the story of a chair

Once upon a time a girl worked at an Emporium of Scandinavian Flat-packed furniture with unpronounceable names and indigestible food shaped like small cannonballs. The girl's nemesis was the colour yellow which she wore everyday and kept her from using her ability to be creative.

One day the girl found a little white chair that had been abandoned in the ex-display graveyard. She felt sorry for the chair and as it was very cheap she bought the chair and brought it home. The chair lived happily amid other flat-pack constructed furniture in a tiny one bedroom cottage.

But then the girl, her husband, a tiny babe and a very lardy cat moved to a bigger home and the little chair was used to stand on to paint the walls. It was dripped with paint knocked over and eventually went to live in the green house with the tomato plants. The chair was very sad and lonely.

A few years later the family moved and with the family moved the chair. It was used for painting the walls and stripping wall paper. The chair lived in the garage and then in the garden shed. The chair was sad and alone. It was splashed with blue and purple paint, it's own white paint was cracked and peeling. It was forgotten.

One winter day the girl remembered the chair and dragged it out into the brittle winter sunshine. She scrubbed the chair with sandpaper and wiped it down and brought the chair into the house again. And the little chair was happy again.

coffee...

I am drinking my coffee then I am totally going to do some crafting... I won't procrastinate even a little bit... honest.

poison apple tree shop

I took one little empty blog I had and I have now opened it as an experimental little shop. If it works it works, and if not well then I shall be off to dream up the next little dream. The shop is called poison apple tree after a little story that I wrote and never quite finished (but its on my to do list for getting done by spring ...honest. So please pop by and have a look round. There is only one little item in the shop now but I will add more over the next few days. I still have a few items in my etsy shop if you want to nose round there, I'm not shutting it altogether but for the small amount of crafting I do the fees are quite hefty.

thank you so much for reading my blog, commenting and purchasing my creations.

a zombie, a key and a button

I haven't done much crafting so far this January, I have been working on a little zombie doll with a loose eyeball and made a few cards and a little necklace made with a vintage button and rusty key. I'm not sure if I'm keeping the necklace for myself, listing it on etsy or parceling it off to a friend, but it was fun to make and got me thinking creatively again.

zombie in progress

The little zombie doll isn't quite finished yet, she needs a few more embellishments and staining with tea/coffee and possibly giving an arm or two as she is pretty much a skinny little brick shape. I shall have to think about what she needs doing to her, she is far too clean and neat to be a decent shambling zombie...it won't do at all. Little bits of creativity to keep me going.

My friend Selena has a fabulous idea for selling some fantastic vintage finds on a separate page of her blog called Little Shop. Each item is listed and the first to comment claims the item to be paid via paypal, which I think is a brilliant ideas. Selena said that the idea might work for my crafting as an alternative to my etsy shop. I do love etsy but it takes a lot of work and eats into your profits quite a bit if you are a small fry crafter like me. I haven't decided what to do yet but I do have a bunch of badges that I made that could do with finding new homes. and one or two dolls that need homes too. I don't know what I shall do but these thoughts are swirling round my head and I thought I would share them with my lovely readers.

lists

I was never one to write in diaries, I did get one or two diaries for gifts and as much as I ever wrote was...

Dear Diary,

Today I

...at which point I couldn't fathom writing any more to this 'Diary' person and never opened the diary again. Notebooks I love and covet and usually have several on the go. I have always liked making lists, filling little notebooks with lists of movies, music, recipes, books read, books to read, dreams (literal), dreams (not so literal), quotes, ideas and odd little doodles. Notebooks are grand places to use the pens I also hoard collect.

I like to think of this blog as one of my notebooks in the digital realm, its filled with the oddments of what makes me tick...or at least the censored not quite as depressive version of my exploits through life, the craft world and pottering in my kitchen. As its the new year... well still January I thought I should do some resolutions but I find resolutions difficult to adhere to so aside from the stand by of loose weight, eat less pudding and be happier... I'm going to put a list here of things I want to try this year (or the next) nothing major, I'm not talking jumping out of planes or swimming with sharks, this isn't a bucket list (or end up as pieces swept up into a bucket list).

so here goes

A list of list-y things:

*have a proper design for my blog

*write more ~stories, drabbles.. start small I'm not ready for novel writing.

*draw ~I haven't doodled much in the last few months and though my skills as an artist aren't legendary I still want to draw more.

*make a zine ~I need help here because I have ideas and stories and a few doodles but cannot wrap my head around printing them... so please help and harp at me.

*letterpress printing ~ I badgered the lovely jax to print an Ansel Adams quote for Matt's Christmas present and it has got me thinking that I would love to go to a workshop letterpress day to play with letters (no idea what I would make a print of...probably a Firefly quote *geek*)

*learn to crochet *again*

*make a small quilt (I started some blocks last year but that's as far as I got.

*paint and distress (farmhouse - americana - shabby chic sort of thing) the chairs and table from grandma's house that nobody wants.

*make jam (as I only have had one failed attempt at blackberry jam... and I actually don't really like blackberries.

*probably some other things to be added later but I need to get the house work done and bake some cakes...

what's on your list?

the Nightmare Before Valentine's Day Craft Swap

Tim Burton the Man Himself

The Nightmare Before Valentine's Day

A Tim Burton Craft Swap

I love Tim Burton's movies and find them very inspiring and so I thought we should have a little Tim Burton Craft Swap.

Jack Skellington one of my favourite characters

Details:

*Sign ups from today the 4th of January until Friday the 14th of January (I will email you on *Friday the 14th with your partner's details).

*Parcels to be sent out by the second week of February (I'm hoping that things will arrive for Valentine's day but I don't believe it's essential. )

* The swap will be international, so please don't sing up unless you are willing to post a parcel internationally.

* participants need to have a blog or flickr account so that your partner can stalk you.

*the swap will consist of one or two handcrafted items, 1 craft treat (a bit of fabric, or buttons or whatever your partner likes) and one Valentine's Day treat (chocolates or jelly beans or whatever your partner loves best). Please email me the following questions at meridianariel @ hotmail . com

QUESTIONNAIRE:

Your real name:

Email address:
Mailing address:

your blog:
What is your favorite Tim Burton Movie? :
Favourite Burton Character?:

Favourite colours?:

a Favourite book:

favourite Valentine's day Treat:
A little bit about you :

Who's with me?

love is...

...spending 25 minutes in the freezing cold scrubbing dog shit off your sons favourite sketchers trainers* with an old kitchen scrubber. Because your stubborn seven year old had a strop and stomped off across the park and though a pile of shit that must have been left by an elephant or possibly a bear that at a diet of wheat-a-bix** and super glue. I may have got crap on my jumper and my hands have only just warmed enough to spread the joy of the new year with you all. So Happy New Year!

* sneakers

**grapenuts or other cereal that is impossable to remove from a cereal bowl.

I'm calm now and warming by the fire while I wait for the kettle to whistle at me.