It was an amazing feeling landing in LA. Megan and Coco were waiting to collect us and take us back to our own little paradise in West Hollywood!

We food shopped, opened wine and cooked (in that order) and instantly got back into the typical LA life.

We caught up with everyone, went to see Aarons band play…they are a Little Richard tribute band named Big Dick and they are AWESOME! We worked hard, cooked hard and consumed lots of wine.

Alex finally gave up on his virus riddled laptop and bought a new one and we blasted through the work and interviews we had lined up. We were completing emailed interviews from all over Europe, America and even Japan BUT the most exciting thing EVER was that my Mum was coming to visit!

I could barely wait! I was a nervous wreck as she travelled from Manchester to Philadelphia to LA as this was the first time she had ever flown solo! I held my breath and checked the flight times and went to the airport to collect her! Of course she was the last one off the plane and I sat nervously waiting for her to appear…and when she did I was flooded with relief and just pure happiness that she was finally here!

We waited for her case and she told me all about the flight and said that my advice had been helpful (I had told her not to panic and if the flight stopped to get off and look for another one if she wasn’t here yet). We laughed and caught up and bombed through LA in Megans orange mini and Mum was just amazed that she had made it!

We ate dinner, had the obligatory glass of wine or two and hit the hay, poor Mum had been travelling for more than a whole day and had the time difference to contend with too.

We had plenty planned to keep Mum busy, we woke her up at 8am for a visit with our chef friend Ari to the real farmers market. We wandered, tasted and sniffed our way around there then headed to the TV studios for an interview on Australian TV (who allowed us to mention the blog AND UNICEF) and then we went back to the apartment and changed for our big night out at the restaurant where Ari worked, Red Medicine.

We had no idea what to expect and went with our minds completely open. We had been foraging with Ari so knew there would be a lot of plants involved in the plates but it was incredible! The plates were dressed so beautifully it was hard to eat it it was so pretty! Flowers and leaves adorned the plate and surrounded the star attraction. Ari had prepared us a tasting menu so we tried 3 starters, 3 mains (including Dungeness crab and Sweetbreads!!!) and even squeezed in a dessert! It was all amazing and everyone should go just for the experience! We will definitely never forget it!

There was so much going on at this point its hard to tell you everything so if I loose you please don’t worry, I spent most of my time lost at this point!

We had been contacted by Martha Stewarts team and asked if we would like to have a wedding at the Martha Stewart Bridal Market Party in New York…of course we only really had a vague idea who Martha Stewart was so we had said sure thing, as long as we keep it very New York! We discussed it between us and agreed on going even though it meant we would have to pay to fly back to NYC and back again to LA! We could see the potential for meeting with other wedding vendors and of course it would be an amazing NYC wedding!!! The Martha Stewart offices are in a typical old school NYC building in the meat packing district and over looked by the Empire state building. We couldn’t get more New York than that! Also we were beginning to have concerns that we might  run short on time. If we flew there and back while we waited for Peggy to arrive in Houston we didn’t have to commit to drive all the way to NYC before leaving the states!

SO that is one of the things going on at the time…we had also been approached by several TV production companies who wanted to talk to us about maybe recording a docu-series so we had arranged a few meetings to see how we felt about that…we were planning our next wedding in Colorado, trying to plan to be in Seattle for a wedding event all before New York in less than 2 weeks.

Thats not to mention we had a few TV interviews lined up with another Australian News channel and also RTL in Germany who were sending a team out to film us…so those are a few of the things that my poor Mum had to sit through BUT she also got to come to a dress fitting at the fabulous Monique Lhullier Boutique to find me a dress for the Martha Stewart wedding!

We also hit Venice beach for the day with Mum and Megan, posed on the Baywatch lifeguard towers, sang happy Birthday to my sister on Skype, went for a wine tasting at the fabulous BevMo and got extremely drunk, went to the French Quarter and another Farmers market to pick up some gifts, made afternoon tea (with real Yorkshire tea bags), went to Hollywood to look at the starry pavement, made roast beef and Yorkshire puddings for the gang and more!

I think Mum had a jam packed few days with us, I hope there weren’t too many dull moments! We even dragged her along to Sandra’s house! We had been chatting with Sandra via the blog and facebook and she had invited us for lunch, we rocked up there and became fast friends and even drove up to the Hollywood sign for some pictures. I really think Mum had a good insight to our life in LA when we are there. I am certain she could understand why we love it so much and keep going back whenever we get an excuse! Oh and we visited the tar pits too! We did so much in such a short space of time!

Of course, the hardest part of Mum visiting was her having to leave again. We drove to the airport and Alex was feeling ill so I had to just drop her off at the door as there is no stopping allowed! I waved as she walked into the terminal looking all tiny with her huge suitcase (now bulging with all of our junk) and managed not to cry until I got around the corner!

With everything that was going on we were so busy, I was so worried Mum would need another week off work to get over her ‘break’ with us! We went straight from the airport to another live interview airing in Australia and went back to the apartment to book our flights to Colorado, Seattle, New York and back to LA! And that is a whole different story!