Greetings from London

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It’s 7am Thursday morn and I woke up at 6, too excited to sleep anymore. Today is our big shopping day! Our agenda today includes a trip to the British Library, shop the outdoor markets in Camden Lock Market, visit Portobello Road in Notting Hill AND last but certainly not least, a stroll through the hallowed halls of Harrods. I simply can’t wait!

It’s been a tremendously fun trip so far. Our first day, Tuesday we arrived in the am, and after checking our bags at the hotel took the tube to Victoria Station to jump on a 2-hr double-decker bus tour of London proper. It was something Janelle really wanted to do and it was great fun. We rode beside Big Ben just as it struck the hour of eleven. How thrilling to hear those thrilling bongs eleven times! We toured Westminster Abbey, introduced her to my favorite artist, Renoir, at the National Gallery, and had a somber visit to the Cabinet War Rooms from WW2. While we were there we watched a large group of Japanese dignitaries get a VIP tour and get to touch the chair Winston Churchill sat in! How far we have come! A very surreal moment.

Yesterday, we toured the Tate Britain where I showed Janelle my favorite John Singer Sargent, so lovely, the British Museum, which she loved…the mummy display was a hit! Walked around the Shakespeare Globe but no entry due to a play, and walked in awe around my most favorite cathedral in the world, St. Paul’s. Almost too lovely and inspiring to describe.

Stay tuned for further adventures!

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A Magical Family Weekend

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Janelle and I are sitting in the San Francisco airport waiting for our flight to England. It was a long fabulous family reunion weekend and I am still stuffed from our many meals. My brother Paul and his wife Kim came with their two boys, gabriel, 7, and Nicholas, 5, from Colorado Springs. My brother David and his wife Renee came with their twin 3-yr-olds, Ty and Stone, from Seattle. I flew down from Portland. We held our reunion in Danville, California at my brother Georges house, along with his wife Cathy and their daughters Janelle, 18, the proud graduate, and Megan, 16. My dad came down from Vancouver with his wife, and my mom was there. She lives in the next town over, Pleasanton. We went to Janelle’s graduation Friday night, a breakfast Saturday morning, a grad party Saturday late afternoon, a train ride Sunday morning, a 50th birthday lunch Sunday for my older brother George, and a barbeque Sunday evening. Can you tell my family likes to eat well? We all had a marvelous time, catching up on news and watching the kids run themselves into a stupor. We all agreed we needed to do this every year. I hope we do…..it was a weekend where I felt completely surrounded by LOVE.

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And away we go……..

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I LOVE to travel! I am taking my darling niece Janelle (as a tomboy she’d hate to be called darling, but it’s my journal, and she is, truly, darling) on a grand tour of England for her high school graduation present. Since I was not able to have children of my own, it has been a great joy and privilege to be an indulgent aunt. I want to show her the England that I love so much. She has been to England once before but that was a school tour and this will be a very different trip. For one thing, she is very excited to have her auntie Lacy buy her a beer, her first. You can drink in the pubs at 18, apparently. She inherited my love of travelling and I foresee many trips together in the future. In honor of the trip, and summer vacations in general, we have created a charming vintage travel display in the shop. We have momentos from the 1962 Seattle Worlds Fair, old felt pennants, signs, old maps, vintage travel diaries, and many more quirky items. It was great fun to pull together and puts a smile on everyone’s face when they see it! I plan to journal and twitter while in England–watch for our adventures. If I am lucky I might capture a picture of Janelle’s face as she takes her first sip of Guiness!

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Vintage Hanky Tree

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A customer yesterday came in to see our vintage hanky tree. She had heard about it from a friend and wanted to see it for herself. Alas, the hankies had come off the tree and been replaced with silky flag scarves, patriotic words, and red glittered stars, as part of our new summer display– Americana and Beach. Our Americana display includes vintage 1950s American history children’s textbooks and the beach display has real sand! The vintage hanky tree was a resounding success as part of our Mother’s Day display. Lots of oooohs and ahs when customers laid eyes on it. And we sold dozens and dozens of hankies off the tree–the best mark of a clever display. Time to start thinking about the next!

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A Picture is worth a thousand words….

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I was deeply chagrined yesterday when I figured out I had forgotten to take any pictures at all at the 3-day fair. Have you ever done that? Gotten so caught up in the moment that you forgot all about taking pictures until its too late? I know, I know, you can go the other way too, snapping pictures right and left instead of enjoying yourself. But I do believe in the power of pictures to evoke wonderful memories. And its easy to forget all those fabulous little details. I didn’t get any pictures of our charming booth, scarves flying in the breeze. Or the delighted little girls walking away with bracelets dangling from their wrists. The tall guy in a top hat doing the most amazing detailed balloon animals. The view of the river from our screened canopy. The parade of hispanic girls twirling bright rainbow skirts on their way to dance in the pavilion. The toddlers so serious about their soft dip cones. The busiest food booth by far– the burrito man deftly flipping tortillas as a small crowd watched his artistry. The Air Dogs excitedly leaping yards into the air and splashing into the aboveground pool as their audience cheered. The glitter tattoos and the face painting. So much to remember! Without pictures! I had fun bidding on fun baskets in the silent auction and was lucky enough to win 2 bottles of wine and a $100 restaurant gift certificate. So here is my one picture from the fair. I’ll know better next year.

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Going to the fair, the fair……

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I am so excited about having a booth at the county fair this weekend. We will be selling fashion jewelry and silky scarves from the shop. It brings back great memories of how my mom and I got started in the craft business. Almost twenty years ago my mom was going through a very difficult time in her life and I came up with the idea of making hair accessories and selling them at bazaars and street fairs. I thought it would be fun for us to do together and a much-needed distraction for her. Little did we know how far our journey would go! We loved doing the street fairs and one especially, Good Neighbor Days, held in a huge park in Beaverton over a 3-day weekend. It was so much work but we sold several thousand dollars of five dollar scrunchies etc (which still amazes me to this day.) It was the eighties and hair fashion was huge! We tapped the market at just the right time. I will always treasure all those fun fair days with my mom. She is so special to me. And so much fun to be around! She lives in Calif now so she won’t be here to help. My good friend Heather will be manning the booth with me instead. But my mom will be calling every night to see how we did!

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Top Ten Best Sellers this month at Penelope’s

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Here are our top sellers for the month, in no particular order: 1. Vintage Hankies 2. Porcelain Alphabet Balls. 3. Vintage Jewelry. 4. Lori Mitchell Figures. 5. Old Books. 6. Fashion Bracelets. 7. Vintage Aprons. 8. Flower Frog Vases. 9. Vintage Kitchen Utensils. 10. Gem Paperweights.

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Penelope says…welcome

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My name is Penelope and my mom Lynette is the owner of Penelope’s Hope Chest in Portland, Oregon. Yes, she named the shop after me! It’s a very charming shop filled lots of things I would love to play with but I am not allowed to be there since I tend to shed copious amounts of white hair on everything. I love to climb into the boxes and bags she brings home from her vintage treasure hunts at estate sales, garage sales, thrift shops and auctions. I am a very curious cat. I get it from my mom! She loves to read and travel and learn about new things. She also loves to write and when she was younger she dreamed about writing in a garret in Paris. But being practical, she got a degree in Business instead and fell in love with shopkeeping. I hope you enjoy reading her thoughts…

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