Home sweet home..... holiday recap number 3 Vermont....great vintage shopping who would have thought

And on and on goes the holiday report. The next stop along our journey was Vermont, where I went to visit my friend Cherie (who by the way has started her own blog on felting a little while ago. You can check it out here) Cherie and I have known each other since our early teens. We started out as pen pals in school and used to send each other all kinds of bits and bobs from pictures to hair clips and whatever else young girls like at that age (and as far as I am concerned...like forever) I couldn't wait for Mr Postman to come and bring me another letter from the other side of the world. Back then Cherie was living in Washington state so the other side of the world was almost true. Anyways, the years passed, I went on my Au Pair adventure and we finally got to meet at the end of my year in America. We got a long brilliantly and our friendship got even stronger. In the years to follow we both went to College and Uni and lost touch for a while in between, we both got married, moved across country/countries and as we started planing our epic holiday I knew I had to build in a visit to see her in Vermont.

This is us today in her garden. I would love to have a view from my house like this but unfortunately the view from my house is another house. The joys of living in the UK........

Hiking in Vermont...it's a wonderful place.

More hiking

Almost on top of the hill

Shopping in Brattleboro. I loved this little fabric shop. The proprietress is this amazing lady, a bit crazy but loves and lives fabrics, buttons and haberdashery. Unfortunately all the fabrics I fell in love with were not in my price range...I am just so tight when it comes to spending money on myself. Do you find it easy blowing money on fabric for yourself? Or in fact for anything for yourself?

Bought a vintage dress each.

Very Dorothy and very Annie were the comments we got. I like that. Now go and get me some ruby slippers!!!

Sampling food. They had so much to sample there (which we obviously took advantage of and probably sampled every jam, condiment, cookie, cracker, cheese and smoked meat in this place) we didn't need any lunch that day. Yey for Vermont country store!!!

Trying hats... I really wanted a nice straw hat this year but I am glad I didn't waste any space in my luggage as it was bloody freezing most of our trip.

outside the shop

and yes we bought stuff too. Probably cost us less than all the food we ate in there. Oh well.....

And then we headed for Boston....

New old patterns

I scored a few new patterns lately. I was looking for some shirts and blouses to make a few more pieces to mix and match. Has anyone made one of them before?

Have a great weekend

Home sweet home..... holiday recap number 2 Philadelphia and Princeton

We left DC on Wednesday night after an extensive sightseeing tour and headed for Philadelphia, the place where some important American history making had taken place a few hundred years ago.

We didn't get to Philly until late so there wasn't anything on the agenda for Wednesday night, but checking in to our wonderful little B&B and maybe going out for a drink.



Check out the room. Isn't it amazing.

 If you ever plan on visiting Philadelphia and you are looking for a wonderful place to stay, check La Reserve . The little B&B is furnished with antique pieces. Each rooms' interior is unique, their staff is very friendly and the breakfast is amazing. They bake all their own scones, pastries and muffins. Very very yummy and so good I had to give them a mention on my blog.

Thursday was reserved for Philly sightseeing, which again can easily be done in a day. A very tourist friendly place with all sights within walking distance (I am mentioning this a lot as my husband and I hate sitting in cars a lot while trying to discover a place whether it's a city, national park or any other place worth visiting and along our journey we got bitterly disappointed at some point. We do however like using public transport as it isn't as stressful as driving in an unknown place....)

So anyways we went to see Penn's landing, Philadelphia's waterfront area, Independence Hall, Liberty Bell Benjamin Franklin's House (well where it once was....) Carpenter's Hall, Thomas Jefferson's house and many other places.

Some random streets in Philadelphia. The city has a very relaxed feel to it.

Independence Hall, this is where the declaration of independence was signed for those who didn't know...

Liberty bell

Husband posing with cool military ship and submarine. Unfortunately for him we didn't go in/on it due to lack of time but this wasn't the only military/navy piece of history that crossed our path and he got his boy sightseeing tour later on along the journey.

Me in front of a cute paddle boat. This would have made a great background for showing off a new creation but it was another cold day. The sun was doing it's best but the wind just wouldn't let me dress up and be comfortable. But at least I match the boat, right?

I had been to Philadelphia before but this is 10 years ago. I had just finished school in Germany and went over to the States for just over a year to work as an Au Pair. I took the opportunity to revisit some of the places I had been to back then and share my memories with Dave. It was amazing and at some points quite emotional.

After our day in Philly came to an end we headed for Princeton which is just up the road and also the place I stayed at during my time as an Au Pair. Back then the kids I looked after were Courtney (10) and John (13) and I was more of a friend, personal chef and taxi driver for them. I loved my job, host mum, host doggie and the kids and boy they are no kids anymore.

Of course I went to revisit my host family, we went to their place for dinner and stayed over night so I could show Dave the beautiful Princeton campus and the cute town. This really took me back 10 years and the fact that nothing dramatic had changed since then (apart from the kids being adults now making me realise I am NOT a teenager anymore...far from it) gave me a wonderful feeling of comfort.

My wonderful host family Nancy and Paul. They got married just after I left, I wish I could have stayed a little longer to see them getting married.

The beautiful Princeton campus. Go and see A beautiful mind with Russel Crowe. It was filmed there while I was in Princeton. It's one of my favourite movies and I still cry at the end when I watch it.

Me and a Princeton tiger, their mascot.

I only got to meet Courtney again because John is living on the west coast in Santa Barbara now. She is just as cute as I remember her. What a beautiful girl.

After a Friday morning exploring Princeton we left our car there and took the train into Manhattan where we spend the weekend until Monday. More about that next time.....

Home sweet home..... holiday recap number 1 Washington DC

Hey everyone, I am back home in the UK again. I can't believe how quickly 2 1/2 weeks go and boom it's all over like a wonderful dream only that you have pictures to remember and prove that it has all actually happened.
I hope you are all interested in our little adventure and won't get too bored by me sharing some pictures. I promise I will only pick a few and spare you the hours of boredom our friends and families will have to go through.
As the regular followers amongst you readers know, my husband had been on tour in Afghanistan for 6 months from September last year until April this year leaving us separated for an awful long time. It was a long hard time but in the mean time we planed a road trip holiday through the USA for when he returns.

The whole trip started really early on Tuesday May 3rd at about 4am after only a few hours of sleep. We had to take the train to London and the underground to Heathrow which takes forever. The flight wasn't departing until 11ish.

Here we are totally knackered after the first 4 hours of travelling and still in the country.

The flight was fun, I highly recommend Virgin Atlantic for trans Atlantic flights. They look after their passengers!!!

We arrived in DC at about 4pm local time, plenty of day time left to check out the local area. We stayed in Arlington, VA literally just across the brindge from DC and headed out to Georgetown which was lovely. It was so hot in DC, I changed into my first new dress I would like to share with you guys. I used New Look 6675, very easy and straight forward to make. I'll make this again some time I think for a quick summer dress.

paired with little navy cardi

I made view A but made separate spaghetti straps and left them really long so I can tie the straps into little bows or wear the front ones as a halter,tucking the back ones in (I hope this makes sense)

The following day was planned as a sightseeing day, checking out the Washington Mall and everything around it. Of course it rained and was miserable all day. I couldn't believe how much it had changed over night.

Watergate hotel

Lincoln memorial

Korean war memorial

Iwo Jima memorial

Capitol

of course everyone knows that one.... we saw many other memorials, government buildings and sights but as promised I will spare you the picture torture.

We also went into the American history museum. Unfortunately not for a very long time because our time in the city was so limited. I however managed to see the First ladies at the Smithsonian exhibition which I thought you might be interested in too. I got to see the first ladies debut dresses which were amazing. Here a few I managed to photograph and get a decent picture of. Enjoy: 

Jaqueline Kennedy

Martha Washington

Marmie Eisenhower

Mamie Eisenhower 1953

Lady Bird Johnson (left) 1965, Pat Nixon (right) 1969, I loved the little cropped jacket. It was beautifully encrusted in beads and crystals. Plus I love!!!! yellow...unfortunately I can't really wear yellow though.

Betty Ford (left) 1975, Rosalyn Carter (right) 1977

Nancy Reagan 1981

Hillary Clinton 1993

Laura Bush 2001

And of course Michelle Obama 2009

Washington is brilliant for sightseeing. Everything in one area, very spread out but walkable which we like. We spend a total of 8 hours walking plus a little 15 min lunch break. I was exhausted but very happy that we made the most of our time in Washington. We were on a very tight time schedule on the east coast to pack as much stuff to do and see into our itinerary so we headed to Philadelphia the same day.