30 posts in 30 days

Today's post marks the end of NaBloPoMo (National Blog Post Month), a post every day for the entirety of November, 30 posts for 30 days. I signed up in hopes that it would make my writing flow a bit and get me to write every single day for a month.

this is post 30 and I must admit I am quite happy it is over, I tried to make my posts witty and meaningful, but I must admit a few of them were just a chore... and a few more were total cheats as I back dated a few posts here and there when I haven't been on the Internet for a day or two.

Today we went down to the Bullring in Birmingham, to gorge ourselves on Krispy Kreme Donuts at Selfridges. But mainly so H could go goggle eyed at the donut machine and tell me how it works. Then later on I wandered around to food hall cooing and fondling all the American imported food stuff... or should I say junk food stuff.. I really don't see why they have so much marshmallow fluff and Lucky Charms cereal.. both of which I would touch but seeing the packaging make me smile wistfully.

Treasury

so guess who is in a treasury this weekend? Me! well my little poison apple tree is. Its in the Crafter..oo two treasury.

thank you Kerry from Penny Dog Jewellery for creating the treasury for everyone who is a crafter...oo etsian.

I should be crafting now...

.. but I'm tired and this week has been a total whirlwind. I have done two window displays, thanksgiving dinner, meet up with a fab lot of crafty bloggers, got stuck in the rain waiting for a bus that never came. Had a wander around Chatsworth, elbowing grumpy old ladies aside so we could stake out a table. and a trip to Caudwell's mill for coffee and cake... and so H could drag M all around the mill looking at various cogs and things.

Today if I'm lucky I will get a bit of sketching done and possibly write up how I made the display for the studio window. I have had a few more ideas for Christmas presents in my hopes of having as handmade as possible a Christmas... aside from Mario things for H (the boy is obsessed), the books I am coveting, chocolates and lovely Laura Ashley things for M's mum.

I have so much that needs doing.. parcels to send out to California, Idaho, and Finland. crafts that need crafting... cakes that need baking, and a house that is in desperate need of a tidy. and coffee that needs drinking.. busy busy... . mmm coffee

happy turkey day!

wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving. I have cooked and cooked .... admittedly I didn't cook a whole turkey we just had turkey steaks with Parmesan mashed potatoes, asparagus, sweet potatoes carmelized with brown sugar, stuffed peppers, and cupcakes for pudding. The dishes are done and I'm ready for my bed.

the twinkling of lights

Window display at the Studio

This is what I have been working on all day today, sorting out the window display for the studio. What do you think? M thought the tree was a bit too creepy to being with but I love how it looks on the paper and with the fairy lights twinkling gently. Well maybe not gently I opted for them to be on straight as every time I tried the pretty twinkling setting they would switch to epileptic fit mode and I would have a temper tantrum and grizzle at the lights.

if anyone is interested I thought I might do a little tutorial about how I made the painted tree decoration for the studio window... I love it and am considering doing one on a smaller scale to go on the fireplace with one of those battery operated lights.

busy day tomorrow.. not only is it Thanksgiving but I'm meeting up with some very talented craft bloggers at a meet up in the morning.

the Coconut Cookie Experiment

Coconut cookies

Ingredients:
1 cups self raising flour
1/2 cup butter/margerine (softened)
3/4 cup caster (white) sugar
2 teaspoon vanilla
a pinch of salt
1 eggs (large)
1 1/2 cup desiccated (sweetened and tenderized coconut*)

Pre-heat the oven to 375° F

In a large bowl beat the butter, vanilla extract, and sugar together until light and fluffy.

Add the egg and mix thoroughly.

Add the flour slowly until well blended. By hand stir in the coconut.

Drop the dough by teaspoon onto un-greased cookie sheet. For larger cookies drop by the tablespoon.

Bake for 10 minutes, until the centre is puffed up and the edges begin to brown. Remove from the oven, let them cool for a minute on the baking tray before placing on a wire rack to cool.

* I meant to grab the normal desiccated coconut but grabbed the "tenderized and sweetened coconut" by mistake... and I must admit it was lovely and I stole several pinches from the bag before I had finished making the cookies.



cook's notes: as I said above I had bought the wrong coconut by mistake when doing teh shopping last week and the packet was sitting rather forlornly, or as forlornly as a packet of dried coconut can sit, in the cupboard waiting to be used. I love coconut and have expirimented with several diffrent recipe creations, this one I was expirimenting with in an attempt to make a recipe up for Katy to make a dairy free version, as the last tiem she was over I made some coconut rocks. They were meant to be cookies but puffed up a bit too much, they still tasted nice though. These should work out much better and will work nicely with margarine. The turned out lovely and crisp and very coconutty!

and the winner is......

the giveaway is now closed thank you everyone who left a comment, if I was rich enough, or at least sold enough jewellery and art I would send you all a gift!

I was left 27 lovely comments that have been really lovely to read thank you so much, it really improved my spirits reading such lovely comments and all about everyone's Christmas plans. I cryed a little bit reading through the comments. Thank you for your support and I hope you continue to read my blog and perhaps one of you will win on my next giveaway.. or maybe we will get to do a swap someday!

so I suppose I should let you know who the winner is... as picked by the lovely and lazy random number generator is number

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers: 17...

Timestamp: 2008-11-24 19:56:58 UTCRandom Integer Generator

the winner is

syko kajsa who said:

"I would like Santa to bring me some nice clothes, I haven't bought myself anything new in ages! And a pair of new glasses, if he can afford it...I love pendant and would love to find it in a box under the tree!"

rice hand warmer

rice warmer

Hey look what I made!.... no not the picture(thought it is one of mine that M says looks like Kelly Osbourn), the little gingham pillow.. its a little hand warmer, filled with rice that was lurking in the back of the cupboard and a pinch of cinnamon. Now you all know I have been slowly learning to sew well my Mother in Law bought a little mini sewing machine and we had a play on it earlier, she showed me what to do to make it go and we made a little pillow that H confiscated for his Vampire doll (who is afraid of the dark apparently).

another view but for some reason blogger keeps turning the image sideways.

I dug a piece of material out of my scrap box and sewed this in the little sewing machine. Added the rice and a pinch of cinnamon and sewed up the last little edge. its a bit wonky but that's ok, it smells lovely and it works and I made it all by myself. I am very proud of my little hand warmer as I plan on making a special one for H for Christmas.

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There is one day left to sign up for my smokey quartz pendant giveaway!

so please sign up and leave a comment on the giveaway post and I will draw the winner monday afternoon/evening time.

seven things

a while ago I got tagged by a few people to do the seven wierd things meme, which I have done before but thought I would do again.. though I'm not going to tag anyone, if you leave a comment consider yourself tagged if you so wish to be.

I love memes, I love filling them out and I love reading them to learn intresting little tidbits about people. Its facinating and fun, and you get to know people better by seeing a bit of what makes them tick.

so here goes 7 random things about me:

1. I love gift cards... but not in the traditional sense, I love blank ones from my favourite shops, I use them as bookmarks (another unhealthy obsession), my favourites are ones from Old Navy and random coffee shops, the Flying Goat in Santa Rosa, California or the Sunflower Cafe in Sonoma, California the very first Starbuck's in Seattle, Wa. and a card pilfered from Bloomingdale's in San Francisco ( I nearly gave it to Katy but then I thought she might think I'm a total wierdo) . I have converted H who collects them where every we go, often times I just ask if I can have one and they will give them too me, I'm not sure if that is enabling me or not.

2. I'm a somewhat reformed rock hound, I used to collect all sorts of rocks and stones, arrowheads, crystals, fossils, even washed up bits of glass on the beach. I have more expensive tastes now, and just collect semi-precious beads and chunky sterling silver and semi-precious gemstone pendants. but my eyes still search the ground whenever we go for walks and especially when we go to the beach.

3. I was a rather melancholy child, sitting reading Stephen King novels instead of playing at recess time at school. The stand (unabridged) is still one of my favourite novels that I re-read every few years. I probably would have been a goth if it didn't take so much work to be pale and interesting and dressed in black. I'm more of a moral grey area type of girl than that.. though I must admit my reading tastes tend to go dark side a bit.. and my movie tastes too...

4. The X-Files brought me and M together. And is the reason we named our cat Starbuck, though most people assume its for the coffee, actually he is names Starbuck because its Scully's nickname from her father.

5. I wanted to be a girl Indiana Jones for years when I was little, but as I got older I realized he is actually a rather crap archaeologist, though I still adore the moves and M just bought me the new boxed set. H has been running around the house singing/humming the theme music, its adorable.

6. I once had a cat named Daisy, named after my favorite TV character at the time Daisy Duke from the Dukes of Hazard of course I think I was 5.

7. When we moved into this house, sitting in its lovely little close but I couldn't help think what it would be like if the zombies came like at the beginning of Dawn of the Dead. So now you know what a total geek I am.

a little peek at what I'm working on

a little peek at something I am working on... if it works out then it will get blogged and its own tutorial.. if not then you never saw this.. right? oh and the tube of filler has nothing to do with the project I'm working on.... it was just on the table and I forgot to move it.

...oops I almost forgot...

king of all he sees, but not a mouse in sight for little owl

....to show you the pictures of my little craft table from Sunday's craptacular pamper fair. At least Little Scrap Owl hid in my art box and popped out to survey that I had done a decent job of displaying my jewellery and art. The he made a little nest out of some bubble wrap and discarded tags and went to sleep. I wouldn't have minded but he did snore a bit, it might have been what kept people away from the event.

I think the paintings mix well with the jewellery

I thought the stall looked nice and I did get a few compliments on my vintage book page art and the use of book pages to display my jewellery on. I was quite proud of my sign as well, its a magnetic frame from Ikea that M helped me print a sign for me Meridian Ariel art, craft & jewellery design by Apryl Lowe.. it looked professional-ish.. at least for me.

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p.s. there is still time to leave a comment on my giveaway.

I would be ever so greatful if you could link back to it from your blog! thank you.

the winner will be drawn on Monday.

Tile Magnet Tutorial

Stone tile fridge magnets

Materials
5cm x 5cm stone tiles (they come in sheets from your local tile or DIY shop)
acrylic paints
magnets (as many as you have tiles)
1x tube superglue (or all purpose crafting glue)
1x can varnish spray

Step one: remove a tile from the sheet of backing it is stuck to. Clean and leave to dry out.

Step two: sketching your design. I sketched directly onto the tile, but you can draw your design onto some tracing paper and transfer it to your tile. Alternatively if you don’t draw or sketch you can used rubber stamps to stamp on a design.

Step three: paint your design using acrylic paints. I used them because I normally use acrylics in my art, they dry quickly and are pretty durable.

Step four: I sprayed my tiles with an acrylic varnish (2 coats)

Step 5: glue the magnet to the back of the tile. (the magnets I bought came with adhesive on the back but it was not nearly strong enough to hold the tile up. I know because I tried it and the tiles clattered down to the counter top)

I'm really happy with how they turned out, and seeing as there are several more sheets of tiles in the garage I plan to make some more tiles up as Christmas presents. I may even rope H into helping by getting him to make some Jelly Bean People magnets. I hope you find this tutorial fun and helpful.

p.s. if you look closely at the last picture you will see that they are indeed my kitchen tile leftovers. The noticeboard is a metal topped shelf from Ikea.

recycling the kitchen tiles

upcycled/recycled stone tiles (aka magnets to be)

In a box in the garage are several sheets of unused sheets of small stone tiles left over from the kitchen. In an attempt to amuse myself yesterday I dragged my paints, and tatty paint brushes out and had a go at painting on stone. My idea is to turn them into magnets, once I have sourced some strong magnets to glue to the back of the tiles.

teal cup (my favourite)

I think they look pretty good for a small quick experiment, and once I have found some magnets and sprayed some varnish/lacquer on top they will make a great little stocking stuffer for Christmas. The teal cup and the toadstool are my favourites so far, and I have a few more sheets of tiles to rip from the backing and have a play with. When I have found some magnets I will share with you what I have found and maybe write a mini tutorial if anyone would be interested?

a starbuck's red cup for M

Smoky Quartz Pendant Giveaway

smokey quartz and onyx beaded pendant

I have been wanting to do another giveaway for awhile now, and as yesterday was such a bust I spent the whole time I was at the fair making a few more pieces of jewellery and made two more pendants identical to this one. With Christmas come soon I thought it would make a lovely present to give or something to keep and wear when going out.

All that I ask is that you leave me a nice comment (I could do with a bit of cheering up) and tell me about something you plan make this Christmas Season or what you want Santa to bring you.

I will draw a winning name next Monday!

crap day at the pamper fair

Had a really crap day at the pamper fair organized by the parents of H's school, it was very well organized, we advertised everywhere and sent leaflets home with all the parents but it wasn't enough. only about 10 parents came to the event which was quite shameful as the event was to raise money for the school Christmas fair, Santa and presents for the kids.

there were a lot of stall holders but no people really. Some of stalls closed down early and went home... I stayed till the end but only made one sale, to the main organizer of the event. I think she felt sorry for me. Everyone felt really down about the event after all the effort to organize it. I was supposed to give a percentage of my sales to the school but I only sold the one bracelet, to the main PTA lady and she wouldn't have me give the money in... so I bought a few snacks to at least give some money back to the school.

My only other pet peeve at the event, aside from it being a ghost town, was that i was next to one of those stalls selling shitty- glittery tat from China. "Any item of rhinestone encrusted crap, that will tarnish your skin and fall apart on the first wear for a fiver."

argh....

p.s. my little table did look nice but you will have to wait a few days for pictures as M has the camera, and my computer is poorly again... *sigh*

toadstools in frames

Just a quick post to show you some of my toadstool paintings sitting in brand new frames. I think they look so different. I was sitting in the living room looking at them and it was like I was looking at something someone else made. I didn't feel like I had made them because they look nice.

more to come soon as desperately trying to finish stuff off for tommorow.

why has this image turned out so big? I'm not getting along with blogger at the moment.

The Thursday Night Project

smokey quartz bracelet

The Thursday Night project is an ongoing community crafting project through Crafteroo and

Flickr . The aim of the project is to photograph your work in progress and what you have finished for Thursday night. Its a great way to push yourself into finishing those few crafty things that you started and have been ignoring and setting aside for awhile.

smokey quartz and onyx pendant

I probably should have gotten more done last night than I did, but I had to help M book flights for visiting the states in the spring, and it took a lot longer to sort out than we had hoped. But its sorted now we fly from Heathrow to Seattle on the first of April, then the next morning (our Anniversary) we get to spend 6 hours driving across Washington State to get to my parents home in Idaho. I can't wait.

rose quartz and silver bracelet


The chunky faceted smokey quartz featured at the top of this blog post is one of those happy accidents, I ordered the beads because they were on offer, what I didn't pay attention to was how big they were, I knew they were rough, which is what I wanted and I have completely fallen in love with them and want to order more, as I hope I can sell a few pieces this weekend in order to buy more of these beads so I can justify keeping a bracelet for myself.. as it is I may just have to keep the pendant and wear that on Sunday as I set up and mind my jewellery an art stall. M says the beads look like something Betty Rubble or Wilma Flintstone might wear, but I think they are beautiful.

Working for the Weekend

snowflake quartz, teal glass, and metal bracelet

This Sunday I have a table to fill at a pampering event in town to raise money for H's school. M signed me up for it and to be honest I'm quite terrified that no one will want what I am selling. I have been working hard the last few days to make as much jewellery as I can to fill the table. I plan on bringing some of my painted pages as well so have bought a few frames to put them in and hopefully create some sort of display by draping the jewellery over the framed paintings.

faceted black onyx bracelet

I'm note sure if I will sell much, but have promised to give %20 percent of my profits to the school instead of paying for entry. We shall see hoe it goes, perhaps I should make some cupcakes as well.. at least I know that my baking will sell if nothing else does. I should be working away at some beading now, but I'm waiting for a delivery of some findings and have a huge amount of housework to sort out. arghh

red quartz and carnelian pendant

My favourite pieces are the onyx bracelet, the beads are so gorgeous and the red quartz and carnelian pendant. If they don't sell I will put them up on etsy, and if not then well I will just have to keep them for myself. The phone charms are something new I have been playing with, although I probably wouldn't use one myself I do like how they turned out. I best get going and do some sorting out, and make some vague attempt at cleaning the house.

red coral and turquoise bracelets

nephrite jade and red jade pendant

deep rose candy jade, snowflake quartz, and metal bracelet


a few phone charms, teal glass, strawberry quartz, red jade and onyx

and a key chain made with new jade and white quartz

Through the Woods

A few days ago I recieved a lovely package from Selena for the Fairy Tale Swap I ran what seems like ages ago, inside the package was a lovely note from Selena and some beautiful gifts. My favourite fairy tale, or at least one of them is Little Red Riding Hood, so Selena gathered together some beautiful red felt, some Japanese red riding hood fabric and commisioned her friend to make the most beautiful felt wall hanging.

The above image doesn't really do it any justice, it lovely, with such pretty little details, in the curling blond hair, the vibrant flowers, and velvet ribbon and vintage button fasteners. Thank you very much Selena, and your very talented friend Jacki for making me so happy.

If you haven't been to Selena's Apron Thrift Girl Blog please visit her, he blog is brilliant, and she took some lovely photos of the things I sent her. which I erm sorta forgot to photograph in my haste to send the package to her. Thanks again Selena for swapping with me and for taking the time to send me lovely emails, and to witter on with me about Dr. Horrible, Buffy, the crew of the Serenity, and stealing Melinda's house, and the house from Practical Magic too.

Oh and Selena, just so you know the knitted cuff is also a java jacket for your coffee/tea cup when at a coffee shop, better than the card board ones. I always carry one in my purse, it makes me smile to place it on my coffee cup and sit down with it. It doesn't matter if anyone else notices, just a little handmade something that brings a little happiness into the day.

red felt and Japanese red riding hood fabric

p.s. I hope everyone had fun with the swap, and perhaps we can do another Fairy Tale Swap in the new year.

Lattes, Ikea jars, and hidden mushrooms

another toadstool painting

M did take me for a Starbuck's we sat together happily at the new one by Ikea Nottingham, sipping from wintery red cups and listening to Christmas music while looking out over the half empty car park pretending we were in America. I had a red cup with a latte (extra shot please)in it, and I was happy. Then we dragged ourselves around Ikea in search of a desk for the bedroom and I wanted some of the little glass gars with lids ( canning jars) for some Christmas crafting.

The desk ended up being a full serve item so we must have waited twenty minutes or more for them to bring two small flat packed boxes while I sat there being thankful that I don't still work there. M will be spending the rest of the day reading flat pack instructions and grizzling at said instructions, while i carry on playing with beads for a stall I have over the weekend.

my little seahorse

The toadstool painting and the seahorse are from a few days ago, I misplaced them and forgot about them until this morning. I used to doodle seahorses all the time when I was little, that and erm unicorns. But anyway I have been really busy stocking up on bracelets and beaded pendants, with a few key chains and mobile phone charms mixed in. Pictures soon I promise. I best go as I'm being shouted to sort something out.