Sister's Choice Quilts

Bookshops of London

Londoners certainly appreciate their bookstores.  I have a number of favorites which I always try to visit when I can.  Daunt Books is in Marylebone, a fancy London neighborhood.  When you go in, it is like entering a church.  Doesn't the light from that back window set off the shelves of books?

My number one favorite bookstore experience may be Foyles.  When I enter I literally hear angels singing.

All the bookstores we went to were heavily promoting Margaret Atwood's latest book "The Testaments", the sequel to "A Handmaid's Tale". 

Just look at this special edition of Jane Eyre.  

Next up was Waterstones, which was really into The Handmaid's Tale.  It gives me an idea for an easy Halloween costume...

This amazing shop, Hatchards, has been in business since the late 1700s.

We have been taking the Underground everywhere and were discussing between ourselves how interesting it would be to find a book about its history and creation.  What do you know?  Hatchards had one.  It must weigh ten pounds though, so it will not be coming home with me.

If I lived in London, I do not think I would have a dull moment.

I'm at Fortnum & Mason and I'm Never Leaving

We had been to Fortnum and Mason previously but had never taken the time to explore the lower food court.  Fortnum and Mason is known for their selection of teas, and that is what we had concentrated on.  We were really missing out on an extraordinary experience.

I never realized how extensive their offerings were.  In our English novels, some character often appears with a "hamper" full of F&M delights for a romantic picnic, but seeing it with my own eyes was mind-blowing.  I expected cheese and wine and perhaps some exotic jams, but who knew they had a produce section and a butcher's stand?  I am just going to share some pictures, as they speak for themselves.

If you can't tell what you are looking at, they have assorted hams that can be sliced right off the leg.  I know.  It kind of made me take a step back too.  I am interested in where my food comes from, but that is a bit up close and personal.

Wish I could have brought this home to Eva, but I don't think it would have survived the journey.

Yesterday we had a VIP tour of the Harry Potter Studio.  I may have been photographed on a Quidditch broomstick...

Loving London

We are having such a great time in London.  We've had gin cocktails at a Victorian/Steampunk style place called Phineas Foggs.

I got to visit Daunt Books in Marylebone.

And  I picked up the new Tracy Chevalier book A Silver Thread.  Tracy wrote The Girl with the Pearl Earring if you recall. This latest book is about Violet, a young woman who has been made very much alone by the loss of her fiancé in WWI.  To support herself and make a life that is meaningful to her, she joins a group of women who do embroidery for Winchester Cathedral.  After WWI, due to so many men being lost, there was a huge surplus of single women with no prospect of ever marrying or having families of their own.  This book explores the "thread" that ties women together as well as how these women were trailblazers at a time when single women were considered a pretty worthless drain on society.  I can't wait to read this one!

We saw the changing of the guards and toured Buckingham Palace.

We took a boat ride down the Thames.

And had cream tea with scones in the Cotswolds.

We really are having a fantastic time.  We toured Buckingham Palace yesterday, which was amazing.  That being said, we felt very "herded" through things, and there was an awful lot of just standing around waiting for things to happen, like the guards marching by etc.  We also toured Kensington Palace, which was pretty blah imho.  They do have a lot of Queen Victoria memorabilia, which was very interesting to me.  Do you watch the British TV series Victoria on Amazon?  It is so good.  Anyway, a lot of her gowns were on display and it was wonderful to inspect them close up.  Did you know when her dear Prince Albert died she went into mourning for the rest of her life and never wore anything other than black dresses and a gold charm bracelet he had given her? 

We are doing a tremendous amount of walking.  T.r.e.m.e.n.d.o.u.s.  Between 6.5 and 7 miles per day.  With luck, I won't gain weight from all the clotted cream and jam on the scones I have been consuming at every opportunity. 

Our Favorite B&B

Our favorite B&B is one we discovered two years ago by a happy accident.  We had planned a drive to the town of Enniscorthy and there was a mixup in our hotel reservation.  The hotel employee recommended a B&B outside of town called Anam Cara, which luckily had room for us.  We drove over to meet the owner and discovered the place to be not only welcoming but extremely luxurious.  We clicked immediately with Moira and Michael, the owners, and have included a stay there every year since.

It turns out, that Moira lived in rural California for some years, in the town immediately next to ours!

She has her personalized license plate on the wall in her kitchen.  The girl has a sense of humor, that's for sure.

This year there was a couple from Virginia who was visiting as well, and we had a lovely time drinking wine and getting to know them in the cozy living space.

That big bathroom is not typical of what you normally find in Ireland, I have to say.  But I sure did enjoy that tub and the luxury bath products Moira provides her guests.

 

Our bedroom was palatial, and we enjoyed a great night's sleep.

The breakfast we were given each morning was enough to get us through most of the day.  We started out with a fruit parfait and finished off with eggs, toast and smoked salmon!  And do you see, Moira has the same Royal Albert china I have at home?  I knew we were kindred spirits.

The town of Enniscorthy has lots of things to see, but I have to say, we didn't want to leave Anam Cara we were so comfortable! By the way, the name Anam Cara means Soul Friend in Irish.

 

 

Kilkenny and Waterford

We are off to a great beginning with our trip through southern Ireland.  We left on a three-day drive in the south of Ireland and had a lovely time when we stopped in the colorful city of Kilkenny. I am not even sure what this alley full of umbrellas was all about, but it sure caught my attention!  At the time we were there, some sort of rugby competition was going on between Ireland and Wales, and everyone was wearing the town colors (black and yellow) and were walking around looking like big bumblebees.

We had been years ago, but felt we had to return to the crystal making factory in Waterford.  The tour there was fascinating.  Watching the skilled craftsmen work with the hot leaded crystal was awe-inspiring.  Somehow lumps of glass are formed into shapes and then blown, cooled, heated again in kilns and then magicked into vases, bowls, glassware, trophies, and other items.

On the tour, one is guided through the various stages of how prestige crystal pieces are formed, etched, and carved.  The fellow in the photo above is cutting grooves in a crystal bowl.

This was my favorite piece.  It is called The Four Seasons Bowl.  Each quadrant of the piece is etched with designs that represent a specific season.  That is Fall that you see above.  You could have this bowl to decorate your table for around $1500

I had to get a photo of this magnificent piece to show Eva.  It is Cinderella's Coach.  It is hard to see the scale of the piece in the photo, but it is about 24 inches long and maybe 8 inches tall.  

We ended the day by taking a drive out to see Hook Head Lighthouse, the oldest working lighthouse in the world.  Located at the end of a narrow finger of a peninsula at the southern tip of Ireland in County Wexford, it has been keeping ships safe for 800 years.  

We are having lovely weather, as you can see.  What a pleasant change for us, as when we left our area of California it was 99 degrees.  It has been in the low 60s here! 

Hope you are all having a wonderful week.

 

Dublin, I Have Missed You

We have arrived in Dublin and are nicely settled in at our son's house.  Our flight was ok, seats not so comfortable, but we did upgrade our food, which was a great idea.  Best meal I have ever had on a plane!  That first Cappucino upon arrival was wonderful.  Ahren went to so much trouble to make everything so welcoming and hospitable for us.  Even flowers in his entry way-not a bad touch from a bachelor!

Roses from his garden.

Our first stop was a little seaside town called Howth, just north of Dublin.  We love going there too buy seafood for our dinner later at home.  We got something called Plaice, which is flounder like.  Don't know if you can see in the photo below, but someone has arranged a smaller fish in the mouth of that big one at the top of the picture.  

Everything is always displayed so beautifully at the markets here.

We are headed off for a three-day driving trip through County Wexford.  Hope to post along the way!

 

Packing and a Couple of New Favorites

I've been packing for our annual trip to visit our son Ahren in Ireland.  We leave in just over a week, and I am determined not to overpack this time.  I swear the last two years I packed ten outfits and ended up wearing the same three over and over again.  I set up my rolling rack to "audition" clothes.  If you have a rolling rack, it is a wonderful tool for arranging your clothes for a trip.

One thing I have to keep in mind is that Irish people don't typically have clothes dryers.  You would think in a country where it rains 360 days out of the year, a dryer would be a very handy appliance.  Nope.  They tend to be old school and everyone dries things outside (weather permitting, which is five days of the year) or on collapsible clothes racks inside.  Seriously, if the weather is fine, everyone exclaims all day long "Oh, there is a good bit of drying in the day", and they all put their clothes on the line outside, optimistically thinking things will dry.

What usually happens is that you do your laundry, put it on the drying rack in the kitchen and in three days it is still there and still damp.  I'm not kidding.  I will never pack jeans again.  I wore them once, washed them and it took them five days to dry.  Everyone's home is festooned with half-dry clothes draped everywhere.  It is a national problem, and I do not see why something can't be done about it.

Well.  I got off on a little tangent there, didn't I?

At any rate.  What am I packing for just over two weeks in Dublin and five days in London?  My color scheme is mostly black, red and cream.  Nothing needs ironing.  At the moment (and I am hoping to cut these numbers down), I have five pairs of black stretchy leggings and/or knit pants for my bottom layer.  (I will be comfy, yet pulled together looking, and bonus:  they dry pretty fast). For tops I am trying to pair down to six or eight lightweight silk, lightweight cotton, poly or chiffon blouses that will dry overnight if I have to wash them.  They also pack down to nothing and take up virtually no room in the suitcase. One cozy sweatshirt type top to lounge in.  Two pullover sweaters I can wear for warmth or dress up with a scarf.  I can't decide between the red or the black so I have both ready to pack.  One may have to be eliminated...I have two cardigans that look dressy and can top off my blouses and be that "third layer" the fashionistas tell you to have.  I have a red rain jacket, an umbrella, a couple of scarves, a crossbody bag and two pairs of shoes. That should get me through just about all the occasions I anticipate.  I will use packing cubes and fit everything into two carry-on sized bags.

My dresser is a disaster, with stacks of undies, jewelry I am trying to decide between, and various items Ahren wants but can't get in Ireland.  Would you believe you can't get cold medications there without a prescription? No Alka Selzer Plus, no DayQuil, etc.  I always try to stock up on that for him.  If you are curious about what he looks like, click on the photo to enlarge it.  He is sitting with his sister Sara in my kitchen a couple of Christmases ago in that photo.

I won't get lost in the crowd in this cute red rain jacket from Talbots:

This is a new favorite nightgown from Soma.  They are having a great sale right now.  You can pay $52 for one of these long nightshirts, or buy two of them for $60!  They have adorable patterns to choose from, and the fabric is the coolest, silkiest, cotton tee shirt material.  I love to wear something like this when I travel, in case our son wants to pop in our room or I need to wander down to the kitchen for something.  It is modest and presentable looking, yet super comfy to sleep in.

I have some new toiletries and makeup I plan to pack, which I'll share with you in a future post.  Getting organized for a trip is one of my favorite things to do.  I hope I am getting better at it and overcoming my tendency to overpack.

Are you a good packer?  Do you have any tips you can share?

And So It Begins

Summer has officially begun here.  I took my girl to her first day of swim team practice and as you see from her stance, she was somewhat unsure of the whole enterprise at first.  She got with the program without delay however, and I was so proud of her.  When the coach first said "Okay, we are going to do eight laps" my heart sank.  Eight laps?  Seriously?  How could this kid do eight laps?  But she did.  And then did eight more.  Already she is a better swimmer than I ever was.  She has a great attitude, is so strong, and makes my heart swell with pride when I see how undaunted she is by challenges.

So, yes, I am a proud nana.  

But lord have mercy, is it ever hot out there in the sun on the sidelines.  There is no shade at all, and I pretty much did myself in.  I think I may have actually had a touch of sunstroke.  My friend and I had walked earlier for 45 minutes in the heat (did I mention it was 100 degrees yesterday?) and then I had barely recovered from that when I had to take Eva to swim team practice.  No shade.  Hot hot hot.  After I dropped her off at her summer camp afterwards, I came home and had to lie down.  I tell you I slept for three hours.

Any of you out there have experience with taking kids to sports activities and trying to stay cool and out of the sun?  I am thinking I may have to just drop her off and go sit in Starbucks or something until I pick her up.  I don't want to miss seeing her, but I just cannot take that sun.

So, unfortunately, since I was napping all afternoon, I didn't start my new sewing project.  Harrumph.

Sewing Away From Home

I finally got myself set up and ready to sew here at our vacation condo.  I had a bit of a set back because I forgot to bring my power cord.  How dumb, right?  I remembered the foot pedal, but how I left behind the cord is a mystery.  A local shop had a cord I could buy for $16, so I was able to get down to business.

Trouble is, I haven't been that motivated to sew.  My husband seems to want me to do stuff with him all the time, so I have been distracted.  Imagine that, we come up to this gorgeous setting and he actually wants to be outside?  The weather is better today and so is his cold, thank goodness.

Sadly, this is all I was able to accomplish...

Another Little Getaway

My husband and I are off on another getaway, this time to beautiful Lake Tahoe.

The weather is nice, but the majority of folks do not yet have their boats out.  I think Memorial Day is the magic date that everyone is waiting for.

We have a gorgeous time share where we stay a couple of times a year.  It is furnished beautifully and has loads of amenities.  Unfortunately, I had an unlucky accident and managed to break one of the windows in the master bedroom within 24 hours of our arrival!

I have a little traveling make up mirror that has a suction cup on the back that you can use to attach it to a window for the best possible natural light for applying makeup.  I have had this thing for years and have stuck it on plenty of windows with no problem.  Until yesterday.  That window cracked from top to bottom, to my great shock.  Everyone was very nice about it, but I feel bad for being responsible.

I brought my sewing machine, and plan to do some sewing this week, which of course I will share with you.  I'll keep you posted on any local adventures too!  I also read quite a lot of books in March and April and will try to get a book review post out.

Hope you all had a great weekend.