A Study of San Diego Gardens

A little sidestep today, as I'm gathering up lots of garden thoughts and ideas for our lovely little house in Melbourne's West. Oh we love it, and since we've been back from our USA Vay-Cay we've had lots of dreams about how we can make our 1920s/30s abode into a California Dream!

I loved the neatness, simplicity and lusciousness of the gardens in California! We had a great walking time in San Diego (mostly in La Jolla) so I snapped a few gardens I loved... but I wish I took more photos, these are great (and will be pinned to my own pinterest for inspiration gathering!) but I feel I've missed the true style of So-Cal (do I sound like a local yet?)! We have a front garden here at home that would look great with a little Californian style and planting... but I'm fully aware that most of these Californian gardens have regular gardening services... so I guess I'm going to have to think about a low maintenance approach for ours... but we'll see where we go with it. I'm no green thumb, but I can dream. Californian style, perhaps!

So today, let me indulge for a brief NO SEW inspiration! Apologies for all the photos! Garden lovers rejoice!

P.S if any of these houses pictured are yours, I love your front garden! xoxo

Sad Goodbye

I did want to say like LCD Soundsystem "New York, I love you, but you're bringing me down", but I just don't feel like it is a place that would bring me down right now! There's no 'but' to my love for New York, and America in general, right now!

We're back in Melbourne, Australia now, have been for most of the week, and it's been a bit jet laggy in parts. Especially for our babe, who has been super excited at 2am or 3am through the past week, STILL. "New York, I love you, but you've created a monster"... a GORGEOUS monster with giggles in the wee hours is not that bad!

Anyways, we loved travelling and especially travelling with a baby, I've got a few posts up my sleeve... as I have noticed a huge style change for me (I've got SNEAKERS/AKA KICKS now), so I'm sure you're all DYING to find out what I wore in the last few days of holidays!

Wishing you well, and can't wait to flick over bloglovin soon, maybe tomorrow?! Happy Long Weekend to you if you get it!

xoxo

Travel Diary: The Last Few Days

Oooh, it's much busier in the big smoke! We've been staying in Brooklyn, loving everything about New York! I have SO many photos I've just quickly picked a few 'outside' shots for you... and we're SERIOUSLY having to come back because there's just so much to do here and so much to see ... especially so many people to catch up with! We know more people living here than other parts of the USA, so we've had lots of social engagements and lotsa laughs!

Between Husbie and I we take most photos of ourselves and Baby Darling... but of different scenic shots... we're not doing the biggest touristy things here in NYC, just living and keeping things simple! It's a great city to be with Baby Darling, but the bigger spaces with crowds and lines of people just isn't as comfy for him. He's only 8 months, so waiting around is confusing!

We're back next week, so I'll catch up soon! Hope you've been well! xoxo

Travel Diary: Miss Crayola Creepy!

YAY! When we were roadtripping down to San Diego, I met fellow seamstress and the very gorgeous Miss Crayola Creepy! She lives close by to where we stayed at the amazingly decorated, crazily kitsch (every room is a different theme!) Madonna Inn! 

I haven't met that many blogger sewing passionistas in my blogging career (LOL) so it was very exciting to see Erin and especially since I'm halfway round the world. I wore my jumpsuit from the Pin Up week at Sew Weekly 2011, and Erin wore her selfmade pink dress to match the pinkness of the surrounds!

Check out some of the scenery! I especially loved all these crazy big flowers and colours:

So much pink and orange! We had such a lovely little afternoon!

Thanks Erin for coming to meet the little Darling Family, you are absolutely gorgeous! We'll be back again, I'm sure! We love California! xoxo

Travel Diary: Roadtrip

WOW! We keep having an amazing time! Everything we do is on Baby Time... short bursts of action, slow walks (or pushes in the stroller) and making lots of space to talk with people and for Baby Darling to soak up his holiday. I actually love travelling like this! No crazy 'Must See' lists, or feelings of not fitting it all in. There's no way we can fit in all the sightseeing things, or places to eat or coffees to drink, or buildings to see or parks to hike. So we just do small things, and we feel calm.

Baby Time Holidaying allows a hop on hop off bus tour of San Francisco, a lunch at Frances Ford Coppola's cafe and a shoe shopping expedition at Macy's!

We then drove down to San Luis Obispo to stay at the famously kitschy Madonna Inn (highly recommend) and a short little drive to Cambria for a Mother's Day brunchie lunch. I keep taking way too many photos but loving see what pops out here when I get them to the laptop.

I'm hankering for a cafe latte (no flat whites in the US!) so better run out the hotel door! We'll be rounding the week out in LA, so if you have fabric or vintage/thrifty tips, let me know! EXCITED!

xoxo

Travel Diary: Coming To America

Well, we're in San Francisco and I'm blogging you my first travel diary note from the USA! One of my ambitions this year is to write more, and hey, I didn't bring a notebook with me. NO HARD COPY! Yikes! How will I remember everything? Do I need to remember everything? The virgo in me is having a hard time! Luckily I have this blog (and all my personal Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/Yelp/Expedia/AirBnB et al) to keep a digital memory of it all.  We travelled well considering we have a 7 month old bebe with us! He's a charmer, so kept many people entertained and happy during the 14 hour flight to LA from Melbs. There were a few tears though, but nothing outrageous and I'm sure understandable to those around us. It was the final descent that he couldn't sit still to breastfeed, so his ears hurt him a little. We then waited in the LA airport to fly to San Francisco and we were checked into our hotel in downtown San Fran by 3pm and tried to keep up as late as we could. We were all zonked by 8pm that night, and it helped balance out our jetlag for Thursday and today (i.e. no jetlag - just soar throats and sniffly noses from the zircon on the planes etc). It seems my other life's ambition has been to TALK to Americans and ask them stuff (like directions and how to get a boarding pass or where's a good place to buy a stroller) but then to only listen to their happy voices and accents and not pay attention to the content they're sharing with me. They are all so friendly and happy and upbeat and positive, all the things I love and need right now. And having a baby with us means they're automatically in love with us before we even saying we're Australians (also a win friends easily card). San Francisco is beautiful and friendly and quiet (we did just think the garbage trucks were fireworks though) and it's like Melbourne a lot. I'm a bit dazzled by the shops and the commercialism in the USA already though, so I better watch out! Don't worry, we've already been to a Good Will (op shop!) store, in Pacific Heights mind you (HELLO POSH PEOPLE). I've eaten Junior Mints, Hershey chocolate and ketchup and tater tots and even a bagel for breakfast. And I can't wait to eat more Junior Mints. And more. It's only been 3 days, and there's so many more photos and stories, but thank you San Francisco for having us! I want to kiss and cuddle all your buildings and come back in summertime and see a stand up comedy show and all the other things we don't have time to do. x