Found a great kitschy shop filled with great signs, magnets, and fabulous knobs.

 Loved the Button Knobs, here's a closer shot.  They were about 2 inches round.  I got a lead on the distributor from one of the European Stockists, wish me luck!

The day kicked off with breakfast at the Hotel Una, forced myself up at 8 so I could make check-in at 9:30.  It rained over night, and cleared up by the morning so we have a beautiful day at the beach.

After a fun socializing activity, Annie shared that Annie's latest book - Color Recipes was published in Dutch & German.  That lead to a great lecture on style, color, and mood.

We broke for lunch & a group photograph at the front of the Grand Hotel.  Gathering all the Stockists together was like 'putting frogs in a box'. 

I had a fun visit with a Stockist from England, Jane Osgood.  We were comparing furniture wish lists & our homes, decor styles, etc, and Jane pops up 'my home is older than America!'  Bahaha!

Victoria Station is so very clean with tons of helpful people guiding you towards wherever you need to go.

The train ride was about an hour throughout beautiful English countryside.

Did I mention how absolutely beautiful the weather has been in London?  It has been stunning!

We caught a taxi at the Brighton Train Station to our Boutique Hotel in Regency Square, right across from the beach.  When we arrived there was fog, felt similar to Santa Cruz.

The hotel we are staying in is just one slice of this square, Hotel Una.  We were a little early to check in so a lovely woman Janna, from the Czech Republic, steered us into town.  She said "Brighton is for Eating".  My kind of place!  Loaded with a map & 15 Resturaunt recommendations we walked into town.  

It was amazing! Delicious!  Fantastic!  I can't say enough to communicate how deliciously tasty it all was.  I think I loved the scone with butter & jam the most.  Previously I would never have added butter & jam to a fruit scone, and yet now, I can't wait to have butter & raspberry jam with my raisin/current scone.

After enjoying the tea (which was dinner, how could we eat anymore?) we walked down the streets to shop.  I found the most wonderful pair of tall black leather boots at the Bootmakers Store. I was so excited because I have inheirited fat calves & the wonderful English lady in the store was so helpful and she suffers fat calves too!

After lots more walking we were off to the main hotel to kick-off the Annie Sloan Stockist meeting at a social gathering with music provided by Chad Valley.

That's it for now.

Nite!

Whatever you have heard of Harrods, doesn't do it justice.  It is overwhelming.  There are so many designer rooms, we just wandered 3 floors touching, oohing & aahing, until finally my senses were overloaded & we selected what we needed from the Harrods Gift Store.  We didn't even see more than half of the store!

Finally, completely exhausted we left Harrods & went up a half block to a fantastic French Resturaunt, Le Metro, at the base of the Levine hotel.  The food was devine, the service was exquisite, and we relaxed after the horrors of shopping for picky teenagers!  

On a side note, everyone, without exception, has been incredibly helpful and polite.  I grew up thinking America was a melting pot of all races, but it really feels like London wins this award.  Everywhere we have gone there is a huge diversity of dress, language, and accents.  Today in Harrods we had a man from an Arab state in full cloak & headdress with an entourage walk by a family from the Netherlands and a group of German students.  

The standard British female dress seems to be tights (with lots of crazy patterns or odd colors), an extremely short skirt or shorts, sweater or jumper, scarf, and across the body bag.  Our jeans and khakis are so noticeably 'American', it's quite funny.

Nite - we are off to Brighton tomorrow.

Our home has an open floor plan so we picked a single color to go throughout the downstairs, letting the light change the color.  First we hired amazing painters, PAR Painters.  They had a reasonable bid & really worked with us to pick the right color.  

Here are some of the pictures I got inspiration from;

I love how the turquoise pops against the grey.

Nite all!

We took the coach from London to Oxford, and Annie's store was just around the corner from our stop!  I was so excited!!!

Annie also had loads more fabric than we stock.... Something to think about maybe?

But my favorite item was the small table which had her sample jars

I love the thick (impasto) application of all the Chalk Paint® colors.  I'm definitely going to use this as inspiration for a piece I have at home.

I met two lovely ladies who work at Annie shop, Catherine & Amy (sp?).   David, Annie's husband, stopped by so I was able to say Hello (met in New Orleans).   I dropped off a gift for Annie, two books by Robert Munch, for her granddaughter.  If you haven't read his books to your children, you are in for a treat!

(Google Images)

Sometimes when you have looked forward to something so much, when you finally get there, it can be disappointing.  That was not the case here.  I was so excited to see Annie's store, and when we finally made it, it was inspiring.  I have several ideas to try out, and it was just like Annie, normal.