Kensington Palace

Today Mabel and I along with my friend and her daughter went in search of Princesses, Kings and Queens. We were lucky enough to have a mooch around the newly opened Kensington Palace. A twelve million pound referb over two years has transformed the space.


 We went to catch a glimpse of a Princess' bed (well how else do you get little girls to go into a big old house for a few hours?) but found so much more. The whole place or rather Palace, was filled with the most wonderful whimsical sculptures for want of a better description.  There were rooms filled with hundreds of cut out paper birds hanging from the ceiling and stairwell installations of hanging ships inside glass bottles. It were as if the pages of a child's fairy tale book had come alive with a flick of a magicians wand and burst into each room with a flutter of origami paper characters!  If only we knew what on earth it was all about. I asked a fellow who looked official what the paper birds were about, his reply "Well the Queen loves a song about birds so we fill the room with them, but we keep them in a cage at night" er, right that makes total sense. I just checked out their website in the hope it might shed some light on what the stuff was all about...


Discover stories from Queen Victoria's life told in her own words in the new Victoria Revealed exhibition; master the games of royal court in the magnificent King's State Apartments; get a glimpse of a modern Princess in a small but special exhibition of some of Diana's dresses and uncover the secrets of a fragile dynasty in the beautiful Queen's State Apartments.  


... er, I'm still not sure. but although I'm baffled by what I actually saw today I still thoroughly enjoyed it. My favorite bit has to be the Diana wallpaper covering the walls of a small exhibition of the late Princess' clothes. Simply stunning! I WANT THAT WALLPAPER my friend and I declared! if only the shop sold it... now they are really missed a trick there.

http://www.hrp.org.uk/KensingtonPalace/

Stunning Diana Wallpaper

Wallpaper detail

'The Birds'- What are they all about??

Tiny houses made of boxes

A life size paper cut out of a Princess 

Daisy Cottage

Here is a sweet little pic I did for my lovely Mother-In-Law for Christmas. I forgot to photograph it before I wrapped it up for her so I remembered to take a few snaps of it at the weekend to share with you. 


It may seem like I do a lot of baby names but I've also made a few house names too. Makes me wish my house had a name, but it seems only houses outside of London have names, so unfair! Maybe I should call my house something. Houses seem to be named after things in close proximity to the house, ie Orchard Farm or Lake View Cottage. With this in mind my house would have to be called Great-Big-Noisy-Tube-Line House or Westway Smog Cottage, er hardly romantic. 


Luckily my MIL and FIL live in a sweet little cottage called Daisy Cottage (Built on top of daisy's?) and when I got hold of some nice vintage fabric with daisy's on I knew it would be perfect for the picture. 

  'Daisy Cottage'

Baking for beginners...

So I'm two years into my 'new career path' as a full time mum (god that went fast!) and although I'm enjoying it a lot it is bloody hard work! I'm exhausted and I hardly ever get a break. It's a 7 days a week, 24 hours a day job and although it's amazingly rewarding there are days were I think I will jack it all in and get a 'proper' job. A job with real adults, and proper tea breaks. But at the moment I've decided that I've got to throw myself into tis whole 'mum' thing 100% and not be a wimp about it. So with this in mind I decided to do some baking...

Before I had Mabel I had never baked anything in my life. Not a sausage (Well id baked or rather grilled a sausage of course and other savoury things but no cakes, biscuits or anything like that.

The scary thing is the more you bake the more you feel the need to bake some more. Its addictive. One afternoon I was peckish and I just rustled up some oat biscuits in 20 minutes. It was easy!I even bake when Mabel is napping. So I don't even let her bake with me (how cruel) I also have a confession to make, I considered buying one of those magazines that come free with cookie cutters etc, it was called 'I love Baking' or something. When on earth would I find time to make hand painted sugar butterflies? and more importantly why would i want to make them in the first place? Because I'm in love with baking! either that or I'm just greedy and like eating the results.

Box of brownies I made for Mabel's birthday.

Mabel helping me make fairy cakes

 (I let her bake too sometimes honest!) 

 Tasting the icing

finished fairy cakes

Eating the icing and leaving the cake!

Oat biscuits, yum!

Her Name Was Lola...

...and she wasn't actually a show girl, she's a friends god-daughter. After a bit of a dry spell commission wise I got this lovely request in to make a picture for a baby called Lola's upcoming Christening. I love getting baby names to make as they are always such cool names and a real sign of what the name trends are. So if any of my mates have a bun in the oven you might like to consider one of these for when your sprog pops out. ( or indeed avoid these and go for something totally 'new' and start your own trend!) 


Some names I've made so far...'Lulu', 'Poppy', 'Percy', 'Lucian', 'Logan', 'Jude', 'Roxy', 'Limi',  'Ava', ''Charlie', 'Milo', 'Violet', 'Solene', 'Max', 'Chloe', 'Riely', 'Bronte'...and'Lola'

  

London Zoo

At last it feels like spring has sprung and the days are starting to feel a whole lot warmer. However I can almost hear the words of my dear grandmother Nonna ringing in my ears 'Nay cast a clout 'til May is out' she used to say or 'If you go out without your jacket you'll get Piyakka' We never knew what Piyakka actually meant, but it sounded like some hideous virus that you caught if you went out without your jacket before the end of May. 

Anyway on Monday I woke up and saw the sun was shining and decided what Mabel and I needed was a day trip somewhere outdoors. So off we went with granny Deb Deb in tow to London Zoo and oh what a marvelous day we had! I hadn't been to the zoo for quite a long time so I still had memories of small wire cages with animals rocking back and forth in my mind. But London Zoo seems to be like a 5 star hotel of zoos! the enclosures were really rather good with cascading waterfalls and stunning rock formations and for a moment I felt like I'd been transported to some exotic far away land. However nothing brings you back to reality quicker than a huge silverback gorilla taking a wee right in front of you. It was less idilic waterfall and more Niagra falls. Mabel thought it was the best thing she'd ever seen. 

The only drawback about the zoo is the cost. £20 a head for adults! plus a fiver for a booklet with a map... with prices like that no wonder the animals are living in 5 star luxury. 

http://www.zsl.org/

A Morning at the Museum...

I woke up this morning feeling terribly guilty. It has been ages since Mabes and I have done anything new and fun together. Our weeks pretty much pan out the same, lots of pottering around Notting Hill with Mabel strapped in a buggy, not much fun. Even when I say in an over excited voice a bit like a kids tv presenter 'Todayyyy we are gooooing to the supermarket, yay!' I know i can't pull the wool over her eyes. She just stares at me with those big eyes and I'm sure she is thinking 'Just do Ocado mama and lets hit the swings instead'.

So this morning I decided to take her to The Natural History Museum. I even made a packed lunch! in tupperware! something tells me this wont be the last museum trip with a packed lunch. But today it was a real joy to make the little picnic and pack up our things and off we trundled. We had so much fun! Well Mabel was absolutely freaked out by the dinosaurs to start with. It was nearly impossible to go anywhere with a limpet child glued to my leg. But I hobbled on dragging my leg with child attached around all the exhibits and once we were past the 'Big daddy dinosaur that goes rrroar! he's a bit scary mum' the limpet let go and had a proper look around. It brought back memories of my youth, I wonder if Mabel will take her kids there when she's older? I do hope so. 

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/