Lego Minifgures Series 1

I have obtained quite few Lego Minifigures to date and would like to share some of my favourite characters.  We started our collection at Series 4 when I bought Graeme his first character the Footballer to cheer him up whilst studying for exams at University.  Ever since we have been hooked and my latest edition is the complete Series 1 minifigures.  These were quite hard to get hold of as they were first published in 2010 and are now no longer made.  I had to search for quite a while and eventually found the set on Ebay for not much more than the original cost; that's my story and I'm sticking to it!!

Here are our favourite characters and their bio's from the lego minifgure website.  I love how the designers have created complete back stories for their characters it makes each one very unique.
My favourite character from this series is the Cheerleader, she has the best pom poms:
“Gimmie an L! Gimmie an E! Gimmie a G! Gimmie an O! Yaaay!”

The Cheerleader is perpetually filled to bursting with energy, excitement and enthusiasm. She prefers cartwheels and handsprings to plain old ordinary walking, and she waves her pom-poms around wildly whenever she talks, which is pretty much all of the time.

The Cheerleader loves to cheer people on, no matter what they’re doing. Whether they’re changing a light bulb, building a wall or just crossing the street, she’s always there with a peppy cheerleading routine to encourage them to do their best and never give up. It can actually get kind of annoying sometimes, but her perpetual good mood and sunny smile are so contagious that it’s hard to really mind.

Graeme's is the Ninja:
“Like a shadow in the night, I – oops!”

Stealthy. Sneaky. A cunning master of martial arts. None of these things describes the Ninja, although he sure wishes they did. He tries his best to dramatically blend into the shadows or hide in plain sight like all the other ninjas can, but no matter what he does, he always seems to mess things up. The truth is that he’s just plain clumsy, and no matter how gracefully he may start a back-flip, creep along the rafters or launch himself into an epic sword battle, he always manages to trip over his own feet, fall off the ceiling, or bonk himself on the head with his ancient and mystical blade. Also, he’s afraid of the dark.

No one is quite sure how the Ninja ever managed to graduate from ninja school. But no matter how bad he may be at his chosen profession, he always keeps trying and never gives up, convinced after each blunder that the next time, he will prove himself a true ninja warrior for the ages.

Little Lego Men... and Women

Over the past year I have rekindled my love for Lego.  It started when I found some beautiful pieces of jewellery made out of lego here and here.  I was hooked and it wasn't just for jewellery it was anything Lego.  Fortunately I have a very understanding partner who also has a passion for Lego, so at least I am not alone.  Even better at the weekend he bought me a couple of little men for my collection, a Bandit and a Minotaur.  These characters both come from the Series 6 Minifigure set.  Each Minfigure collection is made up of 16 individual characters and the aim of the game is to find them all!!
I started collecting these characters a while ago so I have quite a few.  They don't make it easy to find them all, as the packets are sealed so you can't tell which is inside.  I recall Graeme and I once spent an hour in Tesco Direct hunting through about 3 boxes trying to figure out which characters were in the packets.  This may have become a bit of an obsession but I love how my collection is growing and slowly taking over the flat, I can't wait to get more!!

With the aim to get a little more organised I've added a Lego button to my side bar and hope to make Lego a regular feature on my blog.  I know there are a lot of closest Lego fans out there, so I'm spreading the word that Lego is back in fashion!!

Homemade Lego Advent Calendars

I wanted to do something special for Graeme for the run up to Christmas and had read online about a special Lego Star Wars advent calendar which I knew would have been perfect.  The thing is when I saw the calender it was back in October and I thought far to early to be thinking about Christmas.  When I saw it again in my local Tesco we were in the middle of packing for the big move and again I thought "I'll deal with it all after".  So alas to say, I missed my chance and by the time we got around to thinking about advent they had sold out... everywhere!!

In some ways though this was the best thing to happen when I actually looked at the items you got in the calendar they were all very small made of only 4 or 5 pieces and although fun were a little bit pants.  So instead I took Graeme on a mystery trip to Legoland and let him choose which set he wanted and what set do you think he choose...

The Lego Star Wars X-Wing!!!

Graeme also decided he wanted to do one in return for me so I chose the Lego Star Wars Ewok Attack set.

It wasn't as easy as that though when we got home we split the packs up into 24 little bundles and put them into 24 envelopes with a Christmassy design on each.  Then we strung them up on our new bookshelf with these very cute little pegs.

The perfect advent calendar and much more exciting to build a little piece of a big toy each day. Today we finally finished off our builds and they look great. We will definitely be doing this again next year, they were so much fun to make!!

And lastly as I am unlikely to post over the next couple of weeks, I'm wishing you all a fantastic Christmas and a happy New Year.  Hope you a have a good time and I can't wait to catch up in the the new year!!

Lego Jewellery

I found more Lego jewellery yay!! These very delightful heart necklaces are from Etsy by various different supplies, my favourites are these by MoL Stationary.

 I just love how the clasp is the two pieces of Lego put together, genius!! There are even some with an added bit of sparkle too.  

I really want to make some of these I can imagine layering a few necklaces together would look really good, I just have to get hold of lots of Lego now!!

Valentine's Weekend Continued...

What a weekend, it was absolutely awesome!! Of course the biggest treat was seeing Graeme as it has been quite a few weeks since I saw him last; when he returned to Uni I had stinking tonsillitis so didn't say goodbye properly.  But this weekend I was treated royally, where to start...

So firstly I saw The Haunting at Windsor Theatre with my parents.  After reading the program properly I realised it wasn't actually written by Charles Dickens just based on many of his short stories and parts of his life.  Even so it was very good; there were only 3 actors in the whole play which I thought would get very monotonous but not at all. The special effects were really good, there were books flying from the walls, ghosts appearing out of no where, the woman in front of me was jumping so much it made me giggle.  It may not be to everyones taste but I enjoyed it quite a bit, and would definitely go and see another like it.

I then drove up to see Graeme, which was good in a way because there was no traffic at 10.30 on a Friday, but I decided to go up on the M1 and forgot they are doing roadworks, so was stuck at 50mph for most of the journey, ahhhhh!!!  I came back on the M40 much quicker!!  When I did arrive I was greeted by a lovely bunch of flowers in a very pretty white vase (as Graeme didn't have a vase in the house, well they are all boys I suppose).  

He couldn't wait to open his presents and as it was a Valentine's weekend (because I was going home on Monday) I let him open them straight away.

I drew him a Lego Star Wars picture of Darth Vader and some Storm Troopers from a tutorial I found, I also cunningly added some hearts because it is Valentine's after all.  The hearts and words are painted with acrylic paint, the rest I coloured in with alcohol markers; I used acetone to smudge the colours together which was very effective.  I have only tried this method once before but it worked really well, so I may have to make some more artwork using this method, I will also need to purchase some more pens as I only have 3 shades of grey.  I also need a thinner black marker pen for the edges, I kept smudging the felt tip I used accidently.

I also bought him some Star Wars Lego to start building his very own chess set I posted about last year, and a little Lego truck set because I couldn't resist and went a bit mad for Lego!!

Graeme bought us tickets for The Blanks who were so awesome!! They were really fun and it was great to hear live all the songs they sing in Scrubs.  They even sung the song I posted about last week, so amazning!!  Our last Valentine's treat was to see Tangled 3D at the cinema, which I loved!! I think it really will become a Disney classic it was a good story and really funny in parts, with a bit of innuendo thrown in for the adults.  I would definitely recommend it to any Disneyholic like me!!

My favorite character is Pascal the Chameleon, he is a very cheeky chappy!!

Greame's was Maximus the Horse, who was part dog and completely awesome at sword fighting!! Also love the fact the tavern is called The Snuggly Duckling!!!

So that concludes my weekend now back to reality for a bit!! I have a few new craft projects lined up and a few old ones that I still haven't completed.  Watch this space I'll post very soon...

Cake Pops

A while ago I was reading a few articles on Etsy and came across one by a blogger named Bakerella.  She makes the most awesome cake treats called Cake Balls which you can also get on a stick called Cake Pops.  Even better the article had full instructions how to make and decorate them yourself, I couldn't wait to check out her blog for other treats!!

I was not disappointed, these designs are so amazing and the recipes seem quite simple with amazing results (we will have to see!) I have decided that I have to make these when I next have some free time.  A few of my friends would love these Bumble Bee Cake Pops as they are avid supporters of the Bracknell Bees Ice Hockey Team.

And these Pink Chocolate Cake Pops will be perfect for Valentines Day, I know Graeme will love them!!

I even found some Lego Cake Pops by one of her fans, totally awesome!!  

I think it's time for a Cake Pop Party!!!

Lego Jewellery

Just found these bracelets and earrings on Folksy by Sisily Love, and I'm in love!!

Love jewellery, love Lego!! Is it wrong to start a Christmas wish list at the start of January??

Lego Lego Lego

I love Lego, and recently I have had a renewed enthusiasm to play with it.  So this is my new section in the blog dedicated to Lego; I know it's not amazingly crafty but I have seen many creations made from Lego and of Lego on the web and I want to share my discoveries!!

Back in the Summer Graeme and I visited a pub in Nottingham called The Crusader which had the best large canvas artwork of Lego knights.  It was printed in different shade of grey with a hint of  red and yellow so it didn't look childish or gimicy and would have been perfect for my geek chic living room (I don't actually own a house yet but I have dreams!!) So ever since then I have been searching for Lego artwork and items to fill my imaginary house.  Unfortunately I am still yet to find the knight canvas so if you spot anything like it please let me know!! I may have to revisit the pub and ask them where they got it...

One of my favourite Lego themes is of course Star Wars, and a friend of mine reminded me of an awesome Empire Strikes Back Lego Chess set I had seen on the interwebs by Brandon Griffith.

There is even a campaign to get Lego to make it into a real set to buy, which would be awesome!!  I actually found this set to buy on Etsy, but at a little over £1700 I don't think I can afford it any time soon.  It is definitely going on my wish list though!! 

Failing that I will have to make one myself, although I think that could be pretty pricey too as the average Star Wars kit is around £50. Check out more photos of this set on flickr, and the chess board for  A New Hope.