My 2016 Calendar Design - various and sundry items adorned with, and links to such!

I recently created my 2016 Calendar design for this years Spoonflower Tea Towel Competition - thank you to all the lovelies who voted for me there :)

 and now it's live and ready to be purchased on items big and small.

At Spoonflower you can buy a fat quarter of Linen (27" x 18") for a wonderfully large sized Tea Towel - you will have to sew the edges yourself but then you have a great 'homemade' gift for the coming gift giving season - click HERE to go to my shop.

At Etsy shop you can purchase my Calendar on

SHOWER CURTAINS - a witty way to know the day and date first thing in the morning - a WALL HANGING - up to 88" x 104" - a wonderful and attractive gift for a business, dorm room or home office!

A blank inside small, neat NOTEBOOK journal (5.2" x 7.3")

Calendar on the front cover - Blue Rhapsody textile design on the back. 

And as framed and unframed PRINTS:

Thanks for stopping by - as always I can customize, to a certain extent, many of my products so just be in touch via FACEBOOK - or there's a message form/box in the right sidebar of this log, and I'll see what I can do!

PATRICIASHEADESIGNS

Holiday Recipe Round Up - because some need to be made early, some need practice and some could be for Thanksgiving too!

Making a traditional Christmas Fruit Cake is quite the undertaking - you have to round up all those lovely ingredients, which could include making your own candied/glaceed citrus peel then you have to bake it nice and early - like right now - and store it in a nice tight cake tin to develop it's lovely favours then a few days before the day itself you need to cover it in marzipan and ice it with Royal Icing - so thus the post at this time of the year. Click on the name below to go to the recipe in my blog archives:

IRISH CHRISTMAS CAKE - CISTE NOLLAG

Here's a recipe for one you could bake much closer to Christmas if you don't have time to do it now:

LAST MINUTE GOLDEN CRIMBLY CAKE

...and then there's the Christmas Pudding - which should traditionally be made on Stir-Up Sunday - this year it falls on November 22nd - again this is a recipe that really improves with aging.

The hearty ingredients for a very traditional Christmas Pudding

CHRISTMAS PUDDING OR PLUM PUDDING?

My personal favourite:

NEW ENGLAND CHRISTMAS PUDDING

Full of wonderful New England ingredients like cranberries and pumpkin and with a good dash of tea soaked raisins - yum!!!

 An unusual pudding:

STEAMED APRICOT HOLIDAY PUDDING 

This could become a Thanksgiving holiday tradition?

Here's is a play on Christmas Puddings and is a quick and easy make for anytime over the holiday season:

MINI CHRISTMAS PUDDING DRIED FRUIT BALLS

 This little delight might need some practice to make perfect but is always an impressive site when brought ceremonially to the after dinner table:

YULE LOG or BUCHE de NOEL

 And last but certainly not least the wonderful anytime of the year but especially on Christmas Day or New Year's Eve - a luscious confection of jelly (I made mine vegetarian) English custard, homemade Ladyfingers and lashings of whipped cream:

 CHERRY AND GINGER TRIFLE

'Tis the season to enjoy baking and cooking and cosy toes cups of tea by the fire - so please have fun!!

PATRICIA SHEA DESIGNS