Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Port Sunlight, Wirral - rubber stamp convention

What a charming village!

Port Sunlight was created by William Lever -- the same Lever of Lever soap!

The building that the stamp convention was held in was originally built to have everyone in the town come and use as a hall to have their meals...

The convention there was very much like what we have here in Florida. But the ladies who put the show on are all a bunch of stampers and they all VOLUNTEER there time with putting this show together. It's twice a year.

They also presell all of the tickets, so there is no purchasing any tickets the day of the show at the door. They sell 1700 tickets and they are normally 2 pounds per ticket (1 pound is about $1.50 US) so it's really cheap! But this year, the tickets were one pound each due to it being there 21st year doing this show so they thought to half the ticket price. You can't get into a show here for less then $5 or $6...

The reason for the presell on tickets is due to the size of the hall -- it was built over 150 years ago, although there were quite a few toilet stalls, so it kept the "queue" (aka: line) moving well. It got a bit warm in there after a while, although it was downright chilly when you stood by the door or an open window, if you found an open window. And most importantly, safety. Fire marshalls like to have a safe number inside the building, should an emergency happen.

The show is one day from 10:30am to 4:30pm and your ticket allows you to come and go all day long.

They do raffles, draw names for prizes and they have card and ATC contests.

It was very easy to get there -- for us it was a 10 minute walk from out hotel to the train station. It would have been a one minute walk if that but the station by us was closed for work/repairs. And once on the train, it was a 15 - 20 minute ride. We got out of the small, cute, old station and walked maybe 5 minutes along streets that the yards were so pretty. The village is dripping with history -- the creator of Lever soap put that village on the map. Great info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Sunlight

I got a few ideas in my head on some cards and managed to buy enough to fill my backpack. I focused on buying from companies that were not from the US... England, Canada and such so that I would at least save on the shipping. Although one company had these clear stamps -- maybe 6 or 8 stamps per set and they were less then 6 pounds, so I thought that was a good deal. I managed to spend enough to have hubby say he's now got a "garden kitty" to spend. LOL

If you ever get over the pond, as they say, I would highly recommend this show. Karen, Liz and all the ladies are the nicest people.

You can see the website for the show here:

http://uk.geocities.com/hsnw_festivals/






Karen & me... We were on emails many months before the show. I have a new friend.


This is the hall where the convention is held twice a year...


Me and Liz...


Hubby relaxing, inside, with a book. I'm glad we got him a ticket to come in, as it was so cold outside. No ticket means no entry... period. They presell all of the tickets and don't sell at the door.









Leaving the stamp show and as we were walking back to the train station, we crossed over a little bridge and saw this scene. It could be a postcard...

From Paris to Liverpool...

After five days in Paris, we took a flight to Liverpool on Friday. (There's a stamping convention in Port Sunlight on Saturday and we are going!)

First day we really got some rain (but it lasted maybe an hour after we arrived and then the sun came out and bright blue sky!)



Friday evening, we took a bus and found us a place to wash and dry our clothes.



These were taken right across from our hotel. We enjoyed walking around.




David goofing off with a painful looking chain...



I had taken a picture of the "ambulance" behind this emergency vehicle, when this EMT shouted out to me to take his picture, as he struck a funny pose. Once I had my camera ready to click, he got shy and sat in the car... not to come back out and pose again. LOL






Our hotel was centrally located. We were right in the heart of Queen Center... Could not get any better then that. We decided to have dinner at this one place (kind of reminded me of a Chili's menu) and I had to get a Cosmo while hubby got a Screwdriver. They were strong!

The Louvre...

Walking from our hotel to The Lourve, we found some great photo opportunities...





I could not believe we were going to The Louvre!







We saw the Mona Lisa! (a dream of a lifetime)...





I absolutely loved seeing this. I could not take enough photos. Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss took my breath away. The size of this sculpture was amazing. I wished I could have it in my back yard to look at every day...




Notre Dame & the center of Paris

Really glad we went to Notre Dame (although we did walk a very, very long way this day...)




We signed this huge book for visitors.







The absolute center of Paris! Point Zero was very cool to see.

**our feet**