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.

Alice in Wonderland Swap Partners emailed

I'm working on emailing and pairing partners up.. I'm waiting on two emails at least but I have just noticed that 26 people signed up but I only have 19 emails so if you signed up but forgot to fill in the questionnaire please can you get it done now and I will partner you up later tonight or first thing in the morning.

p.s.

H is much much better now.. ..thankfully it wasn't a really bad bug he picked up. He is currently playing out in the snow! But I need to go call him back in so he can have a warm by the fire.

New Year, Plague House, Alice swap update

First of all Happy New Year Everyone! Secondly I Have a bit of a poorly child on my hands. H has caught a bit of a tummy Bug from a friend. So I have been babying him all day and he seems a bit brighter and less grey in colour. Because of that I haven't sorted out partners and emails for the Alice in Wonderland Swap. I'm so sorry I will set out the time to sort out partners and emails later tonight or possibly in the morning if I can beg the use of M's laptop for a few hours. So if there are any last minute straglers or people sitting on the fence you have till tommorrow to sign up. X Apryl

a little faery dust

faery, faerie, fairy.... whatever

Ingredients:
glitter
mini jam jars (the kind that you get when you order a scone with jam and cream or found at a hotel breakfast bar)
a handful of buttons
a few scraps of fabric
twine (a hair tie or rubber band will work too)
small piece of card
alphabet stamps
ink
scissors
1 x child

Instructions:
*Make sure the jam jar is clean (glitter and jam not so great actually). Fill the jam jar with glitter and put the lid on tightly (you can tape it down if you hate glitter as much as I do)

*Use scissors (or pinking shears) to cut the fabric into a circle to cover the lid of the jar. (I used a slightly larger jar as a template)

*Tie the fabric around the jar using the twine, (hair tie, rubber band).

*Cut a small piece of card into a tag shape and let your child stamp faery dust, magic dust, glitter (ignore the temper tantrum that follows when you say to said child that they have missed a letter,blurred the ink, or no they cannot have the glitter back it is it the fairy dust pot.....then sit and re-stamp another piece of card because you are fussy and anal about crafts and the letters must be perfect)

*Have a mini breakdown when said child stomps off in a rage, leaving you threatening to cancel Christmas and call Santa .....after eating all the chocolate in the advent calender.

*Thread some buttons onto a piece of thread and tie around the jar.

*Add the tag and there you go one lovely little faerie dust decoration/gift (and a way to hide the evil glitter in plain sight. because there is nothing more evil than a child with a bottle of glue and a pot of glitter)

*send annoying demonic offspring to help Daddy while you have a cup of coffee (or something stronger) and steal the chocolate meant for Christmas Day.

(alternatively you could fill them with edible glitter, but I couldn't find any round these parts)

if only it made kids be good, calm, and comatose

Snowmen Cupcakes

who you lookin at?

ingredients:

cupcakes:
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups self raising flour
1 ½ cup caster (white) sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter (softened)
1 cup milk
3 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 C).
Grease 12 cupcake cups or line with paper muffin liners. (recipe makes 24 cupcakes (not fairycake size, muffin tin size.)

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.In a small bowl mix the milk and the vanilla.

In a large bowl cream butter and sugar until fluffy.

add half the flour and mix well. Add half the milk and vanilla mixture.

Add eggs, one at a time mixing well. slowly add in the remainder of the dry mixture.

Add the last of the milk and vanilla.

spoon the batter into the cups and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the cake springs back when touched.

Remove from oven and let cool for about 10 minutes, then turn out of pan and onto a rack to finish cooling completely.

Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting
ingredients:
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup unsalted butter (softened)
1-1/2 cups powdered (icing) sugar
1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or vanilla flavouring)

Place the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla in a bowl and slowly add in the powdered (icing) sugar as you mix. Blend until smooth.

decoration:
1 large bag of plain m&ms
1 industrious child to separate the m&ms ( you only need the brown and orange ones so bribery is easy)
sweetened and tenderized coconut
1 bag plain chocolate chips


assembly:

place the sweet coconut in a bowl.

ice a cupcake with the vanilla icing and gently dip the cupcake into the coconut.

use the brown m&ms for the eyes and the orange ones for the nose, and chocolate chip (coal) for the snowman's smile. Its a fun job that the kids can help you with, especially separating out the m&m colours, as H quite happily sat for an unheard of 10 minutes separating out all the m&ms and was quite happy to steal a few.

alternatively you could use other orange sweets for the snowman's nose or colour some marzipan orange and roll flat and cut small triangles (carrots) or roll into small carrot shapes.

cooks notes: I made two batches 48 cupcakes to sell after H's school Christmas Concert, every single cupcake sold!, M assures me they were very nice I never got one though I may have made myself just the teensiest bit sickly "tasting" the icing....and cake batter... I also made 24 Double Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes which sold too, so I was quite pleased that even if my crafts aren't selling my cakes were appreciated and raised some money for H's school.

Questions Currently Plaguing My Brain

Lego Indy meets the Doctor (taken at Hamley's Toy Store)

Amy at A Commonplace Life (a new blog I have found to stalk via Katy's blog) blogged the questions that are currently plaguing her. I thought it was an excellent stream of conciousness writinging excercize, and a brilliant way to procrastinate and not get things done that I set myself the task of doing today. So here goes....

Will I ever finish writing the Poison Apple Tree fairy tale?

Will I ever write a book?

Should I go do the dishes and the laundry now? or wait till just before M and H get home when I will look like I am a good housewife?

Will I ever be a good housewife? because really I loath dusting and hoovering more than anything.

Will I ever be able to do the things I dream of doing?

Will I ever be anything more than the dreamer I am?

Will I get booted from the crafting community because most of the presents for chrstmas are bought games, and electronic gizmos and I haven't made anything yet?

is my writing any good at all? or should I give up on that dream and get a job?

will we ever move back to the US?

If I make muffins for breakfast tommorrow will they be eaten? or will the Boy randomly decide that is the day that he wants some sort of crappy cereal?

Why do all the shows I really love, that having craking dialogue and great music get cancelled? (Dollhouse, Firefly, Veronica Mars, Moonlight, etc)

can I play just one more game of Bejewelled on facebook?

when a friend said I was a Jack of all trades was that really a compliment?

should I get a part time job so I get out of the house more than I do?

would I be able to handle a job and still cooking and cleaning as I'm not the best housewife to begin with and I really don't know how I could cope with that... this really isn't a question is it?

Will I be forever allergic to broccoli ? ( the allergy developed after having H)

Why do I love crafts but hate crafting with kids?

will I get through next week's craft night, baking for the School Christmas Fair, and helping out at said fair?

is there any dark chocolate in the house for me?

have I written enough questions or should I write more (I definitly have more you know)?

...also will you signup for my Alice in Wonderland Craft Swap?

Alice in Wonderland Swap

After receiving so many positive comments about my question I have done a little swap write up for those of us that wish to take a fall down the rabbit hole and go for a wander around Wonderland.

The Alice in Wonderland Swap


1. SIGN UP by leaving a comment here before 31st of December!

2. Email me at meridianariel @ hotmail.com with the following information:
-Name
-Mailing Address
-Website or Blog Address: (or even your flickr photos so that your partner can stalk you)*
-twitter ID:
-favourite book:
-favourite movie:
-your favourite thing about Alice in Wonderland:
Your favourite candy/chocolate/movie treat:
-A little bit about your crafts, your life, whatever you like to help your partner get to know you.

3. Save the swap icon/picture and blog about it or place it somewhere on your blog so others can find out about the swap.

*Swap partners will be chosen randomly by me, and I will email your partner’s details on Around the 1st of January 2010 eep! (if there are more than 50 or so participating I may need to rope someone in to help me sort out partners as I am useless)

4. Your parcel should contain:
*Candy (or chocolate) to eat while watching Alice in Wonderland (any version)
*Handmade crafts with the Alice in Wonderland theme.. (For example The swap can be as simple or as extravagant as you wish, just make sure that the things you send are something you would be happy to receive yourself.
*craft supplies

(Make sure you and your partner spend roughly the same amount around £20 ($30 ish))


5. Mail your package by Monday the 22nd of February! (because Tim Burton’s Alice hits cinemas the following week)

6. Take a picture of your swap parcel once you receive it. Upload your images to the 80’s Fantasy Movie Craft Swap flickr account (I‘ll start one soon). More information will be in your confirmation email once you sign up.

* please have an established blog, flickr account, as I want you and your partner to both be able to become friends, and view each others crafts, and its difficult for swaps to be fair if you haven’t got anything for us to stalk.

Thanksgiving

Belated Happy Thanksgiving to all my American Friends and family. This blog post would have been done sooner if I hadn't have gotten so busy with the holiday, shopping, and a last minute trip to London on the weekend.

Thanksgiving turned out ok despite H being poorly with cold and needing me by his side every few minutes for cuddles, Wizard of Oz watching, and general entertainment. The entertainment being me playing Super Mario Galaxy while he ordered me about like a poorly little prince. (I friggan hate you Mario, Luigi, Bowser, and especially you Princess peach for not rescuing yourself. )

The Day before Thanksgiving I sent Matt shopping with the following items on the list.

pecans (for the pecan pie -I hate pumpkin pie)

turkey breasts or turkey crown (I never do a full turkey my oven isn't big enough)

cranberry sauce

cream

milk

brown sugar

eggs

stuffing mix (but not sage as I'm allergic *lame*)

sweet potatoes

vegtables

Half an hour after I sent him on his merry shopping way the phone rings and the following conversation took place.

me: hello?

Matt: they have no turkey.

me: What? its a store.. they always have turkey!

Matt: They have no turkey.

me: none at all? *incredulous*

Matt: Well they have minced turkey.. we could have turkey burgers...mmmm burgers

Me: anything else?

Matt: um there are some chunks of cheap turkey with veins, and bones, and gristle.

Me: uh no thanks...is there anything else?

Matt: a chicken?

Me: that will have to do...

so Turkey Day this year was replaced by chicken day, it was not the end of the world. To be truthful I'm not a huge turkey fan anyway. Poor H had about three bites of dinner then lay his head down on the table and nearly fell asleep. So I took him to his bed then settled down to watch a show and eat pecan pie.

What am I thankful for?

• my family, even though we are very far apart I know I just need to call and my parents would do anything for us
• for a wonderful husband who makes me laugh, even if he generates as much mess as H does.
• an amazing son, who is funny, clever, a con artist, who never shuts up, and is a complete and utter drama king who probably needs stage school.
• my mother in law who is just lovely and irons Matt's shirts so I won't burn them.
• my friends both here, on the interwebs and in the States.
• the blogsphere for being a wonderful place, full of inspiration and crafty camaraderie.
• the few customers who have bought my little crafts and made it so I could afford to buy a few more craft supplies.
• and thank you Word for letting my write my drabbles and only bitching about my bad spelling and terrible grammar and not telling me how bad my writing really is.

vintage postcards found on the interwebs ages ago, I don't know the source.

Alice in Wonderland Swap ?

Who would be interested in joining an Alice in Wonderland Swap? The swap wouldn't be sent out till end of January/February so there would be plenty of time to get things crafted and sent well after Christmas (with all your new crafty pretties to play with). Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland is out in theaters on March 5th 2010 so I thought it would be cool to do an Alice in Wonderland themed swap before the release date for the film.

I know its ages away but time flies and I wanted to get something written down before I forget to ask everyone to join in on the fun.

What do you think? If I get enough positive comments I'll do a write up and a questionnaire. I'm sure I have a lot of things to do, but I need a bit of inspiration to get crafting again and I thought this would be the perfect way.

friendship meme

best friends, H and Frankie (taken last April)

1. What does “friendship” mean to you?

I think friendship means many different things, it means love, and trust, and can be shared in many different ways. My longest friendship is with Meg who I have known since high school, we talk at random intervals, online or on the phone, but when we do its like we were never apart and can still reminisce about smuggling Chinese food into the movie theater, or the silly (and horrendously complicated) MASH games we used to play.

I think you tailor your personality to mesh with whatever friend you are with at the time. That doesn't sound quite right but I'm sure you all have a shopping friend, a tv junky friend, all these different aspects of your own personality that you share with different friends who have that same aspect in common.

I also think that friendship equals family, I grew up with just my parents, far away from any blood relatives, and as such I think that your friends become your family. I have no siblings but I think the friends you are closest to become your sisters, your brothers, and you can rely on them as you would any blood relation. And friends can walk on 4 legs as well as two. *looks at Frankie and the Boy*

2. What are the qualities you look for in a good friend?
humor, truth, having something in common to talk about, obsess over, hate, somebody to fuss over my cooking doesn't hurt either. ;o)

3. When does an acquaintance become a “friend”?

When you have laughed together. I'm mostly a dour sort of person, or at least that's how I see myself most of the time and it


4. What makes a friendship become more or less significant to you?

Trust ... I think the more trust you have in a friendship the stronger the friendship is.


5. What aspects of yourself do you share with a friend that you do not share with others?

My inner thoughts, my slightly dark sense of humour, bad moods and dark days.

6. What aspects of yourself do you usually hold back in your friendships?

I'm a cautious person, and it takes awhile for me to open up and trust people. I live in my head and it often times takes a lot of effort to share the person in my mind with the outside world. I think often that I live in two different worlds, or perhaps I appear to be two different people, the person who tiptoes through the world and the person that I am in my writing, my art, and on the Internet. I think I am far more interesting as Meri than I am as Apryl, through they are obviously both me. The more I get to know you there more I am myself, or the diffrent aspects of myself aren't so closely guarded the more trust there is.

7. What do you expect from your friends?

Honesty, respect, inspiration, truth, and sarcasm, people to eat the cakes I bake, share books, and watch terrible movies with me, to listen to my whinging while I listen to theirs.


8. How does one’s willingness to be vulnerable impact friendship development?

If you can't open your heart to your friends then how can you be friends?

9. Where are your closest friends?

that all depends on your personal definition of close...

Frizbe is closest as she lives in the same town as me and is the friend I made in England (though I still maintain she felt sorry for me having to lay down in the middle of Parentcraft Class when I was pregnant and had hyperemisis and ridiculously low blood pressure.
Meg: in California (who I have know forever and she still likes me),
Jaci:who I knew in school but lost contact until the magic of the internet and the realization that both our sons are named H.
Selena:who I admire no end for her creativity, courage, and bright spirit
Gin: who says "Oh My Gosh" more than anyone I have ever known
Marina:who glees at crappy films and swaps Paranormal Romance novels with me
Ali: who makes me laugh and is an all around kind spirit,
Katy: who loves dark chocolate, is more stylish than I will ever be, is beautiful and thin (which I obviously hate her for ;o) ...) and promises to teach me to quilt)
Flame: who adores Supernatural, and borrows all my Urban Fantasy books, loves Joss Whedon, listens to me whinge and whine, and shared the misery of depression and Hyperemisis (if you haven't had it you won't understand) ...

There are so many more friends on the interwebs that I just haven't met yet but we email, we blog, we send handmade crafts, commiserate about demonic children, messy husbands, a love of crappy movies, tv shows, books, buttons, geeks, writing, crafting, baking, mullet rock, and Joss Whedon. Friends on Facebook, on Crafteroo, Mumsnet, and twitter too. People that inspire me to be a better me. I'm not listing all of your names( because I will forget someone as my coffee hasn't kicked in yet) but I hope you know who you are and think of me as your friend too.

There might be people who don't count these as friendships but I do, I can express more in my writing than I can say aloud. My best friend, my husband met me on the internet all those many years ago, and though I didn't fall in love with him until we were friends in real life he was still my friend online and in the X-Files fandom (yes we are geeks but I recon you knew that already)


10. How have you changed as a person through your friendships with others?

I have learned so many things from my friends. I am quite an introverted person but not all my friends share this somewhat debilitating state. I have learned how to laugh at myself, to share my depressions and sorrows, the things that I guard the most behind the locked doors and brick walls I have built in my mind. I would be like the shadow I was in high school, that haunted the halls and walk through life without making an impression on the world surrounding me if it wasn't for my friends.

11. Who is your Best Friend?

M is... he puts up with the most crap from me, and I really couldn't go on day to day with out him there to make me laugh, make me smile, and annoy the hell out of me. He geeks out with me at crappy horror movies, argues with me about music (we mostly have similar tastes but he does have a thing for whiny music and I'm more of a Metal Head that him) ... if we weren't friends than I don't think we would be married as long as we have.

12. Who is your newest Friend?

Amanda, she was my partner in the 80's Fantasy Movie Swap. We haven't met in person yet but we have a lot in common, we are both a little unbalanced (in the good kind of way..I think) both Ex- Pats(though she is probably more hard core than I as she lives in Scotland and I'm just in the Midlands), we both love True Blood, and adore geeks. She is fantastically funny, is amazingly talented and she has the most awesome photoshop skills...ever.

proof of age

Skid Row- 18 and Life


I was 12 when this came out *calculates on fingers*
holy crap that means ...
I am officially old...
still an awesome song though...

Dear Santa,

Dear Santa,

I have been awfully good this year I would like some of the following for Christmas:


Divine Misdemeanors by Laurell K Hamilton... what can I say I love Merry Gentry.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith, I saw this last time we were in the states months before it came out here and I can't believe I didn't add it to the huge pile of books I was already buying!

Notebooks: the ones pictured are Nkuku fair trade journals, the journal that lives in my handbag is one one these and it is fabulous but earlier while drooling..I mean wandering around Etsy I saw this Make Your Own Leather Journal Kit (OMG how fab is that?)

A Kitchenaid standing mixer, in red, grey, black or cream... I have wanted one of these for about 4 years, pretty please Santa I have been especially good this year.

Ascaso Dream Espresso Machine in grey, black, red, or chrome... but OMG are they not just the most beautiful thing ever? *coffee geek*


Also I would love Amy Karol's books
fabric, the drive to get things done
I want to take a Workshop at Rothley Craft Farm
I want to learn to quilt and really need to take a class (or annoy the hell out of Katy till she teaches me)
more books (because you can never have too many books)
a sewing machine that is bigger than an iron (which is about the size of my current one)
a bookcase (a wide one not a tall one in oak please I will ignore the sofa that is falling apart)
paint to decorate our bedroom


That's about all, you know except for my list of favourites on Etsy and the lovely stuff made by all my crafty blogger and twitter friends.

love,

Apryl

today I...

....had a toffee nut latte at Starbucks in the Mall... I am a coffee snob ... and I don't normally go for fluffy coffees drowning in gobs of sugary syrup...something to do with overdosing on Carmel Macahiatos when I worked at Target in Santa Rosa, Ca back in my carefree youth. My poison of choice is a latte (not too hot, I cant stand scalded milk, one sugar) or an iced latte (my favourite)... but OMG the toffee nut latte, it's syrup-y goodness it tastes just the way that Target smells in autumn, which you won't understand unless you love Target, M just happens to love Target as well and he understood completely when he took a slurp of my Toffee Nut Latte, the sugar, the sweet nuttiness, the whipped cream and the sprinkles... pure bliss in a tall red cup.

red cup= happy

right I have some writing to do... a fairy tale that I keep ignoring and ignoring.. it will be done by the end of the month!

Sugar Skull Cookies

Sugar Skull Cookies for the Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead)

Ingredients
Makes 2 dozen
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions
Mix together flour, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl.

In a large bowl cream butter and sugar; add dry ingredients, and mix well

add egg, milk, and vanilla; mix well.

Separate the dough to incorporate different food colourings.

Transfer dough to a work surface. Shape into discs, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 180C (350 degrees F) Line baking sheets with greaseproof paper.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll out dough to 1/8-inch thickness and cut.

Transfer to prepared baking sheets, leaving an inch in between.

Leftover dough can be rolled and cut once more. It will need to be put back in the fridge to set if it has become too warm.

Bake for 10 minutes, until lightly golden.

Transfer to wire racks to cool. Once cooled decorate.



Cook's Notes: my cookie cutter worked! yay *runs around happily and is ignored*