Cupcakes in Notting Hill

While Ebony was in London,
she got really excited about visiting places that were on the Monopoly board.

Apparently in Australia the squares are named after places in London.

Who knew?

One of her monopoly destinations was Notting Hill.

So of course I had to take her there.

And by "had to" I mean Notting Hill is my favorite neighborhood in London,

especially on a Market day, so this was pretty much a no brainer for me.

Seriously, if we ever move back to London, Notting Hill is where it's at.

It's the perfect spot for people watching,
and there is always something to eat (most importantly) see or do.

Eb isn't really into the whole antiques market scene,

so when we passed the famous Hummingbird Bakery,
 and I told her how I often lusted after their cupcakes,

but was far too impatient to stand in their very long line,
she convinced me that we HAD to do it.

So stand in line we did.

And continuing on with our dishevelled homeless theme for the weekend,

we plopped ourselved down on a side street, and devoured this cupcake goodness

while watching the vintage girls, the hipsters and the posh crowd stroll by.

The cupcake was definitely worth the wait.
(which honestly wasn't as long as I thought it would be)

The icing was delicious, cake was good, 

but just a little too far on the dry side of things  

to merit "perfection". 

Still excellent cupcakes though.

It was the ideal Saturday afternoon in London.
I wish you could've been there.

ps.  If you are too far away from Notting Hill to pick one of these up yourself,

Hummingbird Bakery has a cookbook that looks absolutely fabulous.

I think I'll buy it when we finally have a kitchen again.

pss. I know my sparkle blue nail polish is trashy, but I love it anyways.
So there.

43. Go On A Cupcake Crawl in Chicago

Designing My 100 Things To Do List was quite a challenge.  

I picked most things on my list because I thought when I finished them I would have a good story, 

I'd feel proud, or like I accomplished something....

Salted Caramel - Phoebe's... Innovative and delicious.

Confetti - Phoebe's

Display case from Molly's.

My friend Sarah, the Bride Amy, and Me.

Minty Mash Up - Molly's... Least fave cupcake of the day.

Peach Cobbler - Molly's... Runner up for favorite cupcake of the day.

Awesome display at Swirlz.

Swirlz Lemon Coconut cupcake - my fave from the crawl.  

But after the cupcake crawl, the only thing I felt...

was like voming.

We made it to 3 places, 

before our stomachs objected to sampling anything else.

Luckily for us though... 

at the Bachelorette party the next day, 

the Bride's sisters got us cupcakes from Sprinkles.

And the day after that, at the rehearsal dinner, 

the grooms mom got a cake from Sweet Mandy B's.

So we made it through our list in the end anyways.

Although each cupcake joint offered us something different and good in it's own way...

Sprinkles takes the cake for it's delicious butter cream frosting

 and my preferred icing to cake ratio. 

I'm glad I crossed another thing off my list.  

But I NEVER want to see another cupcake again.

OK... well that's a lie actually...

90. Have Portraits of Everyone in My Family : Heidi

I painting this the other night while watching Big Brother.  Have you guys heard of that?  I think it ran for a few years in the US but it's a pretty big deal here.  It's just a bunch of people living in a house with no TV, no internet, no phones, etc.  They get really bored and then there's a bunch of drama/romance/etc - kind of reminds me of summer camp actually.  I'm embarrassed to say I'm addicted.  But at least I multi task!

Do we see the resemblance?

Speaking of my bucket list, I'm planning a chicago cupcake crawl for when I go over next week!  I'm so excited!  Any Chicagoans who need a sugar high are welcome to join!
It will probably occur on Wednesday July 4th.

Tea and Cupcakes

So about that Cleanse....

My friend, Sarah, was here until yesterday, and it didn't go so well.

I'm not sure whether she is a bad influence on me... or I am a bad influence on her.

But we are definitely a bad influence on each other.

But you only live once right?

And I had to take her to Cocoa.

It's just the cutest place ever.

I know you've seen it before.

yawn.

But it just makes me happy.

So here it is again....

We drank so much tea!

I felt little crack headish after my

2,398th cup.

Can you tell?

I think Sarah did too.

When in Rome, eh?

If you come visit me I'll take you here too.

Promise.

ps.  I missed you this week, blogosphere.

pss. That shirt I'm wearing is the first thing I've bought from a thrift store - part of number 80 on my 100 things to do list.  What do you think you fashionista bloggers - cute or totally grandma-ish?

Addicted to Purple

I'm so addicted to purple right now.  Lavender to be exact.  I bought purple nail polish at selfridges, and ate a purple cupcake from Candy Cakes that I stole from Nick (someone bought it for a leaving present for him).  Isn't it cute?  It didn't taste like I expected.  It was more muffinish than cup cake-ish.  There were even blueberries inside.

Nick also bought me these purple rainboots at Selfridges.  Have I ever told you how much I LOVE Selfridges?  I know it's all over priced and every time I walk in there I'm getting screwed like the rest of the tourists that shop there, but I appreciate the shop assistants' relentless flattery, even if she is making commission.  That's probably why when she told me, "I'm looking at your style, and purple is DEFINITELY your color,"  I said "Yes you're right!" and walked out the store with ridiculous purple Hunter rain boots, or "wellies" to use the British term.

I don't care though!  I kinda, sorta love them.  And now I'm actually willing it rain.  Rain is SO much more fun with purple wellies.  And they are so very practical for hiking with Heidi, which we will be doing a lot of in our new home!  (More to come on that later - we are moved in though!)

Also, isn't this picture neat?  I saw it on Rockstar Diaries, which I am addicted to probably more than the color purple.  The artist is Casey O'Connell, and the coolest thing is you can buy her paintings on LTL Prints, as wall graphics that you can just stick on the wall, and remove, and restick and do it again 100 times.  Perfect for people like us who are renting and can't put lots of holes in the walls.  Oh and it's only $15.    Don't you wish all paintings were mass produced like that?

Wouldn't it look really great on a purple/grey wall?  

Or am I just getting a little too purple obsessed?