Dotty Locket's Birthday

So my lovely Dorothy is now 11 - incredible!

And she's off to big school next week!!!

When asked what she wanted for her birthday she said

"Um, books please!..............................................then if you need any other ideas I'd quite like some books ......................and if anyone else asks then books would be good! ............................. how about books? And if you're really not sure what to get then I'd love some books!"

What a sensible girl!

Can't think who she takes after!

Her wish was my command

a jolly good stash of books from various members of the family and more books bought with birthday tokens from friends - should keep her quiet for a while (hopefully!) and then I get to read them all!

She also got some artsy crafty things from us, beautiful clothes from Granny and Grandpa Dog (and a book!)

(one of Dot's new dresses and a new dress for Daisy too - doesn't mum and dad's garden look lovely?)

and lovely cooking things from Granny and Grandpa Biscuit


including this gorgeous cookery book as recommended by Clare - the recipes are fab!

as well as an MP3 player full of great music (that I REALLY want for myself) from Ally and co and lots of other lovely things from family and friends.


One of her absolute treasures is this Phoenix Trader Recipe Box from my friend Jane - Dot has been busily transferring her favourite recipes onto cards to put in it. She's becoming a really good cook.

So far she has received 5 home made presents.

(Fred looking rather strange here!)

The best being this gorgeous collaged picture by Daisy and Fred made out of old Country Living magazines (I really enjoyed helping them with this and Dot was banished to the kitchen to cook us scones and cakes so she didn't see what we were up to!)

I made her this butterfly from the Melly and Me pattern Blossom - such a fun thing to make

and then kitted her out with new things for school:
a patchwork pencil case with my very first inserted zippy pocket (wonky but functional!)


a co-ordinating wallet for her dinner money, bus pass, library ticket etc


and the piece de resistance.................................... a new school bag


(because she was worried that her old one would be too "bright and cheerful" for secondary school with her all black uniform!)


I loved sourcing the fabrics for this one and putting it together even if it did take 8 hours and still needs "tweaking" with some decorative red buttons for the front flap and a few more rows of top-stitching to make it super-strong (once I've replaced all the snapped sewing machine needles!)

(it's not really wonky - well not that much anyway! - it's just the way the flap has been put over)

It's fully reversible so she can have a "bright and cheerful" side too and has a gazillion different pockets (more zips - thanks to this tutorial over at U-handbag)


and pencil holders etc (the Russian doll bit in the next photo)


It has an extra wide strap but it can easily be folded over to make it narrower and it is nice and thick so it shouldn't cut into her shoulders - no matter how many books she puts in it!

Hopefully it will be sober enough to be "suitable" for secondary school but funky enough to pass muster with her peers (who will probably have designer labels instead of homemade!)

I've never found it easy to fit in with "the crowd" and I know Dot feels "different" too sometimes - what I would like her to be able to feel is "original" and "individual" instead.

I still need to make her a matching pencil roll and a P.E. bag - hopefully using this tutorial, and at the same time I am pootling away with some more mini-quilts. I started this one

originally for Sally-Ann who sent me this gorgeous Camper-van quilt. This caravan was going to be my "alternative camper-van" and is from this fantastic book by Anni Downs of Hatched and Patched. But the more I thought about it the more I realised that as the owner of the fabulous Daisy, Sally-Ann would probably prefer a real camper van quilt so I have started something different for her. So if any of my remaining mini-quilt-swapees fancy a flower-power caravan quilt then just let me know - it will look a lot nicer when it is finished I promise! (and I'll even iron it too!!!)

And if you've got to the end of this mammoth post then you clearly deserve a medal - so go and ask Trashy who she has put in charge of medal-making cos I haven't got any!

Fred's 6th Birthday

Sorry if I have been a bit quiet over the last day or so but I have been busily getting ready for one of the key events of the Locket family year!

and it looks like we got it right doesn't it?

I think you could safely say that as far as Fred's birthday goes 2008 was definitely the Year of the Dinosaur! Okay, so maybe I get a bit obsessive when I am buying birthday presents (as I tend to do the shopping for most of the members of the family) and Fred now owns a large collection of Playmobil dinosaurs! So therefore I had dinosaurs on the brain when I was looking for other presents to buy and make.

The most exciting member of our new handmade dino family flew here in a yellow box all the way from Germany and the poor chap has had to wait for a couple of weeks until he could come out to play but here he is at last

Mr Nigel McDinosaur a fantastically super-sized version of Jake, designed and made by the amazing CharlieP - I am so in awe of her talent, creativity and humour - I mean look what came with Nigel

an introductory letter to Fred

his passport (of course!)

(unfortunately I didn't have any red card to print it out on but it looks authentic in brown too!)

complete with photo, details and the all important signature

And probably most importantly of all

Just in case of any little accidents!!!.

Charlie you are an ABSOLUTE STAR!!!!!! Thank you soooooo much - you can see how happy Fred is with his new friend!

And if that wasn't enough Charlie goodness look what else she helped to create

Nigel's mini friend Spike - incredibly made by me after I bought Charlie's pattern from her Etsy shop (and a fab and well written pattern it is too)!!!!! Only for this one I used 4 ply mercerised cotton and a 2mm needle whereas Nigel has been supersized by Charlie and is made with double, double knit and a large hook.

And the final member of the Locket Dino family is Dilbert

Made from the fantastic Melly and Me Dilbert pattern - I am really pleased with how he turned out in the end - especially as I was still finishing him at about 1am last night and had had a few hiccups along the way.

One of these "hiccups" involved cutting two body pieces out both facing the same way - so I made a "Flat Dilbert" and appliqued him to a pillow case. I also asked Charlie if I could use her Woolysaurus "shape" for an applique which I put on a cheap shop bought T-shirt - so here is the full Locket Dino family!

(so you can see the size difference between Nigel and Spike!)

I'd also like to show you Fred's reaction to his present from Dorothy - we stuck her story into a little brown Paperchase album to make it into a proper book and there is plenty of space for all the other adventures she has planned for Fred!

Look how pleased he was

and he loved his Dinosaur Top Trumps and story books from Daisy too!

This afternoon we went and had a birthday tea at Mr Locket's parents' house - Granny and Grandpa Biscuit


with this fantastic cake (Granny Biscuit makes Exceeeeeeeedingly Good Cakes!)


and Fred liked it so much he ate it off the plate!!!!


And if all that birthday goodness isn't exciting enough, look what arrived yesterday morning

a trio of parcels from Australia containing the most amazing mini quilts and goodies from Jodie, Rachel and Annie - poor Mr Locket nearly died of shock as I squealed and squealed with excitment as I opened them - I don't think he will be taking another day off on holiday for some time, work is far safer!!!!

And if that wasn't brilliant enough a parcel arrived today for me from my lovely, lovely Moogsmum friend containing more gorgeousness!

I will blog about all the goodness inside these parcels in the next post as I am sure you have all read quite enough! (and I meanly want to make you wait!!!!)

Have a great rest of the weekend, Lucy xxx

I love books!

One thing we will never run short off in the Locket household is books (one day I will show you my favourite room in the house, also known as Dorothy's bedroom, that is absolutely full of books!)

But however many books we have there is never any hesitation when it comes to buying more - especially when they are bargains - so the lovely little second hand bookshop we found in Keswick was like a treasure trove. As we went up the stairs to the first floor shop we saw a row of books on the landing all marked at only £1 each and look what Dorothy found

aren't they lovely?

I found two Paddington books for Daisy for £3.50


(but she doesn't know where the other one is now!)

and two Hannibal the Hamster books for Fred for £3. I loved these stories when I was little but had completely forgotten about them until now


Fred loved them and lay on the bed at the Travel Lodge reading away to himself - a relatively new skill!


And look what I found for myself..........................


but sadly they didn't have the crochet or knitting editions.

We had already bought Daisy these two books for her birthday


and as we always give a little present to the other children when it is one of their birthdays, we had bought Dorothy paperback editions of Pollyanna and Good Wives and Fred had a Richard Scarry book (that link is specially for my friend Jane to show her who I was rambling on about the other day) and a dragon finger puppet!

But most exciting of all is this wonderful book that was sent as a gift by a very kind friend.


The postie had tried to deliver it on Saturday when we were having a surprise cinema party for Daisy with 3 of her friends so I had to wait until yesterday to go to the sorting office to pick it up. But WOW it was well worth the wait!

I knew I would love this book but I had no idea how much! It really is a lovely, lovely book - you know when you get a book and find maybe three or four things you want to try making? Well with this book it is pretty much every project that I want to do - as soon as possible too!

I just need to find some wool jumpers to shrink (my kind of washing!!!) - in the meantime I am going to play with some of the scraps I already have - but I can't show you what I am making yet so I will leave you with another photo of Daisy's doll (christened Beatrix after Miss Potter of course) in her newly-rescued-from-the-big-bag-in-the-garage-outfit

it is so lovely seeing the children's clothes being re-worn (even if it is only by a rag doll!) - when Daisy dressed her in a little shortie romper suit that Fred had worn as a baby I nearly cried! But don't worry, I'm not getting broody - three little Lockets is definitely enough!!!

P.S. Edited to add two things....................

1. Katy has just had the very good idea of a Russian Doll Swap so pop over here to sign up

2. Etsy seems to have gone rather quiet lately so I am planning on taking my wallets to some of the local shops instead. I will leave them in my shop until Monday so if there is anything you want you need to get it now. (that's about as "hard sell" as I get I'm afraid!!!)

A Birthday and a little Holiday

Things have been very busy chez Locket lately as Daisy has just had her 8th birthday and in true Lucy Locket style I set myself the challenge of making as many of her presents as possible although the finished number was less than I had originally intended.


To make things more complicated we had also arranged a mini-holiday in the Lake District to celebrate her birthday which meant that everything had to be ready before we could go - so I was still sewing on Monday morning while the children were waiting patiently in the car!


We finally managed to get away and drove to Keswick. The weather was gorgeous and we had a lovely picnic by Derwent Water


and the children played with fishing nets by the lake.
We then hired a rowing boat which was great fun - Daisy decided there were all sorts of Sea Monsters in the water trying to pull away her oars and some nice ones that were trying to help (the nicest is apparently called Humpalumpa (although now she is apparently called Aggie) who got lost when her family flew to the sea)


I'm not a photographer at all but I really like this picture of the Greylag geese with their goslings by the rowing boat moorings.


After rowing we had a mooch round Keswick town and found some fantastic books - especially in a little second hand bookshop - more about them in a later post

We stayed in the Travel Lodge at Cockermouth and woke up very early the next morning to open all Daisy's presents.

Here are some of the handmade ones

Dorothy had knitted her this beautiful little purse


and I managed to make her this Paddington Bear bag (as requested!)

with a matching t-shirt (Asda's best white t-shirt for 75p customised by me!)

(the back of the bag)

there was also a matching wallet and she already has a Paddington pencil roll and purse so I think she is well kitted out!

Daisy also requested a Mahoosive Dolly when she saw me making this one so I did as I was told

- this time using the girls' baby clothes that I have been keeping to make into something or other - the great thing is there is a whole garage full of more clothes so this dolly will never go short!

Here she is with her smaller big sister Jemima who I made for Dorothy's 3rd birthday (nearly 8 years ago!)

and of course she had to have breakfast with us!

then supper!

We spent Daisy's birthday in Windermere but it was incredibly busy and we were unable to get to see Hill Top Farm where Beatrix Potter once lived because of the queues. We did manage to get into The World of Beatrix Potter and Fred in particular loved it. We spent the night at a different Travel Lodge in Kendal and had a lovely meal at Pizza Express in town where they made a fuss of Daisy and sang happy birthday.

On the way home on Wednesday we visited my parents in Durham and had a lovely birthday tea - complete with the gorgeous "Daisy" cake at the top of this post!

So now I need to catch up with all your blogs, get on with some orders, send some more mini-quilts out and start making Fred's birthday presents as it is only 8 days until he is 6! No rest for the wicked!!!