London Day 3 - Afternoon

In the afternoon on Friday, we went to the Tower of London. We were tempted to take a nap beforehand, but one of our fellow travellers cautioned against it - we might never want to get up until very late! So we went ahead to do some more sightseeing, and were glad of it.

Kristin and I had read a book about The Tower prior to our journey, so had a frame of reference to draw on which made it much more interesting. Here are Scenes From The Tower:

Castle bedroom - how lovely!

Kristin by the guard

Tower raven - we got thisclose


Kristin tries her hand at archery




Kristin and me - goofing off in very heavy helmets!

London Trip Day 3 - Our First Day In London - Morning

We arrived in London very early in the morning (their time). We had much difficulty trying to sleep on the plane. Kristin didn't even bother trying. We found out after we landed the the seats have these little drop-down thingys on the seat back so you can lean your head on them to sleep. Oh well. British Airways is a very accomodating airline. We loved their service.

We boarded our "coach" (don't you dare call it a bus!) with Nigel (Nigel - can you get a more English name?!). He was wonderful, a former policeman and now a totally fun guide. Here are some of the sights we saw:

The Classic Double-Decker Bus

Prince Albert Memorial


Buckingham Palace with Amy in the Foreground


Buckingham Fountain, with some of the others on our tour

Kristin took these shots of British phone booths. She found them charming, plus they reminded us both of the police box in the Doctor Who series (with David Tennant - we just love the episodes with him as the Doctor, but alas, did not run into him in London!):

London Trip Day One and Two - Stopover in New York

We arrived in New York on a Wednesday, having flown from O'Hare airport in Chicago that morning. We were travelling with Amy, who was to share a hotel room with us before we all travelled the next day to England.

We met up with Kelly and Sarah for a wonderful dinner at an Italian restaurant. Lots of talk of fashions, sewing and movies. It was so nice to get to know friends from the sewing forum, especially since Kelly was not going to London with us (She is a native New Yorker who acted as our hostess and guide in our stopover in New York). Then we walked around Times Square.

Kelly and me in Times Square

The next day we went fabric shopping at Mood Fabrics. On the way, we saw this interesting sculpture:

I felt positively Lilliputian! Like I was ready to sew buttons on Gulliver's vest!

After our shopping trip (Mood Fabrics has tons of black and white striped linen for those searching for fabric for a Titanic Boarding Suit. I would have bought some, but already have a stash of black and white stripe Boarding Suit fabrics in boxes in my basement, waiting in vain to be made up), we went to Central Park. How lovely, in all the noise and cacophony that is New York City, to find this oasis of beauty.

Kristin and me, standing on a bridge in Central Park

(Note: I have more photos, but am waiting for approval of the ladies pictured before posting them.)

London!

Kristin and I have returned from our trip to London with the 2009 Sense & Sensibility Costume Tour. We are a bit jet-lagged and both of us are still on London time - going to bed very early, waking at the crack o' dawn. I will be posting our photos in chronological order during the next few days (can't do it all at once, too overwhelming!). So keep watching over the next few days to see the photos of our fabulous trip!

The Harvest Is Beautiful

Dark purple beets, two tiny tomatoes in a child's red wagon!

Passport Wallets

Kristin and I are taking a trip to London in September. I was inspired to make passport wallets after seeing ones made by a fellow seamstress on the Sense & Sensibility Sewing Forum. I thought this would be a good project for Kristin and me to do together. I had started teaching her to sew several years ago, but our plans were derailed when she broke her arm in two places. We just never got back to it. So this was a golden opportunity. The pattern was originally in Adorn magazine. It was fairly easy, although there were a few directions left out/"Oops's" (such as when the directions left out the turning under the 1/2" raw edges after turning the credit card holder, and to turn under the raw edges on both sides of the accent stripe), but altogether it was a very nice pattern.

It was fun! Kristin was a quick study and did most of her wallet herself. I did the sewing of the vinyl driver's licesnse pocket, which was a challenge for me as well. I used a roller foot, specially made for sewing vinyl and leather, but it was still difficult to keep it straight. (The trick was to start sewing the seam from the middle of the seam instead of at the end, then turn it around and sew the other half of the seam.)

I chose dark blue with floral for my colors; Kristin wanted more subdued colors, so chose black and dark blue. The photos were not cooperating. We tried many times, but kept getting glare or bad colors. I really have to have someone teach me how to use a digital camera properly.

My wallet

Kristin's

The outsides

Updates

A couple of quick updates. Hopefully photos will follow at some point. Here is what we have been working on:

1. Kristin and I made our passport wallets for our upcoming trip in September.
2. We have begun the arduous task of cleaning and organizing the basement. This includes more uncluttering and purging, repainting the concrete floor, demolishing an old and inefficient tool bench that Paul has hated since we moved in, purchasing another, larger wire shelf to store Paul's tools, and finally ordering a train table for Robert's model railroad, that we have been waiting to set up for several years (it will go in the spot where the inefficient tool bench was). Cleaning a basement is an awful job to do, but already things are looking nicer, cleaner, fresher, and more organized. This makes me very happy!
3. Paul put up the wood molding around the inside of the bathroom door. All that is left is to install the little glass shelf/towel bar above the toilet (which I ordered yesterday).
4. I am happy to report that Tyler is now almost completely toilet trained, including night training. Within a week of the Potty Party he was completely day trained. I recommend the potty training method we used to anyone!