Love 4: Christmas Around Town

I've been enjoying Christmastime around London. I thought you might like to see some of the city's seasonal curiousities.

Carnaby Street is doing a tribute to their 1960s past.

A very strange street performer made me smile.

Covent Garden has some lovely topiary.

And a new friend has come down my chimney. Looks like she's here to stay!

Love 4: Bristol, England

I've been spending some work time in Bristol, in the Southwest of England. It's been so nice, I thought I'd share some photos.

In Bristol, even the grafitti is color coordinated!

The bridges go between parts of the city and National Trust land, for biking and hiking.

It's very hilly, with beautiful houses that overlook views of the Avon river and the English countryside.

And friends you love greet you in the lobby. Can you guess where I've been working?

Love 4 Craft Shoppes in London

Would you like to know my favorite fabric and craft stores here in London? They're different from American craft stores because they're much more expensive, with generally much higher quality goods. When you buy a meter of fabric or a skein of wool in one, it will come taped in tissue, and make you feel like you've bought something really special. Here's where I buy my specialty supplies:

Kleins sells trimmings, buttons, elastics, and other haberdashery. When I paid with my debit card once, the nice employee said, "This is your shoppe, Ms. Klein!" Yes, please!

Beautiful fabric, vintage french clothes pins, and old English knitting needles. What else could you want in a cloth house?

Loop sells very posh yarns. Every other weekend, I will be there selling them to you!

The 3rd Floor is Mecca to any fan of Liberty fabrics. Besides that, it's the most beautiful department store in the whole world. Come and visit, and enjoy these great places!

Love 4: My Stuff!

Many of you know I was more than reluctant to move to Portland, Oregon way back in March 2007. In the end, I did it to try something completely new and make a certain boy happy. Besides the project on which I worked being one I'm really proud of and having met amazingly lovely people, I was truly overwhelmed by the thrift store scenario.

You know I love thrift stores, and I didn't think it got better than the suburbs of Chicago, but Portland was a new level. And I was constantly at it. For a person who moved there in 1 suitcase, I came out with a crate. I'm still loving the stuff I collected, and I'll wait for you to visit me to see the full extent. Here are 4 of my favorites.

1. Vintage Craft Books. I collected them before, and I continue to collect them. They're so full of ideas, and the photography is just amazing. At some point I'll have to show you my favorite pages. This is a great blog I've been following of a fellow connoisseur. I've arranged my books in a rainbow, the same way the thrift stores arrange clothing. As if you go in there saying "I desperately need something purple to wear." Well, maybe you do!


2. Vintage Sewing Patterns. And for $.99! There is a 10 year-old who will one day don this Halloween costume handmade by me. It could be your child. You should be so lucky.


3. Framed Pinecone Owl. This was $2.99 and has a sticker on the back that says "Handcrafted by Wanda and Doyle Eaves, Salem, Oregon". I love your work! I love that you got stickers printed, and that maybe your art didn't sell, so you gave it to charity. Or could one of your customers have tired of this gem?! Not possible.

I waited for these cannisters to go on sale at the thrift shop, only because I had no room for them and knew I didn't need them. They still contain nothing, as I always forget what I put in them, and never find it again. But click on them, I beg you. They're AMAZING and I just love owning them. They're 1970s Sears, which you can tell from this blog post was something very special, indeed. Oh, to be old enough in the 1970s to shop for myself! Then again, I who needs time travel? There's always Portland, Oregon.

Love 4 England: Strange Food

I love going to grocery stores in foreign countries. You never know what you'll see! One of my fondest memories of a trip to Austria was going to a grocery store with my friend's family. They put what I thought was a fire extinguisher in the basket, and it turned out to be cheese. In moving to England, I've noticed these incredible foods lining the shelves:

Branston Pickle is chopped gherkins, in a sort of thick and vinegar-y sauce. It's sweet, and almost always paired with cheese in sandwiches. It must be a pickeling idea that's a remnant of World War II, and good lord, is it nice. This is the "small chunk" variety, my personal favorite for ease of spreading.


HP Brown Sauce was my first ever gift from Mr. Jones. I had no idea what brown sauce was, and the next day a bottle was waiting for me on my desk. It's put on chips (aka fries), but mostly on breakfasts, "full English breakfasts" to be exact (see below). It's sort of like ketchup, but made of dates and molasses! Best of all, the company is called HP, which of course stands for House of Parliament, with an illustration on the front. Shall we call him Gordon Brown Sauce?


Speaking of English breakfasts, they're another favorite of mine. Called "The Full English" or "Fry-ups", they're served on every corner of this island, at any time of the day. It's a set menu of eggs, baked beans, sausage, bacon, tomato, and toast, served with some other bits, or a vegetarian variety (if you're lucky), and a cup of tea (of course). This lovely institution has morphed into a canned variety for about £1. It reminds me of that gum in "Willy Wonka" that lets Violet taste a three course meal. That, or dog food.


And finally chips, or as they call them here, "crisps". You have never seen a country of people who love potatoes, and more specifically potato chips, like English people do. I was in a corner shop the other day and literally half the place was just crisps. As you can see by these flavors, they're getting more experimental by the day. I haven't tried the squirrels yet, but they are vegetarian, and since I love fake meat, these could be right up my alley.

So if you see any of these foods in your international food aisle, my friends, buy them up! Are there any strange foods you particularly enjoy?

Love 4 London: Part 1

I often get asked why I love London. My 97 year-old grandmother always asks me, "What do they have that we don't have?" and countless Brits ask "Why do you want to live here?". It's the little things you love about a city that make it wonderful to live there, isn't it? I've decided to do a few sequences, 4 snaps each, of things I love about the cities in which I find myself.

These are the canals of North London that span the city East to West. They're filled with birds and barges (on which people live) and lined with pavements where many people walk, bicycle, and picnic.

The houses and apartment buildings along the canals aren't like others in London, often incredibly modern, but still with a maritime feeling...

The canals lead all the way to beautiful Regent's Park, to an area on the water called "Little Venice", and to the London Zoo!

Whenever I see a staircase from the street like this one, I skip the subway or bus and love to "take" the canal.