Frock Fridays: Serious Sparkle

I love it when the theme {av} gives us matches up with what's going on in my life!  Okay, yes, linking up is fun regardless - but I feel like we're in a mind meld when her suggestion works with my calendar.

God, sometimes I am such a creeper.  Sorry!  Let's distract ourselves with the fashion, shall we?  Onward to some serious sparkle...

My two weeks in England over Christmas are primarily going to be spent in Suffolk; we'll be there with Jon's family from December 24th through the 27th and the 30th through January 2nd.  That only leaves four days in London, but you know me - I'm going to pack them to the brim! (That may be a mixed metaphor, but I can't remember the other half of either so we'll just have to agree that we all know what I mean.)  One of my favorite winter activities in London is taking in the sights while ice skating.  Can you imagine anything more romantic?

[ image sources: SH from LONDONSHOTS / NHM / ToL ]

Actually, I first went to the rink at the Natural History Museum with the little girl I babysat when I was a student in London in 2008, so my memories of that experience revolve around a tantrum.  (As soon as we got on the ice, she decided she didn't want to go ice skating; she wanted to see the dinosaurs.  After all the faff we went through to get there and the ordeal of putting on the skates... oof.)  And Jon and I tried to go to the Tower of London for ice skating last winter, but we'd bought the tickets well in advance and the whole city flooded the week we were supposed to go, so that was a bust.  The real romance, in my experience, is at the Somerset House rink.  In our first few treacly months of dating, Jon and I went to Somerset House to ice skate - it's right next to his old university and in an absolutely beautiful courtyard.  We took full advantage of our honeymoon phase by holding hands as we skated in the glow of the towering Christmas tree and whispering sweet nothings over hot chocolate in the Tiffany's café tent.  I bet we were totally obnoxious, to be honest.

But we're going back this year!  You do have to book tickets ahead of time as the popular dates and times sell out quickly, so we snapped ours up last week for the evening of Friday, December 28th.  We've sent an email around to some friends, inviting them to join us, and then we'll head out to a swankyish bar for the rest of the night.  (You're more than welcome to come too, dear readers!)  I'd love to wear something like this:

[ dress / coat / gloves / pashmina / earrings / ring / clutch / heels / skates / socks ]

I've got all of these pieces (or variations thereon) except for the dress.  I found it on Rent the Runway which means that it's definitely doable in terms of my budget, but the shipping timings won't work because I'll be abroad.  So hello, after-Christmas sales!