Lily of the Valley, Mr. Selfridge and black dresses...

I worked on this card while "Mr. Selfridge" was airing on PBS. The program had more story lines then a Soap Opera. The first couple of weeks I was having a hard time of keeping track of who was who at Selfridge's store...every one dressed in black...very professional. 

 The logo for the perfume line that Mr Selfridge had created for the store...that "anyone could afford" was Lily of the Valley. Probable a very abundant flower in the English country side...

Those delicate little white fragrant bell shaped flowers have a marvelous vintage look.

I wonder if you can still find the Lily of the Valley cologne at Selfridges in London...or do they only carry the modern designer brands?

3 Gypsies on Portobello Road

A few years ago...now that I think about it MORE than a few years ago, mom and I flew over to London...met up with mom's sister Mary for a grand adventure. When we returned, I had all kinds of plans for a fantastic scrapbook of the trip. Of course life got in the way...the trip... photos, journal and all the trip ephemera are still sitting in a box, waiting for me to find the time to create the fantastic scrapbook.
You can imagine my excitement when the new 7 Gypsies Lillie paper came out and I was asked if I wanted to create a design using "Adventure and Elen" paper, the paper tape and a 7 Gypsies Shadow Box tray.

Finally I would have a chance to get a bit of the London trip archived. I sanded the edges of the tray to give it a well traveled look...the outside of the tray and the sides of the little ledges inside of the tray were covered with all three of the paper tapes. The Shadow Box tray has a brass handle with "7 Gypsies" stamped on it...I covered the 7 over with a large 3...because after all there were three of us on this adventure.

While we were in London we took the Eurostar through the Chunnel for a day trip to Paris. Of course we visited the Eiffell Tower.

Back in London we did all the touristy things...the British Museum, Harrods, Westminster Abby and the Tower of London with it's huge black ravens.

I had never heard of London's Portobello Road... Aunt Mary had found us this adventure.

It is the home of the Portobello Market. On Saturday the street is full of people exploring the antique stores, sidewalk flower shops, pubs and wonderful bakeries.

The ideas for the scrapbook are still sitting in the box with the photos and travel journal...but I'm glad a little bit of it is seeing the light of day after all this time.