Scrapbook Saturday

This is the layout I did a couple weeks ago after our trip to NYC--just the girls, Butch and me.

Friday Funnies

Kids these days are soft

I’m pretty sure I died once 

when I was 7 and my mom 

made me walk it off!

Five Things Thursday

1. My Crown Jewels! 

I thought I'd share my collection. Even though I wear these now and then here, it's all I wear in England. Clockwise: Those "B" earring are from the Anne Boleyn collection. I can get away with the "B" since most people presume it stands for Barb. The flag earrings and necklace came as a set. I never wear the necklace. Now I'm thinking I'll take off the charm and add it to the bracelet. The earrings are of my favorite book: Wuthering Heights. And the London map earrings--I wear these the most because I wear a lot of mint green.

2. My collection of teapots, cups and plates from England.

It's hard to see, but the juice glasses on the left came from a friend who handles estate sales. She said she thought of me right away. They have Harrods in gold on them. For anyone who might not know, Harrod's is the famous department store (very upscale) in London.

3. This was the black cherry gin that was so good. 

I had never heard of this brand. I'm going to look for it. I have seen the elderberry tonic but never knew what you would mix with it.

4. When Janet and I arrived in London, our taxi driver told us to beware of people stealing cell phones. One of our tour guides warned that bikers will ride up and snatch your phone out of your hand. I didn't doubt either of them. But when I saw this, I realized it was a real problem.

It's a plaque mounted on the sidewalk. It says, "A member of the public had their phone stolen here." from the police. Someone wrote in chalk, "they didn't help though." Actually, what can the police do? Seems to me that just spending money like this to warn people is doing something!

5. When Janet and I were walking through Kensington--a "posh" part of town (for us "yanks" that means "fancy"), we came across this:

Apparently someone is being evicted and all their stuff was put out. Or...

...given the actual content, it's a single home and this is how the owners are getting rid of their junk! After all, when my favorite cousin, Chrissy just moved, she said that's how she got rid of anything she didn't want. She just put it on the curb and it was gone! I was tempted to grab that giant Pokemon' for Jordan!

What I Buy Wednesday

Well, I always say that I don't need anything---and, in fact, I am trying to get rid of stuff. But, somehow, I always manage to find things I cannot live without! 

Here's the haul I brought back from London:

This is the overall view. I ended up getting quite an assortment. And, I resisted buying more tea. Instead, I got another tea cozy. I already have two, but one is Christmas. This way, when I have my tea parties I can still make two pots. This is my first London sweatshirt. I nearly bought the pink one Janet got, but didn't like how it fit--too long for this vertically challenged girl! And I couldn't resist the socks which I actually wore while there. The two cute birds in the picture are from a garden shop in Wales.

I love Sipsmith lemon gin which I cannot get here in the US--so I always bring that back. Well, this time, I could not find that in the "duty free" shop. Instead, I opted to bring home two new ones that I tried this trip. I had the blood orange gin with Janet and it was very good. Then, I just had to try the rhubarb & ginger. It was good too. There was one more--black cherry gin with elderberry tonic which I liked. But we could only handle two bottles. I have no idea if I can get any of these here, but I'm going to look. I'll also look for the black cherry. I'll miss the Sipsmith, but I might be able to find another brand of lemon gin. The way I'm going on about gin, you might think I'm a huge drinker. I'm not, but I do like unusual things. Plus, don't these bottles look so pretty? I do love pretty things.

I got a new oven mitt which I actually need. I added a charm bracelet and a sparkly gemstone bangle to my personal Crown Jewels. 

I usually always get a teapot, but I have quite a few now. So I opted for the Coronation and Jubilee mugs to add to my collection. Plus they were on a good sale---2 for £10! There's a spoon rest and two tea towels. I might have bought the second one for the cute London ribbon it was tied up with. Scrapbooking is always on my mind! I might even share it with Janet!     Wait a minute! What the heck! What is that green thing?

OMGosh! How did that get in my picture? That's Butch's souvenir--a pin from Wales for his backpack. He should make his own post rather than intruding on mine! This is supposed to be about ME! 

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What Barb didn't say is that after all her "spending" I only had enough money to buy a £3 pin! Butch!

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Okay, that's fair. He's always been the one to "make the money" while I'm the one who spends it! Works for us!

Travel Tuesday

As you can imagine, I have SO much to say about our trip to the UK. But, due to lack of time at the moment, I'm just going to start you off with this:

We took the train from London to spend 2 days in Wales. Let me start by saying that I could not pronounce anything in Wales. It was a confusing place for me. We stayed in Llandudno in a very old seaside hotel--The Marlborough--and--although it had 4.5 stars on Trip Advisor, it was not my favorite place. 

Just to show you what I mean about not being able to pronounce anything, you give it a try!

It looks like some sort of secret code, doesn't it?! Even when our tour guide pronounced things, I could not repeat them or even begin to remember them. As I said, it was a confusing place.

But one thing that was very clear, Llandudno is a retirement community--or a place where old people go to vacation. I have never seen so many scooters, walkers, wheelchairs and canes in one place. I swear, I saw a couple of scooters having a race on the sidewalk. Come to think of it, I have never seen so many old people in one place! 

To show you what I mean, we walked past this store:

I have never seen a window display of canes before! Scooters too! What? It was crazy.

Okay, so the town catered to old people. I get it. Even though we're old too, we don't really like to think about it. Nor do we want to be reminded every second. Just being in this town set Butch up for this to happen the very next day! He got this ad via email! 

He actually laughed! I was quite appalled! This was a first! Okay, he is older than me, but we're not here yet. And what's with that 15 degrees? I guess it's to show how the dang thing won't flip over if you are driving it uphill. I don't know. 

It was depressing. 

Don't get me wrong, we had a tour the next day that took us to 4 different towns. It was all just "okay." We both agreed, been to Wales, don't need to go back.

More to come...

Something Really FUN for Sunday

Okay, by the time you read this, I'll be on my way home from England. More on that later. 

Today, I just wanted to celebrate the election of our new Pope--Leo XIV! It's an exciting time in the Catholic church--our first American Pope! Everybody is talking about it all over the world--it's about all we've seen on the news here since we've been in the UK. But, I heard the cutest response---EVER---to this good news!

First, I need to set the stage. My daughter, Mindy married a--shall we say--"Smith". She has a cute little nephew on her husband's side. Leo is 8. His mom, Emily was excited to tell him about our new Pope--since they share the same name and all. I'm going to let her tell it:

"I was so excited to tell Leo James, 8 about our new pope and the name he chose.

“Bubs, guess what?! A new pope was elected today since Pope Francis passed away right after Easter. When a new one gets elected, he chooses a new name.”

::semi-interested, but eyeing his Nintendo game:: “Oh ok, that’s cool”

“GUESS what name he chose??”

Finally sensing my excitement, we lock eyes and he gets excited too “ Was it Leo?!?!”

“YES!!”

In slow motion, his hands rise to his mouth as it drops open “Wait… did he choose "Smith" too?”

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Is that not the most adorable response?? I just about snorted my Coke (not the regular stuff you snort (I wouldn't know about that)--it was the drink)! 

How hilarious!! 

I think someone needs to send that to our new Pope!

Out of the mouths of babes...

PS. I found an email address to the Vatican. I'll let you know if I hear anything back!

Something for Sunday

Thought you might like to see how people walk their dogs in New York.

Or maybe this is the dog walking its owners!