Wednesday 24 December 2008

Merry Christmas!

The late nights have paid off and I have finally finished all my pre-Christmas sewing!

At least I say "all" but only because I decided not to do half of it!

I had a moment of clarity the other day when I was feeling guilty about all the Christmas craft activities I had planned and failed to do with the little Lockets.

What I realised was this: when I was a child we always had a much longer holiday from school before Christmas actually arrived so there was time to do lovely things, whereas the little Lockets only break up a few days before Christmas so there just isn't the time to do everything.

I know I always set my expectations way too high each year but if I really want to do better next year I reckon I'll have to start preparing in February at least!

But I'm sure we will all have a really lovely Christmas with or without the homemade extras!

And I hope you do too!

Lots of love to you all, Lucy xxxxx

Sunday 21 December 2008

Christmas is nearly upon us and I'm nowhere near ready - even though I don't have to think about food shopping or catering as we always go to mum and dad's for the bulk of the holiday!

I've just got so much sewing to do:

  • I still need to make a m_ _ _ _ _ _ _ for Daisy
  • 3 S _ _ _ _ s for Fred
  • and I've no idea what to sew for Dorothy although I may adapt a G _ _ _ _ _ _ pattern to make a R _ _ _ _ _ _ _ similar to one I've seen somewhere that I can't possibly link to right now because little people have inquisitive eyes!
  • and I'd really like to make a h _ _ for Mr Locket (at least you stand a chance of guessing that one!)
But I'm pleased to say that some more Christmas sewing has been finished


Firstly a little doll from this pattern for my friend Jane's 5 year old daughter because she fell in love with the Lockets' friends from the summer


and a dog - of my own design!!! (hence the wonky legs and ears) for her 2 year old daughter who promptly said "My Dog!" when she opened it!

I also managed to knit Jane some super-long wristwarmers and bought her this beautiful stitchery pattern to get her well and truly hooked!

I have been busily corrupting Jane over the last few weeks/months by getting her nearly as hooked on sewing as I am so next time I will show you the lovely eyemasks she has made for the children and some of the other lovely things she has been doing. I can't show you the eyemasks this evening as the children have naturally taken them straight up to bed!

Talking of lovely sewing, I was very lucky to receive a totally unexpected surprise in the post last week - a parcel of goodies from Maria!


Thank you so much Maria - I was so delighted to open such a lovely parcel!

And I'll leave you tonight with a rather strange photo of our rather strange (and very titchy tiny, teeny-weeny) Christmas tree because I love the shadows cast by the paper chains!


Happy Christmas!

Tuesday 16 December 2008

A tribute to Melly and Me!

PHEW!!!!!

I have finally finished the sewing that I HAD to do before Christmas!

I can't tell you what a relief that is!

Now I just have a mountain of things that I NEED to make and REALLY, REALLY, REALLY WANT to make in the next 7 days!

This post truly is a tribute to the wonderful design talents of Melly and Me - I love their patterns so much - and so do all my friends it seems!!!

So let me please introduce you to Dilbert's cousins

Philbert



and Lilbert


who are for two of Fred's school friends after they fell in love with Fred's birthday present.

And accompanying young Lottie from a couple of posts ago, may I introduce you to Blossom


(a rather brighter and more brilliant version of the one Dot received for her birthday!)


And finally, a photo of Dot herself - a poorly girl, who spent her days lying on the sick bed sofa stitching away on another Melly and Me design which will have to remain a secret for another few days!
Hopefully I will be back again before Christmas day but just in case I'm not I'd like to wish all of my lovely bloggy friends a very, very HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Lucy x

Wednesday 10 December 2008

Oh no!

It's only 2 weeks now!!!!

Sorry I'm being such a bad blogger - I just don't seem to have time to write posts and lots of the things I should be working on are presents so I can't show them.

I do have some Christmas-sy Little Locket photos though

first up is poor Cinder-fred-erella cleaning out the fireplace


child labour I know - but he looks fairly happy with his lot doesn't he?

Then we had a visit from Father Christmas himself this evening!


He came to help raise money for the Rotary Club as he does each year - but he's never actually come to our door before - I think he took pity on the littles in their p-js!


and whilst the littlies were being entertained by the big man himself, my gorgeous Dotty Locket was at her first disco at "big school"

I know I'm biased - but doesn't she look gorgeous?


And here she is modelling the new hat I knitted from this tutorial and the scarf she knitted for herself! This chunky self-patterning wool was so cheap but absolutely beautiful!

And talking of beautiful things leads me to a wonderful discovery....................

Amy Butler fabric at our local John Lewis!!!!!


I just couldn't resist!

And today's closing photo illustrates the fact that children just love cardboard boxes!

I just wish I had a photo of when Daisy was "harnessed" to the box (with my scarf) complete with musical reindeer antlers while "Santa" Fred (complete with hat) sat in the box directing her! Unfortunately the box died before I got a pic :o(

Tuesday 2 December 2008

Starting to be Christmassy

Oh my goodness - it's only 3 weeks tomorrow until Christmas Eve!!!!!


Aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggghhhhhhhhh!


There is so much to do and I seem to have left it all to the last minute again (no surprises there!) so I'm feeling a bit panicked.

The one thing that is making this a better year than normal is that I made the decision not to do any craft fairs - in fact I haven't done one since about May I think. Unfortunately I still have a fair few commissions to do but I've decided to prioritise those that HAVE to be done for Christmas and the rest can wait because I really want to make as many of the Little Lockets' Christmas presents as I can (along with a few others for friends and family too)

I'm quite happy today because I have finally finished this lovely Melly and Me ladybird


I say "finally" because I started it ages ago but then had that long period where my wrist was hurting too much to craft so it didn't get finished in time for the recipient's birthday so it has become a Christmas present instead.



The other thing I managed to finish and post was my Christmas swap present for Vanessa - this is the main thing I sent (along with a bag and some buttons)


I used the free Wee Wonderfuls Elf Stitchette - I just love that design!

I'm also pleased because I seem to be more organised about doing crafty Christmas things with the children. At the weekend Dot had the chance to go and spend the night at Granny and Grandpa Dog's house so Daisy, Fred and I made some of Michaela's mincemeat:

here they are displaying Fred's "ingredient sculpture"

and then we have the stirring photos


and then Fred decided we needed to have a "cute" picture too


And so I don't leave Dot out all together here is a photo of the Christmas card she designed and made for a school competition. She was getting stressy about her drawing "not being good enough" so I suggested that she use her talent for collage instead.


I love the way she has used all the different greens (lots of them from the Boden catalogue) and lots of Christmassy text for the snow.

In other Christmas-Crafty news, we have a little matchbox advent calendar that I made last year and in each day there is a chocolate coin and a little activity. The first one was to make mincepies and I left the task in the capable hands of Mr Locket and the Littles, but I don't think I will publish photos of how they turned out!!!!!!

Tonight we will be doing "fingerprint robins" so come back next time to see how they turned out!

P.S Do you think 9 Advent Calendars is a bit excessive????

Thursday 27 November 2008

Crochet Hook Rolls and Wrist Warmers

Now I told you all how much I love my new knitting needles and this is what they have been making lately:

first some wristwarmers for Mr Locket's birthday inspired by this tutorial


then some for Miss Dotty Locket to match the scarf she is knitting for herself


and then some more for Daisy Locket only these weren't half as much fun to do because they were on squitty thin metal dpns instead of my lovely bamboo ones - they look good though and the wool was really cheap for self-patterning.


No two are identical in length, stitch number or thumb size because I was sort of making it up as I went along (and not really following the very good tutorial) but on the whole I'm very pleased with them!

The other thing I've been making lately is crochet hook rolls inspired by this fab tutorial.

The first was for Charlie P


The second for Thimbleanna


And the third was for Lesley


(Actually the fourth was for Lesley and the third, almost identical one is mine - only mine has all the faults and hers is better!)

They are lovely to make and very, very useful so now I need to make myself a slightly larger one to house all my lovely new bamboo dpns - not just my set from Loop but all these too!!!!


But I will leave you today with the needle case I made for Ally using one of Lynette Anderson's brilliant free block of the month stitcheries.


So a post full of creations and tutorials.

By the way have any of you noticed the fab new item on the side of my blog - my wistlist? It's a really brilliant way to store all your favourite crafty tutorials - there are so many there that I want to make so why do I have to go to work when I have all this sewing and knitting to do? It's so unfair!

Tuesday 25 November 2008

I'm sorry!

I've become a really rubbish blogger lately - not only am I not replying to your lovely comments I'm also getting really bad at writing posts. But I am quite happy to lay the blame squarely on "the new dog" - it has nothing to do with me being lazy. Nothing at all. Really.


To make matters worse I have loads of Thank You's to say for all the lovely gifts I received down in London!

Lesley treated me to one of her fabulous Christmas quilts


Gina gave me a beautiful peg-doll fairy


Trashy painted this amazing pear tree decoration


Ali gave me one of her beautiful origami wreaths and some fab red and white string


Emma made this gorgeous bracelet


and Val made this stunning one


- they go so beautifully together and I have been wearing them nearly every day since I got back!

And Michaela gave me some of her delicious fudge


it looks good doesn't it?

No?

Well it did! And it was scrummy!!!

Thank you all so very much! My presents are lovely and meeting you all was fab!

My sewing production went into overdrive in preparation for the BIG trip to London but since then I have been busy knitting - mainly because I have completely fallen in love with the set of knitting needles I bought in Loop


I don't think I have ever loved a craft tool as much (well, apart from my magic pen, my fabulous notebook of all notebooks and my sewing machine of course) - but these needles are gorgeous! I just want to keep on knitting! Shame I have so much sewing to do!!!

Finally you may also be pleased to hear that my smelly BIG sister has managed to update her blog!







(at last!)

Monday 17 November 2008

A FIRST CLASS weekend!

I don't know where to start with this post as there is so much to tell you about!

The weekend started off on a high with access to the First Class Lounge at Newcastle station


I've never travelled First Class before but I'm sure I could easily become accustomed to it - with the regular supply of free tea/coffee and biscuits throughout the journey. Although my friends did question whether it was normal to knit in First Class!

We arrived at The Country Living Christmas Show and met up with Gina, Lesley, Trashy, Maria and my very lovely, very BIG, sister Ally!

Gina and Lesley were just as lovely as I remembered but I hadn't met Maria or Trashy before - Maria was lovely and Trashy, well, Trashy was completely bonkers!

So please don't believe any of her nonsense about it being me and Lesley that were up to no good because I have photographic evidence to the contrary


I've chopped off her head (well someone had to) so she can't complain at me for putting too many photos of her on my blog, but you can clearly see from the jumper who was actually standing on tables in the canteen showing off the tablecloths! (the ladies on the next table seem rather bemused)

Gina sensibly ran away as soon as she could (not sure if she will be wanting to meet us again??!!!) and after terrorising the stall holders and visitors for a while longer we also departed into the Islington dusk in search of Loop.

I had to grab a photo of this beautiful flower shop on the way


before running with my suitcase bumping along the pavement to catch up with Trashy who was leading the way!

Loop was the most beautiful shop, full of gorgeous yarns,


incredible crochet and knitting


and, once we arrived, a bunch of very strange individuals


just click on the photo for a better view!

Having said good-bye to Trashy and Maria, Ally, Lesley and I gathered our picnic from Fortnum and Masons Sainsbury's and went back to the Ritz where we proceeded to laugh and chat and eat and drink and laugh some more until we told Ally it was time to stop messing about and go to sleep.

After eating the MOST ENORMOUS ALMOND CROISSANTS that you are ever likely to see for breakfast we set off to Covent Garden to this lovely restaurant where we met Michaela, Domesticali, Val, Emma and Baby Pebble and Vicious Chicken and the NBM! Everyone was really lovely and we had a fabulous time laughing and chatting and discussing knitting


and stopping half of London from getting a seat in a very popular restaurant (oops!)

There was also a lot of gift-exchanging but I am going to make you wait until my next post before I show you all my lovely presents!

The only bad thing about the weekend was that it all went so quickly and I didn't have enough time to talk to everyone - but I'm already trying to work out when I can come down again!

Finally, Domesticali has tagged me with a "6 Things" meme so I am going to follow her example and tell you the 6 best things about the weekend:

  1. Two very comfortable and fun train journeys with my good friends from home
  2. Meeting up with my BIG sister and getting to have a mini-holiday with her - even if she did whack me repeatedly with the TV remote control for no good reason at all! (surely she wanted me to push her off the bed, poke her in the ribs and generally be annoying? Isn't that what little sisters are meant to do???)
  3. Spending lots of time with my very lovely mad Leslerley friend - we may talk to each other half a dozen times a day but nothing beats being able to laugh and chat face to face
  4. Meeting all my wonderful bloggy friends - some for the very first time
  5. Finding out that Trashy really is as mad in real life as I had hoped
  6. Having a long cuddle with the adorable Baby Pebble
I'm not going to pass the tag on to anyone but instead could you all go and visit this very special new "almost blogger" - she just needs the encouragement to get going!