Happy New Year

Tomorrow, while some in my household have to stay home and work, my youngest son and I are off on a little road trip to see my parents for a week. It will be a rather long drive of about 8 1/2 hours but we have been doing it for a long time now so with some great conversations and some great songs on the ipod Matt and I, will be there before we know it. 

I am taking my art journal and doodling journal so I hope that I can get some art in when I am not at the beach or relaxing spending time with my family.

Here is where I will be, on a beach near Ulladulla, so forgive me if I don't get back online for a week or so.

I thought I would  have a last collection of bags to show you before I go but between packing and taking down the Christmas tree and decorations, I have run out of time so I will show you when I get back. Promise it is my last lot for a while.

I wish you all a Happy New Year and I am looking forward to a great 2012. Please stay safe and have a great week.

Namaste

Lee

Post Christmas reflections

Hi everyone,

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas Day. We had a lovely quiet at home. 
I promised to show you the photos of my Christmas cake this year if it turned out OK. Well it did apart from the fact that I think the sneaky ice cream companies have changed the make up of the ice cream to have more milk or water in it than cream. This therefore meant that it melted really quickly and it was more icy than last time. It was still thoroughly delicious and I will be making it again. Well I have to keep making it till I get it right, don't I??

So I started by making my triple chocolate brownie slice. Then when cooled I sliced it up and lined a pudding bowl with cling film, then pressed it against the sides to form a bowl inside a bowl.

 Here is my brother in law chopping the marshmallows for me with my husband looking on

And here is what was left of the brownie slice, well for a while anyway. It was quickly eaten.

In a separate bowl I mixed the slightly softened hokey pokey ice cream with chopped marshmallows, violet crumble, and frozen raspberries. Mixed it all around and then put into the bowl, covered the top with baking paper, folded over the cling film and froze.

So this is the finished cake...... Sorry it is a bit blurry but I was in a hurry to cut and get it on the table before it melted.

and here is the slice...... yum yum! It was perfect for the warm day we had.

The boys have grown up so no early morning wake-up which was good, but sad in a way. As Tracey has said in her post Christmas post, it was a realisation this year that things have changed. 

No more Christmas lists are written to Santa, no more hiding Santa presents; this year there was even no shortbread and beer out for Santa and his reindeers. 

Yes, I know my boys have been way to old for that for a while now, but I have liked holding on to that little bit of Christmas magic. 

But you know, really it is not as if something is lost forever, it is just a change in how we make that Christmas magic isn't it? 

We are evolving as a family and I do love seeing the way my kids have grown into wonderful young men. My youngest son has just received his drivers licence and I am such a proud Mum. This of course, means that no-one is dependant on me now to get them to and fro. It is a big change and a scary one at times. It is like a new phase in my life.

So that said, it has me thinking of my word for 2012. I am tossing up between two or three at the moment so I had better decide in the next couple of days. If you choose a word for the year have you thought about yours yet?

2012 is shaping up to be an exciting busy year for me so far and I am really looking forward to all the wonderful experiences that the universe has in store for me. I am in the process of making my first vision board for 2012 and have signed up for Flora Bowleys online course and Effy Wild's Book of Days. I am just hoping that I have not overcommitted myself and can keep up. I think that the Book of Days will keep me more committed to art journaling on a more regular basis.
Before I go I would like to show you some more bags

This bag is using Jo Sonja paints in Pthalo Green, Prussian Blue Hue, Yellow Green and Aqua. Stencils are Crafters Workshop 6x6 Daisy Cluster, Cosmic Bubbles, 12 x 12 Cosmic Swirl

 This bag was painted with Jo Sonja Prussian Blue Hue, Pthalo Blue, Brilliant Violet and Diox Purple, Crafters workshop stencils, 12 x12 Mums, Gathered Flowers and 6x6 Harlequin.

 Various stamps were used in each and a Bic Black Marker.

 My quote today comes from one of the stamps that I used on the bags.

Hope you are having a lovely week everyone, see you soon before my little holiday up the coast.

namaste

Lee



 

Merry Christmas

One last post before Christmas Day.

I just wanted to thank everyone for making my last year so filled with happiness, encouragement and inspiration. I am so glad that we can all connect through our blogs and I am looking forward to another year of sharing and learning.

It is hot, hot, hot here today, probably not the best day to be playing with chocolates but I had this idea last week and thought it would be good for the centre of the table. I have also just finished making my ice cream cake but with a twist. I'll show you next week what it was and if the twist worked.

My last crafty thing before Christmas was to make this centre piece for my table. 

It is made out of a cone of green florist foam, skewers, tinsel, wire edged ribbon and most importantly Chocolate, Lindor balls.

So I started by cutting the skewers in half and sticking a chocolate ball on top.

Cut your papers into 6' x 6' squares and then diagonally into triangles.

Wrap the paper around the skewers with the chocolate on them and secure with a piece of sticky tape. (This photo actually shows the paper folded in half but I changed my mind and cut the triangles.)

stick into the florist foam evenly around the tree.

fill the spaces with tinsel. Then with more skewers and the wire edged ribbon, loop the ribbon twice and grab at the bottom and secure to the skewer with sticky tape. stick into any holes you have in your tree.

Make a star for the top out of ribbon or stick a ready made star on there. And there you have it. A tree that is sparkly and yummy.

I hope you all have a safe and Merry Christmas. See you next week.

Namaste 

Lee

Christmas cake

 How is everyones week going? all your shopping done? all your presents wrapped? the Christmas Day menu is worked out and ready to go? Christmas Cards sent?

If  you answered no to any of the above questions you are not alone. I have done a bit off all of the above but just can't tick them off my list yet. I have just written my last Christmas card, still have a couple of presents to buy and then wrap and still can't decide what yummy recipes to use on Christmas day. It looks like we will have seafood and salads.Which leads me on to dessert.(no matter what I am talking about I always end up talking about food!! Didn't I start off with Cards and present wrapping??)

Anyway, a couple of years ago I made a frozen ice cream Christmas cake.....

 

.....full of yummy goodness including marshmallows, chocolate, ice cream, maltesers, and frozen raspberries and it was great on a hot day. 

The weather forecast is for a sunny 32 Deg C on Sunday so this might be the ideal dessert. 

For my northern hemisphere friends I hope this doesn't make you feel colder than you are right now.

Here is the recipe for you to try.

Ingredients

• 1 x 2 litre tub of vanilla ice cream left out to soften a bit for about half an hour
  
  
• 1 165g packet of Maltesers , cut each malteser in half with a very thin sharp knife. We tried smashing them but they ended up too crushed
  

•  250g pink and white marshmallows (ours are raspberry and vanilla flavoured) cut into halves or quarters depending on the size you prefer

•  2 handfuls of pistachio nuts lightly smashed but not finely crushed
  
  
• Half a 450g box of frozen raspberries, used whole and still frozen.

Method

Put the chopped marshmallows and maltesers in a big mixing bowl with the smashed pistachios and the raspberries, stir a bit till mixed.

Then scoop the ice cream on top and stir well till combined with the other ingredients. Try to be quick about it so the ice cream doesn't melt too much or it will be icy when re frozen.

Push the mixture into a round springform cake tin (I used the 20cm diameter size) so there are no gaps and smooth out the top a bit.

Cover the top with foil. I put it in a large kitchen freezer bags and then wrapped it in plastic cling wrap to stop any leakage dripping in my freezer and then froze overnight.

We served ours with a nice thick store bought choc orange sauce.

Enjoy!

I also finished some more bags. Trying out different colours and patterns, doodling and stamping.

 

For this bag I used Jo Sonja Pthalo Green, Pthalo Blue, Yellow Green, and Brilliant Green and Titanium White. Crafters workshop stencils Harlequin and Flower Shower

For this one I used Jo Sonja Prussian Blue Hue, Pthalo Blue, Diox Purple, Brilliant Violet and Titanium White. Crafters workshop stencils, Cosmic Swirl and Daisy Cluster

For this one I used Jo Sonja, Diox Purple, Brilliant Magenta, Brilliant Violet, Titanium White and Ultramarine Blue Deep. Crafters workshop stencils Cosmic Swirl, Daisy Cluster and Flower Frame.

Now how about this fabulous photo I found at Streetartutopia. How cool is it? This site is well worth a look.

Streetartutopia

The quote also comes from the same site.

“There´s tools and colours for all of us,

to lend from nature to make the world

more understandable and beautiful”

Have a lovely week everyone.

Namaste

Lee