Alison Day Designs: christmas

Sunday 25 December 2016

Merry Pounce

Stag Globe: festive challenge - Day 12 - #adventcalendarart

Saturday 19 December 2015

Plum Corner

Plum Corner by Alison Day

Tuesday 30 December 2014

Eternal Renaissance

In the gravel car park of Wytham Woods, we head for a tall wooden gate. On the way we pass other Christmas walkers, with their hatted heads, booted feet and festive cheer. Unrestrained by its turquoise rope lasso, the gate yields to a light push swinging out into a field of long, tufted grass. The path is slippery with mud, so we follow the long tresses of its edges. The landscape undulates upwards towards a cluster of trees on the horizon.

The air is fresh and clean and I feel my lungs gasping greedily with the effort as my boots slide out from underneath me. Shrubbery, green fields and bare wintery trees surround us. The decorative dots of sheep, barely visible buildings and a white mass—The John Radcliffe Hospital, are part of the patchwork landscape.

Along the way, we greet friendly-faced walkers. Facial contours forgotten, fading almost as instantly as the time in which it takes us to pass by. At the top, through a metal gate that closes automatically behind us and into a tunnel of bare-branched trees connected at their tips. Dark, naked and silent waiting for the Renaissance of Spring.

A path has been cleared through the thick blanket of fallen and browning leaves. Twisted and gnarled limbs cavort around us. Fallen trunks are clothed in rich, green moss and the landscape falls away suddenly into a small valley, only to rise again a little further on, at journey's end. This is marked by a bench, facing a gated view from a raised stone plinth. Growing nearby, a pair of tree trunks like lovers intricately entwined, stretch skywards. It is here, three and 13 years ago, three siblings scattered the ashes of their parents to the winds—with a tear in their eye and pain in their hearts.

Silently, on this cool December morning, we absorb the familiar and favoured view of Oxford once more—a place that was the centre of their world and ours—for a while.

Photos © Alison Day

Sunday 21 December 2014

Etoiles d'Apple

Apple Star & Heart Decoration by Alison Day

1/2 cup applesauce

3/4 cup ground cinnamon

1tsp ground aniseed

1tsp ground nutmeg

Non-edible decorations. Makes roughly 15 assorted shapes.

Mix the applesauce and 1/2 cup of the cinnamon together thoroughly. Then add the rest of the cinnamon, plus the aniseed and nutmeg until a dough is formed. If necessary, extra cinnamon or applesauce can be added if it is too wet or too dry.

Sprinkle a board with ground cinnamon and roll out the dough on it to about 1cm thick.

Cut out shapes with cookie cutters and make holes in them so ribbon can be threaded through to hang them up. Any tiny leftovers can be rolled into rounds, flattened slightly, skewered and become beads.

Arrange all on a tray lined with grease-proof paper or a silicone baking mat. They can be placed quite close together, because as there is no rising agent in them they won't spread.

Oven efficiency can vary and they can become dark quite quickly, so keep an eye on them. I baked them at at 200 degrees for 45 minutes.

Allow to cool and harden overnight before decorating. Store in a cool, dry place and they will keep indefinitely.

Photos by Alison Day

Friday 31 October 2014

Authentic Charm

Here's the November issue of Danish magazine: Jean d'Arc Living featuring my second interior design article, this about a family house in Wassenaar, In the Netherlands. Written in a collaboration with the distinctive photography of Van Belkom Productions.

Internationally available in eight languages. The photo is from the English version of: French Christmad with Authentic Charm (12 page spread). Look out for my third article — January 2015.

Thursday 5 December 2013

Partridge Prance

"On the first day of Christmas

my true love sent to me:

A Partridge in a Pear Tree... "

The first in a series of TWELVE printed cards illustrating The Twelve Days of Christmas: here
Season's Greetings,

Monday 26 December 2011

Gingerbread from Hell

Looking for presents that will fit into Santa's Christmas stocking, for Christmas Eve, can sometimes be a trial. They must be not only be inexpensive, but of course the aim is to fill up as much space as possible in the stocking, thereby reducing the remaining xmas shopping trips necessary. The other ulterior motive here is that originality of ideas aren't too taxing for the brain, as that stress level has already been achieved, by the all important main present, waiting beautifully wrapped under the Christmas tree.

Although my son is actually no longer a 'believer' in Santa, he is still young enough, where, if he pulls the baby-eyed 'pleazzzz, can I have a stocking?' I will still oblige (In a couple more years, I'll be able to extricate myself from that obligation totally).

With this in mind, I was delighted by one stocking present I came across, which happened to be a DIY Gingerbread House Kit, complete with, yes you guessed it, gingerbread, icing and little kitsch and brightly-coloured icing-sugar decorations, in the forms of a gingerbread man, a gift, a Christmas tree, a festive wreath and coloured dots. Assembly seemed fairly straight forward, 'Fun to Make' was emblazoned on the front, and the end result looked picturesque.

Christmas morning duly arrived as is its wont, and the stocking was enthusiastically unpacked, wrapping paper tossed aside on the floor, treasures revealed. Of course once opened the DIY gingerbread house was top of the agenda, and, had to be made. What could I say...'sure, go for it, don't expect me to join in, and let me finish my tea in peace, please... '

In the first instance everything went fine, the pieces of gingerbread and coloured sugar icing deco's were taken out of their packaging and laid out carefully, in anticipation. The minuscule text of the instructions on the back of the box was read, and the images viewed, whilst the packet of icing (for the glue and snow decor) was softened in a bowl of hot water.

Simple procedure - no chance - the aforementioned icing softened but instantly solidified again before ever reaching the gingerbread pieces! This meant my tea and I parted company, as I was roped into holding various walls and roof bits, whilst the sugary 'glue' supposedly set. No joy. So, we decided to make our own (from icing sugar and water, what else?). This was certainly a more appetizing mixture to look at, but would it stick... Hell No! Was I covered in icing by the end? Yup.

As if the above trials and tribulations weren't enough, downside no. 2 was taste. If asked to rate this culinary ruin as to its edibility, I can say without a doubt that is the most disgusting 'gingerbread' I have ever tasted! Not only was it rock hard but scented with what can only be described as lavender toilet freshener. The icing sugar deco's were the same too, equally inedible and tooth-breakers.

As a result, the demolition team was called for, and, amid peals of laughter, the walls were well and truly brought down, and the ruins relegated to the bin!

So, be warned, not every gingerbread house is going to end up looking like the picture on the box it came in, and, as for tasty, unless, you are a witch, or named Hansel or Gretel, there's no guarantee there either!

Thursday 3 June 2010

What's Hot, What's Not! - BMI – Travel the Bungling Mindless Idiots way!

Having notched up a fair few air miles over the years to a multitude of destinations around the world, I generally assume that when I touch down again so will my luggage.

Oh, how wrong can one be? This Christmas, what should have been a short jaunt from Schipol airport Amsterdam to London Heathrow turned into a guess where your luggage is marathon and an insight into what lying toads BMI are when they claim: ‘yes, madam your bag will be with you within 24 hours.’

Two of us were left standing helplessly at the carousel at Heathrow without our luggage. The helpdesk assured us that our luggage would re-appear and be delivered to wherever we were in the UK. At this point, I wasn’t that worried and was mildly amused by the jokes from the BMI personnel, who said that two missing bags was nothing per flight and that one had to experience everything in life at least once!

So, I continued my onward journey to Oxford and in the interim time bought some new makeup and borrowed underwear. But three days later, on Christmas Eve, when my luggage still hadn’t turned up I was getting worried and disappointed as I hadn’t planned on wearing the same outfit for three days.

After many frustrating phone calls, to what turned out to be a call centre in India, of all places, visits to the BMI website to track my luggage (totally useless, as it never seemed to get updated), and the attempt to find a real person to talk to at BMI in England, instead of a computerized voice, my luggage finally turned up.

The case was delivered by a man in an unmarked, white van: ‘Which one is yours?’ he said, as I peered into the back of the van, choc-a-block with lost cases. Ignoring the bumper deluxe Chanel suitcase, relieved, I dove for my own black suitcase, which incidentally was also full of my Christmas presents.

The story doesn't end there. A friend of mine, Kim, was less fortunate. Going through the same bungling procedure, her bag didn't turn up at all, even after 10 days. Yes, on Christmas Day she had no Christmas presents to give out BMI! Finally, being pretty annoyed she phoned BMI and offered to come and pick it up herself. At Heathrow she was ushered into what turned out to be an enormous hall filled wall to wall with thousands of suitcases. Here she found her luggage but what about the fate of the other bags? In a blonde moment BMI had removed all the labels with the baggage numbers, so now their job of re-uniting the lost bags with their owners was made even more hopeless.

In these high tech days it doesn't really promote ‘peace and goodwill to all men’, when one is unable to get an honest answer as to where ones luggage went from a computerized telephone voice. Also, wearing the same clothes for longer then two days and going out to buy interim underwear is a bore, when you know your case is full of all those lovely clothes specially packed for the festive season. So BMI, at the very least you owe me, Kim and all the other owners of the mislaid bags an apology and if you were feeling really generous…the next flight should be on you!

Original Cartoon: Matt, Daily Telegraph, GB