I am writing this as the ghosts of the Halloween party lay around me.The party went well this year, once more it got mostly left to the last minute, and once more there are promises that we will start earlier next year!

Friday night we had a pre-party party, gathering friends around to carve pumpkins.. Mine is the skull in the top hat, DmentD did the tiki monkey and one of the oogies. We were happy we ended up with a couple of tikis as they fitted in with the vague theme.

The house was decorated up with the usual plethora of bits and pieces, we made a giant tiki as the entry way, with smoke coming out of his eyes. I painted a few tikis with flourescent paint to put in the bar with all the black lights.

DmentD got out his stir-plate (used for brewing) and we put some tonic water in it so it glowed next to the black lights and looked interesting in the bar.

We gained some flamingos in the garden too!

Since games had only been mildly popular last year we decided to stick with just the one game. And if we were doing just the one game we wanted to provide incentive to play. A pair of their very own unopened skele-flamingos was the prize.

We had the usual entry fee of a portrait as you entered.. we only missed a couple of people this year!

Much fun was had, we of course managed to over cater. Food we made will be appearing on Curious Confections over the next few weeks.

Sunday night we stayed in and relaxed, handing out sweets to the kids that came round.

8 months later I’m finally finished. I started this scarf for DmentD as a project after Christmas. It wouldn’t take long and then I could get started on teaching myself socks.

After lots of picking it up and putting it down and having it sat of the coffee table staring at me… accusing me of abandoning it, I finally got the gumption to finally finish it. A few afternoons of really working on it, while watching the first two seasons of The Tudors, and it’s done.

It took so long as it has a pattern, so I couldn’t just sit back and knit, I had to be looking at the pattern, seeing what came next. Though, 8 skulls later I needed the pattern less! It’s what is known as an illusion pattern, from straight on the scarf looks innocuously stripy. Look at it from the side though, and the pattern is revealed.

DmentD wanted a long scarf.. An obscenely long scarf. This is certainly it. With each skull and crossbone coming in at just over a foot the scarf measures 8.8 feet.. it stretches a little as you wear it too so it seems longer. The tassles take it to 9 feet even.. I think that counts as obscenely long!

And now, I still don’t get to teach myself socks. Since everyone is sprogging (don’t drink the water!) I plan on knitting some cute adorable baby things first.

Carrying on the trend of not really writing about anything, here are a few more recent photos of the garden.

First, remember that photo I posted of the new grass growing. This is what it looks like now… actually, DmentD mowed it down this weeked, but prior to that this is what it looked like *grins* It grew well, and now we know that seed works we’ll gradually fill in the bare patches across the rest of the garden.

Our tomatoes are growing well. These two were our first to fruit, just small cherry tomatoes, but the rest of them seem to be coming along and starting to fruit now.

Finally, some random photos of the clouds one evening.

Garden aside, life is plodding along. Nothing special happening. We’re brewing, we’re cooking, we’re working.. much the same as ever!

This Saturday just passed (the 8th) DmentD and I celebrated our first anniversary. That’s right, a whole year has passed since we tied the knot, time flies!

We were at a crawfish boil on Saturday and I was working, so we celebrated on the Friday night. We decided to go out to dinner, somewhere we had wanted to go for a while, but hadn’t made it to yet. So we headed off to North By Northwest, a restaurant who also happens to be a brewery.. or is that the other way around? Either way, DmentD was very impressed by the beers, he got a sampler, and we were both very impressed by the food. I had a duck breast with a madeira reduction on a roasted garlic and parmesan polenta.

We were joined by friends for dessert and coffee, though the dessert beat me!

Of course we took photos.. Some DmentD knew about and posed for…

And some he didn’t *grins* As he waxed lyrical about the beer he was tasting.

And he had to take one of me too *pulls faces*

In other news we have our hard lemonade on the go for my birthday brew. And we’ve started a one gallon test batch of bochet mead. Where the honey is slowly caramelised (which took two and a half hours of stirring near constantly.. I had a book in one hand and the spoon in the other!) until it’s so dark if you blink it’ll be burnt. Then water is added and yeast to ferment it. While taking photos of it, I realised it was so dark we were reflected pretty well in it.. it’s not the best photo ever, but it entertains me.

This weekend I’ll be working on a Beatles themed cake.

Not really much to say, not a lot is going on. But here’s a few more random photos…

Firstly a couple of a fly that was bugging me when I was trying to cook.

Then the new grass growing in the yard.

Finally, my new hair cut.

Life has been plodding along, in the way that it does. We’ve been busy with CC amongst other things.

We’re onto our 5th brew now.. well 4th beer and 1 mead.. it’s still a long way off but I can’t wait for the mead to be done. It’s all such an interesting process, I’m persuading DmentD to write a series of posts on how to brew for CC.

Sadly, my camera, that has served me well over the past year and a bit, took a death defying leap from the kitchen table.. that wasn’t so death defying.. It died! I was trying to get that >just perfect< shot of me piping crosses onto the hot cross buns and failed! Thankfully I managed to save the photos already on there and used DmentD’s old broken camera to get a couple finished shots, not the greatest, but acceptable. So a new camera was duly ordered and arrived quicker than the estimate – thankfully. I hadn’t realised how many things I had gotten in to the habit of taking photos of until I couldn’t!

So this morning I was out in the garden playing about with settings and seeing what I could do with close ups and macro shots.. I need to find a place I can take wide-angle photos too to play about and see what I can do with them.

We had our crawfish boil at the start of the month. I made two king cakes (a cinnamon and a cream cheese) and then some cafe su da ice cream and Guinness ice cream. The Guinness one still needs some work, but the cafe su da was a huge hit with most of the half gallon I made getting eaten up!

Work is still going well, I’m enjoying it and had my first pay check last week.. always a good thing!

While sorting through photos I realised I had the ones from the Sherwood Forest Ren Faire that I hadn’t uploaded, how very lax of me! I didn’t even write about the day! It wasn’t a huge faire, not as big as the one we go to in Autumn. But it was only their first year. Taking that into consideration it was pretty impressive. We spent a few hours wandering about and having a good time, and of course, I got my first sun burn of the year! And, I got my bronze pendant to go on my necklace, I’ve been idly looking for a while, but couldn’t see anything that resonated enough for me to want to wear it all the time, since I wear my necklace all the time.. Well, I found something.. now I just need DmentD to re-do my necklace so we can string it on there. The rest of the photos from the day are in the gallery.

The last week in January saw my family braving the transatlantic flights to come and visit us here. Well, technically they flew the week prior and spent time in Florida having a good time.

Deciding to drive from Florida to Austin we went to meet them in NOLA to spend the weekend there, letting my Mum and DmentD’s Mum meet! We had the Saturday together to wander about town. Morning coffee at Cafe Du Monde, a walk around the French Market, and the French Quarter. Stopping at St Louis Cathedral to replicate a photo mum took there 30 years ago. And then on to Crescent City Brewhouse for a snack before we went on the river boat.

While we were stood waiting the fog started rolling in off the river and by the time we left dock it was thick around us. Most of the trip we were surrounded, you could catch glimpses of things if you were on the top deck. We came out of the fog right at the point where we were turning around to go back! It was still fun, and oddly atmospheric. We had lunch on board which was surprisingly good, and were able to go into parts of the engine room to be nosy!

We walked around a few shops and then headed off to Lola’s for dinner, followed by Angelo Brocado’s for ice cream!

We drove back into Austin on Sunday to spend Monday being good and lazy having BBQ for lunch and then homemade jambalaya for dinner.

Tuesday promised to be the nicest day of the week so we headed downtown. Stopping in at my work for lunch and then a walk to the capitol building, we went on the Duck Tour. It was slightly different to when I did it 3 years ago, on my first visit to town, and was still interesting. It was a newer vehicle too, much nicer!

We ended the day by going out to the Oasis for dinner, I’d not been there before. Beautiful views, even when the sunset wasn’t all that spectacular, and good food.. Nice cocktails too!

We took them round the games shops, and introduced them to Amys Ice Cream and the Alamo Draught house, we made them some authentic gumbo too.

The end of the week we took a side trip to San Marcos to visit the outlet mall.

Their trip coincided (on purpose) with my graduation from the TCA. The Friday night had an open house at the school, for free food and a chance to show them round the place. The ceremony was Saturday morning.

DmentD and I were up bright and early to make sure I got there in good time, so I could get my photos done without queuing for hours. Badly organised, the students were told where we needed to be and what we needed to be doing with little time to spare, I was glad I’m halfway through the alphabet so I could see what other people were doing! It was nice to see people from class and catch up, and the instructors too.

I got the gold braid for graduating Summa Cum Laude, the medal on the blue ribbon for attendance, and the pin just for graduating *grins*

The Saturday evening we invited people round, a belated wedding celebration (we promised to put it off until my family visited), a graduation celebration and a ‘hey, here’s my family’ celebration *grins* We pulled together a cake, baking it Friday night and decorating it Saturday, DmentD made some of the ever popular family ribbon cookies and we cooked a whole pork loin that we’re still eating!

It was a fun week, and now I’m back to the grind! Work should start picking up finally with Valentines day on its way.

Rest of the photos in the usual spaces

I’m sure someone promised me a hover car, or something along those lines, by now!

I figured it was about time I got round to uploading photos and letting people know how the holidays went. I took far less photos this year, why take photos of decorations that I took photos of last year! We decorated the house up nicely though, we even made a hat for Gustav, the Germanic looking skull that we got at Halloween and decided should stay out all year round (he got a New Years party hat too).

Our big project was making Christmas presents. Using the new chocolate molds I had, and finally using the gorgeous chocolate book DmentD got me last Christmas!

We had good fun, we made three types of chocolates, taffy and peppermint sticks, and dog bones too! Two of the chocolates were molded, a caramel ganache and a cherry bounce cordial. The third (a white chocolate lemon) was piped out and had sugar crystals grown on it to form a shell, it’s a fascinating process and fun to watch, it also produces the prettiest most unique looking truffle.

The taffy was a work out, and since we were using a silicon mat due to a lack of marble (which we now have – Yay!) it was made a fair bit harder. The mat buckled and caught the spatulas (because I’m failing to remember what they’re called) and eventually tore causing a mad panic to rescue what we could! After all that we still had to pull it to aerate and stretch out!

The investment in a heat lamp was well worth it for the peppermint sticks.. though another one would be helpful. We used isomalt instead of sugar, it’s more stable and less hygroscopic it can also be cooked to much higher temperatures. The added bonus is it has a low glycemic index making it safe for diabetics! That was cooked to over 300F and then poured out onto my trusty silpat. Worked so it cooled evenly it was pulled a little to introduce air, turning it from clear to silvery (then as it cooled to white). Keeping it warm under the lights we then pulled a little at a time and twisted them together.. It’s definitely something we need practice at, they weren’t all that consistent but they looked entertaining.

I firmly believe I was thoroughly spoiled at Christmas. My stocking was full of English goodies, Walkers shortbread, Mr Kipling mince pies, Quality Streets, Malteasers and After Eights! Then some awesome gingerbread men cutters (Already been chewed!), a gorgeous book on Artisan chocolates, the Professional Pastry Chef and DmentD and I both managed to give each other Unseen Academicals!

Christmas Eve we had the now traditional Chinese meal. Christmas Day was spent at a friend’s house, we made ribbon cookies and pecan pies for dessert. The following Wednesday we went to see Sherlock Holmes (awesome) and then off to another friend’s house for New Years eve and a glow in the dark party. I attacked a t shirt with some florescent paint, and DmentD painted a skull on his face.

New Years Day called for the traditional meal at our place, stewed cabbage, black eye peas, ham and an English dish, this year mini Cornish Pasties.. I had intended to make larger ones, but failed to make enough pastry, mini ones worked out well, I believe most people ate them as an appetiser (and all the excess filling went into a Beef Bourgiugnon on Sunday). I also made gingerbread men with the new cutters.. having far too much fun piping on drips of blood! I used it as an opportunity to try out a new recipe as well, for a gingerbread apple upside down cake.. I don’t think we’ve had any cake go down so well in one sitting! I used a mix of granny smith and honeycrisp apples and it was moist and tasty and delicious!

This week saw me determined to finally get my Texas license, since I’ve been putting it off since September. I took the theory test on Monday and couldn’t believe the different between it and the English test (or the difference in costs). My practical test will be taken at some point in the future.. I know when.. I’m just not saying *grins*

Two new cakes of late, the first being the wedding cake we were working on last week. The other being the Bass I did at work.. mostly on my own but with some help on the finer points of airbrushing technique.

Finally! A week after the day, I finally get the chance to look through my camera, see what photos are allowed online (and that I can be bothered to put online, certainly not all 300 of them!) and write our account of the party.

By some miracle we were actually all set and ready for 7, the time on the invites. Food was cooked and laid out, decorations were up and lit, we were dressed, it was impressive let me tell you *grins*

We had carved our pumpkins Thursday night and I had the cake all made.. well, okay, it was mostly styrofoam, cheaper and allowing for a more impressive looking cake!

The bar followed DmentD’s old tradition of being the blacklight room. We followed a couple of other old traditions too, making a big entryway, and taking photos of everyone by it as they arrived.

I’m not entirely sure what to say here about the party.. it was a party! Fun was had, drinks were drunk. Sadly it appears that DmentD’s camera got damaged, but the rest of the house is still in tact! We attempted a game, we even had prizes, and had more planned just in case, but the vibe didn’t swing that way.

The fire pit got christened! A momentous occasion, and something we’ve been dying to do since May. We in fact used it twice, at the party and then just DmentD and I, snuggled under a blanket together in front of it on the Sunday night.

We ended the party by smashing up a few of the pumpkins.. don’t ask why, there’s no real reason except “because we could”.. and it meant they were pre smashed and ready to go into our compost the next day *grins* You’ll have to go to the gallery to see those videos.

It took us til today to get everything fully cleaned up. We had taken all the decorations down and moved them all into the dining room.. a kind of anti-staging area!

However we’ve spent this week working on a wedding cake for the lovely ladies over at Freak Revolution so we didn’t have time to clean up fully.

Today everything got attacked. Decorations were put in their boxes and put back in the attic, floors were hoovered and mopped, furniture was put back where it was supposed to be.. And then we both heaved a big sigh of relief!

The rest of the photos that I had the energy to upload are in the gallery

Cake photos are with all the other cakes