We started our Adventure Saturday yesterday with some chips from Mr Fish in Queen’s Park, which Mitch had told us is the best chip shop in London. They were very good and I managed to nab 20 chip forks so I can make this Tatty Devine necklace.

We picked up an iSpy London book to help us with our adventures. We’re hoping to get it finished by the end of the year but it gave us the idea to make a grown up’s version with fun stuff like: get your photo snapped at Rough Trade or drink bubble tea in China Town.

Fist we jumped on the newly reopened East London Line. I know East is a bit old fashioned but we weren’t expecting people to be dressed like this… hehehe!

We headed down south where we found Railway Avenue…

which had the Brunel Museum on it. The museum was really cute and only cost £2. The Brunel tunnel was the first underwater tunnel beneath the Thames. It first opened as a shopping arcade and they held a banquet in it. Today the tube runs through it.

Tom liked the train bench that was outside.

There was an awesome bridge one too.

We were in luck as it was a special day  at the museum where they were giving people train tours of the tunnel and letting them go down in to the old entrace hall. This was the first time it had been opened in 140 years and we had to squeeze through a little mine entrance and climb down a rickety staircase. It was really cool inside though – here’s a photo to give you a better idea.

Afterwards we went on the hunt for a Cockney cash machine which Ben from Leap had told us about. We found one but they don’t support Cockney as a language option anymore, so we couldn’t withdraw any bangers and mash.

We wandered around East London for a while.

We spotted a weird fish lamp…

and this dragon, which I love!

We decided to head out even further East and got the train past Stratford, where the Olympics was coming together nicely!

Eventually we got to Lakeside shopping centre, where we got to be mallrats and it felt like being back in West Edmonton Mall – my Canadian home away from home as a teenager. They have gumball machines…

and Taco Bell! I think it may be the only one in Britain.

The food was just as good as I remember and just as cheap – a hard shell taco is only 79p.

Just like I would have done in Canada, we went for a snoop around the pet shop after which had super cute bunnies.

The rest of the animals were all snoozing.

This hamster was really cute.

After shopping for a while and Tom not letting me get him an I Heart Omaha t-shirt, we went for dinner at Old Orleans. A restaurant on a fake steam barge which looks similar to the one we actually saw in New Orleans.

The food was really good, we ordered burgers with diced home fries, corn bread and a pitcher of Hurricane (which wasn’t as strong as in Nola). The person next to us ordered food that came out sizzling with a huge cloud of smoke steaming off it.

Afterwards we had more cocktails. I went for a Louisiana Jam which was Southern Comfort, apple juice, sourz, apricot jam and mint served in a jam jar. Jam in drinks is actually really nice. Tom had a Bywater Bramble which came in a glass with a scary face on.

We found a copy of Flair Magazine which has a photo of our bed in it – I was very sleepy by the end of the day and wished I could be back in it.

Tom put fairy lights behind his bus blind and it looks even more amazing than it did before – he can be so crafty sometimes!

My parents came down to visit today so I took them to my favorite new lunch spot, Gail’s Bread in Queen’s Park.

They make the most amazing inside out chocolate chip cookies, which have melty white chocolate chips. We really need to get them to share recipes on CO+K.

There’s a really good bookstore in Queen’s Park with a big comic book section. They had Dame Darcy’s Meatcake comic, so I was impressed!

I bought some mini purple moleskins to carry around in my bag because they’re as light as a feather.

On the subject of feathers, we went back to the petting zoo, where they have chickens that are so fluffy and look like the inside of Ugg boots.

There were two really cute rabbits who’s ears would flop around and get stuck sticking up.

We headed in to town afterwards to do a bit of shopping at Wholefoods and went to the amazing Camellia tearoom in Kingly Court.

They have so many flavours of tea and you get to smell them all before picking which one you like best. They had teas to help with everything from tummy cramps and sleeping problems to sore throats and making your skin beautiful!

On the way home I spotted this window display on Oxford Street. I’ve been wanting to take polaroids for my shoe boxes for a while and this gave me an idea for a super easy way to do it, so more on that soon…

It’s been another fun and crazy busy week. On Tuesday we went for a picnic in Holland Park with Sarah & Bruno, saw Inception on Wednesday and on Thursday, I was invited on the first ever Leap office night out, which included lots of cocktails, Moroccan food and shisha.

Tom made a frame for his bus blind, painted it black and put it on the wall. The blind is from a real bus and has hundreds of stops on it, including School Bus, Partial Route etc, so he put a curtain chain on it and you can twist it round. We’re going to get some LED fairy lights to put behind it so that it lights up at night.

Tom’s parents have been in Italy so came for a visit on their way back. They brought us two cute wooden animal cocktail stick holders.

On Saturday we went for lunch at Gail’s Bread up in Queen’s Park.

They make amazing salads and it feels like you’re having an indoor picnic.

I love their metal lightbulbs.

We jumped in the car and went for tiramisu at Cake Boy in Battersea.

They gave us a sneak peak at a tea party cake they’d just made. It had a little boy and girl with all their imaginary friends sitting around it. We really want an icing Annabelle & Baby (our two favourite teddies) on top of our wedding cake!

We then went for a drive through Richmond park, where we were lucky to find a huge herd of deer right next to the road. This one was really sleepy, so didn’t mind us sitting next to him. I joked that he must have had a late stag night… hehe!

I think they had hay fever because they kept sneezing (you can hear a couple of sneezes in this video).

Next up, we then went to Hampton Court and had a look around the gardens.

The roses were really pretty…

and there was a cute little dog hiding in them.

We went through the maze and followed Tom…

who walked straight through to the middle in about 3 minutes, without getting lost. He didn’t even use Google maps.

They had cute button seats. I wish we had a garden… and a maze.

In the evening we had dinner at Carluccio’s in Bayswater, where I had a voucher for a free bottle of wine. I had sorbet afterwards which was soooo tasty, I’m going to learn how to make it this week.

For our Saturday adventure this week we headed to Oxford, which felt a lot like St. Andrews but was overrun with groups of Italian school children.

I loved the windy cobbled streets and old buildings, which make it feel like you’re in Harry Potter.

There were animals everywhere!

There was also an Alice In Wonderland shop filled with all things Alice. I was tempted by a pocket watch.

It turns out Dave wasn’t lying about having a magazine in Oxford and we found a huge pile of Ocelot issues in a pub. He’s not lying about having a fiance in Canada either .

We had lunch in a church which had been converted in to a bar and then went for a walk along the canal. On the way we saw a man jump over a wall while being chased by the police.

The baby ducks were really friendly and came out of the water to see us.

There were also cats living on the canal boats, which they didn’t seem too happy about.

We explored the city for most of the day and concluded… Oxford has lots of windy streets, Italian tourists, animals and the Oxford tube is a lie!

We then headed to Reading, where we were disappointed to find out that the exciting sounding Oracle was just a shopping centre.

We went for a drink in a pub which brews it’s on beer on site before heading back to London. So where to next week?

This morning we went for brunch at Jack’s up in Queen’s Park. It’s such a lovely area, with lots of fancy shops, restaurants and bakeries. It’s only a 10 minute walk from the Mews, so we’ve really been missing out.

Breakfast was very healthy – pancakes, hash browns, eggs and baked beans. Tom had chips with his hash browns for two of his none a day!

Everyone was so full of energy before breakfast…

and then we were defeated by food… it’s not suppose to work this way around. Pete Burns was heading in for lunch when we left.

We then headed to the park and the petting zoo (which is free!). There were goats, chicken, ducks (which walk funny), rabbits and guinea pigs.

We got to pet a little goat.

Afterwards we relaxed in the park, tried not to get hit by balls and low flying kites, saw Pete Burns again and went to Louise’s house.

Dress update: I found some linen for the sailor dress I’m making in Soho. I had to haggle with some wise-cracking Cockney’s to get it but it was only £5 a meter. I almost finished it but then I ran out of white thread. I’m going to have enough fabric leftover to make a matching sailor hat too!

Also, happy Independence Day Americans!

The weather was going to be 30 degrees this weekend, so we headed to the park at Battersea for a picnic.

There’s lots of gold god figurines in the park. This one had a bouquet of flowers.

We walked west along the Thames for a few miles. This beach had lots of shoes tied to it. A dog ran up and licked my knee. His owner later warned me not to put my hand near him because he bites, which didn’t seem very safe.

After a long walk we arrived at Cake Boy, a French Patisserie with the most amazing looking cakes (check out the Marilyn Monroe cheesecakes at the back).

We shared a raspberry geisha cake and a chocolate praline moose. The prices were less than Hummingbird and they even do cake making classes. We walked around Wandsworth Town afterwards, which felt like stepping back in to wartime Britain and had a hunt for the Beggars Banquet office.

We jumped on the tube to Richmond and headed to the deer park.

It didn’t take us very long to find a big herd of deer.

It was baby season, so all the female deer were away looking after the babies, while the guys were kicking around eating grass (and probably chatting about the football).

We walked through the park and forrest for miles and miles.

We spotted lots of deer, squirrels, a paraquet and a 20 is Plenty sign (which Limmy will appreciate when I email it to him).

When we got to the other side of the park we were at Kingston On Thames, which was pretty and leafy.

We had dinner at Carluccios before heading home.

Louise came over to watch the football today, so we put the TV in the doorway and the sofa outside.

Handome got excited that he could be outside and cuddled up on a sofa at the same time (check out my new shoes in this photo).

What a crazy weekend! On Sunday, we made a new feature for CO+K called Suggested Share and here we are showing it off to Mark Zuckerberg.

Everyone really liked the site and one of the big FB bosses even pointed out how much he loved Crafterella in the corner.

The new feature shows you which of your Facebook friends would be interested in the project you’re looking at. So if you’re on a cupcake recipe, it’ll suggest sharing it with your friends who love cupcakes and if you’re looking at a tutorial for Lady Gaga sunglasses, it’ll suggest telling your friends who are Lady Gaga fans.

Here’s a video of Tom presenting the feature on Sunday night – he explains it way better than I can.

The feature was one of the winners, so on Monday we got to present it as part of the European Facebook conference at the Barbican (which Zuck was speaking at and was being streamed live on the internet). We also had a booth, where we got to showcase the feature to lots of journalists from The Financial Times, TechCrunch etc.

After no food and little sleep we finally got to relax with a cocktail party in the Barbican Gardens (which looked like somewhere Posion Ivy would live).

… and then a ladybird landed on my finger on the way home, yay!

Holland Park never fails to cheer me up on a dull day in London.

We didn’t have too much to do on Saturday, so we avoided the busy shops and headed for peace and quiet (with sushi and whoopie pies) in the Kyoto garden.

Within 5 minutes of sitting on a bench, we were surrounded by wildlife. The squirrels sat between us on the bench, eating peanuts straight from the bag.

This video made me laugh. The pigeon knocked all the peanuts off the bench but the squirrel managed to collect them all.

This is going to be my new sewing project, so I’m on the hunt for white & blue striped linen and big metal buttons, if anyone knows where I can find some?

Today we took part in a Facebook competition, where Tom, Tony and I made an application for sharing projects on CO+K which are tagged with things like Twilight, Hello Kitty or Lady Gaga with your Facebook friends who like those things. Mark Zuckerberg (the 26-year-old billionaire who started Facebook) had just flown in from San Francisco and we got to show him CO+K, which he really liked and then do a presentation about our application. Awesome news, we won the competition and tomorrow we’re presenting our idea live on the internet to thousands of people… scary!

It was such a hot weekend, hopefully that’s the summer here to stay. On Friday, Ben, Claire & Lynz came over for 30p beers (which the Wine Rack were selling off fast) and stir fry, while we sat outside the mews. I showed off the embroidery skills of my new sewing machine and made Ben a royal hanky with his name and a crown stitched on it. Tom taught me how to play Lover I Don’t Have To Love on his roll-up piano – maybe there’s still hope for me musically yet!

On Saturday we went to see the London Roller Girl’s bout Smack To The Future. We felt typically British watching “the game” with our beers.

Lynz & I decided to cheer on the team with the cutest outfits (they move too fast to get a clear photo) and make up derby names for everyone – Lynz & Let Die, Benecol, aTom Bomb and Catastrophe.

When we got back to the mews, there was a massive film crew shooting a scene. It looked like an episode of Skins or something similar, so I’m sure we’ll end up watching it someday.

Sunday was soooo hot, it felt like a different country. In the evening, we caught up with Louise and Lynz for a bite to eat at Plan 9.

Louise was showing off with her camera, so I attempted to compete with my compact’s weird colour mode. We spent the rest of the night outside, it stayed so warm that we could have slept outside.

I’ve been trying to do something crafty every day to get me back in to my old ways and the other night I dreamt about a necklace with birds all over it, so I decided to give it a try. The how-to is on CO+K now.

Yesterday we went to see the buttefly exhibit at the National History Museum.

There were so many pretty little butterflies and flowers everywhere.

They kept landing on everyone and some people had to be warned not to sit down because they had them on their backs.

You had to be careful when you stepped because there were lots of them walking around on the floor too.

It was tricky to get them unstuck from you when you had to leave.

I kept expecting one to fly off me throughout the day.

Afterwards we picked up some Hummingbird cupcakes and took my parents to The Dove in Chiswick (which Ben & Dave call The Dave), which is one of London’s oldest pubs.

It feels like it was winter, then spring, then summer and now it’s winter again. Come back sunshine

I had hit a bit of a dead end with the Mac that I was sewing, but luckily, my Mum is the best seamstress in the world and has got me back on track!