Celestine goes to see the fireworks

Celestine adored the fireworks.  And do you like her new leopard print fur coat? It has ears!  It's her new favourite thing to wear.  I found the material whilst in Derby at the weekend.  If you like fabric (like me!) then Derby market is brilliant! It has so much choice.  I bought quite a few different bits of fabric there this weekend including some scraps with tiny patterns printed on them and also some orange ribbon with black bats on it! I also found a stall that sold tiny buttons. I was amazed. I have never seen tiny buttons sold anywhere other than packets in art shops and they never seem to have black ones. This stall had all different colours of tiny buttons and black ones! I had to buy loads.  They were 3 pence each. I can't wait to make stuff with it all when i have time! Will have to upload some photos so you can see. Yes I know I am a geek!

Anyway, hope you had a fun bonfire night yesterday!  I think my dog is glad it's all over.  He hates the bangs.  Did you go and see any firework displays? Henry and I just went to the one at the top of our road (it's a big one that happens every year). It was cold but epic!

This Weekend...

...we went up to Derby and Nottingham to visit Henry's family.  We went to Derby first and stayed with his mum for two nights. On the Friday we drove to this place called Matlock Bath and walked around it. It was pretty, kind of like a seaside town but without the sea! We went to a little aquarium where there were fish and turtles and crystals and amazing hologram pictures. Celestine came too of course and was pleased to see that there is a crystal called Celestine.  She also enjoyed looking at all the sea life, especially the huge-to-her fish! 

'It was THIS big!'  (I like this photo because it looks like the fish is about to kiss Celestine on the behind!)

There were lots of nice little shops in Matlock Bath.  We went into a chocolate shop and there were some life size skulls made out of solid chocolate!  Also in the window of this chocolate shop there was a perfect Celestine sized carousel spinning round and round and flashing lights.  I SO wanted it but it obviously wasn't for sale and probably would have been extremely expensive anyway.  

There was also lots of nice crystal jewellery around. I saw a beautiful star necklace with a moon necklace next to it.  I have a penchant for anything star and moon and sparkly.  I didn't buy them though.

In the evening we ate chinese take away and watched Dark Shadows.  Dark Shadows is a film I have wanted to see for a while and it didn't disappoint. I loved the whole aesthtic of it, especially the house.  It made me wish I looked like wax and lived in a house like that.  It was clever how they juxtaposed the bright colours and patterns of the 70s with Tim Burtons usual gothic style. 

Have you seen Dark Shadows? What did you think?

On Saturday we drove to Nottingham to see Henry's dad and gran.  It was Henry's dad's birthday so there was present opening to be done and spicy curry to eat and fireworks to be set off in the garden.

It was a good weekend! How was yours?

Dorrie and the Halloween Plot

And now, on Halloween itself here comes my final Halloween picture book review...

If you've followed this blog for a while then you will know that the books in the Dorrie series by Patricia Coombs are my top favourite picture books ever of all time! They are about a little witch who lives in Witchville with her mother the Big Witch and her black cat Gink. 

In this particular story, Dorrie and the Halloween Plot, (which is especially appropriate for today I might add) Dorrie wakes up and jumps out of bed in an extremely exciteable mood.

'Gink,' said Dorrie, 'it's Halloween!  Last Halloween Mother said she'd give me a flying lession this Halloween!'

However, Dorrie's mother is too busy to give flying lessons.  She is occupied with sewing costumes for the Halloween Pageant which is to be held in honour of the Sorceress.  She tells the disappointed Dorrie that she is to be a princess in the Pageant.

'A LITTLE PRINCESS! Oh no!' cries Dorrie.

Of course once the Big Witch has left for the pageant Dorrie can't resist trying out a little broomstick flying by herself. And so the trouble starts!  Dorrie realises that flying a broomstick is harder than she thought and ends up getting stuck in a  tree. However this turns out to be quite a good thing as she ends up overhearing a gang of Halloween Demons plotting to kidnap the Sorceress and steal the Book of Shadows. 

Because Dorrie is dressed in her princess outfit which includes a mask with ringlets attached to it, the Demons think she is a doll and plan to use her as a replacement dummy for the kidnapped sorceress...

....and so it goes on...

And as you might guess, Dorrie saves the day!

 I just love Patricia Coomb's drawings, and I especially love the way they are done using only black and white and two colours.  Just beautiful.

And on another note here's a HAPPY HALLOWEEN from Victoria Stitch!

Celestine's New House, Pumpkin Food, and Witch's Hats!

Do you like Celestine's new Halloween house?

She's been wearing her black cape a lot these past few days too. It keeps her warm seeing as the weather has suddenly taken such a cold turn. 

Last night Henry and I had our Pumpkin dinner party. This dinner party has been planned for a long time- ever since Henry was given some pumpkin seeds to grow by one of his friends.  For months I collected pumpkin themed recipes on Pinterest in anticipation of the event.  

Basically we wanted to see if we could create a meal where every single course, including appetizers, included pumpkin- the pumpkins we have spent months growing and which I posted a picture of in my last post.

This is what we came up with:

For the appetizer we created a pumpkin dip which I thought was delicious (but Henry wasn't so keen on) I can't really explain what it tasted like (it was full of yoghurt and pumpkin (obviously) nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice and whipped cream) but what I can say is that it had a very refreshing taste! It was nice with apple slices and seemed to go down well with the guests.

We also made some pumpkin crisps but to be honest they were pretty horrible.

For the starter we made pumpkin soup and savoury pumpkin bread which both turned out really well!  The bread was really crisp on the outside and nice and soft on the inside.  By the time we went to bed it was all gone!

For the main course we decided to make pumpkin ravioli. This was the most fiddly part of the meal and the bit which took the longest to make.  Henry was the one who made this and when he gave me a bit of the ravioli filling to try (it had roasted pumpkin, amaretti biscuits, breadcrumbs, Parmesan and fennel seeds in it) I thought it was disgusting! I mean who puts crushed up amaretti biscuits in pasta?!  So naturally I was a bit worried about this part of the meal. I was completely prepared for the ravioli to taste horrible but... it was delicious! I loved it.  It obviously made a difference once it was cooked and covered with a sage and lemon butter sauce. 

To end the meal we had a choice of three puddings.  This was mainly because one of our guests was allergic to nuts and we didn't realise this until we had already made the first pudding (a pumpkin praline cheesecake) so we had to make another nut free one.  And then I wanted to make some sort of pumpkin and chocolate pudding anyway because I just love chocolate. Also the ravioli left us with eight egg whites so we thought we had better use them up in some way, so voila! A pumpkin meringue pie!

So that was our pumpkin dinner party!  We all dressed up a little bit as well.  I wore my new witch's hat which Henry bought for me the other day. I saw it in a shop last year and really wanted it but didn't buy it so then bought it this year instead! It's purple satiny with feathers and a black netting veil and a rose on it. A fancy witch's hat! For fancy occasions!

Here's a photo of me modelling it and next to it is the same hat in green!  I absolutely love this colour green- it's one of my favorite colours actually, but I never wear green and it doesn't suit me as much which is why I chose purple instead. 

I have seen a lot of different witch's hats around this year.  Starry, stripy, scraggy, spiderwebby... 

I drew a few of my favourite ones I have seen out and about:

Also before October is over (I can't believe it, where has the time gone?)  I have to just give a mention to these amazing little pumpkin fairylights we bought a while back.  Amazing, becasue they were only one pound!  From the pound shop.  And I have already used them so many times in photoshoots, for decorating the dinner table etc.  Celestine likes them too.

Aren't they nice and glowy orangy?

Well that's all for now, I'll be back before the end of October with my final Halloween children's picture book review, It's a good one! And also once I've worked out what's wrong with my blogger account- there's something not quite right here and it took me hours to just upload this post!... hmm

Have a spooky week!