love, food, & paint
The Bobbin Sisters’ February window display in the Backfold.
Happy Valentine’s Day! And happy Friday links day! This was a full week for our family with my husband’s birthday midweek, and the last week before one of my daughter’s half-term break. Living on the border means we occasionally have different school holidays while the girls attend separate schools. Looking forward to next year and the simplification of one school run and schedule!
Mark’s birthday was basically a day of food. We started it with a full diner breakfast which is his favorite. Then he and I went to a favorite little spot in town for lunch – it was their Mexican day. And we ended the evening with French dip sandwiches which we were all so excited about, neither of us stopped to take a picture of the impressive plates. And finally, I tried a new cake for him this year - a pistachio tiramisu. It was pretty epic. We all enjoyed it, though the top cream layer was too thick. Here’s to another year with one of my favorite people!
FRIDAY LINKS
View from our second floor seat at the little Leaf restaurant in town.
THINGS I BOOKMARKED
I’m loving this new habit of reading more articles and collecting my favorites to share with you. Such an eclectic gathering of ideas and posts, and such a relief from the dumpster fire of scrolling that social media seems to feel lately.
The Walk of a Lifetime – found this excerpt really interesting as I ponder the slower pace of walking in this place versus the intense walking we always did in NYC.
He Wrote a Story About Joy, Then Built a Tiny World To Match – Cannot even describe how much joy this article brought me about Loren Long creating his recent picture book about a yellow bus. I need to track down the book now, but I continue to go back to this post and be amazed and smile over the images. Seriously, click on it and enjoy his creative process!
An English Woman’s Guide to Surviving a Damp English Winter – We’re almost through our second winter here. You wouldn’t think after 9 winters in NYC that the winters here would be colder and harder. So different. The cold gets into your bones in the UK. Thankful for heavy down comforters and my girls’ new dog hot water bottles they sleep with every night.
100 Ways to Cook an Egg – Definitely working my way through some of these ideas! We love eggs in this house.
Is Zeus Dead Yet? A Guide To Having Better Conversations – I need to reread this one a few times. Really thoughtful look at small talk and how to really connect with people in conversations.
THINGS I LISTENED TO
Cuckoo! – No idea how I came across this song this week, but it kind of mesmerized me. I ended up looking up the composers and reading a lot of the history of them, this song, and the school that came from them.
Christian Workout – I have been running a couple times a week since September and this playlist has been my new favorite thing. I started listening to just a generic running playlist, but the trashiness of some of the lyrics started to annoy me – especially when they got stuck in my head for the day. I’m not often a fan of overly emotional, cheesy Christian songs, but I am really loving this playlist. It’s a great mix of good beats and decent lyrics that I don’t mind getting in my head. I even played it in the car driving the teens home from school yesterday and they surprisingly got into it too. Win!
THINGS I FOUND
Loved this display of candles at The Old Electric Shop in town.
Spotted this tiny Welsh lady at the Market yesterday and could not leave without her. Happy to realize when I picked her up that she is a bell and the sweetest jingling sound too! Great find for a pound.
THINGS I MADE
A rare photo of me painting, secretly taken by Mark sometime this week.
The rock I was painting in the above photo. We went to Tenby in Pembrokeshire Wales back in September for my birthday. While walking along one of the beaches, I found this rock which I just loved. The shape and smoothness of it were delightful, but the most inspiring part was the white line that ran across it. Apparently it is made by some minerals that seep into the cracks and crystallize as the water evaporates. I thought this particular one looked like a horizon line and I envisioned painting a colorful house on it like the ones around the beach. The rock has been sitting on my desk for months and I finally picked it up this week to try. I actually patterned the house after a favorite cottage here in Hay, but I rather like the yellow and gray combo. The windows turned out quite poorly, but it was a fun first try. I might have to paint some more sometime!
Finally dusting off my picture book review blog and started the year of reviews by sharing this beauty of a book by Birgitta Sif. Check it out Three Books a Night!
Some potato stamps I made for the toddler group at our church on Thursdays!
The potato stamps were a big hit, albeit a bit messy! I love stuff like this. I was a Pinterest mom before Pinterest (or my kids) existed!
Hope you have a lovely weekend. We have some friends coming for a few days from NYC and we are thrilled! Looking forward to some walks and showing them all our favorite things about living here. See you next week! 💚