How to turn your house into a home, or rather, into somebody else's home.
Last week saw the ending of the decorating,
 and the final room changed from being fairly dramatic......

 to fairly banal..........(well, a bit of colour still crept in, thank goodness)

And when people say to me, you won't want to leave, when you've got it all decorated, my reply is that I am looking forward to making a home again.  A funny thing to say, really.
Does it intimate that the house looked fairly hideous before?

As well as colour disappearing, Mr Cooper removed the last painting to feature naked bodies,

 and we replaced it with the last of a series of three, in which blackbird pie funnels feature significantly.  Here is  'Blackbirds Flying From The Pie.'

It looked so good hanging there that we added the other two from the series, and they now adorn the office walls. 
Here is the first one,  'The Filling for the Pie',

And here is the second, which was actually painted first.  'Pie in the Sky'.

Sometimes I say 'These paintings need a good home.'  About these three, I say 'They are all for sale, but of course the potential homes will be fully vetted.' (Commissions undertaken, too.)


I started to collect blackbird pie funnels in my thirties, aiming for the full 'four and twenty'. I seemed to tail off a bit after collecting 12 or so, and then put them in my paintings, rather than on my shelves.
This is the first painting that featured blackbirds pie funnels.....you can see them flying in the window, as well as bursting out of the pie.  Here is 'The King of Hearts"

And of course it then needed a companion painting, 'The Queen of Hearts'.
No pie-funnels here, but another great love of mine has crept in, both as a comestible, and a recurring art motif.  Jam tarts! ( And aprons, too)

I am not going to include a recipe here, but a jam tart making tip.  Make the pastry the day before you need the tarts. (Half fat to flour, the flour being plain, and the fat either butter and lard, or butter and Trex if cooking for vegetarians.) Make it as short as possible, then roll it out and cut your circles, put them into the jam tart tins, cover with cling and leave them overnight in the fridge.
By 'short', I mean add as little water to the rubbed in mixture as possible. Too much and the pastry will be easy to work, but tough when baked.  You want these tarts to be crumbly and delicious.
And hopefully the next day you will be adding your homemade jam to them.  If not made by you, please don't buy an economy jar.......proper jam tarts have become a lovely indulgence.

At least now I have stopped painting walls, I can turn my attention to proper paintings yet again.
The first of which will be completing the 'Swimmers in the Sea' for Diane, and then the portrait painting of Janeese's two dogs, with elements of the Virgin Mary and also Frieda Kahlo.
 I am very much looking forward to that commission, and sketches for it are already appearing in my sketchbooks.

As I was cleaning and polishing select items to add to our new living room, the majority of the items destined for storage for a while, I had a pleasant surprise when I washed my blackbird collection.

I now have 20 blackbird pie funnels, 2 white blackbird pie funnels, 2 elephant pie funnels and 2 brightly coloured silicone ones.  If anyone has a pie funnel they neither use or treasure, just let it fly my way.  I am sure it will be made welcome by the friendly, shiny flock I now have.

At least now, in my alien room, I can feast my eyes on my no-longer dusty friends, then wander off to the shed for even more painting, of the right sort.

Perhaps life in my new home isn't too bad, after all!

Wishing you all a happy week ahead.  May it be shiny and dust-free, with indulgent interludes.
 Why not make some jam tarts for tea?
See you all in a week's time.  Till then, happy baking!