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In Which I Attempt To Decorate My House For Fall

Admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery, right?  Okay, well, when it comes to seasonal decorating, I admit it: I have a problem.  I don’t have the same problem that most ladies seem to have, I have the opposite problem.  I’m a minimalist.  I have a complicated psychological explanation for my minimalism.  (Seriously, I do.  Email me if you want it.)  Being a minimalist is good in some respects (less stuff to dust! and I save money!) but when it comes to decorating for the holidays, it’s just sad.

For example: here’s how I decorated my dining room for fall.

Oh, did you not see the two partially used pumpkin candles from five years ago?  My bad.

Pathet… that’s Sanskrit for “really cool way to live.”

Oh, and that’s my mantle.  TWO candles.  A little busy, no?  It’s not that I don’t WANT to decorate my house for the seasons.  I’m always drooling over the new seasonal items at Crate & Barrel and Williams-Sonoma.  But I just can’t seem to pull the trigger.  I’m a little better at Christmas – my mom loves the holiday and she always goes all-out decorating for it, so I’ve picked up my game a bit post-Thanksgiving.  By which I mean, I have a tree, a wreath, stockings, and a Christmas village.  Last year I got a Nativity scene after literally years of wanting one but being unable to decide what I liked.

I think that qualifies as an improvement, yes?  Here’s what I did, in a nutshell: first, I thought about what theme I wanted the mantle to reflect.  I’m a girl who loves the outdoors and nature, so I went for some natural elements – the river rocks around the pillar candle and under the wheat (which coordinate with a candle holder my mom gave me that involves river rocks – keep reading), the wheat, the branches from my backyard and the acorn-shaped candle holder.  I also wanted to keep it relatively sleek and modern with a muted color palette.  So I stuck to creams, yellows and reds to call to mind the changing leaves.  Finally, I pulled a few items from around the house that went with my color palette – some red books from my bookshelf, which I turned around to show their cream-colored pages, a pale yellow glassybaby votive from the dining room, and my Angel of Autumn, which normally lives in the guest bedroom.  She’s holding a sheaf of wheat, so I plopped her next to the wheat “bouquet.”  I tried to create a sense of balance by placing taller elements on the outside and gradually shorter elements toward the center of my display, while keeping it interesting and modern by including different items on each side.

From left to right…

Hurricane candle holder – Smith & Hawken for Target
Honeysuckle scented pillar candle – Smith & Hawken for Target
River Rocks vase filler – Target
Acorn candle holder – Crate & Barrel (several years ago)
Natural branches – messy backyard
Books – messy bookshelves
Votive – glassybaby
Angel of Autumn – Willow Tree
Tall vase – Michael’s
Natural dried wheat – Michael’s
Gratitude Garland – Homemade for the Pinterest Challenge II

 

My mom gave me this candleholder years ago – she has an identical one in her house.  I love it and it’s always out on my coffee table in the family room.  To spruce it up for fall I swapped out the old white pillar candles for some golden yellow ones – the same golden yellow as the pillar in the hurricane on the left-hand side of the mantle.

I gave the dining room a little spruce as well – moved the two tall candles over to the dining table and set them in between my partially-burnt pumpkin candles from several seasons ago.  I’m all about using what I have.

And for some fun, I brought out the Cider House and Farm Stand from my Department 56 village (New England, if anyone’s curious) and set them up on my buffet, flanked by some more glassybaby votives.  This is just a taste of things to come, by the way.  I have big plans for this buffet come Christmas.  Stay tuned…

How are you decorating your house for fall?

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Golden Herbed Tofu

So… how’s everyone’s sugar hangover coming along?  This might help.  This Halloween, instead of gorging ourselves on candy, hubby and I contributed to the incomes of children’s dentists across the DC metro area by distributing handfuls of candy to our trick-or-treaters, and (muahahaha!) saved the good stuff for ourselves.  And by “good stuff,” I mean tofu.  Herb-crusted tofu, to be specific, broiled until it is golden brown on the outside and creamy on the inside.  Better than Hershey’s any day if you ask me.

I know what you might be thinking.  Tofu – really?  Doesn’t that stuff taste like, well, nothing?  Well, yeah.  But that’s the beauty of it.  Tofu is very mild in flava and so it willingly takes on any flavors you cook it with.  (Remind you of anything else?  Chicken?  Pork?  Anyone?  Bueller?)  That makes tofu extremely versatile.  But I think I found my ultimate tofu.  It’s crispy, salty and herby.  15 minutes under the broiler gives it a yummy crust and wonderful texture.  If you think you dislike tofu, try this over a bed of greens with your favorite salad dressing (Annie’s Organic Goddess for us, please!).  You might just change your mind.

Golden Herbed Tofu

1 block extra-firm tofu, rinsed and patted dry*
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
herbs de provence
kosher salt
black pepper

  • Preheat broiler to high.
  • Slice tofu as follows: cut into 1 1/2 inch thick rectangles, then cut each rectangle in half on the diagonal to form triangles.  Arrange triangles on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a Silpat.
  • Drizzle olive oil over tofu and brush with a silicone brush until olive oil lightly coats each piece.  Season generously with herbs de provence, salt and pepper.
  • Broil for 10-15 minutes (I needed the full 15, but if your broiler has more oomph than mine you may need less – so check it after 10) until golden brown.  Remove from oven, allow to cool slightly, and serve over a salad the size of your face.

*Nota Baker: I don’t bother to press extra-firm tofu because the brand I buy (Twin Oaks, which I think is generally available at Whole Foods in Virginia – I know KERF buys it in Charlottesville – but may not be accessible elsewhere) just doesn’t seem to need pressing.  With some brands, pressing does really improve the texture.  So if your typical practice is to press your tofu, go right ahead and don’t let me stop you.

Source: Adapted from Giada de Laurentiis

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The Pinterest Challenge II: Gratitude Garland

I had such fun making my button monogram for the first-ever Pinterest Challenge, that when Sherry from Young House Love and Katie from Bower Power announced another challenge, I knew immediately that I was in.  I cruised on over to Pinterest and spent an hour or so checking out fall decorations – since up until now I’ve been woefully deficient in the seasonal decorating area.  Clearly, the second Pinterest Challenge was a sign that it was time to step up my game.

Fun fact: pre-blog (in 2007), I threw hubby a surprise 30th birthday party.  It’s common knowledge among anyone who has planned a surprise party that you need something for the guests to do while they wait for the guest of honor to arrive.  I chose to make a garland to serve as party decor and conversation piece.  I begged my hubby’s parents for copies of pictures of him – at least one for each year of his life.  Then I made a garland featuring hubby’s pictures from babyhood through age 29.  It made for a fun decoration, a great conversation starter, and a wonderful keepsake – because of course we hung onto it. 

For this challenge I decided I wanted to revisit my garland-making ways with a Thanksgiving edition.  I pinned this guy and this guy and started thinking about how I wanted to approach my seasonal garland.  Introducing…

The Gratitude Garland

The concept is simple.  The front of the garland spells out the word THANKFUL.  (But you could go with GRATEFUL, GRATITUDE, THANKSGIVING or any other seasonal word that speaks to you.)  On the back of the garland, hubby and I took turns writing out things we are thankful for.  (Our lists are at the end of this post if you want to skip past the instructions and just go straight to finding out what warms hubby’s and my hearts.)

Want to make your own Gratitude Garland?  It’s incredibly easy – quite literally the work of minutes.  Here’s what you need:

  • 4 sheets scrapbooking paper in coordinating colors/patterns
  • Round item to use as stencil (i.e. a cereal bowl or large glass)
  • Scissors
  • Hole punch (1/16 inch size)
  • Kitchen twine
  • Darning needle
  • Stick-on letters
  • Pen
  • Tape (Scotch and painter’s)

Step 1: Cut out eight identical circles from your scrapbooking paper.  (Or nine, or however many circles you need to spell out the word you’ve chosen – one circle per letter.)

Step 2: Punch holes in the “top” of each circle.  If possible, hold all of your circles together when you punch the holes.  That’ll guarantee that every hole is identically placed.  Me = anal retentive.

Step 3: Arrange the circles in your chosen order and thread the kitchen twine through each circle using the darning needle.

Step 4: Apply the stick-on letters to spell out your word of choice.

Step 5: Write what you are thankful for on the back of each circle.  I did mine first and then hubby did his without looking at mine.  Then we read our “thanks” to each other.

Step 6: Space out the circles along the length of twine.  Using Scotch tape, secure the circles to the twine so that they face forward.  Hang garland in your chosen location (i.e. the mantle) and secure with painter’s tape.  Hide painter’s tape with other decorative items if necessary.

(By the way, drop by on Friday to see my mantle decorations all broken down.)  So there it is – your very own Gratitude Garland!  A perfect Thanksgiving season decoration, especially if you can’t look at a Cornucopia after reading The Hunger Games.  And now, if you’ve made it this far, you’re probably curious as to what hubby and I are thankful for.  Here are our lists…

Messy

  • Our beautiful home
  • Being married to my best friend
  • The chance to travel the world
  • BOOKS and TEA

Hubs

  • Jaclyn (Nota Baker: Awwwww! Ain’t he sweet?)
  • The Buffalo Sabres
  • Weekends
  • Beer

Updated: Want to see the four challengers’ projects?  Here ya go:

Sherry @ Young House Love: 38 Ornaments
Katie @ Bower Power: Antiqued Window
Ana @ Ana White Homemaker: Princess Pocket Bookshelf
Erin @ House of Earnest: Metallic Gold-Lined Lamp

What are you thankful for this season?

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Reading Round-Up: October 2011

Reading is my longest-standing, and also my favorite, hobby.  I literally can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t love to curl up with a good book.  Here are my reads for October, 2011…

The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern – A. Ma. Zing.  The Night Circus was easily the best book I read all year.  Perfectly drawn characters, an epic challenge, a magical circus, all bound together by a love story for the ages.  I can’t even think of how best to describe the book.  All I can say is, I was entranced from the first page to the last, and I’ll read it again and again for the rest of my life.  And recommend it to absolutely everyone.

State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett – Readable, exciting and thought-provoking story of a research pharmacologist who journeys into the heart of the Amazon to find out the truth about what happened to her dead colleague, and on the journey discovers truths about her own past.  I’m a fan of Ann Patchett’s work and while this wasn’t my favorite book of hers (that’d be Bel Canto, which I loved), her newest release was a very enjoyable read.

Wildwood, by Colin Meloy – Harry Potter aside, I don’t normally go for kids’ adventure fantasy.  But when I heard that Colin Meloy wrote a book, I had to check it out.  I love his music and I figured anything that came out of his brain would be kooky, weird and darn entertaining.  This story about a 12-year-old girl who goes on an adventure and finds a secret world outside Portland, Oregon – where her baby brother is being held captive by a murder of crows and an evil Dowager Governess – is too cute.  (Yes, the villain is a Dowager Governess.  This is Colin Meloy.  Of course there would be a Dowager involved.)  Wildwood was a fun read and I can’t wait for the next book in the trilogy!  Bonus: while I wait, I will have my Decemberists CDs to entertain myself.  Thanks, Colin.

Persuasion, by Jane Austen – I downloaded the last Jane Austen novel I had yet to read for my trip to England and started it on the way to Bath, because it’s set in large part in Bath.  This is Austen’s final novel and it was a little more somber than her earlier works.  The heroine is unhappy for long stretches of the book and doesn’t really have sisters to fall back on (she has sisters, but they are jerks).  But it’s still Jane Austen, so it still all comes out right in the end!  I enjoyed it very much.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare – I chose this to read in Cornwall after visiting the Minack Theatre, a theatre built into the side of a Cornish cliff.  (Sadly, there were no plays being performed at the time – it was the off-season.)  The setting was amazing and the “master builder” of the theatre, Rowena Cade, chose to create a theatre after becoming involved in local productions, starting with… you guessed it… A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  It’s always been my favorite Shakespeare play – pure fun from start to finish.  I loved reading it through this time and imagining it being performed at the Minack Theatre.  Maybe someday I’ll get there for a performance.

The Code of the Woosters, by P.G. Wodehouse – My favorite Bertie and Jeeves novel was my choice for the days I spent in the Cotswolds.  In it, Bertie’s Aunt Dahlia demands that he visit the town of Totleigh-in-the-Wold (almost certainly in the Cotswolds) to steal a cow-creamer from the intimidating Sir Watkyn Bassett.  While there, Bertie inadvertently finds himself engaged to Sir Watkyn’s soppy daughter, Madeline.  Uh-oh!  Much hilarity ensues and, as always, Jeeves saves the day.

Joy in the Morning, by P.G. Wodehouse – One Wodehouse novel is never enough and when I get started, it’s hard to stop.  On the plane home I re-read the story of Bertie’s journey to the sinister town of Steeple Bumpleigh… a town which contains the terrifying figures of Aunt Agatha, Uncle Percy, Lady Florence Craye (molder of male minds and occasional fiancee of Bertie), Edwin (Boy Scout and plague upon the human race) and Stilton Cheesewright (Bertie’s Oxford pal who has become a policeman and is now itching to arrest Bertie for something).  Yikes!  Good thing Bertie has Jeeves.

The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt, by Caroline Preston – Saw this on a book blog and immediately ordered it.  A novel in the form of a scrapbook filled with vintage photos, menus, maps, tickets and other memorabilia from the 1920s?  Sign. Me. Up.  It was a charming story and an absolutely gorgeous book.  Loved.  Loved loved loved.

I don’t know if I’ve ever had a better month of reading.  Ever.  I started out with The Night Circus and finished with The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt – two of the most creative, imaginative books I’ve read in the course of my entire reading life.  Oh and in between those?  Some Colin Meloy, some Jane Austen, some Shakespeare, some P.G. Wodehouse.  Part of me wants to throw in the towel because I’ll never top October, 2011 in terms of reading fun.  Ever.  Wait, what am I saying – quit reading?  Never.

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Thatta Weekend

Ahhhhhhh.  That weekend was SO needed.  After a trans-Atlantic flight got us into DC at 4:00 p.m. Eastern time last Sunday and we were at the office bright and early Monday morning for a full week of work, hubby and I were ready for a low-key couple of days with no obligations or plans.  And that’s exactly what we got.  Hit. The. Spot.

Want to see what a low-key weekend looks like through my eyes?

 

Mariage Freres tea in my new mug from Harrods.

 

First “fire” of the year.

 

Sweaty interval workout on the treadmill.

 

A mysterious craft project.  Come around on Wednesday for a special post revealing what I made for Sherry and Katie‘s second Pinterest challenge!

 

And last but not least, plenty of this.

Happy days.

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TV for Anglophiles

Aside from watching our favorite hockey team dominate the competition, hubby and I are not really big TV people – especially when you compare us to the average household.  I, particularly, can go days without turning on the TV and won’t really feel like I’m missing out on anything.  Still, we do have a few favorite shows.  And since we’re confessed Anglophiles, most of our favorite shows hail from across the pond – which is a good way for us to keep up with the mother country in between trips.  Ever wondered what an Anglophile’s DVD cabinet looked like?  Here’s a list of hubby’s and my favorites…

Jeeves and Wooster – The four-season miniseries version of P.G. Wodehouse’s hilarious Jeeves books is absolutely priceless.  Hubby and I watch it together and wipe tears from our eyes from all the laughing we do at the antics one of my favorite duos.  The cast is phenomenally talented, headlined by the incomparable Stephen Fry as Jeeves and a young Hugh Laurie as Bertie.  Watching Jeeves and Wooster together has been a bonding experience for hubby and me, and not a day goes by where one or the other of us doesn’t quote or joke about the show.  We’ve also turned into Jeeves and Wooster missionaries and regularly force our houseguests to watch with us.  Some of our friends have been known to immediately purchase the series on DVD after staying with us.

Downton Abbey – This is a new discovery.  I’d heard great things about the show, which just started airing its second season over in England and has attained quite the following there.  (The second season won’t air until January here in the Colonies.)  Then my father-in-law, a proud Anglophile himself, recommended the show independently.  That was all I needed to order the first season on DVD and hubby and I have been watching it to prepare for the next season.  So far we love it and can’t get enough! 

The Office – The British version, that is.  (I also have every season of the American version of the show, since I’m a huge fan – but we’re talking about British shows here.)  Witty and hilarious, and it really drives home the truth that there are things you can get away with on British TV that would never fly on American TV.  I blame the Puritans.

Pride and Prejudice – Okay, this one is just for me, but sometimes I simply have to pop the BBC miniseries into the DVD player and swoon over Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy.  One of my favorite actors, playing the romantic hero from one of my favorite books?  And gorgeous English scenery thrown into the bargain?  Sign me up.

Top Gear – And this one just applies to hubby, since I find cars to generally be dullsville.  But even I have to admit that the Clarkson/May/Hammond trio have their moments when they can be pretty funny, and I do like the shots of the English countryside.  Hubby, however, is completely devoted to Jeremy Clarkson and hangs on the man’s every automobile-centric word.

So there you have it – that’s what’s playing in this Anglophile household.  Do you have any favorite British TV shows that I can become obsessed with?  Spill.

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Favorite Hikes

A while back, I started a blog for friends and family to keep up with hubby’s and my doings.  The blog was short-lived – I only put up five posts before I realized that I really didn’t have time to maintain two blogs, and I started to think about giving myself more room for creativity here instead.  Here’s a selection from one post that I liked from that blog, though.  It’s just a collection of pictures of some of my favorite hikes, but it’s certainly fun for me to look at and think back on some of our favorite excursions.  Enjoy!


Castlerigg Stone Circle, outside Keswick, Lake District, England


Near Keswick, Lake District, England


Buttermere, near Keswick, Lake District, England


Old Man of Storr, Isle of Skye, Scotland


Great Falls, Virginia


Point Reyes National Seashore, California

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Three Decades

So, this happens to lots of people, but it turns out it’s pretty darn hard to wrap your mind around it when it happens to you.

 I turned thirty.

 Aaaaaaaaaaah!  Actually, it wasn’t that bad.  I had the distractions of England (Cornwall, to be specific) to take my mind off the moment when the needle officially ticked from 29 to 30.  That’s sort of why I planned my trip for mid-October instead of my preferred travel month (September).  To be honest, I wasn’t sure how I would handle it.  Now that it’s behind me, I think I did about as well as could be expected.  I spent the day hiking along the beautiful cliffside South West Coast Path near St. Ives in England, enjoyed a bottle of wine with hubby and had a delicious dinner at a beachside restaurant.

This whole 30 thing is way too new for me to have a real take on it.  I don’t really feel any different at 30 than I did at 29.  Although I am making more of an effort to remember my night creme.  It’s a process.

One thing I did reflect on was how different my life is now from what it was the last time I entered a new decade.  When I turned 20… I lived in half a room in my sorority house in upstate New York.  My roommates included my little sis, a very large teddy bear (hers), and a very small teddy bear (mine).  I was a junior in college, majoring in Industrial and Labor Relations and trying to figure out where the future was taking me.  Corporate law?  Human resources management?  Political consulting?  Jail for acts of civil disobedience?  I had a brand new adorable boyfriend and I was completely crazy for him.  (Readers – I married him.  But not until I was 23.)  My hobbies included singing R.E.M. songs into my hairbrush and making up stupid nicknames for the various campus dining halls and libraries I frequented.  Life was good.

Nowadays… I live in a four bedroom house in northern Virginia, which is the second home I have owned.  My roommate is that adorable boyfriend I had just acquired at age 20, only now he’s my adorable husband of six years.  After some time spent “paying my dues,” I am finally working in my dream job, so I have a pretty good sense of what I’d like my future career to look like – progressing up the ladder at my current firm sounds just about perfect to me.  Hobbies include yoga, hiking, reading, and… um… singing R.E.M. songs into my hairbrush.  Life IS good.

At 20, I had big goals and plans for things I wanted to accomplish that decade.  And for the most part, I checked the boxes I wanted to check.  I graduated from college, moved to D.C. (a city I’d always wanted to call home) and went to law school.  I got married.  Graduated law school, passed the Bar and got my first “big girl job” as an attorney.  Left that job after two years for a brighter future in private practice.  Bought a condo, sold a condo, bought a house.  Went to Europe not once, but three times (and a few other places too).  You could say it was an eventful decade.

 

Looking ahead to the new decade… I don’t have nearly as many big-time goals and plans.  With relatively few exceptions, I mostly just want things to stay the same.  I want to stay at the same firm and in the same house.  I want to continue loving that sweet guy I married more every day.  I do have one big goal for my 30s, but I’m not ready to go public with it – you’ll all hear about it when the time is right.  But for the most part, I don’t have a long list of “things I want to accomplish in my 30s.”  When I look back at my 20s, I got quite a lot done…  Right now, I just want to take some time to enjoy being where and who I am today.

So here I am, 30, and strangely okay with it.  I have a great job, good friends, a house I love and a husband I’m still completely crazy about.  I have no idea what the next 10 years holds, and I’m sure it will bring its own set of challenges.  But I think (hope) I’m up to them.  I want to meet each day with a sense of joy and purpose.  The past 10 years has been a lot of work – lots of studying, planning, grinding, and striving to get the life I now lead.  Now, I think… it’s time to enjoy.

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Put On My Ruby Slippers…

…clicked my heels three times, and now I’m home.  That’s right, kids, I snuck off to England for the past two weeks. Did ya miss me?  I hope not – I did my best to keep you all entertained while I was away.  Speaking of which… I’m sorry for being a bit vague about the dates of my trip, but since I’ve posted pics of my home on the blog I wanted to keep my exact travel plans close to the vest for security reasons.  I’m not nearly a big enough blogger to need it, but you can’t be too cautious.  So I scheduled posts to go up in my absence and I’ve been having a fabulous time road-tripping around England for most of October.  Boom!

I’ll have plenty of details and pictures to share with you, I promise.  Hubby and I packed an epic amount into two weeks in England (and Wales, if we’re being technical, but we just day-tripped there) and I have a TON of fun experiences to report on.  All in good time, though!  First, I need to kick the jet lag and edit some photos.  Posts this week might be a little light on the content side while I regroup and recover, but I’ll try to keep to the MTRF posting schedule.

It’s good to be home!

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London 2008

Our final stop on our 2008 tour of England was the only stop in the south of the country: London.  We spent our last few days exploring the city before boarding our flight back to D.C.  It was a whirlwind couple of days (we’re excited to having more time in London on this trip, so we can explore more fully but not feel as rushed).  We packed an entire city’s worth of sights into just a couple of days…


First evening in London: we strolled across the Thames to visit Tate Modern and check out the Milennium Bridge.


The next morning, we headed straight for the Tower of London.  The skies were blue, the Beefeaters were hilarious, and the Crown Jewels were goooooooorgeous… but it was still a pretty imposing, scary place.


Tower Bridge.  I’ll get a better pic on this trip, promise!


Over to the British Library – one of my personal “musts” for any trip to London!  The highlight for me was seeing the words “Reader, I married him” written in Charlotte Bronte’s own handwriting.  Experience. Of. A. Lifetime.


This gentleman would like to welcome you to the British Museum.  Funny story: we hopped a cab on our way there.  When we told the cabbie where we were going, he said, “Ohhhh, yeah, we’ve stolen some marvelous stuff.”  That British humor, that just slays me.  (Later in the cab ride, we somehow got on the topic of Harry Potter.  The cabbie took an appraising look at hubby – who was wearing his glasses that day – and said quite seriously, “You know, you look not unlike Harry.”)


Here’s my Potter lookalike himself, taking a break on Trafalgar Square after a closing-time race through the National Portrait Gallery.  (I really wanted to see the Jane Austen portrait and rather outstayed the museum hours looking for it.  Fortunately, the museum guards are friendly and helpful, and I did get to see Jane.)  This is one of my favorite snaps of hubby – I have a 5×7 copy framed on my desk at work, so I can see my favorite guy and one of my favorite cities whenever I want.


The graceful Christopher Wren-designed church of St.-Martin-In-The-Fields.  Lovely church.  (Sorry no pictures of St. Paul’s, here, Wren fans.  We visited at twilight, which was beautiful, but not good for picture-taking.  I have some shots, but they’re so blurry they’d make you seasick.  I’ll try to do better this time.)

A grey morning at Parliament.


Well hello there, Ben.


We meandered through Westminster Abbey, which I loved – Queen Elizabeth I!  Mary Tudor!  Chaucer! – but hubby called “a cluttered monument to human vanity.”  Someone has no appreciation of history.


They’re changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace.
Christopher Robin went down with Alice.
Alice is marrying one of the Guard.
“A soldier’s life is terrible hard,” says Alice.


Another personal “must” in London – high tea at the Orangerie at Kensington Palace, a.k.a. Queen Victoria’s greenhouse.  Champagne, sculptures, miniature orange trees on each table, meringues, and… oh, right… delicious tea.  Not to be missed.


The Lady herself: Queen Victoria outside Kensington Palace.


And the gorgeous Sunken Garden, where I could have sat for hours.


And of course, no visit to Kensington Gardens is complete without stopping to say hello to Peter Pan.


On our last morning in London, we stopped by Piccadilly Circus… both so we could check it off a “want-to-see” list and so I could visit the enormous Waterstone’s bookshop to pick up reading material for the flight home.  (I ran out of pages on that trip.  Won’t happen this time.)


Cheers, London!  We’ll be back soon!

And so ended our 2008 trip to Great Britain.  Thanks for coming with me on this trip down memory lane!  The next travel series will be a recap of our 2011 circuit through southern England.  Stay tuned…