but back to the trip. we had a lovely time. if you’ve been reading for awhile than you may have noticed that every year in february we trek out to the desert, tucson to be exact, with our friends. it’s been a tradition for 14 years. we started going before there were any littles and 7 kids later we are still making lots of memories.
i should like to tell you that we climb this mountain, and that one. that we go on adventures and so on, but really, all we do is eat, shop, relax, sit by the pool, take walks and then repeat. it’s pretty great.
+rocco, who slept in the shower all week (memory), was the sweetest.
+the mountains always give me a shot of strength that i can’t seem to find elsewhere, you know.
+we always go rock climbing. liam brave was brave little thing.
+a snowstorm was not what we planned for but it did make for memories + some haunting photos.
+the big kids . . . getting way to big. boo to growing up.
+stopped by one of my favorite stores, bon, again. diane keaton loves it too.
+my beautiful friend jen (who always inspires me to be a better mom) and pax, of #dailydoseofpax fame. he is such a darling, in every sense of the word + i could have just eaten him for dessert everyday.
a few of my favorite places to eat in tucson are:
+blanco
+wildflower
+sauce
+frost
+and, of course, this midwest girls likes to get her fill of rubio’s + in and out burger, when visiting the west, too.
*next week, i’ll be sharing some photos from a really cool shop in tucson, that i stumbled upon,that sells gorgeous handmade jewelry, that i fell in love with.
*you can see more from our trip over on instagram + post on LA trip to follow in a few!
