This week's smiles....week 318

Oh how these weeks whizz by but each one comes with plenty to make me smile and for that I'm very thankful.  I have had a couple of quiet weeks with few customers calling by on me for sewing so on Tuesday morning I set up the May special offer on my Facebook page a few days early so that mum's could check out the old school uniforms during the Easter holidays ....my special offer is for 10% off any School Memory bears ordered up til the end of May to help reduce the mad last minute rush at the end of the school year.  Since then I've been inundated with work...

• A Bridesmaid's dress needing taking in and shortening
• A posh dress needed for another Wedding needed taking in.
• A lace tablecloth needed making
• and 9 Memory bears! but only 6 of those are school bears!

It never fails to make me smile that I can go for weeks with nothing at all and then withing a couple of days I can be so busy....and I love it.

My photos that have made me smile....

The twins had a day at the seaside at the weekend and I just love this photo of them heading towards the sea together.

Steve enjoyed another football training day this week and didn't even mind that he got absolutely soaked during the day.....he was on his way home here for a warm bath!

Just look at Lulu's face!  She was at a birthday party over the weekend and was brave enough to hold a tarantula.....I'm so proud of her because I have a real fear of any spiders so wouldn't have gone anywhere near.

Wednesday evening we had a visit from Amy and the children and this is how they rolled up on the drive!  They are sat in the back of their new camper van with a video on the telly and all wearing earphones....I think they rather like their new wheels don't you?

Just a few of the latest treasures in our garden for you including the pic of the strawberries now in bloom....such a lot of promise of things to come eh?

These two photos made me chuckle.  They should be labelled 'what a difference a day makes'.  We had a really heavy rainstorm on Wednesday and it not only knocked all the blooms down on the bottom picture but if you look closely you will see that in the top picture it knocked all the blooms off the tulips in the top picture leaving us just stalks!!''

This photo makes me smile because we have a pansy flower that has self seeded in a crack in the side of our garden path and as you can see it's fighting with a dandelion plant....I think that weeding out the dandelion will probably disturb the pansy so I've left them to fight it out....who do you think will win?

Isn't nature wonderful?

That's all from me for today.  Please leave me a little comment and, if you can, then link up to your own smiles with Mr Linky below.  I hope your week is filled with smiles like mine.

Hugs,

Annie x

WOYWW.....

Hello all and Happy Wednesday to you.  It's my favourite day of the week when we blog hop around our creative friends around the works.  We expose our desks and share what we've been doing on them each week.  If you'd like to join in the fun [you will really love it] then just pop over to Julia's at The Stamping ground and check out the details.  We will all be meeting up too on 1st June so why not check out where and join us for a fun day....here's the details.  My much older sister and I are hosting the crop this year and it should be a fun day of celebrating 10 years of friendship.

So you've here to check out my desk aren't you?  It's been school holidays here this week so it's been a quiet week with few customers so I've been using my time wisely....

A lot of you have exploding boxes of paper scraps, well, here for me it was an overflowing box of fabric scraps and the funny thing was a lot of them I'd been given by one of my customers [so they weren't even my scraps!] and lots of them weren't big enough to even be usable! So I've given my box the 'Jan treatment'.  I've thrown out all that's unusable and folded all that is.....

....my box now looks like this cos all this is here....

....a bin bag filled with scraps.  How did all that fit in that box?

Of course I had now got the sorting and tidying bug by this stage so.....

Out came all my fat quarters and I've sorted them into colours....much easier to use them like this and the colours are so inspiring.

Now doesn't that look better? And now I need a few projects to use some of it [If I can bring myself to cut into it all!].

I have managed to find a couple of hard backed books that I rather fancy making crazy patchwork covers for....what do you think?

That's all from me for this week.  If you leave me a little message I will do my best to pay you a return visit to see what you've been up to this week.

Hugs,

Annie x

This week's smiles....week317

What a lovely week it's been here at Sewing by Annie's.  It's been a week filled with smiles and proud moments so I'm here to share them with you.  I'm hoping that my smiles encourage you all to look at the life around you and that you will spend a little time focusing on the good things and you will share them with us too by linking them up at the bottom of the page....everyone is very welcome.

It was our 37th Wedding Anniversary on 17th.  We got married on my Dad's birthday and this year he would have celebrated his 99th birthday.  Sadly I lost him when I was only 31 but I am blessed to say that for those 31 years I had something many folk never have.  We had a very special relationship and for that I'm eternally thankful.  This July my darling hubby will be retiring so it plans to be the start of another exciting stage in our lives [if only I could retire too eh?].

It's the Easter holidays for our Grandchildren and, as you can see the twins have been enjoying some creative time....I do love that all 6 of our grandchildren are creative :-)

On Tuesday night we went to Theatre Severn in Shrewsbury to watch Lexi perform in the Wizard of Oz.  She goes to a Get Your Wigle On drama group and this was her first stage performance.  She was one of the group of Munchkins and we were so proud to see her up there on stage singing and dancing.....sadly photos were not allowed.  :-)

Steve has been to another days football training and yet again he was awarded player of the day.....he really loves his football and they can obviously can see he has a talent..... we have so much to be proud of. :-)

Amy and Dave have just had a campervan fitted out just how they want to suit a family of 5 [and two dogs] and Wednesday night they brought it to show us.  It's just perfect and I'm sure they will have many happy days spent using it....I'm so thrilled for them. :-)

Finally, I saw this on Pinterest and thought I'd share it with you....I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who feels like this at times.

Have a great week folks and please share your smiles if you can.

Hugs,

Annie x

WOYWW...

Another week has passed and we are creeping closer to our Crop10 celebrations. A lot have already put their names down to say they are coming [I think we are up to about 22 already :-)].  If you are planning on joining us and haven't already said how many of you are coming then can I ask that you please pop off to this post on Julia's blog at the Stamping Ground and check out the details....the more the merrier.  It should be a great party day of celebrations to celebrate 10 years of fun and friendship.

I've had a busy week so far here at Sewing by Annie's.  On my desk today is....

It's Easter holidays this week so Phoebe and Lulu have brought me their latest 11 badges earned between them for me to sew on so it's been more proud Nanny sewing for me....I love hearing what they had to do to earn each badge.

Monday morning saw this rather sad looking teddy bear arriving much in need of a restuff....at this point I had already restuffed his legs with the stuffing from his tummy but I had to delve into my stuffing supplies to find enough stuffing to refill him....where does all the original stuffing go to?

Here he is all restuffed and looking rather pleased with himself don't you think?  His 9 year old owner had already had one night crying herself to sleep without him so I had to work fast and get him ready to go back by Monday afternoon....I'm sure there will be one happy little girl now.

The only other thing sitting on my desk this morning is this pack of fat quarters....shopping in Aldi's this week and it just fell in my trolley.....there was actually several different packs so I was really restrained and only slipped one pack in my trolley!  These were the brightest and actually a little out of my comfort zone but I do like to challenge myself from time to time.

So there you go.  That's all from me for this week.  I have been busy making little gifts for all coming to the crop and have already made my draw prize but wont be sharing those with you.....can you tell I'm getting excited?  Really hope to see you all there.

Before I finish I would like to wish my darling hubby a very happy 37th Wedding Anniversary....and they said it wouldn't last ;-)  Thank you for the last 37 years and here's to our next adventure together as you retire in July....can't wait. xxxxx

Hugs,

Annie x

This week's smiles ....week 316

Here we are at the weekly round up of what's made us smile this week.  I'm certain it does me good to spend a little time each week concentrating on the happy times so I hope you will all join in the fun and help me make the world a happier place. I'm starting with a few pics I took around the garden yesterday...it was a beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky [hence why I've changed my header pic].

There's colour of some sort in every corner of our little back garden and I love it so just have to share it with you.

Saturday morning saw us rising early to go to watch these three running the last part of their half marathon.  They ran individual miles after school each night then joined 1800 other children from schools around Shropshire to run the final 1.1 mile.  It was so lovely to see them all taking part in their races....they ran them in age groups and I have to say there was a very proud nanny and Grandad sat watching them.  The race was ran in aid of charity so I'm sure there will have been a lot of money raised by them all.

Not something to smile about was that Sam fell over on concrete his way to his swimming lesson and sadly broke his collar bone....but it has made me smile at the love and care his twin sister has given him....they really do have a special relationship.

Get well soon Sammy.

This was my Tuesday fun with little Theo....you can see just how much he loves the little knitted characters that Jo knitted for him.

They all really enjoyed playing in the play park.....

....and taking it in turns to go for rides on the bus. :-)

We have such fun together.

As you can see my week has been filled with smiles.  I hope you have enjoyed sharing mine and will link up to yours below so we can see what's been making you smile too.

Hugs,

Annie x

WOYWW....

Well, what a hive of industry it's been here at Sewing by Annie's this week.  It's all or nothing when it comes to customers at the mo and having had no customers for weeks it was a bit of a shock to the system to have 3 Memory bears to make, two pair of jeans to shorten and a Nursing Sister's dress to shorten in just two days at the end of last week!  So without more a do here's my desks today.....

On my computer desk are the three little Memory bears waiting to be collected....in fact since this photo was taken the little navy one at the back [made out of a Nursing Sister's uniform dress on her retirement] has now been posted to Yorkshire .....that's another area of the country I've reached with them now :-)

The one front left is a school bear made out of an old school uniform for a little girl moving to a new school and the one front right is made from tiny babygros to go in a little girl's memory box with her when she moves from her foster home to her new forever home.....such a lovely idea and it makes this one very special.

Of course with me being so busy the playmat is slow going [but there's no rush].  It now has a flower garden, a vegetable garden, a pond, a ploughed field with little bales of hay in one corner and I'm now working on a den for Peter Rabbit in the far right corner with a few bushes in front of it so he can hide from Mr McGregor. :-)

I'm really enjoying creating and am searching round my sewing room for ideas of what to do next. :-)

Not my desk but I thought you'd like to see what Phoebe and Lulu have been sewing with their mummy.....they have certainly caught the sewing bug. :-)

This is Phoebe's unicorn and....

....this is Lulu's sock monkey.  They are both made from kits but arent they gorgeous?  It really thrills me to see them sewing[....even if their mummy isn't a very keen sewer she can do it!....I know cos she had a good teacher :-) ].

That's all I have to share with you this week but before I go I just want to wish Lulu a very happy 9th birthday today.  I hope you have just the best birthday ever...where have those 9 years gone?

Hugs,

Annie x

This week's smiles....week 315

I've had a really fun week filled with smiles....I've planted a flower and vegetable garden, ploughed a field, white lined a road and even made a pond....for those that didn't call by to read my Wednesday post I'm busy designing and making a play mat for the Grandchildren....and I'm loving it.  Of course once you get started the ideas flow fast and furious and who knows where it will go next but I will update you all next Wednesday so please call by if you want to see it's progress.  The speed of completion will be decided on the amount of work that comes in and the amount of extra ideas I get to put on the mat.

Of course I have also had many other things to make me smile so here's a few pics to share some of them with you....

This is the cool dude that arrived for his play date with me on Tuesday.....and it's not summer yet :-)

He used the little case he brought with him as his work bag during the day and at one point he said ...'I'm going to work now Nanny with my bag like Daddy's but Daddy has grown up toys in his bag!!'.....I didn't dare ask what sort of toys those were :-)

Amy's three had been given a project at school about the village their school was to be done at home and Steve decided he wanted to make a model of the village shop.  He's built it and painted it himself and it made me chuckle that it obviously sells footballs.....can you tell he loves football?

Lulu has made a clay model of their school...it's only a little village school but the children are all very happy and are really achieving great things there.

Phoebe decided to write a fact sheet about the village.....it's brilliant and I can see why the houses sell as quickly as they do....who wouldn't want to live there?

That's all I have to share with you this week.  Please leave me a little message to let me know you've called by and if at all possible then link up to your own smiles below.

Hugs,

Annie x

WOYWW...

Well folks, it's a desk with a difference from me this week...so far....so I will show you what I'm up to....

I've been white lining roads.

Ploughing fields....as you do!

This morning I'm planning a garden....flowers and vegetables of course :-)

What am I up to?... 

....I'm in the process of making a play mat for the Grandchildren for when they come to Nanny Annie's.

Jo knit some Peter Rabbit characters for Theo to play with so of course they need Mr McGregor's garden to play on....as they say watch this space.  I hope to be able to show you a pic of the finished mat by next week but we will see just how busy I get.  I am expecting at least 3 memory bears to make before the end of the week so this little project will be fitting in and around paid sewing :-)

If you leave me a little message to say you've been I will do my best to pop over to yours to see what you've been up to this week.

Hugs,

Annie x