silver and gold

I enjoy making my own Christmas cards and try to make a batch most years, time permitting. This year I decided to make use of my stash of old Country Living magazines and turn some of their gorgeous photography to my advantage.

I spent a happy few hours with my circle cutter, a stick of glue and lots of lovely shiny ribbon... the nice thing about having one of each is being able to choose the card to match the person.

The beautiful papier mache pinecones are from Germany... not from Munich but from the lovely Carola at Boxwood Cottage. I covered them with silver leaf and have a few more still to do before Christmas.

Our Christmas cake this year has taken a departure from the usual icing-covered snow scene: as our family's chief cake-eater is spending the winter in the sunshine of Australia we decided to adopt a less tooth-splittingly sweet decorative approach. It's a little late for cake-making really... I wasn't going to bother, but suddenly got the urge. It's a wonderfully soothing and nurturing process of chopping, soaking, weighing, measuring, stirring and slowly slowly baking that always makes me feel serene and peaceful. The warm, sweet smell that winds its way up the stairs and fills the house is very good for the soul.

Also good for the soul are the incredible sunsets we've been having the last few days. After a short grey day of dampness and biting wind with all the colour leached from the landscape, suddenly the western sky is split with a vanilla light so piercingly bright it makes everything stop for a few precious minutes while you watch it gently and ever so slowly shift and fade away...