On Saturday we headed over to Camden for breakfast…

where we had nitrogen-oxide ice cream from Chin Chin Laboratorists.

You pick the flavour of cream you want, they mix it with nitrogen oxide (his thermometer showed -22 degrees) and it turns in to ice cream.

We got to have two toppings because he’d seen us in Camden the night before, when they’d closed.

We had chocolate ice cream, with salted caramel sauce, peanut brittle and candy floss sugar candy (which looked like shards of glass) and it was the best ice cream we’ve had in ages!

They even had swings to swing on while nomming your ice cream.

We wandered around Camden for a little while, where Mountain Dew were giving out bottles of their new energy drink, so everyone was florescent.

Then we headed to Cake Britain…

an exhibition of cakes!

The burger cakes were the coolest.

They were going to let all the visitors eat the cakes the next day – great if you have a sweet tooth!

Afterwards we went for a snoop around Orbital Comics, which is an awesome shop.

I wish the Harajuku vending machine wasn’t empty though – I’ll have to go back.

Afterwards I petted a horse…

and we had sushi in the park. Then we went for a look around John Soane’s museum, which is a hoarder’s paradise. No photo allowed in there though

Tom took me for a drink in an awesome pub he’d found a few years ago and thought he might never find again.

Then we headed to the South Bank for more noms.

I couldn’t resist making Big Ben look mini for a photo. I love my new camera sooooo much! Tom wanted to have a look around Namco but it wasn’t as good as the Trocadero.

Then we met up with Metaxa and Lynsey in town.

Metaxa took us to a theatre pub, which had lots of crazy things on the wall and singing coming from the room next door.

On a side note, I found proper purikura machines in China Town… so Tom and I are going to get some snapped on an exciting date that’s coming up in the near future!

We were back in London for Saturday so we headed over east.

Our first stop was the Geffrye Museum, which is an exhibition of 17 living rooms from across the decades.

I love snooping around rooms, so this was the perfect museum for me.

The 90′s room was my favourite, with it’s cool upstairs bedroom. That chair may be ugly but it’s the comfiest thing I’ve ever sat in.

There was quite a cool photo exhibition downstairs.

I love photos of messy rooms!

We then headed south of the river… which can get a bit scary.

There was a very cool mirror shop.

Eventually we got to the Thames Barrier flood defence. Because we got there quite late, we got to look around the visitor centre for free!

The Tate & Lyle sugar factory was on the other bank.

Afterwards we caught the DLR to Canary Wharf…

and went for dinner at Wagamama. The food was soooooooo good, I can’t believe we’ve never been before. They also give you free green tea with your food and I got a minty, yogurt drink which looked exactly like a sample of Thames water they had at the barrier centre.

After waking up in Bristol on Friday, we caught the train to Bath. The train had TVs on the back of the seats, so I got to watch 5 minutes of the Powerpuff Girls.

My parents went for a tour of the Roman baths, while Tom and I went off to explore the town. Instead of the painted elephants they use to have in London, Bath had it’s own version with painted lions. The one on the left was designed by Cath Kidston and the one on the right had this funny sign next to it.

There were lots of lions in Bath actually!

I love love love these mixers… wish I did enough baking to justify buying one!

We then hunted out Royal Crescent, the street that the one in Holland Park (where Richard Branson lives) is based on. It was designed by a Mason, so from the above, the streets make masonic symbols.

Nearby we found the Hansel & Gretel strudel cafe which sold a strange mix of knitting yarn, Christmas decorations and strudel… but there were only 3 tables which were full, so no strudel for us

Instead, we found a nice little deli, where posh people were arguing about the price of cheese…

and we had Rose Lemonade, which tasted like liquid turkish delight and Ubuntu Cola (which is some computer geek joke that only Tom and Tony got!)

Afterwards we found my parents and went for a pint of Bath’s only beer Bellringer in Bath’s smallest pub.

For dinner, we ate at Porters Vegetarian Pub, where I ordered a super meaty looking pie. It was awesome getting to try a little of everyone else’s food without the fear of accidentally eating meat

Bath was pretty at night, so we walked along the waterfront before heading home.

Bath was filled with kitschy shops, lions, good veggie food and funny signs.

It was my birthday on Thursday, so my parents took us on a mini holiday to Bristol. Tom surprised me with a box of macaroons on the train, so we munched them on the way as breakfast. After arriving at the very fancy Brunel-designed train station…

we caught a ferry to the city center. They also do booze cruises, which sound like fun!

Bristol is famous for it’s pirates (can you tell by the accent?)…

and graffiti, though we failed to spot any Banksy

Knitten Kitten Jenny told us to check out the awesome exhibition at the City Art Gallery.

I love this display of books. We told my Mum to pitch the idea to her library when she gets back.

Tom liked the robots.

I liked the cupcakes.

There was an awesome gypsy caravan, I’ve been trying to win one in my boxes of muesli

We wandered around Clifton afterwards and went for a coffee at the Boston Tea Party – a cute coffee chain, which I’ve only seen in Bristol.

Tom spotted an awesome train tea pot in a shop window. If anyone’s in Bristol and could do me a favour, send me a message!

We spent the rest of the day exploring, then my parents treated us to dinner at Carluccio’s. It was raining too heavy in the evening to do anything, so we snuggled up in the cinema and watched Salt.

Bristol was only 2 hours away by train, so I’m sure we can nip back anytime for another visit.

Instead  of nursing a hangover, after our party, on Sunday we went cycling around Hyde Park, which was lots of fun and I didn’t even fall off.

Then we went for dinner at Itsu in Brompton Square.

It was like an upper class and healthier Yo Sushi, promising butterfly light dishes.

We tried a bunch of different plates. The salads and fresh fish were amazing.

The drinks were good too!

For dessert, then even had my favourite… creme brulee – not what I’d associate with sushi.

Yesterday I bought myself the Daisy Rock heart-shaped purple bass guitar I’d been drooling over – it’ll be here in one week! It’s Tom’s birthday today, so I have a surprise in store for him after work…

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.

On Saturday we headed out to St. Albans. My Dad loves history so it was on his list of places to see.

There wasn’t too much to the town but the park was lovely.

We had a picnic.

And I made friends with the ladybirds.

We also went to the “oldest pub in England”, where Tom wanted to steal a decoupage picture of dogs playing snooker from the wall.

There were lots of weird dog portraits.

On Sunday we went for brunch at the Alice House in West Hampstead. Tom had amazingly fluffy pancakes and I had eggs royale.

The restaurant was really pretty with brick walls, big light bulbs hanging from the ceiling, candles in birdcages and big loungy sofas. They’re opening a new one just up the street from us in Queen’s Park.

We shared a pistachio brownie afterwards which made Tom really want to start a new website.

We went for a walk and I spotted a pink Vespa that I want. Tom likes the baby blue one you can see behind it.

We then went for a wander around West Hampstead cemetery.

There were lots of pretty angels…

including this huge one, which was on top of a massive grave. Very impressive!

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…

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 hot weather lured us back to Brighton this weekend, so we packed up the picnic blanket and headed to the beach. I started reading Kelly Cutrone’s book If You Have To Cry Go Outside on the train, which will hopefully turn me in to a type A business woman.

We started off at Brighton Marina and took the electric railway along to the East Pier.

The train was quite rickety but the view of the beach was lovely.

When we got to the other side we went to PJ’s Diner where BK had taken us just over a year ago, it wasn’t the same without him

I had a peanut butter milkshake (I’m on the hunt for a really good one, if anyone has recommendations?) and watched Tom &  Jerry cartoons – I’d forgotten how funny they were.

We got a special train deal which meant we got all-day bus passes included, so we took an open top bus (they run them as normal buses in Brighton which is so cool) up to Devil’s Dyke. The views were really lovely and you can see all the way to the Isle of White on a clear day.

We headed back in to town after, where we overheard someone describing the Royal Pavilion as a wedding cake meets the Taj Mahal.

We sat on the beach overlooking the burnt out West pier. I love that they just left it out there for the sea to deal with.

We walked along the shore to Hove. If I lived in Brighton, I’d rent out a pretty coloured hut and put my craft table in it.

There were lots of cute shops in Hove and I got some inspiration for cushions to make for the Mews.

Afterwards we went for cocktails and dinner back in Brighton. It was happy hour and there was a table of 18 girls dressed as Audrey Hepburn over from us at dinner.

When it got late, we sat on the beach and watched the sunset before heading back to London. I love Brighton!