England Wrap-up!

Bit and pieces from vacation:

A huge thanks to Saira, James, and their families for an amazing time.  Everyone was sooo gracious and nice!

I spent my last night in England at the Stoneleigh B&B, near the Bristol airport.  If you ever find yourself in Bristol, this place is sooo nice.  The owners are a retired couple who bought the huge house after retiring, fixed it up, and then decided they need something to do.  So they opened a B&B.  (Note: the tea try in each room is stocked with Kit Kats if you need further incentive to book.).  They also raise chickens (a book on the bookshelf was entitled “Hen and the Art of Chicken Maintenance….that made me laugh)  and the eggs for breakfast are about as fresh as can be.  Also, they have cable.  I really don’t watch a ton of TV (shocking, I know) but the Meryan House had four channels and they all seemed to play CSI: Miami 24/7.  And a nice little juxtaposition…Gossip Girl on the TV, English Countryside out the window.

I firmly believe that the grossest, germiest air ever is airplane air.  I was always getting sick when I travelled until I discovered the neti-pot like three years ago.  Now I travel with it or some other nasal rinse thing (sounds lovely, huh?).  And I never get sick.  I have forgotten it twice in that time and gotten sick both times.  This trip was one of those times.  I realized I forgot it midflight from Newark to Bristol.  Every time someone coughed, I cringed.  I have been Neti-Potting like crazy since I got back.

I will now forever associate this trip with Michael Jackson dying.  I was never really a fan of his and found him generally creepy but the news of his death was breaking as I landed at Reagan on Thursday and everyone was gathered around the TVs in the airport bars watching.  I always content with my list of people’s deaths who I will always remember exactly where I was and what I was doing being limited to JFK Jr. and Princess Diana. 

I seriously have no idea why but the manure smell in England is extremely potent.  Like make-your-eyes-water potent.  And while I do live in the city now, I grew up in Farm Country USA, so I know manure smells. 

I want to wear my hat again soon.  But I think the people at Panera might look at me funny if I wore it on a coffee run.

I have written separate posts about each of my England adventures that you can either scroll down and read or click off of these links.

The Getting  There Nightmare

A Trip to Cheddar

Taunton (the city I stayed in)

Meryan House Hotel (where I stayed)

Car Boot Sale

The Pre-Wedding Celebration Celebration

The Wedding Celebration

My Wedding outfit (clearly a must read)

Stonehenge

Scrapbookin’ in the UK

Shopping in London

Marks & Spencer Cupcakes

London (shopping) Calling!

I had planned for one day in London to shop.  I had already been to London in the past and hit most of the tourist spots and really didn’t feel the need to do it again.  Plus, standing in line at tourist hotspots during peak tourist season on a hot day would not make for a happy Rebecca.  Trust me.

So I just wanted to shop.  And eat.  Or Eat Shop London, like this book I found at Anthropologie so nicely summarized. 

Saira joined me for the day and we both boarded the Berry’s coach bus which is a quick and cheap way to get into London.  I came fully prepared with my signature oatmeal mix.  I always travel with a bag of this stuff because you just never know what the food options will be.  And you can almost always get a cup of hot water somewhere.

Harrods!

I rather firmly believe that (window) shopping at Harrods is good for the (poor) soul.  I love looking at the pretty dresses and clothes and other crazy luxury items. 

What was jarring to me was walking into the home goods section (on the way to the loo) and seeing a giant “CLEARANCE” sign.  I prefer to think that things like clearance don’t happen at Harrods lol. 

What I had not been into during my previous visit to Harrods was the food hall.  Rooms and rooms of decadent foods and groceries.  I mean, who doesn’t need a $270 platter of chocolate. 

Also, amusing to me was that tucked away on shelf out of view of all the luxurious foods was a shelf filled with American cereals like corn pops, coco-puffs, and the like.    Since I think some people actually do their regular grocery shopping there, I guess that makes sense?

As you can imagine, I immediately zeroed on the luscious display of cupcakes! 

Amazing!  I picked out three mini cupcakes: Oreo, Strawberries and Cream, and Coconut. 

Since there was sign stating “Please do not eat food purchased here on site,” I had to take them to go.  Check out the adorable to-go package.  Who need the Tiffany Blue Box when I can have the fuchsia and blue Harrods Cupcake Box?!?!

The cupcakes were completely delicious!  And completely sturdy.  They were purchased early in the day and survived a trek across the city.

Whole Foods London!

Thanks to my weekend job (er, one day per weekend job) at the Whole Foods here in D.C., I am always fascinated by Whole Foods everywhere.  Also, I work at quite possibly the smallest Whole Foods on the planet, so I get overwhelmed the space in the larger ones.  And the Whole Foods in London is HUGE.  Like three floors huge!

And they have a make your oatmeal (er, muesli) bar!  I want one!

And the department that is the equivalent of where I work was amazing!  So jealous!

I was perhaps most excited that my employee discount card worked there as well. HA!

Boden

Okay, I love Boden so much!  How much?  I have a monthly meeting at work about very serious things.  But thanks to me mentioning it enough, Boden is now referenced by other with regularity during this meeting.  I consider it one of my greatest work accomplishments. 

Boden is only available by catalog in the States and it is seriously great.  I kind of hope it stays that way.  Or else the Boden Effect will be right up there with the Ann Taylor Loft Effect or Banana Republic Effect whereby if one buys something at either of these stores, you can almost guarantee that three other people on your Metro train will be wearing the same thing.

They do, however, have a store in London.  So I HAD to go there.  The store was seriously in the most bizarre location.  Like way way way out in the suburbs (yes, my suburb detection and rejection sense has international capabilities) in a really sort of industrial neighborhood.  Not at all where I expected it to be. 

But it was such a neat store! 

And I found this adorable cardigan!  Love how the preppiness of the polka dot is given a little sass by the mismatched ribbon down the button column.

Marks & Spencer Cupcakes: Delish!

Okay, I was not expecting the English to be good at cupcakes.  Scones, yes.  Cupcakes, eh.  But I was SOOO wrong.  And proven wrong twice on this trip.

When I saw these Saucy Strawberry Cupcakes in the Marks & Spencer Food Hall, I HAD to have them (FYI: Food halls are mini grocery stores attached to department stores.  It would be like if Macy’s had a grocery section in it.)

The cupcakes was a super light vanilla cake with a strawberry filling and the best whipped frosting.  SOOO good!  Two thumbs up!

Crafting Across the Pond

Only I would go to England and end up at a scrapbooking' party!  Saira’s sister-in-law Sharon was hosting a Stampin’ Up party and I was invited! 

Our project was to make mini photo albums using a bunch of stamps and pretty papers.

Everyone hard at work….

Saira got very into the stampin’…literally.  (Note:  The Giovanni Hand Wipes that I raved about are also really good at removing stamp ink.)

The finished product!

Stonehenge Rocks!

Ever since I saw National Lampoon’s European Vacation, I have always wanted to see Stonehenge.  I really know very little about Stonehenge (except what I just read on Wikipedia) but I have always wanted to see it. 

First and foremost, it really is out in the middle of nowhere.  There are a few highways (er, motorways) nearby but they are working to make those roads go underground so that the original environment of Stonehenge can be restored.

The fields surrounding Stonehenge…

We were there the day after the Summer Solstice.  Aka, the day that 35,000 hippies party at Stonehenge.  From the trash in the surrounding fields and the state of the few hippies left on site, I think they may have enjoyed themselves.

Stonehenge is really really amazing when you think about how it was done with no modern day tools.  It’s really cool!  You can’t get that close to it though, boo!

The entire time we were there, I kept seeing all the people people seemingly talking away on their cell phones.  And it was driving me crazy.  I hate cell phone rudeness and c’mon you are standing right in front of a world wonder, what on earth could be so important for you to talk about. 

Then I realized they were listening to the audio guide.  Oops.

And as I walked through the crowds, I kept hearing the name “Chevy Chase” mentioned.  So I guess I was not the only one fulfilling my National Lampoon’s European Vacation dream. :)

Looking glam, English Style

Since I do not get to dress like this every day (but seriously how fun would it be to dress like this more often) and since it’s my blog, here’s a little bit of info on my ensemble for the wedding celebration!

The dress, oh the dress, is by Kay Unger and was the Neiman Marcus purchase that I blogged about months ago.  Gosh, I LOVE this dress, so much that I cannot wait to wear it again. 

The black pashmina was a last minute pre-trip purchase that I would have froze without.

The accessories (beyond the hat) were kept super simple (because of the hat) and was a simple ring from my FAVORITE U.K. accessories store, Accessorize.

And the hat…..was by me!!!! With some help from my mom!  I knew that I wanted an extravagant hat for this soiree but my online and instore led to me to one conclusion: fancy hats are expensive!  I knew that I could do this on my own…somehow.  So I created a packet of printouts of hat ideas from online and set to work.  First, I found a simple sunhat at Target for like $12.  Then, I knew I wanted a specific type of feather in the hat, the stripped coque feather (a rooster tail feather) so I found those online and ordered them.  For the flower, it had to be the peony (my second favorite flower after the lilac) so my mom set about purchasing every silk peony flower in the Green Bay area.  My mom also created the satin black backdrop (there was mucho debate between the satin back or a netting back, but the satin had much more dimension).  A little glue gun, a little thread, and wa-la!   I think it turned out amazing!!!!

 

So much fun dressing this posh!  Bring on the Kentucky Derby so I can do this again!!!!

The Wedding Celebration!!!!

Okay, finally, the reason for the trip: The Wedding Celebration of James and Saira.

Saira’s mom made her dress, and it was so beautiful!

James and Saira were married in October in Las Vegas, a wedding that most of us were able to view live online (ah, the joys of technology…and Vegas). They wanted to hold a party to gather friends and family from both sides to meet and celebrate the marriage. An afternoon tea was held at the Mount Somerset hotel just outside of Taunton. The building and gardens were soooo beautiful (even on a chilly and windy afternoon.)

So pretty, right?

Pre tea, the guests in their finery mingle and drink champagne.

Saira and me! (And my hat….more on that later!)

Scenes from the tea (aka, Rebecca gets obsessed with taking in the details at weddings). It was so beautiful!!!! So English. I felt like I was in a BBC tv show or something.

Wedding Cake!!!! Fruit Cake is the traditional wedding cake flavor in England. Sponge cake is the second choice. Thankfully (for my cake loving self), they went with Sponge Cake.

Cake cutting!

James’ mother made these adorable little boxes for guests to bring their cake home in.

Okay, this will be the first wedding on this blog that I will feature a toilet in but seriously, I have to. The Mount Somerset is a seriously swanky place. And the bathroom are seriously swanky as well. Even the toilets….check it out! The inside of the bowl is painted with a floral print.

A floral print that matches the one on the outside.

Every detail of the tea was so amazing! Even the toilets. :)