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…

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?

On Monday, we went for sushi and cocktails with Emma and her twin, Ashley.

Afterwards we went to see Up in 3D, which was a cute film. Didn’t we look cool in our glasses? I wish they were red and green.

On Tuesday, I spent the day helping Raven pack and then we headed out for her last night on town, starting off at Yauatcha for tea. They had an amazing macaroon selection and sell absinthe cake.

Tom wants his tea served with silver service everyday.

Next up was dinner at Cha Cha Moon with far too many noodles.

Anna joined us and our final stop was the infamous Blues bar in Soho, which we had heard so much about but had never visited.

We finally got a group photo with all of us in it.

On Wednesday morning we got up super early, pilled in to a taxi and made our way to Heathrow.

Raven did her Scottish carrot cake impression one last time and then we waved goodbye to her as she went through customs. It was sad with lots of tears

Last night was Raven’s leaving party, which was very sad but also a lot of fun. Emma and Raven had done an amazing job of tidying up the Mews and lit lots of pretty candles everywhere.

We’re going to miss Raven sooooooo much!

There was cutting of a Hummingbird red velvet cake and we all fell asleep on Emma’s bed (the walk downstairs to our own bed was too much for us) and woke up to the sound of “how do you like your eggs in the morning?” playing very loudly.

Those of us who survived until the next morning went for a yummy brunch at Harlem on Westbourne Grove. We’d been promising to go for ages, so as it was Raven’s last Sunday, the worst hangover in the world wasn’t going to stop us.

Pancakes and a raspberry smoothie hit the spot perfectly!

I’m happy because it’s October, which is my favourite month of the year. I love Autumn and Halloween is just around the corner.

After work today, we went for a walk around Holland Park. The leaves were very crunchy.

There was a super cute baby squirrel, which we fed peanuts to. It had a really fluffy tail and kept hopping about.

Afterwards we headed down to High Street Kensington, where I went on a bit of a spending spree and bought two new tops and a skirt.

When we got home, the shoe fairy (aka Raven) paid us a visit. We’d been wanting a pair of Raven designed shoes for ages and today ours arrived.

I got a pair of super cute star shoes, which make me feel like a superhero. They’re really comfy and come in gold too. She was going to make them in red and blue as well, which would have been especially superhero.

Tom got a pair of boots. On one side they have a tiger with wings and on the other a flying shark with guns. I think he understands why girls love shoes so much now.

Raven also designs the boxes, which are so awesome. My one has drawings of all the people who work at F-Troupe on it, Raven is the butterfly in the middle.

I ordered a Lego Poison Ivy to go with Harley and she arrived today. They’re so cute together!

We don’t get to do the touristy things in London too often, but the last two weeks have been filled with visitors, so we’ve been hopping between the sights constantly! Sometimes I go for weeks without seeing the river and it’s easy to forget that I live in the center of London, but when I see this view it reminds me of how lucky I am to live here.

This week Wendy has come to visit. She brought presents, including a giant lollipop (I’ve always wanted one). She’s going inter-railing all over Europe for the next month and I really wish I could hop in her suitcase and join her.

Last night we went for dinner at Yo Sushi! and then grabbed coffee and had a walk around the city. We ended up in Trafalgar Square, where a women on the 4th Plinth was throwing stationery at the crowd, although she just kept hitting unsuspecting passersby in the head or smashing it off the ground.

This morning we took Wendy and her mascot penguin for breakfast at Plan 9.

She’s going to take photos of him against the landmarks in each country she visits. I wish I had my own little mascot to follow me around.

Raven game me a cutesy pair of F-Troupe sandals the other night. The line that she has designed has hit the website, so I have a bad case of the shoe buying bug at the moment.

In other news,we put up the Lego keyrack that my Mum bought Tom for his birthday and it’s working perfectly! Tom ordered me a Lego Harley Quinn keyring for it.

Tonight we’re off to a Vogue event at Chanel and then to see the Plasticines at Proud in Camden.

This bank holiday weekend was the Notting Hill Carnival. It started really early on Sunday morning, so we woke up to the smell of BBQs and the music from the sound systems.

On the Saturday, we headed in with Tom’s brother Jack, who got really in to the swing of it.

Luckily for me, I managed to grab some veggie food from Veggie Corner. Levi Roots was there again this year, selling jerk chicken. We’ve been watching his awesome cooking show on the BBC. I want to put together my own Sunshine Cooking Kit!

We watched the floats, drank lots of beer and danced to the sound systems.

On the Monday, we headed in again with Emma and Raven. We had planned to meet up with Lynsey and friends, but it was too crowded and we didn’t have any phone signal.

Raven did make friends with the police though and we got to pet their horses.

On the way home, the police were blocking off the exits and asking for proof of address, which we didn’t have, so we ended up having to walk a very long way home, which took around 2 hours, when we only live 10 minutes up the streets. We’re now well and truly carnival-ed out until next year!

For my birthday, Tom gave ma a gift voucher for MAC, where I got to go along and have a makeover and then get the products they used.

It took an hour and a half to do but the makeup artist was really nice. She let me pick out all the colours I wanted. I felt very dolled up for 12pm but I had my sunglasses to hide behind.

After that we headed to Bust Magazine’s Craftacular in Bethnal Green, where they had a vintage tearoom selling ice cream cone cupcakes. The place was very very busy.

I have a problem at craft fairs of not buying anything, because I know I could make it all, but I did buy some charms from Tatty Devine. They  had a table set up and were trying to break the world record for most charms on a bracelet.

I wish I had bought loads more, but I love the three I went for.

After that it was party time, so we stocked up on snacks and supplies and headed home to blow up balloons. Everyone started arriving.

Lynsey made us an awesome percy pig cake, it was super chocolatey and delicious!

She also made us a photo frame (tutorial here). Sean and Catherine brought a DiS tote bag filled with goodies including a mouse cheese grater, wine, a Bright Eyes record, a book about New Media Art, and an awesome guitar-shaped ice cube mould (see below). Tony brought super cute hugging salt and pepper shakers. Alex brought a bag of crafty goodies, silly string, candy and games, and Ash and Morgan had made us super cute bunting to decorate with.

The guitar ice cubes looked awesome the next day.

There was lots of beer, karaoke, cake and playing buzz. I stole this cute photo of Emma, Raven and Tony from Raven’s Facebook.

There were also party hats, but maybe a bit too much alcohol for a kid’s party.

And Tom made Cat Morley badges and Raven decided to pierce her one into her nose.

Today, I haven’t felt too great and looking at our recycling, it’s easy to see why. We got subs to make us feel better and then Tom had a very long chat on the phone with Ben Kweller.

I think being 24 is going to be fun!