This week's smiles....week 15

Here we are at another Friday with a happy post to share.  I am thrilled to share with you the news that little Sam seems much better now and hopefully that is the last we shall see of the inside of a hospital for a while at least  :-)

There were some photos of wonderful flowers shared this week....it really makes us all feel better to see the sun and the spring flowers showing their bright colourful faces doesn't it?

My featured blog this week just has to be Sam's over at Hettiecraft.  She posts a funny every Friday to make us laugh and this week really made me chuckle....I always have a lot of problems opening a jar ;-)

The pic I am sharing this week is this one...

Little Steve is Mummy's little helper especially now both his big sisters have mornings at school and this week he enjoyed fetching the shopping delivery from the front door to his mummy in the kitchen in his little shopping trolley....couldn't we all do with a little helper like Steve?

Now come on folk go look around you and snap away with your camera at all the wonderful things in your life that are making you smile this week....... and why not share them with your blogging friends?  There is enough doom and gloom on the telly and it really does us all good to focus on happy things.  Link your happy pictures below any time during the next week.....it really doesn't just have to be today....and next Friday I will choose one of you as my week's best smiles.

WOYWW....

As you can see this week I have changed my header pic to show you the beautiful blossom in our garden.....yes spring is really here.....and just look at that blue sky too  :-) :-) :-)

Another 'different' week for me here at Sewing by Annie's.  I managed to complete all the huge sewing pile I had here last week including that gorgeous lacy wedding dress that had 4 hems to shorten!  The rest of my week has been spent full of challenges!

• Little Sam has been in and out of hospital all week with his severe tummy pain and this included a blue light ambulance ride from Shrewsbury hospital to Birmingham's childrens hospital to be seen by the specialists on Saturday.....needless to say they still haven't found the cause but think it may be a nasty gut infection and they sent him home on Sunday with a bag full of different medicines.
• Shell has been here with the both twins for last couple of days just in case Sam needed hospital again so that I could look after Lexi....bless them it's been such a worrying time.
• Oh yes and on Thursday last week I was diagnosed as being diabetic!!!  So no more chocolate or cake for me now  :-(  Thankfully I had had a blood test that picked it up cos I had had no signs or symptoms at all.

Of course you've not come here to hear my troubles but you'd like to see what's on my desk today wouldn't you?  Well, here it is....

Nothing very exciting really to see but there is...

• Lace trimmings from the wedding dress.....if bride doesn't want this I promise it will be put to good use  :-)
• Mitzy monkey is sat watching all that goes on in my sewing room....but she keeps all my secrets  :-)
• the pin cushion Jo[zart] gave me is on the side of the machine on the left of the pic....it gets used every day Jo  :-)
• my Tax form is in the middle of the pic waiting for me to do my end of year books up to date  :-(
• two of my many pair of pink snippers , pins, cotton reels etc

So there you go,  I have sun beaming through the window and my magnolia is starting to open up just outside in the garden and  already smells wonderful....have a good snoop but I'm sure you will find nothing very exciting today....sorry, it's been one of those weeks!

To those who said they would like to swap ATCs with me for the 4 year WOYWW celebrations can you please check you have sent me your details via email cos there are still some that have forgotten and to anyone else wanting to swap......I'd love you to send me your details :-)

Thanks for dropping by.  I will do my best to pay you a return visit if you leave me a little hello message.  Take care and have a great week.

Hugs,

Annie x

I need help with a template.....

Grovel grovel.......

Do any of my wonderful, card making, blogging friends have a template to make a wedding invitation card with a pocket inside that extra info cards can be tucked into?  

Our son is getting married August next year [I know, I know.... we are getting ideas and getting as much as we can done well in advance!! ] and a lot of his fiance's family will be coming from Italy so there maybe extra info cards [hotels available in the area etc] needed to pop into the invitation cards.  Gina rather fancies a pocket of some sort inside the main invitations and we have seen some on line but we want to make our own.......Any ideas would be very welcome.

I'm even willing to share the gorgeous flowers I had from my darling hubby last week for our 31st Wedding Anniversary with you......after all they are far too gorgeous to keep them all to myself.  :-)

This week's smiles....week 14

It's been another eventful week here for me.  I have had loads of sewing to do for my customers so have had to fit the fun things in between my sewing jobs.

There were only a few who joined in  the fun by sharing their happy pics last week but I do have to say some make more effort than others  :-)  This week the blog that I have made my star post just had to be Gill from Stamping Lemons...she wrote the most amazing acronistic poem about the best day of the week for her  :-)  I loved it and have to say the photo of the cat she put at the end really made me giggle.....Thank you Gill for all your efforts....You really are a star blogger.

Little Sam was rushed into hospital on Wednesday morning with severe tummy pains so our week has also had stressful worrying times too but thankfully he was sent home Wednesday night after being given pain relief and tests.  They didn't really find what was causing the problem but hopefully it has now gone away to not return again.  My happy picture today is one of what happens when two little twins have to spend a day apart because of ill health.  When Sam was let home from hospital and Lexi returned home from a day with Grandma and Pop's [their other grandparents] they were so thrilled to see each other and spent the rest of the evening giggling and hugging.....

How to melt Nanny Annie's heart.

 Bless them eh?  You can even see the sticky mark on Sam's tummy where his mummy just pulled the pads off where they monitored his condition whilst in hospital.  

I hope my pic has made you smile too and you will all try to snap a pic to join in the happy making fun.   The world really is a happier place to live if we all share our happy times.

WOYWW....

Hello to family and friends  :-)

This week I have lots of curtains to shorten, table cloths to make, trousers to shorten, wedding outfits to alter and even a really gorgeous lacy wedding dress to shorten the 4 layers of hems on so there has been no quilt making for me as yet and wont be til I get it all finished.

I have however been playing with gorgeous fabrics, ribbons, lace etc making some ATCs for the 4th year WOYWW celebrations and this is what is on my desk today...

but of course I will have to clear it all off now to get my work done  :-(

I've chosen spring colours this year but I'm not showing you what I'm doing with it all just yet  :-)

.....and just look at that sun shining in through the window!!!

If anyone would like to swap ATCs with me to celebrate the 4 year birthday of our wonderful WOYWW group please email me your name and address [ to wipso@toucansurf.com ] and I will put one ready to post to you on 29th May....if you want to know the details for the celebration ATC swap then please check them out here on Julia's blog.  If you want to join in you only need to make one to pass on but if anyone wants to swap an extra one with me just let me know.

I'm not boring you with pics of all the sewing I have to do today but will say I will be head down doing it all day today and probably tomorrow and Friday too!!!!  If you leave me a little hello comment I will do my best to pay you a return visit in my break times......yes I do allow myself coffee breaks lol.

Hugs,

Annie x

This weeks smiles....week 13

Where does the time go?  Here we are on another Friday full of happy smiley blog posts.  I do so love popping round all that join in the fun here each week to see what is making you all smile so thank you all for joining in.

My blog of the week his week has got to be Carol's at Smile at the flowers.  She has so many wonderful things that had made her smile and it was so lovely to share them all with her so please pop over to say hello.  I came away from her blog really feeling full of Spring....yes I do believe it is nearly here now.  :-)

My weekend was full of smiles this week.  

We joined our son Mark and his fiance at Carden Park Hotel, where they are having their wedding reception at next year, for lunch on Saturday and I have to say they have made a good decision......its a beautiful venue and I'm certain they will make their day very special for them there.

Sunday was our little granddaughter Lulu's 3rd birthday party at her house.  She still has chicken pox but that didn't stop her from enjoying the day.  They had Diddi dance there to entertain the little ones and I have to say the lady that organised them was brilliant and a great time was had by all so this week I have made you a collage of all the fun and games at the party....you should be able to click on the pics to enlarge them if you want a closer look.

And of course I know you would love to see little Lexi [with a little help from her brother Sam] wishing her cousin a Happy Birthday so here she is...

 Happy, happy soooo happy

I hope you are smiling now and feel like joining in the fun this week by linking in your own happy pictures.  Please try cos the world really is a happier place when you're smiling.

The bags are finished....

I managed to finish the 4 bags yesterday to try out the 4 different materials.  Some were easier to sew than others but I did manage to make a bag out of each.  The one had to have cotton tape handles cos the fabric twisted and stretched and couldn't be used for handles and I have to say I really wouldn't want a bag made from at least two of the materials....one was far too stiff.  I do get asked to do all sorts of jobs and I do wonder what the customer will think when he picks them up.

WOYWW....

 Ive added the wrong link on Julia's blog today so instead of messing up Mr Linky can you please click here to find my Anniversary post

I'm here

Sorry folks xxxxx

Hello to all my Wednesday friends and fellow bloggers.  This week has been full of crafty fun, new sewing challenges and family together times.

Today I have 3 photos to share with you....

This first one is a different challenge for me that a new customer has brought me.  They are 4 different waste banner fabrics [PVC type strong fabrics] and he wants me to make simple reusable shopping bags out of them to trial the fabrics.  Jo helped me cut out a bag from each of the 4 fabrics and I just have to make the bags with it now.....watch this space.  :-)

This is my, now finished, LillyBo quilt number 7 with it's matching bag and I am linking it over at Di's snippets playground as my quilts are all made from the snippets of fabrics I have in my scrap boxes.

If you would like to see all the wonderful finished quilts and maybe check out the details of how to join in the fun of making one then please pop over to the LillyBo quilt blog.

Of course I needed to make a little something to go in the pocket on the bag so I am knitting a little.........

......rabbit to match the ones in the pictures on the fabric of the quilt.  My knitting is a bit slow going at the mo but I will get there.  :-)

I hope you have enjoyed my show and tell for this week and leave me a little hello comment so I can pay you a return visit to see what you've been up to this week.

Hugs,

Annie x

This week's smiles....week 12

Hello to all calling by to either join in the fun by linking up your own happy posts or those calling by just to be cheered up by our fun and giggles.

I know for sure you will go away smiling and that has to be good for you.

Last week was another fab week and many joined in the fun.  There were wonderful happy family times shared, animal shares and poetry shares.  This week I just have to highlight Di's post because although I know it was instigated by two mad sisters [Jo and I!!!] it has caused such a giggle in the blogging world that it would be nice to make sure others enjoy our mad fun too.  If Di didn't collect knickers it would never have happened  :-)  Do pop over here to check out her post.

I am sharing

A video of our little groover,  Steve.  He just loves to dance to any music and here you can see him while he is eating his lunch.  I just dare you not to smile at this.  :-)

Also a pic of our little independent Lexi enjoying her tea.....she even picked up every grain of rice and cleared her dish.....yum yum.

I hope you have enjoyed my smiles this week and will join in the fun by linking your own happy posts below.

Have a great week.

Hugs,

Annie x

WOYWW....updated to show you Bertie

What has happened this week?  I've had a 5 day weekend because not only was it Easter weekend but the twins are on a 2 week Easter holiday so I didn't have them yesterday and I don't open up the shop on a Tuesday.  

So?  Why oh why am I chasing my tail and finding myself writing this post now?  I am usually so organised and have this ready on Tuesday.....and look after two 18 month old twins at the same time [that's what nap times are for aren't they?] !!!  Oh well  I guess it's just part of my 'I don't even know what day it is' life at the mo.  :-)  We took two more loads of stash to the charity shop and load number 12 to the tip at the weekend so it's not surprising my world is crumbling around me is it hehehe.

So on my desk now this very minute is.....

The quilt I was working on yesterday.  This one is definitely one for a baby.  The panel of fabric in the middle has teddies on so I have appliqued more teddies etc on each end to go with it.  I have kept back one of the little pictures to go on the front of the bag to match.  This is my LillyBo quilt number 7.

For those wondering where the little teddies were flying off to last week I can now tell you that they have arrived safely with Jo[zart].  They are already working hard to raise money for Chics, the Children's cancer support group.  Big sister Jo wrote a LillyBo bear poem to go with each little bear and each little bear will work their little bit of magic to bring comfort to all that buy one.....after all they were all made with love and a little sprinkle of magic was added to their stuffing.  :-)

I have also been working on my fabric book that I started back in February.  Please click here is you'd like to see where the inspiration came from.  I am really enjoying watching this develop and deciding what to do next as I go along.

We don't do things by halves here in Shropshire!!!
I know it's not actually on my work desk but Bertie buzzard has just flown down onto next door's front lawn to feed and I just had to  run out with my camera to snap it for you.....Isn't he stunning?  He was really huge with probably a 4 foot wingspan when he flew off.......amazing to be so close to nature.

Well folks, that's all from me for today....better late than never as they say.  :-)

I hope you have enjoyed the little peep into my world for this week.  If you'd like to leave a little hello comment I will do my best to pay you a return visit asap.

Hugs,

Annie x

Scrabble tiles winner...

For those that hasn't seen the post as to who won the scrabble tiles........

The winner was Di of Pixie's Crafty Workshop.

Jo and I made a special little bag for the tiles to go in and wrote a poem to go with them too and then forgot to snap a pic before we parcelled them up and posted them to Di!  We had such a giggle in all we did and just got carried away in the moment so thankfully Di has posted them over on her blog so please pop over here to have a giggle......many have already!!!

All I can say is knickers!!!!!  ;-)