Petite Chou, Clay Terrace

This is not Petite Chou.  This is a dinosaur.  Painted on a car.  Julia's car actually.  But not by Julia.  By her sister.

Julia may have been responsible for these though.

Now we're at Petite Chou.  It's summer.  I have a couple days left before I jet off to Amsterdam and make my full-on move to the UK.

It's not intentional, but I somehow wind up at this place at the end of each summer.  At least I've previously been here with Amanda.  And I think that was our goodbye lunch before I went to London for my study abroad semester.  Looking at that post, I think I may have even ordered the same thing--egg and cheese crêpe.  But honestly, everything's pretty damn delicious on their menu.

A dusty Outfit of the Day.

We're still in June, guys.  We're still.  In June.

Again, let me situate you here.  Pictures from this summer.  Indiana.  America.  Mom's house.  Stifling heat.  I think this might have been the day I got my hair cut because it looks particularly shiny and better styled than I seem capable of accomplishing.  Likely I had my sister take pictures because I was proud I got out of my pajamas for a change.

ASOS Petite pleated maxi skirt

Sparkle & Fade mini dress

Urban Outfitters Overdyed Cotton Mary Jane flats [+]

Thanksgiving Friday in London.

I've had a couple Thanksgiving away from home now.  Home in this case being my maternal grandmother's house in rural west Tennessee with all nine cousins and ten aunts and uncles.  My parents, sister, and I would pile in the car usually the day of and make the horrendous ~9 hour drive from Indianapolis.  Re:  things I don't miss.  But then in a sense also do.

This year was--it's strange to say--an adult year.  First off, the celebration was on the Friday evening after due to work and uni schedules.  But it was adult in that we had a bunch of people over to our flat for a potluck dinner.  And there were drinks and candles and no one over the age of 27 and none of us were related.  And all internet people.  Naturally.

Sanne and I spent the day making our two contributions:  deviled eggs and sweet potato casserole.  Kayley's mom had sent over some American marshmallows in a recent care package so we put them to good use on the latter, as is tradition in my house.  And the deviled eggs were a massive success as well (and not just with me).

Care package from Lex.

Can you tell that I'm again going through my photo folder from the summer?  Refer to Indiana bedroom.  And plethora of sunlight.

So I really was missing Cheddars when I was back in America after living in the UK during the autumn term of 2011.  Unrelatedly, one day on twitter I saw Lex was having a bad day so I offered to send a care package.  I can't even remember what I ended up sending her anymore.  But when she received it and declared she was going to send one back, I requested those goddesses of cheesy cracker goodness.

I remember being very amused by her homemade card.

And stunned by the beautiful polishes she sent (I think I may have given her a couple nail polishes in the care package I sent?).  This is the Models Own Pro in Lavender Blue.

And Models Own Pro in Clementine.  I wore this one a lot during the summer and have been favoring the purple this fall.  As a matter of fact, at the moment I'm sporting it in three-week-old-chipped fashion.

In addition to the nail varnishes, I got TWO ROLLS OF CHEDDARS HELL YEAH.  Also some Green & Black's Organic chocolate in Creamy Milk and Butterscotch--divine.  Then at the bottom of the box was a MASSIVE slab of Galaxy.  It was around 100F in Indy at the time so the thing had melted and resolidified but that in no way jeopardized the taste.  I can vouch.  Because I ate it.  All of it.

My granddad.

Back in the summer when I was in Indiana where my family lives, my grandfather asked me if I'd take a picture of him.  Because he had just joined Facebook.  And he needed an updated profile picture.

I'm still weirded out by anyone over the age of forty who wants to use Facebook.  I guess I'm agist.  Although what I did get out of this was getting to see some beautiful prints of Granddad from the past.  No one gets large glossy pictures made anymore.  Understandably because it's expensive and so much easier to organize digitally.  But just like the printed page, there's something so magical about the physicality of developed film.

My grandfather moved in with us when I was around fifteen so I got to spend a lot of time around him. It's a bit frightening when you can see genetics up close.  Inherited traits:

• like to keep to ourselves (he is arguably reclusive)
• quiet but talkative when comfortable
• crappy eyesight
• love for books and reading
• anglophiles
• affinity for bottled Starbucks frappucinos 
• worrier / internalize problems
• cat lover

Tate Britain.

John Martin. Plains of Heaven (1851-3).

William Quiller Orchardson. The First Cloud (1887).

Atkinson Grimshaw. Liverpool Quay by Moonlight (1887).

Lucian Freud. Girl with Kitten (1947).

Ian Hamilton Finlay. The World Has Been Empty Since the Romans (1985).

Helen Beatrix Potter. Simpkin at the Tailor's Bedside (1902).

Eric Ravilious.  The Greenhouse: Cyclamen and Tomatoes (1985).

Last night during one of my 2am conversations with Sanne, she suggested I take the Sunday off and out of the house.  I took her advice to the letter, needing a pick-me-up after one of the weirdest weeks I can remember going through.  So by 11:30 I was packed and ready, marching to the tube station.  I spent the morning wandering around the Tate Britain, jotting down pieces I was drawn to.  One of the great bits about London is all the major museums are free so you don't have to go to a cafe and feel obligated to pay for a latte to have a place to sit and write.  I tucked myself away on one of the plush benches in a cavernous hallway and wrote for about an hour.  Then while munching on the hummus and cheese pita I packed, I strolled along the Thames from the museum to St. Paul's.  Which is a bit of a trek, but it was such a beautiful day in London (despite the fierce cold).

Do you have any favorite free places you like to go to sit and write and gaze and whatever?

Biscuit tins.

So wayyyyy back when I was making my rounds at the charity shops in London, I was really hoping to come across a biscuit tin to feed my desktop storage needs.  But I never came across any.  And then I went to M&S for some Veggie Percy.  And then I saw this and it was a fiver which felt a bit expensive.  But the tin, you guys.  Look at the color palette on this baby.  And it came with food.  Which was an added bonus.  Though these shortbread numbers were legitimately the size of my face to which I said why but okay I will still eat you can you tell that it's late and my eyes are burning and I have uni in a matter of hours goodniiiight!

Oh, and also the postbox/letterbox/what-do-they-call-them-here-? piggy bank was a gift from Essie from when she, Sanne, and I got lunch not long after I moved to London.