...as you'll no doubt have noticed by now...i don't often let a lack of skill or technical knowledge stop me having a go at things...and when i saw
Kirstie decorating cupcakes as presents...i just had to have a go for my
FIL's Christmas cake...and this is the result:
...its sort of half ribbon bow and half rugby scarf...but his team are the cherry and whites...so its all cool...and Santa does have a matching scarf!!
...i formed the bow loops around the tube from an old roll of tin foil and stuck them onto the cake once they had dried hard {about 24 hours}...trouble is...
i've made it so big it doesn't fit in the tin now!
...as you can see its by no means perfect...and
i'd do it slightly differently if i did it again...but i enjoyed doing it...and i know if he ever makes it through the snow to pick up, he'll have a good laugh :0)
this is the opposite style totally...as its for my Mum's house guests {who aren't coming due to the snow...but luckily fruitcake keeps!}...its subtle, i hope stylish, and still fits in the tin!! lol
there is a whole half~bottle of brandy in this cake...so you'll be able to imagine the yummy smell it has been emitting for the last 6 weeks...mmmmmmmmmmm
ok...after Christmas i promise normal service will be resumed...and i'll be stamping and creating more paper craft stuff again...but boy have i enjoyed a change :0)...and i'll leave you with the greeting i received from my friend's 3 year old this morning {who hadn't seen me since my latest hairdressing catastrophe};
"oooooh alix....you've got strawberries on your wellies...oooooooh i like your hat...ooooooooooh dear...you've got some red paint in your hair!!!" ;0)
...well if you ever need an excuse to treat your mum as a Queen for the day...Mothers' Day is it, right...so that is exactly what we tried to do on Sunday...we had a super lunch with all sorts of goodies from the local farm shop...and a few family favourites from our past...including the first *recipe* i ever made up, aged 7, and to this day referred to as *oeufi ali's* lol notice the everlasting bouquet i made on the table? and as a little extra treat...here is a close~up of the pearl and golden swarovsky crystal bracelet i made her...hubby made her matching earrings too...but the camera battery had died by the time i got this far...so i haven't got any photos of the earrings...or of Mum!!! oooops! 
i've used a Wild Asparagus kit that i won at our local crop aeons ago...and added in some lace, a little bit of bling and a couple of grungey newspaper roses...it is Rose Villa afterall ;0)
...as with all cake tins...the good bit comes when you take the lid off...lol...i've made their favourite flapjacks and lemon buns...you know you've arrived when you have your first tea~party, right? 
thats not them tho...those are the merangue ghosties i've made to have with coffee...
and that's not them either...those are the cute bat sillouettes we cut to decorate the lounge ;)
For our Halloween tea with the guys, I decided to make a banoffee pie {yummmeeeeeeey but seriously rich...anyone got an antacid??}. Rather than make it scary looking, when I saw this owl in the chocolate shop...i thought to myself...just scrap it instead!! There are owls and circles and branches everywhere atm...so why not recreate that in chocolate!! Seriously, this could be the way forward...scrapping entirely in chocolate!!! :)
Finally, hubby and I had to have a pumkin lantern {kindly donated to us by the kindly Vics xxx}. I know its a bit old school...and not a work of art like some of the brilliant ones I've seen on other blogs...but its just how I like 'em. And that is good enough for me!
Hope you all had a happy Halloween...with the odd treat along the way!