M. Goldstein

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.

We saw M. Goldstein a few weeks ago when we went to the flower market, but as often is the case, we needed to get Lois home for a nap, so we didn't stop in. Today, though, I stopped into the shop with mom. It was perfect timing for a shop like M. Goldstein because we were giddy and goofy by the time we got there. Too much coffee, too many cupcakes, and the fact that I was sporting a headband with a big crow on it made us flat out silly. (Mom bought the headband for me at Jessie and Buddug's shop--more to come on that great shop later next week.)

We both loved M. Goldstein, not just because it's filled with our favorites--antique, vintage and second-hand things--but because as soon as you walk in the door you know owners Nathaniel and Pippa must have a great sense of humor. Anyone who has a collection of random heads in a fireplace, stacked vintage cereal boxes for display, and a vintage clothing section that could easily transform into a DJ booth right along side little antique millinery samples, lovely oil paintings, and vintage jewelry has to be fun and interesting. We had to make our visit short because we were running late to meet Andrew and Lois, but I can't wait to go back to M. Goldstein. Here's a peek.
















M. Goldstein
67 Hackney Road
London E2 8ET
Tel: +44 [0] 7905 325215

Liberty Take Two

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.

With Mom in London

My mom flew in yesterday to spend a week with us in London. I'm so excited she's here! The next few days I'm planning to take her to a lot of the places we've already been, all my favorites anyway, and a few places we haven't been yet. Today we went to the Thursday Spitalfields antique market and walked around Brick Lane. I also took her to Caravan, which she loved. We had a great time. I brought the camera but realized after we left that the battery was on the charger back at the apartment, so I don't have any pictures from today, but it was a lot of fun and we saw so many great things. More with mom to come.

Lightroom

The weekend before last we went to Regent's Park, a beautiful park here in London. It was a spectacular day. The sky was deep blue, the sun was shining, and the breeze was blowing. Once you enter the park, you completely forget that you're in a massive city like London. It's easy to forget how squished and hot and miserable you just were 10 minutes before on the tube with a bazillion other people rushing to get to who knows where when you're surrounded by manicured rose gardens, wildflower meadows, ponds with little bridges, and hints of fall on the leaves. Fall is my favorite season, but unfortunately we live in a city where, as much as it has to offer, is somewhat seasonless and where fall color sightings are scarce. I noticed it here, though, sneaking up the tips of leaves on trees in Regent's Park. I kept looking up as we walked past trees to see which ones were starting to change color. I took a handful of pretty pictures in the park, but this one's my favorite because you can see the seasons starting to turn as the sun peaks through the leaves. Above is how it really was: vibrant green with hints of chartreuse-yellow and brown. And below is however I'd like it to be with Lightroom2.

Berry bright.
Deep and dark.
Honey dipped.

Aren't they pretty? I really only fooled around with the hue and saturation, but simply doing that changes the mood pretty dramatically. So much more could be done with them, but just altering the colors a little is fun. In the past I would post my pictures after sharpening or enhancing the colors a bit with the very basic tools built into iPhoto, changes that were hardly noticeable. For a while now, though, I've been wanting to get some photo editing software. We all know Photoshop is the gold standard, but between the hefty $700 price tag, and the fact that I wouldn't use half the tools, I kept putting it off. A few months ago I read about Photoshop Lightroom and thought it might be just what I needed. After using the trial version, I decided it was perfect for me. I really just wanted to be able to adjust and enhance certain elements beyond what iPhoto would do and keep my pictures organized, and Lightroom does those two things really well. (I know there are some good free image editing programs out there, too, like Gimp, but I hope to upgrade to Photoshop one day, so I wanted to keep it in the family since the two programs can work in conjunction with each other.)

So far most of the pictures I've processed in Lightroom aren't too much different than the originals. The changes I've been making to my pictures lately have been subtle--enhancing the green of the grass, the blue of the sky, etc., but I wanted to show you a little comparison so you could see how fun it can be. Also, I've been shooting in RAW mode, which I didn't really fully understand until I started playing around with images in Lightroom. Rather than me ramble on about that, you can read about RAW here.

If you're interested in Lightroom, you can download a trial version. I'd recommend watching a few tutorials, including ones that cover the library module, or buying a book to help you along. I skipped over reading anything about the library module and dove right into the develop module after importing a ton of images, and now I have a disorganized mess to sort.

Also, If you're like me and interested in getting better at photography yourself, especially for blogging purposes, Alicia has some great posts about her experiences, both with a point and shoot and now a dSLR. Her blog, her pictures, and her posts about photography are always inspiring to me.

London Guides

Over the weekend we went to the Tate and wandered around a few neighborhoods. One neighborhood was Islington were we had a great lunch at The Elk in the Woods, a restaurant I read about in the Lo-Fi London guide from Notes by Naive. She's compiled an extensive list of great London shops and restaurants, and a few museums and parks as well. Her guide alone could keep me busy for a year, but add to it Lynne's guide for Design Sponge, Victoria's London adventures, The Traditional Shops and Restaurants of London (my favorite London guide book), AND a long list my friend Noa made (who used to live here), and I might need a few years to cover it all. These guides overlap a bit, but I think they're all great, and I highly recommend them if you're making a trip to London anytime soon.




All images from The Traditional Shops and Restaurants of London by Eugenia Bell; photos by Phil Nichols.