This weekend was full of crafting. I met T after work on Friday and we went for frogurt from Snog – guilt free apart from the mini oreos on top.

We met Emma for milkshakes at the Diner, so that I could give her the dino bone necklace I had made her for her birthday. She loves the T-Rex Tatty Devine one, which cost £110, so I decided to have a go at making a Brontosaurs. The waiter walked past when she was opening it and said “my friend has that necklace”, so it must look pretty similar.

I put the how-to on CO+K, if you want to make one too. It does take quite a long time though!

I also made a Union Jack pin cushion wristband, which is really handy when sewing. I really love Union Jacks at the moment but I’m hating St. George Crosses because of the football. We were trying to avoid the World Cup this weekend, but even Plan 9 was divided in to England vs. America, with flags on one side or the other. Louise came over to watch it and knew a surprising amount about football – even managing to explain the offside rule to us.

I countered the football by crafting and made us a spotty cosy for our cafeteria.

I also made Tom an Octocat, from the Github website, to be his little coding mascot. We might get to meet Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook on Monday

On Sunday morning (7am) Emma (armed with her waffle iron) and Ashley came over to the Mews to watch the F1. We’ve decided to have a go at getting in to different sports, like we did with Wimbledon and Raven last year.

As we were up so early, we decided to reward ourselves with brunch at Lucky Seven, an American / Mexican style diner which is just down the street from us (Emma was amazed we had never been before).

The milkshakes come in three degrees on thickness. I had a toffee / peanut butter combo and some pancakes.

We approved on the American decor! They have awesome bowling ball door knobs in the bathroom, which I really want, if anyone is handy at stealing door knobs

Afterwards I went on the hunt for rollerskates, only to fail and head home to buy this lovely pair online (the remind me of my old ice skates). Hopefully they’ll arrive soon and I’ll be good enough to play rollerderby by the summer.

In the evening, we caught up with Duncan, who’s down from Scotland and Metaxa took us to a strange bar with a tree house in it.

On Saturday, we had brunch with Emma and Ashley, went to a very disappointing chocolate festival on the South Bank, and then went up to the top of the Oxo building, where they have a lovely view over London.

We got Ben & Dave a housewarming present and I got an awesome pencil sharpener shaped pen pot from the Suck UK shop.

Afterwards, we decided to go on an adventure to Eel Pie Island, which is in the middle of the Thames, just off the shore of Twickenham (where they still have Wimpy?!). Tom said that Danny Wallace once tried to take it over.

The island is tiny but it’s full of interesting little buildings.

There were lots of cute cottages – this one had doll heads in the garden.

Afterwards, we went for a wander around Richmond, which is a lovely posh area of London.

We made friends with a pretty duck.

This house had a tree growing up the wall, which had twisted itself around the railings. If I’d lived there when I was younger, I’d have made my friends climb it and sneak in through the window.

Richmond was full of lots of cute and quirky things.

Also last week, we had an indulgent night in with movies, pink champagne and Hotel d’Chocolates which Ben & Dave gave us at our engagement party. They were amazing!

On Sunday, Emma had tried to plan a surprise brunch / engagement party, but our reservation at Fifteen fell through so we all ended up at The Diner in Kensal Rise, which was equally as awesome.

The hard shakes went down really well. The stress of planning had driven Em to margaritas at breakfast.

My breakfast was a cheesy sweet waffle (odd but nice combination) with hash browns, baked beans and scrambled eggs. Yum!

After we headed back to the Mews for absinthe champagne cocktails and Tiffany box cakes.

I had managed to make them the night before and they tasted really good. Check out the how-to on CO+K.

Our neighbour, Barney popped by with a bottle of champagne.

We spent the rest of the evening playing Buzz, singing karaoke, drinking and planning a trip to Amsterdam (which I really hope happens). Emma brought a huge box of red velvet cupcakes from Hummingbird, which tasted soooooooo good and made up for a lack of dinner.

Last night, Barney came over to drink the champagne with us, while we nibbled on cheese and crackers and listened to records.

If we’d  known being engaged was going to be this much fun, we’d have done it ages ago. Thanks so much to all of our amazing friends, we love you xxx

We’re back in London now and it was so sad to leave America. Everyone was so nice and they got even nicer the further south we went.

We got up early on Wednesday morning, still recovering from Mardi Gras and packed up to leave.

It was sad saying bye to Raven but I’m sure we’ll see her soon.

Our first flight was to Houston, Texas where we stopped to spend our remaining dollars on some tasty fast food from Wendy’s. The flight home went smooth, although piloted by a George Bush sound-a-like with two Sarah Palin look-a-like hostesses.

I watched Where The Wild Things Are and an amazing reality / contest show called Ultimate Cake Off, which I really need to get more of.

London’s all rainy but at least it’s Fashion Week and we arrived home to find a bunch of show invites in the mail. Also, a few more versions of my Kitty Hood Scarf have appeared on CO+K – I love them so much!

New Orleans was amazing, everything was just as I thought it would be. We only had about 30 hours int he city,  but it was enough to get a feel for the place and I’m sure we’ll go back soon.

Raven was happy to have everyone on her stomping ground and seeing her again made it feel like we’d seen her only yesterday. (I love how you can see Emma in the sunglasses in this photo).

It was Mardi Gras, so we all got dressed up in our costumes. Tom was a sailor, I was a mermaid, Emma and Raven were cowgirls with oversized hats, Morgan was Captain Morgan and Amber (Raven’s sister) opted for a classy boa and mask combo.

We stared the day by watching some of the parades. Everyone was still celebrating from winning the superbowl, so we ended up with the Who Dat! song in our head, which goes along the lines of “Who dat? Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints? Who dat! Who dat!“.

Everyone was throwing beads in to the crowd, so we ended up with dozens of them around our necks.

We picked the worst parade watching spot, which was out of the sunlight, so we got cold pretty quickly.

We warmed up with hot bowls of gumbo.

Gumbo is a thick soup / stew with rice. I went for the seafood one which was quite yummy.

After lunch, we went for a wander around the French Quarter, which had such pretty buildings.

Emma and Raven got acquainted with the god fearing locals.

Our next stop was Pat O’Brien’s for some Hurricane cocktails.

These were super strong but so easy to drink. Morgan and Amber tried to teach me how to tie knots with cherry stalks.

It got lovely and warm in the sun, so we stayed out in the beer garden for a while.

After a few too many Hurricanes, we headed down to Bourbon street, which was a massive street party with people throwing beads down from the balconies.

Everyone’s costumes were amazing. Next time I want to dress up as a sugar skull.

Even the animals were dressed up.

If I ever have to move to Nola, I found the perfect house on Bourbon Street. I really want a porch with a swinging chair.

Tom and I took some time out to see the rest of the city. Everyone we met was so nice.

The shoreline was really pretty.

This was exactly how I imagined New Orleans to look.

In the evening, we all went for dinner at Mother’s Diner, where Tom managed to confuse the waiter by asking for “a glass of waiter”. I had pancakes for pancake day!

Afterwards we went for a drink in a pirate bar.

After leaving New York an hour late, we took the Crescent train on our journey to New Orleans.

The journey was 30 hours long but it meant that we’d get to see a lot more of America.

We had our own little room, complete with bunk beds, seats and a toilet (you’d really have to be friends with the person you’re traveling with). You can see a tour of the room here.

It was pretty watching the sunset over Washington.

We tried to get as much WIFI as we could in stations, but it didn’t work too well.

All of our meals were provided in the dining carriage, which was all pretty for Valentine’s day. We sat with a couple from Virginia, who were keen to discuss what food we had / didn’t have in the UK. The asked “d’yall got salt and pepper over in England?” and if we drank tea.

The peanut butter pie was amazing!

Even the buildings were celebrating Valentine’s day.

When we went for breakfast the next morning, the train had been decorated for Mardi Gras. The staff were all so friendly.

The French toast was yummy and so filling.

The landscape changed so much as we hit the south.

Such pretty forests. We kept an eye out for bears and crocodiles.

Places of note included Birmingham, Alabama and Atlanta, Georgia and Tennessee. Over dinner in the evening, an old lady complemented us on how good our English was, after we told her we came from Britain and she hadn’t realized it was our native language…

We pulled in to New Orleans in the late evening.

We shared a cab with 6 other people in to the centre, which was in full swing from Mardi Gras.

This is the view from our hotel room.

And now we’re reunited with Emma and Raven! The party starts in the morning…

I’m back in London now. Tom met us at the airport which was such a nice surprise. I’m going to miss the sunshine.

I forgot to post photos of the hotel before. It was really nice and right next to the pool, which was the best bit. We would sit out on the balcony at night and watch movies on my laptop.

Someone on CO+K has already made a version of my Kitty Hood Scarf. It took me over a year to finish and they did it in just 1 week! It looks fantastic too.

Today we brunched with Lynz, Claire & Emma at Plan 9, had the cheapest round ever at the Warrington and then went for cupcakes at Hummingbird.

On the way home I spotted this shop covered in bows. I want to do the same to the Mews!

There’s an interview with me in the latest issue of Sew Hip magazine. It’s also got my how-to and the pattern for making Louis Vuitton style rabbit ears. You can pick a copy up in WH Smith and you’ll know it’s the right issue because it’s got the ears on the cover!

On the subject of crafting, I’ve almost finished my kitty ear hooded scarf, which I started knitting in Paris well over a year ago. I’m just making pockets for it now. It’s sooooo cosy! I’ll post the pattern on CO+K when it’s finished.

In an attempt to eat super healthy in 2010, I signed up to Graze, who deliver healthy snack boxes filled with nuts, fruits and seeds every week. Let me know if you fancy a free box and I’ll give you a code!

Tom got me a couple of late Christmas presents from the Vivienne Westwood sale including an awesome rosette and wrap scoop top, I love them both so much.

The snow has been preventing us from going out as much, so we’ve been raiding the DVD store and having movie nights in with Emma. We did have a trip to Ikea, where we got a new TV bench, magnetic knife rack and rails so that we could hang the bus blind up. This photo reminds me that I need to work on my costume for Mardis Gras – I’m thinking of making a mermaid tail.

If you’ve ever wondered where I come from, here’s an awful video showing Fife at it’s “best” – you can see why I left.

We got back to London to discover this amazing portairt of Emma, Tom, Me and Raven, which Raven had painted for us as a Christmas present. It’s based on this photo and she’s captured all the little details, like the necklace we gave her as her leaving present. It’s only 6 weeks until we see her in New Orleans for Mardis Gras.

Our last day in Scotland was spent in Edinburgh with my family. We went to an amazing little cafe called the Roseleaf down in Leith. It’s full of quirky little touches, such as menus binding inside copies of National Geographic and hardback books, candles in teacups and mismatched tableware.

The food was delicious too. We had waffles, pilled with caramelised bananas and sampled the applewood mac n cheese.

We’re back in London now. Last night we spent new year’s eve with friends in Ealing and woke up feeling oddly refreshed to catch a bit of the new year’s parade in town.

Selfridges has an amazing Vivienne Westwood window display.

I want it all, especially the Westwood baubles for our xmas tree.

My new year’s resolutions are to be super organized, craft lots, be proactive, think positive, jog everyday, travel more and catch up with old friends. What are your resolutions?