Countdown to Christmas ...25

My Mother's Christmas Cake...

Each year, I try to blog a visual advent calendar . This year, my mother turned 90 and I am dedicating this series of blog posts to her because this year, it's all about Christmas Cake, and of course I am starting off with my mother's much loved Christmas Cake - moist, delicious and intoxicatingly rich.

For more years than I can remember ( probably about 40 years) , my mother has been sending me Christmas cakes, so I don't remember ever making a cake for Christmas! You might think that this is not such a significant gesture, but my mother lives interstate 1593 km ( 990 miles) away, so she has had to depend on Australia Post or adding to the luggage allowance of visiting relatives.The longest distance Christmas cakes have had to be sent is when we were living in Bombala, NSW which is 2393 km (1486 miles) away from Townsville, Queensland. Throughout the years, it has never been just one cake - there is always one for my husband's family Christmas celebration as well , and usually another spare!

Many people have asked my mother for this recipe, but many many years ago, she promised a friend that she would not distribute this cake recipe to others and she has kept her word. This has its drawbacks, as Mum then has to make many cakes as we dare not try to replicate this recipe although I think some of us have tried to watch and remember the ingredients and method. It is a dried fruit laden boiled cake. I personally think the secret of this beautiful cake is the "feeding" of the cake - the process of adding alcohol regularly to the cooked cake over a month or so. Nothing like some good quality brandy to add that extra flavour! Perhaps rum or even sherry would also suffice, but whatever the alcohol, it seems to add another dimension of richness.

We have broken the tradition of not cutting the cake until Christmas Eve and can attest on this first day of Advent that this year's cake is better than ever! Thanks, Mum!

Previous post about Christmas cake:
http://empresswu.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/christmas-countdown-2-christmas-cake.html

29 Faces

"29 Faces " is an online art challenge - blog and Facebook . The challenge is to create a face each day of September ( with one day for catch up) .... I decided to take up the challenge to practise drawing faces for my dolls and to practise techniques with coloured pencils. I received a set of 60 pencils from my daughter last Christmas so I wanted to be sure I used them before next Christmas! I love making tags so I combined tag making with "29 Faces", so I will also have some unique Christmas gift tags for gift giving this year. Here are the first 9 faces for the first 9 days of September

Covid Man and Book Print

This is my tag for the current theme at Tag Tuesday - Book Print. I like using text as a background for tags and today, I reduced one of my recent line drawings and printed it on a small book page .... as you can see, the book's chapter is entitled "Of Holy Living and Dying ( from The Book of Books) . I thought this was appropriate as this 'Covid man' drawing depicts Nature happily thriving while man appears to be "unravelling " at the edges of body and mind... Original drawing - Wilma Simmons Silk screen print on fabric : Wilma Simmons Silk screen print on paper : Wilma Simmons And here are some other tags on book print backgrounds - these are free motion stitched "Nature" portraits done earlier in the year.

Fish and Sticks : Art Dolls

This week I've been working on fish and sticks .... The sticks are the message stick art dolls which were very popular, attracting some attention and a few orders at the Wise Women exhibition. Each of the message stick dolls are from the Wise Women series, each with her own personality and message of wisdom, handwritten on a handmade timber tag. I gather the sticks during my walks around my neighbourhood and the tags are made from special bits of timber, some collected by me or my husband or from off cuts gifted to us from another doll making friend whose husband makes bagpipes. These dolls start off very simply with a wrap around a stick, in the general shape of a body. 'Naked" message stick dolls - strips of wadding wrapped around found sticks. Then I usually wrap other layers of fabric, wool, and/or fibres, over which I do some simple embroidery. I sculpt or mould small face masks for these dolls. I really like using "sari ribbon" as w...

Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

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