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!

Updates will still be made and new products added to the Etsy shop.

As of June 1st, Mr.P and I will be freeeeeeeeeeeeeee and you can expect more regular updates, shiny new things, more pigeons and answers to your e-mails...I'm very sorry to anybody who has not yet received a reply to an e-mail since December- I will make this my priority!

See you in June ! x

Update

Where is the time going? It's been aaaaaaages since the last post.

Do you remember me telling you about the Pigeon Loft fabric? Yes? Well, it isn't quite going to plan! It's incredibly time-consuming, the vast majority seems to come out fuzzy and I'm useless and lining up the pattern! Despite these problems, I have got two lots of fabric to show you:

Look! Cupcakes!...you see, I do listen to your requests ;-)













I will put the parts which didn't go horribly wrong up for sale (eventually!) and will make aprons and oven gloves out of the bits which aren't quite so perfect.

Something which is going a lot better than the fabric printing and which I am incredibly excited about is the launch of something which I've been wanting to do for a long while. Are you ready?

...

PIGEON PRESS!

An Etsy shop (and DaWanda shop) dedicated to unique customisable stationery from the Pigeon Loft. The great thing about this is that it can be done easily alongside exam revision, whereas pigeon-crocheting can't. The range is small at the moment, but more designs will be added as and when possible.

There are rubber duck note cards which were originally designed for a friend's birthday...

(for those of you who zoomed in to read the tiny writing on the cards- yes, that really is her name!)



Talking of names, you can put whatever you like on the note cards...


...and there are cupcake note cards too!

If you read this blog and decide that you would quite fancy some stationery with cakes on it or with a rubber duck and your name on it, I am offering you 2 extra cards and envelopes free (they usually come in packs of 6) if you put "HELLO, MR PIGEON!" in the 'message to seller.'

Phew! Well, that's all for now, folks, but Mr.Pigeon will be back around Easter to update you on his adventures :-)

What's the time, Mr.Wolf?

It's dinner time!

For a while now I've been meaning to join in with Illustration Friday. Every Friday a new topic is announced and you have one week to come up with an illustration for it and post it on your blog. This week's topic is 'Time' so I thought of the game 'What's the time, Mr.Wolf?' It just so happens that the university arts magazine theme is 'Red', hence Red Riding Hood and the red sauce! You see, I've killed two birds with one stone!



Thank you all so much for the lovely, encouraging comments on the post below! Mr.Pigeon is glad you enjoyed his magic show (and is considering turning professional) and I am happy that the idea of Pigeon Loft fabric has been well received. All your suggestions and ideas have been noted (ta very much indeed) and have inspired me to start working on a second print. No doubt I will be in need of your opinions in the near future to help choose the next design :-)

Introducing...The Marvellous, Mysterious, Magical Mr.Pigeon

This is Mr. Pigeon...

This is Mr.Pigeon's top hat...

...and this is Mr.Pigeon's magic wand...

Would you like to see a trick?

This is just an ordinary piece of linen.

BUT...with a wave of his magic wand...

Mr.Pigeon has turned it into...







Pigeon Loft screen-printed fabric!







Ta-dah!

Yes, I am pleased to announce that The Pigeon Loft is branching out into fabrics for all you people who love to sew. This is the first pattern of what I hope will be many and it will be available, printed onto a nice medium weight 100% cotton, next time I am home, which could be in a few weeks' time or could be Easter.

I know hand-printed fabrics can be expensive, but rest assured I will try and keep costs as low as possible.

I am in the process of designing a complementary fabric for 'utensils' which can be used with it. I was thinking of a wonky check or stripe. Let me know what you think. This may also be the time to suggest any other designs/colour combinations you would like to see...*wink wink, nudge nudge*

So, suggest away...

Catching Up...

I have a lot of catching up to do! January has disappeared in a blur of exam revision, essay-writing and general business. So, first off I should catch up on a long overdue 'thank you'.


A while back I won a fabric giveaway on Bernadette's blog and the other week I returned to Bristol to find a massive package waiting for me. Not only had Bernadette sent LOADS of beautiful, colourful fabrics...

...she also made a folding bag tidy and sent a selection of Australian chocolates (...of which many did not make the photo session)...

I got particularly excited by the polly waffle and the cherry ripe, which are being kept for a special occasion. Thank you, Bernadette :)

You also need updating on the recipe-a-week situation:

Week 2: Caramelised Balsamic and Red Onion Tarts with Goats' Cheese

Week 3: Thai Yellow Vegetable Curry

Week 4: Buttermilk pancakes

Tune in next time for some rather exciting news for sewers...

p.s. NOTE TO PIGEON FANCIERS- AFTER A SHORT BREAK PIGEON PRODUCTION HAS STARTED AGAIN

New Years' Resolutions

This year I have made several resolutions...

...work hard, exercise more, spend less...

...and my favourite...

...to try out at least one new recipe EVERY week so that by the end of the year I will be able to make 52 new dishes.

Mr. Pigeon's New Years' resolution is to sample all 52 recipes.

If you like the look of this Lemon Surprise Pudding (a sort of spongy souffle on top with a pool of lemon curd at the bottom), you can find the recipe here. It really is worth trying. Mmmmm...

Hennypenny's prize draw

We haven't seen Miss. Hennypenny for a while. She's been hiding over the festive season, afraid of being put in the oven. She is a ready-stuffed chicken after all.



But she decided that it would be safe to emerge now that it is 2009 and the humans in the house don't even want to look at another turkey sandwich ....

If you think she looks rather uncomfortable in her nest you'd be right. She's sitting on these...

27 names went into the nest (thank you all very much for entering by the way- I enjoyed reading your Christmas in three words entries!) and the winner (drawn at random by me as chickens can't grip very well) is...

...RUTH and MISS.T!

Congratulations to you two. Some ever-so-slightly gone wrong but still perfectly lovely pigeon goodies will be on their way to you if you could just e-mail me your address again.

And finally...I managed to take a decent-ish photo of the cotton bag...

...available now in all good Etsy stores ;)