Workshop in London

Last weekend my husband and I drove to London as I was attending a workshop.

As we arrived quite early we went through Central London, going over Tower Bridge.

View of the Shard.

The MI6 Building

Our destination was Hackney and our first stop was at the Market Cafe for coffee.

We had a quick look around the street market,

then we went our separate ways as I was booked onto an Embroidered and Collaged Journals workshop being run by the lovely Jessie Chorley.

Each attendee was given a vintage book and a kit to start our journals with and on a side table there were Jessie's beautiful stamps, buttons, card and threads to use too.

We were shown how to make these pretty bows to add to the covers of our journals, plus covered buttons and an embroidered sash to tie around our books.

The day was very inspiring and passed all too quickly!  At the end of the workshop, I had made this much progress on my journal.

I have continued to work on it at home and have applied tags to each section of my journal, decorated some of the pages and I am now making the sash.

I am happy to finally have a home for this lovely stamp C sent on a parcel to me from France.

After the workshop we all walked to Jessie's delightful shop

and were treated to a glass of elderflower fizz while we looked around.

I couldn't resist a couple of the wooden brooches and a rabbit brooch kit.

Next I met back up again with my husband and we went back into the Market Cafe for something to eat and a cocktail!

When in Hackney it only seemed right to have a Hackney Cup! :)

The meal ended with delicious desserts.  Mine was a brownie, topped with vanilla ice cream and salted caramel popcorn - yummy!

We then walked through London Fields to catch the overground into Central London.

We love wandering around London, particularly on warm summer evenings.  First we headed to Trafalgar Square,

then we walked under Admiralty Arch

into St. James's Park

and up to Buckingham Palace.

By then it was rather late, so we headed back to the car and returned home.

Out and About this Summer - Hidcote and Birmingham

Recently we visited Hidcote Manor Garden, a National Trust property in Gloucestershire.

It is a beautiful Arts and Crafts garden, created by Lawrence Johnston.

The garden is divided into "rooms" and there are a myriad of paths to follow throughout the garden.

Many of the paths lead to amazing vistas.

After a very pleasant afternoon wandering around the garden, we headed to Birmingham, where we stayed overnight.
The next morning we visited St. Philip's Cathedral.

Inside, the Arts and Crafts theme of the trip continued as the stained glass windows were designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones and manufactured by William Morris and Co.

 

We had planned to continue our trip with a visit to Coventry, but the weather turned to heavy rain, so we decided to travel home.