London town and another year older

On Wednesday I ventured out of the green pastures here, and went on a train for a full-on 12 hour trip to London and back. The reason being was that one of my favourite funny authors, Marian Keyes, had finally agreed to do a book tour (just one UK date) for the first time in 5 years! The event sold out within 2 hours but luckily, thanks to twitter, I was on the ball and had my ticket within minutes of them going on sale!

I decided that I'd also try to go to two shops that I've never visited before, Loop and Persephone books.

First stop was Loop.  An easy find just a tube ride to Angel, and what a beautiful wool shop it is.

 It's two storey but very small, and oh, the wool inside.  I could easily have stayed inside and stroked the goods all day long! 

They also have a fabulous collection of books of every crafty description.  And did I mention the wool....?!  I resisted any further yarny additions, but I did splash the cash and bought both Julie Arkell books!  I'm still stroking them now!

Chatting to the girl in the shop about Julie, it turns out she has worked with the lovely Louise over at Hope and Elvis too - it's a small world, isn't it?!

Then I ventured across town to Bloomsbury to visit Persephone books.  I have to admit, I was a tad disappointed when I arrived there as it's teeny, weeny and I had expected a bigger shop to browse in.  That said, I still managed to spend my voucher and came away with another 4 books to add to my growing Persephone collection!

Back across town for a quick stroll down Oxford Street before heading to Piccadilly to see Marian Keyes and India Knight.  It was a lovely evening.  Marian was in fine fettle and tres amusing.  I'll blog more about it, and her new book, next week, over at Miss Chapter's Reviews if you want to find out more!

A quick dash back on the underground and I was on the 21:10 train back home, to finally get in at midnight!  Then I had two days of teaching ahead of me which totally wiped me out!  But luckily I found a copy of Oh Comely magazine at the station - delightful!

I had a very quiet birthday on Friday (particularly as I ended up teaching all day, which I wasn't expecting), followed by my first tap dancing class in over 10 years.

To make up for any dance fails, I thought some new shoes were in order!  Needless to say, they stole the show!

I also had a delightful postal treat from Lisa over at Mrs Bobobun.  She had posted some pictures of a craft fair she had been selling at, and one such photo included a gorgeous bag.  Unfortunately the bag sold, but I managed to get myself a similar one from Lisa, plus a purse in the fabric that I had originally coveted.  As a special surprise, Lisa also made me a lavender bag too.  Aren't these gorgeous?!

G x