Celestine does Baking

On Monday evening my friend Nicola came round and we decided in premature preparation for Christmas, that we would bake some festive gingerbread men.  It was Henry's idea really (he loves gingerbread, in fact one of our first dates was a gingerbread making date but that's another story) so he did the main making of the mixture and then we all cut them out and decorated them together.  

Of course Celestine wanted to bake too so I set her up a little table with her own gingerbread cutters   but she spent most of her time covered in flour and trying to climb into the sugar bag instead. 

The miniature cutters by the way I discovered online here thanks to Polly.

It was lots of fun and now we have lots of gingerbread to eat!

This week has been quite a busy one.  It has been full of drawing, cutting out, getting my portfolio together, meetings in London, walking the dog, swimming, getting the piano tuned for my parents, making mushroom and cheese tarts, getting picture books out from the library, buying secret santa presents, going to the art nest for a drawing session and tea and cake, watching The Shining and The Others, browsing the children's section in Foyles, spending a great deal of time in Forbidden Planet (I love that shop!) walking round Fortnum and Mason and marvelling at all the beautiful glittery things, making Celestine a new stripy red and black dress (she looks very french!) and probably some more things which I can't remember...

I hope you've had a good week too! Did you do anything exciting?

The Foxglove Story Book

Yesterday I popped into town for a few things and spotted this little gem in a second hand bookshop window:  Enid Blyton's Foxglove Storybook.  When I was younger I read a lot of Enid Blyton books as I'm sure we all did (I especially love the Enchanted Forest/Faraway tree series) and this book brought up a few nostalgic childhood memories.  

Whilst sometimes I find the amount of 'twee' in Enid Blyton books a bit hard to stomach, I do really love the fact that so many of her stories are about elves, pixies, goblins, fairies, brownies and magical lands. there is a certain charm about them that you don't often find in modern children's book today.

However the real reason I bought this book was because of the illustrations. To be honest I have read enough of Enid Blytons stuff to take it or leave it but there was something about the cover illustration (and one of the illustrations inside) that I just absolutely fell in love with.  One is a fairy in a foxglove outfit with a little fox who is wearing foxglove gloves! (wow I bet you can't say that too fast!) And the other is the same fairy trying on a pair of elegant gloves from 'Fox & Co Glove makers.' -What could be quainter than that? 

These illustrations are by Hilda Boswell and I love all the little details she puts into them.  Such as these two weird little green creatures:

However there are only actually four full colour pictures inside this book.  Most of the illustrations are done in three colours.  And also not all the stories are about fairies and elves etc... There's a mixture of stuff. also a few poems and puzzles and things. 

Still, just to have these two foxglove fairy illustrations makes the book worth it to me!

Did you ever read any Enid Blyton as a child? What was your favourite book?

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!