Pretty Pictures of London

While Tilly and I were educating ourselves on the niceties of how to be ladies of leisure in London last week, I took some pictures.  It has taken me this long to upload them, because I am idle, and prefer to sit on my CLD ™, eating hand crafted chocolates and musing the great philosophical questions of the day (is Simon Cowell actually an android?)

Spurred on by the fact that Tilly is doing some maths practice, and it is best if I am out of the room so that neither of us cry, I shall share some more fuzzy images with you:

I am a late adopter into the world of luxury gloves, but boy, these babies from Sermoneta in Burlington Arcade off Piccadilly really made my heart sing.  They had every colour you could think of, and every style.  I loved the black ones which had different coloured panels down the edges of each finger.  They look so sensible until you reach out to touch something and then it is like a rainbow explosion.  Tilly liked the mid length black ones with red leather button details.  They were all fabulous.

Also in Burlington Arcade, the luxe macaroon makers Laduree had decided to go with the more is more approach to interior design, and who can blame them?

Would modom like some bling with her macaroons?

Too bloody right.

Here are the cutest marzipan vampires ever created:

You can buy them from Fortnum and Mason, along with glittery chocolate skulls, severed chocolate fingers oozing with blood and other Halloween delights.

Liberty was a treasure trove of earthly delights, and there is so much of it:

Tilly was in charge of our expotition, so we only got to briefly whizz through women’s wear on the way to somewhere else:

but there were enough other things that delighted me.  I wanted this, elaborate headdress:

Which I envisaged wearing on the school run.  Very practical, as long as lightning doesn’t strike.

I like this lamp very much:

I would have bought it, but I don’t have a desk big enough to fit it.  Alas.

The Manolo Blahnik room on the first floor was to die for.  I got somewhat distracted from the shoes by this fellow:

Despite the lack of legs to model shoes. I like the fact that he had made an effort with a Manolo scarf.  I thought I’d put him on the wall, opposite this sorry fellow:

who was gracing the wall in the Christmas decoration department.  He looks like he’s had one too many rum and coke’s, no?

On a more serious note, I fell head over heels in love with this astonishing kilim:

Which was huge, and delicious.  It made me think of sand and the sea all at the same time, but then I think the Arabic word for desert is something like the dry sea, so it makes perfect sense.  It is top of my fantasy christmas wish list so far this year.

This is bottom:

It is a tea tray in case you’re wondering.  Clearly the staff were unsure as to which department this would be best suited to.  Note the ambivalent label: ‘Gift’.  Hmmm.  There was a whole range of other serving ware with equally bizarre animal/human hybrids adorning them.  We were tempted to get one for Jason as a joke, until we realised that at £70, it was rather an expensive joke.  Still, someone must like them, right?