The Hanging Garden

Okay, admittedly I’ve gone through phases in my life where I’ve had a certain affection for The Cure (hence today’s title homage; I’m not referencing any sort of Babylon)…


No judgement, right?


Oh, good. Then I’ll take you back a few years to when I moved into my very first all-on-my-own apartment. No roommates (centipedes don’t count), no family, no man-go-round… it was just me and my one bedroom apartment in uptown. 


… my very own one bedroom, white walled, white carpeted, white tiled apartment. You get the point- it was dull and hideous, and in need of a pick me up!


First I purchased this little beauty (still with me, as I just took this crappy picture 30 seconds ago)

Jute rug from World Market

But the walls remained bare! and so did my wallet!


So what’s a crafty girl to do? Deal with the white walls? Nuh uh, 
Make a humongous handmade wall hanging only a mother could love everyone will love? You bet!

Painted paper flower collage!
It’s impossible to tell from the difference in lighting, but this hanging actually matches the rug pretty closely. Want the how-to?

Materials:
-large sheet of paper for background
-cardboard for making petal stencils
-newspaper for the petals
-acrylic or poster paints
-poster frame



Instructions:
1. Paint the large sheet of paper desired color
2. Cut out large and small “petal shapes” out of cardboard
3. Trace tons of petals onto newspaper- Large and smaller for overlap
4. Cut out newspaper petals
5. Play around with large petal shapes until you have several flowers. 
6. Paint large petals one color
7. Use smaller stencils to cut out insets of complementary color. 
8. Paint smaller newsprints another color
9. Glue haphazardly on large sheet
10. Freehand some stems/ leaves onto newsprint and paint desired color
11. Glue remaining pieces
12. Throw in poster frame. Hang on wall!


Now you have your very own “hanging garden.”


Now by the power of Robert Smith, go forth and make some art!
Meri

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Know when to fold ’em

Well folks, we can’t all be great at everything.
Furthermore, we can’t all love everything. How boring life would be if we all liked and excelled at the same things!


For example, I am a rockstar at doing crosswords. I do pretty well with turning a phrase, I can make people laugh, and I have been told I’m fairly creative.


I do NOT excel at things were you have to follow instructions (especially diagrams), where there is one right way to do things, or tasks where you need to perfect something or correct your work.


“Outside the box” things that are messy and you can stop whenever you want? Yes.


Perfectionistic projects that entail attention span? Hell to the no.


Today’s example? Origami.


I picked this gem up at the library along with a bevy of other craft books. “it’s been awhile,” I thought, “maybe my opinion of/ skill at origami has changed!” Plus, recycling junk mail into beauty? It was an enticing concept… I armed myself not with junk mail, but with ads from my handy dandy Good Housekeeping magazine.

Something went wrong, however. I gave the easiest creations a good college try. Heck, I gave them a PhD try. alas, I ended up staring at the same words and minimal picture wondering what on earth I was supposed to do next. 


First I tried a bow- moderate success… had to hold it together…

Since its too hard to tell, this is a seahorse. Halfway through I just started
folding any which way I pleased,  making “sea horse” noises to compensate

*** “Meri malfunction, does not compute.”***

The two part elephant? utter disaster. But I put it by a palm tree to give it
a pretty backdrop… does this count for anything???

I gave these crumpled up half-arsed concoctions to man-go-round. I think he liked the seahorse best. Then I comforted myself the best way a girl can, with a nice cold beer.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Something ventured… self knowledge gained, I guess. And a few little “housepets.”

Cheers!
Meri
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The "Heart" of the Matter

Happy Valentine’s Day!
True Random Number Generator  32Powered by RANDOM.ORG
Stefanie said…
Oh my goodness, how cute!! I would love to win–I’ve been a follower for a while! 🙂

P.S. Love the new header!!!

-Mallori said…

I am a follower of Meri-Goes-Round (Love the new header)

the ONE bracelet that caught my eye was the yellow one pictured in batch 2. Purple is my FAVORITE color and yellow compliments purple so well!

What does all of that mumbo- jumbo mean? Well, if you’re a frequent blog reader, you know that Stefanie and Mallori are the “chosen ones” who won the bead-dazzled giveaway!

I assigned each comment/ entry a number (some commenters did multiple entries in one comment, so I gave them an entry for those) and used random.org to choose the numbers. It was my first experience doing this- very odd that it chose numbers 32 and 33, right? I found that incredibly RANDOM indeed!

Ladies- send me your mailing addresses and I’ll drop your baubles in the post ASAP!
you can reach me at meredithnoel(at)yahoo(dot)com.

Now, some consolation prizes for the losers other entrants…

drawing from one of my clients

Can you guess which nerdery was bought for whom?


(Left to Right: Man-go-round bought me some treats… then he got
sick and I bought him a thermometer… then I got crabby and bought
myself some candy hearts. Happy Valentine’s Day to all!)

another gorgeous sunset… a girl can get used to this…


I’ll be back tomorrow with some new crafts to show you all!

Cheers!

Meri

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Fire and Ice and and a Sunday so nice!

Before you read further- 


Last chance to enter the bead-dazzled giveaway! It’s right here and it ends tomorrow!


This weekend really has shaped up to be an A+ if there ever was one. Today looked quite similar to yesterday, with slightly different errands but similar natural sights and delights.


For example:

Rainbow sunset

Hi little bird! Enjoy the sunshine!

Lovely little day! Plus, I found jeans that fit (even though they are just a copy of another pair I already own). Holla!


And as for Fire and Ice last night? Here are a few highlights!

Making the pilgrimage, christmas trees in hand

Carriage rides, and the bonfire begins!

Sign in the line for chili in the community center- made me laugh
 “Take my word” – I love it 🙂

The bonfire grows! Fire amongst ice!

Soooo… now I’ve given you some eye candy. Who doesn’t want to see a little warmth and celebration in the middle of a Minnesota winter? But I have one more treat for you! For those of you who haven’t already received your Valentines from me, shield your eyes. 


For the rest of you- here are a collage of this years Valentines!

Hearts, lace, ribbons…

Stamps, stickers, rhinestones…

Red, white, pink. A touch of brown and black to keep things not so girly 🙂


Alright my little Valentines! See you tomorrow to announce the bead-dazzled giveaway winners!
Meri

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Fake Plastic Trees… and Flowers

Only a few more days to enter my GIVEAWAY! Check it out here!


What a great Saturday:
-weather thaw (near 40 degrees!) with sun!
-haircut/foils (with giftcard!)
-whole foods goodies
-Fire and Ice festival with christmas trees afire (more on that tomorrow!)
-Hockey day in MN
annnnd….


The best mail day yet this week!

Valentines from Arizona- completely made my day!

 Valentines from my very special nieces- “heart melting” homemade ones

In an ideal world, I would always have fresh flowers or blooming plants in the home. Man-go-round does pretty well cultivating his plant corner of orchids, spider plants, cacti and herbs. Me? I’ve been known to kill marigolds and dandelions… 


So what does a flower lover do? I surely can’t afford to buy fresh flowers year round…and now that I’m a one-man kind of gal, I don’t have suitors sending me flowers each week (kidding…)


Yep, you guessed it: 

Meri’s Fake or Free Fresh Flower Alternatives!


High school bedroom- I made it a garden theme. Many
thanks to my parents for their complete and total hands
off attitude during this entire project (wallpaper removal
and all… they let me do exactly as I pleased. Thank you!)

Winter flower arrangement in current home…

…and the summer/ spring alternative version

Wildflowers from the ‘hood don’t cost a thing!

Who could forget the “heirloom” wooden tulips
Hope you enjoyed my black thumb garden. 
Now go forth and send someone flowers! I bet it will make their day 🙂

Meri-gold
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Give em the old defrazzle dazzle…


There’s still time to enter my bracelet giveaway! To check it out, click here!


Exhibit A:


Exhibit B:

These have been all over the web recently,(the former from here), throwbacks to the classic British propaganda posters including references to Harry Potter and more. When I saw a blank template made over at Femmena Mala, I had to give it a go. Plus, mine rhymes which I think gives it an edge over “Keep calm and use a cruciatus curse” or whatever some of the derivatives say…

That said, how the heck does one “Keep Calm and Meri On?”

You craft, of course! So today, in honor of winter doldrums everyone seems to be plowing through (I feel like everyone is dead tired and beaten down after this week), I’ll go through a hierarchy of best to worst crafts for stress relief (for me, at least). 

Here goes!

The best of the best: Calming Craft Magic
-Macrame, Meri style- (as in you don’t follow a pattern and you go with the flow). It’s like knitting without the counting and you can’t really screw it up. Bliss!
-Drawing- More on this during another post, but doodling has ALWAYS been a friend of mine- from the days I tattooed my own ink sleeves while working at mall kiosks to the page filling doodles of meetings and trainings…
-papercrafts (paper cutting, collage, papier mache, and more)- My family can probably picture me sitting during a family function with a scissors and an old magazine or newspaper, cutting and layering and whistling to my heart’s content
-Hot glue crafts. Quick, cheap, tacky- what’s not to like?

Pretty good:
-knitting- If I make something easy like a simple scarf, it’s very relaxing. If I screw up, things can go wrong…
-Hand sewn crafts- Make my fingers hurt after awhile, but I still enjoy creating things this way
-Painting- Love it, but due to the prep, cleanup, etc, I can’t put this under my top category. 

Crafts that make me CRAZY-
-machine sewing- ARGH as much as I would love to be able to make my own clothes, so that maybe something would actually FIT, I go nutso when I try to reroute the thread and work the machine. Really, it’s all about the machine. 
-Origami- More on this another day, but I think this falls into the same category as reading diagrams… my brain just won’t do it. 

So there you have it!
I suppose you could follow the general rule of: 

Good Crafts: Portable, No rules, tactile
Bad Crafts: Following Patterns, Impractical, “right and wrong way,” directions, cumbersome, too pretty…

What are your favorite ways to relax? Are there crafts that make you bat-s#*@ crazy too?

Have a wonderful, calm, influenza free weekend pals!
Meri

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It’s in the bag

Entered my bejeweled giveaway yet? No? Click here!


Alright, this is getting ridiculous, people…. ANOTHER good mail day?


Special Delivery from Kristin! Head over to Style it Green to learn more eco-friendly tips and info! This art is made of eco-friendly materials! 


Thank you very much, Kristin!


And these came hand delivered, but I’ll qualify them as “good mail…”



Gotta love having a girl scout in the neighborhood! And I hear they’ll be selling them through March, so there will surely be more boxes to come… I’ve never had either of these kinds before. I’ll let you know how they taste…

Now, onto craftier things.

Ashly wrote a post about “what’s in your purse,” over on her blog Moon Walk, and she tagged me to spill what’s in my purse/ bag next! 

So of course, I will oblige. However, first I thought I’d do a tie-in to a purse craft I made waaaaay back in high school. It’s fairly simple, provided you have a raw textile bonanza at your disposal like I always did at my parents’ house. If not, hit your local garage sale and get some ugly clothes with some cute pockets!

Pocket Purse by Meri!


Steps:
-Find an apron/ skirt/ dress that you are willing to cut apart. The item needs to have two mirror image pockets that are big enough to hold some of your things.
-cut the pockets out with some space around them for sewing.
-place two pocket pieces back to back, decorated side facing in. 
-Sew the two side and bottom corners together (sewing machine or by hand, doesn’t matter. This was by hand)
-Flip inside out
-Find leather cording, pretty ribbon, robe, or any other semi shape holding string, and measure out enough to go over your shoulder and across your body. 
-Thread through beads (as shown) if you like.
-Sew cording onto inside flaps of purse
-Gloat over your unique DIY purse, and make Meri proud


That’s it! 


Now, as you can see above- this purse is pretty small. I almost never carry a purse- I walk to work so I use a backpack, and when I go out I just throw my “wallet” (we’ll get to that) in my pocket with my phone. When I run errands I sometimes use a purse, though. Here some purse or pocket contents you’d commonly find!

phone, coupons, notebook (for blog ideas and grocery/ library lists)
 sassy shades, chapstick, keys, pen, wallet!

That Bacardi Mint tin has functioned as my wallet for about 2-3 years now. It’s surprisingly durable, and keeps me from carrying around too much crap. It generally carries my check card, ID, library card, Speedy Rewards card, Borders rewards card, Roundy’s Rewards card, Health/ Dental insurance cards, and Roadside Assistance card from my auto insurance.


Wow, what a boring post this is becoming. Please don’t stop reading my blog, I promise I’ll come up with some more cheesy puns and maybe even give away some more stuff if you keep up with the incredibly kind comments you’ve been posting lately.


YOU COMPLETE ME… well, my blog anyway 🙂


Cheers, and goodnight!
Meri

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Felt up!

hehehe, get your attention?


Daily reminder to enter my INTERGALACTIC, SUPERSTELLAR giveaway if you haven’t yet! To reroute there, click here!


Today was the second “good mail” day in a row! Thanks to Ellen from  Creative Passage, my sub-zero (temperature) day was brightened substantially… Lookee here!

fancy wrap!

Lovely woolen and fabric pins from Ellen!

Thank you ever so much Ellen!
You can see more of Ellen’s pretties at her Etsy shop-
www.etsy.com/shop/WoolenWondersbyEllen!



Soooo, in honor of this lovely surprise, I’ll post a photo journey of some felt and fabric flower pins I made back in December. Although substantially less good looking and (ahem), durable… they also require very little skill, which I unfortunately can’t say for the ones I received today. 

So I give to you:

Felt Flowers for Dummies:

1. Gather the felt from your halloween costume, some pretty buttons, pins, and
safety pins. You will also need a scissors and about 1/2 hour of free time…

2. Cut out petals, overlap them to a pattern of your liking

3. Once in place, pin the lovelies with a stick pin to keep in place

4. Attach safety pin like so, and attaching button on the
opposite side. When they are sort of secure, remove stick pin.

5. Model pin for your boyfriend/ whoever lives with you
and is wondering what you’ve been sticking/poking
yourself with and shrieking about for the past 20 minutes.
(note to self, buy thimble…)

6. Go to Savers. Buy some cheap placemats in vibrant colors. Repeat as the
spirit moves you in any flower pattern you like. All finished!

Well, now you know why I was requesting a bag of buttons from my neighbors a few months back. I was lucky enough to get a really neat selection of shiny, plain, and retro buttons from a kind and crafty neighbor. 

Now just wait to see what happens when I pull out the orange suede fabric I haven’t used yet…

Meri

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Note worthy

Hi everyone!


First off, have you entered my very first giveaway yet? If not, click here!


Second, look what came in the mail today! I won a giveaway at Healthy Diva Eats and it arrived today! Lots of yummy goodies to mix in my oatmeal, microwave pancakes, or other concoctions!



Thanks again Katie!


Now, onto today’s subject. Lately with winter beating extra hard (negative temps again today), I’ve been remembering to try to think positive and inject a little cheer in each day. I do this year round, regardless of the amount of stress happening, but it sure is harder to remember in the winter, when it’s dark when you wake up.


Man-go-round leaves super early to catch the bus for work, so sometimes before bed I set out notes to remind him to have a great day, or to at least hope he cracks a smile in the cold, dark, icy winter walk.


These notes are never profound, I think that would miss the point. Sometimes they are clever, usually not. It’s no Operation Beautiful, but it’s operation Meri-Gives-Cheer 🙂


Some examples:

On a photo holder clip

All broken apart

2 am “art”

This one’s from Man-go-round wishing me a happy humpday!

More post-it style

Are you feeling extra cheerful yet? Are you thinking about surprising a loved one, co-worker, or roommate with a surprise note?


These also work well in lunch boxes (thanks for the once in a while notes when I was a kiddo momma!), on desks, on doors, or in books next to the bookmark. 

Do you like to leave notes? What kind of notes do you leave?

Have a happy humpday tomorrow, everyone!

Meri

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Bead-dazzled

See that link at the bottom of my blog? It lists the lovely folks who follow Meri-Goes Round. Quite recently, that number climbed over 100! I can’t really believe there are 100 people out there who have read this thing, and I am cheered each and every day by the lovely comments left on here. I know at some point I’ll get that dreaded “negative comment,” but thus far the blog has been the most fun, evolving, and experimental journey. Glad to have you along for the ride!


In honor of you lovely peeps, and the impending holiday (Valentine’s Day, that is…) I’m giving away some swag!

My very talented cousin makes jewelry, and I have acquired sort of a selfish share of bracelets from her over the years. Behold!

Batch 1

Batch 2

All together now!
So, I’m thinking it’s only fair that I share some of her craftiness with some of you! 

What’s that? You’d like to win one of these? Well, here’s the rules!

1. (Mandatory) Follow Meri-Goes-Round (through Google Friend Connect on the very bottom of my page) and leave me a comment telling me which bracelet you like the best! Please also leave some way to get ahold of you should you win (blog link or e-mail such as “joecool(at)gmail(dot)com”

You can get another entry (separate comment for each please) by:
2. leaving a comment about your favorite post you’ve read on this blog
3. Posting on facebook or twitter or your blog about this giveaway (send link in the comment please)

I’ll use random.org to choose the 2 winners! The deadline for entries is Monday, February 14th at 6 p.m.

                                                                                                                         

So as not to leave you high and dry with no crafts of my very own, I’ll include another obnoxiously easy craft for you to try if you’re a jewelry lover like me!



Ribbon Necklace

These long necklaces were sort of all the rage a few years back (okay, 5 or 6 years back…) I cling to the trend because these actually I think are easier to wear than shorter necklaces. Plus, they are fun to make!

You need:
-pretty ribbon about 4 feet long (maybe extra to tie or knot ends)
-beads of any kind, as long as the holes are big enough for the ribbon to go through
-15 minutes or so

I like to group them in clusters with a separator bead, rather than miscellaneous patterns like I’ve seen elsewhere. But really, the world is your oyster here. Have fun! And if you make one, hit me up and tell me so I can see it!

Now go on and sign yourselves up and win yourselves some lovely baubles 🙂

Goodnight, and Goodluck!

Meri
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