Snippets

Manolo Blahnik store a few minutes away from my flat in London.

  "I get inspired by dreams. Who cares about the rest?" -- Manolo Blahnik

London Street Fashion Preview

I've never lived in a city where people are so daring with fashion.  For me, it's liberating and exciting.  People have such verve with their clothes here, to just be themselves, to just have fun.  And everyday I'm inspired by it all.  Starting tomorrow, I'm going to chronicle some of the street fashion I see in London.  Until then, check out a cool video about the street fashion guru, The Sartorialist.

Snippets

Flower vendor outside Liberty London

"The couple met nearly ten years ago, when -- love at first sight -- he spotted her in a Fulham Road pizzeria and sent her flowers purchased in haste from the nearest street vendor, to which he attached a note with just his first name and his phone number."  Vogue, 2008

Two Years Have Passed

My mom and me in London in 2005 at the Grenadier Pub with Congressman Mike Conaway, Congressman Jon Porter, and Congressman Ike Skelton.

After my mother's funeral, several people approached me and said they were surprised I hadn't given the eulogy, that they had liked my eulogy at my father's funeral, and that they would have liked to hear me speak.  I don't really remember how I responded.  Likely some nonsensical sputterings of "Oh, you know," and "Oh, thank you."

The thing of it is, I couldn't give the eulogy at my mother's funeral.  First, my father had been dying for some time, and I had been writing his eulogy in my head for a couple of weeks before he died.  And while I don't remember a time when my mom was not sick, I didn't see it -- her death -- coming.  Second, while I was quite close with both of my parents, I was close with my mother in a different way.  Consequently, I didn't know how to step back and string together words about her.  But two years have passed.

My mother was, first and foremost, an Oklahoman.  She was born and raised there, and supremely proud of her Oklahoma heritage.  Many of my childhood memories involve road trips -- just the two of us -- to Oklahoma.  On those trips she would teach me about the subtle beauty of the Flint Hills, the rich history of the Native Americans and the best shopping in Tulsa's Utica Square.  And she would tell me stories about how she and her father would go visit his oil wells every Saturday morning.

My mother was the finest writer I know.  She was an editor at the Washington Post and of Kansas City magazine, and she taught me everything I know about literature.  She taught me about the fatal flaw in Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night, about Faulkner's brilliant Nobel Prize speech, and about the deceptive simplicity of Ivan Turgenev's novellas.  And she told me that all I ever needed to do was write one good paragraph.

But the thing I admired the most about my mother was her kind heart.  When I was young and would get mad at friends, my mom always would say, "Don't be angry with them, feel sad for them."  This advice was maddening for a kid in elementary school, but as I've grown older, I realize the wisdom of this advice more and more each day.

My mother showed her kindness in many other ways.  She created and orchestrated her church's literacy program for underprivileged youth, she wrote checks for a student's tuition at an urban core charter school, and when I stood in the receiving line at her funeral countless mothers came up to tell me a similar story about her.  They told me a story of how one of their children had been troubled, how they had worried about their troubled child, and how my mother always believed in the child nonetheless.

My mother's favorite story to tell about me had to do with a parent-teacher conference my parents attended when I was in elementary school.  In my family, a great deal of importance was placed on achievement and intelligence.  When my parents sat down to meet with one of my teachers, the teacher explained how I was, in fact, doing quite well in school, paused and then said, "But most importantly, Anne has a good heart."  If only my mother knew how much of that good heart I got from her.

I often hear people say that they wish they had said, "I love you," to a deceased loved one or that they had hugged that person before they died, or some such thing.  I don't have these wishes.  My only wish -- everyday -- is to be able to walk into my mother's office, sit by her desk, and for a couple of minutes -- just be with her.  I have made countless pleas, promises and negotiations with God for this to happen.  To no avail.

And so I remember the words my mother often said to me, "Be brave, Anne.  Be brave."

London Shop Decorations Celebrating Baby George

One of the delightful ways that London has been celebrating Prince George's birth is with shop decorations.  I've had so much fun walking around seeing the creative ways shops have decked out their windows.  Below are some of my favorites!

Above is my favorite department store, Liberty.  I love all the fun details such as, "Royally Excited," and "Best Grandma Eva!"

I happened upon Walton Street as I was walking through the Knightsbridge area.  Walton street is the loveliest little road full of interior design shops and baby stores.  Above is Blue Almonds!

I am in love with this stork carrying the little crown in Marie-Chantal's window on Walton Street! Marie-Chantal is the Crown Princess of Greece and the store is her eponymous children's clothing line.  

Tambour Beading with Hand & Lock at Kensington Palace

I've been spending a lot of time at Kensington Palace -- visiting fashion exhibits, touring Kensington Gardens and now I've taken a tambour beading class.  That's right, my friends.  Kensington Palace has arts and crafts time for adults.

Above you can see two examples of tambour beading.  Whenever you see beading on dresses or clothes of any kind, it almost always is tambour beading.  The beading on the Queen's dresses that I showed you yesterday on the blog and the beading on Jenny Packham's dresses are both tambour beading.

The class was taught by Hand & Lock embroiderers, which is basically the best hand embroidery company in the entire world.  Most other companies got their start by apprenticing at Hand & Lock.  Established in 1767, much of their business today consists of working with the fashion industry.  They did a recent Louis Vuitton collection, and they even do personal commissions for wedding dresses!

I adore sewing scissors.  So many of them have such unique and individualized designs.  One of my most treasured possessions is the pair of sewing scissors my mother gave me as I was getting more and more into needlepointing.

The tambour beading process essentially is just a crochet stitch, which sounds easy enough.  But add some fabric in between your stitches and it took me an entire hour to get the hang of it.  The good news is, once you do get the hang of it, it's pretty smooth sailing.

After spending the morning practicing our stitching, we, of course, had to break for tea. It wouldn't be London without one!

In the afternoon, we worked on our actual beaded design.  Here is the sketch on my fabric of what I would be beading.

Lots of different types of beads!

I actually found it much easier to do the stitching with the beads involved.  The beads have a way of anchoring the thread and helping tighten your stitches.  

Finished product by the ladies of Hand & Lock (I'm still working on mine)!  

Prince George of Cambridge

Over the past several weeks I have felt very fortunate to be able to live in London for a bit, but I have felt particularly so this week as the city has erupted in joy over the birth of Prince George of Cambridge.  It truly has been a neat experience to be here during this time.  

I love that Kate and William named their baby George in honor of the Queen's father.  I have long admired King George VI, even before The King's Speech debuted.  When I applied to William & Mary for college, I had to write an admissions essay about leadership and chose King George VI as my subject.  

I wrote then that, "He suffered from a terrible stutter, was painfully shy and did not even want to be king.  But he surpassed what was expected of him and courageously led his country during World War II.  George VI would not leave London during the war despite the obvious dangers that his stay posed. Buckingham Palace was, in fact, bombed several times.  George VI decided to risk his own safety and the security of his family and chose to remain in the capital.  By doing so, he endured many of the same hardships and perils that the rest of his countrymen endured. The king further strengthened his identification with the people by his frequent and often unannounced visits to munitions factories and bombed-out areas of England."

I also found it quite moving that Kate and William chose Louis as one of the baby's middle names.  Louis was the first name of Prince Charles' uncle, Earl Mountbatten of Burma.  Charles and his uncle were incredibly close, and Charles was devastated when Earl Mountbatten was assassinated by the IRA in 1979.  When William was born in 1982, Charles chose Louis as one of William's middle names -- displaying the deep admiration Charles had for his uncle.  William's choice of Louis for his own son surely shows William's affection and respect for his father.

Here's to many more celebratory moments over the next few months in London.