More Marvellous Mail - and "What's on the Needles"

This is a good week as far as post is concerned!!!

My Bunny-Hop-Bunny-Swap parcel from Hilde arrived this morning before school! So there was great excitement in the Locket household as we unwrapped the package to reveal...................


Mr Dizzy and Distinguished Gentleman (Dizzy for short)!

Isn't he fabulous????

And look at the gorgeous card that came with him.

Thank you so much Hilde - he is fantastic and is patiently waiting with the other household bunnies for me to make an "Easter display" - something I have never actually done before!

The great news is that my bunny for Hilde also arrived today - you can see my mutant bunny (Bumble-Bunny or Honey-Bunny) here.

I also received this lovely card from Kitty


to thank me for the doll she finally received from my 100th post giveaway - I'm just sorry she had to wait so long!

I have been feeling a bit flustered lately by the amount of different crafty things I am making, have started, or just want to do - there is just so much inspiration around at the moment!

In the midst of all this I was wondering why I couldn't find any knitting needle pairs.

Here is why:

Yup these are the projects that I currently have on the go - now you can see why I'm feeling flummoxed (and this is only the knitting - and I'm not a knitter am I Monkee Maker? - I'm really not - I do SEWING!)

So working from left to right and top to bottom we have

1. a mitten (because I really can't keep telling people who ask me why I'm only wearing one mitten that it is because I haven't knitted the other one yet - that makes me sound a bit odd.............)
   
2. half a teddies jumper (but no teddy that size)
3. one ear flap for a hat like these (for me this time)
4. a green doll's dress
5. a pink doll's dress
6. the doll
7. a bunny's leg
8. an Easter egg from Julie's pattern (that needs to be finished by tonight as it is a present for my friend Kerry)
9. a tiny teddy's cheek
10. a bunny rabbit (looks very dead to me)
11. my sock
12. a mouse
13. a tortoise

I think there might even be some more knitting kicking around somewhere!

These are some of the photos of what I am trying to make.


Maybe I will have finished them in a few years?

Fabulous Parcel!!!!

Poorly little Dotty-Locket and I were quietly minding our own business this morning when I heard the postman struggling to get something through the letter box. Being the kind person that I am I just left him to it and waited until he had gone before going to investigate................

You know it is going to be good when it is addressed to........


A parcel?


For ME?????

Yup!

And not just any old parcel!

A parcel from the wonderful Trashy!

Look what was inside


Something squished and grey looking in a very posh bag.


This is when the excited squealing started!

My very own knitted bunny!!!!!!



With the poshest name in the lapine-history

Wait for it

May I proudly introduce you to

Lt.Col.Brigadier, Sir Hubert Cabbage-Smythe!!!!!

Told you it was a good name - inspired by his handle-bar moustache!

A thank you gift from Trashy for organising the Bunny-Swap - how cool is that?



Unfortunately a naughty Dotty-Locket snaffled him and had to be persuaded to bring him out from under the quilt so the poor gentleman could breathe.


Thank you so much Trashy! We ALL love him!

Finally, I treated myself to a new bag when I was in Matalano-darling yesterday.

Primarily because it was reduced to £1.50 and was too good a bargain to leave behind (and it's blue too, and I like blue!)

Dorothy, however, was completely indignant...............

"Why did you need to buy a new bag Mummy, when Lesley made that lovely one for you last week?"

Hmm, fair point (how much have you been bribing her Lesley?)

To which Daisy piped up

"But you can never have too many bags can you Mummy?"

My two sweet little girls are so very different!

Picture-heavy Post with Loadsa-Linkage

You are going to have to be patient with me as this is going to be a long post with loads of pictures (and hopefully, for your sakes, fewer words!)

The first things I wanted to share with you are the Little Lockets' Easter Egg designs.

First up we have Dorothy's

The perfect eggy-creation for an archaeologist's daughter! She is fed up because by the time it was out on display Indi-egga Jones' whip was no longer wrapped around the Mummy!

Next we have Princess Daisy's contribution

I love R-egg-punzel's plait and the birds flying by.

And finally we have the award-winning-Fred's creation!

which earnt him a great big Cadbury's Dairy Milk Caramel Easter Egg (which he very sensibly shared with his two big sisters!!!)

And I can't leave our friend Ben's egg out - how fab is this?

(although he has had to promise his dad that he will bring the feathers back unharmed for his fly-tying!)


My final Easter contribution is this tablecloth from the Easter display in Fred's school - isn't it lovely?

Moving swiftly on..................

Here are a couple of lovely things that arrived in the post last week.

First up is this gorgeous mini "zine" from Applehead.

It seemed such an appropriate publication for the Locket household where the only time the occupants have matching feet is when they are wearing tights or are bare-foot! (Don't worry, Mr Locket and Fred DO NOT wear tights!)

I'm not going to show all the pages but look at this next one
The whole thing is really lovely full of adorable illustrations.

My other transatlantic parcel came from Aunty Cookie's Etsy shop

My very first pieces of her brilliant fabric. I love the "Cookies" in the centre although I wish I'd had one saying either "Knitters aint quitters" or "Who are you calling a Fat Quarter?". I may
have to buy some more!!!

On the subject of parcels, I am very pleased to say that I managed to get 4 of my own sent yesterday.


My bunny-hop-bunny-swap parcels to Hilde and Rachel (but I could have really thumped the stupid swap organiser for telling us to include a "hand-made" card and giving the 17th as a deadline! Stupid woman!!!)

Kitty's "100th post giveaway" (finally)

And my PIF for Thimbleanna and a little thankyou for the wonderful goodies she sent me a (long) while ago!

I will get my other PIF parcels sent soon and will be offering to do it all over again as I have signed up to Patti's PIF too!

It was Weight Watchers Day today and I am pleased to say that in spite of my lovely day out on Friday and the lovely food I happened to eat whilst in London, I have still managed to lose half a pound this week.

My perk on "weigh-in" day is to go to the little craft shop around the corner from the meeting that is closing down and has everything half-price. Today's purchases were some more sewing needles, a sheet of alphabet stickers for the children, some soft yellow knobbly wool and these two knitting pattern books.

Even though they are both quite "dated" I just love the birdies in them


and I reckon I could update them with a few little changes (she says over-confidently!!!!)

Not content with these bargains I then went on to "Matalano-darling" (ask Lesley about this) and bought some very reduced clothes for the girls,

and these two tops for only £2 each for their fabric - not my usual taste but rather lovely!

I'm going to leave you today with these photos of Daisy and Fred's den

and this fantastic text that arrived on my mobile yesterday evening..........................

Please come and
tuck me up.
'cause I can't be
bothered to
come and ask
you. Hope to see
you soon.
signed: the girl
in the small room
upstairs!

Dorothy really loves her new (hand-me-down-from-Granny-via-big-cousin-Em) mobile phone!

P.S. I lied about the fewer words bit!!!!

Country Living Spring Fair - Episode 2

This is my "show and tell" post for all the goodies I bought from the show and my favourite stalls.

As I mentioned before, our pink carnations really attracted loads of attention and one stall actually knew what we were talking about when we mentioned our blogs. This was where we bought some gorgeous pocket mirrors and I bought this sweet little badge.

They are actually bloggers too and this is their shop website - definitely worth visiting!

One of my absolutely favourite stalls was The Polka Dot Pear
where the textile artist Sharon Blackman makes the most beautiful fabric pictures. She was originally inspired by Janet Bolton (like many of us) but her work is much brighter and happier (in my opinion!!!). The stall looked absolutely amazing and I asked if I could photograph it to share with all of you.
She doesn't have a website yet but it is in the pipeline and here is her email address if you want any further information:- thepolkadotpearco@btinternet.com

I bought some of her cards so I could frame them

I think the tractor one is my favourite from this set but I really love these seaside ones too.

Jennifer Collier had an amazing stand with fabulous art works made out of old papers including dresses stitched from envelopes and sewing ephemera set into resin jewellery.
I didn't take any pictures of her stall but this one is from her leaflet and do visit her website - her work is inspiring!

My lovely big sister Ally bought me these wooden birds after I had admired them. She managed to do it without me even guessing too which was pretty clever (but don't tell her I said that!)

And I treated myself to this Greengate tea-towel and napkins - which I plan to cut up and re-invent at the earliest opportunity!!!

I managed to get the chance to talk to Janet Bolton again and she has signed a little card for me to stick in my new book (she was offering to sign any books bought at the show)

And my other ambition had been to buy some Caroline Zoob mugs as my last one broke ages ago. I love her work and her book is one of my favourite sources of inspiration. I did ask her when she was writing another one but it doesn't seem to be on the cards at the moment.

Finally here is our delicious goats cheese tart with guacamole and roasted hazlenuts and roast pumpkin - this photograph was taken especially for Kaz who wanted to see what yummy things we had to eat - she gave me special dispensation to ignore my diet for the day - thanks Kaz!

- you can see how delicious it was here (although Lesley refused to lick the plate!)

I met up with my other friends at the end of the show and while Ally and Lesley went to catch their tubes we went to the Slug and Lettuce for a well deserved glass of wine (couldn't believe how much it cost though!) and some scrumptious food. We then went to King's Cross where I treated myself to this book (it's really enjoyable) and finally caught our train at 9pm by which time we were all dropping with fatigue and after what seemed like a never ending journey got home at 1am.

However beautiful the stalls and however lovely the goodies I bought, the best part of the day was definitely having a trip out with my lovely friends from home and meeting up with Ally, Lesley, Gina, Val and Jane - can't wait for the next grand day out!

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!

(Lesley, Jane, Val and Gina)

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!

It's nearly tomorrow!

I'm getting very excited about my trip to London tomorrow although I'm not looking forward to the very early start and very late night part of it! We will be leaving at about 6.30am and not getting home until about 1.30am (and that's counting on the trains being on time!!)

I'm busily trying to finish things off that I want to take with me.

Like Lesley I have made an inner bag for my capacious handbag here.


Lesley has made hers for storing all the bits at the bottom of her bag but mine is for my knitting and crocheting as I can't bear the thought of all the time on the train when I could be making something! (Lesley says she will spend the time looking out of the window for foxes - it takes all sorts I suppose!)

It nearly killed me spending 2 hours doing absolutely nothing while I was having my hair done this afternoon and although my hair looks great I really resent that lost time (especially as I know it will be back to looking a mess tomorrow!)

I also know I'll take far too much stuff with me tomorrow and will regret it when I have to carry it all back - I even contemplated making up the first strip of my crochet blanket and wearing it as a scarf so I could add to it on the way down and wear it home - but even I'm not that barmy (yet!)

I treated myself to a new crochet hook which arrived today

(exhibit a)

because my other one was hurting my hand. The hook I was using has a pointy end

(exhibit b)

and it kept digging into the palm of my hand - I'm sure I'm holding it wrong but whenever I try to be more "ladylike" about how I hold it I can no longer crochet! I feel like a small child learning how to hold a pencil! The new one has a handle so will hopefully be more comfortable.

The other good post that arrived today was my copy of this book


that Vicious Chicken blogged about the other week - it looks really good and I am having to be very strict with myself and not take all the needles and wool to start new projects for it on the train tomorrow!


I am hoping to stick to my sock knitting and my crochet - I'll get a few small balls of wool wound and will start off several centres so I can leave some of the wool behind. Granny Squares seem to be very compulsive once you start them - or maybe that's just me!

All the other things I have been working on are secret so I can't show you yet. Sorry!!!