We are in Harrods of London and we were let loose for a few hours! This is a shopping experience like none other and you really need an entire day here, not necessarily to shop, but just to experience every little nuance, every nook and cranny, to dine, to sip and so much more!

This is the Prosecco Bar and of course they would have a Prosecco Bar. Do you know that it is such a popular drink that they are expecting a world wide shortage of it?

Ice Cream, The Tea Room, Pastries and more! You could just eat your way through Harrods!

We were told not to miss the Egyptian Escalator! Quite elaborate and rather difficult to photograph.

The Food Court was definitely the best! And I could have spent an entire day taking it all in. And the attention to details and the customer service is like I have never ever experienced!

All too soon our time in Harrods was coming to an end. Can you believe that Jeremy and I ran into someone that we know from the needlepoint industry? She travels to London quite often and was there for the Chelsea Flower Show…but what are the odds?

Elizabeth and I had been driving Jeremy crazy forever that we wanted to see his shop!

Well Jeremy obliged and he has a  most “lovely” gift shop…

Where we all enjoyed some more retail therapy!

The street where the shop is and I loved the way all the Union Jack’s were on display!

Day 4 will take us back to Hampton Palace, which is where the Royal School of Needlework is located. A tour of the tapestries and all the fineries of the Palace!

Well now that I know that you are looking forward to more of the London Trip…here goes! My time between posts was interrupted by attending the TNNA Summer Trade Show in Washington D.C. So I am back, only to be interrupted in the days coming up by cats, a heat wave and Brenda Hart teaching this weekend in the shop!

I have never seen wisteria growing before! This hung down in front of the Carlton Mitre Hotel. Just beautiful! Now if you just have to do this London thing next time, follow this link! “Jeremy & Elizabeth’s Wild West Tour of the United Kingdom” I would be going again next year, but work is getting in the way!

On Day 3 we were boarding our coach and heading to the Victoria and Albert Museum and then shopping at Harrods. I don’t think that it could get much better than that!

The gorgeuos entrance. Wow I was really here!

The red telephone booth, which of course I needed a picture!

The most amazing Chihuly glass piece when you first walked into the V & A Museum.

Well we were there to see tapestries! Most magnificient pieces and just how did they create these? Just amazing. The walls were covered on both sides and we just started looking at them. There would be many more to come. We were told that Belgium was the center for the finest tapestries.

Onto Harrods, but first Elizabeth and a few of us had something else on our minds!

A needlepoint shop…what else?

Do these threads look familiar? Even though most canavses they kit with Appleton Wool or Soie d’Alger silk.

Now it was time to go to Harrods for a shopping experience like none other. So special that it will need a day to itself! Too many pictures. I need to go back just to go to spend the day at Harrods.

Sylvester can’t figure out this strange looking cat!

how did these pawprints get here AlleyCat?

Now that I have your attention… would you rather me continue with the London trip or not? or go straight to what I saw at market? I don’t want to bore you with the mundane activities that I enjoyed so much while in London! The reason why I’m asking is… excpet for Joanne, there were really no comments which is very discouraging. It’s a lot of work and if it’s not want you to want to see, well I won’t bother!

It’s really, really, really hot here today, so I’m just chilling with my fan working on stitch guides. Did I say really hot?

The skies were blue, the sun was out and the billowing clouds just added to the picture perfect day ahead of us at Hampton Court/Hampton Palace.

It was just a short walk across the street and soon we were on the grounds of this palacial spread. We were headed for our class at The Royal School of Needlework, something that’s been on my bucket list for a very long time. Taking a class on this hollowed ground where kings and queens have walked before me, where they embroider wedding dresses for royalty and so much more.

Some of us took the elevator and some of took the stairs to the classroom, which they failed to mention just how flights upstairs it was!

Hmmmm, what was this basket for?

One of the previous tenants had a little dog and yes she did agree with me that it was way too many stairs! So she would lower the dog in the basket to the ground floor and the dog would do what a dog needs to do… and then get back in the basket and be brought upstairs!

Our classroom was all ready for us! Our project was a goldwork pomegranate to coincide with the display of Pomegranates and Peacocks in the RSN.

This was our teacher sitting on the stool!

and here was our project, and as you can see mine is still a WIP!

Look at these grounds! How can you pay attention to class when all you really want to look out the window?

After class I had my first scone with clotted cream, some retail therapy and then we had a private tour of the rest of the school, where no pictures were allowed.

Too soon the day was over and back to our hotel to rest up abit before our night out…

Which found us a Lebanese restaurant where the wine flowed, the food was fantastic…but the company was even better!

This was dessert and yes they were small baklavas with pistachio’s sprinkled on them!

The view of our hotel as we were walking back.

This will be it for at least a week or so since I am leaving for the summer TNNA trade show… see you later!

Last I left you…I had landed in London, where Jeremy would be there to pick me up. Never travelling internationally before, I had no idea how long it would take to get through it all. And talk about a huge airport! wow! wow! wow! It was so great to see a familiar face there for me. It’s been too long since we’ve seen each other, so we had much to catch up.

A fabulous quaint hotel, the Carlton Mitre located on the river Thames was to be our first home away from home. Lots of little shops and restaurants located close by, plus we were right across the street from Hampton Palace, where we would spend 2 days of our tour… so this was the perfect place to be.

Many were here a day early, so we had Sunday morning to play. A group of us decided that we would go to Buckingham Palace, which was just a train ride away!

I was fascinated with all of these bikes located outside the train station!

The beautiful grounds about Buckingham Palace.

We wanted to tour inside, but because the Queen is in residence at the moment, the commoners weren’t allowed! So what to do? well we went to The House of Mews…which by the way has nothing to do with cats!

We learned that the Queen would be opening Parliament in just a few days!

This is where all the fancy cars are housed…and before we knew it was time to head back to the hotel. But this time we walked a little more to see and hear some of the sights and sounds!

Such as Big Ben and…

The Eye, which we would call a Ferris Wheel. I heard that it travels veeeerrrrrryyyyy slowly. And trust me, I will never complain about Southern California traffic again!

I will try and get one more day of the tour posted before leaving for the east coast for the summer TNNA trade show…

And if this was the treatment I got from AlleyCat after coming home… wonder what she will think when I tell her that I am leaving again?!

Well the day was finally here…it seemed like it was years ago when this was first being planned. And the last few weeks, well the time seemed to inch along as if it would never get here. You know like a kid waiting for Christmas? well in a way that was me.

Friday the 13th was the day I was leaving and of course I had a late night flight, so I had all day to kill. Tried to stitch, well that wasn’t working and then tried to work on some stitch guides and that wasn’t happening either. So I just chilled and kept thinking “what did I forget?” “did I pack enough clothes? too many clothes?”

Finally it was time to head to the airport, albeit a little too early. TSA had ONE agent working, so the lines did inch along and finally I was through, so I was glad that I gave myself that extra time. I always like to look for my gate first, discover my surroundings and then I will settle in.

While I was discovering my surroundings, I saw this display…

and just why am I sharing this with you?

Bhavna, the artist is a regular shopper for threads at The Needle Nook of La Jolla! I was quite honored that I would see her work displayed here and I could say that I know her.

A few “big girl drinks” and before I knew it is was time!

wow is that I big plane… and finally! Before I knew it I was landing in Heathrow where Jeremy was waiting to pick me up.

The trip was wonderful, my fellow tour attendees were great and I loved pretty much every second if it. Jeremy and Elizabeth really did it up right and they will continue to do these tours… and actually they have one set up already “Jeremy & Elizabeth’s Wild West Tour of the United Kingdom” which you can check out. I would sign up for it in a heart beat, but work will get in the way. Now why didn’t they ask me if the dates were good for moi?

I have lots more to share with you… so check back every few days. I have so many pictures that I just need to sort through.

Do I have enough pounds purchased? I hope so! passport…check! credit cards…check! clothes packed? well almost…we’ll say check! needlepoint related stuff such as glasses, scissors, needles, canvas and threads…check! cell phone charger and adapters…check! What am I missing?

This is Jeremy Hamilton, formerly of Kirk & Hamilton and he is our tour director for the Quintessential English Tour along with…

Elizabeth of Needlepoint Now…

So hopefully I will have lots to share with you when I get back… but that won’t be till the end of the month at the earliest! Not travelling with my Mac, and to not use up all my data at once, I won’t be answering any comments once I leave.

Well of course I needed to start off with a cat canvas. Seriously, what were you thinking? This is called Garden Cat and is by Birds of a Feather. It is on my bucket list along with about 50something other canvases that I want to stitch!

But if I don’t have time to blog, I have even less time to stitch! I do thank everyone who has missed me…it really does the heart and soul good! Now let’s see if I remember how to do this? and so far so good.

So what have I been up to? let’s see I attended the Blue Bonnet Stitching Retreat in mid February and took from my “sistah” Meredith! It was strictly studio time for me and this is what we worked on.

The Girls with Attitude Collection by the collection. This one is called Raindrops and I wanted a background stitch. This is never what I would have thought of, never in a million years, but isn’t that why we take classes? I do love it and I need to get busy finishing it up!

Then it was back to the shop to get ready for the Needle Nook of La Jolla’s Getaway. It was a pretty fabulous 5-day event and we all had a great time! I really didn’t have any pictures in my laptop of the weekend right now, so I will save those pictures for another day.

I had a life altering/threatening event happen to me 2 days (or was it 3?) before the Getaway started. And it made me realize more and more that friends are the single most important part of your life. When it comes to friends, I am very, very rich.

Just 3 weeks later, Meredith came to our shop to teach! It was fabulous and we hope that we can get her back next year…she is a very busy lady you know!

This is what I was working on with Meredith. Cleocatra by Charlie Harper and we were loom-beading her necklace!

In between this all… it was a window change and I came up with a gardening theme. I need to come up with a new idea in the next few weeks or so. and and then it was opening day baseball!

Brenda was here twice and it is always something we look forward to!

and of course AlleyCat helping write stitch guides. Mathematically she could park her butt in a million and one spots… why here?

and this is the kids sleeping on top of me on the couch… chillin’ and hanging out with them is always a highlight of my day.

Can you guess where I am going? In 16 days…but who’s counting? I am headed to London with Needlepoint Now for a needlepoint trip. Can’t wait, can’t wait, can’t wait!

Things are a changing around here at mostlyneedlepoint… first of all there is a new server where the blog lives and we are going through a renewal thing. I keep getting emails saying that I need to renew and then they say it’s been taken care of. I am so confused! I do have a different cc# and who hasn’t had a least one of theirs change the last few years? So how could it have been renewed since they didn’t contact me for the new number?

Secondly as much as I want to share so much with you, I find that I just dont have the time to continue to blog right now. I am preparing for a reallllllllllllllly big event at the shop in a few months and all my energies need to go to this. I toyed with the ideas of not renewing, but my webmaster told me I was crazy to do that and she talked me off the ledge…so for now we are just going on hiatus for a few months at the least!

Thank you to everyone who have been faithfully reading my blog…but seriously can you just give me about 12 more hours in my day?

and in the meantime… just keep on stitching!

for a very importante date! and what that might be you ask?

well updating the blog of course…with all the new and fabulous things that we saw at market. But no time!

This is my first day this year that I don’t HAVE to be anywhere and would love to stitch the day away, but I need to get all the holiday decorations put away, laundry and so much more.

and this is what I hope to be doing later tonight…stitching with the cats about me!