Saturday 15 March 2008

Country Living Spring Fair - Episode 1

I think I'm awake but I'm really not quite sure. Yesterday was a fandabbydozy day but extremely exhausting!

I got up at 5.30am and set off an hour later to get a lift with my friends to the station in Newcastle .

We arrived in plenty of time only to discover that our train had been cancelled - fortunately there was a slower one 10 minutes later but there was a good chance we would have to stand for the entire journey as so many people would be wanting to catch the same one and our seat reservations would no longer be valid.

We were very lucky though as we managed to all sit together but I discovered I couldn't crochet going backwards without feeling sick! I did manage to get a bit more of my sock done though.
(I knew I shouldn't have taken so much stuff!!!)

It was lovely to travel down with my super friends and there were even "train treats" included! One of my friends had bought us all a little gift to get us in the "Springy mood" - beautifully wrapped in these "Country Living" colours!

These fabulous clips - which we all proceeded to put in our hair!

and a Cadbury's Creme Egg and another provided us with loads of chocolate goodies (that I very sensibly saved for the children and Mr Locket! I just waited until later to completely blow my diet!)



Plenty of texts started flying around between me and Mrs Moogsmum - most of them along the lines of

Me "Seen any foxes yet?"

Mrs Moogsmum "A deer!"

Me "Power station"

Mrs Moogsmum "More deer!"

Me "Peterborough"

Mrs Moogsmum "Sewage treatment plant"

And so it went on!!!! Interspersed with texts to Ally and Gina and Val to see how their journeys were coming along.

Our Northern contingent finally arrived in London and we were intrigued by these trees at Kings Cross Station
Pom-pom trees in London?

Does anyone know what they are?

We got to The Business Design Centre in Islington at about 11.30 where Ally, Lesley, Gina and Val had already met up.

I practically exploded from the taxi, promptly abandoned my lovely friends from home (it was prearranged fortunately) and rushed over to meet up with my big sis and my new-about-to-become-real-Imaginary-Friends!
(Bernie took a photo of all of us and I will share it with you when I get a copy)


Heehee! I was so excited! And then the hugs and gifts started flying around!

Gina had provided us all with our wonderful "Pink Carnations" which not only enabled us to identify each other but also generated a lot of interest and bloggy publicity through the day - ok, so I kept giving out my moo cards - but only to interested/ing people!

My lovely big sister Ally had an assortment of Easter presents for the Little Lockets and some Lindt Easter bunnies for all of us


Dotty Cookie brought some delicious dotty cookies (no photo sadly as the little lockets have gobbled them!) and this wonderful mug cosy - love the fabric!


And as for Mrs Moogsmum, well we all got fantastic bags to stash all our show goodies


and mine has the most brilliant lining although Dorothy has earnestly asked me not to use the bag this way round when I am with her!

She had also bought me a copy of this magazine as I couldn't find it up here - can't wait to have a good look through it - Here are some of the fabulous patterns inside.


We met up with Jane later in the day as she had to work in the morning and she gave us these delicious chocolate bunnies which the Lockets (big and little) have just had for pudding -

Yummy!

After chatting for ages we decided we really should go into the show - but we would have been just as happy sitting and talking all day - the show was just a distraction really!

Part way round I suddenly noticed how well colour co-ordinated my lovely bloggy friends were - only Ally and I let the side down by wearing blues and purple (me) and oranges and browns (Ally) - so I couldn't let the moment pass without grabbing a group shot!

Don't they look lovely? And guess what? They really, really are! I felt like I had known them for years - hopefully I will!

Come back tomorrow for the next instalment with all the goodies I bought from the show and some fabby stalls to look at!

25 comments:

Simone said...

It looks fab! It will be just me and myself going to the Country Living Fair tomorrow but I am really looking forward to it. The blog friends look like a friendly bunch and so generous with it. I wish I was a little locket getting all that chocolate too!

Patti said...

So glad you had a lovely time. Nice to see some faces to put behind the blogs.

Well done on getting there safely - and not eating too much chocolate!

Stephanie Pettengell said...

It's great to know you all enjoyed yourselves. Such a lot of chocolate, brilliant

Denise said...

Looks like you had a fantastic time. I wish I could have gone along!

BTW The trees are London Plane.

Charlie P said...

Sounds like a fabtastic day and it's so good to be able to put faces to names at last! I can't wait to see your next batch of pictures :)

Kitty said...

Awww, I knew you'd all have a fabulous time! So glad it went well.

I might soon be meeting an imaginary friend who is the big sister of a certain blogger I know ;-)

Oh and Trashy posted pictures of those pom pom trees too!

x

Anonymous said...

Well of course you big sister knew they were plane trees! You only had to ask and of course remember - I know everything that an older sister should know. Can see I'm going to have my own blog space so that all of these types of questions can be answered.

Yes, a really fab day and I haven't shown my children the fab choc bunnies so please be quiet about them otherwise I will have to share them and they are my fav white choc.

Love Ally x

PS Still exhausted

Anonymous said...

Oh thats great you had a great time, I am still jealous I didn't get to go, can't wait to see what you bought. x

trash said...

Oo! Oo! I just showed CK the screen in a very excited manner saying 'There's Lesley! It's Mrs Moogsmum who we met up with!!' He smiled very halfheartedly. and said 'Oh.'

They just don't get how exciting it is to meet real imaginary people. Am so glad you had a lovely time. I was thinking of you all yesterday.

Mrs Moog said...

Blumin know it all big sister beat me to it!! I was about to be all excited and tell you they were plane trees!!!

It really was a fabulously brilliant day and what's more I want to do it again!!

Your chocolate stash looks much more intact than mine!

I still can't believe I've actually met you and that you are even lovelier in real life than you are on the phone and the blog and email and text :)

loads of love,

Lesley xxx

Gina said...

I was about to blog about what a fantastic super duper day we all had and you've beaten me to it! It was wonderful to meet you and the others - everyone just as lovely as I imagined. Can't wait til next time!
Gina xxx

dottycookie said...

It was grrrrreat to meet everyone, and find you all so friendly and, dare I say it, normal. Well, relatively ;-) Do you have any moo cards left, Mrs Locket?!

Plane trees! I am glad Ally and Lesley knew what they were because I love them too and I have never known their name. But I bet pom pom trees would look good too, perhaps for Easter. No?

Kate North said...

Looks like you guys had a great time - I did think about trying to come up and meet you guys, but in the end, I just couldn't work it out (seems kind of lame given that I live outside London, but I had to work it into a school day and I know you guys know how that goes). Maybe next time!

Jodie said...

and not an axe-murderer among them ! I think I could become addicted to blogmeets-had one friday ---SUPERB!

Julie said...

Don't you all look happy? I've met the lovely Gina before at the NEC when we had both only just started blogging. It's lovely to put faces and voices to blog friends isn't it? (and to swap lots of lovely chocolate!!)

marit said...

It looks like you had a great time-thanks for sharing!
(the magazine is really great- I've already made that cute little teddy!)

Ali said...

Fun fun fun! I wanted to impress you with my tree knowledge so you'd let me come too next time you get together, but I was beaten to it.

Bloggy meet ups - so much fun!

Jane said...

Hi Lucy, Yep those trees are London planes they are one of the few trees that grow happily in the capital with all the pollution (not the modern day stuff - real fires and factory smoke) The bark flakes and so the tree can get rid of the pollution that way or by leaf fall. They also do well because the leaves have a waxy surface so they wash clean in the rain. (Sorry for the indepth answer I studied plants in a previous life) It was lovely to meet you and the rest of our bloggy friends yesterday. I loved every minute of it and only wish I could have been there earlier.
I hope it isn't to long before we can all get together again, Each of you were all as lovely in the flesh as on your blogs. love Jane x

Jennie said...

Oooh it's good to put faces to bloggers ;)
I'm glad you all had such a fantastic time! :D

Monkee Maker said...

Wow! So many goodies - before you even got inside the craft fair!! (thank god I didn't go or I'd have been so embarrassed turning up empty handed!)

I looks and sounds like a great day was had by all .... when are you putting your house on the market so you can move a bit further south for regular meet-ups??

;)

est said...

what a terrific trip!!! but pls be careful with all those edible goodies!! lol

Leanne said...

Sounds like a great day - lots of chocy goodness - nice to put a face to some people out in blogland.

May Kristin said...

Oh wow! You had a busy, fab and fun day! Look forward for more from your day! Hope you've been able to rest a little!

rachelmp said...

Ohh Lucy, what a BIG day, you must be exhausted. I hope you bought lots of goodies to fill your big bag. I can't wait to see what you found x Rachel

Anonymous said...

And another thing about London Plane trees is that those 'balls' can be smooshed up into shreddy bits and pushed down your school mates necks (inside their clothes for best effect) this is best reserved for your enemies as the stuff is REALLY ITCHY!!! Oh, yes...from the useless facts of Fran x