This week's smiles.....week 375

 It's been a week filled with emotions of one kind or another.  

The funeral last Friday was the largest one I've ever been to....there was almost as many standing outside the Crem as inside.  The Celebrant lead a beautiful service and everyone commented on how perfect it all was.

Saturday was the WOYWW 15th Aniversary crop in Stoke and it was so lovely to be surrounded by such special friends.  Our leader for 15 years, Julia, has handed over the baton to Sarah so there was a few words of thanks to Julia and a presentation of the collection that Jo managed to collect....so more emotions.

On Sunday we went to the theatre to watch the early KCDC dance show and this time it was not only Lexi dancing but little Theo also.  Lexi danced in 14 different dances throughout the two shows during the day and even stood in front of the stage to lead the dances for the younger dancers.  It was Theo's first time on the main stage and he danced in two different dances.....as you can imagine there were more emotions for this very proud Nanny Annie.

Here's a few photos of my little dancers.  Theo loves his big cousin, as you can see.

I love rainbows and this one greeted me Monday morning....a great start to my week.

Here's my collage of the beautiful flowers in our garden this week...there seems something new to see each week....aren't we lucky? :-)

Here's a few funnies/smiles for you this week...they wouldn't fit in a collage so I've added them like last week.

This little mouse really made me smile.

There was something familiar about this photo ;-)

I hope you find something to make you smile and will leave me a little message before linking up to your own smiles at the bottom.

Hugs,

Annie x

This week's smiles....week 500

 Another week and lots more smiles....thankfully.  I hope you've all had a week filled with smiles too.  I have lots of photos to share with you this week so I will make a start.

We had another walk around Attingham Park at the weekend and what a difference a couple of weeks makes....what was a hint of white the last time we went is now a beautiful blanket of white.

My boys went to watch Shrewsbury town play football on Saturday ...I love this photo of Mark and Stephen.  The men have decided Stephen should go every week because they always win when he goes :-)

Little Louie is growing so quickly.  He thought it was funny that he could stand up under our kitchen table and we all had a good giggle at him ordering his Chinese for tea off the menu.

I love how the sun has opened up this beautiful crocus in our garden and I even took a photo of our snowdrops using my phone but look how it came out.....

I'm not sure what happened but when you love rainbows like I do you you treasure happy errors like this one.

I normally keep the sharing of my Memory bears for a Wednesday but these two are rather special and it's far more appropriate that I share them here.  They are made in memory of Lisca's husband Graham and they were very special to make.

He was a lovely man and I felt very honoured to be asked to make them.  I really hope they bring lots of comfort to Lisca and her family.

Of course it wouldn't be a Friday without a few funnies...I hope you enjoy the ones I've found this week.

Hugs,

Annie x

This week's smiles...week 376

Here we are at another round up of the smiles from the last week.  I have had many, as always, but as it's been raining rather more this week I've not been out to do the usual round up of photos out in the garden for you so here's what I've got I can share with you this week....

After seeing the dog yoga pics from last week Milly thought she would pose for you while she was doing hers :-)

She often lies like this...I guess it cools her tummy on a hot day.

We had a visit from Mark, Gina and Theo at the weekend....I'm so glad our garden is big enough to enjoy a visit but also maintain the social distancing...it was so lovely to see them again and I remembered to take a photo this time. :-)

As the saying goes...'Behind every dark cloud the sun is shining' and of course that means only one thing.....  We had just had an amazing thunderstorm and were rewarded with this stunning rainbow.

We invested in a wormery this week and these are our new army of workers.  They take a couple of weeks to settle them in and the first couple of nights we had to put the wormery in a large black bag to catch any escape artists [and there were several] but thankfully they seem to have settled in well now so here's hoping we will benefit from the compost they make in the future.

They say a housewife's job is never done don't they?  I was a great believer in getting all three of our children to help with household jobs when they were little and it looks like Amy is following in my footsteps.

They have three toilets in their house so she's provided them each with a pair of rubber gloves and they all look to be doing a great job don't you think?

They are gorgeous children and I'm sure they will all make wonderful housewives/husbands in years to come. :-)

I hope you have enjoyed my smiles this week and will leave me a little message so I know you've called by beofre linking up to your smiles below.

Hugs,

Annie x

This week's smiles....week 364

Hello to all my visitors.  Now, more than ever we all need to looks for the smiles in our lives and share them with our friends.  We need to check to make sure we are all coping and staying well in this difficult time and we must be very thankful for the technology of today for making this easy for us.

I have many smiles from my last week to share with you....

Our three children all check up on us daily and have been sharing some lovely photos from the activities they are filling their days with.  Of course we are all missing the hugs and cuddles but we will get through it.....and just think of the catching up we will have to have then.

Amy's three have been doing a daily workout with Joe Wicks on Utube, baking, escapology and school work on the computer...they do like to make us smile.

The twins have also done some lovely baking and have been working out with Joe on U tube but, as you can see, they have also been doing some balloon modelling too.

Theo has enjoyed doing some exercises with Joe too and has also made a wonderful rocket with boxes, cardboard tubes and stickers etc plus has enjoyed water play on a builders tray in their kitchen.

As you can see all our grandchildren are adapting well to their home schooling and isolation....thankfully they are all well and easily amused.

This makes me smile a lot.

Our garden continues to give us a lot to smile about and we have had some really stunning blue skies lately to be thankful for.....even the first little forget-me-nots have started to open.

We have been planting seeds and are already being rewarded with [clockwise from top left] a courgette plant, 2 cucumber plants, the first little potato has started to shoot and just look at all those little tomato plants on the bottom left.

Even though the world around us is a little crazy right now nature carries on and hopefully when all this madness settles down we will have lots of rewards from the garden.

 Finally, there are lots of folk putting pictures in their windows of rainbows to make others smile so I thought I'd add this one here and here's a link to the song.  I have always sang this to my children so it's a firm favourite with me...I really hope it brightens your day too.

I really hope you are all coping well and most of all staying safe and well.

Hugs,

Annie x

This week's smiles....week 177

Here we are at another catch up with the week's smiles. I really feel the benefit of looking back at the week and focusing on everything that's made me smile and hope that a little bit of happiness spreads to all who call in.

Many thanks to those who joined in last week by linking up their smiles too.  I am featuring Lisca's blog from last week....the pizza making looked real fun and I think Lisca's face in the jacuzzi says it all....thanks for sharing Lisca.

My smiles have been many and I have a few photos to share with your this week...

Here's little Steve posing in front of an aeroplane during a visit to Cosford this week....isn't he gorgeous?  Can't you just tell he's enjoying his visit?

His two clever big sisters have now achieved their water skills grade one certificate and they tell me they will be bringing me more badges to sew onto the swimming bags I made for them.....I'm such a proud Nanny.

Doesn't a rainbow always make you smile?  It does me and this one was simply stunning.

Of course my smiles wouldn't be complete without a snap of this little one....here she is looking after the strawberries [the ones she hasn't nibbled that is!].  She has changed already in the last 2 1/2 weeks.  She's much more confident now and is happy to explore the garden alone....as long as I'm not too far away :-)

Those are my smiles for this week.  Please leave me a comment if you've called in and share your smiles by linking up below.....everyone is welcome to join in...the more the merrier.

Hugs,

Annie x

This week's smiles....week 40

Wow!  40 weeks of smiles!!! Where has that time gone?  Thank you to each and every one of you who has joined in during all that time.   My featured blog this week is Ros over at Wild Cards on my Workdesk.  I just loved her pic of those baby ducks with all their little legs stretched out behind them.  :-)  Thanks for sharing Ros.

I have so many things this week that has made me smile so I'm sharing them all.

Birthday fun for our youngest Grandson  Stephen.  Don't you just love his cake?

I know they will bless me in years to come but this really made me smile.  My little twinnies reading their books while sat side by side on their potties  :-)

My third quilt square for the Children in Need fund raiser....you can see details here if you want to join in....there is still time as a simple square like mine really doesn't take long to make.

And my last pic is of the most gorgeous rainbow over our garden this week.  Isn't nature wonderful?  Thanks for dropping by.  I really hope at least one of my pics made you smile as much as they did me.  Please leave me a little hello comment and if you can then please snap something that has made you smile this week and link it up below to share with your friends.

Hugs,

Annie x

WOYWW...

Happy Wednesday to each and every one of you.  This last week has been a really manic one with lots of customers and even more sewing.  Each one seemed to bring me several jobs and all of them were needed to be done yesterday!  If only there were a few more hours in each day.  I am going to take you through this week in pictures so you don't have to get bogged down with reading.

This morning my 'done' rails are all heaving [the 'to do' rail as yet is empty but please tell no one]....lots has been done and it's all waiting for collection.

The rail at the left is full of little dresses for the African girls.

The one in the middle is full of the shorter length customers items...tops, trousers, skirts etc.

The rail on the right is the longer length rail where I hang all the long dresses and, when I have them, the wedding dresses.

This is my latest little knittie for one of the twinnies.  I knitted a little waistcoat for the little boy so I've knitted this short sleeved cardie for the little girl.  I love this wool and am now knitting a little waistcoat for A's expected little boy in blue and cream fleck.

Penny from The Hen House saw my post about making the little dolly dresses and asked if I could make her some to clothe the dollies for the charity shop she works in.  As you will all know I run a very busy ship here and I had to say sorry but I just couldn't commit myself to any more projects so I quickly ran her up one little dolly's dress and made her patterns and simple instructions so the lady that sews for the shop could run more up.  I've posted this little dress to her so hope she doesn't mind me declining the request.....Mitzi really has started something hasn't she?  :-)  I'm always willing to do my best to help but there just aren't enough hours in the day to do more.

 For those that like to see a little of my garden here is a quick snap of some of the wonderful tomatoes that are now ripening in our greenhouse.  There really is nothing quite like picking a warm, fresh tomato and just eating it is there?  We have several different sorts out there....red and large, small orange ones that are just soooooo sweet and even green ones....yes they are green when ripe but do change colour slightly so you can tell when they are ripe.

Here is a little bit of the early signs of autumn.  The crab apples are such a gorgeous colour now and the horse chestnut tree is already changing to it's autumn wardrobe.

For those that know what a difficult time I have been going through I just wanted to share this picture of this gorgeous rainbow that showed itself to us on Friday.  At difficult times in my life I often see a rainbow and really believe it to be a sign that all will be well.  Please keep everything crossed for us for the next few weeks and thanks to all who have supported us.

For those that are waiting for news on the twins....as I am typing this they are still keeping us waiting.....34 weeks now....Poor M is pretty unfomfortable all the time now and is finding sleeping pretty near impossible....she  'WANTS THEM OUT'  :-)  That's one large bump she has now and if you look closely you can actually see that the little girl this side is pushing her bump this way on the photo! I remember this stage well.  As her Granddad would say to her...'the apple wont fall til it's ripe'.  She is getting pretty strong braxton hicks contractions now all the time and I really don't think we will have too long to wait but when it's you who is doing the waiting every day seems like a week I'm sure.....Hang in there M xxxx

Now, here's hoping you all have a wonderful snoop around the other work spaces that Julia links up every Wednesday.....thanks Julia for all your efforts even when you're really not feeling at your best.  Really hope you get well very soon.  Have a great week and thanks for calling in on me.

I've been on my hols....

I'm back. :-)
We got home yesterday from a week away up north. We stayed in a beautiful bungalow in Frosterley, Weardale with our good friends from Holland. Having had our youngest daughter's wedding in June we missed going away in the summer so this was a well earned break. We have travelled over 800 miles on roads that all look very much the same. Miles of nothing but hills, stone walls, heather, sheep and grouse. Fabulous! The scenery was amazing with miles and miles between each small cluster of houses. We have looked in antique shops and gift shops, shopped in little co-ops and coffeed in many cafes. Bliss. We have laughed til we cried, eaten til we were full and I've walked til I was ready to drop. My batteries are now recharged ready for my new daily challenges.








One of the many tea shops we found on our travels.















We visted Durham walking along it's cobbled streets looking in it's many little shops and visited Durham cathedral with its huge door knocker.




We walked round Woodhorn colliery showing the life of a 13year old boy working in a coal mine and listened to the giggles of the school children at the pit shower at the mine head.





















We walked through a woodland walk to get to the really impressive High Force waterfall. The power of the water was almost deafening and the water was dark yellow from passing through the peaty soil.








We sat drinking coffee and watching life go by near the blinking eye bridge in Newcastle.








We travelled east to the coast and enjoyed the beach at Newbiggin on sea.










And after a wonderful week what better could we have in front of us for miles on our journey home? The rainbow was just stunning.