London, lately: December

After a time spent largely indoors or locally, going for walks, baking and making jam, I have been out and about in London town again (theres only so much domesticity I can handle).

We sampled the fare at the Pitt Cue co which was delicious; double meat patties in a brioche bun with a side of sprout tops and bacon, eaten at the lace covered window, under a sea of  dangling lamps.  Then, off we went to Liberty so Frankie-Rose could choose her first Christmnas decoration. Giant gold paper chains, thousands of twinkling fairy lights and row upon row of multi coloured sparkling baubles meant Frankie was in heaven. She carefully looked at all of the different rows before finally choosing one. Meanwhile we were getting some funny looks from fellow shoppers!  We are very excited about her first Christmas, and the Liberty bauble choosing is the first of many Christmas traditions we hope to start this year.

Frankie and I took ourselves to the Whitechapel Gallery; now blissfully easy to get to on the East London Line. The Mel Bochner exhibition was brilliant; I loved the colours and his use of words was really satisfying to this writer. We paid a visit to the Tate Britain to see the Pre-Raphelite and Turner exhibitions; two ends of a very long Art spectrum. Both were brilliant; I didn't reckon on seeing any William Morris stuff in the Pre-Raphelite exhibition but there it was, looking tactile and rich and beautiful. I adored Turner prize winner Elizabeth Price's video installation which played with sound, cultural memory and repetition to create quite an emotive experience.  A trip to Shoreditch followed, for lunch at Leila's, then stocking up on bagels and admiring the shoe light installation.

We also managed a quick trip to the V&A to look at their Christmas tree and visit the gift shop before visiting the Natural History Museum to see to Dinosaurs. I had forgotten how good that exhibit was-even I experienced a slight shiver down my spine upon rounding the corner and seeing a huge animatronic T-Rex (although such tiny claws!)  Frankie slept through the whole thing though, which was disappointing, but a good excuse to return in the near future.

We popped along to the Bust Christmas Craftacular Yesterday to buy some hand made christmas presents from the amazing makers and artists that were exhibiting there. I was also approached by a few people who read my blog, which was lovely but made me blush a little!  It was so lovely to meet some readers and fellow bloggers, and also chat to Becky too.

Pitt Cue Co

Pitt Cue Co

Liberty

Choosing decorations

Mel Bochner

William Morris at the Pre Raphelite Exhibition

Shoreditch

Blurry tree at the V&A

Roar! Natural History Museum

Bust Christmas Craftacular

In short, London is brilliant in December. 

The above photo's are just from Instagram. I love it. Its basically lazy blogging and I am ALL OVER that at the moment. I cant wait to get a new phone in January so that I can take slightly better quality instagram pics, but its not always about nice photo's, I reckon. 

Up next: our Christmas decorations and preparations. 

I hope you're all enjoying the festive season!