Doe, a Deer

A female deer. Rae a drop of falling sun.

Me a name I call myself.

I hope you have all had a very Merry Christmas indeed! I myself am quite full and sleepy. I think of all the presents I recieved this Christmas these are among my favourite. My family is fortunately well acquainted with Etsy, a fact which really works in my favour. It is one of my favourite sites and I have been known to spend hours trawling it. These caught my eye a few months ago. I am thoroughly in love with almost all things related to animals and most of my artworks involve animals with people things or people with animal things. So indeed these clips were very appropriate.

If you wish to purchase some of your very own the Woodland Belle shop can be found here. 

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Christmas in a Lick

The making of Pfeffernusse has become highly linked to Christmas for me. While I eat store bought ones all year round the MAKING of these tasty treats smells like Christmas. It's the mix of the spices and honey I think. I was going to make these earlier in the week but I love making them on Christmas Eve and I ran out of time earlier in the week. If you don't know what they are they are a slightly cakey German/Dutch gingerbread in little dollops rather than figures or shapes. They are usually iced in a thin layer of crunchy white icing. Sometimes I ice mine with icing, sometimes with melted chocolate and sometimes with just icing sugar. All are very tasty but the icing sugar ones last a bit longer.


Here is the recipe that I use courtesy of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

Ingredients

• 200g plain flour, plus a little extra for dusting
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground allspice
• ½ tsp ground cloves
• ½ tsp ground mace
• A pinch of salt
• 225g honey
• 30g butter, plus a little extra for greasing
• 2 eggs

For finishing

• 100g icing sugar
• 2 tbsp water
• A little plum jam
• About 150g dark chocolate

Method: How to make pfeffernusse

1. In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, spices and salt. (This stage smells so good.)

2. Melt the honey and butter together in a saucepan then leave to cool until lukewarm.

3. Whisk the eggs into the cooled honey and butter, then add this to the flour mix and beat together with a wooden spoon. Cover and refrigerate for an hour, to firm up. Pre-heat the oven to 170°C/325F/gas mark 3.
4. Lightly grease a baking tray with butter. Take dessert spoonfuls of the mix, roll into balls using floured hands, and place on the baking tray. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until risen and golden brown. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

The next couple of steps are up to you depending on how you want to ice them.
5. Whisk together the icing sugar and water. Melt the chocolate gently in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Dip half the pfeffernusse in the icing, and put them back on the rack. When the icing has set, dip again. Cut the tops off the other half, scoop out a little of the inside, and dab in a little plum jam. Replace the tops, and dip in the chocolate. Return to the wire rack.
6. Remove the pfeffernusse to a silicone mat or baking parchment before they set completely, to stop them welding themselves to the rack. They don’t keep well - eat within two days.

 Merry Christmas!

I heard you fell into a rabbit hole

Covered yourself up in snow.

-Down in a Rabbit Hole, Bright Eyes

A good friend of mine recently obtained a position as a Christmas casual at a Tree of Life shop. When I went to visit her today she had apparently been spending her spare time shopping for things for me and so had many Madolin-esque things to show me. One item was a fox ring which I was particularly fond of but was unable to afford. I of course chose the more expensive option of this necklace which I was simply unable to resist and lack of funds was not stopping me! I think it is pretty adorable. I am thoroughly looking forward to wearing it.

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We move like cagey tigers, oh we couldn't get closer than this

the way we walk, the way we talk, the way we stalk, the way we kiss

-The Lovecats, The Cure

So I have been being mildly creative of late and have spent a couple of weeks decopaging this box/bag in between art projects. It has taken me so long because one of my printmaking projects for uni involved covering a whole box in decopaged book pages. After that I had no desire to ever decopage again, but I really wanted to finish this so a couple of days ago I decided to perservere. I quite like the end result. I am not entirely sure what to do regarding the inside which is still its original paper bag brown colour. Might leave it at that, might paint it red or cream, or might find the will to decopage the inside as well. I am also going to make a new strap or two for it I think.

I have another bag/box to cover which I am going to cover in some vintage Peter Pan paper I got for my Birthday.

x

Thunder told the rain to come

Last night a friend and I attended a gig of a band I really like. I worked late though so we missed the artist I actually went to see. They were the support act for the Whitely gig I went to a few months ago. Fortunately though the gig was wonderously free and the second act, Dan Parsons, was equally amazing. The night turned into a Dan Parsons and Seagull improv blues jam session. It was fantastic.

I have a collection of signed cds by support bands going. I remembered to take the Seagull album that I bought off him at the Whitley gig but forgot to get signed. Well I definitely got it signed this time. The most elabortae cd signing I think I have ever recieved in fact.

  

the squiggley bits say <3 from Seeeaggullll

 

 

Dan Parsons & Steve Grady

 x

Hands Remember

With pictures of owls, all over the walls. Tiny ships in bottles, they won't sail too far...

Hands Remember - Seabear

Just some more pictures from my trip to Melbourne.As you can see I am really enjoying this polaroid application. It makes everything look much more magical.

Gardens are my new fascination. I have an urge to move out just so I can make my own and live in it. It would have a semi permanent blanket/sheet fort. A tree swing. Garden beds of lavender and tiny daisies and bluebells and lost of purple and blue flowers with some cream ones too. And some kind of arch covered in vines and flowers. And just enough grass to lie on an read and bask in the sun (but not sunbake because I hate being tan).

I am officially on holidays until March now. It is quite a bizarre feeling to know that there isn't a single thing that i actually MUST do, except my French homework...which I frequently forget to complete sadly. 

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My children will live just to grow old

but if I sit here and weep I'll be blown over by the slightest of breeze.

Rambling Man, Laura Marling

I am visiting the lovely city of Melbourne again. I have been here for only half of my time and I am already down to my last $25. But I have a weekly transport ticket and many snacks from home that I can take with me. I think random public transport and home snacks are the way to go. I also have my shiny new Canon 500D to explore with.

Can anyone recommend some nice places to sit and read or take photographs? I have a few places but I'm wondering if I can find a few more. Melbourne is a vast place afterall.

I had my first proper sleep in in about 3 months today. It was simply fantastic. It's hard to sleep in with a 3 year old brother running around the house in the early hours of the morning when your house has paper thin walls. I am not sure what to do with the rest of my day though.

Here is a new dress I bought a couple of days ago. I am completely in love with it.

 

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And I will miss the train ride in

And the pranks pulled by the twins.

- End of an Era, Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls

A song which never fails to make a friend and I cry. Having grown up with the Harry Potter series for the past 10 years it's very hard to grasp the fact that it is coming to a close.

Anyway as you may have noticed I am an incredible Harry Potter nerd and went to see it at midnight tonight. Just a quick post for you as it is 3.16am and I have been awake since 3.30am nearly 24 hours ago in order to get here (Melbourne) to visit dad again.

Nighty night.

I put a bomb in your fire, you say "uh oh! uh oh!"

Today one of the lovely girls in my printmaking class held a small art market that she organised. This is the blog of the girls who organised it. I was terribly tempted to buy one of her cartoon racoon badges because I really love raccoons. However my affections were won over by a two-headed bear. And hedgehog slice. And then I was horribly broke and moniless =(

However it was a lovely and enjoyable little market with lovely people and lovely lovely items for sale. I hope it is held again and that I have money. Or maybe I will be able to sell something myself...in all liklihood I am too lazy =P

Here is my new mutant bear. Isn't he adorable! And my new shoes. A bit late now to be finally buying enclosed shoes now that printmaking is over and I never again have art at Uni. But these were too pretty. Also I think my camera is dying because it insists on washing everything I take into white. So I thought I'd take the opportunity to play with the new Polaroid application I downloaded for my computer (because I am too poor to buy paper for the camera at the moment haha). The link for it is here.

Besides it spices up the blog a bit from the same old pictures I tend to have haha.

Speaking of vintage film cameras I need to find my Diana mini camera and finish and develop the roll of film in it...

 

 

 x

We never meant to be this bad,

we never meant to be this sad. We never meant to be a lot of things that were lurking in the dark

-Whitley, Facades II

Such a shame that the lovely Australian band that is Whitley decided to split up. I managed to see one of their last gigs and it was truly one of the best gigs I have ever been to. Only very small and held in the back of a pub but quite marvellous all the same. But I suppose in the end not all bands can stay together.

I am amassing a collection of vintage white/cream dresses it seems. I think I would like this one to be just a tiny bit longer though. Maybe I will attach a lace layer to the bottom. And it needs a sash or ribbon around the middle.

I have a party coming up which is themed 'Evil Doers.' I am going to go as a vampire I think. I was going to go as a DALEK but a) I decided it might be overkill for a backyard bbq and b) it would be hard to sit down with styrofoam balls stuck to your skirt and c) the host of the party didn't know what they are. So keeping in mind the fact that I already have a set of vampire caps I shall go as a vampire. Don't fret though, there will be absolutely no glitter involved. In fact I am thinking of dressing more like a child vampire rather than a gothy adult one like I might normally do. I'm thinking more Claudia from Interview with the Vampire or Drusilla from Buffy (though yes, I know she isn't a child).

 

   

I applaud the facade of every broken heart...

I've been so busy with uni lately that all I really have time to do is throw on some clothes and run out the door. Printmaking is absorbing all of my time and I've been sleeping at friends places a lot too and forgetting to take my camera. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I will have my SLR though. And as this is the last week of uni I should certainly have more time, though perhaps not more outfits. I am horribly broke and trying to save for shopping in Melbourne in 2 weeks.

I might also have some crafty things to upload soon as I have been a busy girl. Once holidays roll around I am looking forward to cleaning up my shed and unpacking the boxes I still have left from packing. Then I shall have my art shed ready for use. Well, ready for use for a couple of weeks before mid summer hits and it turns into an oven =P

Here's what I wore to uni the other day and managed to photograph in a rare moment of earliness. There's really only two options for places to take photos at my new house haha. I am sure you will get bored with the scenery soon enough...

I have an odd attraction to blurry and out of focus images...

At the heart of every fool, is the hope that you're stupid too..

Emotional rollercoasters are really exhausting. I may have gone to bed at 4.30am this morning but I slept in pretty late. 5 hours awake and I am already ready to take the lapcat I have and head back to bed. I have an annoying inability to sit down, get upset and cry over something. As a result I bottle it up until I start waking up feeling sick to the stomach.

I could also blame the desire to nap on the essay I have to write on the Boxer Rebellion. Naps are great procrastination. This time I really am really tired and I can feel it all the way down to my bones.

In happier, more interesting news, I got a new dress yesterday...again! I think that is now 10 new dresses since I moved house. It's an addiction. Now I just need to get addicted to shoes, because I've worn holes in the bottom of mine again. This is also my second pair of red tights, they are bit more muted in colour and vibrancy that the We Love Colours ones. I think I might get some more of their tights whilst the Australian dollar is doing so well. Perhaps in teal or another nice greenish shade.

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