London Ice Sculpting Festival 2013

It wasn't just the ice that was frozen, I was chilled to the bone from the moment I arrived at The London Ice Sculpting Festival 2013 until I left! It's as if they planned the weather to add to the authenticity. Brrrrr!

Celebrating it's 5th year, the free family art event takes place in and around the towering backdrop of Canary Wharf, a large part of which was located on a small island called Wood Wharf that you had to queue up to set foot on and leave, but more about that later...

time to reveal some art!

Truth is, they looked a million times better in real life, though hopefully you can appreciate the beautiful way in which sections of them were lit up. 
Over 20 ice sculptors took part in the three day event that started on Friday and ran through the weekend. They came from all over the world including the US, Latvia and Spain to show off their sawing skills (Edward may not have been there but the crowd still got to witness the excitement of snow.) Some more than others...

 The Snow Pit was just for kids. Naturally this made me grumpy, but alas, happiness came in the form of sweet stuff. You know when you go to market stalls and there's always a French Patisserie? Well I always think they're overrated, the creations look amazing but the taste is often disappointing. Not here though. The cake stand was spectacular.

One of the main reasons I wanted to come to the London Ice Sculpting Festival was to try out some ice sculpting for myself. These masterclasses where you could sculpt a penguin or polar bear had to be booked in advance, mine was supposed to be at 5.40pm...but as fate would have it, I never made it there as I couldn't get back on the island. That queuing thing I mentioned, I left the island to warm up, came back and after 15 minutes was still attempting to get back on : (

Still, there was also the ice grafitti wall which was stationed back in central Canary Wharf. You still had to queue but it was a much shorter wait.

Each participant was given a tool to engrave into the wall of ice.

It would have been more addictive if there wasn't the stress of knowing you only had two minutes each. I call that stingy but hey, it meant more people had a go.

There was also ice chess, but I'm more of a Draughts kind of girl so I left that to the pros.

 At nightfall there was a light show, but by that point I was such an iceblock myself, I headed indoors to thaw where I stumbled across this very handsome snowman who was guarding the children's craft area.

Back at the Jubilee Line tube station I was amazed to discover a cinema screen, literally a huge projection at the far end of the station, which you can only access when you've passed the ticket barriers. Most people will head straight down the escalator, but those who follow the sights and sounds are in for a treat.
I watched two brilliant short films from the London Transport archives, including a charming look behind the Lost Property Office in Baker Street. Notably that someone actually left a tortoise on a bus and managed to get it back!

I love free days out in London like this. If you look for them, there's always fun activities going on, waiting to be discovered that you don't need any money to enjoy. 
I aim to report back on some more of these adventures in the capital soon!

Snow in London! My snow hedgehog!

This morning I went to pay my respects to my late pet hedgehog Miss P in East Greenwich Pleasaunce, a small community park, and decided to make her a gift...some company for the day in the form of a snow hedghog. It's located just opposite where she is buried.

Close Up

Twig plaque

Snow in the Pleasaunce

Miss u Miss P!

Tutorial: Snow Scene candle holders

I’m not the kind of person that goes on about the weather, but it’s so strange to think that this time last year the UK was covered under a thick blanket of snow to the point that schools were shut, flights were cancelled and people were pretty much staying in doors; while this year it’s still fairly sunny and at times a little warm.

My local supermarket carpark...or is it?

I love the light created by snow; how all of a sudden your ordinary drab grey street is suddenly a huge reflective mass. It creates the most incredible scenery.

Heidi should be around here somewhere...

One of my sisters lives in Switzerland where in winter the landscape lives up to the stereotypes typical on winter themed Christmas cards; snowcapped mountains, people skating on frozen lakes and wooden chalets covered in twinkling fairy lights.

Thinking about this made me remember the bottle of Glamour Dust I bought a few months back to help with my glitter book. It’s an ultrafine grade of glitter with an extreme iridescent quality (I bought it in Hobbycraft). It’s mainly used for cardmaking but can also be ironed on to fabric, making it one of the most versatile glitters I’ve come across.

Pondering this idea of snow and light I decided to make some snowy nightlight holders – though any glass containers will do. I had two plain votive holders at home but washed and cleaned jam jars work just as well, and rather than nightlights, can hold larger candles inside.

Have a go yourself!

You’ll need:

Glass jar

PVA glue

Glamour Dust (in 'crystal')

Fine Tip Applicator (or other container with a fine nozzle that helps you apply glue in very fine lines)

Fill the applicator with PVA glue and freehand draw designs on your glass container. If you’re not happy doing this then draw your designs on paper first, place them inside the glass and then apply the glue on top, the paper will act as a template, guiding you.

As the lines are so fine, they will dry quickly so hold the jar above some paper and sprinkle Glamour Dust all over, ensuring all the glue is covered.  Leave it to dry and pour the Dust back inside the bottle by folding your paper in half to create a channel in the centre, allowing the Dust to fall in. 

 When dry, rub a soft cloth or tissue over your glass jar to remove excess Dust and then place your candles or nightlights inside, and watch the warming glow, while daydreaming about far away snowy lands…until it finally lands on these shores!

 (Apologies the images aren't very good, it's hard to shoot white glitter on glass in poor light after midnight...but I can assure you they look impressive in real life AND create patterned shadows!)

Winter Wonderland Cake

Cake is a very important part of my life, not a single week goes by without me eating cake and on days I'm not eating it, I'm thinking about it.



 I've been pondering how to describe my wedding in my blog and have finally decided that rather than going into all the details of the year long planning process, just to feature some of the highlights; starting with the cake!

Is it 4'o'clock yet?

Choosing my wedding cake was therefore a very special thing. I'm going to refer to it as 'my wedding cake' because I don't think Matt would have noticed if there had been a wedding cake or not. Some men just do not appreciate cake, it's wasted on them and as such, he didn't get involved in it. And so back to my cake......rather than looking at recipes I googled cake images, that's when you really discover the possibilities (as well as watching various cake reality shows that crop up on my cable channels...and there's at least three set in US bakehouses where they create huge themed masterpieces like zombie graveyards and a stage of male strippers modelled from sugarpaste...just one of the many episodes I witnessed!)
My sister Jolekha, the domestic goddess of the family who bakes all our cakes said early on I should buy one, making one wasn't worth the risk. 

Move over Nigella, my sister means business!

I disagreed, the last thing I wanted was a tier of three sponges from Waitrose, and quite frankly I couldn't stomach the idea of wasting so much money on something that's on show just for a few photos and hardly gets eaten by going to a wedding cake maker.
Talking to a couple of cake loving friends (one who likes pimping sponge mixes and one who's more of a visual decorator) I fell in love with the concept of having a snowscene cake that looked like a winter wonderland. Neither of us had any idea how it would work or look but once the vision was in my head that was that!
The starting point was a trip to Party Party, an amazing store in Hackney, East London. the downstairs floor is made up of party essentials and fancy dress costumes while upstairs it's a baker's paradise with tins, trays, boards and cake cakes in every shape and size imaginable, edible glitter, sprinkles, toppers, flowers, paints, pens...basically everything you need to make and decorate an amazing cake. I even picked up evergreen trees and plastic holly springs.
These were transported back to Janine's house where we spent a Sunday afternoon experimenting. The sponge was chosen by Laura - Angel Food cake, an amazing, light fat free cake you can only buy in the US! (Luckily she was jetting off there a few weeks before the Big Day where she filled her suitcase with packet mixes and huge edible confetti which when placed inside, gives it a speckled rainbow effect. For our testing day she managed to buy a pack online from an American food store.)
We tested different types of icing for coverage (it needed to be thick and white, but not royal icing.) Sponges were baked in different sizes and cut up to create a bumpy mountain setting.

I also purchased a set of snowflake shaped icing cutters and we tested making snowflakes from blue icing, which were detailed with irridescent glitter and edible marker pens. We over did it a bit with the blue sprinkles:

Overall, it kind of worked, but with so much else for me to get organising I left in in their hands.
On the morning of the wedding as I was getting glammed up, Janine and Laura set to work on creating my dream cake:

Janine applying frosty icing

Laura and Janine sprinkling the bling

Toned down snowflakes!

Positioning the couple

I didn't see the final design until I walked up the aisle where it was waiting to be cut, after the ceremony. It looked absolutely amazing! 

Every single aspect was special from the 'alternative' couple at the top, made from Christmas decorations to all the wonderful animals. 

Coming it at under £100 ingredients and decorations included(for over 150 guests) it was also great value. 
I recommend you consider attempting a homemade wedding cake, it feels really good knowing it's a one off, never ever to be created again! Also you feel the love of the making of it so much more than asking a stranger to do it. You don't need to be good at cake making....the sponges here were made from packet mixes, where you just add water and the decorating, like most crafting has NO RULES! Simply go with the flow. No guest will turn their nose up at your cake because it's homemade and if they did, then they shouldn't be invited...it's your day so make sure you get the cake you want!...........and yes it tasted very good (though a little sweet) too!

How to make a Bollywood movie

Opening scene of my Bollyflick!

I don't just like making crafty stuff. I also like to dabble in a spot of home movie making too. And here's my latest escapade. A bollywood blockbuster with a special message! (You'll need to watch it in full by following the link to see what I'm talking about!)


After viewing, you may be so hooked, that you're wondering how you too can become Sharmila Tagore and Rajesh Khanna in your own home movie?


Well here's the essential Need to Know for how to make your own DIY Bollywood masala film:


LOCATION

It's all about the white stuff

Breathtaking surroundings, stunning architecture, picturesque palaces, fabulous forts, magnificent mansions, all these wonderful places enhance the dreamy escapist elements that help make a Bolly flick into a superhit. But there's one place that has traditionally been a staple location for Bollywood - the snowy backdrops of the Swiss Alps.


Switzerland is a popular holiday destinations with Indians because of this very fact; thousands of Bollywood movies have been shot there. Regardless of the storyline,dream sequence songs just seem to work well in the snow, you'll often find couples one minute in the noisy streets of Delhi and the next minute, serenading each other on a mountain top.


On a recent visit to the the Swiss Alps I encountered tour groups of Indians keen to go to the very spot their fave Hindi film songs were shot. And at the bottom of the slopes, I discovered the perfect post tour refreshments to make them feel at home:

Masala tea and samosas are the just the thing to warm you up after prancing around in the snow!

Of course these days who needs to go to Switzerland when global warming is resulting in freezing cold winters across the globe i.e. London where today it hailstoned despite being May.....


A few months ago when the Capital was covered in snow I found my own replica Switzerland in the guise of Greenwich Park.


GLAMOROUS HEROINE

Transform into a Bollywood babe with big hair and lashings of eyeliner

From the earliest heroines like Nargis who ruled the screens in the 1950s through to more classic divas like Rekha to recent babes like Bipasha Basu, Bollywood beauties all have these things in common - beauty, style, grace, charm, an ability to dance, seduce, be dutiful and appeal to the hearts of millions with her overall loveliness. How did I manage this transformation? With a retro wig and layers of MAC make up!


HANDSOME HERO

Velvet jackets and vintage clobber are a must for the main man

What makes the ultimate Bollywood hero?
Big pecs are a good start as the man in question will need to battle with villains, impress the leading lady with his dance moves (topless scenes are common) and be the most romantic man in the world, knowing how to organise candlelit meals in secluded spots is a compulsory skill. If the delicious John Abraham is too busy body building to hire, than you can cast a fine Englishman in the lead instead as long as he's prepared to lip sync accordingly.

DANCING & ROMANCING

Graphics in the vein of Batman, the 1960s TV series, are a welcomed addition

So now you have your Jodi - the leading couple, they need a chance to dance - it's how they seal the deal of falling in love. You don't need to be too coordinated but your facial expressions do need to evoke some passion. Dance alone and together and of course if you can run hand in hand, across a field and convince the audience you are more than just acting, you may receive a Filmfare nomination.

ACTION

Guns are not always necessary!

Shootouts, confrontations, fight scenes, thugs being beaten up people who leap out of their wheelchairs, grab the yobs by their ankles and fling them across the room; when it comes to action in Bollywood, they are the most creative scenes in film history. Hypnotic and well choreographed, in some films, like last year's Wanted there are over 100 different ways in which a goon can be defeated.

But action doesn't just mean violence, stunt work can be less intensive - all that matters is that you do it yourself!


EMOTION

pyaar, ishq....whatever you call it,lurve is always a sub plot if not main plot!

Karan Johar is the king of emotion when it comes to Bollywood, known for his heart tugging tear jerkers, such as Kal Ho Naa Ho (my fave film), Khabi Kushi Khabie Gham and the recent My Name is Khan, a viewer is set to embark on an emotional rollercoaster from start to finish when they watch one of his masterpieces.
But my film is all about the 'L' world so pyaar, ishq..whatever you wanna call it, runs through the whole film.

SOUNDTRACK

If it gets you moving on the dancefloor than it's a winner. The appeal of a soundtrack is as important as the plot. If the tracks don't cut it with the fans, your film may flop. My film uses the delightful and sweet 'Hum Aur Tun' from 1970's action romance Daag, which my mini movie is based on.


PROPS etc

Extras? If you can't get 'em, make 'em!

Think carefully about your props, product placement is fine, in Jaan-e-Man, there were numerous references to a malt drink called Bournvita, I was so hooked that I tracked some down in India and bought it back to the UK - a much more energising version of Chocolate Horlicks - sweeter and more addictive!

Have lots of wannabe star extras loitering around, if you can't find anyone then making them is fine too!

Finally you need a video camera and someone who can edit it all together to create the final cut. Today YouTube.....tomorrow Film City.....a girl can but dream.....