Bailey's plant shelves

I instagrammed Bailey's plant shelf last night and everyone loved it as much as I do, so I thought I'd share the pic with you today:

Isn't it fantastic? 

8/52

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2014 (30 weeks)

My darling Anna Clementine. This week you tasted your first nectarine. A white fleshed, sweet, juicy nectarine. We were outside, Kimmy and me and you and Florence, under the shade of trees, dappled sunlight catching your eyes now and then. Florence was lying with her feet off the quilt, her baby toes digging into the moist soil. You looked at the nectarine I was eating with such interest I gave you a bite. And oh how your face lit up. You sucked all around that juicy piece of fruit, I peeled the skin off with my teeth and the flesh dripped its stickiness on my hands and around your face. You made sounds of such glee. And I laughed with wonder as you, my summer peach, discovered one of life's simple pleasures for the first time.

My sweet Florence Willow. I discovered your first tooth coming through yesterday as you sipped from a glass of water under the large oak tree of Kimmy and bear's house. My baby baby has a tooth. How did this happen!? And yesterday you discovered you could make a new sound - Yayayayaya. You chatted all day. Forming this sound on those beautiful big lips with your mouth open wide. Relishing in the feeling on your tongue. Drooling. Smiling. Make me smile with melodic sounds. My singing babe. My little heart.

Date idea for when you are traveling

{source}

Have you ever gone to movies while traveling? My husband and I always do it. So far we have been to movies in London, Paris, Mumbai, New York, Sydney and Vietnam. I know it might sound silly to some since you can always go to movies at home but trust me, it is wonderful, after all you are on holiday, right? And after a long day of exploring, probably walking for ages, popcorn and a movie is pretty much is as good as it gets for us. Plus it is fascinating to see different countries cinemas and the auidences.

London is pretty similar to South Africa except you can buy a whole variety of food instead of just popcorn and chocolates. It might sound great but it's not my best... not so cool watching a romcom and smelling a hot dog!

English movies in Paris are... expensive! We were shocked at the price of tickets and then popcorn and cool drinks. Only when we got into the cinema did we realise that we were the only people who were eating popcorn, so obviously we weren't the only ones to find it expensive. Also we noticed that before the movie starts people pull out something to read - their book or the paper.

Mumbai is bazaar! Before the film starts the entire audience stands up and sings the national anthem! I kid you not.

New York and Sydney were also very similar to home although quite a change for us not going into a mall for the cinema but heading in straight off the street. In Sydney I went to an art decor cinema which had it's original seating.

And in Vietnam going to moves is a full on social occasion... people don't sit quietly and watch the film but chat and talk the whole way through it, as the film plays in the background. One person next to us even played with different ring tones which truly drove is crazy as we watched Life of Pi.

Do you have any traveling rituals? Secret indulgences when you are in a foreign city or have you been to movies somewhere exotic?

ps. How crazy is this cinema in Greece? 

happy weekend

Happy weekend lovely readers. What are your plans? We are actually planning to chill out this one. Have you seen any great movies lately? We are going to The Monuments Men tonight and on Sunday we are having (our usual) family get together with G&Ts, swimming costumes, babies, cousins, husbands and friends... it's the favourite part of my week.

{source}

Here are some links from around the web that I enjoyed this week:

When is your favourite time to have sex? This sounds quite nice. 

This 'make bullshit' site is the best thing ever. Writing a report? Heading to an important meeting, this one is for you. 

Our other sister suggested this recipe: Prosciutto, Tomatoes and Olive spaghetti... she guarantees it's not only super yum but also super quick and easy. Hello Tuesday night meal. 

This stamp is on my wish list. 

The best rebranding and design.

I want everything from the current Country Road home collection. 

Have you been watching the Winter Olympics. I am obsessed with the figure skating, I just love it. 

Make the ordinary come alive

 Anna, 6 months old, laughing at her great grandmother

Bringing up children is the most important job I have been tasked with and will ever take on. The more thought I give around this task, the more reading I do, and speaking to other mothers whom I respect and love, the more the husband and I talk about this, I realise it is a philosophy of simplicity that I want to follow. This extract from William Martin's The Parent's Tao Te Ching really resonates with me in this regard...

"Do not ask your children
to strive for extraordinary lives.
Such striving may seem admirable,
but it is a way of foolishness.
Help them instead find the wonder
and the marvel of an ordinary life.
Show them the joy of tasting
tomatoes, apples and pears.
Show them how to cry
when pets and people die.
Show them the infinite pleasure
in the touch of a hand.
And make the ordinary come alive for them.
The extraordinary will take care of itself."

7/52

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2014 (29 weeks)

A photograph of the three of us smiling - it had to be the selection of the week. This was a week of your dad's birthday and early snuggles while you watched with joy as he opened his gift (although I think the dangling twine may have to take some credit for the look of glee on your faces). I baked him a cake the day before which is a rather an unusual activity for me while you played with heart-shaped measuring cups under the table. It was a cardamon and Greek yogurt cake and it was delish, bar the burnt crust which I blame on an oven with a broken thermostat. Granted it did take a span of seven hours to make in between naps and feeds and playtime. Birthdays and baking are better with you babes.

& Other Stories

I visited & Other Stories for the first time in Paris. Although the brand has been around for a while and I have been ogling over their look books since launch, I hadn't visited a store until last week in Paris. What did I want? Everything!

Back in action

I am sorry I have been quite on Bury and Discover for the past couple weeks - I was having a ball, I must admit, in France. First skiing for 10 days and then hitting the city of love for 3 nights. Here are some pics from my holiday, if you would like to see.

Boarding the A380. 'The biggest plane in the world' my husband never failed to remind me. 

Arriving at Gare de lyon in Paris, watching the commuters go by. 

First day skiing. Blue sky, white snow and freezing cold. 

The team (from left to right) the husband, the mama, the dad and me

It snowed for 48 hours, everything turned white

We skied and skied and skied

Sometimes we skied above the clouds

Then, at night, we played scrabble

Finally we arrived in Pairs and this was our view

We visited Place des Voges and fell in love all over again

We put our locks on Pont de Solforino

We visited my old apartment building

We wondered around Musee d'Orsay

And we hung out in the Tuileries

6/52

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2014 (28.5 weeks)

I wish you could hear the laughter in this picture. Anna has the type of belly laugh that you cannot help but return. Her wicked sense of humour is as entertaining as the laugh itself. Florence is the most generous baby with her smiles, breaking into wide mouthed smiles with no prompting at all. Her little squeaky laughs are becoming more frequent now, her sister being the most cause for giggles. My heart sings when I see these two smiling, hear their giggles and feel their eyes sparkle; my laughter resonates with theirs.

Keep me laughing funny monkeys.

Twinversations ll

The twins generate a lot of conversation from all sorts of people - from strangers to car guards to family members. Of all the advice shared, conversations had, and praise given, the three worst questions I am asked about the twins are:

Q: Do you have a favourite?
A: This is a bizarre question and you will not believe how many times I have been asked this. Do these same people ask parents of more than one child which of their children they prefer?

Q: Are you going to have more children?
A: Here I am with two under two (two under under 7 months in fact!) and you are asking me about my next one? I have my arms full for now. That is not to say I categorically do not want anymore children. But, right now, I can't imagine when I would have the time to make another baby let alone raise another baby.

Q: When are you going to cut their finger nails?
A: Two babies equals twenty fingernails. TWENTY. Twenty teeny, tiny, sharp claws attached to very wriggly hands attached to very wriggly babies. Cutting these twenty tiny fingernails is even more difficult that it sounds. So I do it once a week and I apologise in advance if you happen to be a victim of these teeny, tiny, sharp claws on the day before grooming day but I also ask in advance that you do not respond by asking me when I am going to cut their finger nails.

Read about twin reactions and other twinversations.

5/52

A portrait of my babes once a week in 2014

Three things about this week captured in this photograph:

1.  Sweltering summer days call for bare baby bums which I can't resist gobbling up, planting smooches all over those perfect little bodies.

2. Florence, you are the most comfortable with your feet up. On anything. Preferably on Anna. Anna, you are learning the art of patience. Of being a sister. Of delighting in Florence's soft padded tootsies pressed firmly against you.

3. The twin-ness of you amazes me more every day. You don't know any other way than together. I find you asleep in your cot at night with legs entangled, you reach for each others feet in the bath, you talk to each other in ways even I can't decipher. Little hands find comfort in stroking the soft downy skulls of the other. You are separate but one.

RIP Philip Seymour Hoffman

{Photograph by Nigel Parry}

I was shocked and saddened by the news of Philip Seymour Hoffman's death (funny how we always refer to him using all three names). It also dumfounds me. I saw him once in New York, when I was back there on a visit a few years after I left . He was leaving a restaurant I was at, a west village local spot. It made me feel very local and very cool to be dining where he dined. He was a genius; one of my all time favourite actors - if Philip Seymour Hoffman was in it, I would watch the movie. RIP.