Sock wool, eggs and cats - hmm, interesting mixture

I've had a lovely day today. After taking the children to school I popped into Sunderland to meet Lisa and little Gabriel at the museum for a cuppa. We then caught the bus to Lisa's VERY local wool shop which has the most amazing bargains! There is a branch of the same shop nearer to me but the one near Lisa is the main shop so they carry all the stock - and what a lot of stock there was!

They were selling Regia sock yarn for £1.20 a ball - normally it costs over £4. So naturally I had to buy a lot (even though I bought a lot last autumn when they had it in at this price)


And naturally I had to ring Moogsmum and see which colours she would like me to get for her (even though she bought a lot last autumn when they had it in at this price!)


But that's not all I got.

Not even slightly!

I bought some fabulous Rowan kits (that I can't show you yet unfortunately as they are a secret) - but the discount was truly INCREDIBLE! Lisa had originally bought 2 for me as I wasn't sure I would get to the shop in time but I also managed to buy another today!

I bought this Kaffe Fasset fat quarter for the grand sum of.............

...................50p!!!

This Kid-silk haze scarf kit, complete with needles came to the princely sum of...............


.........................£2!

And I also got these leather slipper sock bases, and special latex gel for the bottoms of socks


and these super, short metal needles which will be perfect for the Little Lockets.


So it was an incredibly successful shopping trip!

And guess what?

They have a website!!!



What makes the day even better is that both Fred and Daisy did really well in their Easter Egg competition at school!

Fred won with this version of The Stegg (The Stig)


and Daisy was a runner up with her Dippy Egg and Soldiers


And so that Dot isn't left out, here are the fantastically mad cat brooch and finger puppet that she made for one of her best friends' birthday presents last week


So, that's why this is a post of sock wool, eggs and cats!

Been up to London to visit....................

..................well, not the Queen, but some MUCH more exciting and special people:

Lesley
Gina
Michaela
Val
and My Bossy Big Sister Ally!

(and there some very sadly missed friends who couldn't make it - but hopefully next time?)

Ally, Lesley and I met up at our hotel - The Hilton in Euston (MUCH more luxurious than our usual Travelodge) and Gina came to join us about half an hour later.

Instead of hitting the hot-spots of London we all decided to stay at the hotel and chat, knit, laugh and drink wine before having a lovely, extremely reasonably priced, if rather unusual meal in the hotel

(I'm sure the waiter didn't mean to call Gina a Tart and I'm sure Gina didn't really mean it when she said "No. Her!" whilst pointing at me. At least I think she didn't mean it?!)

We nearly managed to kidnap Gina and persuade her to stay the night in the hotel and come shopping with us on Saturday but unfortunately common sense prevailed and she decided that she really did need to go home.

On Saturday we met up with Michaela and Val at Loop and bought lots of gorgeous woolly goodies. This is my selection:



Then Val went back to meet up with her friends at the Country Living Show and the rest of us had some delicious cake

before spending ages trying to catch a taxi in the pouring rain to take us to Covent Garden.

We eventually got there and popped into Cath Kidston (but they didn't have the type of fabric I was after which was a shame - so I bought a hanky instead!)


followed by the Bead Shop

and then another cafe for a drink, chat and knitting session

before it was time to head back to various stations to catch our trains home.


In true Bloggy-Meet-Up fashion there was a lovely exchange of gifts:

a beautiful button brooch from Gina

my bloggy giveaway prize from Val

delicious, not-much-left-to-photograph fudge from Michaela, beautifully wrapped in cute fabric

UN-photographed but equally scrummy-delicious chocolate brownies from Ally

and beautiful stitch markers from Moogs!


Moogs had also bought me this brilliant coaster


and this fabric was wrapped around a lovely blue dotty mug


This is what I looked like when she gave me the mug on Friday evening:


But this is what I looked like on Saturday morning when the bag I was carrying it in flew off my shoulder as I was giving Val a hello-hug smashing my lovely mug into smithereens

Sorry Moogs!

On the way back I had a lovely time with my friends from home, showing them what I had bought and looking at all their goodies.

They had all been at the Country Living Show and I had commissioned them to buy me some Decopatch supplies:


and my lovely friend, Aunty Ann had also bought me this gorgeous birdie

So it was a really fantastic weekend made even more lovely as Locketland had been struck down by a really awful sick bug which left us all feeling very poorly and this was the first time in over a week that I had actually felt well enough to do much.

But the icing on the cake was the telephone call I received on my way to the train station on Friday telling me that I had got my lovely new job! Hoorah!

Owls

There's no getting away from the fact that we like owls.

Well, Dot in particular LOVES them!

(this is a VERY small example of Dot's owl-y collection - not counting her green owl necklace from Dottery Pottery, or the Roman owl necklace that Daisy bought her on a recent museum trip - and various other owl-flavoured presents.
The Happy Birthday card and notelets were made by the wonderful Charlie P)

and then, of course, there's Walter Pigeon, her huge owl-heat-pad-cushion that I made for her birthday last year

so making cardboard owls for the top of the stairs was obviously the next step after all those horses


and Dot and I also collaborated on this appliqued owl which Dot is busy stitching


Finally, I was going to show you my new handbag (which has nothing to do with owls other than the feathery fabric) but it is still in the washing machine where it is being "softened up" to create that "lived-in" look!

Next time..................

More horses!

When we Lockets start a new craft that we enjoy we just don't seem to know when to stop!

More horses started appearing on Sunday and I cut out so many cardboard bodies and legs that I had pains in my right hand and arm for the first half of the week!

The herd have now galloped to the top of the stairs - although we do have two who are slightly confused and seem to be wanting to ride off into the sunset................


The latest additions starting from the top row are:


1. as yet un-named by Fred, but documenting the fact that Roald Dahl's father lost his arm after being treated by a very drunk doctor!
2. Pelly (Dot - from the Giraffe, the Pelly and Me)
3. hasn't been given a name but I'm going to call him "Gipsy" because it says so on his head (made by Dot, I think)
4. Bunty (bunting - geddit?) made by Daisy
5. Sunshine (at least I think that's what Daisy said)
6. Chocolate (Dot)
7. Polar Bear (Fred)
and somewhere else there is one about liquorice bootlaces and Rat-itis.

You may therefore be able to tell that a lot of these new horses have been made from pages out of Dot's old Roald Dahl magazines - although the less decrepit magazines have been passed on to a very happy Fred who is so busy reading them that he has yet another reason for not getting dressed for school in the morning!

I also made my new Cath Kidston bag (from the free fabrics included in her Sew book) on Sunday so I could take it to work on Monday.


I'm happy with how it turned out because I customised the pattern and included a lining with pockets and a very clever zippy closer thingummy that Moogsmum showed us how to do ages ago.


I did feel clever when it worked!

And the lining is made out of the lovely paisley tablecloth I bought at the Country Living Fair in November 2008, when Trashy stood on the table to demonstrate the size of the tablecloths we had all purchased.

ok, so she was standing on the bench, NOT the table, but it sounds better my way!

The only criticism I would have of the bag is that it is FAR TOO SMALL to be much use - and the strap is too short to wear across the body.

As the pieces are pre-cut there is nothing you can do about this and it makes me wonder if the marketing team at Cath Kidston are being very crafty (and I don't mean that in a lets-cut-things-up-and-sew-them-back-together kind of way).

Maybe, by giving us the free material, they are thinking that if we get to see how lovely the fabric is and how nice the bag COULD be if only it were big enough, then we will be overcome with the need to go to the nearest CK shop and BUY MORE FABRIC!

At least that's what I'm wanting to do right now - so if that was their plan then it has worked!


But before I go and sew another bag (out of some gorgeous Vanessa Arbuthnott fabric I have been hoarding for about 5 years) - or wash up in the kitchen - hmmm, tough choice........... I thought I'd show you the rest of my lovely goodies from my very generous 7 Days of Specialness Swap partner Kristy

Fabulous rubber gloves and pretty cloths to make cleaning fun; a beautiful heart plate and heart muffin cases which have been put to good use by Dot with her recent "rocky road muffins"; a lovely toiletry roll and face cloth; and a beautiful vintage manicure set complete with its original box!

Thank you so much Kristy - all my presents are gorgeous and very gratefully received!

Lucy x

Can someone please...............

..............pay me to stay at home and do crafty things with my children?

Pretty please?

Because I really enjoy it.

Even if it does get a bit stressy when everyone is asking me to help them at the same time!

We've really enjoyed making cardboard horses this afternoon using this wonderful tutorial from Ann Wood after seeing Katie's recent creations - we even had two little friends making them with us - and this is our first collection


and here is the current Locket ensemble galloping up the stairs


from the top:
William Wordsworth (Dot), Toffee (Fred),
Ninevah (Daisy - made with a page from a children's bible), Nameless (Me), Sea-shell (Daisy)
Biba (Dot), Babushka (Me), Frank Sonata (Dot)

Even though my hands are aching from cutting out all that cardboard, I can tell that there will be plenty more horses on the horizon - they are so effective!

Meanwhile, the cleaning-little-Lockets have turned into caterers and we have had Cafe Go-Go Food and Cafe Moonlight in operation today.

So far we have enjoyed chocolate milkshakes, ham and cheese croissants and rocky-road muffins and we have been promised more treats tomorrow - I could get used to letting the children do all the cooking - especially when the waitress is so charming


and brings such beautifully presented smiley-face food!

(apparently this is me!)

And there is real cause for celebration today as we finally have a proper mirror in the house!

And a very beautiful one too


With a very beautiful reflection!

What a lovely half-term!

I've had a lovely week as I've been on holiday from work so that I could play at home with the children during half term - and to make it even MORE fun we put some Christmas money towards the best possible present in the children's opinion (and increasingly in mine) - a Nintendo Wii!

I have resisted it until now - but I am SO pleased that we have bought one - it's so much fun and we have all done far more exercise on the Wii Fit than we would normally do (even me! Although Daisy told her cousins that I had been weighed in as "obtuse"!) Wii Sports is great fun and Big Brain Academy is really popular too (although I confess that I haven't humiliated myself on that yet!)

The children have managed to play on it all week with only minor skirmishes and frustrations and they seem to find it relatively easy to take turns and share it fairly which is really good. And they've only put the telly on for the first time today - now that IS a miracle!

But the following is even MORE miraculous:

The adorable little Lockets VOLUNTEERING to clear out, clean, tidy and rearrange the kitchen cupboards! I was happily sewing when they started and had to stop so I could show willing and help them! What on earth is going on????

So, when I haven't been hula-hooping or stepping or mucking out manky kitchen cupboards, I've been busy knitting and sewing and enjoying every minute of being at home!

I have finished my lacy Baktus

(bad photos - sorry)

made a few more spidersweb blocks


(oh, how I LOVE all these colours and snippets of fabric offset by the white - it really makes me very happy!)

sewn loads of selvedge strips together


(although I am even more in awe of Jodie and her dressmaking skills as I seem unable to prevent the blocks from curving)

and lovely Mr Locket bought me this book for Valentine's Day - on my suggestion ;o)


so I am planning on sewing the free bag together this weekend - with an added lining and pocket - so that I have something pretty to take to work with me on Monday.

But I'd really much rather stay at home next week too :'o(

Feeling special

Domesticali's idea to organise a "7 days of specialness swap" for the miserable month of February was truly inspired.

I was very lucky to be partnered with Kristy over at Vintage Pleasure and have been having a wonderful time opening my gorgeous parcels (while worrying at the same time that the goodies I sent to her weren't half as nice as the ones I have received)

My first present was this beautiful pin cushion and vintage button collection........


next I opened these wonderfully fragrant candles - wild rose and pink champagne.........


and today I opened this stunning collection of notebooks!

I can't wait to see what is in the next four parcels - but I am being very good. Although I have to confess that I did open day 1 and 2 on the first day as I knew the postie was a day later delivering my parcel than he should have been - naughty postie! (or should that be naughty me?)

Meanwhile I have been busily knitting away - some squares for Trashy's secret birthday present, a new Baktus in gorgeous purple Rowan silk and merino that I bought half price in John Lewis' sale,


and this new and very beautiful Lacy Baktus using the gorgeous Cherry Tree Hill sock-weight merino that I won in Michaela's diet-raffle (originally donated by Quinn).


I'm loving how it looks - and even though it is a REALLY simple pattern, those holes make me feel ever so clever - especially as they are in the right place!

More snow is forecast for next week - but sadly not enough to let us stay at home :o( But there's just one more week to go before I'm off for half-term with the little Lockets! Hooray!!!

P.S. I forgot to mention one important thing about February. It is the month when I have pledged not to spend any money on crafty items. Please keep an eye on me. I am as likely to succeed in this as Michaela is in her plan to finish all those projects this month! ;o)