Sunday, May 23, 2010

London - Camden Market and the Tower of London

Hey! It's Casual Friday and that means...

Camden Market!
Camden Market is a long strip full of head shops, punk/skater culture, pin-up and goth, hippie and of course, lots of tourist crap (and pickpockets, according to the guide book I read when I got home).

I loved browsing through these shops:
Absolutely crazy stuff, but also a lot of crap. I did buy an amazing dress, which I wore today (I'll forgive you if you scroll down and peek).

After Camden, we took the Tube to the Tower of London:The Tower is actually a complex of a bunch of towers. That's the White Tower on the left in the above picture.

You're permitted to wander through all the towers, taking pictures (except for the Crown Jewels exhibit, where they will take your camera and delete pictures of the Jewels). We climbed a lot of these staircases:

A view from a tower of the courtyard, with remnants of the original Roman city walls (Londinium):
Those are the famous ravens in the cages.

I got a great shot of Mom and L against the Tower Bridge.
L's doing his "serious" face.

Another view of the courtyard. The far side of it is the square where Anne Boleyn was beheaded!
Inside one of the towers they had helmets and crossbows that you could play with and try:
L and I joshing around. L likes this picture of me; he says it's my "real" smile.

Of course, I got a picture of a guard:
The White Tower had on a really awesome exhibit of armour - I'm a total geek when it comes to this sort of stuff. I took about 40 pictures here, but this is my favourite:
Now that's a suit of plate mail! That's Henry VIII's, and you can definitely see the man in this. In fact, maybe more than you want to see...
He seems to have had an er...inflated opinion of himself? Hee!

A picture of the Tower from Tower Bridge:
And turning around:
Wow. I love all these old buildings.

What I do not love is having my picture taken:[Through gritted teeth]: "Just take the damned picture, L!"

And now back to fashion! This is the dress I got in Camden Market:
Okay, first of all OOH! I love the cut of this. And the print! And that it was actually made in England!

And because it was Casual Friday, I had to dull it down:
Yes, so much more casual, ha ha! That's my new bag from Ollie & Nic. I absolutely love it. I'll do a close-up and details of it later this weekend.

But I know those shoes have you agape! Aren't they fab? Would you believe I got them in Heathrow Airport? In Kurt Geiger, on sale for 59 pounds ($90 Cdn/$85 US) - brand is Carvela.

The big straps across the front help hold them secure on my feet and make them easier to walk in. The platform is intimidating, but I carried flat shoes all day whenever I had to walk further than my desk to the loo.

The stuff:
The shoes are a nice orangey-red, and I love the stud details on them. The platform is real wood.

Look at the awesome lady in the pattern:
Love it!

Dress (Lirub), shoes (Carvela), jacket (Ann Taylor Loft), bag (Ollie & Nic), bracelet and belt (Plum), earrings (vacation).

15 comments:

  1. It looks like so much fun!

    Your dress is lovely! It looks like it was made for you. The colors are great. The shoes are killer~

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  2. Sheila, you guys really got it done across the pond! Great photos, FAB-YOU-Bliss apparel finds - you totally rocked the opportunities.

    Loving your "real" smile,
    :-)
    Jean <--- who remains amazed at how much 'L' resembles that chap Clooney!

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  3. That dress is amazing!

    We did pop up to London yesterday, and went under Tower Bridge on the clipper, and past the Tower of London, but I've not actually been in since I went for my 10th Birthday! We went to Greenwich Market, which was fantastic for arty-crafty bits and pieces!

    (and I just wanted to second your "primark is just cheap crap" sentiment - I've not yet bought anything there for myself!)

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  4. what a fun dress! You are bringing back the best stuff!

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  5. WOW you visited sooo many places :)
    I am in love, totally, with that dress.
    The print and the fit are gorgeous !!!!!

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  6. Loving your England adventures :)

    That dress is amazing - it fits you like a glove, too - great find!

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  7. Megan, it was! Thanks, I love the dress and shoes.

    Jean, we did - it was an awesome trip. Thanks!

    Tat, how cool - you got to go to all those places again.

    Kasmira, thanks!

    Lorena, and this is only the first week so far. :) Thanks!

    Cat, thanks!

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  8. LOVE the dress!

    I rode the conveyor belt around to look at the crown jewels several times. several. lol.

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  9. Thanks, Erin! Lol, it was a bit of a clusterf*** while we were there. Way too many people.

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  10. Wow! I love the dress. The shoes are fabulous! Great outfit.
    Angela

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  11. That dress -- holy smokes, it's amazing! You found some real gems on your travels. And I love your pictures. L really reminds me of someone, I just can't place who it is... ;-)

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  12. Thanks so much, Audi! I didn't see much point in buying things I could get at home, so I looked for really unique items.

    Hee, L is such a handsome man.

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  13. Hi Sheila, I came across your blog via Tat's blog, whose blog I came across via Imogen Lamport's Blog (about fashion). This is all to say, that I scrolled down to the bottom of your lovely post (just spoke to the kids at breakfast yesterday morning about the Rosetta Stone!) so was really looking at your clothes, comments on the flea markets... when it suddenly hit me that the "fellow" in your photos had some gray digital artifacts on his face... then, as I slowly scrolled up, I see that "digital artifacts" had been applied to each of the fellow's faces... I HAVE NOT LAUGHED SO HARD IN A LOOOOONG TIME!!!! How did you so quickly manage to manipulate the photos and post them all up. You are amazing!!! I am still laughing! Juanita

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  14. Juanita, thank you so much for dropping in and commenting! I really appreciate it. :)

    How to paste George Clooney's face over my husband's (L doesn't want his face shown):

    - find a good picture of George
    - save it and open it in Paint
    - 'cut out' George's face using the dotted star button (it allows you to outline non-geometric shapes)
    - open the picture of my husband in Paint
    - paste the George face in and shrink it to match L's
    - hide the background (using one of the coloured shapes buttons on the Paint toolbar)
    - 'touch up' the edges with the spray can button and a matching colour (I use black and grey for L's hair)

    Voila! Easy!

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