V & A's Museum of Childhood, London

I went to the Museum of Childhood because they were having several exhibitions with dark, fantastical themes. Some highlights:

Etchings from Jake and Dinos Chapman's My Big Colouring Book series that are not as freaky as their fiberglass sculpture, but still pretty creepy.

An installation called Stuff of Nightmares in which schoolchildren and artists collaborated on a forest popluated with, well, the stuff of nightmares.

I wouldn't want to stumble upon these cutesy animals with ghoul eyes in the forest.

The Magic Worlds exhibition had sections on “Fantasy,””Illusion,” and “Enchantment” full of fairy tales, fairies, elves, and mythical creatures, and included works by some of my favorite illustrators.

Elder Mother Tree from Hans Christian Anderson's Fairy Tales, by Arthur Rackham, 1932. She found herself face to face with a stately lady, watercolor illustration by Edmund Dulac for Beauty and the Beast, 1910.

A Rehearsal in Fairyland, Richard Doyle, 1870.

Cottingley Fairies with Elsie Wright taken by Frances Griffiths, 1920.

I love how so many were duped into believing that this series of fairy photos were real.

Ceramic tiles - Flora's Train, designed by Walter Crane, Pilkington Tile and Pottery Company, 1900-01.

The Elf, printed cloth pattern for a soft toy. Made in England by Dean's Rag Book Co. Ltd, 1909.

The exhibit also included some illustrations by Wayne Anderson, whose work I was unfamiliar with. I like it so much, it deserves a seperate post!

Mary Tyler Moore meets Woodland Elf

My latest fashion obsession is pairing a top with short puffy sleeves and a scoop neckline over a top or tunic with full sleeves, preferably with both in heathery earth tones.  I wear them with vertical-stripe or velvety leggings and short boots. I’m sort of going for a medieval /elf look. I top them with a 1970s polyester double-knit  jacket in hunter green for a dash of Mary Tyler Moore.  

Accessories include a weighty moon-face pendant purchased in the 1970s, a beaded bracelet given to me today by my man, and blue and green woven belt I got at a clothing sway a few years back. Last week, a young man I had just met was admiring the moon-face pendant  and asked me where it was from. I told him that I didn’t remember as I had purchased it in the late 1970s. To which he replied, “So, it’s an antique then?” Gee, thanks.

Light olive green elastic waist tunic, purchased at TRAID, Camden, London, £4;heathery brown scoop neck, lined t-shirt, purchased at TRAID, Camden, London, £4; vertical-striped leggings purchased at Marks & Spencer in the early 1990s; 1970s hunter green polyester jacket, purchased at Goodwill charity shop, Cambridge, MA, $7.99 Steven Madden vegan lace-up boots; moon-face pendant purchased in the late 1970s; woven and canvas belt, free from clothing swap; seed bead bangle, gift from my man.

Linking this post to Visible Monday, as I'm fairly sure no one else is trying for a medieval/elf look.

Elf boots

These boots from Vegetarian Shoes in Brighton were to have been my Christmas present, however, they were sold out by the time I arrived in the UK. And they won't be in stock again until after I leave. I have a thing for red boots, and boots that look like they might be worn by an elf. It is particularly difficult to find vegan red elf boots, which is why I was excited when I saw these on the Vegetarian Shoes website. I even planned my entire wardrobe that I brought to the UK with me around the assumption that I would have red boots.