September 10, 2019

London Trip













 










  


 
 







 

Hello! It's been a while, and life has just ticked on as usual. We had a pretty decent summer this year with a couple of fun trips, the first being London, second one to Carmel. I took a lot of photos as you can imagine, but I don't want to dump a ton of them on here and bore people with vacation pictures. I decided to just put some of the highlights up. Our first full day in London, we went to visit Kew Gardens. It was so hot and humid that day, so it made for a slightly uncomfortable visit, especially when you went inside the greenhouses!  The grounds were gorgeous and lush as you can imagine. The roses took my breath away! So many varieties and colors.
The following day we spent at Nicole's flat, then we went to see a classical music concert at Saint Martin in the Fields. Known for its acoustics, it did not  disappoint. David has been wanting to go to a concert there forever, so he got to check off something on his bucket list.
Next up was some fun shopping at my beloved Liberty of London, and some other shops. I was so lucky on this visit because Liberty was having a summer sale, and I got to pick some beautiful yardage for future projects. We had tea there as well, and it was very tasty and a fun place to rest and fuel up for more shopping adventures.
The following day we went to Old Spitalfields Market with Nicole. It's a vintage market place with many vendors. We found the most beautiful vintage silver coffee pot that we gifted ourselves for our anniversary this year. The vendors were so fun to talk to, especially the ones where we bought our treasure. If you would like to see the coffee pot, you can go on my Instagram feed. After we spent sometime at the vintage market, David and I headed to Covent Garden to check out the new Mariage Freres tea house, and have lunch as well. The tea house was gorgeous, and of course I had to load up on some unique blends that I can't find here in the US.  St. Paul's Cathedral was a short walk from Covent Garden, so we took the extra time to go see if we could go in, but the doors were shut sadly.

One of the other things we wanted to do while in London Town, was to get David a pair of English dress shoes for his birthday. We went to Joseph Cheaney & Sons, one of the oldest shoe makers in England. We had so much fun talking to the sales lady there, and got a full history of the company and shoe making. David walked out with some gorgeous shoes! I love men's shoes in England. I just can't get enough of the eye candy. If you walk around London, or ride on the tube, you will notice how nice the men dress there. I noticed that, unlike American men, clothes are more slim cut to the body. It did not matter if the man was heavy or slim. Over all they all seemed so smartly dressed, even their casual looks, and of course the shoes!  When we landed back in the US, I noticed right away the glaring difference. David's shoes are, in a way, a gift for me as well, because now I get to see a little piece of what I love about England every time he wears them.
Our final day in London was celebrating Nicole's birthday. We went to the British Museum earlier in the day and spent a chunk of time there. This was the birthday girls wish for the day. For dinner we went to Ottolenghi in Spitalfields. I have two of their cook books, so I was really looking forward to going there. Overall I liked the food, but the service was very odd. Hard to explain, just very uneven service, and the waiter was just not very pleasant. The dishes were very creative and tasty though.  All the places we visited are linked, so you can click on the name and check out their web pages if you are interested. More pictures are on Instagram.

Finally back home, we celebrated 4th of July with Caitlin, Cyrous, and Ruby. Look how cute she is all dressed for the day(of course I made her outfit). I made our favorite rib recipe this year, and the usual salads that everyone likes in our family.
I'm leaving the post here, because I wanted to do a separate one of our Carmel trip that we took the first week of August.
After our visit to Carmel,  August was mostly consumed with helping Caitlin and Cyrous move to their new house. Lots of Ruby watching, which was really fun, and hauling things over to their house.

Super happy that summer is in the rear view mirror, and I can now enjoy the beautiful fall light and slight crispness in the air. I feel as I always do in the summer, non productive and uninspired to do very much.
Next post will be Carmel trip, so stay tuned for that. Until next time.......

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