London "Must Shop" Recap

Not only is there a lot to see, do and eat in London, there is plenty of shopping to make a girl dizzy.  Our hotel was right off Piccadilly and a little back alley led out to Regent Street where the magic begins.  You can walk straight up Regent and if you're not too distracted by the other stores calling your name (Uniqlo! Zara! LK Bennett!), you will hit Oxford Circus which has (no kidding) four H&M and three Zara stores on this single street.  To B's chagrin, I wanted to go into all of them.  However for this blog post sake, I'll just recap the highlights.

If you're in London, you have to visit the mothership, Topshop.  It is 4 floors and packed full of awesome fashion.  I was particularly drawn to the lower floor which housed shoes (Swedish Hasbeens!  Kurt Geiger!) and items by local independent designers.

Liberty of London was by far my favorite department store to browse.  It is housed in a gorgeous historic building (what building in London isn't historic?) and the selection of designer bags and scarves (Alexander Wang! Mulberry!) was fabulous.  There is a whole section just for the famous Liberty prints and fabrics and I also adored the house goods and china section.

One of my favorite unique finds was completely by accident.  We were searching for the Jas MB store (it's not on Carnaby by the way) and happened upon Mor jewelry at 12 Ganton Street.  This jewelry line is made in Turkey and features gorgeous hand crafted organic looking pieces in silver, bronze and precious stones.  I got a really beautiful ring from there and it serves as a distinctive memento of our trip.

We spent Saturday afternoon at the famed Portabello Market.  Even though the crowd was crazy, it was fun to rummage through antiques and vintage offerings and try different snacks from the food vendors (fresh nutella crepes!). 

We walked through the vintage/antiques section and then the fresh flowers and fruit/vegetable market.  I wish we had more time (and energy) to make it to the Borough Market and the other market on Brick Lane.

Although I forgot to take pictures, I also want to do a special mention for a few outstanding department/grocery stores.  I always love visiting grocery stores in different countries and had a blast at Sainsbury's--their store brand chocolate is great and I filled my basket up with Cadbury goodies!  Marks and Spencer has an amazing food section as well and I particularly loved their trail mixes this time around along with their butter mints.  And finally Fortum & Mason was a grand experience with elegantly packaged clotted cream biscuits, tins of tea and coffee, and a staggering variety of fruit james and preserves.  Look out for the jam packed with tiny little strawberries!

Next post: Paris in a Day

London "Must See" Recap

There were so many things to see in London and we only had a few days so we prioritized (B: sights, me: shopping) and hit the ground running when we landed at London Heathrow Airport.

 

 Le Meridien in Piccadilly was our home base

Piccadilly Circus is always bustling with people and activity like NYC's Times Square

We spent a day on the Big Bus tour which was a really great way to see the city.  You get to see all the sights in London and if something interests you, you can stop off, take a look around, and then hop back on another bus running on the same line.  You're still doing a lot of walking but you also get to rest your feet for a bit and it's fun to sit on the top deck and take in the sights.

Trafalgar Square and its infamous lions

Crossing the Thames with Westminister and Big Ben in sight

The London Eye

Even though there were a ton of visitors, everything was run efficiently and we got through the line quickly.  It takes 30 minutes to complete the ride on the London Eye and the view is quite spectacular.

Our next stop: the Tower of London

B got his fix of old castles and I got my (window) shopping fix at the Jewel House where the Crown Jewels are held.  (no pictures allowed inside, sorry!)

And finally my last "must see" recommendation when in London is to take in a show on West End.  We went to the beautiful Apollo Victoria theater and saw Wicked which was really entertaining and one of my favorite musicals to date.  Tickets can be easily purchased for half price on the day of at any of the booths in the surrounding areas.

Next post: London "Must Eat" Recap

Wishlist Wednesday: John Derian for Target

A few great Target designer collaborations are coming out in the next month or so and I am looking forward to John Derian's third housewares collaboration.  Here are a few things I'll be checking out on Sept 5:

Trays trays trays

Cute tumblers that would be cute as a pencil cup or organizing odds and ends

And of course a lovely cake plate and 3 tier plate (I'm obsessed!)

*pics from Gilt*

Flowers of the month: March

Lovely pink tulips for the month of March!

Vintage Monday: marquee letter and table (Before and After)

Today's Vintage Monday items are also part of my Before and After series on the wonders of Krylon spray paint.

First up we have a marquee letter from the 1940s scavenged from an old theater in Neillsville, WI. I got this great letter from etsy.

Before:

I first tried to sand down the letter as much as I could before applying the spray paint but then realized that since the letter was metal and the paint red, coupled with the fact that the letter is from the 1940s, I figured I had inhaled enough lead for the day and decided to seal it all in with many coats of spray paint instead. (note to self: do not sniff letter too closely)

After:



The next item was salvaged from Goodwill. We had been searching for a little table to put in the entry way and while I keep dreaming of a marble top Saarinen, this one will stand in nicely for now.

Before:


I'm not sure what first attracted me to this table--the fact that it was $3.99 or that it had a sticker on the side that said "Property of Austin State Hospital". It was in pretty bad shape with the metal legs rusting and the top of the particle board that looked like it had been gnawed on. However, I felt like this table was worthy of a Krylon intervention and here are the results!

After:

Not too shabby huh? I chose a pearl grey for the legs and a bright tangerine for the tabletop (same as the marquee letter above). I think the colors really help give this table a new life and it now has a new home in our entryway.

I'm still trying to rework this little entry way nook. There are too many edges to keep straight--and I feel like we need something long on the bottom wall to balance everything out--maybe a little shelf?

In this picture: Our home sweet home letterpress print, a little painting by B's mom, and our newly Krylon-ed marquee letter. My new Liberty of London for Target tray sits on the new to us side table. And lovely pink tulips from Jill as March's flower of the month! (bigger pictures to follow)

Found: Liberty of London for Target favorites

I'm a little embarrassed to say that there might be some Targets in town where I am easily identified by the employees there. Not only because I've been there too frequently in the last week but also because I might have lurked quite a bit while they were still putting out the Liberty of London merchandise on the endcaps. In fact, a few of them were rather nice and let me look at the display list while I waited for them to open the boxes and place items on the shelves. Which I would then take and place in my shopping cart. I thought we could just save a step and have them load it all into my cart but that seemed presumptuous...

Here are some of my favorites from the collection:

Liberty of London for Target cake tier


Liberty of London for Target dessert plate and acrylic tray (can't figure out which one to place on the entry table)


Liberty of London for Target planter

Found: Liberty of London for Target paper goods

B and I stalked 3 Targets last night and got lucky at one of them in the stationery section. There were binders, file folders and notepads, all in these great floral patterns.

Here's what I got! These will be perfect in helping us organize our much neglected study.

Liberty of London for Target 3 ring binders

Liberty of London for Target ile folders (6 in each packet includes 3 different patterns)

Wishlist Wednesday: Liberty of London for Target

Yet another post about this collection--can you tell I'm excited? There is a lot of positive press about this collection and the popup store in NYC is garnering rave reviews. The official release date is March 14 but there have been sightings online and in some stores. Not to mention the scalpers are out in full force on ebay already. I really hope I'll get to see most of my wishlist in person at the store. I guess I'll be going to Target every day for the next week or so!

More items I'm eyeing

Spring dresses!!


Girl's dress (snagging this one for my niece!)
Clutches
Umbrella and rainboots

Wishlist Wednesday: Target designer collaborations

Hello my name is Sharon and I am a Target addict. I unsuspectingly drive there simply to buy a loaf of bread or a tube of toothpaste and suddenly I need three bags to carry all my stuff out to the car.

Not only does Target do a good job of making it seem like I need all these various items at their store, they have also ingeniously paired up with various designers and roll out their own versions of the brand. Loomstate, Alexander McQueen, Osh Kosh, Dean Harris, and Anna Sui are just some of the designers with Target collaborations.

They've really been stepping up their home collections recently and my wishlist today features first some lovely bedding from Dwell Studio. I absolutely adore the fresh aesthetics that Dwell brings to their patterns. I own two of their duvet sets (from 75% clearance sales) and the quality is great. Here's a top contender from their spring line that I suspect will be coming home with me soon:

Dwell Studio for Target Mandala Coverlet and Shams:
I am thoroughly excited about the next designer collection, Liberty of London which will be in stores March 14. Here are some items that I will definitely be scoping out:

Love this floral collection with features a teapot, serving tray, mugs, and tiered cake plate (to replace my beloved Orla Kiely for Target tiered cake plate, may it rest in peace)



And I love this peacock piggy bank!