40 - Explorers

We are heading off to the coast tomorrow for a week. I feel very fortunate that the weather is holding out and that our not very long at all drive to Wales may take us to a holiday that feels a little more further afield. This past week or so I've loved doing the school run and feeling like I've been exploring foreign lands (seriously, the dusty ground is a novelty round here). On the theme of exploring we are planning to tackle Snowdon whilst we are in that area (3,560ft alt) and I'm looking forward to that as its been a long time since we had any real adventures on our own (we'll be leaving the children with their grandparents for the day). I'm also looking forward to having mini adventures with the smalls each day too and have come up with a field explorer kit - which Dominic can't wait to get his hands on.



Feeling fully inspired by Moonrise Kingdom (seriously in awe of the list making and organisation skills of Sam and crushing on the style of Suzy) to be prepared for an adventure, I've curated a kit full of items that are great for camping (or a camp themed holiday) and exploring in natural surroundings. I have to say all the while I was also thinking "Adventure is out there!" and wanting to get a leather pair of aviation goggles on and put my thumb up (Up style).

You can have a go at compiling your own kit with a bug viewer, note pad and few other essentials or you can save yourself the trouble and buy one here.

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39 - Dream collaboration

mmm... skyscraper i love you - Tomato/Underworld

I featured in a post over at iamthelab.com (link here) on Monday and one of the questions posed was do I have a dream collaborator. I wanted to elaborate on my choices (having skimmed my answer for the post down significantly) and have written and re-written this post several times over.

I have gone over loving William Baker for his pure awesomeness, my long term love affair with Karl Hyde/Underworld who has provided for me on several levels for over a decade now and given me everything from typographic goodness to the soundtrack to my life and a few AMAZING festival/concert performances that have literally rocked my world. My respect for Victoria Beckham for standing for what she believed in/wanted and destroyed any stereotypical notions of herself to carve out a pretty great career doing what she loves and knows best to Vivienne Westwood. Who I love for creating one of my favourite dresses, for creating THAT dress in S&TC, for leading the way for so many years but mostly for her ethical views on fashion and the environment.

After a particularly awful day (two weeks) with my boy who seems to have turned in to someone else (and the baby who is no longer a baby who wants to be potty trained but just can't seem to muster up enough notice not to end up weeing on the chair/stairs/floor) it occurs to me that my real dream collaboration is my family, or at least the dream vision of them.

I want to make the transition from the daily grind to the stuff of dreams. To begin to write a better narrative for my home life, to work with my family at building the dream vision of having a family I had before I had children. I have no idea how to begin shaping this dream collaboration and life for myself. Every day is a lesson and an adventure.

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Do you work from home to enable you to look after your children? Have you managed to shape a dream scenario out of being a stay at home mama? I'd love to hear from you...

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38 - Base Camp

Welcome to our newest addition. We plan on calling this fella home over the coming summer weekends.

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