Practically Imperfect in Every Way

My style of sewing is on the rough side. My stitches are wonky, my seams are anything but straight, but somehow that fits. I like the wonky ill fitting stitches that I use on my dolls and monsters. It gives them life and character. A part of me would love to be able to make a beautiful quilt with perfectly lined up squares. Wouldn't that be fantastic? But perfect isn't me, and I'm OK with that. Oh I still have my tics and the things that I make *have* to be just so. Perfectly imperfect.

fabric cuff made before we went away

A few weeks before we went on holiday I found a fabric cuff I had made well over a year ago. I put it on and was still quite happy with it's scrappy fabric, frayed edges and vintage buttons. I kept meaning to make some more, not so much to see but just to play with bits of fabric and to wear myself. So when i was packing suitcases and decided to take a partly sewn doll with me to finish while we were away I decided to fire up my sewing machine and sew a few scraps of fabric together to turn into a fabric cuff or two.

fabric cuff finished yesterday

I finished my packing early and ended up sewing a cuff while my friend Kate was visiting before we left. I ended up wearing that cuff most of the holiday and only worked on one of the other cuffs a bit before we headed back again then kept dragging my travel craft kit around with me determined that I would sit down and finish the fabric cuff or else. I'm not entirely sure what the 'or else' would be though.

modelling the fabric cuff and messing about with a TTV app. Also coffee. 

Yesterday in the car on the way to the dentist I sewed on the last button after much arguing with my buttons as to which would be used, in a lacklustre attempt not to think about the dentist, which let me tell you did not work in the slightest, ho hum. The cuff incorporates vintage buttons, scraps of text filled fabric, a slightly bent cog, and an old zip that was in an old sewing box I bought last summer while thrifting in Belper, Derbyshire. There probably isn't a straight line to be found on the cuff but that's fine and dandy with me. I love it anyway.

                                                                                     Close up of yesterday's cuff.

The first cuff I made and still wear....

While drinking coffee obviously.

p.s. I'm still trying to figure out this blogger update, everything keeps going weird on me. And why did I not get asked if I wanted to be .co.uk ? I was happy with .com. *grouchy*  

Miss Helena March: A doll story

Once there was a girl with hair the colour of sunsets and eyes that told stories if only you knew how to read them. Her name changes with the days and the months of the year. When last I knew her she went by the name of Miss Helena March. True names have power, but a nameless girl can call herself anything she likes. Names are turned as easily as coats, a twist of the tongue, a string of meaningless syllables. A stretch of letters scrawled in a hotel ledger.

She is a liar, a story teller, a traveller of the roads between time and reality. Her key opens doors to the past and to the almost was, and nearly is. Worlds in worlds.Earth but not our Earth.  Doors and keys and twisting realities.

 Her smile is sweet but wickedness and sorrow linger in her eyes. Her fingers twitch and she is ready to open another door. She is here one minute and gone on an adventure the next.

She collects clocks, and keys and funny little objects that each reality has discarded. Junk or trash, antiques or vintage. She travels the past and only she knows the things she will treasure most. She meets people and smiles that sweet sorrowful smile. She pours another cup of tea, lights another candle and plans another adventure, dreams of opening another door and sidestepping the world that is for one that isn't quite the same. Worlds within worlds and she has the key to slip between them all.

She is a girl with a key to worlds beyond our own. A little rusty key found in a puddle reflecting a perfect twinned sun sky that never was on this Earth. She takes the name of towns and cities, days and months, places she has been and we will never go. Where monsters roam, and magic lives and things aren't quite the way they are here. Today she is Miss Helena March. Yesterday she called herself Alene. She works in coffee shops, in diners, and in book shops. Small places. Unnoticed. A collection of name tags with the names of places she has been. Cities and towns. Universes and realities.
..............................................................................................................................................................

Miss Helena March was made for my very good friend Jaci. I finished the doll while we were away in the states. I could never quite pin down a name for Helena but I knew it had to be a city name and I was very nearly Roanoke or Alexandria, it could quite possibly be, the doll wouldn't tell me for certain, nor would she share her key with me. I left the doll unstained or grunged up and told Jaci she was free to stain her with coffee or tea if she wished a more aged look. I dare not make a mess of my parents kitchen like I do mine when I stain dolls at home.

 I have a few more dolls that I have been woefully neglectful in finding stories for but hopefully I shall attempt to fix that in the next few weeks. Like that poor steampunk Red Riding Hood that only has half a story written (the rest is in notes honest). If I can get the stories written I can list the dolls in my little etsy shop. Red really wants a new home to explore and she is pestering me to finish her tale and get her listed. Who am I to argue with dolls? Don't answer that!

Adventures in Thrifting in the Pacific Northwest

Ephemera and tins full of secrets.

The tins stayed at my parents as I ran out of room

and technically the flower tin is my mother's find.

Last Saturday we flew home from nearly three weeks holidaying in Northern Idaho visiting my parents. We all had a grand time despite some rather wild weather. True the weather is always wild and unpredictable in the mountains, or between the mountain ranges. The trip started off Sunday morning with a three hour drive to Heathrow then a ten hour flight to Seattle, a few hours sleep in the holiday in before waking at some inhumane hour to repack and stumble across to the Denny's down the street for bacon, terrible diner coffee (You should all know we are coffee snobs), and pancakes drowning in syrupy goodness.

Vintage Washington State tray $1.49

Last year I saw and Idaho one and wished I had bought it.

Um, cake. Not at all thrifty but it was damn nice.

From Chaps Cake in Spokane.

It was still dark when we hit the Cascades Mountains. Dark, freezing cold, and soon the car was pelted with snow, sleet, hail, and we travelled trough patches of thick fog all across Washington state. A couple of stops were made on the 5 hour drive to refuel on coffee, snacks and stretch our legs. The Cle Elum Safeway is freaking terrifying at 5 am when you step through the back doors to find the toilets. I half expected zombies to come shuffling through and I didn't have a baseball bat or any decent zombie killing weapon. We found a little coffee shop and fed H various things to keep him happy while he played on his DS, ipod, our phones and the ipad.

Starry fabric, book, buttons, and a child's silver bracelet.

I can't wait to turn this lot into dolls.

The foul weather chased us into Idaho where it settled into snow and we collapsed at my parents home amid a pile of overly excited pugs. The weather for the rest of the holiday was just as wild but the last week there was mostly sunshine and we were so happy to see it. Last year when we visited it snowed everyday, not proper snow mind you it was something they call grapple which looks exactly like little styrofoam balls. It was so good to be home...be in my other home, because no matter how long I live in England and have made a home here, America is still my home too. Not just because my dad is a wonderful cook and makes all my favourite foods but because culturally I will always be an outsider here no matter how blurred my accent becomes. The states always feel like home and after a year away I missed being in my parents home curled up with a little dog or two listing to H chatter on about whatever interests eight year old boys.

Pearl buttons and a rusty apple shaped cookie cutter.

A few vintage keys.

My mother found for me at an Estate Sale before we arrived.

We went out every day that we were there, going for coffee, breakfast, coffee, shopping, thrifting, and coffee. Did I mention coffee? You really can't go anywhere in the Pacific Northwest without being inundated with coffee everywhere, coffee shops, coffee sheds, Starbucks in most of the grocery stores. Coffee is everywhere. And coffee shops all have free wifi so I could happily instagram all the pictures I took and tinkered with.

Vintage wooden handled cookie cutter

(this has been on my list forever)

Vintage Montana license plate.

Bought on a day trip to Montana for authenticity.

Thrifting was the theme of this trip, along with coffee and candy. But mostly it was thrifting. On the weekends we went to Estate Sales and Garage Sales and in the week we went to thrift stores and junk stores. I didn't buy a ton of things though I did want to buy more than we did. It's a good thing I'm fussy about the things I buy, fussy and cheap that's me. I bought a lot of vintage buttons, which probably isn't a lot to some button addicts I know but is enough to keep me crafting for a long while.

k*nex

Matt only grumbled a few times at all the thrift shops I made him take us. And H? Well H occasionally grumbled at the thrift shops but he was more than happy to rummage around Estate Sales and find a absolutely bargain box of lego, a bag of k*nex and a few other bits and bobs to occupy him for the rest of our trip.

Brass belt buckle and tiny glass vial from an antique/thrift shop in Wallace, Idaho.

Both items were .50 cents, and will be perfect for doll making.

Pearl buttons.

Most were from a junk shop in a mixed bag of buttons for two bucks.

Even Matt had fun finding some CDs in a huge Goodwill store in Spokane, and H found a skater jacket and a green shirt to his liking. Most of what I bought and brought back is craft related, buttons, vintage junk, a 1979 copy of the Sears & Roebuck catalogue, old keys, tins and books. Most of the toys H found we left at my parents home so he can build lego cities and k*nex contraptions next trip.

Sissy the pug is not amused.

So I'm a bad blogger...again

You have probably figured that out already by the lack of any frequent posts for pretty much all of winter. Spring is coming and in two and a half weeks time we all go on holiday to visit my parents in the wilds of northern Idaho. I am so looking forward to getting away and seeing my folks and running around drinking too much coffee and buying tons of candy, Old Navy clothes and roaming around yard and estate sales. In the mean time I have a hell of a lot of organizing to do and for some reason the next few weeks are ridiculously busy.

I haven't been crafting though I have been routing through my craft supplies and have set out some fabric for a couple of dolls. I plan on sorting out a craft kit to take with me for crafting on the plane and in the car. Hopefully after our little vacation I will find my crafty mojo again and actually do a proper amount of crafting. One can hope anyway. Today I get my hair cut short so I best hustle and get some tidying done before the afternoon is over with. I may need more coffee to get me through it....I definitely need coffee to get me through tidying the house.. So this is me mooching to the kitchen to put the coffee machine on and I'm going to drink my coffee and go play with the buttons and fabric sitting on my desk. Can't get much better than coffee and vintage buttons can you?

Scarlett Hart aka Rowan Redd

Once upon a time there was a girl in a blue dress that went on an adventure down a rabbit hole. The girl in the blue dress slayed a dragon, killed a Queen, and nearly destroyed a kingdom. This is not her story, but it is the story of a princess who became a girl lost in Wonderland. The girl did not have a name though she sometimes called herself Rowan and sometimes Scarlett. Some say she is a blue blood but she will tell you that her blood is red the same as any. She is said to be the bastard daughter of the Queen of Hearts and an unknown lover of questionable mentality. Upon her birth she was placed in the Wonderland Asylum for Lunatics and the Criminally Insane, some say that madness burns behind her mismatched eyes worse than the blood rage that burned within the Queen herself.

The Princess Scarlett Hart was put away and forgotten by Wonderland, but she did not forget. She is beautiful, serene, a genius, a thief, a sociopath and quite utterly mad. A brilliantly broken and addled porcelain doll. Though no more mad then anyone left living in a broken Wonderland. She is obsessed with locks, and keys, and bright shiny blades. No locks can keep her out or in. She wanders the halls of the Asylum and the City humming, and singing slightly off key in a voice sweet as cyanide laced tarty tarts.

She laughed at the Queen of Heart’s fate and cried for the dragon as she bathed in the pool of tears. She wanders the forest in the day and sometimes takes tea with Hatter muttering about skinning white rabbits to make coats. A mad grin of too sharp teeth flickers across her tear streaked face while playing with her shining knives. On odd days she tells only lies, on even days she tells the truth. In Wonderland all the days are odd.

In your tour of Wonderland you may visit the Wonderland Asylum for Lunatics and the Criminally Insane for a very modest fee. You may even bribe a guard with a nice tarty tart to walk within the garden there. Whatever you do promise me you will be careful to never take tea with a flame haired fury with mismatched eyes, and bleeding hearts upon her gown. The forgotten princess of Hearts may tell you truths or sweeten your tea with honey and gentle lies or serve you sweet cakes laced with laudanum and spite. Or she may follow you home with her shiny blades as she serenades you with sugary sweet songs.

Better pictures soon but the light had already gone when I finished making Scarlett so I wrote down the Wonderland-ish story that was swirling about my head. This is the first doll I have made of the new year and the first doll I have made in two months, I think I may have found a little piece of my crafting mojo. *crosses fingers* I have more writing to do but hopefully I can start on another doll or craft project in the morning while the Boy does whatever he likes, mainly ignoring me until he wants feeding or I want to bribe him to escape the house for a few hours.

LaffyTaffy, magic and little houses

Autumn is a difficult time of year for me but the magic of crafty friends on the internet means that when I go about in a grump for weeks on and and get homesick my friends are there to help. I lamented on Facebook that I was missing of all improbable things banana flavoured LaffyTaffy. Odd I know but it is something that reminds me of being a kid, trick or treating or just going to the store with my best friend for that magical elixir of sugar and chemicals to send us into the stratosphere..or at least spend three days staying up watching movies without sleep. My friend Lisa replied to my misery and said she would happily swap with me.
If you don't know Lisa's work, and you really really should, then visit her blog lil fish studios and be prepared to be inspired. I don't know Lisa all that well but I have chatted with her on twitter and Facebook a bit and I really must say I'm in awe of her phenomenal talent. We share a love of the Little House books and I knew I had to make a badge for her with a Laura Ingalls Wilder quote on it, if I had had a broken copy of one of the books to tear apart for paper craft I probably would have made badges from that too. The doll I made and sent her was simple and made with vintage mother of pearl buttons that I think little Laura Ingalls would have loved.

Lisa's package arrived last week and I think I am still stunned by the beautiful toadstools she sent me, the picture above does it no justice as there seems to have been no decent light for days here but having the art on my desk has kept me smiling all week... well that and the pieces of LaffyTaffy I have *NOT* been sharing with anyone. Mine Mine Mine!!!

Lisa also sent me a vintage matchbox filled with vintage mother of pearl buttons that have gone to live on my desk and will one day be added to the new dolls I have in the works.

forest child doll I sent Lisa

I think Matthew must think I'm crazy for the gleeful squeeing I did when I opened the parcel, though I'm pretty sure he thought I was crazy from the moment we met, ( he still kept me though). I hope that Lisa was half as happy with what I sent her. I didn't take many photos of the parcel I sent as I forgot to (I know I'm useless) and though I wrote a story for the little Forest Child doll I sent I can't seem to find it at the moment. (no real surprise there either) Happiness in small magical things.

Home is the nicest word there is. - Laura Ingalls Wilder

my craft space

vintage buttons, measuring tapes and magical things

Today I have been working on a few different small projects. I've been painting, drawing and sifting through buttons and nifty things for a swap with a friend. I dragged out more buttons and things to inspire my crafting and the notes I'm writing for a little story in my battered notebook. I hope you are all having a lovely crafty Friday. I have done my housework...or as much of it as I can stand to do without pulling my hair out. I have made cheesecake and there is a pot of chicken bubbling on the hob to shred for chicken burritos later. I feel I have accomplished something today, aside from drinking three cups of coffee...What have you been up to today?

Caleb the Imp

Caleb the imp is small and lonely little creature, prone to mischief, bouts of melancholia, lover of fairy tales and converse shoes. He is a tiny bit huffy and stubborn, but you didn’t hear that from me. He is wicked, and sweet, a charmer and a procrastinator. He has a way of generating messes that make you forget about the job you were meant to be doing. Caleb love listening to fantasy stories of broken knights, hysterical dragons and forgotten magical realms, and watching epic fantasy movies and shows like Game of Thrones, Conan, Camelot, Legend of the Seeker and Labyrinth to name but a few. Did I mention he loves shoes? Because he really loves converse shoes, he won’t go to a home without any chucks in the house, and may drive his owner to buy more and more shoes. He says the shoes are his pets and his friends.

You must be careful if you own Caleb for you might come to harm tripping on carefully arranged piles of converse. He mostly means well, honest, but Caleb is an imp and that means trouble no matter how many shoes you own.

Caleb and my favourite chucks

Caleb was made from a Converse One Star button down shirt, vintage buttons, vintage doily, and toy filler.Caleb was stained with a mixture of coffee, vanilla and cinnamon. He is meant to be a decoration and not to be roughly played with my small children, due to his button eyes. Caleb the imp is a one of a kind creation, and I hope that you love him as much as I loved making him. I mean just look at that face, how could you not love him?

Caleb is listed in my etsy shop.

crafteroo button swap sent and recieved

button swap sent

I am terribly behind on my blogging. That whole summer thing of 'lets play all day and we wont do much' that didn't work and somehow I haven't caught up on blogging, writing, reading the tower of books beside my bed, or caught up on the housework. Ok so I probably wouldn't have caught up on the housework anyway because who *actually* does that? Seriously? We have been out and about on family trips and never seem to have stopped. It has been fun though. Today Harrison is at holiday club for the day so along with getting to grips with the housework I'm going to attempt to catch up on blogging. I promised some recipes and some pictures of thrifty finds and to blog about having started a facebook fan page for Meridian Ariel things. But more of that later.

framed button art I sent Caroline

About seven ages ago I signed up for the Crafter..oo Button Swap... A simple little swap of button-y goodness. I dithered though. I could not think for the life of me what to make for my lovely swap partner Caroline. Eventually while out thrifting for buttons and other crafty things I found a little brass frame and some inspiration. It was small and circular and had faded dried flowers in it. I was drawn to the frame and that afternoon I gathered together buttons, lace and vintage keys to find a way to display them in the frame. It was a bit if a tight fit and I may have got craft glue all over my leg and the carpet but was pleased with how the frame turned out with a slightly darker edge.

handmade button mint creams I received

I added a slightly sinister strawberry pin cushion and sewed some vintage buttons onto a vintage playing card and added some more buttons to a little pouch to make sure there was enough button-y goodness. I entirely forgot to add any chocolates or sweets to the swap package as I was in such a hurry to get it sent off to Caroline as I was so terribly late in sending the swap. The very same day I sent the swap I received the parcel she sent me.

buttons, buttons and doily buttons received!

I was amazed by the parcel Caroline sent because it was filled with buttons and some awesome button shaped mint creams that she made. I did not share them with anyone they were hidden on my desk where nobody goes but me! I loved the crocheted button doilies she made for me and have put them in a safe place on my desk. I'm almost tempted to use them for doll making though. Thank you so much for swapping with me Caroline.

Dr. Horrible t-shirt

If you have visited my blog before you will know that I am a geek. Utterly. Completely. Geekily so. I love Science Fiction, Horror, Fantasy, books, movies, tv shows, and web geekery such as Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. We own the movie/video and the soundtrack. Harrison and I listen to the soundtrack when he helps me cook dinner and we watch the blog with sweet popcorn and Harrison sings along with all the songs.

I looked into making a Dr. Horrible lab coat but my sewing skills are not quite up there with following patterns so I thought I would buy a red shirt and add buttons. Job done. Except it wasn't. I looked for weeks for a plain red t-shirt, I had no luck until today when I found a shirt in a thrift/charity shop for .75p! So I dug through my white button jar for eight similar sized buttons, found where I had hidden a spool of red cotton and needle in hand a Dr. Horrible t-shirt was born.
If I could embroider I would add the symbol on the pocket of Dr. Horrible's Lab Coat. I can't, not without getting in a tangle and steam pouring out of my ears. Harrison is playing in the garden with the Dr. Horrible Soundtrack on playing his favourite song 'Brand New Day'.

doodling on the road

While we were away in April I sorted out a little craft kit for myself, with a few pens, pencils, buttons, needle, note cards, three moleskin notebooks for gifts/swaps, vintage book paper, thread and thread cutter. Things that were small and I knew that the needle and tiny thread cutter were safe to take on the plane with us. Mostly I doodled in my sketchbook on the flight (when not occupied watching half a dozen films that I wouldn't have paid good money to sit in a cinema to see).

After the initial zombie state when I had a few minutes time here and there I pulled out my collection of assorted craft supplies (which I kept adding to as we went to thrift shops and estate sales) and went to work doodling and sewing buttons and letting my imagination roam.

I had a slight obsession with doodling little imps, I even doodled an imp on a plastic travel bag for Harrison before we left on holiday. It was nice and I was glad that I remember to bring craft supplies with me. In the past I have traveled with knitting, which is good but I loathed the circular knitting needles that were the safest to go through security without being confiscated.

The crochet hook and book didn't work out so well as I just got fed up of not understanding the Idiot's Guide I had bought and read a magazine instead.

If you are a crafter travelling I think it's important to bring something crafty with you, even if it's only a notebook and pen to roughly sketch ideas. I find that my creative sparks when we are away and bumming around various coffee shops. and then more coffee shops... and possibly a few more too. I have quite a bit of blogging and crafting to catch up on but I was sorting out the rogue pile of holiday stuff on my desk and found some of the doodles and button cards that I brought back with me.

I suppose I best go hand some laundry out and get a few more housey jobs done before Matt and Harrison get home from getting haircuts. I will cry and rage if the Boy's hair is too short...*sob*

the white owl's sharpie pens

White owl cigar box filled with vintage ephemera.

behind the sharpies is a stack of fabric & magazines

I'm home. I have returned my loyal blog readers. Well technically we arrived home on Sunday but with the jetlag and grumps nobody was close enough to human until today. I may still be less than human but I'm here and I'm blogging so that you don't forget me, and so I don't put of writing for another day.

buttons, buttons and more buttons on a vintage tart tin.

Yesterday I did the last of the unpacking. Now I just need to drag all the suitcases back into the attic and finish sorting out the pile of craft treasure that have overtaken my little desk. Mostly vintage buttons from yard sales, estate sales and a lovely junk & antique shop in Coeur d'Alene, ID. I will blog about our trip, adventures in thrifting and playing with pugs but the sun is shinning for a little bit so I'm going to grab my notebook and sit in the garden doodling a few ideas for dolls I have and writing the notes for a story that is rattling around in my head... way more fun than doing the housework... right?

mmm sharpie pens

silver cup, buttons and books

silver egg cup and vintage buttons

I have been in a bit better mood the last week. The sun has returned on an off and we have had some lovely walks. I even managed a few thrifty trips to various charity shops. And I won't get in trouble for what i bought as Matt was with me both times, and he bought a few cds and some hamma beads with Harrison. *quitely swears*

On a trip into Nottingham to grab lunch we went into the Oxfam books shop and I bought a vintage Doctor Who annual from 1978, and a vintage ladybird telephone book. I bought them for card and pin badge making if I can bare to cut into them. Yesterday I bought the little silver cup, I think it must be silver plate. I love the patina of age on it and I plan to turn it into a little pincushion when I sit down to do some sewing a little bit later. I also found a dozen or so white buttons and a vintage pressed glass button that will used for doll making.

Dr Who annual and ladybird telephone book

please check out Apron Thrift Girl for Thrift Share Monday. Where some proper thrifting has been done by some lovely bloggers. Also please have a look at the little doll Harrison and I have made and listed in my etsy shop, the profits for the doll will all go to the Red Cross Earthquake Tsunami Japan fund.

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.