london & a crown

  Hello my friends.  I hope you are all doing well!  At the end of September Steven, Evy, and I traveled to London for vacation.  As some of you know, I have a bit of an obsession with all things English - so I felt completely in my element whilst holidaying there ;o)  I even got to meet the beautiful, sweet, and funny Sophie from Sophie Honeysuckle.  Meeting Sophie really was a dream come true for me - we had such a great time.  My only complaint is that I wish we could have gotten to spend more time together.  We had an excellent time at Cath Kidston, Cabbages & Roses, having coffee, doing some clothes shopping, and above all - getting a chance to talk face to face.  What an excellent way to spend a day in London.  Below is a picture of Steve, Evy, and me at Stonehenge.

 

Evy and I standing in front of the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221B Baker Street (and me with the ubiquitous cup of coffee - I realized later that I am holding coffee in about 75% of the pictures - yah, drank a lot of coffee over there)

 

 

Here we are in Bath - it was so beautiful there - and so very commercial.  It was a strange combination of the very old and well preserved buildings, churches, and cobblestone streets, paired with oddities like the Disney store, and Starbucks.  True story.

 

Little Evy turned 5 while we were in London.  We had so much fun that day.  We went to Hamley's Toy Store where she picked out the Paddington Bear and pink kitty with her birthday money.  We had brought the Emily American Girl doll with us to give to her (the Emily character is from England and went to stay with Molly in America during WWII).  We thought it would be fun to give her a doll who was from England.  She was ecstatic and likes to tell people that Emily is from England.  By the way, we have and American Girl store that is opening right by us at the Mall of America on Friday so we are pretty excited.

 

I will post more pictures of England - I just realized my picture of Sophie is on our other computer so I need to pull it off of there (as well as my pictures in Cath Kidston).  I'll also take a picture of the fun spotted green bags that both Sophie and I got at CK. 

My last picture is one of me in the crown that lovely Rosemary made for me a while back.  I meant to get updates to you sooner.  I've also got loads of house pictures to show you - I've gotten so backed up and now theres so much to share!! : )

Talk to you shortly my friends.

Comments

[Sher's Creative Expressions]

Love seeing pictures of England. My dream trip one day soon. Can't wait to see more. Hubby and I are hoping to go on our 30th anniversary ~ 2 1/2 years to go.

Blessings,

Sher

[Amber]

How fun! Whata great trip! Glad to see you blogging again!

[Katie]

I am so entirely jealous (but extrememly happy for you) that you got to go to England! My husband's company is UK-based, and I keep trying to finagle myself a trip over there with him, but with a 19-month-old, it's a little bit of a hard task! ;o) I already have a list of where I HAVE to go and things I HAVE to get...including a trip to Portobello Road, and I *need* an old paisley-printed eiderdown. *Need* it. :o) Mike brought Amelia back a Paddington Bear from his last trip. I love Paddington. Please do post more from your trip!

Oh...and Happy Belated Birthday to Little Miss Evy!

[Karla]

Seriously - you have the cutest family! You are all gorgeous! Looks like it was a great trip.
Karla

[Gretchen]

Allison,

I'm so glad you got to travel to England and experience everything you love.

I'll anxiously await all the pictures since it is still a dream for me to visit there.

Gretchen
birdnestcottage.typepad.com

[claire]

Welcome back, so glad you had a great time in the UK, I live about an hour from Bath, its a beautiful place, sounds like you had a great time in London too, I stayed in the Sherlock Homes hotel on Baker St a few years ago in my old job, Evy is gorgeous and how exciting for a 5 year old to have a birhtday in a diffrent country....Claire xx

[Nantucket Ya Ya]

Welcome Back!

I am a fellow Anglophile- my trip to London was highlighted by a visit to St Paul's Cathedral while I pictured my 12 year old Canadian self getting up at 4:00am to see Lady Diana get married in front of the world's royalty...tears streamed down my face as the choir practiced, and I could also hear Julie Andrew's singing "..feed the birds, tuppence a bag.." as I walked down the front steps...I could go on and on.

I love your blog and have checked in vain daily since your last post, what a lovely surprise today!
Warmly,
Jen

[Sarah]

Hi There Allison, I have been a fan of your blog since last october and have enjoyed many hours reading your posts. Stop by my blog, I just started it about a month or so ago sarahcresswell.blogspot.com . Glad to see your back to posting:) your trip to England looks like it was great. Can't wait to see more pictures! Sarah

[Christine]

Welcome Back! I have missed reading your blog!
Glad to have you back! I enjoyed your trip photos!

[lulu]

glad to see you back...
im so happy you got to go to England..
cant wait to see more pics..

[Kim-HomeIsWhereTheHeartIs]

So glad to see a new post from you Allison...I've missed you.

Looks as though you and your family had a wonderful time...thanks for sharing your trip with us.

[Michelle]

Hi Allison
So pleased you enjoyed your visit to England. Did you get down to Kent. I live in a beautiful village called Lamberhurst on the Kent/Sussex border. So much to see outside of London as well. Did you go to Jane Austen museum in Bath?

Great that your back blogging.

[Meredith]

OH my goodness...so glad to see you had a good time! I went to London/Bath when I was 7. I still remember putting my hands in the warm water, and also how very cold Stonehenge was!!

Lovely pictures, beautiful family!!

[Rosemary]

Hi Alli,
Wow, what a great trip!!
How nice for all of you. Wonderful for your daughter.
How great to meet Sophie.
I have missed your blog. I hope you will blog more often.
Love all of your photos!! Evy is a doll.
By the way, the crown looks so cute on you!!
Have a great week,
Rosemary

[Kim]

Welcome back! Your trip to England sounds just heavenly. As you know, I'm also a big Anglophile & would be happy as a lark to visit the UK at least once a year. You've also given me confidence that we can take our little girl abroad successfully in the next few years.

[Rebecca]

OMGosh! That takes me sooo back! In 2003, we went to London. We also went to Bath and Stonehenge! Oh, I so want to go back!!!!! Wasn't Bath just awesome!?!

London was just fab! Hope you got to go to the theatre! We saw Phantom of the Opera, Lion King, and Grease. We stayed at a B & B in the Kensington area. Oh, I soooooo want to go back!

Glad you had fun with your sweet family!

Hugs,
Rebecca

[BabyTease]

Hi Allie, It sounds like a dream come true to me. So glad you all had a great holiday. But we missed your blogging. Kim.

[sadie]

you've visited two of my favourite shops and one of my favourite cities. I love London. We live about an hour or so away, but my little girl is only 2, so it's a bit too far to travel there with her as yet. When she's old enough we will, and she's be spoilt rotten in Hamley's and Harrods. Did you go to Harrods? I hope so, it's fabulous.

Bath is also beautiful. When my husband and I married (4 years ago this December), we spent our honeymoon in Bath and I agree with your observation. It is stunningly beautiful and very commercial. The traffic is a nightmare there too, parking was incredibly difficult.

Well, I must go. England is very cold at the moment, we have snow here this morning, which is actually pretty unusual in November!

Sadie x

[Catherine]

Welcome back!

I absolutely love your blog and it's so nice that you're back!! It's also lovely to see some pictures from merry England! Where else did you visit? It sounds like you all had a fabulous time! I hope the weather didn't put you off coming back again!

Catherine x

[Katy]

What a fantastic trip!!! Vaca in London! WOW! I love all the pictures! I look forward to seeing more! :) Happy Thanksgiving!

[Jo]

Allison, it's great to see you back! I've been checking weekly for your latest updates and my fix of Cozy Home. I adore England! So glad you mentioned Hamleys as that is one of my favourite stores. I spent hours there even before I had my daughter! Stonehenge is also lovely (as is anything in that glorious English countryside) Bath is beautiful. Your photos look similar to mine! What a fantastic experience for Evy. I felt like whisking my three year old there straight away! Did you do the Jack the Ripper tour? That is amazing! I also loved the moors in Cornwall and also in Haworth, home of the Brontes. I really could go on an on about England all day. There is also a pretty terrific bookshop called Murder One in Charing Cross Road, from memory. I wonder if you found it?
Sigh. I long for travel but we are renovating our not so cozy home at the moment. I got to experience it through your lovely trip.
You all look beautiful and happy! Just how people should look on holidays. xxx

[Dena]

You have such a lovely family and that trip sounds like a fairytale come true :) Hope you had a wonderful holiday.

Hugs,
Dena

[Niesz Vintage Home]

Wow! What a fantastic trip! And great pictures...such a cute family!
How fun that you and Sophie got to meet up.

Kimberly :)

[jenny]

I stumbles across your blog and have fallen in love with your style and knack for decorating! You have given me lots and lots of ideas - seriously... got a mental list going a mile long. One question - my mom journals a lot and I would love to make her a journal like I see in your pics - can you briefly describe what kind of notebook you used and how'd you put it together?

[sadie]

have a very lovely Christmas :)
Sadie C x