This week's smiles....week 58

Well folks, another week has passed and we had lots of wonderful happy posts linked here last week.  I am featuring Kate's blog this week.  Kate joins in most weeks with a whole week of happy snaps from her week over in Spain and this week featured her cat Arwen.  Arwen has really long, thick fur that becomes difficult to keep matt free...well she did :-)  She had her regular hair cut to get rid of the matts and to cool her down and is now sporting a really smart new hair do....I love it and I'm sure Arwen now feels so much cooler.  Thanks for sharing Kate.

So? What have I got to smile about this week? 

Shell sent me this photo that she took when she checked on Lexi at bedtime....

It appears Lexi had really enjoyed a good read before going to sleep!  I'd have loved to have been a fly on the wall cos she probably read every one to her dollies.  :-)

The twins really love their books.

Waste not want not.  :-)

Jo brought the twins some Peppa Pig stickers down on Monday when she came to play and as you can see here the sticky waste  from round the stickers gave almost as much fun as the stickers  :-)

Here's a few snaps of the twins playing vets on Tuesday.  I think just about every toy animal was 'treated' during the day.

I think Lexi's face says it all in the bottom left pic.....poor little owl had two poorly wings it seems!

As you can see we have sooooooo much fun together and I could fill pages of the moments that make me smile.  I hope you will snap something that has made you smile this week and link it below so we can all share it.

Hugs,

Annie x

WOYWW....

Hello to all my visitors.  This is the day, every week, when I link up to the wonderful Julia's blog over at the Stamping ground and expose my crafty space to the world.  Why not pop over there and join in the fun.....be warned though, it's addictive  :-)

This week I do actually have a bit of creative crafting to share with you [it's been ages since I felt creative].....

I rummaged through my fabric boxes and made some bed head protectors to match the new bedding and curtains we have bought to go in our new bungalow....when we get there!  Our bed has a metal bed head that rattles on the wall when you turn over in bed and it had ones with poppies on til now. :-)

Of course my knitting needles haven't been idle either and here is a pic of this week's stress busting knitting squares  :-)

 I'm also sharing some pics of the twins checking up on the snowdrops in the churchyard over the road from our house....they love them.

For those who have asked snowdrops do grow from bulbs and as you can see they do spread...aren't they gorgeous?

I hope you have enjoyed your visit this week and will leave me a little hello comment so I know you've called by....I will do my best to call in on you as soon as I can to see what you've been up to this week.

Hugs,

Annie x

This week's smiles....week 57

Happy Friday to all who pop in here to share their smiles and to those that just pop in to have a smile and brighten their week.  What a fab turn out we had last week....lots joined in to share their happy moments and I would like to thank you all for taking time out of your busy lives.  It really does make the world a better place when you can smile through difficult times.

This week I am featuring another who joined in for the first time last week.  Kay shared some pics of a dog with a better head for heights than me. :-)  What a brilliant advantage point he has found to be on guard duty from.  Thanks for joining in Kay....do join in to share again soon.

My smiles for this week are of the wonderful long weekend we had at Centre Parcs in the Lake District.  All our wonderful family [ yes all 13 of us!] had planned a long weekend away together to celebrate Shell's 30th [Jan 7th] and my darling hubby's 60th birthday [March 3rd].  When we arrived it was cold, windy and the sky was throwing rain, sleet and snow at us but we found our way to two amazing lodges.  Amy and Dave had a 4 bedroomed 2 storey lodge for all their family and the rest of us had a 4 bedroomed bungalow type lodge.  They were really well equipped and very warm and cosy.  We all had a wonderful family time together, the 5 grandchildren enjoyed swimming times together and there were many times to enjoy nature in the pine forest that surrounded us.

We made very many happy memories together....

[you can click on the pics for a closer look if you want to]

There were red squirrels in the woods around us and we saw pheasants, a quail, a mouse, 2 badgers, more pigeons than we could count and a tree creeper to name but a few.  There was a camera set up on a badger set that we could watch on the televisions and we even watched two badgers getting very friendly one night....rather voyeuristic!!  The children were all very fascinated by the nature around us as you can see here...

I hope you have enjoyed sharing our smiles this week and will link up yours below......go on let's make the world a happier place.  :-)

Hugs,

Annie x

WOYWW....

Hello fellow snoopers WOYWWers.  I have been AWOL for a few special days over the weekend so if you've blogged anything special and I've missed it then I'm sorry.

We had a long weekend with all our gorgeous family [yes, all 13 of us :-) ] at Centre Parcs up in the lake district.  When we arrived it was cold and very very wet.  It was raining/snowing/sleeting and the wind would cut you in two.  Thankfully the weather only got better and we had an amazing weekend together.  We made many very special memories and saw lots of nature around us.  I will be sharing more about our weekend in my Friday's smiley post so if you'd like to hear more and see a few snaps please call by later in the week.

Of course today you are here to see my desk and of course there isn't a lot for you to see but here is a snap of this week's knitted squares.  

My squares are wonderful for stress busting while we are still waiting for a moving date....things are progressing with the new bungalow and I am constantly being the driving force to get a quick turn round but these things take their time!

As I have little to share with you creatively I am also sharing my pot of little garden treasures that we will be taking to our new home with us.  There are lots of snowdrops all round the garden here but I didn't see any at the new bungalow so I have potted up just a few to take with us....I am guessing in years to come the twins will be hunting for these little treasures to pop up in their new home  :-)

Hope you all have a great week.  Thanks for calling by and for all you lovely comments.

Hugs,

Annie x

This week's smiles...week 56

Hello to all my wonderful blogging friends who take time out of their busy lives to join in the weekly fun of sharing their happy posts.  I am featuring my big sister Jo's post from last week so that all you wonderful bloggers out there know just how to prepare yourselves before you sew.....of course I do this on a daily basis and am never seen without my lippy on ;-)

I have a few more pics of the munchkins to share with you this week...[ I think some of you would be disappointed if they didn't feature :-) ]

The awe and wonder of these two was amazing this week when we had a really heavy snow storm....there was lots of "wow" and "look Nanny".  :-)

Thankfully it didn't stick and although at one point there was a white carpet it was almost a blink and you'd miss it moment.

Two little posers for you  :-)

Lexi was trying on her new swimming costume bought for a special holiday that you may get to hear more about soon.  :-)

Here they are all togged up to enjoy playing on their bikes at the park by our new bungalow.  It came with a message...

"We really love this park much better than the one by that other bungalow Nanny".

That's all from me for this week.  If you'd like to share your happy posts for this week please link them below and I will pop over to yours to check them out as soon as I can.  

Thanks for calling by.

Hugs,

Annie x

WOYWW...

Hello folks.  I am thankfully feeling rather better this week...both on the house front and the health front.  :-)  Isn't it funny how these things seem to go hand in hand?  For those that missed my Saturday blog post [ below] you might like to know that although we had 10 plus weeks fighting to get our sale completed on the bungalow we were hoping to move to the sale just wasn't to be and fell through.  We are now pushing for a quick sale on another bungalow and the more we think about it the more we know in our hearts that this was meant to be...the other one was causing a lot of heart ache, I'm sure wouldn't have been a happy house to move into and came with an awful lot of work to get it how we would have wanted it.  This one felt like home as we walked through the door  :-)

So folks?  What is on my work desk this week?

I have finished the little hoodie I was knitting.  It has turned out well and I'm really thrilled with it.

I have had little helpers with my crafting this week.....

Whilst Sam finished off his morning nap Lexi helped plan the blanket to be made with my knitted squares  :-)

What a lovely activity it was too....she counted, chose the colours and very carefully placed them all into patterns :-)

Yesterday I, very bravely, got my little munchkins to help me sort my big box of odd balls of knitting wools.  We had lengths of wool from one end of the living room to the other but they had lots of fun finding different colours, helping Nanny wind the balls up and deciding which ones were their favourites  :-)

"Oh Nanny what a lot of wool you've got!!"

So there you go....more about trying to encourage little ones to love crafting than showing you anything I have done creatively this week but it's so good to see them enjoying the colours and textures that yarns come with.  :-)

Thanks for calling by.  If you'd like to leave me a little hello comment I will do my best to call in on your to see what you've been up to this week.

Hugs,

Annie x

Things happen for a reason.......

As most of you will know for the last 10 plus weeks we have been attempting to buy a bungalow.  Yes, I say attempting!  We have had a real battle on our hands and have got nowhere fast.  We have been on the phone most days to the estate agent but with no luck at all.  When eviction orders were mentioned by an ex partner of the lady living there we decided that we really didn't want to get involved and although we have invested a lot into the property [in time, emotions and money!] we decided to cut our losses and move on.  

Our buyers for here are a really lovely young couple with two small children and they have already moved out, put their stuff into store and are now living with family so we felt we had to look again for another new bungalow so that we didn't keep them waiting any longer....thanks to them for being so patient.  :-) 

We have spent the last week searching for another property and have found another bungalow not too far from the last one.  It's still on the outskirts of Shrewsbury, the right side of the town for my hubby's work and is close to our wonderful family.  We went for a first viewing last Wednesday and fell in love with it.  We put an offer in that was accepted on Friday morning and have been back with several of our family members this morning to measure up.  The bungalow is empty and the seller, like us, is keen for a quick sale so hopefully we will be on the move very soon.

So here it is folks...

It has two large bedrooms, one with en suite, a large dining room that yours truly will be using as her sewing room  :-) :-) :-) and it is carpeted throughout making it really warm and cosy.  We have all felt very at home there.  It will need a new kitchen and probably a new heating boiler but that's a fraction of the work the other bungalow needed and all very doable......in fact it will be really lovely to put our mark on our new home  :-)

This week's smiles ...week 55

We had a good turn out last week with lots of fab posts being linked up here each sharing their smiles.  The weather here at the mo is so very wet and gloomy so it's really lovely to be cheered up by our blogging friends so thanks to each and every one of you who takes a little time out from their busy lives to brighten the days of others.  

I am featuring Elizabeth's post from last week because she went that extra mile to make me [and Jo] feel special.  You really are a gem Elizabeth and I know we have never met but the world really is a smaller place when someone as far away as you are can make me feel that way.  Thank you.

Trust me when I say I have had many moments of roller coaster lows recently but hopefully things are now on the up so I'm still smiling  :-)  I never have to look far for a smile of course and this week I have a few snaps to share with you....

Here is the local shop with the till being manned by Sam.  :-)

They play so well together and they really make us chuckle with what they come out with.  Sam kept shouting....'can you please come to the tills'...guess he's heard that while shopping with his mummy.  :-)

Here is Lexi waving as she passed her mummy while doing a bit of indoor cycling.  :-)

She insists on wearing her helmet...even indoors  :-)

Lexi is trying on dresses in readiness for being a flower girl in August when our son gets married.

Her mummy has been teaching her to pose and pull funny faces...and of course she is very happy to oblige.  :-)

She has her mummy's wicked sense of humour!!!

My last photo is of my little 'guardian angel' that always appears when I need a smile.  All day yesterday my little robin kept sitting on the guttering and just looking at me through the window where I sit to sew.  He was happy to pose so I could share him with you.  :-)

I really hope you have found something to smile about this week and will share your smiles with us too.  Please link them below and I will call in to pay you a visit as soon as I'm able.

Hugs,

Annie x

WOYWW....

Happy snooping day to all that call in this week.  I am joining in because I really think I would have withdrawal symptoms if I didn't but I'm really not feeling very creative or productive at all this week.  My cold has come back and I'm fed up to the back teeth with chasing estate agents and solicitors over our house move.....I'm not sure why they have to be paid so much money cos I seem to be the one that's doing the work.  We had a 4th viewing from our buyers on Sunday and they have now moved out, put their furniture in store and are waiting to move in here asap so I've spent my spare time chasing all concerned to get a moving date soon....keep everything crossed folks.

I am sharing my rainbows of knitted squares with you today because I just love the colours...

That's all I have to share today but hope my 'rainbow' made you smile.

Hugs,

Annie x