The Skinny magazine

Here's an illustration I did for The Skinny magazine in December. It was fun painting all the yummy Christmas food!

Mince pies recipe

This crumbly, fruity mince pie recipe is a Christmas classic. Serve warm with lashings of brandy butter.

Ingredients

1 large jar mincemeat (about 600g)

2 satsumas, segmented

1 apple, finely chopped

zest 1 lemon

little icing sugar, for dusting

For the pastry

375g plain flour

260g unsalted butter, softened

125g caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling

1 large egg, plus 1 beaten egg for glazing

Method

1.Place the flour and butter in a bowl and rub together to a crumb consistency. Add the sugar and the egg, and mix together. Tip out onto a lightly floured surface and fold until the pastry comes together, be careful not to over mix. Wrap the pastry in cling film and chill for 10 mins.

2.Scoop the mincemeat into a bowl and add the satsumas, apple and zest.

3.Heat oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 7. Roll out the pastry to 3mm thick. Using a round cutter (about 10cm), cut out 16 bases and place them into muffin trays. Put 11⁄2 tbsp mincemeat mixture into each. Brush the edge of each pie with a little beaten egg. Re-roll out the pastry to cut 7cm lids and press them on top to seal. Glaze with the rest of the egg, sprinkle with caster sugar, then make a small cut in the tops.

4.Bake mince pies for 15-20 mins until golden brown. Leave to cool before releasing them from the muffin trays and dusting with icing sugar. Serve.

Recipe from Good Food magazine, December 2011

The Skinny December issue 2013

My illustration work is in both the Scottish & Northwest editions of The Skinny this month! You can get your own copy for free in 1100+ hand picked venues across Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee, Manchester and Liverpool.  From music shops and independent cafes to art galleries, retailers, theatres and universities.

One of my Christmas cards were featured in the Scottish issue.

For the Northwest edition, I created an illustration to accompany an Alternative gift guide for foodies.

Christmas giveaway {2013}

I'm doing a Christmas giveaway soon when I reach 200 Likes on my Facebook page. If you want a chance to win some Christmas goodies like my page here

Creatives Christmas party

I am going to a Creatives Christmas Party at the end of November hosted by Stacie Swift and Emma Block! Having a party for creative people is such a wonderful idea, as being self-employed can get a little bit lonely at times. It will be an afternoon of festive fun with goodie bags, Secret Santa, cake, mince pies, decorations and drinks to get everyone into the Christmas spirit. An excellent chance to let your hair down and meet other creative people.

The party is taking place on Saturday the 30^th November at The Harcourt Arms, 32 Harcourt Street, London, W1H  4HX . If you are interested in coming along, you can get yourself a ticket here. You can also keep up to date with news by following @emmablock and @stacie_swift  using #CreativesXmas hash tag on Twitter.

I’ve been getting some of my Christmas cards ready for the party goodie bags today. I’m looking forward to seeing all of the other little things going into the bags too!

If you like my Seasons Tweetings card and you can’t make it to the party, you can get your own here.

Christmas craft fair

Thank you to everyone who made it to the Christmas Fair! We didn't sell much but had lots of fun anyway :)

Christmas tags

Christmas gift tags now available to buy from my Etsy Store!

Christmas painting

A painting I did for Christmas. I was thinking about making this into cards to sell in my Etsy shop.