Happy Halloween

Today I had that awkward moment when you open a package you ordered from Amazon at work and a pair of handcuffs fall out in front of everyone. I felt the need to explain their presence by donning my bright orange prison jumpsuit, as if that excused it.

Happy Halloween!

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned but I love Halloween. I think it’s the mischief, any excuse for mischief and I’m there, especially if it comes with a side of crafts. I’ve already shared my first attempt at pumpkin carving and I’m afraid my second was a lot more rush, I managed to get it done in 15 minutes flat which, despite the lack-lustre result, I’m quite pleased with. 

We never get trick-or-treaters in my road but still I buy Halloween chocolate every year. This year the kids were out in their masses on my way home and as luck would have it I had the chocolate in my bag so I got to hand it out on my walk home, to my great excitement. Seriously, I was much more excited than the children getting the chocolate.

Today is also the day we celebrate the birthday of two of my lovely friends. We have chosen to mark this event by all dressing up as characters from the TV show, Orange is the new Black, hence the jumpsuits. Flattering and functional outfits I think.

So, as work ran over, I need to pop off now and get suited and booted (and cuffed).

Happy Halloween everyone.

Creepy carving

It’s the 27^th of October and nearly my favourite time of year.  I have no idea why I love Halloween so much but it is, without doubt, the best part of the year for me. I live near Tulleys farm who put on the biggest scare event in the UK each year and I have been every Halloween for the last three years. It is really well done and every year it seems to get better. This year I will be going on Thursday with my friend Rachel and I started getting in the mood tonight by carving my first pumpkin.

It took far longer than necessary and I started far too late in the evening. Very poor planning on my part, but I just got a bit over excited after my food delivery and so couldn’t wait until tomorrow.

Sunday bakes – Peachy hangover pie

This weekend I caught up with some university friends in London, so today it felt like a peach pie kind of a day. It’s a homey, sweet recipe that's perfect for the days when you are feeling a little bit less than shiny. 

To make the filling

Either 4 tins of peach halves or 4 peaches and 3 tins.

3 tablespoons of brown sugar

3 tablespoons of honey

1 tablespoon of cinnamon

Half tablespoon of ginger

For the pastry

Pack of short crust pastry

Milk for brushing

Light brown sugar for sprinkling over the top

I had half a punnet of peaches left that were looking the worse for wear and I supplemented them with three tins of peach halves in juice. 

Put all the peach pieces into a large saucepan and add the brown sugar, cinnamon, honey and ginger.

Simmer the peaches until the juice and the sugar have reduced down to a syrup.

I don’t tend to make my own pastry, if Mary Berry doesn’t think it’s necessary then who am I to argue, especially with a hangover. I blind baked the pastry in the dish for a few minutes before adding the filling.

For some reason when I do a flat top on pies they always go wrong, so now I like to get a bit more creative. Today I was starting to feel festive so I used my snowflake cutters and layered up the cut pieces to form a pie topping. Once all the pastry pieces were in place, brush them with milk and sprinkle with some light brown sugar. Bake in the oven until the pastry is golden brown.

Hangover doesn’t seem so bad now.

Halloween hair

Short post today, I got a haircut. I was planning on getting a trim but then this happened. 

It's for my Halloween costume this year.

6 of the best...throws

I am a complete sucker for throws.

I adore being under a blanket when I am sat on the sofa and if a new one catches my eye I have real trouble resisting it. As a result I have a stack of blankets in my house, far more than I will ever need, a truly excessive amount. Some I have chosen wisely because of their versatility and others not so much, the volume of fluff they leave rendering them a menace to all apparel and soft furnishings.

2014 has been a vintage year for throws so here is my wish-list, if for some reason there was a throw massacre in my house and I need to start the collection again:

 H&M woven blanket  £14.99

  Ikea Vinter 2014 knitted throw £25

John Lewis Bronte Massif Throw Teal £89

 

John Lewis Cath Kidston Guards knitted blanket £55

John Lewis Croft Collection Heritage Throw £150

 Scotweb Tartan Mill Fine Herringbone Lambswool Throw £115

Monday night movie – Alice

Monday nights are all about recovery. The shock of the Monday morning is over, congratulations, you’re one day down. After the usual list of getting-home chores are done, I think Monday nights are for films. Tonight I have chosen a film which has sat on my shelf for a while. At first I was saving it for an undefined occasion, but then it became part of the furniture and I stopped noticing it. It’s Woody Allen’s Alice.

It’s getting a bit chillier here at the moment which is great because I like to wrap up. So I get to have my tea in hand and be under the sofa blanket. 

The film starts out introducing you to a shallow, but vaguely troubled, Manhattan wife, Alice. She’s had an encounter with a man that has gotten under her skin and the film explores her self-discovery through her shy and innocent affair, and some magic herbs. Yup, magic herbs that turn her invisible. 

Charming and whimsical in places, I enjoyed Alice, but it lacked the clout of some of Allen’s other films.

Sunday bakes – Sugar Peony cake

As I mentioned on Friday, this year for Mum’s birthday we went big. This included her birthday cake. I decided to take the opportunity to try out my new sugar craft tools and have a first attempt at a sugar peony.

I chose a set of 4 individual peony petal cutters and a universal petal veiner.

I love the open coral peonies so I wanted my sugar peony to have this colouring. The general consensus on the web was that the dust paint was by far the best for this kind of work. I used a beige sugar paste as my base because the colour was the closest to the lighter end of the colour I wanted. 

I started with three small pea-sized balls of paste that were then rolled in my hand into an elongated teardrop shape and scored three times to the tip. I took some 28 gauge craft wire with a small loop in the end, dipped in the edible glue and fixed the paste onto the end. 

Once the centre pieces were dried I used a flat-tipped brush and painted the base of each with moss green, fading into blossom pink.

I grouped the pre-made stamen thread into three bundles and using the wire I spaced them around the dried and painted centre pieces splaying them out evenly with my fingers. 

Now the centre was ready I started work on the petals.

I used the second largest cutter and cut 10 petals out of the paste, which had rolled to about 1.5mm thickness.

Use the ball tool to give texture and to thin the edges even more.

I had a lot of trouble at first because the petals kept sticking to the mat so I started using cling film under the petals which seemed to help.

I had cut off some sections of tin foil and used my thumb shape to create mini cup shapes for the petals to rest and dry in. This gave them their closed shape. After working out the edges in circular movements, thinning the petals using the ball tool, I secured each petal on the end of a piece of wire using the same method as the centre pieces. I then curved them each slightly and placed them into the foil to dry. 

I repeated this for the 10 larger petals and left them to dry overnight.

After all the petals had dried I used the wide-tipped brush and painted the base of the petal in yellow, brushing upwards and then blended in the dusky pink finishing in a light coral.

Once all the petals were painted I began to add the petals to the centre group. Before I added each petal I bent the wire back just under the paste so the petal was tilted back at about a 45 degree angle. The first layer of petals were 5 of the smaller petals. 

The subsequent layers were offset and the wire secured together using tape. Ideally this would be florist tape but, like a fool, I forgot to order some so I made do with some microfiber dressing tape. Once all the petals were in place I tweaked the way they sat slightly until I was happy with how they looked and the cake topper was finished!