Virtual Holidays

Being far away from our family has gotten much easier with modern technology, most importantly with FREE technology, namely Skype. Yesterday while both sides of our family were gathered in different cities, we were able to "see" them all via computer.

Skype is great and we use it often with our parents. Yesterday on Thanksgiving we were able to skype with Scott's Grandmother too and we gave her a virtual tour of our house. My parents were with our dear family friends so we skyped with all of them as they were preparing their dinner. It's always nice to see someone in person, but skype has really made us feel a lot closer to our families while being far away. 

My Mom & Dad, Ray & Claire and Amy, all in the US, skyping with us in the UK. What amazing technology!

We are Thankful

Even though we are not close to our family and dear friends this Thanksgiving, we are still very thankful for many things. Our health, our family members' health, dear friends, food to eat, shelter, and many more blessings....but we are VERY thankful to be Americans who celebrate Thanksgiving regardless of location!  I know I've probably posted something along these lines before, but having this experience over here has been wonderful in SO many ways and we are grateful for the time here, but overall it makes us very thankful to be Americans and all of the opportunities that come with that privilege. 

It felt very strange to work today and to have things moving along as business as usual....and knowing that everyone back home was spending the morning either in their pj's watching TV with family members or was up early to get the turkey and fixings ready for company!  

The only turkey I made this season was the one below - a fabric one - attached to a bib for a friend's little girl. We will be celebrating a late Thanksgiving with their family this weekend so I thought she needed a festive bib for the meal! 

This afternoon a British lady asked me what the difference between the Thanksgiving holiday and 4th of July holiday is for Americans? An interesting question I thought since both celebrate American freedoms and beginnings in various ways. I responded with a bit about Independence Day marking the declaration of independence and Thanksgiving celebrating the country's first settler's bountiful harvest. However, when I got home tonight, I did a bit of research (since she peaked my interest in this subject) and I probably should have known more about Thanksgiving as a national holiday but I have to admit I did not pay as close of attention in history class as I should have....

In 1863, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed that Thanksgiving should be a national observance. To some degree, this was a way to brighten the spirits of the American people, who were dealing with a great deal of difficulty and deprivation.

It was a nice bit to learn (again) today and it is one holiday that does remind us about all of the blessings in our life! Happy Thanksgiving to all near and far!!

Sweet Home Chicago...for a few hours!

After Sarah & Jonathan's wedding, we flew to Chicago for a few hours - literally, there were not even days involved....(so apologies now for not seeing anyone while we were there!). We had just enough time to squeeze in a quick visit with Scott's family and then also packed in dentist visits (trying to keep up with our US dentists!). 

Scott's brothers & dad pose for a quick photo while they were all together.

We were also able to visit with Scott's grandma for a nice lunch and so I captured this photo with Scott, his parents and grandma all together. 

After my dentist visit downtown, it was dark outside so the Christmas lights on State Street were already turned on. I just love this sight - State Street at the holidays, with The Chicago Theater sign lit up in the background!

And of course no visit to Chicago would be complete without a stop at a favorite restaurant...oh wait, there wasn't time for that! So, I had our taxi driver make a stop in Lincoln Park while en route to O'Hare airport, so I could pick up sushi take out from one of our favorite places, Sai Cafe. Then, we ordered Jama Juices at the airport and we camped out in front of our boarding gate to eat our sushi and fruit drinks.....a bit crazy, I will admit....but oh my they were DELICIOUS!!!

Wedding Bells

We made a very quick trip to the US last weekend for the wedding celebration of dear friends, Sarah & Jonathan. The wedding ceremony was set outside a beautiful location on the Chesapeake Bay. It was a wonderful weekend and we could not have been MORE excited to share in their wonderful celebration! 

Friday night's rehearsal dinner...

No jitters for the groom & bride at the rehearsal dinner - they were all smiles! 

Scott entertains my sister & my mom at the rehearsal dinner with his charming ways.

The wedding ceremony location over looking the Chesapeake Bay. 

Sarah and her beautiful family members taking wedding photos! 

The Bridesmaids getting ready to walk down the aisle. 

Doesn't this look like a family photo shoot? It was super sweet - niece and nephew (flower girl and ring bearer) with the bride & groom. 

The sunset right after the wedding ceremony as we enjoyed cocktails on the terrace. 

The new Mr. & Mrs. take the dance floor! 

Scott & my dad solve the problems of the world.....

Celebrating with Jonathan & Sarah at the reception. 

A Bonfire on the beach followed the reception - it was warm and cozy, perfect for the crisp fall weather that evening.

Sell, sell, sell....

In the past two weeks, I had three sales from people who found my etsy site online. Naturally, I was quite excited so I thought I would post photos of the "sold" custom items! 

If you want to shop online, head to: www.polkadotandpaisley.com and you can link to my etsy site from there. 

A personalised first birthday shirt.

A personalised 3rd Birthday shirt, flower themed.

A monogrammed bib and sleeper set for a little baby girl. 

Bonfire Night

On Saturday evening, we gathered with some friends to go to Kenilworth Castle to see the bonfire there and to watch their fireworks display/celebration in honor of the annual Bonfire Night. Last year I was back in the US for this UK celebration, and unfortunately it was the night we were robbed, so we were happy to not repeat our history from last year on this night! 

Bonfire night is a night centered around the use of fireworks and the lighting of bonfires to in honor of Guy Fawkes Night. Guy Fawkes Night is an annual celebration on the evening of November 5th (although the bonfire celebration we attended was the following Saturday, the 7th). It marks the downfall of the Gunpowder Plot of the 5th of November 1605, in which a number of Catholic conspirators, including Guy Fawkes, attempted to destroy the Houses of Parliment, in London. It is a bit funny that this country celebrates someone who tried to blow up their governmental building, right??? 

Regardless, it was a neat celebration to attend and watch...

A bit blurry and difficult to see, but here is the bonfire with the backdrop of the Castle in the distance...

Joe giving his youngest daughter a better view above the crowds! 

Fireworks! 

And more fireworks! They went on for a good 30 plus minutes...a nice display.

Scott and Johnny....of course Johnny playing tricks on Scott by hiding his view of the fireworks for the evening...and Johnny laughing the entire time!!

Lots of treats and a few tricks....

Yesterday we celebrated Halloween in a more American fashion than British fashion....

The British do not embrace Halloween like the Americans do. Trick-or-Treating has begun over here really in more recent years, and even at that, it is only a handful of children who find their way around the neighborhoods for candy. The costume selection in the stores is pretty dismal and most costumes here tend to focus around witches, cats, or vampires. The aisles and aisles of candy at the local Target stores do not exist over here, although I understand the selection has grown again in more recent years.

We attended a Halloween party last night at another American family's house, so we did celebrate with a costume party, haunted house (aka a haunted garage), and even Halloween games for the kiddos! 

First the treats started on Friday when we received a wonderfully delicious sugar filled box from my mom in the mail! It was a GREAT surprise and American candy is always a welcome "evil" in our house, most especially since we cannot buy any of these treats over here! Thanks mom for spending the crazy amount of money to ship a box full of candy to us...

More treats for the party we attended on Saturday...I baked my grandmother's "smiley face cookies" and turned them into little jack-o-latern cookies. 

Popeye (aka Scott) downing his can of spinach before we headed out to our Halloween party. Sadly, we forgot to have Popeye take a photo of Olive Oyl so I cannot share my costume with you from last night...

At the party, a bit of the British traditions were followed, as the kids participated in a donut eating contest. The donuts were tied on a string and then the strings was tied onto a pole - the kids stood below and had to eat the donuts off of the string as fast as they could without using their hands! 

Popeye supervised and aided in the crazy donut eating contest....

Hope you had a Happy Halloween too! 

While shopping.....

Today on my way home from work, I decided to take a different route home and I made a stop at an antique store along the way. I have been to this particular antique store a handful of times before, but hadn't been back in a few months. While I was there, I spotted a BEAUTIFUL antique desk and now I cannot get my mind off of it! We'll see if I am able to convince Scott that we need to make an investment in this antique desk when he gets home....

I can already picture the desk in a corner of our house with a beautiful chair sitting in front of it! 

These photos really do not show how beautiful and detailed the desk is, since they were only taken with my camera phone. The wood is actually black and then there is the red leather padding in the middle. The leather padding is quite worn but I think to replace it might be too sharp for the shabbiness and character of the desk. 

The edges of the desk are then light brown wood which  makes a nice contrast. It is a desk from 1900 and frankly it is in pretty decent shape for being so old! While this desk does cost a bit more than say, our IKEA desk we currently own, I do not think we would be able to purchase such a desk in the US for anything close to this reasonable price. Antiques do seem quite a bit less expensive over here since there are just more of them (given that the country is so much older than the US). 

To add to my "vision" of this desk being in some future house of mine, I think I would have the desk in the same room as this chair I reupholstered last winter since the black theme might carry through......I can envision this rocking chair being in an opposite corner of the room - maybe I feel a living room with a black and crisp tan theme coming on in a future house of ours???

Can you tell that I really would like this desk for my future house???? Let's hope my husband agrees! :)

2 Years!

Yesterday Scott & I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary. How lucky we are to be happily married to each other!  

I made a cookie cake in honor of our anniversary. 

We had a nice dinner at a local restaurant - the food was actually quite delicious! (service was another story but what can we expect???.....)

We exchanged a few gifts. I stuck to the 2nd anniversary theme of china gifts, Scott did not....but lucky me, I received the nice gift he purchased! :) 

And then we lit a candle in our cookie cake and sang a Happy Anniversary song to ourselves....because we are just that silly and are still pretty crazy about each other! 

Our first two years of marriage have gone by really much faster than I imagined they would, but the best part about our time together is that it gets better with each day! I look forward to MANY more years to come. Happy Anniversary Scott! xoxo

Another weekend in London

Scott had a meeting last Friday in London so we decided to capitalize on his location, and I met him in the city after his meeting and we stayed overnight so we could take in a show as well. 

While I had the afternoon to wander around the city myself, I found my way to Partridges grocery store. Yes, it is just a grocery store but they have a very special American food section so I wanted to stock up on more American items that I could not fit in my suitcase the other week....

After an afternoon of shopping for me, and a day of meetings for Scott, we were ready for a nice night out on the town! We ate an early dinner and then went to see Calendar Girls at the Noel Coward Theater. 

I took a photo of Scott in front of the theater and then said he could take my photo....but for whatever reason he could not take a clear shot! 

The clearest photograph he took of me! 

On Saturday we relished in the fact that we could spend the entire day with no schedule and so after an American breakfast at one of our favorite (overpriced) restaurants - Automat - we wandered the city....and ended up at Hamley's toy store.

This store is the most fabulous toy store with floors and floors of treasures! 

Scott was a bit hesitant to wander around a toy store, but then it was pretty clear he was in heaven upstairs in the "boy" sections once we were inside. 

I wanted to buy all of the plush, soft stuffed animals! 

After playing in the toy store, we caught the tube and headed towards the Borough Market. 

Scott riding the escalators up from the underground tube line.

The Borough Market entrance. 

I am not sure how in all of our time here in the UK so far, I have missed the Borough Market - frankly I knew nothing about it until someone back in the US mentioned it to me. I LOVED it! It is the most wonderful food market with all kinds of speciality stalls and vendors. I could have spent hours wandering the market, just inspecting every type of vendor there but since I was with Scott we spent only a few hours there, opposed to the entire day. 

Standing at the "entrance" of the market with the crowds of people everywhere. 

A fresh fish vendor.

A pile of brownies at a bakery stand. 

Fall vegetables for sale and on display.

The largest pot of Chicken curry I have seen in a while! 

That same vendor who was selling chicken curry was also selling other stew type dishes. 

I was on a quest to find this vendor. It did not dissapoint. They sell these AMAZING toasted cheese sandwiches and some type of potato type dish with warm raclette cheese melted on top. 

I was on a mission to taste this toasted cheese sandwich. It was grilled in front of us on some type of griddle. There is cheese on the inside along with some type of relish (fresh, good relish), and then it even had cheese toasted on the outside of the bread. DELICIOUS! Sadly, it was partially wasted on us since we were SO full from our American breakfast earlier in the day...

I still ate almost every last bite of the cheese sandwich and it was delicious. I will most definitely be headed back to the Borough Market to pay a visit to this sandwich stall vendor again! 

An American Consumer

I have just returned from a short and a bit of a whirlwind trip back to the US for a dear friend's bridal shower in Virginia. While I was in the US, I had to take advantage of stocking my suitcases full of US goods.....clearly I am still an American consumer through and through! After a large TARGET run, my suitcases grew close to the 50 lb weight limit but I successfully transported the "necessary" goods back to the UK. Given the strange items I had packed in the suitcase, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to find this notice in my bag when I unpacked it. 

A notice telling me that the TSA checked out the contents of my bag for security purposes.

And here is part of what they found inside my bag......terrible, isn't it - that almost everything I had to bring back is sugar?!?!? The fall just isn't the same without candy corn and American Halloween candy!!!

Phew!

Thank goodness I do not have to be the dedicated driver in this household....Scott passed his driving test this morning! Woo hoo!! To celebrate his achievement, I got him this funny card...

NO MORE "L" plates for our car!!!

License to Drive...

After too many pounds spent on application fees, driving lessons, "L" plates for our car, and other driving exam preparation materials, I am pleased to report that I am an official UK Driver now! I passed the second part and practical part of my driving test on the first try yesterday. Whew! 

At the end of the exam, my driving examiner, filled out (in ink, in the car) this very "official" certificate above (name, etc covered for security purposes) that I am supposed to keep as proof of my achievement. I am now a licensed driver here in the UK until I am 70 I believe. 

Now, the pressure is on Scott as he prepares to take his test on Tuesday. I hope to report more good news afterwards! 

Where did this come from???

I looked outside the living room window yesterday and saw a strange object in our yard....

Upon closer inspection, I saw a large MUSHROOM and stump growing....

This mushroom really looks THAT large in person too.....

Now I just wonder why on earth it is growing in the middle of our yard!

From Scratch

One of the things about living abroad is the absence of familiar products and/or brands. The absence of these familiar sights particularly plays out for me most when shopping at the grocery store. I know I have posted before about having no brand loyalty or pre-conceived notion about which brand to buy here in the UK. (although now after a year of living here, I have become loyal to some UK brands I have to admit....)

The lack of familiar brands really is the lack of American specific goods. For example, certain brand of cake mixes, Cheez-Its, Velveeta, Jiffy Corn Muffin mix, Ranch dressing, etc. - are just not available over here. The question is - what to substitute when a recipe calls for Velveeta? Or when a recipe calls for one packet of Lipton Onion Soup mix? I still have not found an appropriate substitute for either of those two items. 

To be fair, I was never a pre-made cake mix or dinner kit kind of shopper in the US, so I knew I would not miss certain items when we moved here. However, in our last year of living in the US, I did become quite addicted to Trader Joe's and some of their "pre-made" products, including their Caesar Salad Dressing and their freshly made pizza dough. 

I was excited to recently find an American salad dressing for sale on the shelf of the grocery store (Caesar salad dressing with an American flag and all...) but I was quite disappointed when I made our dinner salad and tasted the dressing. It was not tasty!

So, I went back to basics and decided it was time to make Caesar salad dressing from scratch. It will probably be difficult to buy a bottle of the dressing off the shelf again because this home made version is really a winner in our house these days..... Courtesy of Ina Garten, here is the recipe:

• 1-2 large garlic cloves
• 2 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1 1/2 teaspoons anchovy paste
• 1 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 1 1/2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 cup good mayonnaise

• Romaine lettuce, chopped
• Cherry tomatoes, sliced
• croutons
• Parmesan, shaved

Directions

Place the garlic and parsley in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and process until minced. Add the anchovy paste, mustard, lemon juice, and mayonnaise and process again to make a smooth dressing. (Refrigerate the Caesar dressing if not using it immediately - I think it actually tastes better after it has been refrigerated for a while.)

Maybe by the time we move back to the US, I will be at 125% scratch cooking! Or....more likely I will have familiar products back at hand so I'll "cheat" and use them again every once in a while!