The Birthday — Alice Frances

So this is what happens when you are unemployed - #IMNOTTHEHOUSEKEEPERThe reason for the fun colourful mess 💛💙💜 is that yesterday it was Chatty's birthday. Happy Birthday Chatty!! 🎈🎉🎂Chatty has reached a very respectable age, but sadly like most people, had to go to work yesterday. I however did not, and we concocted a plan for her arrival home yesterday evening. It involved unexpected guests👭👭, cake 🍰 and some champagne 🍸.So at 5.30pm ⌚️ Emma, Chesca and Olivia all turned up. This was quite excellent as Emma had come up from the countryside 🌳🍃🍄 and Chatty had no idea she was coming. Chesca brought the most marvellous cake 🎂 (she is the most superb cake maker and decorator), it was decorated to look like a pony in a field. Reason being Chatty has a pony 🐴 (ok fine, he's a proper horse 🐎) who she loves 💗very much, so this was an excellent choice for her cake🎂.They then hid in the garden 🌳, and once Tom was home we had a practice run of the 'surprise' we had planned. Chatty was to arrive home, and we would entice her over to the window, and the others would pop up one by one in the window, and she would be very surprised by their presence and hopefully not keel over in fright (they are pretty scary 🙈🙊🙉). And yes we are super cool...Anyway it all went down splendidly, Chatty arrived home, they all jumped out and she was very excited to see everyone 😊😃. The best surprise of all was that once the cake 🎂 was cut, we discovered inside a rabbit ❤️🐰!! Not a real rabbit🐰, but the silhouette of a rabbit 🐰 made out of brownie. It was super fun. The cake 🍰 was delicious, chocolate 🍫 and orange 🍊, gluten free, with mounds of icing. The grass icing 💚🌱 was made with the special grass nozzle... obviously. 😉(and I did clear up the mess this morning...)So the other thing I did yesterday was go see the Alice in Wonderland 🎀 exhibition at the British Library 📚.I really like Alice in Wonderland 🎀 very much, and have rather a lot of Alice books 📚. This, I think 😳, is not just because my name is Alice, I do really love the stories. 'Alice Through the Looking Glass' is my favourite, I like that it is set in a chess game ◻️◼️, and I particularly enjoy The Red Queen's ♥️ matter of fact views and brusqueness 'Have a biscuit' 🍪, and that nothing ever quite makes sense. 'The Annotated Alice' is really good for curious Alice lovers - Why is a raven like a writing desk 🐦?So off I went - public transport this time🚈, but not before I had put on a fun outfit, including my Alice in Wonderland 🎀 necklace! It also turns out I am quite bad at taking full length selfies:The exhibition was small, but really enjoyable. THE most exciting thing was Lewis Carroll's original Alice manuscript 📖 with his 37 illustrations 🎨. Also on display was Carroll's diary 📘, open at the entry for 4th July 1862, the day he took the boat trip 🚣 down the river with the three Liddell girls. On the opposite page to this entry, there is a note he wrote at a later date, stating that this day was the first time he told the beginnings of the Alice in Wonderland tale to Alice Liddell. Really excitingly they have on display, the original woodblocks used for Tenniel's Alice illustrations. There were a number of other versions of Alice - I really liked 'Alice in Wunderground and other Blits and Pieces' by Michael Henry Barsley - a parody combining Alice's adventures with the political situation at the beginning of World War II - including a lovely illustration of the Mad Hatter 🎩 and March Hare's tea party reduced to rations from a basket labelled 'Molotov's Breadbasket'. It was rather fun to see actual copies of a 1949 edition illustrated by Leonard Weisgard in bright gouache and watercolours 💚💗💛, and an edition with Arthur Rackhams's captivating illustrations.I quickly nipped into the pop up shop which was full of Alice curiosities - best of all were mini bottles of fizz 🍸 labelled 'Drink Me' (although £17 for one did seem rather a lot!) and some really fun Yinka Llori chairs hanging from the ceiling in a very 'Alice falling down the rabbit hole' way, in the British Library gift shop.Sadly photos of the Alice exhibition weren't allowed - it is definitely worth a visit!Alice xxx

Jan 13 The Birthday

Jan 14 On Wednesdays We Go To The V&A

Jan 12 Day 1 of Week 2