Good Times

I love this sign that I saw in Laguna Beach last week.

What constitutes 'the good life' is very different for each of us. For me it is going to the beach, painting, drawing, spending time with my husband and friends, reading, cooking, gardening, and going to new places.

I feel very blessed that I am able to do these things but it didn't all come at once and there were many sacrifices along the way. I still sacrifice things of lesser importance for the things I value most, keeping my eye on the long term. I value the small steps forward I am making towards my goals and I never take any of it for granted

In the Shade

Since Christmas I have been working with oil paints. Although I am not intending to completely abandon acrylics (well not as I write), I am loving my new paints.

This is my first finished painting in this new medium. It is done from a photograph I took on a trip to Tahiti several years ago.

'Shady Spot' 8" x 10" oil on Canvas Paper.

All Things Bright and Beautiful

In between the recent cold days and our current days of rain, we had some lovely warm days. On one of them I took a walk around 'Baby Beach' in Dana Point and saw this Heron.

I'm so use to seeing Blue Herons around the harbour that it was a little surprising, but delightful, to see this beautiful White Heron.

Good Day, Sunshine

It has been decidedly chilly in southern California since Christmas which has kept me inside a lot of time. But in the last few days the temperatures have been rising making it much warmer in the late morning and afternoon. I took advantage of this when I was in Laguna Beach for an art class.

I went for a long walk along the cliff top through and above Heisler Park looking for subjects to paint and, quite simply, enjoying the warm sunshine.

Christmas music

What I’m listening to today (in no particular order):

Caz Christmas: The Brothers Cazimero

Kohala Christmas: Kohala

Holidays: Hapa

The Beach Boys Ultimate Christmas: The Beach Boys

Christmas Then & Now: The Lowe Family

Canon of Praise: The Kidmans

Christmas Time: Jean Frye Sidwell

Christmas Gift II: Na Leo Pilimehana

Joy to the World: Honolulu Madrigal Quartet

A Merry Christmas with Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters

My choices remind me of Christmas’s in Hawaii, musical friends, visiting art festivals in Arizona and the good musicians we met there, our present life and Christmases in California, and the Christmas films I grew up with.

Merry Christmas/Mele Kalikimaka to you all.

Light Fantastic

One of the must-do's in the run-up to Christmas for me is the Dana Point Boat Parade. This year's theme was 'Hollywood' and as usual some boat owners pulled out all the stops to come up with creative decorations.

I was unsuccessful in uploading a video directly into this post but you can see it here.

That Takes the Cake

Every year I make an English Christmas cake. This is a fruit cake covered by a layer of marzipan followed by a layer of royal icing. 

I start the cake the night before cooking by mixing the dried fruit with a few tablespoons of orange juice. The next day the rest of the ingredients are added and the cake is baked for four hours. Only this year I decided to forget about it and it baked for an additional 90 minutes. But it looks alright.

I leave the cake packed in a container to rest for a while before starting the next layer.

When I visit England I always buy several packs of marzipan. You can buy it in the States where it is called almond paste but the packages are too small. In England it is sold in a package large enough to cover an eight inch cake (with just enough left over for a little treat.

This isn't my neatest job but it will be covered up so it doesn't really matter.

Next I leave the cake out for three days so the marzipan will dry out otherwise the oils in the marzipan can seep into and colour the icing.

The final layer is the royal icing. This is made from icing sugar (powdered sugar) and egg whites. The sugar is slowly added to the egg whites until it becomes very thick and then the mixture is whipped with an electric mixer. Finally it is spread over the cake and left out for the icing to harden.

There are various ways to decorate a cake. I go for the easy option of roughing it up on top to stimulate snow. I then use different decorations to create a little winter scene. Thanks to my friend Nicola for sending me these ornaments.

Once the icing has hardened, all that's left is to put the cake away some where cold and dry until the evening of Christmas Day when it is traditional to cut the cake. I love Christmas cake so I can't wait.

Cake and icing recipe and instructions courtesy of Delia Smith's Christmas Cook Book.