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 :)

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...

Brand shiny new Etsy shop...and a chance to win some failed products!

Finally! After a term filled with essays, translations, lectures, seminars, presentations and very little creative or online activity Mr.Pigeon and I have returned. We also have some fairly exciting things to show you.


Having chosen a rubbish Etsy username when signing up last year, I decided to start a new shop at http://thepigeonloft.etsy.com/ - it makes a lot more sense than 'happyturnip'(...don't ask!) and will be a lot easier to remember and find. Now, a shop needs stock so over the past week I have been busy producing around 20 'carrier pigeon' screen-printed cotton shopping bags, a new pigeon stationery set and some wine bags. Would you like to see them?

Well you can't see any photos of the cotton bags because they were all awful, but here are the peg-leg pigeon gocco-printed note cards...

YARRRRRRR!

Just in case you'd forgotten what 007 looks like...

These are the wine bags...

...and a catalogue-style shot...

But even more exciting (for you lot that is) is that when printing there are often prints which are ever so slightly dodgy. Not horrificly bad, but not really suitable to be sold full-price. So...I thought I'd have a little giveaway for the chance to win a cotton bag and some pigeon stationery seconds. There will be only one winner!



All you have to do to enter is leave a comment telling me what you will be or have been doing on Christmas day...in three words. Ready....steady...GO!

Carrier Pigeon

When Mr.P and I went home to do the Birthday draw, I also got a bit of sewing done. What do you think of this hand screen-printed linen drawstring "Carrier Pigeon" bag?

The idea was to make lots of cotton "carrier" bags with the design on, but they take a long time to sew so will not be appearing in the Etsy shop until Christmas unless you want the 'fuzzy' one where the print hasn't worked. This little linen one, however, IS up for grabs!

And the winner is...

Wow! Thank you to everybody who left a lovely Birthday comment and entered the giveaway- I will try to reply to as many comments as possible, but apologise if I can't reply to everybody- Gmail likes to group comments together so that I can't reply to them. Grrrrr.



I would also like to apologise in advance for the dreadful photo quality- I can't control the weather!



Anyhoo, Mr.P decided that as it was his giveaway he should be involved in the drawing process...

...so I put 41 names in a little bowl, blind-folded one pigeon...

...and the winner is....

GINA!

Well done, Gina, if you would be kind enough to e-mail me your address, a little pigeon will shortly be on his way to you.

But I couldn't leave it at just one. I also decided to pick two runners up who will receive a little something (not a bird) which I have not decided on yet. The runners up are...

...Cheryl I think I already have your address but AnneMarie you will need to let me know yours. Thanks :)

Don't worry if you didn't manage to bag a birdie- there will be more pigeony goodness in the Etsy shop very shortly!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PIGEON LOFT!

The Pigeon Loft is exactly one year old today.

Thank you all so much for reading this waffle and for following Mr.Pigeon's adventures so far- what a busy year it's been!

Mr.Pigeon 007 and his glamourous assistant Miss.Hennypenny were made one year ago in Spain and since then they have seen over 50 brothers and sisters fly off to new homes in Scotland, England, Spain, Germany, US, Singapore, Australia and Belgium, they have had their photos taken in various european cities and have eaten many a nice piece of cake with their owner :)

Special thanks go to Ruth and Val- my first 'regulars' (and some of my first customers!) who have been leaving kind comments ever since before The Pigeon Loft came about on the old blog Off The Hook

Now, you can't have a birthday without presents, so I am going to offer you the chance to win a little woolly 'present'- a bird to be more precise. Just leave a comment stating whether you would prefer a pigeon or a chicken (no, you can't say both- I'm not made of money) and tell me what you would like to see Mr.Pigeon getting up to in the Pigeon Loft's 2nd year.

I will pick a winner out of a hat (well, more likely a bowl) and hopefully announce the result on Sunday...GOOD LUCK!

Back in Brizzle

It's been a while, hasn't it?

I'm back at university to complete my final year (hooray!) and Mr.Pigeon has of course come too. He intends to become an educated bird and has decided to study Ornithology...from my bedroom window.

Due to this inconvenient having-to-finish-a-degree business and lack of crafty goodness, posts may become quite irregular and maybe a bit dull until Christmas. I also ask you to excuse me if I don't get to comment on your blogs as much as I would like to during term time. I will be lurking though! And updating. But don't worry, I have a lot of photos of exciting things saved to show you before I have to resort to rambling on about 20th century Spanish women's literature or German post-war poetry.

Coming soon are pictures from the Russian Doll Swap and a VERY exciting private swap as well as some good news for The Pigeon Loft.

But before all that there is some catching up to do.

Most of the latest batch of pigeons have arrived in their new homes...

• Mr.P 031 touched down in Singapore to meet his new owner Cheryl.

• Miss Hennypenny 009 arrived with Jayne and has been enjoying the country cottage chic of her new surroundings.
  
  
• Mr Ponsonby Sprocket a.k.a Mr.Pigeon 040 enjoyed a welcome party in Lyndsey's workroom.
  

• There is not one but TWO Hennypennies named 'Gloria'. The first arrived in Rutland over the summer to befriend Liz's rescue chickens and the second has found lots of chickeny chums chez Moog.
  
  
  
• Mr.Pigeon 041 (the first pigeon in the new yarn) has been named Hector and has made a lot of woolly friends at Jaqui's house. She has kindly allowed me to use her photos of his arrival...

Wish I was as well travelled as these little birds!

Problems at The Pigeon Loft

I'm afraid there's some bad news for pigeon fanciers. Lana Grossa, the company who make Mr.Pigeon yarn, have discontinued Mr.Pigeon's colour and I can't buy it ANYWHERE. This means that there will only be a few more old-style Mr.Pigeons up for sale in future.


Don't worry, this is not the end of pigeon production. I have found some yarn of identical weight in a similar colour and this will hopefully prove to be a decent substitute. It will be arriving shortly so I will unveil the new look Mr.P in the near future and you can tell me what you think of the substitution.


Please feel free to send Lana Grossa angry e-mails...I have!

Off again...

I really am sorry! Mr. Pigeon and I are in Spain (again!) this week, will be entertaining Belgians the week after and will be in London the week after that but I promise to squeeze in as many posts as possible.




I have lots of lovely pictures and pigeon news to post about but until then here is a picture of Mr.Pigeon...or is it a magpie?







Mr. Pigeon is modelling his present from Clare. I delivered Mr. Pigeon 034 (now Charles Abraham Pigeon) to her in person and Mr.P was absolutely delighted to receive this fantastic Newcastle United Football Club pigeon tank top which she had knitted for him!










Unfortunately Mr. Pigeon seemed to think that this new outfit should be accessorised with loutish behaviour and he soon ended up claws-up on the lawn, coo-ing dirty songs and displaying his beer belly (along with the impressively neat back of Clare's knitting)...

Thank you so much Clare! It was lovely to see you on Tuesday and a shame it couldn't have been for longer :)

I'll be back next week with...wait for it...some actual CRAFTING!

Mini Quilt Swap

After all the drama of last week I reckon it's time for a nice craft-related, non-violent, gingerbread-friendly post.

First of all (becuase I failed to make it appear at the bottom)... LOBSTER BISCUIT!

...which I couldn't resist and which was delicious in case you were wondering. Much better than real lobster.

Even more exciting was the parcel which arrived earlier this week. It was my "mini quilt swap" quilt from Nicky in Australia.

I love tortoises and requested something to bright to cheer up my boring German walls so Nicky came up with this original design which I absolutely love:

It's a shame you can't see so clearly on the photo, but her stitching is amazingly neat. This quilt has everything- buttons, ric-rac, freehand quilting, embroidery and beautiful fabrics. Even the back is beautifully done:

And if that wasn't enough, she also sent me a pretty handmade card and 3 balls of wool. Thank you so much again, Nicky!

Of course I knew exactly what to do with the red, white and blue yarn...

"Peckish" part II

Luckily I got there in time to save Fred, pulling Mr.Pigeon out of the box and confiscating his corkscrew. (You didn't seriously think I was going to turn Mr.Pigeon into a murderer did you?)

"Coooooooooooo!"



I only wanted a nibble, I promise, said Mr.P.




But I still made him apologise to Fred...

Fred told Mr.Pigeon not to worry about it.




But what drives a young pigeon to such violence?




It soon became clear that it was all my fault. I've been trying to cut down on all those tasty German sweet things. Without his daily dose of cake, Mr.Pigeon was suffering withdrawl symptoms and even began to hallucinate...

So after taping Mr.P's beak closed (in case of further incidents), I dashed out to the nearest Patisserie and returned with one big bag and one small bag...

...one for me and one for Mr.P...

...although somebody didn't seem to think this was fair...

...and made a beeline for the biggest pastry...for MY pastry.





Oi! Pigeon! No!

I wasn't having any of it...

MWA HA HA HA HAAAAAAA!




...and before I get any e-mails about pigeon cruelty, no pigeons were (badly) harmed in the making of this post.




Anyway, after he had stopped sulking and I had promised not to let him go too long without cake again, Mr.Pigeon decided to make it up to Fred by sharing his pain au chocolat.

What a happy ending :)

"Peckish" part I

Now, I bet you didn't know that it is every gingerbread man's dearest ambition to become a model in a Christmas catalogue...or even to strut their stuff in a bakery window.

Well, that's Fred's dream. He dreams of posing amongst the baubles and tinsel on a handsome fir tree or between the candles on a festive mantelpiece.

Being a kind gingerbread man owner, I offered to take some shots for his portfolio.

Here you can see "relaxed casual chic"...

..."the sultry look"...

..."the flirty look"...

...work it, Fred ...

...what the...?

Where did that pigeon go?

...

...LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU, FRED!...

Will Fred fall prey to a peckish Mr.Pigeon? Will somebody save him in time? Find out next time on...THE PIGEON LOFT!