Tuesday 22 November 2011

My massive Christmas cake!!

Soooo.... It's that wonderful time of year again and the smell of Christmas is in the air... well it is in my house anyway coz I've just put my massive Christmas cake in the oven :0) as we don't have smellevision (yet) I shall describe to you what you would smell if you were sitting here with me now cup of coffee in hand and feet up on the sofa in my living room: so, you all know what mixed spice and nutmeg smell like yes? Well add to that some deliciously plump fruit and candied peel with plenty of soft brown sugar and almonds and lashings of White Rum and Whisky all warmed and mixed together and there you have it... a sweet smelling reminder that the fat guy in the red suit will soon be sweeping across the globe, reins in hand with mountains of toys and treats in tow. Ahhh what a joyous thought. We all still BELIEVE right?? Of course we do.

So here is my Christmas cake in the making:




Two of the main ingredients...No, not the mixed fruit and cherries... the Rum and the Whisky...hic!!



Now here I wondered how the heck am I going to get all that fruit into that bowl and mix it??...



.... it just about fits ;o) where there is a will there is a way!



This is a 10" tin that I double layered with baking parchment.



and probably the trickiest part of all was to wrap the whole tin with a protective layer of brown paper, trying to tie the string in a knot and keep the paper wrapped tightly WITHOUT dropping the whole thing was difficult, thank goodness I didn't drop it, I'd have cried all week!!!



So, this baby is in the oven for at least 5 hours. Over the next week or two I'll be adding the marzipan and royal icing. I'll be back with more pics soon as it's done :o)

Thanks for reading guys, I hope you're all well xx jo xx

Thursday 3 November 2011

I LOVE Owls xxx

So, for ages and ages I've loved including owls in some of my paintings and right now I just can't stop!!

Here are a couple of paintings that I've been working on the past few days. The painting with the girl and the red hair is finished but the other one is not yet complete, I might paint the little owls wings red, what do you think? I don't usually think my colours through I just usually dab into the colour that I fancy at the time. The colour wheel has never played a part in any of my paintings, and doubt it ever will, I'd rather just go with the flow and if it turns out pretty then great :0) do you guys use colour wheels? Are they usually used more for room decors etc? Being a self taught artist I wouldn't really know (blush). When it comes to art, anything goes I guess.

I hope you like the paintings, I'm off up to the bomb site.. Oh I mean 'studio' to finish that painting.

Happy Thursday x x x