Abby Lacey

Ramblings of a happy camper!


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Hello Lulu!

Having designed invitations and party stationery over the years for my birthday parties, wedding and get-togethers, friends started asking me to design for them too, and I realised that there just might be a business there!

All my stationery is completely bespoke (I will ask a lot of questions to get it just right!) and I can arrange printing or send you the files to print yourself.

Why Lulu though? As a child I had a beautiful Siamese cat called Lily, whose nickname (yes, she had a nickname!) was Lulu. My mum and I used to make up stories of where she went and what she got up to when we weren’t looking. We’ve even been talking about writing a children’s book, for 25+ years but that has yet to happen! So, in the meantime, Lulu seems a fitting name for my business and a nod to the beautiful girl.

For more info, visit my Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/lulusstationery or email me: luluspartystationery@gmail.com

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Dylan’s Secret Agent Birthday Party

Being a little cash-strapped this year, we decided to forego a big party for Dylan’s 9th birthday and held it at home instead.

Without wanting the house to be trashed, we limited the number to eight school friends and let Dylan choose the theme from a selection of: paint balling, secret agent or cookery competition; the secret agent theme won.

To my delight Pinterest was a great source of ideas so began my crafting…

Logo

Being a keen logo-maker, and having just done an Udemy GIMP course, I designed the Lacey Secret Agent Training School logo, which I typically over-used throughout.

Tuxedo invitation
Tuxedo invitation
Badges with their ‘real’ names and space for their agent name, which they randomly chose
‘Truth Serum’ water! (labels were covered in sticky back plastic so they wouldn’t run)
Laminated certificates they received on completion of their training
‘Mystery bars’ AKA KitKats!

Code Breaker

This was a simple task which I made in Word out of a table, then flipped the text into Wingdings font.

Laser Maze

The Code Breaker led the boys outside where we had made a laser maze out of wool. Each boy took it in turns to climb through without touching the lasers; whoever was quickest won a small bag of Haribo sweets.

Pinata

The next thing to make was a pinata, taking inspiration from One Creative Mommy.

It was a big job, but thoroughly worth it! AND it worked without the boys ripping my handiwork apart (probably because they were distracted by 44 balloons sitting around it!).

 

Mug shot wall

Next came the mug shot wall. This took a couple of attempts as my first, printed version, didn’t stick well, so we ended up simply painting a piece of wood, drawing the lines and then sticking the numbers on.

Nerf Gun Shooting Wall

Dylan modelled the shooting wall, expertly made by Sam, which had points velcroed to it so that the points varied from child to child. We already had the Nerf gun but bought 100 extra bullets from Amazon to avoid having to pick them up between rounds.

 Party Bags

I decided not to go all in for party bags but instead, each boy got a t-shirt with their initials on (iron on transfers from www.fastironontransfers.co.uk), a keyring with logo on one side and fingerprint on the other, a pair of sunglasses, pencil, badge, cupcake and water pistol.

T-shirt
T-shirt and sunglasses
Badges with their ‘real’ names and space for their agent name, which they randomly chose
Cupcakes with personalised topper
Keyring with fingerprint
‘Mystery bars’ AKA KitKats!

Decorations

Other decorations included 30 metres of ‘Crime Scene Do Not Cross’ tape, security access and hand scan to enter, a security line to enter and plenty of balloons!

Cost

Lucky enough to have accrued some Topcashback, the party only cost £40.75 (excluding cake mix) in total. Without it, it still would have been under £100 so I think a bargain!


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Be afraid, be very afraid

#TeamBadInfluences is back – and they’re bigger, badder and better!

After last year’s London to Brighton, the #TeamBadInfluences girls really got the cycling bug and wanted to go bigger, and stronger so on 25 June, we’re taking part in Davina McCall’s Big Sussex Bike Ride.

davina.PNG

Last year we lost a couple of team members – Ruth, who ended up having a hip replacement – poor excuse 😉 and Sara who, last April, suffered a Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) leak which took months to heal. Both Ruth and Sara are back with a vengance though and raring to get going!

Unfortunately, we have lost Bryony as she’s done her knee in. Hopefully she’ll be back pedalling soon, or at least being our support team!

So the Team has gone from 8 to 9, which isn’t bad (influences)…

As well as being another challenge, the Team girls are raising money for a fantastic cause, Action Medical Research (AMR), a charity dedicated to improving the health of babies and children.

Hundreds of thousands of children’s lives are devastated by disease and disability – in fact had it not been for AMR, Abby, would not be on her bike today!

So dig deep, peeps, and give all you can to this fabulous cause and keep #TeamBadInfluences on the road for another year:

tbi

https://www.action.org.uk/sponsor/teambadinfluences 

I am a feminist


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Happy Women’s Day

On this International Women’s Day, I am standing proud and shouting from the rooftops:

I am a feminist

… in the truest sense. I am not a man-hater (if you know me, you know how much I love men!), never going to burn my bra (I wouldn’t inflict that on the world!) and I don’t think women are better than men. I just want us to be equal.

But, to get equality, we have to work together, not just girls, but all of us. We have to stop shaming each other, stand together, love one another… and reach for the sky!

She believed she could so she did


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Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

Competition time!As well as #gettingmyshittogether this year, I am decided to experiment in the world of comping. for those unfamiliar with the phrase, it is:

“the practice of entering competitions, especially those promoting consumer products.”

My self-imposed rule is that I don’t go looking for comps, but if I see one, I must enter it.

So far, I’ve tried my hand at winning tickets for a motorhome show, a few holidays and £35,000 for a deposit on a house and recently won tickets to the Outdoor Adventure & Camping Show.

Outdoor Adventure Show

Outdoor Adventure Show

Having spoken to a few peeps about comping, many think it’s a great idea and have shared tales of friends of friends who have won holidays, cars and even houses.

So there seems to be some merit is perhaps extending my experiment… providing I don’t get obsessed (good luck with that, Ab!)!