the seaside.

Earlier this month we went to London. It started off with photographing a wedding which morphed into a holiday, and then it went.... wrong. 

So one morning when we got up and we wanted to go home and the options were either to pack or to not pack and I was supposed to be working and Nye hadn't slept for a week I said 'fuck it, let's go to the seaside. If we still want to go home when we get back, then we'll pack.' And so that's what we did.

It helped.  We stayed. For a little longer at least. 

We're going away again today, for a wedding and to visit my family. When we get back we're home for three weeks and then we're going to France. People ask whether you can still travel with babies and it would seem that yes, yes you can. Whether you should is a different matter altogether. 

 

sponge.

"It's frightening at times to think that you are shaping someone's life and who they will become. Often I hear Ruby using one of my expressions, or doing an unfortunate dance move that she learned from me and I'm reminded that she is a sponge, taking it all in, and each moment big or small molds who she is."

It's true, it's some scary stuff.  

*photograph of Jeanne Williams, by Kelly Stuart. via The Glow.

(Do you know The Glow? Where rich, beautiful and occasionally vapid mothers are photographed and interviewed with their small, beautiful and sometimes scared-looking  children in their huge, perfect, immaculately styled homes? It's simultaneously wonderful and terrible. 

 

free admission.

If only. Those fuckers want blood. 

We're still dreaming of a New York wedding that will actually work out. We've had two amazing enquiries recently but neither of them were meant to be. The thing is, since we had all the babies work needs to pay. Work also needs to give us a little warning. I'm prone to forgetting this but luckily I have a Very Sensible husband who reminds me of these things when I'm all 'let's do it for free!' 'let's go to New York next week!'. Not to mention; 'Norway's not that expensive, right?' 

Whilst I'm asking the universe for things wedding related: I would like a Caribbean wedding please. And a Sikh wedding too. With a little warning. And a photography budget bigger than 'none, but we have very nice friends, you will love our wedding.'  

It doesn't hurt to ask.

*chalkboard by Dana Tanamachi, via Happiness Is.

saturday

Things I love today:  

Amazing, inspiring, self-employed women who seem to know exactly what I need to hear when I need to hear it (Emma, Annabel, Emily, I'm talking about you.) 

BBC World Service, and stories about things that had never even crossed my mind (did you know that the 2012 Olymipics fall over Ramadan? When Muslims aren't allowed to eat during daylight? When Muslim athletes aren't allowed to eat during daylight?Crazypants)  

Clients who send you the sweetest emails. 

Wedding industry power houses who champion sanity.   

Friends who love my babies and put up with my tourist-induced rages. 

My husband who has lost his voice and mimed 'I love you' when he got up this morning.  

 *photos of friends, Ben + Henry, by Jamie. 

conversations with N: astute.

Reasons I love my husband, #74.  

(amid a conversation a few months back about weddings and how they fuck with women's brains....)  

N: you just need to look at Meg's Wedding Survivors series...
C: Dude, they're called Wedding Graduates...
N: (incredulous) Really? They should totally be called Wedding Survivors. 

Man has a point.  

*photo by Lillian and Leonard (us)  

Three years

Wasn't that just yesterday? Also, hasn't it been like, a million years? 

*photo by Elemental Weddings

Little and Big

Unfortunately Nye was Not Being Photographed that day or I'd show you that he and Amelia are Big and Little too. 

your day in London

Tell me about your best day in London. Real or imagined, I don't care. Inspire me to do something other watch ducks Hyde Park, eat at Captain Corelli's, dip my toes in Diana's fountain. 

*yes, we've done this before. No I don't care. It never gets old.   

*1, London by Cosas Minimas  2, Picadilly Circus, by Arracida

of penguins and greek sailors

"The first Penguin edition of EV Rieu's translation of Homer had a Greek sailor on the cover, with a disclaimer inside: "Not an authentic depiction of a Greek sailor". They then put a penguin on the cover instead – but forgot to change the disclaimer." 

This bit in Katherine Whitehorn's column in this week's Observer made me inordinately happy.