And the winner is...

The results are in and the winner of the hand-made sign from RAMSIGN is (drum roll please!) Mellysocks! Mellysocks we'll be in touch to get your sign started ASAP. Thank you everyone that too part!

London gets ready for the royal wedding

The Royal Wedding is generally perceived as A Good Thing by the British, even those that aren't monarchists. Whilst the cynic in me suspects that this is because they get an extra national holiday this year rather than actually caring, nobody can say that they haven't noticed the thing is happening at all. London has gone mad, with the faces of Prince William and Kate Middleton sprayed all over the place. My father was asking me to buy him some wedding-themed tack for a report he's doing and so I plunged headlong into the terrifying world of Royal Wedding memorabilia. Overshadowing the soaps, the towels, the mugs, the armchairs (I kid you not) and the custom-named beer however, is this installation at the Stephen Friedman Gallery. It's a life-size waxwork of Prince William by artist Jennifer Rubell called "Engagement". The model of the prince, complete with a replica of his fiancee's sapphire and diamond engagement ring attached to its forearm, will allow royal fans to pose as would-be Kate Middletons for photographs. Regardless of your opinion on the Royal Wedding itself, you have to admit that this is pretty hilarious!

Hotel review: Casa das Pipas at Quinta do Portal, Douro Valley, Portugal

As Mr. Lisbonite is fond of saying, there's nothing that a recent holiday-maker likes more than to bang on about a hidden gem they've uncovered. We stayed at Casa das Pipas on the Quinta do Portal estate, a lovely little home that's been turned into a guest house with a lot of luxury features such as an amazing restaurant, an award-winning tasting installment and truly spectacular views over the whole of the Douro valley. The house has been lovingly redecorated using traditional Portuguese furniture in a modernised setting (consider the double-height sitting room with a modern fireplace or the re-worked dresser with antique pelicans on top). Every single feature, from the hand-upholstered satin dining chairs that are artfully mis-matched though to the simple but hand-carved four poster beds, is perfect. The wine cellars look like a scene from "Raiders of the Lost Ark" as the lights flicker on and look out for the decorative corks that suspicious tourists have pulled from the walls believing wine to be stored behind them (bizarre).




There really is nothing like spending an evening looking up at the stars and out over the vineyard as you drink a bottle of wine made from the grapes in front of you and the Douro gets very few wine buff visitors compared to, say, the south of France or Italy. In short, go now before the world discovers this wonderful place. Turning family homes into luxury guesthouses is quite fashionable at the moment and provides an excellent way to tour Portugal and stay in touch with the "real" country rather than the bleached same-ness of a Mariott. Try Solares de Portugal for listings and expect to pay €120 or less for the best room in the house. Go now, the chilled Moscatel is waiting!

London Lisbonite giveaway competition: personalised RAMSIGN signs

I'm back sports fans, with a lot of exciting news to share over the next month. However, given my shameful neglect of you during my holidays (I have now calmed down enough to be able to think sadly of my possessions rather than simply fuming and plotting all of the nasty things I'd like to do to the thieves). So, to celebrate LL's return to life, we've teamed up with the lovely people at the Danish company Ramsign to offer one lucky reader a personalised, old fashioned, hand stencilled sign! All you have to do to win is to leave me a comment below telling me what number you'd like on the sign and why, be it house number, lucky number, your date of birth etc. You can also get an extra entry for each of the following (so please mention which you've done in your comment):
1. Following London Lisbonite (use the google friends app on the right)
2. Following the London Lisbonite twitter account
3. Re-tweeting or re-posting about this competition on your own blog / feed


Good luck!
Competition terms and conditions:
1. This competition is available to readers worldwide
2. There are signs available from 1 digit and up to 5 digits and with five different styles.
3. The competition ends this Saturday the 23rd of April at midnight (GMT) and the winner will be randomly selected and notified by email.

Property put into perspective

Forgive me friends, I've neglected you. As you know, I had q whole schedule of blog posts planned for you while I was on my road trip around Portugal. Unfortunately I've had to take a break. A couple of days ago, mr Lisbonite and I were merrily on our way when we stopped at the local cemetery to lay some flowers on my mothers grave. In the twenty minutes that took, someone broke into our car and stole everything we owned. Cases, passports, the lot. Robbing someone anywhere is bad enough but there must be a very special place in hell for people that rob mourners distracted by grief. Anyway, as you can imagine, the last couple of days have been pretty hectic. Although I'm naturally sad to lose my nicest clothes, what really upset me was losing the gifts I cant replace. My great grandmothers earrings, the cosmetics case mr Lisbonite gave me, the birthday gifts (that were so perfect) from my family. It has made me think though. We bloggers crave beautiful things and surroundings and that's all well and good (and I'll be back on form next week!) but I can't tell you how little I care about the rest of the possessions. Something like this just makes you realise how bad this could have been. My father and sister were robbed at gunpoint a couple if years ago: at least we weren't hurt. That said, if you ever come across a woman wearing a 40's owl pendant in Lisbon, rugby tackle her first and ask questions later. I'll be back next week dear friends, take care of yourselves until then.

The only way is up: ceiling murals

In the 70's, one of the best ways of proving your swinging bachelor credentials (other than wearing lapels that were longer than your ribcage of course) was to cover your bedroom ceiling with mirrors. Although that era is thankfully now over, ceiling murals seem to be enjoying a surge of popularity. Long a favoured choice for children's rooms (and a definite improvement on the glow-in-the-dark stars my sister and I used to cover the place with), classical murals are moving back into the mainstream. What do you think? Could you live with angels flying overhead?

Pics via Magic murals, Mel homes, Good times, Great interior design and Corile Design.

Guest post: Portuguese designer Goncalo Campos

As you read this post, I'm on a plane jetting off for a two week road trip around Northern Portugal with Mr Lisbonite. I'll try to post every day but how better to start my road trip around Portuguese with a guest post from a Portuguese designer? When I asked Gonçalo Campos (creator of the amazingly cool "Dedo" finger board) to write a guest post about his favourite Portuguese designers, he immediately came back with Pedrita. So without further ado, over to Gonçalo: I'd like to present a couple of designers, Pedro and Rita, that together make up both halves of Pedrita. They are based in Lisbon and have become highly respected especially due to their diligence in finding new work, often proposing their services to companies that could benefit from their input, as well as versatility. Having been involved in projects from many different fields, ranging from installations to exhibitions, editorial, product, art direction and a few experiments, they have now become one of the Portuguese design scene "unavoidables". Their ingenuity and relentlessness have led them to (together with Frederico Duarte), edit a book focused only on examining and understanding Portuguese traditional pastry, from a designer’s point of view that reveals incredible facts about these precious "day brighteners" that every Portuguese takes for granted. Their work is very much based on customs and culture, frequently playing around objects and materials that are a part of the history and tradition of Portugal. They've played around with wall tiles, red clay containers and cork not to mention a few of the ancient brands they've worked with like Viarco (pencil maker), Bordalo Pinheiro (traditional ceramics manufacturer) and Luso (bottled water producer). Through their work, they’ve been inspiring young designers, to find opportunities to revisit and revitalise old crafts and show how far design can go in changing people’s perceptions.

Poshtots: because giving your child their own room just isn't enough

Every so often I stumble accross something so outlandish that I genuinely find it hard to decide whether I find it hilarious or terrifying. Poshtots is one such website. Dedicated to serving the needs of real life little princesses by making them custom beds shaped like pumpkin coaches (which, I have to admit, are original), it's fun to look at but also a little bit scary. I do quite like the miniature door but I'm not sure I can take these pink and princessy bedrooms seriously. It's quite possible that my instinctive cringe at this kind of furniture stems from the trauma of three years of babysitting two little girls whose parents really did spoil them rotten. They had more toys than they knew what to do with, were referred to as "the princesses" and had an unfortunate habit of trying to hang the cat with a skipping rope whenever they heard the word "no" (I kid you not). The Poshtots playhouses on the other hand, are brilliant. Although I'd like to think that one of the greatest things about a playhouse must be getting to build and create it specifically for your children, I cannot begin to tell you how much I want that pirate ship playhouse. And I don't even have kids. Friends that have obligingly been breeding recently: please consider one of these for your progeny and then invite me to tea...