Tales of a Shoebox Princess

 After the Globe Theater tour, we wandered along some London streets by the river (Thames) and Hayley took off for the London Tower. Jim and I decided to visit the Victoria and Albert museum. A sewing machine! My machines are not this pretty, but I bet they have more stitch options.  I'd like to ride around in this. I would need a ball gown though because if you are riding around in a carriage like this, you are going to a ball where you might meet a prince. I wonder how bumpy the ride would be? I would wear these!  I don't know how women managed daily function in this kind of dress (although it would be nice to have bumpers like that in public places to keep people from invading my personal space). How can you even sit down? I guess this is the same type of dress all folded up. And that is one small waist. My waist would only fit in the skirt part of that dress. The decor is almost overwhelming. After the museum and a bit of a rest, we met back up with Hayley for dinner ...

 I like a good breakfast, and we had some good ones. Eggs and salad! Jim's Egg Benedict with Spinach Hayley had a whole plateful of breakfast My eggs benedict with bacony ham. Or hammy bacon. While Katie and Christian and children went their way (Tower of London), Jim, Hayley, and I went to the Globe Theater! I would love to put on a costume that included this underlayer! But I would not want to wear it as actual real-life every day clothing. Although I would totally wear this all day long.  Such literary history has been made on this spot!  The current Globe theater is not the original structure, but it's a great place to hear about literary, political, and societal history that made this spot the tourist draw that it is. We didn't see a play (just took a tour) but it would have been cool. Maybe if we ever go back, we can plan for a performance here. Nobles who wanted to be "seen" sat above the stage the poor people could stand where we were standing. And they in...

After the Princess Diana memorial playground, it was time for me to fulfill a bucket list item, visit Liberty of London. I've heard of Liberty fabrics, which are expensive here in the states, and I'd wanted to see their stock in London. We had an afternoon tea to attend close by later in the afternoon, so it was just a matter of finding the building and having a look around. I bought 2 meters of 2 kinds of fabric, which they very nicely wrapped up individually into little cellophane bags. I don't have photos of me looking at all the fabric, but Katie does. The store isn't a fabric store, it's more of a home goods departments store. The fabric is on the 4(?)th floor. Katie and the girls found a nice chair to sit on while I perused the bolts of chic fabric. It's a lovely building! with some very interesting lobby art!  Our afternoon tea was at the Sanderson hotel. We dressed up a little bit for it. The theme was Alice and Wonderland. Coloring pages and crayons wer...

Thursday morning, Jim and Hayley took off for Liverpool, something about some popular music group from the 60s. Fine, go worship at the feet of songs written so very many years ago... Christian and Jackson took off for Portsmouth to look at seafaring vessels. So Katie and I had charge of the girlies. Since we were right across the street from Kensington Gardens, Princess Diana memorial playground, we thought it would be nice to let the girls spend some time playing rather than sightseeing.  The Princess Diana playground does not disappoint!!! Adults are only allowed in with kids, and kids are only allowed in with a supervising adult. This is a great policy because there aren't any unsupervised teenagers making trouble and hogging equipment. The playground is very large! And it's sectioned off so that the large space isn't overwhelming.  Emma and Caroline with their new stationery purchased that very morning on our way to search for a particular snack that Katie was told she...