Meridian Ariel

Scarlett Hart aka Rowan Redd

2012-01-13T10:28:00.000-08:00

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.

Crafter...oo Issue 2

2011-12-31T02:32:00.000-08:00

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.

Reindeer Food (Luxury Granola) recipe

2011-12-23T23:55:00.000-08:00

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.

LaffyTaffy, magic and little houses

2011-11-21T08:04:00.000-08:00

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

Believe me....

2011-11-18T08:58:00.001-08:00

'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)

little red queen

2011-11-11T03:12:00.000-08:00

Ages ago when I posted about my moo mini cards arriving Jess of Kids' Napping? I'm Scrapping asked if I would like to do a little swap with her for some of my moo cards. I swapped with Jess before on the Nightmare Before Valentine's Day Swap I ran last Valentine's day. I may have taken a lot longer than I needed to to sort out what little treats I would send to her and what crafty things I could make for her. We emailed back and forth, mostly with me saying I haven't sent anything yet but that I was working on it.

After much grumbling with myself I finally settled on a vague Alice in Wonderland theme of things to send and started gathering together materials to make a small Red Queen doll. The yarn was the last thing I found and I think it turned out perfect for making a little Red Queen. I painted the little heart shaped mouth, eyelashes and eyebrows with acrylic paint before staining her with a mixture of tea, vanilla, and cinnamon. I must say that she is one of my favourite dolls I have recently made, though I must admit that each doll I make is a part of me and I love them all dearly. I forgot to take a picture of all the bits that I sent to Jess but if you mosey over to Jess' blog you can read her post about what I sent.

I have more red yarn left and found some white material with red hearts so I think it is safe to say I may jump back on the crafting bandwagon and sew another little Red Queen doll sometime soon.

Thank you so much for the lovely comments on my last blog post. I really appreciate everything said and am trying to have a nice calm week and get back into crafting, and blogging though I have a cold so I can feel a little bit sorry for myself. *snuffle* *cough*

break: here be whining

2011-11-02T08:08:00.000-07:00

hey everybody sorry I haven't blogged in forever but I took a break from blogging and the internets. Shocking I know but I needed some time to myself to sit and read, listen to random music on my ipod, read a bit more, sulk a bit and feel a bit homesick for the states. Autumn is my favourite time of year.... but not here. I have lived in England for 11 years and still sometimes I feel like an utter fraud. I can casually talk about the weather for about 30 seconds before my mind wanders off and I desperately wish to shoot myself in the head with an overly dramatic finger gun. I am utterly abysmal at small talk anyway so usually attempt to avoid it at all costs when on the school run. Thankfully I'm quiet and shy and only a few friendly parents talk to me anyway.

I have always been reserved and have a tendency to withdraw into myself for a bit, fall into an out of the puddles, lakes and oceans of depression. I'm ok just a bit down, I miss my parents. I miss the dogs. I miss the states at this time of year. I miss Idaho and California. I miss the autumn festivities of being in the states surrounded by autumn leaves, pumpkin spice lattes (I don't drink them I just like the idea of them), pumpkins, pie and just all things Americana.

This is my time of year, I really don't give a damn for winter and Christmas, Matt says that's because I'm a Grinch. I just say it's because I hate 98% of Christmas music. I adore Halloween, I always have, and Day of the Dead is pretty damn awesome too. I hate that the schools here don't do anything fun and Halloween related. Halloween is pretty much a bust anyway, maybe in another 5 or 10 years they will get it right. Maybe not.

I have so many things ticking over in my brain and I have taken the last few weeks to just curl up read books, magazines, fan fiction, and even plot out a few broken fairy tales of my own here and there. I am fine. See I said it so it must be true, it's just sometimes hard to remotely attempt to be vaguely perfect. Not that I am anywhere near perfect, if I was I wouldn't be this fat, this grumpy or this hard on myself for every little thing I think is something I am or have done wrong.

I have never been a bubbly blonde, my roots are very very dark but the last few weeks of having a break and having a week away down in Dorset have settled my mind a bit. I do love England and Dorset is beautiful though I did find myself feeling just a little heartbroken on the beach missing the Pacific ocean just north of Bodega Bay in California. I did find some pretty pebbles to bring home with me so that's all good right?

I find it strange that I have barely been on the internets for weeks on end and not done any blogging and here I am having a cathartic whine about nothing and everything.

I really think I need coffee.

And to work on some blog posts of a crafty nature.

I shall go bumble into the kitchen to make a cup of coffee and see about working on something creative this afternoon while H is at his grandma's house.

Also I may need cake. Good thing there is some leftover from H's 8th birthday party. Yup my little boy is the grand old age of eight. He is still brilliant and sweet and an utterly charming, wild, loud, imaginative and excitable kid.

I'm ok and I'm happy but sometimes, sometimes I need to curl up and hide inside my head. I'm going to go put my ipod on and shuffle the laundry along and think a bit more.

Your regularly scheduled blogging shall hopefully resume soon.

Crafteroo Magazine

2011-09-30T04:43:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow marks the launch of Crafteroo Craft Forum's shiny new online Magazine. I along with the great creative team at crafteroo and especially the Editorial skills of Kerry have worked our fingers to the bone to make the online magazine worth the modest £1.50. The magazine is out tomorrow and is filled to bursting with tutorials, blogs, recipes, reviews and so much more.

I have written book reviews, app reviews, and a recipe for the issue and I would love for every one of my loyal blog readers to visit crafteroo and purchase the magazine for download. It has been a great joy brainstorming and collaborating with forum members to create a brilliant little craft magazine.

The idea of Crafteroo Magazine began with a wish to keep our small little forum running, all sales of the magazine will go towards upkeep of our little forum. Crafteroo is a small UK based craft forum that we started several years ago after several founding members fell victim to cyber bulling on another craft forum and decided to create a happy and safe little forum of our own. I hope that the magazine will do well and it will brink new life and new inspiration to our little craft forum.

Please pop by Crafteroo and say hello and have a little look at the Issue 1 Overview page and see a little of what the 64 page magazine has to offer.

Miss Elmira Ravenhurst

2011-09-25T05:54:00.000-07:00

Miss Elmira Ravenhurst was a school teacher in the small town of Doornail in the foot hills of the Serra Nevada Mountains in California. Fourteen years since the discovery of gold, and five years since a steamer ship docked in San Francisco carrying a cargo of death and the end of the world. The ship carried a plague of the living dead. Grey fleshed corpses that should have been buried six feet under, their flesh rotten off the bone as they infested San Francisco feeding off living flesh. Now the country was at war with a plague of un-dead zombies in the west as war raged between North and South.

Elmira had dreams that were broken when her fiancée was eaten by a pack of zombies on a supply run to Sacramento. The children solemnly listen to lectures with wide eyes as she walks back and forth the heavy ring of keys at her side jingle with every step. A bell rings in the distance and Miss Ravenhurst, mouth set in a grim line, uses the keys to open a small door in the tidy little school house. The door opens on a tiny room with a hatch leading to an escape tunnel underneath the town. Elmira ushers the children through, dabbing at tear stained faces as the children march down the tunnels to safety.

Elmira locks the hatch as the last child disappears down into the escape tunnel. The iron key gripped tightly in her hand as she scans the walls of the room. Guns, ammunition, wickedly sharp blades and machines of copper, brass and glass fill the walls. Miss Elmira Ravenhurst smiles grimly as she reaches out for her favourite guns. Miss Elmira Ravenhurst, spinster, teacher, and ruthless zombie hunter stepped out from the school house raised her rifle and aimed as the first zombie shambled along the dirt road.

Dear little Miss Elmira Ravenhurst is listed in my etsy shop.

bespoke zine

2011-09-13T05:42:00.000-07:00

the cover of *bespoke* issue 4

*bespoke* zine is the creation of Jessica Van Den of Epheriell Designs, a blogger, zine publisher, jewellery maker, and all around fabulous lady from Brisbane, Australia. A few months back Jess called on the crafty community to submit ideas for issue 4 of the zine. I said it would be great to do a little piece on drabble writing, something I like to do in my spare time and tend to hideaway on another tiny writing blog. A little while later Jess got back to me saying it was a great idea and can I write up 200 words for the zine.

My little bit in the zine

I think my head nearly exploded before I went into panic mode as I dug through my notebook and files to find a few craft based drabbles. I then tried to pull my thoughts together to explain not only why I write them but what drabbles actually are. I was quite possibly a nervous wreck and bothered several of my best friends (Thank you so much) to read through my article before I sent if off to Jess for her approval. Jess asked if I had any photos to include with my drabble article. I didn't but I knew just who to ask. At which point I bribed Matt with promises of cake and chocolate to get him to take some photos of my craft/writing space, dolls and general clutter. I'm pretty sure I still owe him more cake.

So now you must all go out and order issue 4 of *bespoke*, because you all love me very much and want to see what I wrote. Right? Right?

Blue Skies Coconut Ice

2011-09-10T02:39:00.000-07:00

Blue Skies (coconut ice squares)

Ingredients:

2 cups desiccated coconut

½ cup caster sugar or icing sugar*

¾ cup condensed milk

Blue food colouring

Instructions:

Line a square pan with baking/greaseproof paper.

Mix the sugar, dried coconut, and condensed milk together in a large mixing bowl. The Mixture will be quite stiff once thoroughly mixed.

Add a small amount of blue food colouring to the mixture, mix until you achieve an even colour.**

Press the mixture into the pan gently then top and press with the other mixture.

Place in the fridge to set for 30 minutes then cut into small bars with a sharp knife.

Wrap the coconut ice with waxed or greaseproof paper and store in the fridge in an airtight container.

*I used caster sugar as I didn’t have any icing sugar in the house. I like the gritty texture the sugar adds but Matt says I’m weird.

**I used blue food colouring but If you prefer a more traditional looking coconut ice then divide the mixture in half and add red food colouring to one half of the mix to make it pink. Press the white half of the mixture into the pan before pressing the pink on top.

cook's notes: It's a super simple no cooking/baking recipe that I slapped together after reading through several different variations of recipes. In the end I threw everything together and took notes all the while. I may also have got food colouring all over my hands and on my chin... I'm a total klutz. I think there is a room to add a bit more of this or that to alter the consistency of the coconut ice, it is a sticky mixture but by keeping in the fridge it keeps it from falling apart... and it can be hidden behind the lettuce.

Why blue skies? Ever watch Dollhouse? If not you should, It's a reference to something Echo says as Taffy the thief. Yeah I'm a geek, but you probably knew that already.

Dollhouse

my craft space

2011-08-26T07:20:00.001-07:00

vintage buttons, measuring tapes and magical things

Today I have been working on a few different small projects. I've been painting, drawing and sifting through buttons and nifty things for a swap with a friend. I dragged out more buttons and things to inspire my crafting and the notes I'm writing for a little story in my battered notebook. I hope you are all having a lovely crafty Friday. I have done my housework...or as much of it as I can stand to do without pulling my hair out. I have made cheesecake and there is a pot of chicken bubbling on the hob to shred for chicken burritos later. I feel I have accomplished something today, aside from drinking three cups of coffee...What have you been up to today?

Craft Club: Strawberry Pincushions

2011-08-25T04:11:00.000-07:00

Why a craft club? Why not. After much dithering, daydreaming and wittering I spoke with Caroline at the Book Boutique about my wish to start a Craft Club up. She agreed and I Decided on a date and then figured out how to make an Event on Facebook right here. Please click if you feel like venturing into the deep dark heart of Derbyshire and dragging your crafts along.

CRAFT CLUB: STRAWBERRY PINCUSHIONS

Learn to make strawberry pincushions. Come along to the craft club and make some small strawberry pincushions. We shall have some small strawberry making kits available to purchase or bring your own fabric and sewing supplies.

Where: the Book Boutique, Church Street, Ripley, Derbyshire.

When: Monday the 26th of September
Time: 7pm-8:30pm
Contact: Apryl meridianariel@hotmail.com with any questions you may have.

The Craft Club is a brand new friendly and informal place to hang out with like-minded crafty folk. We’ll be here at the Book Boutique In Ripley 7pm until 8:30pm on the Monday the 26th of September. If things go well there will be more meet ups in the future.

Please do pop along and join us. Please feel free to bring along any craft project you are working on, chat, learn some new skills, browse the bookshelves and have fun. There will be tea and cakes to purchase and we really hope you have fun joining us for some crafty fun.

Caleb the Imp

2011-08-15T06:31:00.000-07:00

Caleb the imp is small and lonely little creature, prone to mischief, bouts of melancholia, lover of fairy tales and converse shoes. He is a tiny bit huffy and stubborn, but you didn’t hear that from me. He is wicked, and sweet, a charmer and a procrastinator. He has a way of generating messes that make you forget about the job you were meant to be doing. Caleb love listening to fantasy stories of broken knights, hysterical dragons and forgotten magical realms, and watching epic fantasy movies and shows like Game of Thrones, Conan, Camelot, Legend of the Seeker and Labyrinth to name but a few. Did I mention he loves shoes? Because he really loves converse shoes, he won’t go to a home without any chucks in the house, and may drive his owner to buy more and more shoes. He says the shoes are his pets and his friends.

You must be careful if you own Caleb for you might come to harm tripping on carefully arranged piles of converse. He mostly means well, honest, but Caleb is an imp and that means trouble no matter how many shoes you own.

Caleb and my favourite chucks

Caleb was made from a Converse One Star button down shirt, vintage buttons, vintage doily, and toy filler.Caleb was stained with a mixture of coffee, vanilla and cinnamon. He is meant to be a decoration and not to be roughly played with my small children, due to his button eyes. Caleb the imp is a one of a kind creation, and I hope that you love him as much as I loved making him. I mean just look at that face, how could you not love him?

Caleb is listed in my etsy shop.

I've packed my case

2011-08-12T06:15:00.000-07:00

I have packed my case but not to run away. I have filled a small vintage case I thrifted a few summers ago with geeky badges and poison apples for a small display in the Book Boutique. It's a local book shop that opened not too long ago, family run and filled with very nice books. I may end up spending whatever money I get for any sold badges on new books.

I am ridiculously nervous about having my crafts on show so please come hold my hand and tell me it will all be alright and that people will love my lavender filled poison apples and bookish pin badges. I did have some jewellery on sale in another shop a few years ago but I wasn't nearly as nervous about that. Possibly because the bracelets I made were tucked away with a little card and my little suitcase of fairy tales is on display on the counter. Please if you are local to Ripley, Derbyshire pop into the Book Boutique, wander around, have a chat, buy a book and buy a badge too? Pretty please with sugar on top? I'll make you a coffee.

display

I dithered over what to take to the shop to display, and decided to take in some of the little poison apples I have been obsessed with making the last few days. I have made apples before but every time I have made them I have used a different pattern*. I think my little case display turned out OK, it is very me with bits of paper, poison apples and pin badges. I may bring in a small doll or the half finished fox plush I have hidden under my desk.

display

*When I say pattern what I really mean is what shape of scrap fabric I have and what I can do to fit it together. Mainly whatever if buzzing about my brain. I really don't do patterns so very well.

p.s. please can you like Meridian Ariel on Facebook ? And while you are at it will you like the Book Boutique too? *flutters lashes*

Moo mini cards

2011-08-10T09:17:00.001-07:00

strange little dolls, jewellery, vintage, geekery & fairy tales

I wanted to share with you my moo mini cards that arrived the other week. Most of the pictures I used were ones through instagram, and a few from a secret project I'm very excited about. I know I'm totally obsessed with instagram, I even added an app on the right hand side of my blog that links to my instagram. I'm really pleased with this set of cards and wish that I had ordered more, next time huh? Anyway I must run off and get some housework done or at least put the coffee machine on while petting my moo mini cards...definitely the latter option.

What's in my bag

2011-08-07T07:12:00.001-07:00

I'm not much of a girly girl most of my handbags are simple and functional, my favourite bags are probably the two men's leather satchels that I have had forever or so it feels anyway. For the last few weeks I have been using a book bag/shopping bag I got in the sale at American Eagle Outfitters last April. I bought it on my birthday with a larger red satchel/man bag as my present. Why am I going on about bags? Well A Thrifty Mrs blogged about her's yesterday and as H is having a lie down on my bed watching cartoons I thought I would work on a quick blog post while I drink a cup of tea. Yes really I have a cup of tea.

the contents of my bag

First there is the vintage flowery purse it holds all my precious pennies and paper..and occasionally random buttons too. I found that purse in a thrift shop in Railroad Square in Santa Rosa while shopping with Apron Thrift Girl a few years ago. It's lived in my various bags ever since.

A little dusky pink leather card holder it was ridiculously cheap in T.K. Max and I had to have it to hold a random assortment of credit and store cards.

A few of my new moo cards in case I run into anyone to swap with or anyone that enquires what do I do all day.

Ipod and headphones. I can't walk without my headphones on listening to whatever music I'm currently obsessed with.

House keys with a little torch/flashlight.

Notebook for doodling and writing plus a pen and pencil to do said writing.

A silver fruit knife that my dad gave to me.

A birdy pouch that most of the small junk fits into. I bought the pouch in the shop at the end of the Seattle Underground tour.

That's about it for my handbag though there are a few things not in there. I quite often bring a book with me where ever I go but I just started reading A Game of Thrones yesterday and I'm not lugging that house brick with me everywhere. Also Matt has a tendency to give me his wallet, keys and whatever else he doesn't want to carry for himself. And I often carry snacks or the DSi for Harrison.

So what's in your bag?

the two badges on the outside of my bag.

A manga badge and a Serenity quote I typed.

Molasses Rye Bread Recipe

2011-08-05T04:11:00.000-07:00

Molasses Rye Bread Recipe

Ingredients:

2 packages dry yeast

1/2 cup warm water

1 tablespoon sugar

1 cup warm water

1/2 cup dark molasses

1 tablespoon salt

2 tablespoons oil

3 cups rye flour

1 1/2 -2 cups bread flour/plain flour

1/2 cup cornmeal (semolina)

Directions:

Soften yeast in 1/2 cup warm water.

Stir in the sugar and let stand until frothy and bubbly.

In large mixing bowl combine the yeast/water with 1 cup warm water with molasses, salt, oil and rye flour. Mix in the plain (bread) flour until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Knead the dough and then let it rise in a covered greased bowl until it’s doubled in size.

Punch the dough down and shape into 2 large round loaves or 6-8 small rolls.

Placed the loaves a few inches apart on a greased and cornmeal dusted cookie sheet. Sprinkle a bit of the cornmeal over the top of the loaves as well.

Let loaves rise in a warm place until doubled.

Bake loaves at 190C (375F) for about 30 minutes (20 minutes for small rolls) The crust will make a hollow sound when tapped lightly.

Serve warm with plenty of butter.

Cook’s notes: my recipe is the combination of a few different recipes from food.com and a clone recipe for Outback Steakhouse’s bread. I would have used the recipes I found exactly but I only had a cup and a half of plain flour to add to the bag of dark rye flour I bought from Caudwell’s mill. I’ve not strayed too far from the recipes other than I used Billington’s natural molasses sugar (a very dark brown sugar as I had no molasses).

I’ve heard that the bread will freeze very well but we ate it all up before there was a chance to freeze it.

crafteroo button swap sent and recieved

2011-08-05T00:13:00.000-07:00

button swap sent

I am terribly behind on my blogging. That whole summer thing of 'lets play all day and we wont do much' that didn't work and somehow I haven't caught up on blogging, writing, reading the tower of books beside my bed, or caught up on the housework. Ok so I probably wouldn't have caught up on the housework anyway because who *actually* does that? Seriously? We have been out and about on family trips and never seem to have stopped. It has been fun though. Today Harrison is at holiday club for the day so along with getting to grips with the housework I'm going to attempt to catch up on blogging. I promised some recipes and some pictures of thrifty finds and to blog about having started a facebook fan page for Meridian Ariel things. But more of that later.

framed button art I sent Caroline

About seven ages ago I signed up for the Crafter..oo Button Swap... A simple little swap of button-y goodness. I dithered though. I could not think for the life of me what to make for my lovely swap partner Caroline. Eventually while out thrifting for buttons and other crafty things I found a little brass frame and some inspiration. It was small and circular and had faded dried flowers in it. I was drawn to the frame and that afternoon I gathered together buttons, lace and vintage keys to find a way to display them in the frame. It was a bit if a tight fit and I may have got craft glue all over my leg and the carpet but was pleased with how the frame turned out with a slightly darker edge.

handmade button mint creams I received

I added a slightly sinister strawberry pin cushion and sewed some vintage buttons onto a vintage playing card and added some more buttons to a little pouch to make sure there was enough button-y goodness. I entirely forgot to add any chocolates or sweets to the swap package as I was in such a hurry to get it sent off to Caroline as I was so terribly late in sending the swap. The very same day I sent the swap I received the parcel she sent me.

buttons, buttons and doily buttons received!

I was amazed by the parcel Caroline sent because it was filled with buttons and some awesome button shaped mint creams that she made. I did not share them with anyone they were hidden on my desk where nobody goes but me! I loved the crocheted button doilies she made for me and have put them in a safe place on my desk. I'm almost tempted to use them for doll making though. Thank you so much for swapping with me Caroline.

secret message holder and picnic plans

2011-07-17T08:59:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning I made a secret message holder for H using an old key chain and a pet i.d. that had been kicking around the house forever. I typed the note and gave the secret key chain to Harrison wrapped in a bit of tissue paper. He has spent all weekend twisting the pet i.d. capsule open and shut and reading the note 'Dr. Horrible is my hero.' over and over again. I told him he can type his own secret note or the location of a secret hiding place and we will play spies. Or possibly list the secret location of food stores in the event of an alien invasion or zombie apocalypse. A simple thing to make a boy happy.

______________

picnic plan update: Its been a manic few weeks here with awards, organizing the school summer fair and more things than I can remember to blog at this moment in time. A few interested bloggers, twitter-ers have said that they are free to come play on Mondays or Wednesdays so I'm going to call the shots and say:

Picnic Blog/Tweet Up

Where: Chatsworth Grounds

(meeting near the car park on the grass near the trees leading up to the shops)

When: Monday the 8th of August

Time: From 11am-4pm (ish)

What to bring: a picnic, the kids, craft work in progress bag if you want to sit and sew/knit/sketch while picnic-ing and chatting. Cake works too but is not essential as Chatsworth has excellent cake and coffee.

Nothing is set in stone I figured this would be as flexible as possible with many different people coming from all over the place. I just thought it would be great to have a little get together. I may possibly be mad, as I like many of you I'm an anti-social introvert, But I have met quite a few bloggers and twitter people and so far we have all got on like a house on fire.

Any Questions?

Who wants to go on a picnic?

2011-07-03T03:56:00.000-07:00

There are so many of us like minded crafters, creatives and friendly folk on twitter it would be nice to all meet up. I have been thinking for awhile now that we should have a picnic tweet-up at Chatsworth during the summer holidays.

Lets chat and gossip in person while the kids form an intricate tribal infrastructure in the manner of Lord of the Flies... hmmm ok maybe not quite that. I have mentioned a picnic a few times on twitter and Facebook and thought it was time to blog about it and put some sort of plan together. Many of you have expressed an interest in a meet up-tweet up, some of you have come to the little crafty meet ups at Starbucks near ikea Nottingham. So who is with me for a big summer meet up?

I will need a little help to narrow down a day or two that would be ideal for meeting up? You don't have to have kids to meet up but as most of the people on my twitter feed do it makes sense to plan something out that can keep the kids busy as well. There are a lot of things to do at Chatsworth especially the farmyard and playground, plenty of places to let the kids roam and nearby favourites like Caudwell's Mill, Stanton Moor, Matlock Bath, Scarthin Books and more. Oh and I also know where there are some lovely fabric and quilt shops nearby if you are of the fabric persuasion.

So who wants to come out to play?

Can you help me figure out a date? (With Matt being a wedding photographer we don't tend to go far in the summer holidays so pretty much all days are clear with me.

Will there be people willing to give rides to others who don't have transportation there?

I'll be on twitter if you want to ask me anything.

car boots, junk warehouses, and garage sales

2011-06-20T07:29:00.000-07:00

doily and vintage buttons

The last few weeks I have cut down on my blogging, days have been busy with school activities, half term holiday outings and general running around like headless chickens. Today I will share with you some of the little treasures I have found in the last few weeks. Some may call this modest hoard junk but it is all bits and pieces of things that I will use to craft dolls, monsters, jewellery and whatever else takes my fancy.

key and cog collection, almost too pretty to craft with

This weekend started with going to Cromford to the little festival that took place on Saturday. After the mystifying and quite frankly terrifying sight of a prancing unicorn-man I spied a sign that read 'Garage Sale' and a little arrow. I blinked twice and we turned around and went to find two little garage sales down the road from each other. I bought some doilies, a vintage chain, an airplane pin (for H) and two bags of toy filler all for the princely sum of £1. I may possibly have been quite giddy at this point as you just don't see garage sales here... ever. From Cromford Mill the previous week I managed to find a lovely letterpress tray that will be going up on the wall in Harrison's room to display lego figures (it was half filled with them about ten minutes after we got it home.

vintage baking tin, watch parts, keys and other treasure from Wirksworth

Last weekend we went to Wirksworth, it was late in the afternoon and we missed out on the farmer's market but still had fun roaming around the antique, chocolate and charity shops. I bought a vintage sea shell cake tin, from the vintage rooms. A little rusty, dusty and there was a bit of burned black cake left in it too, but it sits on my desk full of the bits and pieces that inspire me and I will be working with to create new dolls and monsters. After that Harrison and I explored an antiques shop that looked more of a hoarder's home then a shop, boxes piled high bursting at the seams and a little old chap running the place that I swear walked straight out of and 80s fantasy movie. I found buttons and vintage watch parts that made my little heart sing as they were exactly what I needed to finish the Steampunk Red Riding hood doll.

treasures from Banana junk Warehouse in York

While Harrison was on his half term break we went up to York for the day, we had a ball roaming the walls and streets and I was allowed an hour to rifle through the junk in Banana Warehouse. I found a little wooden box, more vintage buttons, vintage measuring tape, a large spool of orange thread and a mother of pearl belt buckle (which was similar to one in Duttons button shop that cost more than I paid for everything I found.

Lego treasure beyond compare

On rare Sunday morning when the day is clear and Matt isn't rushing off to a wedding or a wedding fair we sometimes go rummage around Tansley Car Boot sale. It's bleak up on the fields where the car boot and market are held but the view is outstanding. On the last trip up we found a stash of lego, vintage ladybird books and a crystal growing kit. Treasure for everyone.

Pork pie tins from Cromford Days

doilies, buttons and vintage chain from a garage sale!!!!

letterpress printer's tray from Cromford Mill

I'm linking to Apron Thrift Girl for her fab Thrift Share Mondays and Her Library Adventures' Flea Market Finds

Now back to the reality of sorting out all of my craft supplies. I'm decluttering and getting rid of various bits of fabric and beads that I won't use, so that I have room for more of the things that I do use. So that totally means I can thrift more right? I'm also hoping that by tidying and sorting things out it will inspire me to get one with crafting, writing and listing said crafts in my poor little etsy shop. I'm hoping I will have a few sales and be able to order some new moo cards and pluck up the courage to exhibit my crafts at a real craft fair. *wibble*

Dr. Horrible t-shirt

2011-06-14T11:02:00.000-07:00

If you have visited my blog before you will know that I am a geek. Utterly. Completely. Geekily so. I love Science Fiction, Horror, Fantasy, books, movies, tv shows, and web geekery such as Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. We own the movie/video and the soundtrack. Harrison and I listen to the soundtrack when he helps me cook dinner and we watch the blog with sweet popcorn and Harrison sings along with all the songs.

I looked into making a Dr. Horrible lab coat but my sewing skills are not quite up there with following patterns so I thought I would buy a red shirt and add buttons. Job done. Except it wasn't. I looked for weeks for a plain red t-shirt, I had no luck until today when I found a shirt in a thrift/charity shop for .75p! So I dug through my white button jar for eight similar sized buttons, found where I had hidden a spool of red cotton and needle in hand a Dr. Horrible t-shirt was born.
If I could embroider I would add the symbol on the pocket of Dr. Horrible's Lab Coat. I can't, not without getting in a tangle and steam pouring out of my ears. Harrison is playing in the garden with the Dr. Horrible Soundtrack on playing his favourite song 'Brand New Day'.

steampunk strawberry

2011-06-13T09:04:00.000-07:00

steampunk strawberry pincushion

A little while ago on twitter the delightful Eirlys of Scrapiana tweeted about her pincushion vintage fabric strawberries on the cover of Mollie Makes magazine issue 2. If you are lucky enough to track down a copy of the magazine inside is a strawberry tutorial, written by Eirlys. I haven't been able to track down a copy of Mollie Makes, there is a dreadful lack of the good craft magazines around here (somebody should do something about that.

Scrapiana/Eirlys challenged me to make a strawberry on the darker side, something zombified or steampunk or dripping in blood... honestly what do people think I am?... *looks at books, dvds and dolls and monsters*Never mind don't answer that. ;o)

scrapiana Eirlys

@meridianariel PS Please take my strawberries over to the dark side. I need to see that. ;)

the above is an actual twitter quote. See !

I haven't been crafting much recently but with scrapiana egging...or should that be strawberry-ing me along I gathered together some scraps of material. Sent her a few messages as I didn't have the magazine to work from. And worked out a strawberry with her help and past experience making the Slightly Sinister Strawberry last year. I sacrificed a small rusty key and the inner workings of a watch that I bought the other weekend in Wirksworth and went to work crafting a small steampunk strawberry. It was fun to have been challenged and I look forward to seeing who else adds their strawberries to the flickr group.

I think I may need to make another Slightly Sinister Strawberry. Something a teeny bit darker than the previous one turned out last year though I still love the story and Lillian too.

A Clockwork tale of Red Riding Hood (Part the first)

2011-06-10T09:53:00.000-07:00

I know I'm a little bit behind on blogging (read as 'hugely immensely behind on blogging, writing and crafting') but I'm working on it...honestly.... I offer you the beginning of the fairy tale I am writing for the Red Riding Hood doll I finished making the other day with the addition of a few well placed cogs I managed to dig up in a antiques shop Wirksworth. I'm hoping that if I share the first few paragraphs of the story it will encourage me to finish writing Red's fairy tale and list the doll and figure out how I will print out her story in zine form. So here goes...

A Clockwork Tale of Red Riding Hood (Part the First)

by Apryl Lowe

My name is Rowan but most people call me Red. I live in a village in the heart of the forest. There is no silence here, the forest is filled with clanking and ticking of steam driven machinery cutting down trees. Vibrations shake the earth beneath my feet as the miners drill deeper and deeper under the ground, searching out new veins of precious metal. The sound of metal against metal fills the air near the blacksmith’s forge, ribbons of black smoke curl as they rise from the rooftops.

Today is my eighteenth birthday. Mother says I shall leave now to visit Grandmother in the Cottage. Mother has been up all night sewing me a hooded cloak, the colour of ripe red berries, the colour of my left eye. The one the villagers say is cursed and evil. Mother says it’s nonsense, that it means I will always see the truth of things. I have always been the finder of things, keys, coins, cogs and jewellery. Mother says I could find a diamond in a snow storm or weed out all the lies the peddlers spout and find the truth hidden in pretty words.

Today I leave the forest forever. I leave Mother, our small house and head to the city like my father did before I was born. I have been chosen to go to Grandmother as Father was before me, as so many were. Mother refuses to talk about it, she will only say that those chosen go to serve Grandmother in the Cottage and never return. She fears the truth I will see no matter how honeyed the lies she might speak.

Mother refused to walk with me to the platform. I stand with three other villagers, two girls and a boy, each of us carrying a basket filled with gifts for Grandmother, shiny copper and brass springs and cogs with decorative scrollwork, some with tiny chips of precious gems, and golden threads. I grip my cloak tightly around me the basket heavy over my arms. Leaning against my boots is a worn leather satchel, filled with what few belongings I own. The train whistles before pulling to a stop at the platform, plums of steam bubble around the black engine as the breaks sigh.

A man leaps out from the train a book and pen in his hands. Brass goggles obscure his eyes, he is smartly dressed in a navy uniform with highly polished scrollwork and gears decorating his chest. His left hand is mechanical, a clockwork construction of brass. I tilt my head to catch the faint sound of gears turning as the man examines the clockwork pendants each of us wear. The pendants are the sign of the chosen grandchildren. I am forbidden to tinker with mine though it lies warm against my skin and makes my teeth itch.

to be continued....

************************************************

Ok that's the first half, I have another paragraph written and extensive notes for the rest of the story I just need a harpy on my back to get me writing again.

Tangerine Sweet Rolls

2011-06-01T01:03:00.000-07:00

Tangerine Sweet Rolls
Ingredients:

Rolls:
1 1/4 oz. pckg. Yeast
1 c. warm milk
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/3 c. melted butter
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
4 c. all-purpose flour

Filling:
1/2 cup butter softened
1 cup sugar
2-3 tablespoons tangerine juice

grated tangerine zest

Icing:
7 tbs. butter, softened
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
1/4 cup (2 oz.) cream cheese
1/2 teaspoon tangerine zest

2-3 tablespoons tangerine juice

Directions:

Disolve yeast in milk. Mix in sugar, butter, salt, eggs, flour. Mix well.

Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface. Knead into a large ball (the dough is a very wet dough and very sticky and messy). Cover; let rise 1 hour.

Roll dough into a 21 x 16 wide rectangle.

Mix the filling ingredients together and spread over the dough rectangle. I just use my fingers to spread it generously over the dough.

Carefully roll up the dough. Using very sharp knife cut into 1 inch wide rolls, making sixteen. (If you want fewer, bigger rolls, cut them wider.)

Grease (butter) your preferred baking pan (11x 15 pan.) or use grease-proof baking paper as I did. . Let the rolls rise for at least 30 minutes (they will double in size).

Preheat oven to 400F (205 C)

Bake until the rolls are golden brown. .

Remove the rolls from the oven and let them cool slightly before covering them in icing*.

*Icing: Cream together butter, icing sugar, cream cheese, tangerine zest and juice with an electric mixer. Spread onto the warm rolls. They can be eaten warm but I think they taste better once completely cooled.

Cooks notes: I had been wanting to make some orange sweet rolls since I first had one at the Blackbird Bakery on Bainbridge Island off of Seattle. We visited there again in April and I had another Orange Baby Roll and knew that I would have to bake my own once I was home again and in a baking mood. I used tangerine instead of orange as I knew I wouldn't get any argument from the peanut gallery about them being too zesty. I researched recipes then went with the same dough I use for cinnamon rolls (I like the recipe and I wasn't about to start fiddling about with lard). I zested 5 tangerines and Boy helped squeeze the juice out and drank the few tablespoons left after I used what was needed for the rolls. I Also pressed the rolls down once in the pan so they were more flat to spread out instead of up.

black bean and cheese enchiladas

2011-05-30T01:52:00.000-07:00

Ingredients for the Enchilada sauce:

two bell peppers chopped (any colour will do)

1x chilli pepper (red or green)

two cloves garlic (sliced)

1/2 a large onion

3 tablespoons oil

one teaspoon cumin

salt and pepper to taste

1 teaspoon oregano

2 tablespoons flour (to create a roux or use cornstarch to thicken the sauce, or cheat and use onion gravy mix)

2 1/2 tablespoons butter

2 cups water

fresh cilantro(Coriander) about a good handful of washed leaves and stalks

to make the bean and cheese enchiladas you will need:

wraps (I used coriander and garlic flavoured wraps but any will do this is a quick recipe)

a can of black beans (drained)

2 cups grated cheddar cheese

sour cream or creme fraiche

Instructions:

heat the oil a large frying pan. Add the garlic, onion, peppers and chilli and fry until nicely coloured.

In a sauce pan melt the butter and add the flour to create a thick roux. (ignore this step if you are being lazy and using cornstarch or onion gravy mix *ahem* which you will add with the water)

Add the onion, garlic, peppers and chilli to the pot with two cups water, cumin, salt, pepper, and oregano. Bring just to the boil and switch off.

Add the fresh cilantro (coriander) and blend the sauce using a blending wand (stick whatever you call it, or an actual blender).

Set the sauce aside while you prepare the rest of the dish.

Preheat oven at 180c (356F)

Open the package of wraps (tortillas) and place a few spoons of black beans and a few spoons of grated cheese. roll up the wrap and place it in a 9x13 baking dish. Repeat until the dish is full of wraps (I left mine open on the ends but you can wrap them like a small burrito if you prefer.

Pour the sauce evenly over the wraps/enchiladas.

Sprinkle more cheese on top.

Pop the dish in the oven until the cheese is golden brown on top and the sauce is bubbling on the sides.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream.

cook's notes: This is a quick down and dirty recipe. I have made plenty of chicken enchiladas and sauce before so I knew the basics but as it was getting late I decided to mod what I normally do to adapt it for time and laziness. The sauce isn't that spicy as H was eating with us but has just enough bite that we were all happy. Because the sauce was quickly made it tasted very fresh and zesty. If I had had some lime I would have added a few squeezes to the sauce. I know the basics of making a roux but really could not be assed to make it so thickened the sauce with a few spoons of caramelized onion gravy. Everyone loved dinner and there is still half a pan to reheat for lunch today.

literary crushes, procrastination and doll making

2011-05-27T01:03:00.001-07:00

A few days ago while procrastinating on twitter and chatting with a few of my best geek friends I got the worm of an idea to make a doll inspired by Neil Gaiman himself. Mr. Gaiman is one of my favourite authors, he is cool, nerdy and all around fantastic. So with very little encouragement from the twitter peanut gallery I set to work sewing a new doll and ignoring the housework. But don't tell my husband that.

The dolls and monsters I make start life as scraps of fabric, lace and vintage buttons. I sit at my desk and play with ideas and fabrics until the pieces come together with the threads of small stories and fairy tales in my head. For me making the dolls and writing their little stories are one and the same, an outlet for my creative side. I make them for the love of craft and making things. This doll won't have a story because he is the doll of a wonderful storyteller and you should own his books already and if not then run out and buy one today.

Neil Gaiman the doll is made with scraps of cotton fabric, toy filler, and vintage buttons (green as that is the closest colour to hazel I had in my modest button stash. I did my research). I thin grunged up the doll with a mixture of coffee, tea, vanilla and cinnamon to at an aged look and a lovely smell.

Little Miss Melancholia

2011-05-25T08:47:00.000-07:00

Melancholia is wistful and some might say wise. She is an expert on morose and obscure poets. She can often be found wandering aimlessly on cliff tops and moonlit moors. Rainclouds follow her every step. Every time she turns the radio on a song of hollow hearts, acoustic guitars and melancholy lyrics fills the room.

She tried to grow a garden once but only with weeping willow and love-lies-bleeding grew. The roses and forget-me-nots all withered and died. Poor little Melancholia never had any friends for long the all seemed to move away, or suddenly died in a quietly tragic way.

Miss Melancholia is made with cotton, vintage buttons, acrylic wool and scraps of fabric and vintage doilies upcycled into something new and magical. She was grunged up with a lovely smelling mixture of coffee, tea, vanilla and cinnamon. Melancholia will come with her own hand stained and typed story card for you to keep. She is an art doll and not meant for small children to play with due to small buttons. I have listed her in my little etsy shop.

doodling on the road

2011-05-24T07:41:00.000-07:00

While we were away in April I sorted out a little craft kit for myself, with a few pens, pencils, buttons, needle, note cards, three moleskin notebooks for gifts/swaps, vintage book paper, thread and thread cutter. Things that were small and I knew that the needle and tiny thread cutter were safe to take on the plane with us. Mostly I doodled in my sketchbook on the flight (when not occupied watching half a dozen films that I wouldn't have paid good money to sit in a cinema to see).

After the initial zombie state when I had a few minutes time here and there I pulled out my collection of assorted craft supplies (which I kept adding to as we went to thrift shops and estate sales) and went to work doodling and sewing buttons and letting my imagination roam.

I had a slight obsession with doodling little imps, I even doodled an imp on a plastic travel bag for Harrison before we left on holiday. It was nice and I was glad that I remember to bring craft supplies with me. In the past I have traveled with knitting, which is good but I loathed the circular knitting needles that were the safest to go through security without being confiscated.

The crochet hook and book didn't work out so well as I just got fed up of not understanding the Idiot's Guide I had bought and read a magazine instead.

If you are a crafter travelling I think it's important to bring something crafty with you, even if it's only a notebook and pen to roughly sketch ideas. I find that my creative sparks when we are away and bumming around various coffee shops. and then more coffee shops... and possibly a few more too. I have quite a bit of blogging and crafting to catch up on but I was sorting out the rogue pile of holiday stuff on my desk and found some of the doodles and button cards that I brought back with me.

I suppose I best go hand some laundry out and get a few more housey jobs done before Matt and Harrison get home from getting haircuts. I will cry and rage if the Boy's hair is too short...*sob*

sugar cookie dough truffles

2011-05-18T08:34:00.000-07:00

Sugar cookie dough truffles

Ingredients:

· 1/2 cup butter, softened

· 3/4 cup caster/white sugar

· 2 cups flour (I used self-raising/all-purpose)

· 1-2 teaspoon vanilla extract

· Sprinkles or edible glitter.

· 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

Directions:

In a medium sized mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the flour, milk and vanilla. Mix well. You may add coloured sprinkles to the ‘dough’ as I did.

Shape into 1 inch balls by rolling teaspoons of dough in the palm of your hand. Place the dough

balls on waxed paper-lined baking sheets and pop the tray into the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes until firm.

In a microwave safe bowl, melt the chocolate by microwaving it for a few seconds at a time stirring until smooth.

Dip the dough balls into the chocolate; place on waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Sprinkle with edible glitter, sprinkles or more chocolate.

Refrigerate until firm, about 15 minutes.

Cook’s notes: I had intended to make cake batter truffles but when I researched recipes most of them called for readymade cake mix, which I don’t have as I never use the stuff. I then researched cookie dough truffles. Most of the recipes called for condensed milk, which I rarely ever have in the cupboard as Matt has a tendency to eat it all, I ignored this and decided to play with what I did have (the ingredients to bake a cake minus the egg of course). They were fun, very sweet and easy to make, H only ate the ones not tainted by dark chocolate and asked to make them again so I take this as high praise indeed and made sure to scribble down my recipe as such.

Dream Share

2011-05-10T08:37:00.000-07:00

red riding hood doll I'm working on

Selena of Apron Thrift Girl has blogged her Dream Share dreams for May and I thought I would jump in and share my dreams too. It's a great way to get out dreams out there and perhaps make those dreams a tiny bit more attainable. I shall keep checking back to Selena's post to see what everyone's dreaming and see if there is a way I can help someone in my own small way.

my dreams for May:

* I would love to write for a magazine. I have a Somerset Studios magazine or two and find them so inspiring I would love to write something or submit one of my dolls to Prims or Stuffed (that little dream has been in my head for awhile now and I dare not write it down or share it before now) I'm very scared to do so but I want to.

* I want to do some short story writing and submit it to publishers. I'm not sure I'm ready to write my own book but would love to share some small piece of my writing more than just in blog form.

... I think for now these two little dreams are big enough for me.

What are your Dreams?

Miss Gertrude on Indie Fixx

2011-05-06T03:30:00.000-07:00

Miss Gertrude

My dolls.. or Miss Gertrude got a mention on Indie Fixx yesterday in a post about some fantastic plush makers in the UK. I am quite speechless to be included with some very talented crafters.

Please go have a look here

Miss Gertrude's story can be found here

I'm doodling honest....

the white owl's sharpie pens

2011-05-06T02:36:00.000-07:00

White owl cigar box filled with vintage ephemera.

behind the sharpies is a stack of fabric & magazines

I'm home. I have returned my loyal blog readers. Well technically we arrived home on Sunday but with the jetlag and grumps nobody was close enough to human until today. I may still be less than human but I'm here and I'm blogging so that you don't forget me, and so I don't put of writing for another day.

buttons, buttons and more buttons on a vintage tart tin.

Yesterday I did the last of the unpacking. Now I just need to drag all the suitcases back into the attic and finish sorting out the pile of craft treasure that have overtaken my little desk. Mostly vintage buttons from yard sales, estate sales and a lovely junk & antique shop in Coeur d'Alene, ID. I will blog about our trip, adventures in thrifting and playing with pugs but the sun is shinning for a little bit so I'm going to grab my notebook and sit in the garden doodling a few ideas for dolls I have and writing the notes for a story that is rattling around in my head... way more fun than doing the housework... right?

mmm sharpie pens

At the airport

2011-04-15T06:26:00.001-07:00

GeoTagged, [N51.47262, E0.48860]

Boarding in about five minutes.

I will tweet sporadically on the other side when we are in hotels and coffee shops with free wifi. @meridianariel

I'm packing for the wilds of northern idaho

2011-04-14T02:47:00.000-07:00

running around like a mad thing today packing for our trip to visit my parents in Idaho. I'm sure I will a) over pack b) forget something essential c) have a hissy fit at the laundry or the dishes or d) melt down as that cat had climbed into one of the suitcases to be packed!!!!

I have a few blog posts that I need to finish writing up later when I have a break for my lunch, Right now I'm checking on the tracking number for a parcel of biscuits that is being delivered today. *runs around in circles*

where are all the damn chargers?

Idaho Baked Potato Soup

2011-04-13T01:31:00.000-07:00

Idaho Baked Potato Soup

ingredients:

4 large baking potatoes (or 6 medium sized potatoes)

1/3 cup butter

salt and pepper

6 cups milk (I used 1 cup water and 5 cups of milk)

1 onion

1 clove garlic (minced)

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 cup sour(ed) cream

1 cup strong/sharp cheddar cheese

10 slices of (streaky) bacon (cooked and crumbled) optional

green onion

Directions:

Bake the potatoes then let cool completely before scooping out the middle, and roughly chopping all of the potato and half of the potato skin (discard the other half of the potato skins or bake them in the oven topped with cheese).

In a large pan fry the onion and garlic in the butter and balsamic vinegar.

Add 3/4ths potato, chopped potato skin, milk, water, sour cream, cheddar cheese, salt and pepper.

Use a hand/stick blender to blitz up the soup.

Add the remainder of the chopped up potato. Stir gently and bring just to the boil.

Serve hot with a sprinkle of cheese, crumbled bacon (optional) and green onions.

cook's notes: It's a simple soup and there are many ways to prepare it, this is just my simple way. There is no messing about making a roux out of flower when the potato is thick enough. You may need to add more milk or water to the soup as it has a tendency towards the thick side. It's one of my favourite winter warmers... or for freezing cold spring days.

etc magazine, coffee and dreaming of zines

2011-04-12T06:04:00.000-07:00

etc magazine

This afternoon my friend Claire popped by for coffee, gossip and to bring me my very one brown paper wrapped copy of etc magazine. Claire wrote, edited, and photographed the magazine along with Deb of Fabulous Places. We drank coffee, attempted to sit in the garden for all of 2 minutes before the cold breeze drove us to huddle on the sofa gossiping and dreaming. I flipped through the magazine cooing over photos, places and food while we chatted. The magazine is lovely Claire did a brilliant job, I do think I should probably have gotten her to sign it for me before she had to trundle off to fetch her son from school.

brown paper parcel tied up with ribbon

and paper straws

We had a great chat about the magazine, about the desire to do something just a little bit more than what we both do now. I tried to convince her to start writing a book or the next issue of the magazine, to include a few tutorials for crafting, gardening, and woodworking, etc. I talked of my desire to do more writing and wish to if not write a book than to have my crafts and stories included in book, magazine or zine form. I showed Claire the zine book that arrived in the post minutes before she arrived. It's been a dream of mine for awhile to turn my little stories into a little booklet/zine but I had difficulty wrapping my brain around the idea and quickly went on to other things.

doodle of Merle the Ghost Boy

(he's a typography nut you know)

Talking with Claire has made me think again that I want to do a little bit more that what I am doing and that I want to try to make a zine and if possible submit some writing somewhere. I'm not sure where yet, but I will think about it and in the mean time I'm going to draw more and write more too. Yesterday I drew Merle the ghost boy on a book page and thought that perhaps I should doodle all of the dolls I have made recently. Perhaps they would make nice post cards with the stories on the back? Or just the illustrations to their stories if I turn them into a little zine. What do you think lovely readers? If I made a little zine would you buy it from me? Would you like me to write you a story or blog post for your blog? Am I just dreaming?

I may not be dreaming right now, my tea is cold and my biscuit is long gone.

the Nightmare Before Valentine's Day Swap Recieved

2011-04-10T10:15:00.000-07:00

brown paper book

Here are a few snaps of the lovely Nightmare Before Valentine's Day Swap package I received from the lovely Jessica. I think she outdid herself sending me such a marvellous parcel in the post. I was beaming for days after the parcel arrived and I pawed through all the little goodies she thoughtfully gathered and crafted for me.
beautiful cover of the book Jessica made me

I told Jessica that Jack Skellington was one of my favourite Tim Burton creations so she designed her swap parcel around him (much more coordinated than I am). She made me a lovely pocket organizer (made with stripy fabric and vintage doilies no less) and a paper bag book (I had no idea what that was, my paper crafts abilities are quite small but the book she made is smashing. She wrote in a note that she thought I might like to draw and paint on the pages she crafted, I'm not sure I'm ready to draw and paint on the pages but the book sits beside my desk and I keep having a flip though the beautifully crafted pages when I need a little inspiration.

jam jar of buttons, cupcake cases and halloween cupcake toppers

Jessica did some snooping into my blog and my love of bon maman jam jars for craft storage... and drinking glasses. She filled a jar with black and white cupcake cases, some ace cupcake toppers, and red, white and black buttons. How awesome is that? I still have a few of the Mounds chocolates she sent me, they are hidden on my desk which is in an odd state of tidyness at the moment.

pocket hanger/organizer, a box filled with mounds

chocolate and coconut candies.

I love the packet of vintage ephemera she sent, I don't know what I shall make with this small horde of vintage papers, they are gorgeous and inspiring and I'm itching to doodle on one or two of them. It was a fabulous swap and I am so grateful to have had Jessica as my swap partner. We are off on holiday Friday to visit my parents otherwise I might be tempted to think up an idea for the next swap I host. ;o)

gorgeous paper ephemera, buttons and ribbon. <3

dark chocolate torte

2011-04-08T06:23:00.000-07:00

mmmmm

Dark Chocolate Torte

Ingredients:

2 cups extra thick double cream ( whipping cream will work too)

3 tablespoons caster/white sugar

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 cups (1lb of chocolate= 455g) of dark chocolate (60-70 % cocoa solids) chopped into chunks.*

5 tablespoons milk

cocoa or icing sugar for decoration (optional)

For the base:

1½ cups of biscuit/cookie crumbs (I used chocolate covered digestives as that's what I had .)
2 tablespoons melted butter

Mix the biscuit/cookie crumbs and the melted butter. Mix well and press firmly into a lightly greased 8-inch spring form pan and place into the refrigerator.

instructions for the filling:

Put the double cream and sugar into a sauce pan over medium heat and bring to the boil.

Remove the pan from the heat and add the butter and chocolate chunks and stir until the chocolate has melted. (you may need to sample the mixture too see if you need to add any more sugar to you taste. or that's the excuse you will need to use)

Let the mixture cool slightly before adding the milk and mixing until smooth.

Pour the mixture over the biscuit/cookie base. Let cool at room temperature for 30 minute before chilling for an hour in the refrigerator.

sparklers optional

Cook's notes: I have no idea what the difference between a torte and a tart are if you want to get persnickety. I just know the recipe works for me, it's simple and tastes good and I have been making it for years. Matthew requested it for his birthday the other week so that's what I made. It makes a very rich slice of chocolate heaven so suggest you slice it in small pieces and hoard the rest away in the fridge.

served with a dollop of lightly whipped cream

* the chocolate is more or less two cups worth as it depends on who is stealing..er helping make the torte by tasting the chocolate. Very important to taste the chocolate.

geeky browncoat card I made for Matt's Birthday.

I love Wash... don't tell Matt!

my head is spinning

2011-04-07T09:21:00.000-07:00

I have in a tizz the last two weeks so much to get done before we fly to visit my parents and I don't think I have gotten half the things done that need to be done. We have had craft nights at school, school meetings, birthdays (Matt's), anniversaries (our tenth), Mothering Sunday, bank appointments and running around like headless chickens... spin, spin, spin.

I have still managed to do some junking, thrifting and a bit of crafting. I have made a few cards and some doll/monster making that has calmed me and made me stop and enjoy that rare gift of English springtime. The sun has even been out for a visit so I have got to grab a little bit of sunshine here and there to make me feel like I have finally stepped out of the winter blues.

My blog was visited by the Appliances Online Fairy Hobmother who stalks the blogsphere gifting bloggers with amazon vouchers asking for people to visit their website and looking at their cookers.Yes it is marketing, but I believe it's relevant to my blog or I would not have considered accepting the gift of an Amazon voucher or blogging about the Fairy Hobmother, but they are a shop selling kitchen appliances and I spend a huge amount of time in the kitchen and blogging about my baking.

Ian the Fairy Hobmother (Yes I know it should be the Fairy HobFather but apparently that makes people think of horseheads in the fridge and cement filled cooking pots which is a shame as the Fairy Hobfather would be ace) was very nice and says when I have blogged about the Fairy HobMother he will choose someone who comments to get a voucher for themselves.

I think in today's hard time you take what you are offered and keep giving back to others. I'm not a famous blogger, I'm just me but if in blogging about the Fairy Hobmother and someone else gets gifted with a voucher who am I to say no? I am cooking, and baking all the time, and if I could afford it I would have a fancy schmancy kitchen filled with all the latest gadgets and doodahs you can imagine. Its amazing how something small and nice can make a day that much better.

I think it's time for a coffee break now. Don't you? So I'm putting the coffee maker on and sitting out in the garden to enjoy the magnolia tree and the cherry blossoms and daffodils.

Malice in Valentine City

2011-04-01T09:05:00.000-07:00

Malice posing with camera and skeleton key

Malice lives on the edge of Valentine City in a crumbling castle with whispering ghosts. She cries in the rain and laughs in the snow. Malice carries the tarnished key to her heart pinned to her dress. Her heart lies buried in a wooden box beneath the castle.

Once she fell in love and her heart was broken, dashed to pieces and she no longer lives in the bubbling metropolis of Valentine City filled with lovers, cherubs, flower garlands, frothy lace, heart shaped chocolate boxes, and Valentine’s cards. She roams the edge of the city in search of heartbreakers to destroy. To toy with their hearts as her heart was shattered into sharp edged pieces. She paints sorrow on candy hearts, and embroiders broken hearts onto rose petals.

Sally moleskin and the top of the key and button necklace

I made Malice and an assortment of other goodies for Jessica my partner in the Nightmare Before Valentine's Day Tim Burton-esq Swap. I dithered over what to make Jessica for ~~days~~

weeks, I doodled in my note book ,read and re-read her likes and dislikes for the swap and finally decided to make a doll that would fit into Burton's Holiday World as her favourite film was Nightmare Before Christmas and Sally is Jessica's favourite Burton character.

Malice and her story card leaning against my inspiration board

I drew Sally on a sheet of book paper and decoupaged it to the cover of a little moleskin notebook. Then I made a heart pincushion in a vaguely primitive style with ribbon, lace, stripped ticking and a vintage button. Then I procrastinated for quite a bit gathering together some vintage haberdashery, a little clock stamp and ephemera items to go with the swap (better than candy and chocolate I think...a little bit better any way.) I made the necklace with a vintage key and red button (I slightly cheated here as I had made myself the same necklace with matching key and button the week before).

Sally notebook, pendant, pin badge, pincushion and pocket watch stamp

When I had procrastinated long enough I gathered together my fabrics, doilies and buttons and made Malice. I don't have much of a technique when it comes to doll making I tend to go with what scraps of fabric I have and begin sewing in a bit of a haphazard way. I do draw ideas for dolls and as I make them and draw them bits of story float through my mind and then everything seems to fall together.

Malice

I like that Malice carries a little key and though she is one of my simpler dolls I think she has a lot of heart even if it is locked up in a box safe and sound. I think she would live happily in Halloween Town don't you?

book page ~~doodle~~ illustration (one of my favourites)

all wrapped up, the pin badge is a typed quote

from Nightmare before Christmas

'What's wrong? I thought you liked Frog's breath.'

Miss Gertrude the Gatekeeper

2011-03-30T05:40:00.000-07:00

Miss Gertrude the Gatekeeper

Miss Gertrude Grey is the Gatekeeper of Greymere Cemetery. Her father the venerable Professor Gideon Grey died leaving poor Gertrude with only the crumbling house filled with books and the skeleton key to the cemetery gates.

Each night she listens to the gears of her father’s collection of clocks waiting for them to toll the hours of the night. After midnight when the fog is thick in the empty streets she ventures out to the Greymere. She stalks the night voluminous skirts whispering against gravestones. From her pocket she withdraws a map of the cemetery each mausoleum and crypt carefully drawn. She follows a winding path, skirts brushing against headstones and crypts until she stood before the stature of a long forgotten lady.

Gertrude removed the skeleton key from around her neck and slipped the key into the intricately carved base of the stature. The key turned and Gertrude listened to gears grinding and turning before a small door slid back. She stepped through into the darkness and down a creaking spiralling stairs deep below the cemetery grounds. At the bottom of the stairs gas lamps flicker to life and Gertrude enters what was once her father’s laboratory. It is filled with rusting hulks of machinery, broken gears and levers, books, and dusty glass bottles filled with strange items and coloured liquids.

Everywhere are scattered notes and drawings in her father’s precise handwriting, piled high on the work bench, pinned up on the wall. Gertrude reaches out to brush her fingers against her father’s notes and the tools gathering dust upon his desk. A ghostly smile crosses her face as she picks up a small heart shaped machine from his desk turning it over and over in her hands looking at it through a golden filigree magnifying glass. She picks up a pair of delicate tweezers and sets to work adjusting the tiny cogs and springs within the apparatus.

Miss Gertrude locks the gates at night of ancient Greymere Cemetery, but when the hours dwindle she spends her nights in her father's secret lab building the machines he never finished and creating new clockwork curiosities.

Gertrude will be listed in my little etsy shop in a few moments.

by the power of..

2011-03-24T08:18:00.000-07:00

Monday morning I wandered up into town to grab a few essentials from the grocery shop and I just happened to wander into a few charity shops and the one decent coffee shop in town. I found to my delight some vintage Ladybird children's books. Two learning books and three awesomely 80's Masters of the Universe books. I have used a very broken up copy of a He-Man book to make some pin badges awhile ago and these three are in much better condition. I'm not sure what I shall do with them but they are all fantastic. I had a quick thought about trying to resell them but I really haven't got a clue about such things as that, I will probably just keep them for swaps (80's cartoon swap anyone?) or make cards and badges out of them.

After nursing a latte for as long as possible I walked to the little antiques shop in town and found the small fruit knife in the first photo. It was only £2 and needs to be tidied up a bit but as it was only small and had a little loop for hanging it on a keychain I took it home and made it into a little necklace with a small vintage key and a small red button.

I think it looks rather smart.

Probably not very safe to wear on a plane next month.

glass beads, rusty keys and why I love twitter

2011-03-19T03:40:00.000-07:00

glass beaded key pendant

This beautiful handmade pendant arrived in the post from the ever so talented Laura who gets to play with fire for a living. Seriously how cool is bead making? I assure you I don't want to have a go, fire and I have an unspoken agreement not to toy with each other ever. She is also a Browncoat, which makes her shiny in my book. Laura is one of the tiny twitter people that live in my laptop and phone. I don't know if I have told you this before but I think twitter is awesome. I have met some fantastic people via twitter, real life coffee drinking people. And tea drinkers too, but we don't talk about them.

You either get twitter or you don't. It's as simple as that. When I try to explain it as sort of a way to text friends via the internet I get an odd look from non-twitter people.

The majority of the people I follow on twitter are crafters, the rest are geeks, and most of the crafters are geeks as well so we all get along in out little 140 character bubble. The crafting community online is a really fantastic and supportive place, with everyone willing to share, swap, and help each other out. I, like many bloggers (I presume), am a bit of an introvert and quite shy, I don't have many friends in the town I live it, I could name them all on one hand, but the crafters,bakers, geeks, miscreants and vague sociopaths I know from twitter, blogs, and facebook are ten fold the amount of friends I have. And I do mean friends, I have met quite a few and they are some of the nicest most generous people I have ever known.

A few weeks ago Laura tweeted me and asked if I would like some vintage keys after seeing some of my crafty creations using vintage keys that I have horded. I said yes and she sent me a lovely little bunch of vintage keys that weren't the right size for her bead making. Which had me asking what beads did she make with vintage keys. She sent me a link to her flickr and I drooled over the Monochrome Key pendant there and told he she *has* to make a red bead key pendant because that would be ace. Two days ago a red polk-a-dot key pendant appeared in my post. I wasn't expecting it and I may have cried a tiny bit at the kindness and generosity of one of my lovely 'pretend friends'.

I love twitter.

Thank you Laura. You are so gorram shiny.

Iris the dryad doll for Japan

2011-03-16T06:50:00.000-07:00

Iris the dryad

Iris dreams big dreams as she tends the flowers in her poison garden. Hellebore, columbine, foxglove, black henbane, bluebells , mistletoe, monkshood, poppies, oleander, stinging nettles and thorny apples, nightshade, wormwood, willow and yew.

Flowers, so delicate and earthly fair. Beauty that hides bitter poison filled secrets. Iris was human once, long ago forsaken by her love in grief and anger she became a dryad and her heart became a green and wild thing. She grows flowers in her poison garden flowers to heal and flowers to kill. Each afternoon she sets a tea party in her beautiful poison garden, delicate porcelain cups and saucers and a tea pot brewing tears, curls of steam dancing on the breeze.

Will you take tea with Iris? She made it herself.

Iris is listed in my etsy shop all profit for her sale will go to the red cross Japan fund. Her listing expired awhile ago and I thought about giving her away but I think this is better. Harrison has been very interested in what has happened and is happening in Japan. So listing a few dolls and donating is something helpful we can do together. I also have some things to take up to the Red Cross Charity shop in town that will hopefully help too.

popovers recipe

2011-03-15T05:58:00.001-07:00

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1 cup milk

2 large eggs

1/4 teaspoon salt

butter to grease the muffin tin

Directions:

1. In a medium sized bowl or jug mix together flour, milk, eggs, salt. Mix well, the batter may be slightly lumpy. Let the batter rest for about 30 minutes before you continue.

2. grease 6 cups of a muffin tin (or popover tin if you are lucky enough to own one.)

3. pour the batter into the muffin tins filling them three-quarters full.

4. place the tin into a cold oven.

5. Set the oven temperature to 200C (450F) bake for 20-30 minutes until browned and crusty. Do not open the oven until cooking time is finished.

6. Remove the popovers from the oven and transfer them to a cooling rack. Pierce each popover with a knife to vent steam and serve immediately with butter, jam, syrup and fresh fruit.

cook's notes: I had been wanting to make these for awhile but never got around to it until this morning. Muffins are my usual go to freshly baked breakfast but the popovers were easy to make and everyone enjoyed them. Matt and I had butter and raspberry jam on ours and Harrison covered his popovers with maple syrup. I would have liked to have served them with some fresh berries and bananas but the shopping wont be done until tomorrow. I read through many different recipes on Food.com and Martha Stewart's Perfect Popovers, then as per my usual style I winged it and went with the simplest easiest way.

I best go get some housework, writing and typing done. But first I must share with you a picture I took on the way into Derby this morning. A very creepy skip lorry... I'm convinced it's Reavers. (sorry couldn't not have this little Firefly reference)

there are gorram Reavers in Derbyshire.

I am such a geek.

silver cup, buttons and books

2011-03-14T09:56:00.000-07:00

silver egg cup and vintage buttons

I have been in a bit better mood the last week. The sun has returned on an off and we have had some lovely walks. I even managed a few thrifty trips to various charity shops. And I won't get in trouble for what i bought as Matt was with me both times, and he bought a few cds and some hamma beads with Harrison. *quitely swears*

On a trip into Nottingham to grab lunch we went into the Oxfam books shop and I bought a vintage Doctor Who annual from 1978, and a vintage ladybird telephone book. I bought them for card and pin badge making if I can bare to cut into them. Yesterday I bought the little silver cup, I think it must be silver plate. I love the patina of age on it and I plan to turn it into a little pincushion when I sit down to do some sewing a little bit later. I also found a dozen or so white buttons and a vintage pressed glass button that will used for doll making.

Dr Who annual and ladybird telephone book

please check out Apron Thrift Girl for Thrift Share Monday. Where some proper thrifting has been done by some lovely bloggers. Also please have a look at the little doll Harrison and I have made and listed in my etsy shop, the profits for the doll will all go to the Red Cross Earthquake Tsunami Japan fund.

the A to Z of me

2011-03-14T02:16:00.000-07:00

button and key pendant I'm wearing

a little meme unabashedly thieved from from Emma who stole it from someone else so its totally ok. Any Excuse to better my attempts at procrastination.. but first I must put the coffee machine one...

*slurps coffee* alrighty then lets begin at the beginning

A. Age: 33. Until the very end of next month.

B. Bed size: Double though it came from ikea so it is probably so odd measurement instead of an actual size.

C. Chore you dislike: hoovering and painting walls

D. Dogs: I wish. My parents have a pack of little pugs and I'm campaigning to get one here. I just need to find someone to take care of it when we go to visit my parents and thier dogs in the wilds of Idaho

E. Essential start to your day: Coffee....its the only way to start the day.

F. Favorite colour: Red.. which makes me laugh as I used to hate the colour back in the days of working at Target in Santa Rosa when I had to wear a red shirt every day. Strangely I never got phaser-ed or left behind on a mission to an alien world. Purple is my other favourite colour from when i was a little kid as I hated pink..and I still do.

G. Gold or silver: silver. my mother has always worn silver and so do I. Gold just seems a bit tacky.

H. Height: 5ft 5. I am average in height.

I. Instruments you play(ed): er none. I had a keyboard as a kid and taught myself to play jingle bells and a few other things. We also had to play recorders in school which was just painful. I have no musical aptitude whatsoever.

J. Job title: I'm technically secretary of the studio (Field Photographic) though I mostly just do busy work that Matt brings home for me.. occasionally if I'm very good or bad I get to help lug cameras about. Mostly I am at home, shoddily doing the housework, crafting, and lots of cooking to keep everyone happy.

K. Kids: just the Boy. but believe me he is enough trouble for anyone.

L. Live: Derbyshire England, the town isn't so great but we are very near to so beautiful places and now that spring is here everything will be lovely and happy. I am always in a much better mood when the sun returns to the sky.

M. Mom’s name: Marie

N. Nicknames: Meri. Its been that for awhile from mumsnet and a shortening of my blog Meridian Ariel, which used to be a chat room handle from ye olden days of the internet. I also always wanted a more exotic, less month based name when I was a kid and would pretend to be an assortment of Alexandrias, Meridians, Catherines, etc. I like Meri best though.

O. Overnight hospital stays: twice. the first time was when I was pregnant with H and had hyperemisis and was put on a drip for a week in hospital because I got so dehydrated from all the up-chucking all day every day. It was hell on earth. the other time was when I had H. they wanted to keep me in over night which was a good thing because I came down with the flu over night and was somewhat delirious.

P. Pet peeves: I have many. Top of the list is chewing with your mouth open. Talking with food in your mouth and generally being rude and obnoxious.

Q. Quote from a movie: ‘Shiny. Let's be bad Guys' Jayne in Serenity. I wear the quote in pin badge form on my jacket. It makes me happy.

R. Righty or lefty: lefty

S. Siblings: none. Just me.. unless you could all the animals I was raised with. ;o)

T. Time you wake up: 6.30 ish... well its aroudn then that H gets up and starts talking. I don't actually get out of bed till about 7am.

U. Underwear: Sainsbury's. I'm classy me.

V. Vegetables you don’t like: brussel sprouts. but broccoli hates me.

W. What makes you run late: I try not to be but usually its one of two reasons. 1) getting the Boy motivated and ready to go out is a nearly impossible task. And then when he is out you notice things like his trousers are on backwards or he has chocolate all over his face. or 2) I have at the last minute decided to do some chore or other. say laundry which means shuffling it all along the line. seperating stuff out. then making sure the cats aren't in the garage. The having to take the stupid cat Starbuck back to the house as he has tried to follow me down the road twice this past week and he has no brain.

X. X-rays you’ve had: dental x-rays only. I am thick boned and have never broken anything. touch wood.

Y. Yummy food you make: I'm pretty good in the kitchen. I bake all sorts of goodies cakes, muffins, brownies. And a pretty good cook for everything else. I do love to cook though I don't think I will ever be as good a chef as my dad. I rarely ever do full roast dinners except for holidays. I wait till we go visit my parents as my dad makes the best roast chicken and gravy, roast beef .. well anything. I miss my dad's cooking.

Z. Zoo animal favourites: I always loved seeing the tigers, but we used to go to Marine World Africa USA (which is now Six Flags Marine World) and there was a big tiger enclosure and the keepers would give them cream from a carton. I also loved to see the owls and any of the baby animals.

that's me a to z ... what about you?

Doll for Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief

2011-03-13T01:10:00.000-08:00

*****SOLD*****

We have been watching the news coverage of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. It is devastating and Harrison and I have decided to sell this little nameless doll and give 100% of the profits from her sale to the Red Cross Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Japan fund.

Harrison helped me to to make the doll by helping to fill her with toy filler. She has no name so is waiting for you to name her and give us a few ideas to craft a little story card for her.

if you like she can be 'aged/grunged up with a special mixture of coffee, tea, vanilla and cinnamon, the same mix I use to add colour to the story cards I make for the rest of my dolls.

the doll is listed here on etsy please have a look at her and all the other lovely crafts on etsy for Japan.

Upcycled storybook badge

2011-03-12T06:12:00.000-08:00

A little pin badge I made awhile ago and listed in my etsy shop the other day. Yes its a wee bit naughty but how many times have you thought that? Exactly. The badge is made with paper from a salvaged ladybird fairy tale book, vintage book paper,and old typewriter and ink. Made using a professional badge machine. The pin badge is presented on a coffee stained note card. The badge measures 1 ½ in (38mm).

basic muffin recipe

2011-03-11T04:06:00.000-08:00

basic muffins (these have cherries* in them)

ingredients:

• 2 cups plain flour
• ½ cup melted butter (unsalted/sweetcream)
• 1 cup milk (any)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup sugar

• 1 cup fruit or chocolate

• 1-2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions:
add flour, butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, salt, baking powder to a mid sized bowl and mix well. It's as easy as that.

add your choice of fruit/chocolate/butterscotch chips and fold in gently.

spoon into muffin pans between 1/2 - 3/4 full .

Bake in preheated 375F (180C) oven 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

* the cherries were from a jar of cocktail cherries that I chopped up. I seem to be short on fruit other than the green bananas in the bowl and the apples that Harrison has claimed as his and his alone.

cook's notes: This is the basic recipe I use for nearly all my sweet muffins... to make savoury you leave out the vanilla and all but 2 tablespoons sugar. I've written up this recipe for a twitter baking challenge. So if you are looking for it on twitter look for the hash tag #michelebakes . Any questions please leave a comment here or on twitter and I will get back to you.

the Ghost Boy

2011-03-09T04:14:00.000-08:00

Merle the Ghost Boy

The ghost boy lives in a boarded up shop at the end of a dark twisting ally. Behind a rusty chain, a lock with no key and a door that might once have been green but now is black with age. The shop is filled with books, paper, ink, typewriters, wooden letterpress blocks and archaic machinery. He thinks his name might once have been Merle, or Mervin or maybe Fox. It’s been so long since anyone has ever asked.

The night is filled with the moans, shrieks, and groans of the printing press as the Ghost Boy plays with ink and letterpress blocks. He reads his books, prints stories and posters of fantastical imaginary things. He pins up posters on telephone poles and plasters them on walls. He makes up typography jokes that nobody ever hears. Nobody ever laughs but him.

He walks though the town when the lights are dim and laughs at signs in papyrus, comic sans and arial black. He painstakingly prints graffiti letter by letter onto white painted walls to share the beauty of typography and words. He painstakingly types letters and notes, and slips them into newspapers and books in the library and the bookshops in town. He waits and waits for the books to be opened and his secret notes to be found.

------

the Ghost Boy was made with love using scraps of fabric, vintage thread and buttons, he is filled with toy filler. Merle comes with his very own story card. I have listed Merle on etsy, click here or click on the link on the sidebar.

Wordless Wednesday: side table with Grandma's tatted doily

2011-03-09T02:09:00.000-08:00

junk shop treasure

2011-03-07T05:24:00.000-08:00

I am not a big shopper, I never have been I probably will never be. With the exception of book shops and a bit of thrifting. I never bring back very much but I have a small hoard of vintage buttons (in black, red, and white) and doilies that I use for crafting dolls.. and books for reading and tattered ones for more crafting. The last few weeks I have had some good luck with finding buttons and bits to craft with.

On a recent trip to York we went to the Banana Junk Warehouse. We dug through towering shelves filled with all manner of things. Books, suitcases, furniture, knitting needles, a fabulous old typewriter, a very old sewing machine that I coveted madly but weighed as much as two elephants. I bought a wooden box, buttons, red plastic knitting needles, and a very rusty gate key.

After that while everyone went to watch and sample fudge I scuttled to the Oxfam Books shop and scored a Neil Gaiman book I hadn't read, and five Star Wars cine-manga books 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 for Harrison (who had the 4th book at Christmas. In amongst tea at Betty's Tearooms, buying bread from the tiny bakery down the Shambles, and walking along the city walls I also went into Cath Kidston with my lovely Mother-in-Law. I don't buy much from there, most of it is a little too flowery for me and a lot expensive. In the end I walked away with two little samples of fabric which may turn into dolls like this one.

The last two weekends we happened to go into Matlock twice to visit the Antiques Centre, and a little thrift shop down the road from it. You wouldn't think an antique shop would have anything remotely thrifty but there are always doilies and buttons to be found that are quite cheaply priced. I'm look forward to visiting Tansley car boot ('car boot' roughly translates into 'flea market with lots of plastic toys and knock off DVDs') some Sunday soon when the weather is nice.

I'm linking this blog post to Selena's lovely Apron Thrift Girl : Thrift Share Monday blog post. Please go check out what inspiring treasures she has found, and the links to other great thrifting blogs.

I can't crochet a stone....

2011-03-07T04:51:00.000-08:00

...but I can paint one. The sun is out today and I have been pottering around the garden, soaking up the sunshine and painting a little rock. I have felt so much happier with just a smidge of sunshine. I have happily done dishes, laundry, and hoovering up. In a few minutes I need to sort out some badges that sold and get then wrapped up nicely. Then I shall walk up to the post office with my ipod blaring something loud and happy...I'm thinking Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog as I always smile when I listen to that....or Eye of the Tiger on a Supernatural mixtape/playlist. I am such a geek. :oP

What are you up to today? I hope you have a little bit of sunshine where ever you are. :o)

button bookmarks

2011-03-01T06:30:00.000-08:00

ingredients:

vintage buttons

craft glue

wooden coffee stirrers (I saved mine from Starbucks but plenty of other coffee shops have them)

Instructions:

1. clean and dry your coffee stirrers so they aren't covered in coffee, sugar, and syrup.

2. choose buttons.

3. glue buttons to coffee stirrers. let dry and bookmark your place in a book.
crafter's notes: a tiny simple craft to keep kids occupied. If you can bare to part with a few buttons... and suffer through drinking a coffee while out and about in the shops. The burdens we have as parents sometimes. :o) a fun quick craft project that can travel well, so that you need only bring a few buttons and a smidge of glue or double-sided tape with you when sitting in a coffee shop. Any excuse for more coffee. :o)

button bracelets

2011-02-28T02:37:00.000-08:00

ingredients:

1x bored child

vintage buttons (modern will do)

cord (any colour, I got mine from a bead shop, make sure the cord fits through the button holes)

instructions:

1. push the cord through the button holes and knot it at the back leaving two equal lengths of cord.

2. knot the cord (or braid/plait it) along the desired length.

3. knot the cord at the end of the braid/plait twice with enough space between the two knots to slip the button through.

4. Wear button bracelet proudly and make another one for daddy.

crafter's notes: it's a simple little craft project and I can't think of a way this can go wrong. Harrison hadn't wanted to craft with me for ages but does love to play with my modest vintage button collection. I remembered I had some cord left over from a jewellery project so I dug that out and we made simple knotted and braided/plaited bracelets. Harrison was bouncy and happy with his red button bracelet and insisted we make another one for Matt. I've run out of cord now so I best add that to my shopping list for next time I'm at a craft shop.

I best get back to the housework and finishing the two dolls I'm working on. They should be listed in my shop soon... so keep checking back.

Coffee, chocolate and keys

2011-02-23T06:19:00.001-08:00

Sat in 'I should cocoa' chocolate shop drinking an americano with cream while Harrison has a chocolate shake. He is ignoring me and playing on his DSi. That's ok though as I brought a doll to sew. *happy*

tshirt necklace with vintage keys

2011-02-22T04:16:00.000-08:00

This morning I thought i would make a tshirt necklace. It's been on my craft list for ages and I thought I would have a go at making one while I had some spare time. I diligently googled 't-shirt necklace tutorials' 't-shirt scarves diy' etc and failed at every turn to find a tutorial I liked, or a picture that actually led to a tutorial, several had been yanked from their blogs with no explanations. No help at all. I grumbled on twitter and my friend Juanita said :

tortillaloaves Juanita C.

@meridianariel Surely you can come up with something better :)

So I went digging though my t-shirts and remembered the knit tshirt scarflette I made the other year. I dug out the t-shirt scarflette which was hiding behind some books in my bedside cabinet and unravelled it. The tutorial I wrote for making t-shirt yarn is here if you want to give it a go its pretty simple and you can use seemed t-shirts which I have more of than unseemed.

Instead of using loops of t-shirt I wound the t-shirt yarn around my hand and a know on my chest of drawers (but you can get someone to help you) I place the yarn around my neck pulling at the strands till they went the way I wanted them too then I tied the ends of the yarn together around all of the strands. If at any time I can undo the knots and remake the yarn into something else. I think took three small vintage keys and looped yarn through them to hold them in place. The whole craft took less than 15 minutes. The yarn is still wiggly from being knit but I like the effect and am sure it will fall out eventually.

jelly bean paper parcels

2011-02-21T04:18:00.000-08:00

Its half term so that means making a few things with Harrison. If I can tear him away from the DSi or his lego to craft with me. I have tried to get him to bake some cakes, colour, and go for walks. He said no to everything until I said we should make something with jelly beans. That got his attention... bribery always works.

So we used a few pages of my much abused French copy of Lord of the Rings that I found on our last trip to Paris a year and a half ago..or is that two years? We made a simple square pouch first. I folded a sheet of paper in half then Harrison carefully placed the jelly beans inside before I finished sewing the last edge together. Feeling more confident we decided to make something with a slightly more difficult shape. But what could we make? A marshmallow bunny shaped peep! It was a quick fun craft that I had been wanting to try for ages and Harrison loved helping and eating the jelly beans of course.

a pincushion tutorial...ish

2011-02-17T03:14:00.000-08:00

Today instead of doing the crafting I'm mean to be doing I made a little pincushion. Don't worry i will be doing some of the crafting I NEED to get done a little later after I have consumed vast quantities of coffee and had a little stroll around town. Tomorrow is an inset day at school before half term so I'm determined to get the most out of today and have some me time. Which includes sewing for no reason and going for a stomp around town with my ipod blaring in my ears. Anyway here is a little tutorial that you can use to justify the buying of chocolate. Seriously.

ingredients:
1 package of Sainsbury's pots au chocolat (or any alternative pudding in a little pot)

a spoon

dish soap

fabric

pins

toy filler

all purpose craft glue

these are the puddings you are looking for.

instructions:

1. Open the package of pots au chocolat. Using the spoon scarf down one pot. the wash the ceramic pot with the dish soap and set aside to dry.

2. cut a circle from your fabric that is roughly twice as big as the pot au chocolat ramekin.

3. carefully sew around the fabric circle about a quarter of an inch from the edge. Gently pull the threads together creating a little pouch to stuff to the gills with toy filler. Carefully tie the threads together. It doesn't matter if it looks messy no one will see it.

4. making sure the ramekin is perfectly dry squeeze out a large dollop of glue in the bottom of the pot.

5. carefully place the fabric puff into the pot. You may need to hold it for a minute or two so that the glue adheres to the fabric. And there you go a new pincushion.

crafter's notes: The fabric is a pink and white harlequin that I received in the Alice in Wonderland craft swap. I will probably give the pincushion away as I'm not big on pink but I am pleased with how the pincushion turned out and as there is a second empty ramekin floating about the kitchen I might use that one too.

I heart pinterest

2011-02-15T07:06:00.000-08:00

I am totally addicted to pinterest

the Nightmare Before Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T06:21:00.000-08:00

I finally managed to finish crafting for one of my partners for the Tim Burton Nightmare Before Valentine's Day craft swap. Though I had millions of ideas buzzing around my brain for the swap I ended up running late with the actual crafting of it. This morning I invited my friends Emma and Alison over for coffee and cake and while they were here I finished making a Burton-esque pincushion for Alison who ended up being one of my two craft partners in the swap. So instead of me posting her things I made coffee and gave her a red glitter covered triple chocolate and espresso brownie.... I'm nice like that.

We geekily talked about books, iphone apps and crafts, while I finished sewing and gluing the pincushion in place. I made the pincushion from a little silver plated bowl (possibly a sugar bowl?) that I found at a little junk/antique shop in Cromford (Arkwright's Attic in the mill). When I saw the bowl with it's lovely tarnished silver I knew it would be right for Alison and would fit perfectly into any Burton world.... OK maybe not Mars Attacks or Batman Returns but certainly it wouldn't go amiss in Beetlejuice, Nightmare before Christmas, or Alice in Wonderland. I used a scrap of vintage doily and some black and white ticking that I thought would fit in with the worlds of Burton.

I also gave her a copy of the Meloncholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories by Tim Burton and a small zombie doll with a loose eye as Alison loves books and zombies too. The Corpse Bride is a zombie right? I really had a ball crafting for the swap, when we weren't all under the weather with awful colds and luckily for me I still have one more thing to finish crafting for my second craft partner the lovely Jessica of Kids Napping? I'm Scrapping before I can blog that too.

triple chocolate and espresso brownies

(I should probably write up the recipe)

I best go do some crafting... or put the kettle on for another cup of coffee. It's Valentine's Day and we never do very much but we will watch some crappy horror flicks later.. I quite fancy a zombie film as nothing quite says love like zombies eating brains...right?

suitcases, zombies and tweets

2011-02-08T09:14:00.000-08:00

I haven't done nearly as much crafting as I need to get done. I had planned to use the last of my badge machine components to make some badges up, some to sell and some to give out to a few great crafty friends that I am meeting up with tomorrow morning at Starbucks by Ikea Nottingham. We are having a tweet -up of crafters, some I know who are fantastic and inspire me in my blogging and crafting and a few new people that I haven't met before but crafting and blogging are a great way to meet new friends. Also there is coffee and that is always a fantastic thing.

The only crafting I have done is finish a tiny little zombie doll who I may bring along tomorrow to the tweet up for er moral support? Or I may get myself together and sew together the fabric I have for a new doll. The fabric is hidden in a neat pile inside one of the vintage suitcases I use as craft storage. I Shall then have something to sit and nervously work on while I wait for everyone to show up. (then I will probably hide it because there will be some fantastic crafters at the tweet-up and I will go all self conscious at having such a stellar array of crafty peeps before me.

I planned to have a number of witty blog posts written this week but this cold H gave us has wiped me out. I thought I was getting better on Sunday when I got some crafting and tidying done but today I have felt pants and my brain has run away. So I'm going to make the box of Annie's Mac and Cheese for tea that my friend Jaci sent to me in October. I have hidden it in the cupboard till a time when comfort food is needed. I cannot for the life of me remember telling her that it was a favourite American food stuff. So thank you Jaci for dinner tonight.

blue sun tea towel

2011-02-06T06:26:00.001-08:00

Blue Sun logo tea towel

Blue Sun is the logo for a fictional conglomeration in the Firefly verse. I like to think of it as the Starbucks or McDonald's of the Firefly verse. The logo can be found everywhere on the show, tin cans, ads, and clothing. I love Firefly, in my mind it is the best of Joss Whedon's many brilliant shows. Though very short lived, it was cancelled after 13 episodes, it has a huge browncoat following that made it possible to make the movie Serenity (which I love to bits and makes me tear up every gorram time I watch it).

Serenity's Crew

I bought the dvd box set for myself in January and Matt and I sat through every episode grinning away madly (or that might have just been me). I have the the soundtrack on my ipod and have been listening to it quite a bit. And I got chatting on twitter and facebook with other geeks quoting the show. I even wear a Jayne quote pin badge on my coat. Which isn't geeky enough as I felt the need to do a bit more Firefly crafting.

Blue Sun logo tea towel

Last year I bought a roll of freezer paper and its been sitting in my desk being ignored and gathering dust ever since. I have visited Whedoncraft time and again and was inspired by a few stencilled Blue Sun logo shirts. I thought it was time I got round to doing something too. I had Matt print me the logo and spent ages cutting it out with a craft knife, I am quite useless with craft knives in general but I managed not to cut myself and bleed all over my geekery. The tea towel need to be washed a few times so the fabric paint mellows down and fits in more with something found in the verse. I may even boil it in a pan of tea so it has a more aged look.

Jayne in his Blue Sun shirt

I want a Jayne hat and a Saffron scarf...unfortunately my knitting skills are lacking and my crochet is akin to making a tumor out of yarn.

the story of a chair

2011-01-28T04:47:00.000-08:00

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...

2011-01-20T03:37:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-19T03:59:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-18T05:46:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-12T05:48:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-04T08:28:00.000-08:00

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...

2011-01-04T08:06:00.001-08:00

...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.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-24T12:36:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I hope you have a special day tomorrow where ever you are. Friends old and new, real, and the magical pretend friends that live in my computer. It's been a long year and I think I'm ready to raid the chocolate box before Santa visits our house.

Best Wishes,

Apryl (Meri)

a little window

2010-12-20T12:05:00.000-08:00

On my trudge to the post office today I saw a little window sitting in a skip. I coveted it immediately and with a little encouragement from twitter I decided that if it was still there when I walk back home that it was meant to be mine. I braved the hostile queue at the post office, ran around getting chocolate, oats and milk (cold weather essentials) then flounced back in a huff, slipping and sliding on the icy pavement while my ipod blared in my ears.

Low and behold there was the little window still in the skip with a layer of ice and snow on it. I fished it out and trudged the rest of the way home. I narrowly avoided falling on my ass in the street and dropping my new prize possession. I unpacked my shopping, had a warm by the fire then wiped down the window and found a spot for it on my dresser. I love that it is battered by the weather and a bit junky (aka Flea Market Style) it suits me and my mood and when there is some sort of decent light I think it will photograph beautifully in the background of blog pictures.

I think I may pin some fairy lights on it tomorrow if the fancy takes me. For now I have used it as a pin board and stuck two little cards on it for inspiration from the very talented Deborah of Champignons . She says one day she will conquer the world, and I believe she will do just that. And speaking of pin boards have you found pinterest yet? Its my latest obsession when I have my coffee breaks, its very inspirational. My pins are here

I may have overdone it with the edible glitter

2010-12-17T00:52:00.000-08:00

One of Harrison's teachers is leaving the school for greener pastures so we needed a present sharp. The last few weeks have been manic and I was in a panic because I didn't think anything that I crafted would be suitable. How can a doll compare with bottles of expensive bubble bath and the like. So I decided to do something quick and edible (in the zero amount of spare time I have with sorting out the book and toy sale at school, wrapping presents and maintaining my grinch-ly demeanor.

I got a Christmas themed Wilton cookie mold from Jo-ann Fabrics store while in the states and had been waiting for Christmas baking to begin. The molds are cheap and fun for kids to help make them (H helped with a Halloween themed mold I was sent in a swap) but had no interest in helping me make a gift for his teacher. Possibly because they weren't for him to eat. The first batch I made last night was a horrific mess the bag I melted the chocolate in popped and dark chocolate went pretty much everywhere. Only two of the 8 cookies were decent enough for a gift, the other six were a disgrace and had to be eaten right away.

This morning after coffee (and everything happens after coffee0 I made this batch of white chocolate covered oreos with edible blue glitter. I may have over done the glitter a wee bit but they looked ace in the jar I put them in. I know they did because Matt was worried it would be too *nice* for a gift. I growled and said it was simple and nice and is only a jar, they are cheap enough at Ikea and something that is useful when empty of the cookies that is. Harrison thought the jar looked great and said his teacher will love it I suppose I will find out after lunch while I set up the tables for the book and toy sale to raise funds for new school equipment. Wish me luck.

sugar and spite

2010-12-16T12:53:00.000-08:00

sweetness and light

I finished two dolls today... and by today I mean last night and just now. Today is a relative term, I'm not entirely sure what it is relative to but anyway I finished them. One I love and one is an evil spiteful creature that hates me. This isn't a story (at least not yet), both dolls have sat unfinished on my desk since mid October. I kept picking them up and putting them down. The flowery one (who is still nameless but needs a vintage-y sort of name to go with her Cath Kidston sample fabric self) turned out great, after I swapped her eyes around 3 or 4 times, and now I think she has a personality and I love how she turned out.

spiteful...don't let the matroyska fool you

The other doll however did not want to go the way I thought she should, no matter what I did nothing worked and I was ready to scrap her all together, rip out her guts and salvage her buttons. In the end I thought it best to finish her so she wasn't in UFO* purgatory. I still think she is a spiteful cow but something of her reminds me of Hyperbole and a Half (which you should totally read because it is a fantastically awesome blog) so she is finished and I have no idea what I will do at her. She still needs a name like Veronica or Agatha or something slightly more malicious... Marigold maybe...

Not everything I touch turns to gold or silver or even tarnished copper... sometimes what I touch turns to crap, and sometimes that crap has a mind of it's own. I have no idea what I'm writing any more. I am now going to put the kettle on because its snowing out I'm cold and I have been a busy bee all day... and now I'm a grumpy bear or something.

*UFO =unfinished object

brown paper parcels

2010-12-11T11:56:00.001-08:00

The first few presents are wrapped up neatly in brown paper and stamped with fat snowflakes... er well its a doily stamp but it looks suitably snowflake-y. I'm happy with them anyway and though I don't feel all that Christmas-y yet I did string up the lights outside and put the tree up (with much internal swearing). As a family we all put the ornaments on (which I rearranged quite a few because I'm ever so slightly crazy). So far only two have leapt to the floor in a bid to escape. I love the lights but I have never been much of a fan of Christmas music (Matt says its because I'm a grinch) so we listened to Planet Rock while decorating and hoovering pine needles.

and this is a picture of my craft space, tidy isn't it? With two mostly made dolls (one in need of eyes and one I don't really like as she didn't go the way I wanted and I keep abandoning her various places around the house). Last night Matt hung the two frames above my desk, the smaller of the two is a button art piece by Megan (Vintage Violet), it has a Halloween theme but I loved it so much that I had to have it framed and finally up on the wall.

The larger frame makes me both happy and very sad as it is a tatted doily that Matthew's grandmother gave me for my birthday. She passed on a few months ago and she was a very special lady. This is the first I have blogged about it as we have all be very upset and its been a very stressful and upsetting time for all the family. She was lovely and always made me feel like I belonged in the family and always thought about my mother and loved the See's candy we would bring bake from the states though she wasn't supposed to eat it.

It will be a sad christmas this year. But we will try to make it special for Harrison who in typical child fashion takes things better than we grown up do.

I am crying now and I meant this post to be light and airy and I fear that won't happen now. And my laptop battery is nearly gone. So I'm going to watch something silly while curled up in bed and tomorrow I am making pancakes for breakfast.