An a "Maze" ing day in London

Yes I know the title is a little contrived but it amused me for a while and it does sum up the meal we had at Maze to celebrate my Hb's birthday on Tuesday. Although he works in London all week we both never tire of visiting this amazing city. We were both born and raised in London and even though we moved into the suburbs during our early married days we are still only 20 minutes by train from Victoria.

We wanted to try a new restaurant for his birthday treat. We have eaten at Claridge's when Gordon Ramsay was the chef there but have never eaten at any of his other restaurants.  We had a look at OpenTable on the Internet and decided to book at Maze, his restaurant at Grosvenor Square.

Tuesday was a perfect winter day, cold but blue skies and sunshine so we wrapped up warmly and took the train up to Victoria and then the tube to Oxford Circus. We wanted to walk via Regent's Street and Mayfair. Just look at that sky as we emerged from the tube exit.

I spotted on of the new route master buses whizzing past as we waited to cross to Nike Town to see if there was any new running gear my Hb needed as part of his birthday present.

 We then walked past the Palladium, I love this Art Deco building

and Liberty's

 and took at detour via Carnaby Street to visit the Ben Sherman shop

 There was a TV drama being filmed at the time...not sure which one but we may even feature in something as we walked past!

We then headed towards Grosvenor Square and our lunch spot

 Maze is in a gorgeous Georgian building which overlooks Grosvenor Square.

Our table was perfectly situated looking out the the square. London is blessed with so much green space.

Now the meal was fabulous and what I was particularly taken by were all the different textures of our food. Everything was so tactile and tasted as good as it looked. At this point I said to my Hb that I was inspired to make a Moment of our meal. M is so good natured with my art work and never despairs that I find my inspiration everywhere.

After 5 delicious courses we walked back to Oxford Circus this time via the Square, it was so pretty.

The trees looked gorgeous despite their nakedness, real lungs of London.

On Tuesday evening our darling son and his dog Bear joined us...a perfect end to the day.

My head was already buzzing with ideas for my Moment so I jotted a few ideas down and finished off my piece after work today. There are some great challenge themes running at the moment and I wanted to join in with these too so I included their themes too in my creation.

First I made an inky background using a mixture of brown and green Distress Inks as these were to represent the trees, the brown/natural decor in Maze and the green grass of Portland Square.

Next I used my Imagination Crafts tree stencil to give a watery tree shadow in the background and then I used my Visible Image winter tree stamp to add some trees in the foreground.

I also used my "These are the moments" Visible Image stamp on some inked card which I tore the edges of.

There was an elaborate railing at the restaurant and I thought that I could use a cut out window frame I won from a recent card challenge but use white rather than black to represent the window that we sat at. I stained my window frame with Picket fence distress stain. You will see this fully in a later photo

I also wanted to include some texture as these were the crackers we were served..
they had different seeds and one had chocolate in the ingredients but it was still savoury...!  Delicious!

I decided to use Frantage and corrugated card as part of my focal to remember the brilliant crackers.

The wine waiter suggested that they made me my very own cocktail. I love gin and wanted something quite floral but not too sweet and could not see anything which suited on the menu. This pretty pink frothy creation was brought to our table, complete with a deep red raspberry floating in the centre. I was told that if I didn't like it they would make something else...annoyingly it was perfect ;0)

It was just right...not too sweet but with perfect floral undertones.

I wanted to add some "love" to my Moment so I inked up some card with red and pink DIs and hand cut 3 out.They are the same colour as my cocktail. I also wanted to represent  the froth in some way.

To do this I added some puffy paint through my Tim Holtz heart stencil.

I heated it and up came my frothy puffy hearts. I loved this effect but still felt it needed something else so I reach for my Artistic Stamper calligraphy mat and added some text using red Archival Ink.

On the left is how they puff up with the heat, and the large photo shows them inked up.

I had such fun making my Moment, here it is;

You can see the window frame clearly above. These are some close ups;

I inked up a die cut TH tree and added text to this too. The trees we looked out to were so beautiful in the wintry sunshine. I added lots of Frantage as it gave a great wintry feel to my Moment plus the texture I wanted.

I even tucked in the Maze business card.

Of course I had to first distress it's edges with Gathered Twigs distress ink and I also added some Frantage! I really like my altered business card, I wonder if Mr Ramsay would approve? I added some Remnant Rubs too with some loving inspirational words.

This will be stuck into Jane's Journal and when I look at my Moment I will be able to recall the sights and tastes of our wonderful meal.

I would like to enter my Moment into the following challenges;

Frilly and Funkie Winter wishes
A Vintage Journey love is in the air
Imagination Crafts anything goes I have used the trees form their "The Clearing" stencil.
NoorUK! With love
Simon says stamp Monday Winter stamping
Simon says stamp Wednesday have a heart
Rhedd's Creative spirit anything goes
Craft stamper take it make it Take a stamp
That Craft Place Love/Valentines
Make the day special recycle something I would not usually use a business card...but I think it fits in really well! I also recycled part of some packaging my Body shop order came in to make the focal.

We are looking forward to our family coming to a buffet party to finish the birthday celebrations tomorrow. Enjoy your weekend and I hope you find some time to be creative. Remember that inspiration (and love)  really is all around us and sometimes it's in the most unlikely of places.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x