Welcome to our little bedroom. Warm colors; late afternoon light. It's cozy in here. Right now it is anyway, thanks in large part to this wool blanket I bought recently at a local antique shop. I love the colors--yellow, orange, red, dark green, and navy blue. It warms our room right up and looks perfect for fall.
And this is a bedspread I've had for years that also looks nice and fall-ish. I use it all year, but it looks especially fitting now. I think my mom gave it to me.
There's Mr. Hoots peeking up from the bed (another great repurposed sweater treasure from Lorigami). And here's the shutter headboard that I'm, well, bored with. But it actually looks good with the other things in our room right now. And hanging on the shutters is this very interesting, worn out, folk art kitty. I found it at the flea market the weekend before last and loved it. When I saw the heart in its chest and the fish in its belly, I laughed and thought it was so cute. There's also a bird on its back. It was $8. At first I sort of thought I was crazy for buying it. It doesn't have the same look or feel that I'm normally drawn to, but I love it. I asked myself if John Derian would buy it. I love his flea market style. I thought maybe he would like it. Oh, yes, and Andrew likes it too. $8 well spent. Maybe. Mr. Kitty is quite worn out.
I love the embroidered pillowcases on our bed. Lisa gave them to me when she found out I was preggers. They have three little lambs jumping over a fence. Momma, daddy, and baby.
And this is the little corner of our room that I see from the bed. A few of my favorite things: a very sweet framed note, an "L" that Lauren gave me, a silhouette of a little girl that I bought in a thrift store in Zurich, a very small family photo, and a black and white photo that I've always liked.
Our lady head vase holding my wedding bouquet, which is quite dry and crisp after 6 years.
My favorite plant stand. I had to avoid the top or else you would have seen the saddest half-dead plant ever. I keep trying to revive it, but I think it's just time for a new plant. Looks like that glass could use some windex!
One of my favorite pictures of Lois, her 3 month birthday picture, beside the bed.
More family pictures. That's my mom there in the little picture (a very old picture, one that she thinks is silly that I have framed), and a picture of my nephew, Cash. Andrew's side of the bed still looks a little bit like this (except now he has a collection of glass telephone insulators along with his other things).
An old box for holding jewelry.
Mr. Hoots on the orange velvet chair. I wanted to have this chair reupholstered, and still do, but right now, it looks good in its burnt orange glow.
This wire card display is next to my bed. I keep all of my cards and like to read them every now and then.
This soldier stands guard and protects me while I sleep. I had to take his sword away though because it was dangerous. (Really, though, it just fell out and I was afraid Lois will get a hold of it, so I put it away.) I love this lamp. I've had it for a long time, at least 10 years or so, and it's always been in my room. I don't remember buying it, so that likely means my mom gave it to me. The lampshade is painted black, which is why it looks streaked.
A pedestal bowl of seashells under the window. I should probably switch them out for something more fall-ish, but they still look pretty.
And one of my recent little pillows. This one I'm keeping. I think I'll add a door and some smoke (buttons) to the chimney like I did with the other one. Home sweet home.
Hope you enjoyed the tiny tour. Our room looks better to me in pieces than it does as a whole, so it's still not quite where I want it to be, but at least I like being in there right now. Maybe one day it will feel just right.
I've never been crazy about our bedroom, or our apartment in general. It's a very simple, boxy apartment with few windows and no character. I've had visions of what I wanted for our bedroom in the past, but I never really liked where it was going, so I would just stop. And then when I would stop, it made me not want to be in there. It always seemed directionless and unfinished. I also still have the challenge of mixing my things with Andrew's. I hate the feeling of not wanting to be in my own bedroom. But right now I'm liking our bedroom more than any other time in the 3+ years we've lived here. I think it has something to do with a plaid wool blanket I bought that seems to pull things together in there. Isn't it great when you find just the right thing that pulls everything together? Oh, and then there's a certain, somewhat unusual piece of art I got at the flea market that ties in nicely too. I should show you a peek into our room. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow.
As much as I'm liking our bedroom right now, I still want a new bed frame or headboard. We have some wood shutters for a headboard, which I'm not crazy about. I like the idea of shutters for a headboard, but I'm not crazy about our particular shutters. I'd really like something older and chippy. Ideally I want a mantle like my mom's, or old black shutters, or an iron bed frame (like the one at the top of this post, found here), or something wood and painted like this headboard that I loved at the Kennedy School Hotel. But I've also been thinking of a trompe l'oeil headboard. I love this embroidered one that I saw on Design Sponge. Pretty cute, don't you think?
There are so many great headboard ideas out there. For a headboard I think I'm usually most interested in things that aren't headboards at all--shutters, doors, mantles, etc.--they're just more interesting to me. I like this chalkboard idea, but I'm afraid I'd be inclined to leave honey-do lists there, and, well, that's not very romantic! Maybe for a kid's room it would be perfect, though. (I think I saw the chalkboard picture on SFgirlbybay, but now I can't find the link.)
I love this door headboard. I saw something similar to this in Country Living recently and really liked it.
And wallpaper or paint. One of the easiest solutions. From Flickr someplace (not good a keeping track of links today, but it says Martha Stewart there in the corner, so it must originally be from there).
And a mantle, this one from SFgirlbybay. It doesn't necessarily even matter if it's the right size.
So many great ideas to consider . . . .
Even though it's not quite sweater weather here in San Francisco, I've had sweaters on the brain for the last couple of weeks. I love repurposed sweater crafts. Remember all of these great ideas? Well, I wanted to come up with some things of my own out of a few sweaters that I was ready to part with. I thought a little patchwork throw would be cute, but I didn't have quite enough sweaters so I hit the thrift store, and now I seem to have developed a sweater addiction. I've amassed quite a sweater collection. After a warm wash and dry, they're in fluffy, wooly piles on the floor in our bedroom. Instead of making the throw for now, I've been making pillows. Lots and lots of pillows!
Lisa is having a little craft sale get-together at her house in November and asked if I'd like to participate. I wanted to use the sweaters and thought pillows would be fun to make. I think I've made 12 so far, but these are a few favorites. My wool town pillow, remote control pillow, and sweater vest pillow. Last weekend at the flea market I bought a small stack of wool plaid blanket samples. I wasn't sure what I'd do with them, but they were so great I thought I could come up with something. They're the perfect size for a little houses.
Lisa actually gave me the idea for the remote pillow. I have a cute little pillow with a pocket in the back, but I've never known what it was for. It's the size of a credit card, so I thought maybe it was a tooth fairy pillow. I tried to think of some other pocket ideas for pillows and Lisa suggested a remote pocket. It's been quite handy the last few days! That darn thing always goes missing, doesn't it? Like socks in the dryer, it just seems to disappear sometimes. Not anymore! The pocket and back for this pillow is from a super soft cashmere sweater. The remote now has a posh home and won't get lost. (Caroline gave me the needlepoint bunny pillow--it just looks cute with remote pillow.)
And the grey one above is from a really pretty sweater vest. I wanted to keep it to wear, but it was way too itchy. And for this one I made my first buttonholes with my sewing machine! That was so fun. I made them a little too big, but I just ended up using larger buttons, which fixed the problem.
Since Laku is right near our place, and I love it so much, I go in about once a month just to browse and be inspired by all of Yaeko's creations. Every once in a while I splurge and get something cute for Lois. Yaeko does the most creative things with repurposed sweaters. I love everything she makes! I'm working on a few sweater crafts of my own that I'll show you soon, but hers are tops to me. Here are some pictures from my visit last week. You can read my initial little review of Laku here. I feel exactly the same way every time I go in.
Laku
My mom opened her own little shop on etsy. She's just added a few things so far, but I'm so excited that she opened her own shop that I wanted to go ahead and mention it. She'll be adding more later this week. Believe me, her garage is filled with treasures just waiting for a great home, like these items pictured here--good stuff, don't you think? (Every time I go home I want to go shopping in her garage!)
She had her first sale today! Congratulations, mom!! You can check out her shop here.
Last night we celebrated our anniversary. Six years! Seems like yesterday. We didn't have plans to go out, but when Lisa offered to sit with Lois so we could, we decided to take her up on it. We had a leisurely dinner at Incanto. Here's a picture of our desserts taken with my phone. Yes two desserts! And the waiter put candles in them. We had a wonderful time. Thanks, Lisa!
Pumpkin picking is all about the stem isn't it? Or maybe the shape? Or maybe the color? No, for me, it's the stem. Even if the color is a nice, saturated deep orange, and the shape round as a basketball; even if it's one of those funky blue-gray pumpkins or a striped orange-white one, if the stem isn't good (or worse, no stem at all!), I'll move on to the next pumpkin. It's definitely the stem that determines the pumpkin for me.
The real star of pumpkin picking today, though, was Lois. What a cutie in the pumpkin patch! Today we went to Clancy's Pumpkin Patch. We wanted Lois to pick out her very first pumpkin. Actually last year, when she was just about two weeks old, we took her to a pumpkin patch (our first big day out with baby), but she was way too itty bitty to pick one.
She didn't care much about picking one out today either, but she had fun poking the pumpkins and trying to eat them.
Do you like her little gray shawl? I made it from an old cashmere sweater of mine. I've had the sweater for about 10 years now, but it's a little too snug for me.
Every year, for the past few years, I try it on hoping it will fit again. But it's always too tight. I could wear it standing, but sitting my tire's ready to hit the road. A tight cashmere tummy tire. Um, no thanks.
It was time to become something else, or go to someone else. I thought a shawl for Lois would be sweet, especially since I loved it so much and had it so long. I snipped off the arms, eyeballed a shawl sort of shape, pinned it and sewed the little shawl. And with some of the scraps I made a flower with a wooden button in the center.
We found our favorite pumpkin.
Fall is my favorite season, and I love fall colors, so it's always really fun for me to make a little table display for the season. I bought some little pumpkins and squash and put them in this pedestal bowl, but they lacked something, so I added some chestnuts and pomegranates and now I think it looks simple and pretty. I'm looking forward to making pomanders (clove oranges), like this, but with different designs like stripes and dots rather than covering the entire orange. They smell so good! I like to make about 5 of them and put a candle in the center. A very pretty display for Thanksgiving. How do you display fall at your house?
We had a lot of fun watching TV in London. We always like to watch TV in other countries, especially though when we were in Japan. Now that was different. We had no idea what people were saying, but it didn't matter. Japanese TV provided countless hours of entertainment despite the language barrier. Shows in London weren't too much different from the states, and actually, a lot of the shows were the same. We noticed endless re-runs of Friends and The Simpsons as we'd scroll through the guide. We did really like a few British shows, though, and one favorite was Victorian Farm.
I can't tell you how much I love this show! It's sort of like the PBS show Colonial House only much, much better. Unlike Colonial House where ordinary people are set back in time to live as people lived in 1628, in Victorian Farm we get to see how life was lived through the eyes of historians and archaeologists. It is simply three individuals exploring what it was actually like to live on, or rather create, a Victorian farm. They don't act as a family or interact with other period families. There's none of bickering, whining, or quarrels that inevitably surface on the more reality show like Colonial House. In Victorian Farm they use techniques and tools of the mid-nineteenth century and use The Book of the Farm by Henry Stephens as a guide to daily life on the farm. The Book of the Farm appears to have been the must have book for a Victorian farmer, so I imagine it's a pretty accurate representation of farm life at the time.
(Above is Princess the pig--because of her, I want a pig for Christmas! I love Princess! Oink, oink! A shout out to my girl.)
I love so many things about the show, but especially domestic historian Ruth Goodman and her enthusiasm for and knowledge of everything regarding the tasks of the woman of the house--laundry, cooking, and sewing just to name a few--all so much more effortful than we can imagine these days (laundry alone was a week-long, back breaking task). What I take away after every show is not only how hard it must have been just to survive, but also how rewarding it must have felt to literally build your life. We pick up a pile of clothes at H&M and head to Whole Foods to get our wine and cheese and inevitably often take those modern conveniences (among so many others) for granted. In Victorian Farm we see that if you didn't sew, you probably didn't have many clothes (not that they had many anyway); if you didn't learn how to sow seeds properly, you couldn't feed the animals and wouldn't have food to eat; if you didn't learn basic DIY methods for household materials like hand salve, your hands would just crack and bleed. Ruth Goodman teaches courses in the UK. I wish I had known of them sooner than our last week there.
I love mixed media art and collage. Seeing all the crafty things Jessie and Buddug have done with bits and pieces and odds and ends made me want to pull out the scissors and glue and get to placing and pasting. I went through a collage phase a while back and made this little one above, which shows my mom sometime in the mid-fifties in a photo booth with a friend of hers. Remember the Paper Quilt Project? Oh so many great collages! My little gal never made it to the site, which I think was supposed to be in the December section, but it was great to be a part of it. I would have liked to have that quilt myself. I have plenty of paper scraps in my craft box (the tie tie papers, what's left of them anyway, are my favorites), but I can't help but look around to see what other fun scraps are out there. I love looking for vintage paper, postcards, pictures, ads, paper bags and the like at flea markets and thrift stores, but sometimes it's just fun to buy a cute paper pack that's already sorted with a bunch of great bits. I love these paper packs, shown below, from Lovely Sweet William on etsy. Maybe collage Christmas cards are in order this year.
You know summer has officially turned to fall when you see chestnuts at the farmer's market. Chestnuts, pumpkins, and lots and lots of apples. Today we headed across the bridge to go to the Marin Farmer's Market, which is one of our favorite farmer's markets. It would be nice if it were closer to our neighborhood, but then again it's fun to cross the bridge and see beautiful views in all directions. No blue skies or rainbows today, but the misty fog created its own beauty. The fog sweeps over the hills like smoke and looks really dramatic when it's especially thick. Being from the southeast, it's still so neat to see it. The weather was perfect for fall market shopping--just chilly enough to make you want some hot apple cider.
Chestnuts. The shells are soft and velvety on the inside, rough and prickly on the outside.
Piles and piles of apples today.
Straw flowers, just because they are so pretty. I love how they look slick, as if they've been dipped in olive oil.
Cabbage bouquets.
A very interesting pumpkin. The color was golden orange and the stem was the same as the skin. These pumpkins were so pretty and bright.
Pomegranates.
Brussels sprouts on the stalk. A dad next to us was explaining to his son how they grew on the stalk. The little boy was fascinated.
A misty morning through the golden gate.
Today Lois turned one! We had a great birthday picnic party. Perfect weather, great friends, and lots of fun. I can't believe how big Lois is now. She's growing so fast and starting to look more like a little girl than a baby. She's also on the verge of walking and talking. She's saying momma, dada, hi, and baby but never really at the right times yet. These are just a few words we say all the time that she's starting to repeat. She's also starting to walk around furniture or with a little help from mom and dad or with help from a big toy that she can push around while holding on to it. She loves to play with other babies and kids and thinks our cat, Sophie, is one of them (or just a fun, furry toy to chase around). Lately she also holds the remote up in the air and aims it at the TV. We must be watching too much TV around her! And she loves music. Sometimes when we play music she puckers her lips and throws her head back and forth, just like a little rock star. She's so cute, especially when covered in cupcake. Here are a few pictures from her big day. Happy birthday Lolo!
Tomorrow is Lois' first birthday! I'm so excited I feel like it's Christmas eve! Cupcakes, check. Candles, check. Bubbles, check (must have bubbles). Party hat and dress, check, check! I made her dress from lightweight denim with Liberty print accents for the pocket and tie. I think it turned out pretty cute.
For beginners, I wouldn't recommend denim, especially denim with stretch to it, which this one has. I really just liked the wash of this denim and wasn't looking for it with stretch, but the wash I liked had stretch to it. I messed up the hem 3 times. With the stretch in the fabric, I couldn't get the tension right and it kept pinching a bit, arrrgh! I really wanted to do an especially good job on this one since I plan to keep it for Lois. I didn't want her to look at it later and think, wow, mom was a sloppy seamstress! My mom used to make our clothes and gave away everything except one dress, a beautiful dress, and I've looked at it often and am always impressed by how perfect it is. That dress is much more elaborate (maybe I'll take a picture next time I go home), but I hoped Lois would feel the same way about some things I've made.
Ah well, this dress isn't perfect, but it's a good go at stretch denim, and it's her very first brithday dress, so I hope she'll think it's special one day despite its imperfections. I can't wait till tomorrow. Party girl pictures coming soon!
During our last trip home to Atlanta, my brother-in-law, Brandon, had a little photo session with Andrew's side of the family at Andrew's mom's house. Brandon's a great photographer with his own photography business, Ripe. If you're in Atlanta and looking for a photographer for some family pictures, he's the best. He also shoots bellies, babies, and children. One of my favorite pictures on his site is my nephew, Cash, with ice cream on his mouth (that one is in the growing section of his site). Adorable. We're pretty cute too, at least we are when we have a good photographer taking our picture. Here we are, the little family of 3, back in May. I can't believe how much more grown up Lois looks now. You'll see her again soon. This weekend is her first birthday.
Ripe Photography.
Can you say dream job? I only wish I had the Sundance Channel so I could watch the full episodes. I first heard about Man Shops Globe the other day on Green and Pretty, and now I noticed it's all a-buzz in blogville. The show follows Anthropologie buyer Keith Johnson as he hunts for unique pieces for their stores. I always wondered where they got all those amazing fixtures for their merchandising (and ideas for a lot of the merchandise itself). How fun. You can watch clips here.
Today's the big Alameda flea market. As I type this I'm sure the hardcore market-goers are scoring some great treasures by flashlight. I'd love to go, but we need to get a lot of other things done, and I know if I go, I won't get any of those other things done. Going to the big flea wipes me out, in part because it's so good and so big and in part because it always takes forever to get home across the bridge. But it's a great flea market and totally worth the traffic hassle. I wasn't surprised to see it in an article on the best flea markets in the world in the last issue of Budget Travel. Next month I'll be there. I want to find some vintage Christmas wrapping paper and ornaments for our Christmas tree to be. Here are a few pictures from a few months back.
Suitcases are unpacked, laundry is done, mail is sorted, bills are paid. But we're so tired. These pretty bedroom pictures are making me even more tired. I'd love to cozy up in any one of them, especially this top one. It looks like how I feel--dreamy and drowsy. Must sleep.
Images from flickr. 1 here, 2 here, 3 here, 4 here, 5 here, 6 here, 7 here.
We had our last weekend here in London. Initially we thought we might go away for the weekend to some place like Marseilles, but we decided to stay in town. We went to Greenwich, which has a beautiful park that includes the Royal Observatory and the National Maritime Museum. We also went to Islington, a great neighborhood and home of the Camden Passage market, and walked along Regent's Canal. And we headed back to Shoreditch to buy some last minute things and to walk around Brick Lane. We had a great weekend. Here's are some random bits.
We ate a lot of yummy food. One of my favorites was coffee and croissants from Patisserie Deux Amis, pictured above. A really cute, cozy French cafe. I think Andrew's favorite would be St. John Bread and Wine. We didn't bring the camera to St. John, but it's a nose to tail sort of place that has great food (they have things other than nose to tail type stuff). I'm not sure why I have such reservations about eating those "other parts" since I eat meat, but I do. Eating pig's cheek just sounds a little weird and gross to me, which makes no sense when eating a pork chop sounds perfectly normal, but I tried a tiny bite of it, and it was really good. It tasted sort of like fatty bacon with less bacony flavor. My favorite thing there was dessert--armagnac and prune ice cream with madelines, yum. The servers were so nice to Lois. They even have high chairs for the tiny tots.
In Greenwich we went to Greenwich Park. The parks in London are outstanding. I can't believe how many parks there are or how beautiful they all are. Of all the parks we went to Regent's Park was the most impressive I think, but Greenwich Park was beautiful too. And the parks here have so many nice playgrounds for kids. Greenwich Park even has a children's paddle boat pond.
In the park we got to see fall showing all its beautiful color. And did I mention the weather? It was outstanding! The last few days have been some of the most amazing days ever.
In Islington we walked along Regent's Canal, which was a fun surprise for us. We decided to just wander around, off the main roads, and saw a path leading to what looked like a park. We followed it down and saw this! It pays sometimes to leave the map in your pocket and just see where the road takes you.
The canal was filled with these long, skinny boats. It looked like many people lived in them.
We saw a number of gardens on the boats. Garden anywhere? Sure!
See that one itty bitty tomato there on the right? Last of the season, I imagine.
And we ran into a fun little craft market. Cupcakes get your attention every time don't they? The cupcakes are from Sweetie Pies Boutique Bakery and those crafty wares from Isabel Vince, who's pictured on the Left. I love her key and patchwork cushions.
A weekend around London wouldn't be complete without some fun junk hunting!
We saw so many great junk, antique, and vintage shops over the weekend. Ah, London is a old stuff heaven!
And more junk and vintage heaven on Brick Lane.
And we were lucky enough to see another red balloon! I could hardly believe it. A very nice last weekend, don't you think?
See you again in a few days when we're back in San Francisco!
Once upon a time there were two girls, lost in the bright night woods. They did not know where they were or how they got there; they just knew they had to get home. Tired and hungry they walked side by side, not afraid of the night but in admiration for it. They looked up at the stars that glittered like sequins and the leaves that flapped and fluttered in the breeze like birds' wings and thought of home and what they would make when they got there. Creative ideas filled them head to toe.
Jessie dreamt of bags she would sew with her mom and journals she would make from beautiful vintage books, tied with ribbon and adorned with buttons and watch faces.
She also imagined stories she would embroider onto silk. Chapter by chapter, the words appeared to her mind. She watched how the moon cast its light through the trees and longed to draw its beams and shadows that streamed to the ground.
Buddug dreamt of enamel necklaces she would cast with wise quotes or in the shape of colorful teapots or birds.
As she listened to the few chirps of the night, she swore one sweet bird was on her head and thought it might sing them home.
As they walked they filled their pockets with leaves, flowers, nutshells, and twigs. Inspired by the nature all around them, they wanted to bring it home and sew it into something beautiful for all the world to see.
They reached a clearing and in the distance saw home, their shop, perched atop the flowers of Columbia Road. "They hand in hand with wandering steps slow, through Eden took their solitary way"* and began to create the magical works that let them know they were home.
Woah, long time no post! I was so busy with my mom that I didn't realize how many days have gone by since I last wrote on my blog. I'm sad to say my mom flew home yesterday (and made it back safe and sound), but we had so much fun the few days she was here. I'm sure she probably feels like she needs a vacation from her vacation because I think I wore her out! I wanted her to see so many things and go so many places that we didn't dillydally too much, and we barely scratched the surface. Poor mom, so excited, with her eyes wide and mouth hanging to the ground, most of the time I was saying, "mom, come on, we have to keep moving!" She could have spent days instead of hours in the few places we went. So what did we do, you ask? Well, here are the highlights. Her first day we went to the Thursday Spitalfields antique market, went to Caravan, walked around Brick Lane and had a great lunch at Leila's. I forgot the camera battery on the charger that day, so I don't have picutres, but it was so much fun. Mom loved the antique market.
On Friday we went to Liberty. Mom loved it! We spent most of our time in the fabric, notions, and yarn section where we looked through craft books and picked out some fabric and yarn for a few projects. Then we had afternoon tea in the cafe. It was soooo delicious--equal parts sweets to sandwiches, just the way we like it. Lois liked the cupcake best.
On Saturday we went to Portobello Road. I thought mom would flip, but then again I could say that about everything she saw everyday she was here. She had such a good time looking at everything. Antiques and vintage treasures, second-hand junk, handmade wares, food, flowers, people watching--it's all at the Saturday market on Portobello Road. As touristy as it is, it's filled eye candy and makes for a very entertaining morning. If you go, definitely go in the morning! The crowds are crazy by 11am.
Later on Saturday we did the touristy bit and rode the London Eye and wandered around The Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and the Thames. I thought I'd be sick on the London Eye. It made my knees weak, but Lois loved it. She had her head right up against the window the whole time.
Sunday may have been our favorite day. We went to the Columbia Road flower market and wandered around the shops on Columbia road. We stared with a yummy breakfast at Campaina.
Mom, who is a great gardener, loved seeing all the plants and flowers.
We had so much fun in Jessie and Buddug's shop, where mom bought this crow headband for me. I wore it for a while, and she wore it for a while. We looked ridiculous, but it was really fun. I think we ate 9 of those cupcakes too. My mom hates seeing pictures of herself. I can just hear her when she sees this, "Leigh! Why did you post that picture!" Sorry mom, I like it.
On Monday we went to Painswick. I really wanted mom to see the countryside and stay at Jill and Brett's B&B. She thought it was just as beautiful as I did and loved being there. We spent most of our time in the house looking through Jill's stacks and stacks of decorating and craft books. Why leave when you have all those books and the view looks like this?
But we did get outside on Tuesday. We had a great lunch at the local bistro and two of the best desserts (puddings here) that we've ever had, banoffee pie and bread and butter pudding.
We walked around the town, and took the footpath to the stream. I wanted mom to see everything I saw before.
And that was it. The sun set on mom's short visit, and after one night at Byfield House, she had to go back home. On Tuesday afternoon we took the train back to London and then mom left Wednesday morning. I wish she could have stayed longer, but it was so much fun! Love you mom! See you again soon.
I've been having a great time with mom the last few days. She loves it here and doesn't want to leave, but her little visit is almost over. I can't believe it's gone by so fast! Ah, well, we've had a great time and today may have been the most fun day yet. We went to the Columbia Road flower market and oohed and aahed over all the beautiful flowers and plants and then weaved our way in and out of the great shops along Columbia Road. Our favorites were Jessie and Buddug's shop, and though technically not on Columbia Road but right nearby, M. Goldstein.
M. Goldstein
Today I'm heading back to Liberty with my mom. I'm so excited for her to see it! I think we'll have tea in the cafe, too. The last time I went Lois was at her end for the day when I reached the fabric section, so I'm excited to spend more time there. I want to pick out something special for her for her first birthday party hat and dress, and I'm on a mission to get some Pierre Herme jam for Caroline, which Liberty carries. Oooh Liberty, mom's going to love it!
First image from here and second from here.
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