• days out - London

    Wet weather? {Jungle Monkeyz}

    With the wintery weather we are forecast this weekend I thought I would write about one of our favourite places to go when the weather is bad. My children have always enjoyed soft play. When we lived in North London we would frequent Clown Town and Little Dinosaurs. We went so many times we actually had loyalty cards! When we moved over to West London we found that soft play areas were few and far between. Fortunately we quickly discovered Jungle Monkeyz. It doesn’t look much from the outside, in fact you have to drive past quite a few houses…

  • crafts - days out - London

    The Spring Knitting and Stitching Show at Olympia

    It’s been a busy week but all week I’ve been looking forward to visiting The Spring Knitting and Stitching Show at Olympia. It’s been a few years since I last went but you can never have enough fabric shopping. I deposited the children at school, hopped on the tube and found myself outside London Olympia. The Spring Knitting and Stitching Show is pretty similar to the other Knitting and Stitching Show I frequently go to at Ally Pally. This year it’s on between the 2nd-5th March and sells itself as the definitive event for anyone with a love of textile based…

  • homestyle - London

    Perfect home improvements for a London home

    The other day one of my friends posted on Facebook how surprised she was that it took her four years to settle into her new home. Now, she moved from London to the South West, but I feel exactly the same just moving across London. It’s coming up to four years in our ‘new’ house and our home improvements show no signs of ending. Although we loved the vintage features of our previous house – read infested wooden floors and huge gaps between the floorboards – our modern house is so different. For a start it’s always warm; so quick…

  • days out - London

    Undressed at the V&A

    This year I really want to visit more exhibitions at museums and galleries. I was a curator pre-children and really miss visiting exhibitions. Now my children are both at school and I’m looking for a job I figure I may as well visit as many as I can, whilst I can. So far this year I have seen Opus Anglicanum at the V&A. On the same day I popped in to see Undressed: a brief history of underwear. When I first came to London I had a friend who only ever bought and wore matching underwear. Being an M&S kind of…

  • days out - film review - Lego - London

    The Lego Batman Movie

    Last weekend we were fortunate to be invited to a very special preview of the new The Lego Batman Movie in Leicester Square. My son loves Lego so off we went to the West End for a day out together. Before the preview started there were lots of things to do at the cinema. My son got a Batman logo painted on his hand (which he insisted on not washing off all day), we enjoyed some special Lego biscuits and he played Lego Dimensions with the new Batman Movie Story Pack.  It was a great way to spend a morning…

  • days out - Lego - London - mindfulness - Monday Happy List

    Monday Happy List – week 122

    Every Monday I sit down and take 10 minutes to think about the high points of the previous week. Sometimes I struggle to find 5 things, and sometimes there are too many. Last week was quite quiet so I was able to find time for lots of baking and crafting. Monday Happy List – week 122 The highpoint of last week must be starting with a day at the V&A, one of my favourite galleries. There were some exhibitions I had wanted to see for a while and I managed to visit the Undressed exhibition, Opus Anglicanum exhibition as well as…

  • days out - Local Review - London - sewing

    Opus Anglicanum at the V&A

    Last week I took myself off to town for the day. There were a couple of exhibitions I really wanted to see at the V&A, one was Opus Anglicanum: Masterpieces of English Medieval Embroidery. I love sewing and embroidery and this looked like a fantastic exhibition. Opus Anglicanum: Masterpieces of English Medieval Embroidery From the 12th to the 15th centuries, England enjoyed an international reputation for the quality of its luxury embroideries, often referred to as ‘Opus Anglicanum’ (English work). Made by professional craftspeople in the City of London and rich in their intricacy, they were sought after by kings, queens, popes…

  • days out - London - parenting

    A family day out at the London Model Engineering Exhibition

    On Saturday the whole family went to the London Model Engineering Exhibition at Alexandra Palace. This isn’t usually my idea of a fun day out but we used to live in the area and I was really keen to go back to re-visit some old haunts. The London Model Engineering Exhibition is in it’s 21st year and Ally Pally is a great venue for it. It’s a huge and very old entertainment complex built at the top of a hill. It houses a pub and ice rink as well as huge exhibition halls and we’ve seen Keane perform there as…

  • Christmas - Family Life - Hillingdon - Local Review - London

    Boxing Day panto – Dick Whittington {Compass Theatre}

    Last Christmas we went to the pantomime with some friends which we all really enjoyed. It’s nice to get out of the house on Boxing Day and if it’s too cold for a walk then the panto seems like the next best thing. This year I was organised and booked us all tickets to see Dick Whittington at the Compass Theatre in Ickenham. According to Wikipedia pantomime (informally panto), is a type of musical comedy stage production, designed for family entertainment. It was developed in England and is still performed throughout the United Kingdom, generally during the Christmas and New…