Christmas Come and Gone (Happy Christmas to You)

Hope all my lovely readers had a very happy Christmas and are enjoying the Boxing Day wind-down. 

Now, after counting down the last few days to Christmas (here and here), in all the excitement and busyness of the day itself, I didn't manage to get a photo of my actual Christmas Day outfit. Oops! Rest assured, it was red and green, despite the fact that my original dress plans were superseded when I decided to rug up warm instead, especially with a Christmas stroll on the cards. So I ended up in a jumper and wool skirt, rather than the resplendent 1980s party dress I was intending to wear... 

However, with pen, pencils and paper, and leisurely Boxing Day time, I decided to make up for my lack of photographs and sketch you a cartoon Christmas greeting and interpretation of my planned but unworn outfit, with a tree much larger than the one I actually have. The joys of artistic licence.

Happy Christmas again, dear readers!

It's Just Around the Corner Now...

There's absolutely no mistaking it, those Christmassy colours are out in full force now...

Just one more sleep to go...

Outfit details - 

Cardigan - gift from a friend

Skirt - Beyond Retro

Belt - with dress from Sunday Up Market, Spitalfields
Hair ribbon - John Lewis haberdashery

Hat - charity shop, via my mother

She's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

The festively coloured outfits are out...

Two sleeps to go...

Outfit details -

Necklace: second-hand market at Wilton's Music Hall

Cardigan - United Colors of Benetton 

Skirt - Beyond Retro

Shortest Day

The shortest day of the year, the winter solstice, the first day of winter... 

However you look at it, the day has a wonderfully cozy feel to it, aided this year by the rain that's been falling all day here in London. I went out with my umbrella for a wee walk, which took me up to Angel in the quickly fading daylight hours. 

While I was there, I snapped some pictures of the Christmas lights, which are simply bursts of small lights shimmering up in the bare, wintery branches of the trees. Islington have had the same decorations up for the past three Christmases at least, and I just love them. They are so simple and pretty, and I rather approve of the fact that they've found a good thing and stuck with it. 

Second Sunday

Today was one of those lovely Sundays, with the weather cool (but not too cold) and bright as I headed down to meet a friend and her dog at Columbia Road Market. I picked up a Christmas tree - my first one ever since I moved out of my family home! - and then we headed to the Owl and the Pussy Cat pub for lunch and mulled wine.

My wee tree (and it is a wee tree, for my wee flat) is now up and decorated - an appropriate activity for the second Sunday in Advent.

The first Sunday in Advent involved a meal in the pub as well, come to think of it. The Cat and I headed to Kew for his birthday outing, which involved a scrumptious roast in The Greyhound on the Green, some live music, and then on to Kew Gardens' after-hours illuminated trail. We had an enjoyable time wandering around the gardens after dark and looking at all the lights and the fire garden. It wasn't quite so sparkly and magical wonderland-ish as we had anticipated but we had a nice evening, nonetheless.

What might the third Sunday in Advent bring, I wonder?

... But One Month 'Til Christmas

On Friday, a memorial for C.S. Lewis was unveiled in Westminster Abbey's Poets' Corner, where various British authors are commemorated and celebrated. The unveiling took place on the 50th anniversary of his death. 

C.S. Lewis' memorial in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey (Image source)

C.S. Lewis wrote and presented extensively but he is probably most widely known for his Narnia series, of which The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, published in 1950, is the most famous installment. And the timing of the unveiling of Lewis' memorial just happens to be an appropriate time to be thinking of this classic story, in which the Pevensie children arrive in the magical land of Narnia to find that it is 'always Winter, but never Christmas'. The arrival of Father Christmas later in the story is a sign of hope that the evil White Witch's spell is breaking, and the children are furnished with Christmas gifts to help them in the battle for Narnia.

Mr Tumnus and Lucy walking through the wintery scene of Narnia
(Image source)

As we in the Northern Hemisphere start to move into Winter, with colder, shorter days, at least we - unlike the citizens of Narnia - know that the brightness and warmth of Christmas are not too far down the track, with Christmas Eve but one month away today.

Christmas Day and After

All dressed up for Christmas Day: white crocheted dress made by my wonderful grandmother for my birthday this year, red tights from M&S or similar such place, patent leather and gold t-bar shoes given to me by a friend, and a black and gold ribbon in my hair.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Mine was lovely and very relaxed, begun at church with the midnight candlelight service, followed by lovely presents opened upon waking up in the morning, phone calls to loved ones, and tasty food consumed in good company.

Today, a reinvigorating bicycle ride took me to Regent's Park for a stroll. I love going for a walk on Boxing Day - it's always such a relaxed and friendly atmosphere as everyone has gone into slow motion after Christmas Day feasting and napping.

Boxing Day aside, I just love Regent's Park in winter. It always feels wonderfully Victorian to me at this time of year. I especially enjoy it on the bitterest of days, when you have to walk briskly to keep out the cold and you can feel the redness growing in your cheeks. Or when it's misty and atmospheric and you truly expect to hear the clip-clop of horse hooves behind you or to pass mysterious men in capes and top hats. Even on relatively mild days like today, the season brings a distinct calm, stillness and quiet to the park, which feels like stepping back into another time...

Let It Rain, Let It Rain, Let It Rain

Kensington Palace's Advent calendar, based on Queen Victoria's diaries

Well, the Christmas forecast is frightful

But London will be delightful

 As I don't need no train

Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain...

Fortnum & Mason Christmas windows

This year I'm spending Christmas in London, which is just wonderful. There's been lots of rain here in the UK, causing a wee bit of chaos, but I don't have to fret about any travel plans or crowds because I'm staying put. Everything is wrapped up (literally and metaphorically) so I can just spend the next few days relaxing, go to my regular church for the Christmas services, cook up a simple Christmas lunch on Tuesday, and enjoy the peacefulness that descends on the capital over the break, perhaps partaking in a cycle around its empty streets on Boxing Day, weather permitting.

I got the final grocery shop out of the way yesterday so today I enjoyed a visit to Kensington Palace to see their Advent calendar installation, on the last day before they close for Christmas. Against my expectations, I have come to adore Kensington Palace, after discovering it when they had the Enchanted Palace installation during recent refurbishment works. It recently reopened in all its glory and has maintained the fairytale element. A full post to come on that...

More installments in the Kensington Palace Advent calendar

When I was kicked out at 5pm, I went for a walk and ended up passing Fortnum & Mason, so naturally stopped to look at their Christmas display. Sadly, it was slightly disappointing when compared against last year's offering. The main windows, fronting Piccadilly, recount the tale of Dick Whittington, but the figures looked a bit cheap and kitsch to me - like a bad local history museum. The backdrops in the Duke Street windows seemed similarly tacky and obvious. While some of the displays of food and beverages was quite beautiful and artfull, I definitely preferred last year's displays, which were more like the window display version of an editorial fashion shoot, in which the products almost seemed an incidental element in bewitching and abstract scenes.

Still, even for someone who isn't generally seduced by gratuitious displays of food, there were definitely some appealling moments:

Anyway, I hope that you, my lovely readers, all have a wonderful Christmas, however and wherever you choose to celebrate. And I hope that those people who are travelling to be with loved ones have safe and undisrupted journeys, come rain, snow or shine.





The Headscarf Attempt

Rest assured, dear readers, that I have not fallen off the side of the earth, as it may have appeared with my uncharacteristically long and unexplained absence.  I have merely been away for a week and was too hectically busy before I left to post anything before I headed off.  I now have rather a back-log of things to write about and am just picking the topic of today's post somewhat at random.  So here we go...

Regular and long-time readers may recall a post I wrote some time ago, lamenting my inability to pull off the glamourous, movie star headscarf style.  You know the look, with the scarf crossed under the chin and knotted at the back of the neck...  Well, recently I got to go for a ride in a classic 1970s Triumph Stag when I was up in Leicester for an extended family Christmas.  

Posing by the Triumph Stag (I can't actually drive so I was merely pretending that I was about to jump in behind the wheel...)

I just happened to have my "motoring scarf" (i.e. scarf with vintage cars all over it) packed in my luggage so thought this was too good an opportunity to miss.  I decided it was time to experiment with the Hollywood/motoring headscarf look, even if the weather were too cold to take advantage of the convertible function of the car.

Although it was amusing, I can't say I was entirely convinced of its success.  Maybe it was the wrong scarf (too small, too narrow, too stiff?) but I am definitely thinking it's something to do with the shape of my face.

Headscarf glamour or headscarf fail?
 I feel I look more like the Queen than a Hollywood star.

That's okay though, we can't all be glamourous Hollywood headscarf-wearing types.  There are plenty of other ways for me to wear my collection of scarves.  I think this one looks just fine knotted around my neck, like a kind of feminine tie/cravat device.

Beret and necktie suits me fine.

If, however, I do experiment with the Hollywood headscarf look again some time (perhaps with a suitably different scarf), I will be sure to let you know.  Especially if it goes better next time.  Then I might even be able able to identify what it was I was doing right or wrong each time and share it with any readers wanting to give the look a go.

Delicious Windows at Fortnum & Mason

Yesterday I went to an exhibition on Soviet architecture at the Royal Academy of Arts, which I rather enjoyed.  I would write more about the things I learnt there and trawl the internet for some pictures by architects and artists who particularly took my fancy but, as you may or may not have noticed, I've been rather word-lite on posts at the moment and this is because I'm snowed under with course work.  However, I want to keep my blog swimming along and it's nice to take wee breaks now and again, so I'm hastily posting every now and then.

As such, today's post is not going to be on Communism and architecture but rather, the shop windows at Fortnum & Mason!  Yes, upon emerging onto Piccadilly after the exhibition, my friend and I decided to go have tea in Fortnum & Mason.  I happened to get incredibly distracted by the windows...  For quite a while...  In fact, my friend decided to leave me to it while she went in to look around at actual food and beverages...

As you can probably tell, I wasn't overly bothered by the food on display and just went a bit nuts photographing all the details.  Note: I don't really have a weird foot fixation, despite the fact they feature rather heavily in my snaps.

I love that French Railways House (1960-2) is reflected in this picture and
Burlington House is in the one with the peacock lady.  Seems appropriate somehow.

Aren't they just fabulous though!  Evidence that the fine artistic eye of Fortnum & Mason's creative director, Paul Symes, does much more to get one drooling than the food inside the building.  Everything was just so exquisite and detailed, I could have stayed there for hours admiring it but I was called inside to afternoon tea which was, admittedly, also quite good.

I also just want to note, for anyone who doesn't already read her blog, the lovely Miss Kelly-Marie at Harem of Peacocks recently had her Beyond Retro windows appear alongside Fortnum & Mason in Drapers magazine.  Fabulous news and well-deserved.

Christmas Wishes

Image source

Happy Christmas, dear readers!  Hope you all have a wonderful day tomorrow with friends, family and whoever else happens along...

In the immortal words of Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol, "God bless us, every one!"

Love,
Lisa Marie x

So, It Begins

I've not posted in over a week!  I think this may officially be my longest absence since I started blogging.  It was a hectic week at work, including an overnight stay up in Birmingham.  Was pleasantly surprised by Birmingham, it must be said.  My only experience of the city to date was an hour's transit in the bus depot when I was about 19.  Not the best impression to have of a place but let's be honest, you don't hear the nicest things about Birmingham either.  However, I discovered that there are some lovely buildings and streets in the centre.  Perhaps more on that one day...

But for now, I'm just here for a quick post to break my blogging silence and to remind everyone that tomorrow is Advent Sunday - the first day of the season leading up to Christmas.

Christmas in the Peak District last year - Ilam Church under snow

My plans for the day: a wander around the National Gallery before the evening carol service at St Martin-in-the-Fields.  I'll also look in their shop to see if I can pick up an Advent Calendar there, or potentially an Advent Candle.  I always consider the candle option - where it's marked down the side and you burn it to get it down to the right line each day - but I just know I'd probably get distracted and wander off and come back to find it down to the 24th on the 3rd or something!  Calendars are a bit of an all-round safer option, really...