Day 5 - Kensington Palace, Tea at the Orangery, Museum of London, Fortnum & Mason's...

Tuesday, September 15th - "Rain, Rain, Rain"...Can you guess the weather for today? Yep, it rained and it poured. I rest assure you that the rain didn't damper our fun for today. In the morning we toured Kensington Palace, the home of young Queen Victoria. *sighs*  Of course, you are all simply dieing for pictures! :-) Thanks to the change in the policy of taking pictures inside the palace I do have some (before this change you were unable to take any pictures).

Sunken garden and Kensington Palace

The Orangery

Sewing supplies from the Dressmakers Room

AH!!! Look at all of the embroidery thread! The colors! The selections! :-)

Some pretty lace...

Princess Di's dress

More of Princess Di's dresses

Plus some more...

And still one more.

Ah! My favorite section...The Last Debutantes section (1950s)!

 

I really like the color and draping details of this dress!

This one came out blurry.

 

 

 

See the green shoes? A girl dyed them to match her dress for the debutant party in the 50s.

Vintage Vogue Pattern Books. I would love to have the chance to look through these!

Vintage Vogue glove pattern and gloves.

Part of the palace

Queen Victoria's Bedroom

Court Dress

Ladies Court Dress

Staircase in Kensington Palace

Tea Table Settings at the Orangery

Part of the Tea Room

Our First Course - Smoked salmon with cabbage and mandarin oranges

Our guest speaker, Cathy Hay of Your Wardrobe Unlock'd and Cassie trying on Cathy's show-and-tell outfit.

After tea we all headed over to the Museum of London, were we saw some breathtaking things! I can't share with you any of the pictures because of copyright reasons. I will tell you what we saw, a lovely pair of light blue stays and light blue shoes. A 1780s Gown, 1820s coat (I forgot the real name), and a drool worthy, jaw-dropping Edwardian gown with seas of foamy lace. :-) Can you tell I like the Edwardian Gown? ;-)

After the museum Katrina, my mom, and I went to Fortnum & Mason. My mom and I wanted to see the place as it was founded in 1707 and Katrina wanted to buy some Turkish Delight for her brother. During this past current week, I have been wishing I bought some too, as we have become huge Narnia fans! Reading and listening to the Focus on the Family Radio Drama of all of the books in one week. :-)

I will close with my snack for the evening: Organic Whole Milk & Belgian Chocolate Cake w/chocolate frosting and white chocolate rolls on top. Yummy!

~Ashley

Day 3 - Sunday in London

Sunday, September 13th - A group of us went to Metropolitan Tabernacle (home to the famous 19th-century preacher, Charles Spurgeon) in the morning for church. After church my mom and I went to the Imperal War Museum, which was great! I took a lot of pictures of the children clothing from WWII. I'll share some of my favorites. 

 

 

 

 

After we were done with the Imperial War Museum we walked to the Westminster area. It was delightful to see The Houses of Parliament, Big Ben or Bell Tower, Westminster Abby, Oliver Cromwell Statue, etc...

 

After we were done walking around Westminster we hopped on the tube for our hotel. Once we arrived at our hotel, we rested for a few minutes before heading out once again. We decided that we would walked to Kensington High Street to peek into Laura Ashley and Monsoon.

I saw several cute coats/jackets in Monsoon, many which I would love to recreate.

I would LOVE to copy this coat. It has tuck pleats, rick-rack, and other lovely accents.

In Laura Ashley I saw many delightful things. Dress and skirts (which were below my knee), tops and blouses, and many coats! I saw so many coats that I loved on the trip, that they could fill a closet! Oh my!

After we were done window shopping, we headed over to Kensington Gardens. We walked by several things of intrest.

Kensington Palace & Queen Victoria Statue

Peter Pan Statue

Some Mallard Ducks

 Albert Memorial

 

 Entrance to the Park

Royal Albert Hall

 Kensington Gardens

Red Phone Booth

A side street in Kensington

Another View of the Same street

Still another view...

Oh, the street name is, Queen's Gate Terrace. :-)

After all that walking we were done for the day. Our feet hurt by the end of the day and the pain lasted all the way till we got home on Thursday. :-(

I have only two more days to post about. My that trip went by fast!

Till next time!

~Ashley