Birthdays, Shoes, Sharks, and Sore Feet...

Last Thursday was my 28th birthday...

If I ignore for a moment the realisation that it is only 2 more years until the dreaded three-OH, it was a great birthday!

On the actual day I didn't really celebrate much, my husband bought me a couple of small gifts and I got some money from my parents and my mother-in-law, which is always appreciated!

For my birthday treat, on Saturday, husband and I got on the train and spent the day in London. I adore London, living only an hour away we do try to go as often as we can but with trains being quite expensive at the moment it is sometimes not possible.

Also both husband and I were conscious of the fact that as we get nearer and nearer to the Olympics then it is only going to get more difficult to go to London without it being super busy!

So we planned a day of culture and shopping...

First up we went to the Design Museum to see the Christian Louboutin exhibition... Oh it was AMAZING! Such beautiful shoes, each like an individual piece of art just sitting there displayed for my viewing pleasure. I can't tell you how much I just wanted to reach out and touch, and hold, and caress, these exquisite creations... unfortunately the 'Do Not Touch' rule was in place so I couldn't! The fetish room and the work room areas of the exhibition are so interesting. Couldn't take photographs either so I can't show you any that I took, however here is a few links and images I found online...

Design Museum info
The Guardian write-up
The Style Examiner write-up

I'm sorry if these images are a bit randomly placed, I'm having some problems with blogger and getting images in!



After that we went to the Tate Modern to see the new Damien Hirst exhibition. Something that I was beyond excited about, I have adored Damien Hirst's work for years.

No photography was allowed again but my husband did manage to get a couple of sneaky shots on his iPhone, the quality isn't great though!

I was astounded how big this exhibit was, there is so much work there, almost too much, it took a long time to actually settle in!

Some of my favourite pieces include (naturally) the shark in formaldehyde - The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living-, Pharmacy, In and Out of Love with the live butterflies, and all the spot paintings!

The whole thing was simply mind boggling, too see so much of his work is really a once in a life time thing since most of it is privately owned.

Here are some links-

Tate Modern info
The Guardian write-up & Video tour

Oh, and this is incredibly popular, it was so busy, so definitely consider booking tickets, as we did!

Now as you can imagine after all of that my feet were very sore from all the walking and wandering. We had planned to do a lot of shopping after that, but once we had been to the exhibitions and hopped over to Whole Foods for some food we didn't actually have much time left.
We only managed a quick visit to Selfridge's and with the Central line being closed we had a long, difficult, sweaty, and packed (MANY, MANY, MANY loud West Ham fans!) tube trip back to Liverpool Street and we only just managed to get our train back!

I spent most of Sunday with sore feet and stiff legs from the trip! But it was worth it, I had brilliant birthday weekend!

Let me leave you with a picture of my husband coping a feel outside Tate Modern...!

Xx