This week's smiles...week 339

It's been another week with lots of celebrations and very many smiles so here's a few I can share with you....

Last Friday was Gina's 30th birthday and she had a meal out with family and friends [alas we were unable to join them] and this is one of the photos taken.  It's got to be one of my fav photos and makes me smile every time I look at it.

Last Friday was also the twins birthday....can you believe they are 8 already?  The time just flies.  They had a birthday party and sleep over [not that much sleeping went on!] with some of their school friends.....I'm guessing there were blue sweets eaten at some point looking at Lexi's tongue :-)

We had little Theo Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons this week because Gina had parents meetings at her school and on Wednesday we got out some crafty materials and he enjoyed making these spiders to frighten his mummy with when she came home.

My final pics are a few I took around our garden yesterday...it's looking very like Autumn out there now....I really love how the flower colours change through the year.

I hope you have found something to make you smile this week and will now leave me a little message before linking your own smiles below.

Hugs,

Annie x

WOYWW....

My post comes with a warning today.....I'm in Christmas mode!  I know it's early but when you get asked to make something special you just can't say 'No I'm not ready yet' can you?

So.......

.....out came my plentiful supply of Christmas fabrics and I set to.

These were the first I made. They are the same sort of tags I make to hang around the necks of my Memory bears but these are to hang on the Christmas trees of 3 family members who have lost their Mum and Dad this year.

Then I made these personalised Christmas tree hangers and even made one for a special cat and attached his name on using my new poppers  snap fasteners.

Even though it's a bit early to want to get in Christmas mode I'm rather pleased I've got customers who don't leave everything to the last minute.

I found these in my fabric stash so may well make more cat tree hangers and also found some Christmas fabric with dogs on so will have to make a few doggy ones too.

I have many jars of ribbons and trims but, as always, there's never quite the right thing you need so had to pop to Watson and Thornton's and treat myself to a few firmer ribbons/tapes that I can use to machine embroider names/messages on to personalise the tree hangers.

I intend to attach some of them using my poppers snap fasteners but it's a work in progress as yet so watch this space.

There you go.  That's what's on my desk for today but I have also altered a dress, put a new zip in a denim dress, taken in a pair of trousers and shortened 3 pair of trousers already this week so I'm being kept busy....oh and of course yesterday we had little Theo here and he's here as an extra day today so there may be a delay in my comments this week but I will aim to get there as soon as I can.

Hugs,

Annie x

This week's smiles....week 338

I'm sorry to those that came here last week to see my smiles and missed me but as you will probably now know were were away for the week in our motor home making memories up around Scotland [if you'd like to see more please click here]. We had a really lovely week catching up with family and friends and enjoying the freedom of being on the road together.

Before we went we celebrated Theo's 3rd birthday with a party at his house and managed to get all 6 of our Grandchildren to sit still long enough to snap a pic or two.

They all lead busy lives so it's a rare occasion that we now all get together so this photo is very special for me.

Sam is starting guitar classes this week.  We are really hoping he enjoys it but as a left hander he may struggle so we will see what his music teacher says.

Ed Sheeran eat your heart out :-)

He's always loved drawing and this week has won the competition to draw a new road sign for the new estate they now live on.  His design will be put on the road signs around the estate and I think he won a book voucher too....Well done Sam. 

My last pic for today is this one of Theo with his Grandad.  Whilst looking after Theo on the Tuesdays he's always made my heart sing but watching him with his now retired grandad give me so much pleasure.

They were sat here discussing something very important I'm sure.  :-)

Please leave me a little message so I know you've called by before you link to your own smiles below.

Before I go I must say Happy birthday to Sam and Lexi who are 8 today and a special Happy birthday to Gina who is 30 today too....we have so much to celebrate and make us smile.

Hugs,

Annie x

WOYWW...

Date for the diary alert....

The hall for the crop 2020 has been booked for Saturday June 6th....same venue as last year.....details to follow.

Now the important bits are done here's what you came here for....my desk [or what's not on my desk today]....as many of you will know I was away last week on holiday travelling around Scotland in the motor home and if you'd like to see more please scroll to the post below....you just may see a few faces there you will recognise :-)

Since we got home the only sewing I've done is to shorten these two dresses so nothing really exciting there for you to see.

But......

....on my desk this morning is a lovely new purchase that I can't wait to have time to play with.  Jan had been using hers to make little purses then Catriona showed some little bags she'd used some of hers to finish off beautifully so of course the temptation was just too much to bear and I just had to have some.

My creative juices have been flowing as to the 101 uses for my new poppers snap fasteners [no don't search for poppers on Google as you may get more than you bargain for!!].  I'm thinking of ideas as to what I can use them for to make the little Christmas tree decorations that I make each year for the Grandchildren so watch this space.

That's all I have to share with you for this week....hopefully, now my batteries have been recharged, I will find some free time to be creative......but who knows?

Hugs,

Annie x

Our holiday in Scotland

As most of you will have noticed I was missing in action last week because we had headed north in our motorhome.  We intended catching up with family and friends on our journey so you may recognise a few familiar faces along our travels.

We left Shropshire on Sunday 8th and headed to our first stop on Haltwhistle Campsite in Northumberland.

The campsite was by the side of the river and this is what we looked out over....beautiful.

The purpose of this stop over was to meet up with my second cousin Sally and her husband Graeme who we met up last at Michelle's christening 35 years ago.  We've kept in touch since then at Christmas and on Facebook of late but not seen them since then so they had changed a little....in fact I guess we all had :-)

It was really lovely to see them again and we felt as if we had lots in common....not only our walking sticks eh Sally?

On the Monday we travelled on further north to Calzean Castle campsite looking out over the sea....as you can see Biscuit bear loved the view as much as us and was excited to see who was already on the site waiting for us.....

Catriona and her hubby had stayed over there on the Sunday night and had the kettle on ready and waiting for our arrival.  It was so lovely to catch up and as you can see Biscuit bear was just as excited to catch up with his friend Harris bear.

We spent Monday evening in our motorhome chatting and catching up with them both and on the Tuesday morning they left fairly early to continue their travels further south....we relaxed and waited for the next excitement.....

Elizabeth and her hubby drove over to us and picked us up to take us out for the rest of the day on the Tuesday.  We went down to Ballantrae where we met their friend Alfie the donkey and treated him to some carrots then we called in at Girvan on the drive back where we posed for a few photos and I snapped the local RNLI boat especially for Jan :-)

The Tuesday night was very windy so we were rocked to sleep but thankfully we survived and there was no damage the next morning.

On the Wednesday we travelled further north through the hills and passed some really stunning scenery...as you can see there were some black clouds above us but we headed towards the blue sky :-)

We stopped for a toilet and coffee stop by the side of one of the Lochs and also saw a hydroelectric powerstation en route to our next stop near Oban.....this was a small campsite inside what was an old walled garden.

Our next stop was on the Rosemarkie campsite looking out over the sea....a lovely site and we enjoyed a walk on this beautiful sandy beach.  There had been sightings from here of seals and dolphins in the bay but alas we didn't see any while we were there.

The following morning we travelled south to our final site to spend our last two nights at Beadnell Bay site in Northumberland.

En route we stopped on a layby on the A9 for a coffee and my darling hubby picked me a bunch of heather....it's now tied with ribbon and is hanging in my sewing room :-)

We called by to see the Kelpies but refused to pay the 5 pounds they were asking just to park the motor home so I snapped a quick photo as we passed.....stunning and much bigger than you think.

Before we reached our next site we passed Bamburgh castle....really stunning building so just had to snap a pic.

The campsite at Beadnell Bay was much bigger than all the rest and for the 150 pitches it only had one toilet block at the opposite end to the pitch we were given so it was too far to walk to use...thankfully we have our own facilities in the van but I did feel for the ones in smaller vans and tents around us.

Over the road from the campsite there was a rocky beach [just the sort I use to love as a child for hunting in the rock pools] so of course we had to have a little walk over there on the Friday evening.

On our last day we drove to Alnwick and enjoyed a walk around the grounds [much further than normal for me so have been rather stiff since!]..It was really lovely there and we even saw a Japanese couple getting married there in one of the rooms.

The swing seats were really lovely there.....there were lots of them up through the bank of flowering cherry trees....I bet they were even better when in full bloom.

There were many water features through one area of the garden so I snapped several of them as we were passing through....even one where Dod could go down some steps and stand in the middle of....feel free to zoom in to spot him :-)

Every time we stopped [even for coffee stops on laybys] we spotted a little robin.  I know there are lots of them around at the mo but it did feel like they were watching over us and keeping us safe during our travels so thank you to the little robins....we had a wonderful week and are now safe back at home.

This week's smiles...week 337

What a week it's been and it's been filled with smiles here so I shall share some of them with you....

Whilst away at Euro Disney last week Lexi challenged Micky Mouse to a dance off....I think Lexi won don't you?

Just wish I could!!

At the weekend, and before the children went back to school Amy, Dave and the children enjoyed a few days away in Anglesey....I really love seeing the three of them playing together and enjoying the freedom of a beach to themselves.

On Sunday we went for walk in the Dingle in Shrewsbury's Quarry Park....just look at those gorgeous flowers.

I love this photo of Milly...she's sat on the arm of the chair by me looking out of the window...probably for cats daring to walk past!

We pulled the first carrots and beetroot from our little raised veg garden at the weekend and I just had to share them with you....there's nothing quite like freshly pulled veg is there?

We had Theo for a full day on Tuesday so we went out for the day in our motor home for a day of adventures.  Sadly the beach we were going to had been fenced off but we found a country park we could enjoy our picnic at and on the way back we found a garden centre with a play park and ice creams.....just perfect.

Before going back to school Phoebe, Lulu and Steve wanted to have a baking session to make treats to go in their sandwich boxes.....don't the results look yummy?

Each year Amy makes up a collage of back to school photos...oh how they have grown!  It doesn't seem 5 mins since the first pic in the top left corner was taken when Phoebe started school and she goes to big school next September!!

Here's the back to school pic of the twins too...Year 3!! The years pass so quickly don't they?

There you go.  I hope you've made it to the end this week.  I had so many smiles I wanted to record on my blog for this week.  I hope at least some of them made you smile too.  I will probably not be able to post smiles next Friday, as we are off North on an adventure in the motor home, but trust me when I say I will have lots to smile about so will have two weeks of smiles to share with you the week after.

Hugs,

Annie x

WOYWW....

Here we are at the weekly catch up with all out creative friends around the world to expose our desks and share what we've been making during the week.  Last week it was trousers, trousers and more trousers for me and this week....

....yes, there's been more trousers to shorten.  I guess it's what I do being a sewing lady eh?

But this week I've also.....

...made three new Memory bears to remember a very special Dad and posted them to their new home  in Nottingham....I'm conquering the world slowly with my bears :-)

I've also been giving knitting lessons to Phoebe and Lulu.....they were brilliant little students too and were very proud of their achievements.....we're making little bunnies so watch this space [It may take a while yet but I'm sure they will want to show you them when they are finished].

That's all from me for this week.  Next week I may well be missing in action again [depending on the wifi] as we are going on an adventure in the Motor Home and travelling north to meet up with some very special friends....watch this space.

Hugs,

Annie x