I loved the last term of cake decorating class I went to. I was very excited about the project our teacher had planned for us and I think it turned out better than I thought it would. The project was bubbles!

When we were first told that we were making the bubbles out of gelatin we all grumbled! (We are called the ‘Naughty Class’ for a reason). A few terms previous we had made gelatin flowers. Although the flowers turned out quite pretty, they were a pain to make!

For the gelatin flowers we bent florist wire into the shape of the petals and then one by one we dipped the petals into a gelatin concoction. We tried to get the gelatin to cover the petal like you would dipping a ring into bubble solution (for blowing bubbles), but the gelatin kept popping. It took us pretty much four hours to cover the petals in gelatin twice! The second layer was a lot easier because the gelatin covered the previous layer.

The next two hour class we spent taping the petals together to make the flowers. This was also a scary task, because if we were too rough with the petals, or if the gelatin wasn’t thick enough in places, then we could cause rips.

So even though the two flowers we made were quite spectacular, when our teacher mentioned gelatin we groaned! Our teacher tried to convince us that it would be easier this time and she ended up having to show us a picture of what we were going to make – that is when I got excited! We were going to put the bubbles on a spa bath!

The first couple of classes we made the bubbles. We blew up water balloons to the size we wanted and then dipped them into different coloured gelatin solutions with luster dust in it to give the bubbles a sparkle. We covered the balloons twice with gelatin to ensure they would keep shape. The following week, after the gelatin had tried completely, we popped the balloons and removed them carefully from the gelatin bubble – sounds easier than it was! But we made bubbles!

Quite a few class members made this cake out of an oval Styrofoam cake dummy, but I decided to make a fruit cake. I wasn’t sure who I would end up giving the cake too, but since I knew a fair bit of time was going into it I wanted to make it for someone.

This is what my cake looked like when I finished the term. I had missed a week due to a sore wrist so I wasn’t able to finish it. But I was still quite chuffed with it! I also wanted to show you the cake at this stage so you could see the blue piping gel. I am not sure what it tastes like, because I chickened out on tasting it, but it looks cool as water! Apparently it also makes good blood when coloured red – something I wouldn’t mind trying out one day!!

My Dad’s birthday is in August, but I didn’t get to see him because he was walking a section of the Bibbulmun Track (a long distance walk trail in Western Australia that runs from Kalamunda, east of Perth to Albany). Dad had to cut the hike a bit shorter than he hoped due to a disagreement between his new boots and his feet! But it meant that I could see him on Father’s Day. Dad’s loves fruit cake and his feet would have loved a spa bath – so I gave him my spa bath cake for Father’s Day!

While finishing the spa bath I watched BBC’s Pride and Prejudice and I was able to catch a photo of Mr Darcy himself. As I have mentioned before I really enjoy painting, so I had fun adding a little bit of gold to my cake and board. I wanted it to look like a bathroom in a ritzy hotel, but I didn’t want it to look too gaudy. And do you like how I made it a clawfoot bathtub?

You might have guessed, I chose this cake to blog about because it is Mother’s Day today (well in Australia and U.S.A.). I hope this puts a good omen into the universe that all Mothers have a relaxing day (and possibly have a spa bath!?) and are spoilt rotten by their children.

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY TO ALL MUMS!!!

Late last year my hubbie’s Aunty called to ask if I would make a cake for her brother and his wife for their 50th wedding anniversary. They live in Queensland, but they were married in Perth and were coming over to celebrate their anniversary here. Aunty had the idea of me replicating the wedding cake and she would show me a photo at Christmas. I was honoured to be asked and said I would make it and would definitely “try” to replicate the wedding cake.

When I saw the wedding cake I was excited (the cake had pillars), scared (the cake had pillars) and a little thrown (the photo of the cake wasn’t very clear)! The photo of hubbie’s Uncle and Aunty is a beautiful one of them, but the cake is overexposed. I could see ribbon, flowers and pillars, so I was sure I would be able to make something that resembled their wedding cake and I had a few months to think about it.

A couple of months ago I did have a thought – what were the colour of the flowers! I assumed they were white when I first saw the photo, but of course the photo is in black and white. So they could have been pale pink or pale yellow or even something else. I messaged hubbie’s cousin (who was co-organising the party) and she came back saying that they were gardenias, which I was happy about because I have made a gardenia before.

About the same time I tried correcting the overexposure of the photo. I didn’t have too much success, but I had a better idea about how many flowers there were and that there was ribbon on each tier. I liked that the boards weren’t covered in fondant, because that gave me a great excuse not to cover my boards with fondant – a cost saving too. I also noticed these tall thin things on the corners of the bottom layer but had no idea what they were so decided to ignore them. I found out at the party that they were long candles that were used to light prayer candles at their church – I’m glad I didn’t stress about finding out what they were! I also decided that I wouldn’t be able to match the ribbon exactly, so I would go down a different path and use gold ribbons – well the 50th is the golden anniversary!

Before I show you the cake I wanted you to know that it did take me a while to make even if it looks relatively simple. The cake is made up of seven cakes, so I spent a day baking. I’ve tried baking more than one cake at a time before, but I don’t have the biggest oven and when you cook more than one it takes longer than the recipe, so I end up checking it ten times ensuring they don’t over cook (which makes it hard to multi-task). So now I cook one at a time. I also had a production line of buds and petals! And it was only once they were dry I realised I missed making the petals “cup” at the base! I was worried they wouldn’t fit around the bud, but thankfully I made them work – so didn’t have to spend hours making more petals! See I am always learning! And I just need to write this down so it sinks in – if making ribbon fillers again always buy more ribbon than you think. I think I had over 10 metres of the three small gold/white ribbons, but it was probably only half of what I actually needed.

I was definitely excited and scared about constructing this cake! One of the ladies at Cake Tinz N’ Thingz guaranteed me that pillars were really easy, and that the dowels in the pillars hold the weight of the middle and top tiers and not the actual pillar. Plus the dowels make the pillars sturdy, so no wobbling! And she was right! It was easy and the cake stood! So here is my 50th anniversary cake inspired by the wedding cake: 

The 50th wedding anniversary party was lovely and the inspirational, special couple were reunited with many old friends. The “bride” said the cake was a lovely, modern version of the original.

And even better – the cake was eaten and enjoyed! Bottom layer was chocolate – which the kids were happy about. Middle tier was a sultana butter cake – my favourite! And the top tier was my fruit cake – which I hear is being saved for their 51st wedding anniversary!

You’ll never believe, but the folded card behind the top tier is the actual wedding invitation! My mother-in-law kept it all these years!

That’s right, I remember one last thing I wanted to mentioned (sorry head is still a little furry!). I also airbrushed the white cakes with Pearlescent White metallic food paint. I am not sure if you can really tell, but I thought it would give it a little extra pizzazz. I was definitely happy when the cake was set up at the venue, that is for sure. A huge relief! I hope you think I did justice to the original cake. Well until next time, be happy!

We decided to put the shield on the sail and that I would make the sail out of paper (due to time and cost constraints). Because I am always in front of the computer I started playing with the shield early. I am glad I did because it didn’t print very well on my printer, so I made the black blacker and the red more red. I also didn’t want the sail to be white – I didn’t think Vikings ship’s sails stayed white for very long, if ever at all! So I made the white part of the shield transparent and then tested printing the shield on various backgrounds to hopefully get a sail-like look.

My next decision was what figurehead should I give the ship. I automatically thought of a mermaid, but after some research found out that Viking ship figureheads were menacing in their appearance with bug-eyes and gaping jaws. The figureheads were seen as having a more protective function of warding off spirits rather than just being ornamental. So after browsing through many photos I finally found this photo of Floki from the TV Series Vikings hugging his boat, so this is where the inspiration of my dragon figurehead came from.

I had fun making the other little parts of the ship. I made the oars from skewers and the mast from a couple of dowels and I even painted them (and the string on the mast) with some food colouring to make them darker. I then painted the shields. I really wanted to have the shields on the side of the ship because they added a bit of colour. The shields would only have been tied over the oarports when the ships were in port, and not when the ships were actually sailing. The shields were essential for protection in battle and Vikings would not want to risk dropping them overboard! I told this to my sister’s friend and she said she acknowledged the shields weren’t entirely correct, but it looked cool anyway!

Time came to make the cake and cover it in water. It was then that I realised I made the ship a little bigger than I originally thought I would, so the ship sat over the edge of the cake a bit. This made my original idea of the waves splashing up the front of the ship a bit hard, plus I still hadn’t worked out how I was going to do that and I didn’t want to hide any part of my figurehead. So I thought I would marble the blue fondant with white so it looked like the ocean, but I was wasn’t having a good day and the fondant just would not marble. So I just covered the blinking (yeah I was getting frustrated by this stage) cake with blue fondant. Then I got a tear in the fondant that I just couldn’t fix so I needed another plan!

I put the tear at the back of the cake, but it didn’t look great and I knew people would be looking all around the ship. So I had an idea of covering up the tear with the wake of the ship. I had better luck marbling smaller amounts of fondant and then I added some bubbles. I thought it looked pretty cool so I added some waves on either side of the cake to finish it off. I hope you like my waves!

I originally toyed with the idea of making a couple of Viking men for the ship, but really didn’t have the time to make them. So I played with a couple of Viking Lego men and took a few photos. I then had fun with photo editor!

Last month my Dad said he didn’t know how I had the patience for cake decorating, but I find it quite calming sitting there, moulding or painting with a movie on in the background. I think it is has been quite good for me because I sometimes need to think of ways to cover up mistakes, or new ways to do things if they don’t work the first time. There are no mistakes in accounting, you just have to get it right (although that can take some time reconciling!). So it is a new type of thinking for me, which is exactly why I wanted to do something creative in my life – to help me think outside of the box!

Time for me to sail off into my dreams! Good night all

This cake was a fairly late request and I ummmed and arrred whether I should make it. But I haven’t made any cakes so far this month, so I said yes! Plus I have seen so many cool TMNT cakes that I wanted to try another one.

It was my friend’s Mum who ordered the cake for her Grandson. I don’t know who likes my cakes more: my friend or her Mum! Her Mum loves the fondant and my friend the buttercream. I am more of a buttercream girl myself – I think I have played with too much fondant and smelled too much of it. Bit too sickly for me now. But a little bit is always nice!

My friend the other day shared a video on Facebook of how to make a checkered rainbow cake – the actual cake, not the decorations. So I thought I would give it a go. Even if the checkers failed it would still taste nice!! So this is what the inside looked like. 

I loved the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles growing up. My middle sister and I started Karate around the same time TMNT started on TV, so I think we thought it was pretty cool that we did martial arts as well! I loved that they loved pizza; that the heroes were teenagers and were a little goofy; and I seem to recall Splinter shaking his head more than once, so it was cool that the heroes weren’t perfect! So here is the cake I made that was based on someone else’s design:

I found this cake quite therapeutic. I was so happy the bricks turned out okay, I didn’t really measure the first (vertical) lot of lines and then when I went to do the horizontal ones I was worried I had made them too thin or thick because I didn’t think it through. I was very lucky they worked out! I then painted the cake with silver dust mixed with dipping solution. I think it was the painting I found so relaxing. Especially since it was all one colour so I didn’t have to worry too much about where I was putting it.

Everyone seemed to love the cake and my friend and her cousin made TMNT cards for the birthday boy too. They looked very cool together.So here is the big reveal! The inside of the cake! The kids (and adults) were very impressed with the colours.

Sorry I haven’t written too many blog posts recently. I know life is full of trying times, I just feel like I have seen a little too many recently, so I haven’t felt very creative nor entertaining lately, and I really want my posts to be somewhat entertaining! But I read some very wise words today, so I’ll share them with you and will write some more posts very soon!

Leonardo: We turtles don’t know the meaning of the word ‘defeat’.
Michaelangelo: That’s right. We never bothered to look it up in the dictionary.

I asked if she wanted anything else on the cake and I was told about the birthday girl’s dog and also that she often had kangaroos on her front lawn and big eucalyptus around her house because she lived out of the city. I had until October to work out what I was going to do so I let my sub-conscious contemplate it.

When it came time to seriously think about the cake I opened the flowers so I could see the colour of them. Then I did something I rarely do, and I don’t know why I did it. I smelt the flowers! I am not usually a “sniffer”, like one of my sisters is. I would much prefer not to smell bad things. Now the flowers didn’t smell, but I got a shot of very old dust up my nose! It was unpleasant to say the least! I guess it let me know that I would need a protective layer between the cake and the flowers, so I made a fondant base for the flowers.

I knew I would make the dog, especially after seeing a photo of her (what a cutie!) and I thought I would do a kangaroo. I wish I had made the dog and kangaroo earlier, because they weren’t exactly comparable sizes!

I wasn’t sure about the colour scheme of the cake. I tried my best to match the pink and green in the flowers. I wasn’t overly keen of the outcome, but I do have an aversion to pink! So I hope the end result was ok.

While writing this post I decided I was a bit bored of seeing black or brown/wood backgrounds to my cakes, so I decided this cake needed a brighter background. Well turning 60 is a joyous occasion and I was lucky enough to be invited to this 60th luncheon where 4 generations were at the table! I was also lucky to taste the butter and sultana cake – I think it is one of my favourites that I make And because it’s my birthday weekend I wanted to spread even more brightness so I brightened up my Olaf cake! I hope you are having a bright weekend!

Bees’ll buzz
Kids’ll blow dandelion fuzz
And I’ll be doing whatever snow does
In summer

P.S. Check out the gorgeous black forest (cream-free) cake my sister made me for my birthday. It was delicious! I am very spoilt

I absolutely loved the idea of the cake I made this week. My friend’s daughter turned one today and my friend wanted the theme of the cake to be Possum Magic. Not only that, but she had a specific idea of how she wanted the cake. When she told me it sounded very interesting, but I had no idea what she was talking about! So I watched the YouTube reading of the book and absolutely loved the idea and loved the book!

Possum Magic is about Grandma Poss (possum) and how she uses her best bush magic to make Hush (granddaughter) invisible so she is safe from the dangers of the Australian bush and of course so Hush can have adventures. But when Hush longs to be able to see herself again, the two possums must make their way around Australia to find the magic food that will make Hush visible once more. And here is the spoiler – the three foods that make Hush visible are Vegemite Sandwiches, Pavlova and Lamingtons. Three of the best Australian foods in my opinion!

So here is the cake with Vegemite Sandwiches, Pavlova and Lamingtons. My friend didn’t have any expectations of me making Hush the possum – but I wanted to! I hope I did her justice.

My friend said the cake was just like she imagined! And then she told me about the birthday party she had planned. They were going to a park and they were going to read Possum Magic and then they were going to eat Vegemite Sandwiches, Pavlova and you guessed it – Lamingtons! What an awesome idea! And then they were going to have the cake! Such a beautiful idea and now I am craving Vegemite Sandwiches!!!

I know I have a few readers outside of Australia – hello Well just in case you didn’t know, Possums (on the left below and that are from the Eastern Hemisphere – Australia, New Guinea, and Sulawesi and introduced to New Zealand and China) are different from Opossums (on the right below and that are from the Western Hemisphere). I think I only worked that out a couple of years ago, I guess I never thought of what an opossum was. And I love the word Opossum and I think they are funny looking creatures, and they sure look like they could get up to some mischief! 

Okay, Aussie possums can get up to mischief like this greedy one! But opossums are considered nature’s minivan!

My friend also asked me if I had time to make a second cake for her daughter so she could take one to playgroup. I did stay up pretty late finishing off the cakes, but I also left them to the last-minute. I suffer really badly from procrastination-itis! I definitely could have prepared on the weekend, but I chilled out in front of the TV instead. So I really did have time! Let’s hope I am a good girl for the next cake!!

I asked my friend if she wanted a pink themed cake and she said no! She said she wasn’t bothered by pink, so how about yellow. She is a girl after my own heart. I have never liked pink. I occasionally wear it, the only reason is so that it breaks up the blue and black! When I thought of yellow I thought of bumblebees and Winnie the Pooh! Pretty lucky girl getting two cakes! I hope she liked them and had a wonderful 1st birthday!

Source Possum photo: http://davidcook.com.au

Source Opossum photo: http://www.wildliferescuerehab.com/

Source Opossum with babies photo: http://animalia-life.com/opossum.html

I love how with each cake I seem to learn something new, or need to research a new technique or a solution to an issue. I always ask my family or friend what they would like the cake to look like and this time my friend came back with quite a specific cake – a blue 7 and a yellow rugby ball as a zero so it looked like a 70. The blue and yellow were to be the colours of Nedlands Rugby Union Football Club. That didn’t sound too bad until she mentioned that it was for approximately 60 people!

My biggest dilemma was how to make a 7 and a rugby ball feed 60 people. I went into Cake Tinz and Things and they had cake tins for a 7 and an American rugby ball, but looking at the tins they looked like two normal sized cakes, in other words would feed about 15-20 people. So I asked the lady what I should do to turn the cake into one that fed 60 people – would I need to put the 7 and rugby ball on a slab of cake? She said 7 and ball would feed 30 (coffee* serve) and that I would just need to make a 7 inch square cake for the additional 40 servings – I have learnt this spare cake is called a ‘kitchen cake’. A kitchen cake is an undecorated cake that looks exactly like your cake when cut and is cheaper than a decorated cake. By also making a kitchen cake, it would save me from the hassle of using cake supports in a stacked cake. But what would my friend think? And would she be happy with coffee serves?

I gave my friend 3 options and she decided on dessert* serves and she was happy to have a square kitchen cake too and asked for a birthday message on it as well. With the 7 cake I also decided to carve it from a large square tin, because I didn’t think the 7 tin looked very wide and I also wanted to ensure the height of the 7 matched the length of the rugby ball. I would like to thank Tanya from Coxie’s Cakes for suggesting that! So my next challenge was baking, carving and covering!

*Coffee Size: 1 inch x 1 inch x 4 inches (2.5cm x 2.5cm x 10cm)
*Dessert Size: 1 inch x 2 inches x 4 inches (2.5cm x 5cm x 10cm)

I was very happy with the baking and carving. I was surprised I carved the 7 so straight! And I also carved a layer under the rugby ball tin cake and shaped it like an actual ball. The covering of the rugby ball was also a success and I was happy with how smooth it was – until 30 minutes later when a bubble appeared in the fondant with a diameter of approx. 7 cm! I couldn’t believe it. So I pricked it and tried to squish the air out and it didn’t look too bad. But then a little while later another bubble appeared! This time when I pricked it the air wouldn’t come out so I tried to smooth the air out of the bottom of the fondant, but it caused creases in the fondant. A frown appeared on my face! As this was happening I was also trying to cover the 7, which of course had issues itself – it was hard to get a smooth fondant covering on the inside of the 7 without splitting the fondant. I was so close, but no cigar. I got a tear in the fondant. I think at this stage I decided to put my feet up because they were killing me. When I got back up there was another bubble in my rugby ball! It was well past bedtime and I couldn’t stay up all night popping air bubbles, and I couldn’t leave the bubble overnight because the fondant would harden and wouldn’t be pliable – so I cut a slit into the bubble. I got all the air out, but it didn’t look pretty at all. I left it to morning to sort out.

When I was first imagining these cakes I was unsure how to ensure the yellow rugby ball would be identified as a rugby union ball. So I Googled – my saviour. What did we do before Google? And decided I would make it a Gilbert brand, which is the brand used by Nedlands Rugby Union FC. To keep it to theme I put blue strips on the ball – the strips are wider than the actual balls, but it sure hid the bubble flaws well! I thought the ball turned out quite well. Phew!

The 7 was a bit of a dilemma. I was unsure whether I should leave flaws on the 7, or try to cover it with a square on fondant – which would identify I didn’t do the best fondant covering. I finally opted for the square covering and depending on the angle you look at the cake, it wasn’t terrible. I can say it was a huge relief when the cakes were picked up! I also got a lovely message from my friend when she saw it – I was so relieved! But yesterday I saw a photo of the cake and the fondant looked a little worse for wear on the outside of the 7! Ahhh!! My friend and her hubbie still seemed so happy, and her hubbie even said the cake was “created by the ever so excellent cake creating master sculptor funky icing artisan Michelle”… how nice is that!?

So I learned some new terms about cakes, I had some happy friends but I also had left-over cake! I was having lunch with an old friend on Monday so I decided to make a simple cake and I put some Viking Helmets on it – for two reasons, the first being my friend’s sons (‘B’ and ‘C’) love Horrible Histories so I thought Vikings would go down well, and the second reason being that one of my sister’s friends has asked me to make a Viking cake in March. I am so excited! I love Vikings, so I had Vikings on the mind and thought a couple of helmets would be cute. My friend’s boys loved the cake and the helmets and they even put the little helmet on their heads! Seeing kids loving my cakes and hearing my friends really appreciating my efforts makes the long nights, stresses and sore feet worth it! So here is to some exciting cakes in my the near future! I also hope you have some things to look forward to in your lives, it is so important to have something to look forward to – it is a key to happiness! That and cake is also a key to happiness!

I have probably mentioned before that Mum is a huge Rolling Stones fan. My sisters and I had to put up with listening to the Rolling Stones afternoon after afternoon! We groaned, we whined, we shut the door and put the TV on or we ran outside and played! Anything but listen to the “prancing peacock” once again. Dad, being a fan of The Beatles, agreed with my sisters and I to a certain extent and used to call Mick Jagger the prancing peacock, and up until 5 minutes ago I thought my Dad thought that name up himself, but according to Google I can no longer believe that.

I am not exactly sure how my Mum and her friend Lynne convinced me, but I think it was in 1995 for the Voodoo Lounge Tour that they dragged me to Perth Airport for when the Rolling Stones were to arrive so we could either get some photos of them or autographs. We found a few dozen other crazy fans along the wire fence on the north side of the airport and we indeed saw the Rolling Stones‘ aeroplane taxi up to about 200 metres away. We saw the band disembark and even a couple of them waved to us crazy fans before they got into their vehicles. We were a little disappointed they didn’t come any closer, but then some of the other people said they were going to a particular hotel and we should head there too.

At this point in time I cannot remember what the plan was. It was fairly late at night and we lived an hour out of the city, so I don’t know if Mum had decided whether we would go to the hotel or not. So we headed to our car, paid for parking, drove out of the airport parking and I don’t remember being in any particular rush. As we got to one of the roundabouts just outside of the airport parking we were stopped by security. We were first or second in line at the blocked roundabout and we were wondering what was happening, then right before us passed a black limousine and three or four silver Toyota Taragos – it was the Rolling Stones!!

You can probably imagine the excitement that happened then – a 19-year-old and 2 crazy 40+ year olds realising we were going to be able to follow the Rolling Stones‘ convoy! What happened over the next 10 or so minutes happened so quickly, but it is etched into my memory quite clearly (well as clearly as a 20-year-old memory and from my point of view!). Mum was driving, and I am pretty sure I was in the front with Lynne in the back behind me. As soon as security let us pass we were off! Most of the drive down Brearley Avenue was us trying to catch up with the convoy – it wasn’t hard to see  a few Taragos in a row. By the time we got onto Great Eastern Highway we were able to catch up with them! Oh my!

Thankfully Great Eastern Highway is a dual carriageway and a slow highway between Perth Airport and the actual city of Perth. And also thankfully the convoy had safe drivers who kept to the speed limit and kept left. This all enabled us to drive along side each of the Taragos! First off was a Tarago for Charlie Watts and his family. Charlie was sitting up very straight on the back seat with his wife – all very composed – which was quite the opposite to Lynne and I madly waving to them out of our windows and Mum driving at pace with them! Charlie ended up turning to us, smiling and giving a Queen-like wave!! Yay! Next Tarago!

The next Tarago was Keith Richards and oh my isn’t Keith just the epitome of cool! Keith was leaning out of his car window on his elbow smoking! He had on one of his headbands, he had his skull ring on his finger! And he said hello to us, waved and laughed! Now I am imaging a can of alcohol in his left hand… this is my memory right! I reckon Mum would have loved to stay there forever, but we had two more vehicles to catch and were running out of road. Next was Ronnie Wood. He was pretty low-key, but he definitely acknowledged this crazy car of fans driving along side him and gave us a wave. Quick Mum – to the limo!

So we’re alongside the limo that encapsulated Mum’s all time hero – Mick Jagger! The windows were up and heavily tinted and all we could really make out was the silhouette of Mick staring straight ahead and he refused to acknowledge us. We were able to drive along side him for half a kilometre or so and Lynne and I really tried to get him to look our way, but he just wouldn’t. Then we had a dilemma, we were running out of Great Eastern Highway and we didn’t know which hotel they were staying at and how they would get there.

At this point in time Great Easter Highway is 3 lanes and it comes up to a fork where the right 2 lanes go straight and the left lane peels off and heading directly to the city. For about 25 metres the left (forked) lane becomes 2 lanes so the vehicle can keep left, or stay in the right lane. The left lane ends can end up turning left, but both lanes can turn right towards the city. So we’re in the middle lane, Mick is in the left lane and we need to be in the left lane to keep following him – but we are right along side him!! There is a lot of yelling at this stage – what to do! And for those 25 metres we’re praying that the limo driver will keep left so we can get into the second left lane (yeah its confusing – sorry!). And my Mum is driving her car so close to the limo trying to hint to move over – so close to the limo that Mick Jagger finally looks at us! YIPPEE!! Mike Jagger acknowledged us! We were happy. That is what we came for – our own special moment with the Rolling Stones, even if the moment was coerced by the possibility of a car accident! So Mum moved the car a safe distance away and as we continued on the middle lane, that becomes Canning Highway, we looked longingly at the black limo as it disappeared. But what a high! What a story! And special moments with each of the band members!

So over the years I have come to appreciate the Rolling Stones music and can be found singing along. Twenty-odd years ago I would never have imagined that I would actually attend a Rolling Stones concert – but that is what I did last November! Mum and her friend Lynne (who I must tell you – Mum and Lynne met in the tickets line for a Rolling Stones concert a century ago!) were so excited leading up to the concert (especially after it had been postponed in March 2014). So I sent Mum some teasing messages including the “No More Sleeps” picture!

While at the concert I had a giggle to myself, I hadn’t thought about the “prancing peacock” for years, until I actually saw Mick be one on stage and he actually strutted like a peacock! It was a brilliant concert and I cannot believe they are 70+ years old! I hope I have that much energy and vitality when I am that age!

And speaking of age, the reason why I made sure I made my Mum a cake this year is because she hit a milestone – 60! Sorry Mum! But I hope you liked your cake and also liked reminiscing about our Rolling Stones airport adventure

PS I think my Mum is extremely cute in this photo. This photo of her reminds me of Lucy Pevensie from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Hope you had a lovely birthday Mum!!! And you definitely do not look 60!! ♥ xxx

I believe I am up to the 23 Day of my long Christmas! My niece and nephew came over for the day and we made a Gingerbread House and I let them loose with my fondant collection! The snow-covered sides on the bottom were decorated by my niece and she also made a wicked Olaf! On the sides decorated by my nephew you can actually see some of the gingerbread house! I love how different their styles are and how they kept their sides true to themselves!Then it was Christmas Eve! And was I ready for Christmas? Not really. I had all these huge hopes of being more organised than previous years, but unfortunately a lot of Christmas cards weren’t sent out – again. But I did get to catch up one last time with my friend and her daughter, do some shopping, finish wrapping some pressies and finish two more cakes! Since the cakes were finished quite late, I shared two Elves made by the beautiful Conny Deylen. I guess I was wishing I had a couple of elves helping me instead of Santa on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Day had arrived and I was covered in red glitter! But I do love the effect the red glitter gave to the Christmas Minion I made for my nephew (he loves fruit cake and I think that is wonderful!)! The other Christmas Minion was for our extended family dinner Christmas night and I was lucky to get to take some home and I still have some left!

Now I was a bit sneaky and posted a Day 26 on Facebook – well our Christmas hadn’t finished yet! We had Christmas dinner with hubbie’s parents and an aunty on Boxing Day. Do you know what Boxing Day is? Do you get the day as a Public Holiday where you are? In Australia we get the day off, so it makes Christmas extra special. I was asked last year by a friend from the US what Boxing Day was, and it was brought up again this year by another friend. Wikipedia says Boxing Day is traditionally when servants and tradesmen would receive gifts, known as a “Christmas box”. But I wonder if Boxing Day also had something to do with clearing away all the boxes and wrapping paper from presents you received! What I do know is a lot of Australian males love Boxing Day because it means the first day of the Boxing Day Test (of cricket)! Early on this Boxing Day (my last day of my long Christmas!) I finished two more cakes! I made my mother-in-law the penguin cake and hubbie’s Aunty the snowmen cake.

On the Twenty-third day of Christmas Michelle’s Labyrinth sent to me a decorated Gingerbread House.

On the Twenty-fourth day of Christmas Michelle’s Labyrinth sent to me a two helpful Christmas elves. [Elves made by Conny Deylen]

On the Twenty-fifth day of Christmas Michelle’s Labyrinth sent to me two Christmas Minion cakes.

On the Twenty-sixth day of Christmas Michelle’s Labyrinth sent to me two decorated Christmas Cakes for presents.

Christmas almost seems like a distant memory. We are now in the New Year and Monday is when most people will be heading back to work. I have been thinking about what I would like to accomplish this year and have been trying to clear up a lot to ensure that I am not behind compared to before Christmas! I have also been thinking about the year just gone and what I accomplished and what I didn’t get finished. 2014 seemed to be a bad year for a lot of people: whether it was illnesses, money problems or just an accumulation of a lot of things! I also thought of all the wonderful famous people we lost this year – Rik Mayall, Robin Williams, Mickey Rooney, Joe Cocker, Phillip Seymour Hoffman (too many to list really). Then I thought about how we lost 3 aeroplanes and then the Lindt café siege in Sydney. I was beginning to think about I wasn’t going to be able to think of any wonderful things that happened in 2014 – and we really need to concentrate on the good times!

But I did remember some good of 2014 – we started the year in Jersey with family. Then saw hubbie’s brother’s family in England. We travelled around beautiful green Wales! I was able to catch up with one of my oldest friend’s in London and see her 3 week old (and I just got to see her again in Perth for Christmas!). We reached some goals with our businesses and even were nominated as Champion Business of the Year! I got to make quite a few cakes and was challenged a lot and learnt a lot. I finished my Diploma in Finance and Mortgage Broking. We got to see The Doug Anthony Allstars on stage again! I didn’t think we would see Paul McDermott, Tim Ferguson and Flacco (Paul Livingstone) again and they were hilarious and naughty as always. We got to go to Barcelona and to drive around South of France! I was also very lucky and was able to acquire another Wendy Froud original sculpture and a Brian Froud original watercolour! We also got to see the Rolling Stones – which was a bit touch and go after the cancellation in March. I also became the proud owner of Sam and Dean puppets! So really, that sounds like an amazing year! And I guess I need to thank our credit card companies, our employees (referral partners and clients) and my wonderful husband to making it all possible!

So I hope you have had time to reflect on all the good things that happened in 2014 and I really wish you all an even more magical 2015 full of everything you desire! Just think of 2015 as an open book and you have 360+ days to fill it – so write a magnificent one!

I am getting excited. I am not sure how much time I will get off work, but I won’t be working full time do not worry! It will be a good chance to catch up on some things, knock some jobs off my list and hopefully start the new year afresh! Assuming “the boss” (my hubbie!) doesn’t come up with any brain waves! I’ll have to keep him liquored up and hopefully the cricket will keep him occupied! I am also looking forward to a few quiet days. I have been trying to catch up with as many friends as possible before Christmas, among other work/home/cake duties, so it will be good to have a few days home without any dates/appointments!

I didn’t get to do everything I wanted to this month, unfortunately I had a cold last week (I dislike colds during summer very much!), had a couple of skin allergies earlier in the month (little blisters on your fingers makes it hard to write and impossible to do cake things!!). But I believe I have almost finished my Christmas shopping – just two more small things! And I have made 4 cakes and have another 5 in the making! So I do not think I am doing too bad

I have still been sharing something Christmasy every day on Facebook and am up to 22 out of 25! I thought I would blog about them now in case I go into a chocolate coma on Christmas Day and cannot finish my 25 days of Christmas!

As you know I love all things fantasy and I have added a couple of Christmas related creatures to my collection the past couple of years. Last year I was admiring lots of mermaids made by Mermaids Dreaming by Kotton Valley Dolls on Facebook. I happened to be online one day when they showed these amazing Rudolphs that were going to be available for sale very soon. I loved them, especially the one I was so very lucky to buy! He reminds me of Mr Tumnus, the faun from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe portrayed by James McAvoy. He fits in the palm of my hand and did I say that I loved him very much? He’s adorable!

I’m not sure if I have spoken about Supernatural that much, except maybe in my Scruffy vs Clean Cut blog post. When I first heard of Supernatural I had either just finished, or was just finishing watching all the Charmed episodes. When my sister mentioned this new show I was like “that sounds like a boy version of Charmed” and wasn’t interested. I even saw Dean as a guest on an evening talk show (might have been Good News Week) and thought he looked too cute to fight supernatural beings. I can’t remember how I actually started watching Supernatural, I think my sister had to tell me about it again and I listened to her this time and then I was hooked! And as much as I love Charmed, Sam and Dean are so much better! Makes Charmed look like child’s play! So I love Supernatural, just in case I wasn’t clear.

Now I do not think I have spoken too much about my love of puppets, Jim Henson and Brian Froud yet. I grew up watching Sesame Street and the The Muppet Show, and loved Fraggle Rock when it was on. And of course there were amazing puppets used in The Labyrinth. So I love puppets and consider them pretty much fantasy creatures, but I never considered owning one until a friend bought a puppet at FAO Schwarz – must-see toy store in New York! He owned a puppet! And I wanted one (being the big kid I am!). Unfortunately you can’t order the puppets on-line so that was out of the question, and then I couldn’t even decide what puppet I wanted. Did I want Kermit the Frog, or a Fraggle or something else? My interest in puppets grew again when I saw Avenue Q –  puppets definitely could be for adults! hehe Then when we went to DragonCon in Atlanta I saw a lady with a self-made Fraggle. Boy I really wanted a puppet!!

Last year at Supanova I was walking around all the stores with my sister, niece and nephew. We saw a store called Cursed Creations that had puppets! My eyes must have lit up because the lovely lady behind the desk asked if I was into puppets, I said no but I was interested in them. My sister and I had a look at the puppets and I saw Dean from Supernatural and thought he was cool, but Sam has always been my favourite. I also thought Edward and Bella from Twilight were pretty cool (top right in the photo), but I definitely didn’t like Twilight as much as Supernatural. While I was walking around Supanova later on I went onto Facebook and liked Cursed Creations Facebook page and looked through their photos. It was then that I noticed there had been a Sam puppet too but he had already sold by the time I found the store! It was then I decided I “needed” those two puppets – a Sam and a Dean! They were the perfect puppets for me. Unfortunately Dean had sold by the time I had made up my mind, but after a quick Facebook message I was told they were definitely make a Sam and Dean for me! (Puppets from Supanova 2014 photo sourced from https://www.facebook.com/CursedCreations).

So guess who I got for Christmas? Sam and Dean puppets! Here is my first photo of them! I am still waiting for a good hair day before I take any selfies with them! I have also been a little too busy this December and haven’t put our Christmas tree up, so I made one with GIMP! I love my Sam and Dean very much – they are perfect!

Before I show another fantasy purchase, here are a few more photos of my Christmas so far this year including a photo of an Australian Christmas Tree (Nuytsia floribunda)and an Australian Christmas Spider (Austracantha minax). I wanted to share these for my non-Australia readers and they are both such unique species! Whenever I see a Christmas Tree I smile knowing Christmas is near! I haven’t seen a Christmas Spider for about 14 years, but definitely love seeing them when I do. They always have different colours on them and they are definitely not a spider you squish! They are too pretty and they never seem to get in your way.

My other purchase last year was from the talented Natasha Morgan. I also follow Natasha on Facebook and also enjoy reading her blog. Last year she made lots of peg dolls, which are about 12cm tall and the dolls are made on wooden pegs, and when I saw Ebenezer Scrooge and the ghosts from A Christmas Carol I just had to have them. I must admit that the Ghost of Christmas Present isn’t what Natasha intended her to be, but Natasha’s version had already been purchased and I wanted a complete set and the red and white doll just reminded me of Christmas. I think Natasha did an amazing job and the Ghost of Christmas Past is beautiful – I cannot believe how detailed she is considering how small she is. I take my hat off to people who can sew! I watched The Muppet Christmas Carol on the weekend and their Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come was also a grim reaper.

I thought this might be a shorter post, but I guess I got excited talking about Christmas, fauns, and puppets! I hope you have enjoyed the next 10 days of Michelle’s Labyrinth Christmas. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year (although I might write a post before then!). Please be safe and don’t drink and drive!

 Merry Christmas!

 On the Thirteenth day of Christmas Michelle’s Labyrinth sent to me a some home-made fruit cakes.

On the Fourteenth day of Christmas Michelle’s Labyrinth sent to me a trip to an Aussie beach. 

On the Fifteenth day of Christmas Michelle’s Labyrinth sent to me a cupcake stack with a reindeer.  [Made in 2013 in cake decorating class.]

 On the Sixteenth day of Christmas Michelle’s Labyrinth sent to me a sleeping Rudolph faun.  [Made by Mermaids Dreaming by Kotton Valley Dolls.]

On the Seventeenth day of Christmas Michelle’s Labyrinth sent to me Sam and Dean puppets.  [Made by Cursed Creations]

On the Eighteenth day of Christmas Michelle’s Labyrinth sent to me a lots of wrapping paper.  [And the wrapping paper tube was enjoyed by Hamlet and Macbeth!]

On the Nineteenth day of Christmas Michelle’s Labyrinth sent to me a Secret Santa gift at work.

On the Twentieth day of Christmas Michelle’s Labyrinth sent to me an Australian Christmas Tree and Australia Christmas Spider.

On the Twenty-first day of Christmas Michelle’s Labyrinth sent to me Christmas cakes in the making. [Work-in-progress cakes!]

On the Twenty-second day of Christmas Michelle’s Labyrinth sent to me Scrooge and the ghosts from A Christmas Carol. [Made by Natasha Morgan]

]]> http://michelleslabyrinth.com.au/wordpress/christmas-2014-part-2/feed/ 0