UK Visitors

Greetings from England! Nick and I are finally in the UK for our second wedding reception. The party's tomorrow then we're off for a short little train trip.

My coffee monkey, Fisher, on a boat cruise up the Thames.
We arrived on Wednesday afternoon, very tired and happy to find our hotel. We spent Thursday, my birthday, seeing the sites in London with my friend Jenny who's come over for the big event.

Green Park
We walked all over the city and met Nick's parents for dinner and a show. It was a great day!

The fabric department at Liberty of London
I got a chance to stop in at one of my favorite London shops too. Liberty is gorgeous and has the most beautiful fabrics.

Here's a little taste of what I'm bringing home from Liberty.

The Rovers Tye in Colchester
We got a chance to see the location for the reception this morning & afterward had lunch at a pub we used to frequent when we lived over here. It was nice to be back in our old neighborhood.
Couldn't blog without mentioning my latest monkey. This one was a birthday present from Nick's mum. He's a pencil case and is sooo cute!

Bye for now. I'll post some reception photos in a few days. Have a great weekend.

Sunny Day in London

I must have walked about 5 miles today, but the sunshine was worth it! I think it was my first day in London with blue skies, no foolin'. I walked all over today, starting at Tower Bridge. Gromit wasn't able to make it, he had a previous engagement, but Chico still had a good time.

Nick was in the office all day so I was able to do all the shopping I wanted. I made a trip to one of my favorite stores over in Marylebone (I'll show you what I got later). I had a good time in there though, let me tell you, lol. I met Nick after work for some dinner and then we rode the London Eye.

This is another thing I never got to do while I lived in the UK. It's a long list and I'm working away at it. I'm not sure you can see how tall this thing is...it's really high! I'm afraid of heights too. Yep, it was a little scary, but take a look at this view. Wow! I'm glad we planned it for sundown.


p.s. I just looked up how high the London Eye is . . . just over 442 feet. Yikes!

From the Air

Today we were lucky enough to get a ride around the Cornish coast in a tiny little airplane. This was my first time on one of these planes and I was a little nervous. It was a beautiful view from up there, Gromit and Chico had a wonderful time. The color of the water was amazing, as you can see.

This last one is a view of St. Michael's Mount. It's an old monestary that you can actually see from the front windows in Nick's parents' house. I still haven't been there, but it was great to see it from above. I feel I'm really leading a charmed life at the moment.

Greetings from England

Hello from England. Gromit and Chico are having a great time here. Yesterday and Monday we had a wondeful time visiting Bath. It's a beautiful old city. We really enjoyed touring the Roman Baths and the Abbey. They have some nice shops too, but Gromit gets bored so we try not to stay too long. We took a nice cruise up the River Avon and we afterwards drove to a place called Exmouth to visit Uncle Bill and his new granddaughter Ella. She was very cute and slept a lot.

Now we're down in the far southwest corner of England. Nick's parents spend most of the summer down here so we thought it would be nice to stop by for a few days. The weather has been gorgeous for us so today we went for a long walk on the tops of the cliffs overlooking the sea.

Gromit and Chico were very tired by the time we got to the cliff by Logan's Rock, so we stopped for a sandwich and some water. Penberth Beach has been known to attract a few nudies, we decided not to ventre down there. The view was amazing and the water was so blue. Nick decided it would be a nice spot to pop the question and I completely agreed. Gromit held the ring, but I'm wearing it now. It's very pretty and sparkly too. I love it!

Tomorrow we've got a busy day planned with an airplane ride & visits with friends. We're off to Nick's sister's place in Southampton on Friday and to a wedding on Saturday. It's a busy vacation, but still relaxing.

A Little Random

How's everyone doing? It's Friday, but as you full-time crafters know, there's no Friday in crafting. I work every day. It kills me to take a whole day off, haha. I try though. Sometimes I do take a break on the weekend so Nick & I can go somewhere. I don't want to jinx anything, but tomorrow we're going to look at rings (if you know what I mean).
We'll be stopping in Oakland to scout the Farmer's Market there too. I hear my stuff would be "gone" if I sold there. Even though it's not in Marin, it's part of the Marin Farmer's Market Association. That means I can sell there if I can get a spot. Maybe when we get back from the UK. Oh yeah, I guess I didn't mention that we're off for England on the 25th. Just under two weeks, not too long. It'll be enough time for me to go to some of my favorite spots in London like this and this. We're over there for a wedding and to visit the family, I'm sure it'll be a great time. We're planning a little road trip to one of my favorite places while we there. I highly recommend Bath if you ever go to England. It's just beautiful. sigh. I can't wait to go with Nick. :)
In other news, I did a new market on Wednesday night. It was a complete waste of time, but now I know. My friend Julie came over from Yosemite to sit with me, thank goodness, I'd have perished if it hadn't been for her. I wouldn't have made a sale without her either. She bought a handbag & a monkey. Thanks for coming Julie!
I did actually take a partial day off yesterday. Julie and I walked over to the post office, I had oodles of orders to send out, and the farmer's market. It was a lovely walk, and on the way we fed the ducks. I thought this one was particularly handsome. Nick works from home on Thursdays so the three of us went down to Sausalito for lunch too. It was great to see a friend and take a quick breather. Now I'm back to the old sewing machine. I started to put together a huge stack of new bibs last night, so they must be finished today. I've got a quilt order to fill, and I want to make some more inexpensive kids' totes like the one Maple is using in this picture. She really likes the animal prints. I got the fabric at IKEA and I just love the bright colors. She loves it so much, I can't get her to put it down. Silly girlie.
I guess that's it for me today. I know I probably wrote too much.
Just one last thing, I was perusing some of my favorite blogs this morning and came across this new fabric line coming out next month. How cute! I can't wait to see it in person. Have a great weekend everybody.

Last night in the UK

Wel, the house is empty, the truck is empty & we're ready to go. Nick & I are leaving for London in a few minutes to stay near the airport. My flight leaves at noon tomorrow. It feels weird that in one week we'll be in our new house in San Rafael. Crazy how your life changes so quickly.

For the last time, CHEERS!

UK Experience

I've probably mentioned a few times that I'm curently spending some time in England. I've been here almost a year and have just 4 weeks left before I move to San Francisco with my Brit. For the most part, I haven't really liked being here much. A large reason for that is likely the fact that I'm pretty much stranded in the house all the time. I can take the train to London, or to some other towns, but it's expensive and there isn't a lot to see by going somewhere else. All the towns I've been to have the same shops, they're just arranged differently. I really enjoy going to London, but that's really expensive, about $40 American. That's a lot to spend just to get out of the house.
What I do like about England though, is the weather and the air quality, among other things. I'm from Southern California and have grown used to the haze and smog, and the HEAT! I'm not a hot weather person at all, and I don't miss it. People always ask me if it rains every day in England. It might rain a lot in some parts of the country, but the rainfall here is only high in comparison with SoCal. As a matter of fact, until this moment, it hasn't rained in the last week. It's been beautiful around here. When it does rain, it lasts a day or two & then goes away. Just enough to give you some variety. Anyway, I think the weather's almost perfect.
One of the best things is that I live near an actual castle. Not like the one at Disneyland either, a real one. Colchester Castle was re-built by the Romans, it's very very old. There's a nice park surrounding the castle & I have to pass it to go into town. As much as I don't like the fact that it's a 30 minute walk to the nearest post office, it's made a little better when I pass the castle. Spending this past year here has definitely made me appreciate how good I had it at home. I think I'll be a lot happier in California than I used to be.