Winter does have it's benefits after all.

GMT started last night,  signalling the start of winter and so many things to look forward to starting with my son's birthday next week and rapidly followed by halloween and then bonfire night. Fab!!

After doing this halloween shoot, in an attempt to be super green and not waste anything, I roasted all the seeds to give to the hens and then I made a pie out of the pumpkin flesh. I've never made one before and it was delicious, you'll have to try it!  No, I'm not going to make it for you - you'll have to make it yourself but here's the recipe.

• 3/4 cup soft brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 large eggs
• 15oz cooked, drained and mashed pumpkin
• 1 can (12 fl. oz.) exasperated milk
• 1 unbaked 9-inch (4-cup volume) deep-dish pie shell
• Whipped cream (optional)

MIX 
sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger and cloves in small bowl. 
Beat eggs in large bowl. 
Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture.
Gradually stir in evaporated milk.

POUR into pie shell.

BAKE in preheated 425° F oven for 15 minutes.
 Reduce temperature to 350° F; 
bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. 
 Serve immediately or refrigerate. Top with whipped cream before serving.

Double, double toil and trouble

As promised here are a few of the pictures for halloween. They are a bit scary so those of a nervous disposition maybe shouldn't look.

Double, double, toil and trouble
Fire burn and cauldron bubble




  

Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake; 
Eye of newt and toe of frog, 
Wool of bat and tongue of dog, 
Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg and owlet’s wing, 
For a charm of powerful trouble, 
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. 

Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf, 
Witches’ mummy, maw and gulf,
Of the ravin’d salt-sea shark, 
Root of hemlock digg’d i’ the dark,
Liver of blaspheming Jew,
Gall of goat, and slips of yew,
Silver’d in the moon’s eclipse,
Nose of Turk and Tartar’s lips, 
Finger of birth-strangled babe, 
Ditch-deliver’d by a drab, 
Make the gruel thick and slab: 
Add thereto a tiger’s chaudron,
For the ingredients of our cauldron. 

"Well, actually, I prefer a more up to date spell myself. here goes. "

Izzy wizzy let's get busy!

Scary witches at work!!

Answer: Me and nursery school teachers

So what's the question?

The question is: who gets to build halloween sets for  children that don't belong to them?

The good and bad thing about being terminally unable to throw anything away is that I have loads of props knocking about for various projects.  Astroturf anyone?

 Following another one of my bright ideas I have spent all this afternoon creating a small set at the studio ready for the  not insignificant  stream of small children who will be passing through it over the next week or so.  What a great excuse to play with fake spiders and spiders webs. Tonight I'm carving a pumpkin ready for a shoot tomorrow.  My family have been threatened with pumpkin pie for tea tomorrow. None of them seem particularly thrilled by the prospect, I wonder why?



All was going swimmingly with the set build until one of the staff came in to chat for a minute and thought the fake spiders real, she let out a blood curdling scream, pointing frantically at my lap while backing quickly out of the room. Scared the living daylights out of me!!

The finished set will be ready for photographing tomorrow so I'll post some pics then for you.

I've noticed the blog now has a follower. Hi, (waves cheerily), welcome to the blog, hope you find it interesting.

This Sunday we will be exhibiting at a wedding fair at The Dunkenhalgh, Clayton le Moors.  It starts at 12 midday until 4pm.  It should be a good one and it certainly is a lovely venue so if you're thinking of getting married in the next 18 months or so why not pop in for a chat?  To get you in the mood here are some images from Scott & Emma's wedding at 'The Dunk.'

It was a cold, wet and blustery day so most of the photographs had to be taken indoors. We did manage to get a couple of the magnificent facade before the weather drove us indoors.

 We'd been out for a pre wedding shoot the week before the wedding as Emma had been a bit worried about the camera. She shouldn't have worried, she's absolutely gorgeous and any nerves she may have been feeling she certainly managed to conceal well.

Seeing double

So while I was babysitting the other day I decided to clone a quick version of Ellie and then pop her and her newly cloned self into a couple of flowers.  I bit of tinkering around later and, et viola!!

Oh alright then, I admit it, I did it all in photoshop. Wouldn't it be good though if..................

I'm quite liking this grungy and swirly thing going on here, what do you think?

While we're on the subject of babies...

This little munchkin turned up at the studio on Friday.  Tiny babies are incredible, this one is two months old and performed like a pro.  Aaahhh! After the shoot we had lots of cuddles before I reluctantly handed her back to her Mum.

Ellie

With a bit of spare time on my hands his afternoon I decided to have a play about with an image of my grand daughter, Ellie. What a cutie ( I may be a tad biased).

Wedding Fair Season part duex

The wedding fair season is in full swing now.  It always makes me chuckle when I see the cutesy spelling of 'fair' that is popularly used. I always think that 'fayre' looks Victorian and cutesy, not our style at all so I shall go against popular opinion and stick with the more down to earth, 'wedding fair'. 


OK, stream of consciousness over.  Wow!  What a busy day we had at Park Hall yesterday, it went from empty to mobbed in about three seconds so Bob and me were kept busy pretty much all day. Hello and welcome to all the people who have come on here for a look as a result of yesterday, feel free to leave comments and talk to me - I don't feel like I'm talking to myself then!


I love to hear about all the different ideas people have for their weddings, we met one couple who are planing to get married at Ewood Park Football Club.  In a moment of supreme blondeness I asked them what the colour scheme was going to be.  They looked at me stunned for a minute before telling me it was  blue and white.  Sometimes I amaze myself!


Next Sunday, 26th October we will be at the Dunkenhalgh. Why not pop in for a chat?