Some of my favorite pictures from London

Everything seemed to be in bloom when we arrived. Everything. Even the chestnut trees, which I'm not sure I've ever seen an actual chestnut tree in bloom before. They're very much like buckeye trees, which we do have in plenty around here, but it filled my heart with delight to see actual chestnut trees. Almost all of the chestnut trees in America died of the blight early in the last century. I guess there are some around, but they're hybrid Chinese and they're mostly all very young trees. Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park were both filled with massive, obviously ancient chestnut trees. So beautiful and magnificent.









We went to Covent Garden a couple of times this trip. My husband loves the buskers. There's tons of great shopping in the area too, including Cath Kidston. In the Covent Garden Market they have lots of lovely little stalls with handcrafted goods and vintage and antique wares. One could spend hours shopping in this neighborhood.




The bluebell woods in Kew Gardens are just enchanting. We spent the whole day wandering the grounds. When the bluebells are out, there's this haze of blue in every clearing it seems, under every tree, every where you look. Kew is such a magical place anytime, with trees from every corner of the globe and fantastic greenhouses, from so very Victorian palm houses to super modern desert houses.




This little staircase is in Hampton Court, the biggest of the three palaces I visited this time. Built by Cardinal Woolsey for his own residence and later claimed by Henry the VIII for his royal court, Hampton Court is simply sprawling. It's half Tudor, half Baroque, because William III tore part of the Tudor palace down, and rebuilt it, using Christopher Wren as his architect, intending for the palace to rival Versailles in size and magnificence. Thankfully, he ran out of money and never finished, so we have a remaining Tudor portion.

This picture is a little hallway off the part of the palace William III built and it leads up into the private residences. Even though no royalty have lived in the palace for three hundred years or so, it's still lived in. There are dozens of grace and favour apartments in this castle still. Can you imagine living in not just a palace, but in a palace owned by Henry the VIII? Also, I love the blue green of the woodwork, just the right tranquil shade of it.

This is the Chapel of the Old Royal Naval College, originally built as the Greenwich Hospital, a residence for injured and pensioned sailors of the Royal Navy. It's beautiful, isn't it? Just like a piece of Wedgwood china.

We spent a whole day at Greenwich, taking the Thames river taxi to get there. Which is about the most civilized public transportation option ever, by the way, with a decent coffee shop right on board! We saw baroque wonder after wonder, from a formal dining room with the most amazing painted ceiling to a small palace built for Queen Anne. But the chapel remains my favorite.







This carousel is on the south bank of Thames, near the London Eye and Jubilee Gardens. It just makes me happy to think about and too look at this picture of it.

Just a quick post

I just turned 39 and I'm thinking about making up a 40 before 40 list of things I want to do before my next birthday. 40 wonderful, maybe wacky, definitely beautiful things I want to try that I haven't before. It's a lot to think up and about.

So, until then, I'll leave with a sneak peak of my London pictures. Bluebells, from the bluebell woods at Kew Gardens. God, I love Kew. It's simply one of the most beautiful (man made) places on the planet.

I love this

Via Apartment Therapy who got it from the flickr user Cottonblue. And I just love this room. I actually love all the pictures of her home, especially the pictures of her blue and white kitchen. Make sure to follow the link and check them out. It's all so soft and granny chic. I'm really loving the granny chic these days.

What's interesting to me though is the vociferous hatred so many of the posters of Apartment therapy had for this picture. They hated the fact that they didn't match mostly. And I have to say, yeah, they don't match, but to my eye, they go together. The soft colors complement each other and the lines of the bookcases even work together.

To me, this row of bookcases has more style and more soul than the row of matched Billy bookcases with glass doors that I have in my condo.

So, what do you think? Cluttered and mismatched? Or sweet, unique granny chic?

five blogs I read every day

Beyond the obvious ones, that is. I mean, beyond the usual big name design blogs like Apartment Therapy, SF Girl by the Bay, Decor 8 and Posey Loves Cozy, which of course I read everyday, but so does most everyone else. These are blogs that I like to think of as my little secret.



Does This Pen Write?. Devoted to office supplies, a great, secret love of mine, and particularly, pens.


Bohemian Hellhole. No, it's not updated every day, sadly, but I check every day to see if there's something new. I've never run across a design blogger who's aesthetic quite matches mine so closely.


Dottie Angel. It took me a little while to get used to the center justified format and the whimsicle, meandering text, but I just love every picture from this blog. She's doing a giveaway right now of the most gorgeous crocheted pillow. I didn't enter, because I can make my own, but so inspirational.


Lovely Bicycle. I think we all need more lovely bikes in our lives. And I just adore the pictures of the blogger's Pashley Princess.


The Mogg Blogg. Like Go Fug Yourself, but for interior design. Always screaming funny. Sometimes just makes you scream.

five things I love right now

I love this Sweet Garland Venice Dream. I might hang it up with my string of cherry blossom lanterns. Or I might wrap presents with it. Or just spend hours looking at all the little maps on each dot.












I love this vintage princess phone. When I was a little girl, what I wanted more than anything to complete my strawberry and red and white gingham themed room was a white princess phone. My mom, quite rightly I suppose, didn't think a little girl of nine needed her own phone in her room. Now that I'm grown up, we don't have a land line and rely on our cell phones, but there's still a part of me that thinks it would be more glamorous, more elegant to place my calls on a princess phone.









This bicycle pendant would be just what I need to complete today's outfit. I love jewelry which lets the world know about my great love for my bike and lets me carry a little bit of the freedom and joy of biking with me when I'm stuck at work or in the store or wherever. This particular pendant is already sold, but etsy being the magical thing that it is, I'm sure the seller would be happy to make me, or you, a pendant very similar.






This garden party bunting is so cheerful. It's all things springy and cheerful and bright. I think I would hang this one in my bedroom, once I've finished my new vintage sheet patchwork quilt. This particular bunting is sold, but it would be so easy to make my own out of one of the sellers fat quarter bundles of reclaimed vintage fabrics. How cute would it look if you used lots of bright stripes with the florals?







We all need a little more Patience in our lives. I love Lisa Congdon and I love this painting. Perhaps it's my favorite of hers ever. It manages to make me smile as it inspires. How gorgeous are her color choices, right?

Back from vacation

Hello Lovelies-

I had a brilliant time in London and took tons of photos. Over 500 in fact. I'm just dreading going through them to see if any are worthwhile. It was kind of freeing, having my digital camera and the huge chip and a fully charged battery, knowing I could take pretty much as many photos as I wanted. Still, going through them all. That'll be a task and a half. The computer has already spent ten minutes copying the files from my camera to my folder and it's not done yet. Maybe there's a more efficient way to get pictures from folder a to folder b, but I don't know it.

I'm sorry I didn't make a post about my planned trip. Mr. Campion has ideas about internet privacy and particularly didn't want random people on the web to know that our place would be empty for nearly two weeks. I guess he has a point.

In any case, soon there will be pictures of bluebell woods and palaces and a summer house folly that's bigger than most people's homes, but was built so a queen could have picnics in the woods.

Two new projects

Both blankets. Of course, I need more blankets around this place like I need more holes in the head, but I can't help it, the crochet has me (ha ha) hooked. But so far I've only crocheted one afghan for the living room, this will be the second and I don't think you get into that special kind of crazy category until you've done more than five per room, right?

The stack of fabric is a bundle of vintage sheet fat quarters that I bought from Etsy. I'm slowly cutting them into 4 inch charm squares and the plan is to sew them into a simple quilt. I'm a little worried, because the last quilt I made was about fifteen years ago and I'm not known for patience in sewing. And a full size quilt takes plenty of patience. More pictures as I get further on.