Back To Reality.

We're home from our amazing trips to London and Paris. Back to a stack of bills and a new apartment full of boxes. After coming home from macaron and baguette heaven, it's a bit difficult not to daydream of moving to Paris... but, LA, despite the bills and boxes, is home. Before I go all into the crafty details and planning of our wedding, here are a few highlights of our trip. I took over 3,000 pictures on this trip, so I think I'll break the trip up into 2 blog posts - one for each London and Paris. Let's start with London:

Now, while we were in London, we experienced some true London like weather. Silly London, didn't you know that spoiled LA kids can't handle weather?

Somehow, we managed.

One of the more memorable days for me happened by complete accident. We got off of our Thames River Boat Tour on the wrong spot and ended up in Greenwich. It was totally my fault that we ended up on the wrong spot - but instead of admitting fault, I swore that I meant to stop in Greenwich. And thank goodness for my stubbornness! We accidentally ended up stumbling into this amazing international food festival!

I can't even remember where these foods came from, but dang... they were good! Of course, we ate too fast to take a picture of this one:

But, I do remember it had a saucy citrus chicken, couscous, and some salad. It was pretty awesome... it was Brian's choice. My choice was a bit better, we agreed. We had a chicken stew, over rice:

And a plantain and bean cake (bean cake not pictured):

Yea, that was amazing. I wish I remember where the food came from, because I really want to make that stew! I imagine it will eventually pop into my head, at 3am, one morning... unless anyone out there in blog land might know?

One of the best days we had in the UK was in Manchester. We took a train out and totally geeked out during The Smiths tour, led by Craig Gill of the Inspiral Carpets. It was pretty amazing. I don't think I've ever seen Brian smile so much, ever! He was in heaven. It was awesome.



What got me smiling more than ever were the simple things in London, like pretty gardens...

High tea...


My first taste of Laduree, and Harrod's bakery...

The craft floor at Liberty (all of my favorite fabric designers in one room... amazing)...

And most of all, seeing the Quilts 1700-2010 exhibit at the V&A.

We also really enjoyed seeing a few familiar faces. Our friends Mark and Olivia took us out to some great pubs and introduced us to Fruli, my favorite new beer.

London was great! We could have used a few more days there... but Paris was awaiting. And friends, I have been waiting for Paris all of my life. Up next, Paris.

For all 3,302 pictures and 6 videos, please visit my flickr page here.