Friday, 13 January 2012

Scarlett Hart aka Rowan Redd

Once upon a time there was a girl in a blue dress that went on an adventure down a rabbit hole. The girl in the blue dress slayed a dragon, killed a Queen, and nearly destroyed a kingdom. This is not her story, but it is the story of a princess who became a girl lost in Wonderland. The girl did not have a name though she sometimes called herself Rowan and sometimes Scarlett. Some say she is a blue blood but she will tell you that her blood is red the same as any. She is said to be the bastard daughter of the Queen of Hearts and an unknown lover of questionable mentality. Upon her birth she was placed in the Wonderland Asylum for Lunatics and the Criminally Insane, some say that madness burns behind her mismatched eyes worse than the blood rage that burned within the Queen herself.

The Princess Scarlett Hart was put away and forgotten by Wonderland, but she did not forget. She is beautiful, serene, a genius, a thief, a sociopath and quite utterly mad. A brilliantly broken and addled porcelain doll. Though no more mad then anyone left living in a broken Wonderland. She is obsessed with locks, and keys, and bright shiny blades. No locks can keep her out or in. She wanders the halls of the Asylum and the City humming, and singing slightly off key in a voice sweet as cyanide laced tarty tarts.

She laughed at the Queen of Heart’s fate and cried for the dragon as she bathed in the pool of tears. She wanders the forest in the day and sometimes takes tea with Hatter muttering about skinning white rabbits to make coats. A mad grin of too sharp teeth flickers across her tear streaked face while playing with her shining knives. On odd days she tells only lies, on even days she tells the truth. In Wonderland all the days are odd.

In your tour of Wonderland you may visit the Wonderland Asylum for Lunatics and the Criminally Insane for a very modest fee. You may even bribe a guard with a nice tarty tart to walk within the garden there. Whatever you do promise me you will be careful to never take tea with a flame haired fury with mismatched eyes, and bleeding hearts upon her gown. The forgotten princess of Hearts may tell you truths or sweeten your tea with honey and gentle lies or serve you sweet cakes laced with laudanum and spite. Or she may follow you home with her shiny blades as she serenades you with sugary sweet songs.

Better pictures soon but the light had already gone when I finished making Scarlett so I wrote down the Wonderland-ish story that was swirling about my head. This is the first doll I have made of the new year and the first doll I have made in two months, I think I may have found a little piece of my crafting mojo. *crosses fingers* I have more writing to do but hopefully I can start on another doll or craft project in the morning while the Boy does whatever he likes, mainly ignoring me until he wants feeding or I want to bribe him to escape the house for a few hours.

Saturday, 31 December 2011

Crafter...oo Issue 2


Issue 2 of Crafteroo Magazine is out right now please go check it out on Crafter...oo. The online magazine is only £1.50 and packed with projects and articles written by some very talented crafters. I have a tutorial (Wired for Sound page 10) and a thrifting article (For the Love of Thrifting page 14-15). Many thanks go to Kerry for all her hard work editing the issue and being all around fabulous! Please pop by the forum and buy a copy of the Crafter...oo for download.

Friday, 23 December 2011

Reindeer Food (Luxury Granola) recipe

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Luxury Granola (aka reindeer food)

Ingredients:


2 1/2 cups porridge oats

½ cup flaked almonds

1/2 cup desiccated coconut
1 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup maple syrup
3 tablespoons melted butter (margerine)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons light brown sugar

¼ cup raisins
¼ cup dried cranberries (sweetened)
3/4 cup plain chocolate chips (optional)


Pre-heat the oven to 300F (150 C)
Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl, mix thoroughly and place in a single layer on a non-stick baking try ( if you don’t have non-stick then you will need to grease the baking tray with butter or oil).

Place in the oven for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Every 5 minutes you will need to open the oven door and stir the granola mixture.
Cool completely and add the raisins, dried cranberries and chocolate.
The granola can be eaten on its own, or with milk for breakfast, sprinkled over yogurt or ice-cream, and of course left out on a dish for Santa’s reindeer on Christmas Eve.

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A little help for those who don't use cups as measurements. Oh and for the record I just use normal everyday teaspoon and tablespoons for measurements, less hassle than attempting to locate the measuring ones. Which I think have migrated to H's toy box.


U.S. to Metric Conversion Table
1/5 teaspoon = 1 ml
1 teaspoon = 5 ml
1 tablespoon = 15 ml
1 fluid oz. = 30 ml
1/5 cup = 50 ml
1/4 cup = 60 ml
1/2 cup = 120 ml
1 cup = 240 ml
2 cups (1 pint) = 470 ml
4 cups (1 quart) = .95 liter
4 quarts (1 gal.) = 3.8 liters




Cooks Notes: later today H and I will be baking this recipe so it will be ready to place in a little dish for Rudolph next to cookies and milk for Santa. Tomorrow we shall have it for breakfast too. It is also a great topping for yogurt or ice cream. Merry Christmas everyone! Sorry I have been such a bad blogger but hopefully with the New Year it will see a return to my craft blogging, some tutorials and bunches of geekery.

Monday, 21 November 2011

LaffyTaffy, magic and little houses

Autumn is a difficult time of year for me but the magic of crafty friends on the internet means that when I go about in a grump for weeks on and and get homesick my friends are there to help. I lamented on Facebook that I was missing of all improbable things banana flavoured LaffyTaffy. Odd I know but it is something that reminds me of being a kid, trick or treating or just going to the store with my best friend for that magical elixir of sugar and chemicals to send us into the stratosphere..or at least spend three days staying up watching movies without sleep. My friend Lisa replied to my misery and said she would happily swap with me.
If you don't know Lisa's work, and you really really should, then visit her blog lil fish studios and be prepared to be inspired. I don't know Lisa all that well but I have chatted with her on twitter and Facebook a bit and I really must say I'm in awe of her phenomenal talent. We share a love of the Little House books and I knew I had to make a badge for her with a Laura Ingalls Wilder quote on it, if I had had a broken copy of one of the books to tear apart for paper craft I probably would have made badges from that too. The doll I made and sent her was simple and made with vintage mother of pearl buttons that I think little Laura Ingalls would have loved.

Lisa's package arrived last week and I think I am still stunned by the beautiful toadstools she sent me, the picture above does it no justice as there seems to have been no decent light for days here but having the art on my desk has kept me smiling all week... well that and the pieces of LaffyTaffy I have *NOT* been sharing with anyone. Mine Mine Mine!!!

Lisa also sent me a vintage matchbox filled with vintage mother of pearl buttons that have gone to live on my desk and will one day be added to the new dolls I have in the works.

forest child doll I sent Lisa

I think Matthew must think I'm crazy for the gleeful squeeing I did when I opened the parcel, though I'm pretty sure he thought I was crazy from the moment we met, ( he still kept me though). I hope that Lisa was half as happy with what I sent her. I didn't take many photos of the parcel I sent as I forgot to (I know I'm useless) and though I wrote a story for the little Forest Child doll I sent I can't seem to find it at the moment. (no real surprise there either) Happiness in small magical things.

Home is the nicest word there is. - Laura Ingalls Wilder

Friday, 18 November 2011

Believe me....



'Believe me, heart's got nothing to do with it.' - Tin Man quote badge

I made this badge a few weeks ago when Matt ordered Tin Man for me. I may possibly have bribed him with promises of bakes goods and Mexican food. Tonight or tomorrow shall be movie night and I plan on watching Tin Man by my self if nobody wants to watch it with me. Its a syfy miniseries that is an updated darker Wizard of Oz, it was on the syfy channel a few weeks ago but it was the last episode of the miniseries so I couldn't watch that so I really needed to own a copy on DVD to indulge my inner geek...hell who am I kidding I'm a geek inside and out.

I have a bunch of crafting to do in the morning as it's been ages since I have made anything other than a few birthday cards and zombie badges and I really should restock my etsy shop with some more dolls and badges. Perhaps I shall make a few more geek quote badges. Any requests? :o)