Wordless Wednesday: side table with Grandma's tatted doily

junk shop treasure

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....

...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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I am totally addicted to pinterest

the Nightmare Before Valentine's Day

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

coffee...

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

poison apple tree shop

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

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

a zombie, a key and a button

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

zombie in progress

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

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

lists

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

Dear Diary,

Today I

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

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

so here goes

A list of list-y things:

*have a proper design for my blog

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

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

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

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

*learn to crochet *again*

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

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

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

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

what's on your list?

the Nightmare Before Valentine's Day Craft Swap

Tim Burton the Man Himself

The Nightmare Before Valentine's Day

A Tim Burton Craft Swap

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

Jack Skellington one of my favourite characters

Details:

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

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

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

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

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

QUESTIONNAIRE:

Your real name:

Email address:
Mailing address:

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

Favourite colours?:

a Favourite book:

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

Who's with me?

love is...

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

* sneakers

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

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