Chocolate and Bed and Graphicness

My parents were visiting this weekend for Mum to take advantage of the Christmas present I bought her - a voucher for a walking Chocolate Ecstasy Tour. The whole experience was decadent and I would recommend it to any chocoholics out there! We started off in Fortnum's with a cappuccino dusted with posh chocolate, then tried out as many samples as I could get away with in Prestat. Prestat is really brightly decorated and exactly like a chocolate box chocolate shop should be, not unsurprisingly, for the man who wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, it was Roald Dahl's favourite shop. Next we headed to Charbonnell et Walker, who sell fancy perfumed sweets and those famous champagne truffles. I wasn't too enamoured with Charbonnell, even though one of my friends goes into raptures at the mere mention of Charbonnell! We stopped off in Sketch for Valrhona hot chocolate with pastries and funny pod-shaped toilets. Sketch was amusing, and I loved the art. Someone has had fun being too pretentious for their own good with Sketch. We also called in at Godiva, which wasn't particularly interesting, but their 85% chocolate was pretty nice, and I think we got some prailine things to try, but on the whole a little boring. I did buy some orangettes there and some creme brulee chocolates, which I have yet to demolish! The last stop on the tour was Rococo chocolate on Marylebone High Street. Let me tell you! Oh my! I would live in the chocolate shop! They had such fun, almost like Prestat in their fun values, but also a little more serious and adventurous because they have plain bars made from the rarest cocoa beans and roasted cocoa nibs and 100% chocolate. Among the serious and oddly flavoured orange and geranium and white chocolate with cardamom were painted chocolate cats, aligators and quails eggs. The packaging is quite something to behold too. Not only was all the produce fantastic, but the ladies who were talking to us, giving us samples and generally entertaining us were amazing, and friendly and clearly had a passion for chocolate, without being overly intimidating like the harsh-suited staff in Godiva!

I think the rest of the weekend was spent in a chocolate stupour! Although I did manage to unintentionally drop a ton on clothes on Sunday. I did buy a hat for two weddings though, and a cute, long, stripey "weekend" cardigan that shall see me through the chilly summer. I also paid a visit to the land of slave labour that is Primark, I got a couple of blouses and a very sweet T-shirt.

The past couple of days has been spent designing posters for the next craft fair. I'm going to be putting a few up on etsy when I can gather up enough courage to confront Ikea. Or I might wuss out and spend a tenner on a proper A3 frame online.