Believe me....

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

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

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

Blue Skies Coconut Ice

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

Dr. Horrible t-shirt

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'.

literary crushes, procrastination and doll making

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.

the one where I swear via a typewriter and badges

I am bad... also I hate dishes

I don't as a rule swear a lot... I try not to.. to be a good influence... and seeing as my parents are umbeatable in the game of creative swearing I am mostly an angel.. *shines halo*

You all totally believe that right? I am totally sweet and innocent and kind and...er whatever. Anyway I had a commission for some geeky badges (aka TGI Friday's flair) from the awesomely talented Amanda of Kitschycoo... she told me I could do whatever I wanted *paraphrasing* and so I did... if you don't get the TrueBlood and Big Bang Theory geekery than there is no helping you.

The dishes badge? well this is the second I have made as the first one sold before I had a chance to actually blog about it.

time to trudge out to the garage to sort out the laundry and recycling while freezing my buttocks off.

May the Geek be With You

two cards made from a vintage Star Wars annual that I bought from a charity shop in town a few weeks ago... they are quite similar but I am pleased as punch with how they turned out and I cant wait to make some more with some different sayings typed inside with my little white typewriter.
Paige is one of Harrison's little friends... who loves Star Wars nearly as much as Harrison does. Her birthday is a few days after H's so I have been in a flurry of card making and present wrapping.

The Mad Hatter

Alice in Wonderland DS Game *want*

A few weeks ago my friend Marina popped over for a coffee and a natter about crafty things as she embroiders (something I fail at) and crochets (something I plan to fail at) and sews much better than I can. Although she is very accomplished craft wise she didn't know much about the world of craft blogs so I showed her a few of my favourite inspirational craft blogs and places to find some awesomely geeky free patterns and great tutorials.

the Mad Hatter by Marina

When we finished talking craft geekery we gossiped about books and movies and I showed her a book on my amazon wish list and right next to it was the above Alice in Wonderland DS game, which I showed her and we both thought the little Mad Hatter was adorable. A few hours later I got a text from her saying she had doodled a little Mad Hatter on some fabric and was embroidering him for me! So here he is in all his cuteness. Sorry he is wrinkled but I hadn't had a chance to iron him or frame him yet. But I do have a vintage metal embroidery hoop that he should fit in nicely. Thank you so much Marina you are an awesome friend and I need to talk you into blogging!

a little mushroom too

I don't have the game yet, I wanted to wait for some more reviews before I spend the money on it, though I think it is meant to be a puzzle type game which I love. So aside from Nintendo or Disney reading my blog and deciding I am special and awesome and should be sent a free copy to blog about, *flutters lashes*. I shall probably have to wait till my birthday at the end of April.... pants....

Meri's Got a Brand New Laptop

Today a little man knocked on the door, grumbled something that vaguely resembled "Sign 'ere on the dots...grunt." so I signed on the dotted line and he gave me a box containing a brand new laptop of my very own. I didn't know it was coming as Santa didn't bring me a laptop for Christmas and Matt kept say non-committal things like 'When the next sale is on.' and 'We'll look in a bit another night.' He didn't tell me so I had no idea that I was actually getting one anytime soon. squeeeeeeeee

I now have to figure it all out as I haven't got a clue. I need to add itunes and find all the stuff stored on the old hard-drive. But I feel so happy. Matt is brilliant and I'm very lucky to have him. And I can't wait to write something worth reading on here but I'm to happy now and I'm off to play. la la la la la