photo meme thingamagig

So Flamesparrow tagged me with this photo meme so here goes...

Open the first photo folder and pick the tenth picture...

OK I can do that but there aren't that many photos on my laptop yet.. everything is on Matt's computer or the web album. The tenth photo in the first folder isn't a photo I took its of the album cover of REPO the Genetic Opera original soundtrack. It is an awesome movie and soundtrack, *waits for people to run screaming from my blog*

And now, for the 1st pic in the 10th folder...

The Boy at age 3, having a big sulk in a Starbuck's in Seattle because we had to go to the airport next to fly back home and no more visiting Pappy and Grammy. It is one of my favourite photos, though its not from the tenth file because I don't have a tenth file yet!

I don't think I get very many readers now but if you have read this and haven't done it consider yourself tagged and leave me a comment so I can see your pictures!

button jewellery a mini tutorial

the Red Queen Pendant

ingredients:

vintage buttons
craft glue
glue on bails (or small pin backs)
needle and thread thread
chain or necklace

Instructions:

step 1: gather materials together and stack two or three buttons together until you find a combination that you love.

step 2: thread the needle and sew your stack of buttons together (alternatively you can glue them on top of each other, but I like the look of the thread keeping the buttons together)

step 3: decide where the bail/pin back will go on the back of the stack and place a few drops of glue on the back of the button and on the flat part of the pendant bail. Leave for a few seconds then stick the bail/pin back to the button stack.

step 4: let the glue dry then string the button pendant on a chain or pin the button pin to anything!

crafter's notes: I know it is only a super simple tutorial but it is fun and funky, and I will happily be wearing the red, black, and mother of pearl button pendant when I go out today. The pin below was my first attempt with a large renegade chartreuse button that had hidden in one of my button jam jars. If anyone wants it I will gladly give it away as chartreuse and I are no friends (the colour makes me look ill or possibly just a very lively zombie).

Chartreuse it is

pins

the blue pill...er pin is turquoise
the red is coral from a charity shop bracelet I scavenged

My Brain: Lets make some hat pins like the Mad Hatter.
Me: I haven't got any hat pins.
My Brain: pins then? We have pins.
Me: *remembers seeing a tutorial or possibly a picture of some bead topped sewing pins*
My Brain: google it!
Me: I can't find anything... I'll just go find the pins.

20 minutes later...

Me: I can't find the long pins. I had some... I bought some, but they're gone.
My Brain: :o(
Me: :o(
My Brain: Lets go shopping!
Me: its Wednesday....in a small town in England.
My Brain: oh.... :o(
Me: I have two pins to do a trial of beaded pins. I have glue, and I definitely have beads. *blows dust off bead box*

ten minutes later....

Me: we have two pins.
My Brain: yay pins!!!!!!


(p.s. the pincushion was made by Annie for me from the Robot swap long long ago)

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....

THe Mad Hatter's Tea Party

A week or two ago I followed a tweeted link to a competition to win a ticket to the Ideal Home Show, plus a friend, to have tea at...... 'a fabulous Mad Hatters Tea Party at 5pm in the elaborately themed Alice in Wonderland garden,with a selection of tea’s from Twinings, Cupcakes from Baketique and beautiful hats from British Milliner Emma Fielding. You’ll also have the opportunity to receive free Beauty Treatments, and will be treated like a total VIP all day!' .... I never thought I would win in a million billion years because I'm not really the winning sort.. I think it must skip a generation because my dad can win at anything, and I pretty sure H could win anything he set his little heart on if he tried.

I'm not a complete loser mind, I have won other giveaways but not on the scale some lucky crafters do, but that's OK. Perhaps things are looking up for me, we go on holiday in two weeks time (to visit some close friends in the San Francisco Bay Area for a few days before flying to Spokane, WA and driving to Idaho to visit with my parents for a few weeks), the sun has actually come out to shine in the sky like some magical orb nearly forgotten about, and yesterday was Mothering Sunday so I got flowers and got to do nothing all day (mostly)!

So anyway where was I? oh yes I won tickets to a fabulous event, with hats apparently, but I don't know if I will be able to get down to London (train tickets are expensive) and don't know if I can rope anyone to go with me (Matt says he isn't bothered about going and grumbled about it being 5 days before we fly and the day before his birthday too). What to do ....what to do.....???

*panics*

Go Ask Alice...

everything I sent.. ignore the books.. they are everywhere

Things I made for the Alice in Wonderland Craft Swap...aka how I'm a totally crap photographer and have no skills with image editors and blogger hates me

Ok perhaps things aren't quite that bad but blogger isn't liking me this morning and my photography skills appear to be greatly lacking... next time I will have Matt take photos for me. He can be easily bribed with baked goods and chocolate.

I did really enjoy crafting for the Alice Swap, I felt really inspired to craft and create and just doodle things in my journal and sketchbook. I was really happy with the needle book, the bookmark (made with Anna's fabulous Alice Tape) and the primitive style Cheshire cat in fact a friend of mine asked me to make her one as well so that's not too bad for my lack of sewing skills. :o)

Say Cheese...er Cheshire Cat

Mad Hatter looks like a Mentat

bookmark made with lilla lotta Alice Tape tape

teacup needle book

what the dormouse said...

lovely pretty things for me

Last Friday I recieved my Alice in Wonderland Swap from Sandy and I was over the moon with the assorment of goodies she sent me from the States. Jiffy Pop popcorn which was snagged by matt almost immediatly as his alone to pop! Some awesome strawberry cream heart shaped Peeps (which were torn into not long after I snapped these quick photos), red vines licorice, Alice in Wonderland hair clips, teal blue hair extensions, and blue sparkly nailpolish and some fantastic fabrics.

Oh and knee socks with hearts on them which I wore on saturday and kept my feet very warm as it was freezing all day. I haven't opend the packet of pens or the march stamps and the fab cake mixing spatulas that H wandered off with and put away in the drawer. Sanday also included some Alice in Wonderland type eyeshadows and sewed a little black and white checkered bag that everything was hidden away in. I'll be uploading the photos to the Alice in Wonderland Craft Swap group on Flickr soon so you can have a proper nosey around at all the fantasticly curious things that have been swapped.

Matt popping the popcorn

I havne't gone to see the movie yet as it has been planned to be a book group outing with my friends and possibly Matt too but it's killing me as I'm so eager to see it. I have also promised H we would get a copy of the Disney cartoon on dvd or itunes download to put on the ipod touch as he is determined that he should go see Alice in Wonderland with me because it looks awesome! I'll blog about what I sent soon, but for now I have uploaded a few photos to my flickr which I will add to the previously mentioned AIW Swap Group Pool.

Vintage Doily Needlebook II

why is this picture so big? it shouldn't be it wasn't meant to be. why why why

Needle book made for Annax to replace the one that the evil postmaster ate... seriously he at my parcel to Anna, its the only explanation. As with all my sewing this needlebook is wonky.. I shall call it "primitive" in style to get away with being a bad seamstress/sewer/person what sews stuff.

The bottom mother of pearl button was sew on five minutes later when the light went so I couldn't' take any more photos. It hides a tiny stain on the vintage doilie. It was made with love and care and I think it turned out nicer than the original vintage doily needlebook Anna bought from my now defunct etsy shop... the one that the postmaster ate... I hope he choked on it (especially the little jade bracelet and other goodies that I had packed as a surprise).

spotty fabric on the inside, but the picture has gone wierdy on me and
my eyes keep going doolally when I look at the felty bit.

Boo and Starbuck

Starbuck and Boo softies

A few weeks ago H and I sat down to write a story together. After writing the story down, I promised him we would cut some bits of fabric to turn his story into some little plush creations with the help of some dylon fabric pens. It was a fun little project, I put the fabric in a small embroidery hoop so that H could draw and colour his creations.

The following is H's story of a little ghost named Boo and the friend he makes.

Boo and Starbuck
Story by H. Lowe

Boo was a ghost. Boo was bad at being scary. Boo met a little kitten. The kitten wasn’t scared at all of Boo.

Boo said “Boo!”

The kitten said “Meow.” And puffed up his fur.

Boo was very scared and sad. He flew away, crying. Boo hid in a tree. Boo cried “Boo hoo.” He was sad because he didn’t scare the kitten.

The kitten climbed the tree. “Don’t be sad.” said the kitten.

Boo said “ I wanted to scare you.”

The kitten said “My name is Starbuck and I’m not scared of anything!”

“I’m very bad at being a scary ghost.” said Boo. “All I can scare are mice.”

The kitten said “I’m bad at catching mice but really I’m very nice.”

Boo said “I can scare the mice for you, if you will be my friend.”

“OK lets be friends!” said the kitten Starbuck.

And that is the story of Boo and Starbuck.

THE END

back of the softies fabric chosen by H.

owls should not drink iced lattes

bad owl! That's my iced latte!!!

Quilt Blocks on Valentine's

I can sew me

Several months ago I bought some homespun checks and ticking fabric from Bespoke Country shop in Scarborough, it was gorgeous and very Americana, and the kernel of an idea popped into my brain. The idea was to turn the fabrics into a rustic?bespoke/primitive Americana quilt. My experience of quilting is an extremely small scrap doll quilt I made for H's stuffed dragon and cat to sleep on so I put the idea and the fabric on the shelf for a very long time.

you already knew I was square so this shouldn't be a suprise

Two weeks ago I got the courage to cut into the fabric to make medium sized squares all read for quilting, and they stayed like that until yesterday when I finally got up the courage to sew the small squares into blocks of four squares. This morning I added a fifth block to the pile and then my teeny tiny sewing machine coughed and died. well it didn't cough, it was more of a strangled scream and it juddered to a halt and wont do anything but tangle. It is now out of warranty so perhaps a new machine will be on the cards for my birthday in April (meh). What I will do until then I don't know, my hand sewing is horrifying and I promised H we would draw some dolls with fabric pens and sew them together on the machine.

*holds up card saying "Will bake if you help me sew"*

can I has coffee now???

I'm still proud of the 5 blocks I have done, and all I could make is the quilt top as the machine was too small to handle all the layers of a quilt anyway, so I would still have to rope someone into helping me anyway. Matt has toddled off to the shops to get something for dinner and H is at a birthday party up the road so I really should be tidying the rest of the house and/or catching up on the mountain of emails that I have been ignoring. *looks longingly at the kettle*

You know I might just have a drink before I get my cleaner's hat on.

Also Happy Valentine's Day, Matt and I shall be watching a vampire or zombie flick later. Nothing says cuddly love like hearts being ripped from chests and zombies going 'nom nom nom' ...What? I'm totally romantical.

less than three....

Alice Inspiration

Listening to: Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit

I'm about to start crafting for the Alice in Wonderland Craft Swap, and for inspiration I have been listening to Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit (without the psychedelic drugs and paisley), reading the Looking Glass Wars, and sketching in my journal.

Reading: The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

I highly recommend the Looking Glass Wars, its an alternative true story of the Princess of Wonderland Alyss Heart, a refugee from Wonderland who escaped death by her aunt Queen Redd. Alyss finds herself an orphan in 1860's England where she is adopted by Dean Liddell and his wife and taken to live in Oxford. There she confides in Reverend Charles Dodgson, tells him the true story of Wonderland, which isn't the fairy tale he will write under the name Lewis Carroll. There are two more books in the trilogy which I will add to my book list for when I am bumbling about bookshops and charity shops (I found this book in a charity shop in Derby for 50p!)

Also on my desk in a little frame is another piece of inspiration, Deborah Champion's Alice in Wonderland self portrait. I also have a larger print without the blackbirds that I bought for Matt's Christmas present but that has yet to be framed and hung on a wall when we finally decorate the bedroom. It's very inspiring but so is all of Deborah's work, she is incredibly talented and she is terribly nice too.

ohh its snowing out! Big fat flakes of snow, that calls for a coffee break don't you think? before I go get myself lost in Wonderland again.

teacup candle

teacup candle


I finally got around to making a teacup candle with my candle-making supplies I ordered before Christmas. Sorry the photo is bad, the lighting is terrible but the candle turned out great, its french vanilla and Linen scented. I played around till I found something I liked and that I knew my friend Frizbe would like as the candle was a gift for her. I also made one from a Denby sugar pot for myself, but I forgot to photograph it before burning it! I still have a lot of soy wax left so I hope to make some more candles soon, perhaps some jam jar candles as I have quite a few of those and no more teacups!

although there are a lot of coffee cups up in the attic. *plots*

OK I'm posting this now as blogger crashed on me twice and if I loose this post I'm going to scream. I promise more posts soon but it has been a busy week and weekend and I need to finish hoovering up the house.

Multimedia oh my

I know I’m terribly behind on blog posts, and I will get around to that, I have been crafting a bit of sewing, burning myself with hot wax, cutting my fingers with a deadly round bladed wheel of death-and fabric cutter, knitting badly, and for some completely unfathomable reason I have been attempting to learn to crochet (don’t ask you really really don’t want to know how bad that is going.) Also I have been trying to work on my writing, a little fable/fairy tale that I wrote the notes for in my journal but every time I try to expand on the notes it all goes horribly wrong and I end up in a grump.

What else have I been doing? Aside from giving Peggy Bundy a run for worst housewife.

At the Movies:

Matt and I went to see AVATAR last week, in three dee, so I looked ever so fetching with 3D glasses over top of my glasses. The movie was visually stunning, it was amazing to see, and worth the ticket price (2 for 1 Wednesdays) and the headache. the cast was great if underused, but the dialogue was… terrible, ‘Unobtainium’ says it all really. I would still see it again, it was fun, the planet was vivid and I wanted to know more about the science and biology of the world than was on offer (all the alien creatures were 6 legged except for the 9ft tall kitty cats). I kept waiting for one of the Na’vi to say “You no can has unobtainiums.” but that was probably just me.

Dear Mr. Cameron,

you have oodles of money, peons and slaves galore please use your resources to hire some writers. Because seriously ‘unobtainium’? Also stop writing fanfic about Ferngully, Dances with Wolves, and mutant Smurfs.

yours,

Meri

.........................................................................

DVDs:

Zombie STRIPPERS: ridiculously bad… so obviously we loved it. Zombies, bad acting, stripper, Freddy Krueger.

REPO the Genetic Opera: Fantastic, absolutely loved it from the very start. It is completely bonkers, but fabulously so. I had to download the soundtrack because I NEEDED to listen to have the songs playing on my ipod while I cook dinner.

Star Trek: Fantastic, though the Boy got upset that he couldn’t find his phazer while watching it. T loved the gag reel and the making of documentary too.

TV:
Most of the good shops seem to have disappeared before Christmas and haven’t returned yet. Glee started the other week and I love it (although some of the cheesier songs make me hide behind a cushion.) Dollhouse is ending soon which is a sad as it is a great show. oh and CSI’s Vegas and New York are still on the sky plus but mostly we sit and mock the awful descriptions of the tech used.

Books:

I have a new Literary crush on Neil Gaiman, over the last few months I have read Stardust, American Gods, Anansi Boys, Coraline, The Graveyard Book and Neverwhere, and one of his Sandman Graphic Novels. American Gods is my favourite thus far I highly recommend it if you haven’t read it.

Devine Misdemeanours: Laurell K Hamilton… pure trash. Paranormal Pulp, but I love the idea of it, the world is good and the books are entertaining if you ignore the pulp.

Coyote: by Allen Steele .. epic sci fi/space opera novel of interstellar exploration, colonization. Apparently it is a reworking of his short stories which I just found out, praise wikipedia, it was quite good, I might read the second book but I’m not so sure about the others after reading some of the reviews on Amazon.


I have another 4 or 5 books that I’m partway through and quite a few more I haven’t started yet.

webcomics

xkcd A webcomic of romance,sarcasm, math, and language. Sometimes the math loses me, but otherwise its a fantastic webcomic.

Questionable Content: very funny webcomic that I have been reading the last few days from the begining. Its great but I only know one in ten indie band refrences.

so what have you been watching, reading, listening to?

.........I’m cold, I think its time to put the kettle on and go watch a DVD or the idiots audition on American Idol.


this blog post has been specially brought to you by the shape cup and the number 4 and the letters C, O, F, F, E and E

Converse One Star Cushion

Apologies in advance for the dire photo, the light had gone and I couldn't wait to share the cushion because I'm so happy with how it turned out. The cushion was made from a Converse shirt of Matt's that we bought at Target last year in Idaho. After having a coffee at the Starbucks inside the shop first. Oh how I miss Target, I never through I would after all those years of working there dressed in tan and red.

The shirt had a couple of holes in a sleeve and at the bottom but the rest of the shirt was in good condition so I thought it needed to be recycled into something else. A cushion was the simplest thing I could think of as I already had a cushion inner that was taking up space in the box I keep my fabric in. It was a simple and fun project and I'm glad the shirt is still around. It was a nice shirt! Matt has acquired it for the back of his chair in the office, citing that it was his shirt so it should be his cushion!

the shirt before I hacked at it

things that amuse me

Awkward Family Photos - because nothing says love like family portraiture in hell

Fail Blog - nothing amuses more than the fail

Epic Win - failure isn't everything..

Craftastrophe - I love it, perhaps because I craft and love to troll etsy.. and sometimes you see things that are a world of WTF??

People of Walmart - fashion is not an option.

Demotivational Posters - its a possibility I have a cynical view of life.. but the Internets reassure me that I'm not the only one.

Oddly Specific - signage

xkcd webcomic - romance, sarcasm, science, general geekery

COMIXED - web comic that had me giggling the other day..

Longmire Does Romance Novels - I'm not entirely sure who Longmire is but I found his page of mocked up romance covers and I laughed till I cried.

Books that Fail - probably more about the snark and humor but its nice to know that thier are like minded people out there who don't judge a book by its classic status or the sparkliness of its heroes.
Savage Chickens - Cartoons on Sticky Notes by Doug Savage... I must say that I especially love the zombie chickens.

It Made My Day - Life's little moments of WIN.

Six Word Stories - stories in six little words. Awesome.

Vampires(Cracked.com) - vampiric glee

I started this list ages ago, and never posted it, so I thought I would post it today. I'm sure there are more things out there that amuse me but for now this will do.. and hopefully amuse you too...right I suppose I best go do something useful... watching tv while nibbling on a cookie is useful right?

Parenting you're doing it right when...

Last night when I was cooking dinner, Cajun Chicken wraps, and H was helping me take the ends of the green beans I put my ipod in the docking station and turned up the music.

the Boy: This is my favourite.

me: the Foo Fighters?

the Boy: Yeah the Foo Fighters. This is my favourite song.

Me: It's called The Pretender.

the Boy: Yeah, the Foo Fighters rock. (cue dancing before returning to cutting the ends off the green beans)

Me: What are your other favourites?

Boy: You can only have two favourites.

Me: oh OK.

the Boy: Smoke on the Water

Me: Deep Purple

the Boy: yeah I know Deep Purple.... Smoke on the Water....You Know it's about a hotel on fire? It's awesome! Can we listen to the Blues now? I like the blues.

Me: later we can, I'm cutting up the chicken now.

the Boy: oh

He wandered off after that, the green beans sufficiently murdered, leaving me grinning as I cut up the rest of the chicken. We must be doing something right in the Boy's musical education!

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

ipod cozy prototype

ipod cozy prototype

Whereby the definition of prototype is total FAIL...

ok it's not that bad but it is wonky. I made it for Matt for Christmas... well I gave it to him before Christmas as I completely lost faith in my abilities to craft at the time. This wasn't my only craftastrophy in recent weeks, and it isn't THAT bad but I had wanted it perfect.. so back to the drawing board and I will try again later this week.

The coffee cup was stamped with fabric paint with a lino tile I cut awhile back. If nothing else it did make Matt laugh so better than nothing eh?

OK I'm freezing and I need coffee before I can type anymore.

Cinnamon Roll Recipe

Cinnamon Roll mmmmmm.

Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients:

Rolls:
1 1/4 oz. package. Yeast
1 cup. warm milk
1/2 cup. Caster (granulated/white) sugar
1/3 cup. melted butter
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
4 cups. all-purpose flour

Filling:
1/2 cup butter softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
3 tbs. cinnamon (use the best cinnamon you can find)

Icing: (optional)
7 tbs. butter, softened
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
1/4 cup (2 oz.) cream cheese
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 t. salt (if desired I left it out)

Directions:

Rolls:

Dissolve yeast in the warm milk.

Mix in sugar, butter, salt, eggs, and flour. Mix well.

Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface it will be a very sticky dough so you may need a lot of flour to knead it. Knead into a large ball. Place in a clean bowl and cover with a tea towel and put somewhere warm (I put the covered bowl near the fire as it was the only place not freezing); let rise 1-2 hours.

Preheat oven to 360 F (180 c).

Roll dough into a 21 x 16 wide rectangle. With the butter softened, spread it generously over the dough (I used my fingers but you can use a spatula).

Sprinkle the filling over the buttered rectangle.

Roll the dough up carefully from the long edge. (I rolled from the long side but you can roll from the short side to make a smaller amount of fatter rolls)

round and round we go

Using a very sharp knife cut into 1 inch wide rolls, making sixteen large rolls (or carefully cut the roll in half and measure out the dough to get 24 smaller pieces that can be tucked into muffin tins/muffin papers). Alternatively if you want big fat rolls, cut them wider.

Grease (butter) your baking pan (11x 15 pan or muffin tins or use muffin cases) Then place rolls in pan and into oven. Bake until the rolls are browned around 15 to 20 minutes (depending on your oven).

Take them out and cover them in icing.

Filling:
While dough is rising, prepare the filling and the icing.
Soften butter.
After dough has been rolled out into a rectangle, spread the softened butter all over.
Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and sprinkle over entire buttered rectangle.



Icing:

Cream together butter, icing sugar, cream cheese, and vanilla with an electric mixer. Spread onto the hot rolls.

nom nom nom

cook's notes: I have been suffering withdrawal pains lately for all things sugary sweet, cinnamon drenched and American and in that vein I have been mulling over this recipe I have for making Cinnamon Buns (an much altered version of a Cinnabon clone recipe I found long long ago) which as anyone knows are the embodiment of all things sickly sweet, fatty, and overloaded with cinnamon and cream cheese icing. They have helped me get through some very tough times in the past. There are dozens upon dozens of cinnamon roll recipes on the interwebs, this is the one I use and have for years, though I do alter it from time to time, little tweaks here and there until one day the recipe will be as perfect as I can possibly make it. Until then its a pretty damn fine recipe.

It's also really important to use the best cinnamon you can find, I used cinnamon that I bought at Chatsworth Farm Shop and it is amazing how different cinnamon can taste from the regular (cheap) storebrand.