Totally Enchanting...

Are you feeling festive yet?  I think I need a viewing of Love Actually whilst making mince pies and then I can officially call it Christmas!

Today to escape some of the Christmas shopping madness, I went to Kensington Palace to visit their enchanted palace exhibition and a little bit of me melted!  The curators have created something incredibly beautiful and magical and it truly allows us to be introduced to the history of the palace and it's inhabitants in a really unique and special way.

As soon as you walk into the first room you are hit with a sucker punch of sadness, what can be more emotional that a dressing table full of antique bottles used to collect the tears of Princess Mary after suffering from numerous miscarriages.

   Photo from here

The rest of the rooms were all themed around seven other Princesses that lived at some stage in the palace, and the stunning rooms are enhanced with amazing fashion and art installations along with some fabulous performance artists that really bring the palace to life!    We all had a giggle when one of the artists offered for my friend Claire to sit on a thrown and asked for her to speak her greatest wish, the palace courtiers then shouted her wish across the palace for all to hear!   Then a few rooms later we came across a beautiful type-writer and the notes stated that their was a visit from Princess Claire and again her wish was noted for all to see!

As you can probably tell, I really can't speak more highly of the place and I wish I had more photos to share, but unfortunately the exhibit restricts photography and it was stressful enough trying to sneak these photos!  We ended the day with a glass of champagne and afternoon tea in the orrangery!  How very regal!

Have a great week!

xxx

London Calling

If you ever get the chance, the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden is a great way to while away an afternoon.  I have always been fascinated by the history of how London's transport network has developed and moved with the times and the museum tells the story in a great way not just with words and pictures but lifesize models of old tubes and buses.  The war period is particulary interesting and shows how important the underground became, not just for the purpose of moving around the city, but also for protecting so many lives.  One of my favourite areas of the museum is where they show so many of the beautiful posters that have graced the tube walls for so many years.  During the 1920s and 30s designing a poster for the underground was considered to be a great honour and the within the museum you can see some of these amazing art deco masterpieces. 

Now, what every great museum needs is a great museum shop, and today museum shops have moved on from the days of purchasing a souvenir rubber or biro to remind you of your day out!  The shop at the London Transport Museum is beautiful and has a whole range of different products to tempt you and you can spend as much time shopping as you did walking through the museum!  There are some great homewares and below are some of my favourites.  For those of you that don't live in London they also have an online shop, so now there is no excuse not to own your own london underground pair of socks!