HAPPY BOXING DAY!

...and a belated HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

As you can see, we had a white Christmas (well, it didn't snow on the day, but it was still there from earlier on in the week) and Mr.Pigeon made a handsome snowbird to celebrate.

I also received a lovely early Christmas present from Australia in the form of a rainbow swap parcel from CurlyPops. There was this fab brightly coloured tote bag...

...and inside were these rainbow goodies...

...and the most beautiful apron...

...which is far too nice to use! Maybe I should wear another apron on top of it to stop it getting dirty.

I couldn't believe these were all handmade- they look so professional, so thank you very much, Mrs. CurlyPops :-)

Reminder

CALLING ALL PIGEON FANCIERS!

Just a reminder that the next bird release is tomorrow- there will be 4 pigeons and 2 hens...the exact time is in the e-mail I sent last week ;-)

And remember- a pigeon is for life...

...not just for Christmas.

Goodies!

Hello again!

Thank you so much for all your get well messages :-)

Mr.P and I are now free of snouts and curly tails and are fit and well enough to enjoy these goodies that arrived in the post...

This is what I won in the Amy Butler competition. Weren't they generous?! There are four new patterns (two for bags, two for dresses), a pattern CD AND a stack of fabrics. Mmm.

Talking of goodies, this is what I made for a rainbow swap...

Went a bit OTT with the colour scheme! There are 2 types of Pigeon Loft fabric, 6 button note cards designed exclusively for my swap partner, a giant button brooch and assorted coloured ribbons. I did make a rainbow spiral-bound book...but the less said about that the better...it didn't make it into the package...it didn't even open...it is destined to be ripped up and used for shopping lists.

ATTENTION ALL PIGEON FANCIERS! There will be some Christmas pigeons and hens coming out this year. I reckon they'll be ready to fly the nest in early December. I will of course let all of you on the mailing list know exactly when they'll be released.

Poorly Mr. Pigeon

Mr. Pigeon and I haven't been well this week.

I came back from a weekend away in Oxford to find Mr.P flat on his back with a runny beak, aching wings and a temperature high enough to roast himself.

I thought it might be bird flu.

But then these appeared...

...closely followed by this...

Poor Mr. Pigeon

Looks like it's swine flu :-(

Breaking the silence!

Hello!

Yet again I have broken my promise to post more frequently, so do forgive me. It's been a very busy summer indeed and a very busy post-summer too.

Let's see if you can guess where Mr.P will be for the next year ...

Have a few clues.

It's home to a famous castle:

Well, it was before the castle was destroyed and replaced with a mansion house instead.

It's also home to the Paul Smith flagship store:

(very very nice inside...but I'd better not post the photos, as I wasn't really allowed to be taking any)

And its most famous (fictional) inhabitant wore a hat very similar to the one which Mr. Pigeon is modeling:

Just imagine the bow, arrows and feather in his hat- I didn't have the time or desire to make any!

While you're pondering the answer, there is other exciting news. Do you remember the last post? The one where we met Amy Butler? Well, on one of the handouts were details about a competition. Entrants had to make something with Amy Butler Midwest Modern fabrics for the chance to win fabric and patterns galore. How could I not take part with a prize like that?

This was the design I came up with after a few failed attempts, many discarded feet and a lot of needle-related injuries:

And last week I received an e-mail to tell me that this little elephant was one of the winners!

This unexpected news was greeted with a celebratory sprint around the room...then a cup of tea and a nice sit down to recover from the excitement.

No doubt some photos of the goodies will follow when they arrive :-)

When two stars meet...

Last Tuesday was Amy Butler day at The Fat Quarters. Being a fan of her designs, I thought it would be nice to go along... accompanied by my feathered friend of course...

It was a very exciting day. We met the wonderful Mrs. Locket and her lovely daughter Dot, not to mention Mr.P's brother Lofty (aka Mr.Pigeon 030), who kept us entertained while we waited for the talk to begin. There were plenty of beautiful fabrics, books and patterns on sale- needless to say, Mr. Pigeon was more interested in the buffet.

But we both really enjoyed Amy's talk (especially as we were all given a free pattern booklet!), which was about her recent 'inspiration' trips to Bali and India with several sneak peeks at her new fabric range and new rugs. Afterwards we got to have our purchases signed and Mr.P couldn't resist a photo opportunity...

This isn't a great photo I know, but I thought I should take it as quickly as possible before the police were called and I was escorted from the premises in a straitjacket. Luckily Ms. Butler was very friendly indeed and refrained from hitting the panic button when Mr. Pigeon emerged from his bag and his mad owner insisted on taking a picture.

Mr. Pigeon is so taken with his new celebrity friend that he's taken to sleeping with this on his pillow...

Oh dear.

On the subject of celebrity, do you want to see what happens when you mix a student with too much time on her hands with a small crocheted pigeon and a piece of polyester stuffing?

Santa Claws...

Kenny Rogers...

Professor Dumbleclaw...

Marie Antoinette...

Yum yum yum!

Yesterday I made some of these...

...chocolate macarons filled with chocolate ganache. Mmmmmm :-)

Why?

Because Mr. Pigeon and I were so inspired to bake following our trip (or rather our pilgrimage) to Bettys in Harrogate for afternoon tea.

We got roast chicken sandwiches and a juicy sultana scone with clotted cream and jam on a lovely three tiered thingy. This is what the top tier held...

...mini layered coffee cake, fruit tart and a delicious lemon macaron...

...and very shortly after there was a pigeon perched on the plate too...

Now you can't go to Bettys without visiting the bakery afterwards, so we felt obliged to waddle into the bakery, weighed down with food, to buy a few things to take home for tea (not that we could eat anything else after three layers of sandwich, scone and cake).

Pikelets to toast and smother with butter...

...a "little rascal", the mini version of the famous Bettys "fat rascal"...














...and a lovely fluffy white loaf...

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

Talking of yummy things, thank you so much to everybody who voted for Mr.P in the Dorset Cereals little blog awards- he got 30 votes!!!...before the end of the month came and all the scores were cleared! Didn't know that would happen!

Luckily this means that everybody was back to the start and Mr.P made it to the top on Saturday!!!....

Mr. Pigeon and I really do love cereal and would very much like a purple egg cosy, so any more votes would be hugely appreciated. If Mr.P is at the top at the end of the month I promise to have a REALLY GOOD GIVEAWAY!



Have a great week :-)

BAs and Holid-As!

Well, it's been a busy two-and-a-half weeks! We went down to Bristol for this:

I received my BA in Modern Languages and Mr. Pigeon collected his BA (Bird of Arts) degree in Pidgin English and then we headed off on holiday to this place...

...can you guess where Mr. Pigeon and I went? I'll give you a few clues...

We didn't have to go far...

...we had a few cream teas...

...and a few of these...

Don't be fooled by the photos- it wasn't that sunny. It was raining about 90% of the time :-)






Unfortunately there are no prizes for guessing!




But talking of prizes, the Pigeon Loft has been nominated for the Dorset Cereals little blog awards! Hooray! If you fancy a chance to win some of their cerealy goodies or would just like to show your support for Mr.P, just click on the picture at the top right of the page or go straight to the site to vote for us and enter yourself in the free prize draw! Thank you :-)

NEW

little red bus thank you note cards

gingerbread man customised note cards

@ pigeon press

Mr. Pigeon's Pet

You may remember that quite a while back (almost a year in fact) I asked you to tell me what you would like to see happen at The Pigeon Loft this year. The overwhelming majority of you said that you'd like to see Mr. P with one or more little baby pigeons.

Do you want to know what Mr.Pigeon thought about that idea?

He wasn't entirely keen.

In fact, I'm not sure he even knows where baby pigeons come from.

Where do baby pigeons come from, Mr.P?

...

...the pigeon obviously knows more than I gave him credit for.

Anyway, Mr.Pigeon is quite used to his bachelor lifestyle, but did think he would like some company, so I suggested he get a pet to look after.

Obviouly it would have to be a fairly low-maintenance pet for a pigeon to look after and, bearing in mind the various gingerbread man- related incidents, it was crucial that Mr.P's new pet was not edible.

We settled on the idea of a pet rock- it wouldn't need walking, wouldn't make much noise and wouldn't make much mess.

Now, you can get tame pet rocks like these.....

...in specialist rock pet shops like this one.

But if you're really lucky...

...you might stumble across a wild one in your garden...

Aww...








Come back soon to see how Mr.Pigeon and bird's best friend, Spot, are getting on :)

Back for good!

Hello there :-) There is plenty to celebrate at the Pigeon Loft at the moment!

Exams are finished...hooray!

The degree is over...hooray!

4 birds found new homes...hooray!

I have interesting things to show you...hooray!

And there is a good chance that the blog will be updated more regularly now...hooray!

It's time for a bit of a catch up and some thank yous. Back in April I received a very exciting parcel indeed from Emma at Silver Pebble. It contained a very special, very shiny pigeon as well as some other lovely goodies. Mr. P kindly agreed to model the birdy bling...

Isn't it beautiful? Thank you so much, Emma :-)

In May Mr.P and I escaped Bristol and revision for a few hours courtesy of Jayne, who organised the Vintage and Handmade Fair at Chipping Sodbury. It was a lovely sunny day, there were lots of brilliant stalls and far too much money was spent!

Favourite purchases include lovely Laura Ashley fabric squares, great envelopes made from pages of old children's books, melon and cucumber lipbalm (mmmmmm...) and some green apple buttons...

I received another lovely surprise in the post from Marilyn, whose work I've admired for ages and ages. She was giving away free postcards from the Art Star Craft Bazaar and mine arrived with a sheet of stickers too :-)

In between receiving lovely things in the post I did some Pigeon Loft-related things too.

A new design, "citrus" has gone into the Pigeon Press Etsy shop and further designs are being perfected...

(as always, any requests or feedback regarding products is very welcome)

...and there is a new limited edition framed gocco print in the Pigeon Loft Etsy shop. There are only 18 Happy Tortoise prints, so act fast if you would like one!

Phew. That was a lot to get through. Off you go and have a nice cup of tea and a sit down...that's what I'll be doing!

Come back later to see what came in the post for Mr.Pigeon!