A grand day out

You just know you are going to have a grand day out when this is the welcome committee


Yup, I spent yesterday at the Pigeon Loft and had the most fantastic time!

Especially when I opened the white box and found a friendly little face looking up at me

My very own Mr Pigeon!!!!

with his little passport ready for any adventures!

I was prepared and had already made him a special little tanktop so he could remember his new name..........................

Lofty Locket!!!!!

(He really looks much nicer without his tanktop because it is so badly knitted - but Charlie and I reckoned this was his super-hero outfit, especially as it makes his wings stick out!)


And if getting my VERY OWN PIGEON wasn't exciting enough, there was cake too!


But even more excitingly (if possible) I got to play with this........................

Can you see?

We got to do Gocco-ing

It's incredible!

and now I am going to completely overwhelm you with the number of photos I took of the whole process - sorry (well, I'm not really sorry so you'll just have to put up with it!!!)

Step 1

The first thing we had to do was come up with an idea for the design. Charlie said I could choose and after a few many minutes of me dithering and saying things like "but I can't draw" and "I don't have any good ideas" I decided that a really "Lucy Locket thing" was my allotment


so this was my design (told you I can't draw) - little packets to collect seeds from the allotment for next year.

Step 2

Then Charlie turned it into a proper picture - because she really can draw (in fact she really can draw really, really well)


but Lofty started taking a keen interest in proceedings


so Charlie let him add a few details

Step 3

Next the pencil drawing had to be over-drawn with black pigma pen (I let Charlie do that bit too!)

Step 4

Then Lofty showed us where to put the original drawing


and then demonstrated where the light box should go

Step 5

Once the light box was in position with two new bulbs, we simply pressed down, the light bulbs went pop and our image was transferred to the plastic screen-y thingummy.


but you can't see it because it is practically invisible (and I took a rubbish photo)

Step 6

Then I chose what colour I wanted and Charlie inked over the design


while Lofty messed about playing peek-a-coo (hee hee, I'm so funny!)

Step 7

Once the screen was completely inked it went back into the printer and a plain piece of paper (or envelope) was put on the green pad. Then we pushed down and hey presto there was a newly printed image!

Step 8

so we kept on printing until the ink ran out (which it didn't) and ended up with gazillions of lovely seed packets standing neatly in the drying rack (and spread all across Charlie's kitchen)

Step 9

Finally I glanced at the time, realised I was in danger of being late for collecting the children from school, gave Charlie a big hug thank you, and ran out the door fiercely clutching all my new goodies.

Fortunately I got back in time and Lofty quickly made himself at home in Fred's playground


before discovering this rather lovely car


so I had to get him off quickly before he left any little "presents"


And when I got home look what arrived......

Not one


not two


not three


not four


but FIVE PARCELS --- All for me!!!! So come back next time to see what was inside!

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

PIF gifts and TLC

I was the very lucky winner of Anglesey Allsorts' recent PIF draw and a lovely parcel arrived in the post yesterday.

These were the lovely goodies she sent me, complete with the most fantastic label

and she really sweetly included a package for the Little Lockets

full of lovely crafty goodies - sorry the photo isn't very good - but there are transfers, bags of glitter and the most fantastic finger puppets to decorate - I can't wait the children can't wait to decorate them!

Thank you so much Vicky - we are all very, very grateful!

The other topic of interest for today's post is........................

TLC is a little club that we have set up in the Locket Household as Dorothy has left Brownies but can't get into Guides, Daisy has left Rainbows but can't get into Brownies and Fred is still too young for Cubs.

We came up with the idea a few months ago and made club badges and a sash each to wear them on and then I bought the supplies to make them all club t-shirts too but we forgot. So the first job on starting the club again today was to make the t-shirts

while the children made the sign and decorated their Ladybird Club Notebooks


Here is part of Daisy's design

We decided not to use the sashes anymore as they went across the ladybirds on their t-shirts so I very quickly (and very roughly) made them some little bags from the legs of old jeans to put their badges on instead.

One of the things we want to do in our "club" is earn badges like you used to do in Brownies (sadly this didn't seem to happen in Dorothy's Brownie group) using this book as inspiration

a copy of the Brownie Handbook I had as a child (Dorothy reads this cover-to-cover on a regular basis!)

and their ideas for Badges to do our own.

Today the children earned their "Sewing badges"

for all the stitching they have been doing recently and because we finished their cushions today.

here they are busily stuffing them - and the finished products are pretty cute too

When you actually read the rules of the badges we used to do you can see how much more was expected of us back then (crumbs that makes me sound so old!!!) For example, to get the knitting badge you needed to be able to
1.Choose your own pattern and, following the printed directions, knit a garment introducing two types of stitches.
2. Knit a pair of socks or gloves, or mittens with thumbs, using two or four needles.
I don't think many modern under-10s would be able to do this level of knitting do you? The needlework one is pretty hard too - they expect loads of different stitches - but I think the Little Lockets have definitely earned theirs!

We are planning to move onto the Cookery badge


and the Gardening one too (I need some incentive to get my seeds sown or we are going to have a very empty allotment!)

I'll let you know how we get on but I will leave you today with this gorgeous photo of the Ladybird Club Members modelling their new t-shirts


I absolutely LOVE this photo - it's amazing how animated they look when you get them to say "KNICKERS" instead of "Cheese"!!!!!