Jewels

This summer I visited Istanbul with my family and I thought I'd share some of my tip top favourite things about it with you!

1.  Firstly and most importantly (to me) was Topkapi Palace.

It was so enormously inspiring.  Every wall was an intricate mosaic pattern.

 

There were arches and a courtyard and a very fancy looking old fashioned bathroom.  There were chandeliers and extravagant gold mirrors and a room of crown jewels. 

(The Crown Jewels were my favourite part)

Among them was an eighty six carat diamond,

an intricate gold and jewelled knife,

and a box of massive emeralds.  It was quite breathtaking!

2.  Another thing I liked about Istanbul were the shops and the bazaar.  There was so much to buy!  A lot of pottery decorated with whirling dirvishes and little blue eyes embedded in everything which is known to be Turkey's good luck charm.

There were teas of every flavour imaginable,  multicoloured hanging lamps and piles of turkish delight round every corner.  There were shops full of shoes and shops full of silverware, shops full of bags, clothes, hats, spices... It went on forever!

3.  My favourite shops though were the ones which had trays of jewels in the windows.  Amethysts and imitation rubies, green, blue, yellow, orange.  Obviously they are intended for putting in rings and bracelets or necklaces.  But they looked so pretty all laid out in the trays. 

^some stunning jewellery I saw.

If you ever get a chance to go to Istanbul I would definitely recommend it!  There's so much to see and do and it's such a lively and inspiring place.

Where's your favourite holiday destination?

Princess Terribelle and the Wellington Boot

I got this in the post yesterday, found it on amazon for 1p or something.  I used to read it a lot when I was little but don't know where my copy of the book went.

It made me so happy to read it again!  (It used to be one of my favourite books.)

The story is about Princess Terribelle who was mostly very good but sometimes she was bad.  She lives in a Palace and sleeps every night on fourteen mattresses and five pillows.  One day she gets taken for tea with the Duchess and her daughter Arabel. 

Arabel has lots of dolls and Princess Terribelle becomes obsessed with this tiny pair wellington boots that she finds among the doll clothes.  She loves them so much that she slips one of them into her pocket and takes it home.

But Princess Terribelle feels a little bit guilty and she also discovers that it's not so much fun playing with just one boot.

 

  

Anyway then one day Arabel come round for tea and Princess Terribelle hides the little wellington boot, hoping that Arabel has forgotten about it.  At the end of the evening Arabel slips a package to Terribelle and inside it is the other boot.  Then they become best of friends and all is happy and wonderful and Terribelle never bosses Arabel about again. The end.

I think I used to love it so much because I was also obsessed with tiny things.  I think I liked the way Princess Terribelle imagined that the boots were fairy boots. I remember writing tiny letters and putting them in the garden for the fairies when I was small. And totally believing a fairy would find them!

Right now my life is tartan royalty, glitterlashes, drinking raspberry tea, wearing tiaras round the house, drawing chandeliers and red nail varnish.

I'm working on the pages of my kids book at the moment and it's HARD. Hard to wake up with motivation for it every day, especially as we had a crit the other day and the tutors just pulled it all apart.  But just gotta keep going! I might post some images from it soon though. I'd post one now but it's all pink and would clash with this red-orientated post.  

Til next time! x