This week's smiles...week 427

It's been another fun filled week here at Sewing by Annie's.  We had a wonderful long weekend away at Coniston Water up in the Lake District,,,

Here's just a few of the photos we took.  It's such a beautiful area of the country and, as you can see, Milly really enjoyed it too.

We enjoyed our Tuesday Fun day with Theo.  We played Dominoes but he's so good at that we challenged him with a game of Triominoes....a quick lesson on how to play it and he reassured me I didn't need to help him any more...and he was right :-)

We built Triomino rally [bottom left pic] and yes they all fell over :-)

We came home to yet more gorgeous flowers blooming in our garden, the resident bees have doubled in size now and are all enjoying every corner of our garden.

Our little raised vegetable garden is producing lots of wonderful fresh vegetables....we've eaten all the salad leaves and radishes and are now eating the peas, potatoes and chard....yummy.

My last photo for this week it this one of Phoebe who had just finished the money raising Colour Run at her school....as you can see she had a wonderful time :-)  Well done Phoebe.

That's all from me for this week.  I'm up to me ears with sewing and loving every minute.  Hope you are enjoying life too.

Hugs,

Annie x

This week's smiles ....week 419

 Another week has flown by and there's been plenty to smile about.  My hubby has had his second Covid vaccine and I should be getting mine soon....that's got to be good news eh?  I had a fairly quiet start to my week with work but it's gone crazy again now so yesterday was a busy day all day and there is still sewing waiting for me to do today :-)

I had a visit from my big sister on Monday and we Facetimed Jan Appleton in south wales while she was here....it was so lovely to catch up with them both.  I had seen some Arteza painting pens on Jan's blog over the last few weeks and had every intention to buy myself a pack but as the saying goes...great minds think alike.....Jo had thought the same and came with a pack to share.  I had a little play with some but decided that to be able to use them properly I wanted a full pack of 48 to allow shading when using them and these arrived yesterday...

I can't wait to have a play with them....maybe over the long weekend?

The garden is bursting into bloom everywhere we look and that always makes me smile....bottom right is the patch of lily of the valley...they seem to have spread lots since last year and I can't wait for the flowers to come.

Our raised veg patch has been planted up and everything is growing....isn't nature wonderful?

We have beetroot, chard, lettuce, radish, carrots, peas and at the far end there's garlic and onions growing.  I love fresh veg.

That's pretty much all for this week. I'm not sure the sun is going to shine over the weekend but that's nothing new for a bank holiday and I'm sure we will make the best of what ever.  I hope you can all find something to make you smile and you will leave me a little message before linking to your own smile below.

Hugs,

Annie x

This week's smiles....week 375

Hello all.  It's been much colder here this week so there's been no sunbathing in the garden but we did have a socially distanced picnic lunch with Gina and Theo in the garden on Wednesday this week...and oh wow how lovely to be able to spend time with them.  Little Theo is benefitting from having his own private teacher at home [his mummy] and is already learning to read...and he's not 4 yet!  We missed our cuddles but until we are told it's safe to do so we are making the best of what is allowed.....and in case you are wondering no I didn't take any photos cos I was soaking up the moment and forgot lol

My photos this week are....

Our raised veg garden is really wonderful now... everything is growing and looking really healthy.  The first strawberries have ripened [but I bet you can guess who had the first bowl full on Wednesday when he visited :-) ].

The garden flowers are making us smile on a daily basis....there is something new blooming almost every day now so It's easy to find some to share with you all.....hope they make you smile too.

Here's a few funnies to make you chuckle.

And finally here's one for you dog lovers out there.  Our little Milly never fails to make us smile.  We gave her a home trim at the begining of lockdown but of course her coat has grown since so she was pleased to hear she can go for a proper trim on Saturday....even sooner than I can but Doddy did suggest I ask if she might trim mine too :-)

I hope you've found lots to keep you smiling and will link up to yours below.  Have a good week.

Hugs,

Annie x

This week's smiles...week 368

Hello all and a very happy Friday to you all.  I'm here to do my little bit to make the world a happier place by sharing a few smiles with you.  Of course, we are all still in lockdown so my smiles come from the things around me and what my family share with us over the net....but, as always, there's still plenty to keep us smiling.

I will start off with my family's smiles...

Theo has been camping and enjoying the seaside in their back garden....he did say that he loved playing in their garden seaside but was really looking forward to going to the real one when they could :-)

Amy's three are doing their school work each morning and then really making the best of their garden each afternoon.

The two pics at the bottom is a game they play to learn their multiplication tables :-)

Lexi has had to share pics of when she started her dance lessons and at the stage she's at now....oh how she's altered in that time...from a little shy toddler doing her first ballet classes to a confident 8 year old doing tap, jazz and contemporary dance and also musical theatre classes.

Our raised vegetable bed is sprouting and every row of seeds is now growing....it's so exciting.  Nature really is amazing.

The potato bags are growing really well and so is the courgette plant.

Here's the latest bloomers in the garden....and there's even more coming into bloom now.  Nature seems to be trying hard to make us smile.

I hope you have enjoyed my shares for this week and will link up to your own at the bottom.

Keep smiling and stay safe my friends.

Hugs,

Annie x

This week's smiles...week 365

Here we are at another round up of all the smiles from the last week....and there have been many :-)  It's so wonderful that in difficult times the smiles keep on coming.  Please join in if you can by snapping a few of your smiles and sharing them with us by linking them up below....we really can't get enough at the moment.....just remember smiles are contagious.

My smiles from my family come to us on a daily basis...

Amy's three have been keeping busy by cooking, planting seeds, making models of the football stadium, power hosing the slabs to name just a few of their activities....they are lucky enough to live in a house with acres of land around them so can enjoy den building, playing football etc all very safely.

The twins have been enjoying camping in their play room and taking a bath pretending they were on holiday in the pool drinking coctails :-)

Lexi has been able to keep up her dance lessons because her dance teacher has been doing them on their Ipads....modern technology really does help at times like this.

Lego has featured in our son, Mark's house...but I'm not sure whether he was building it or Theo.  Mark really loved his Lego when he was a little boy and I'm pleased to say he still does.

He's also been building a raised garden in their back garden to plant their vegetables in [looks like a can of beer helped the progress too].

I've surrounded myself in fabrics in my sewing room....it's been so lovely to make a creative mess and not have to tidy it all away for customers....there's a positive to every negative.

Our back garden keeps giving us more to smile at every day so here is my latest collage to make you smile.

We have also spent one afternoon this week planting up all our veg seeds in our raised bed.  We have covered it in bubble wrap to warm the soil up to get them germinated.

We also have little potato plants popping their heads up and the tomato, courgette and cucumber plants are all growing well.

When it all grows we will be a little closer to being self sufficient....maybe chickens next?....if only the stress of a little Milly barking at them all day would encourage them to lay eggs :-) :-)

I really hope you have found something to smile about during your visit today and will now link up to your own smiles below.

Stay stafe my friends.

Annie x

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

This week's smiles...week 332

Well, another week has flown by and here we are catching up with our smiles of the week.  As always I've had lots to smiles about so here's a few pics to share with you...

Our garden continues to keep producing blooms and making us smile.

With all the sunshine and rain we have been having our new raised vegetable bed is growing fast and, as you can see in the background, the tomatoes are ripening fast now.

This funny my son sent me this week
....do you think he's trying to tell me something?

That's all my shares this week.  Please leave me a little message so I know you've called by and, if you can, then link to your own smiles below.
Hugs,
Annie x

This weeks smiles....week 330

This week my post is one full of so much promise....I can't stop smiling.

The lovely raised veg garden I shared with you last week has changed a little....

We had a delivery of two dumpy bags full of topsoil dropped at the front of the bungalow so my darling hubby had to barrow it all round to the back and this is how he filled the raised garden.  

We spent the weekend preparing the soil and planting it up and can already see new growth....we've planted dwarf french beans, beetroot, mixed coloured carrots, mixed salad leaves and mixed coloured radishes.

Our little greenhouse also holds a lot of promise...the tomatoes and fruiting well and with all the sunshine we are having I'm sure will soon start ripening for us.

Having bought a Motor home last September and spent many weekends in it we realised there was one or two things we wanted so this week we have upgraded it and now we have this ....and I love it.

This is the main reason...this one has a fixed bed that can be made up and left up to save my poor hubby having to make the bed up each night....my knees don't allow me to kneel so I am unable to do it.

My other smiles have been from the wonderful photos Amy has sent me from their holidays in France....just look at that sunshine and sunflowers.

I hope you have found something to make you smile today and will leave me a little message before you then link up below to share your smiles.

Hugs,

Annie x

This week's smiles.....week 329

It's been another lovely sunny week filled with smiles for me so here's a few pics from our little back garden this week.  When we moved here 5 years ago the whole of the garden was overgrown and the plants were badly neglected....most were waste height on 2/3 of the garden!....so we had a lot of sorting out of what we wanted to keep and what had to go.....

These are a couple of snaps from back then.  As pretty as the Japanese anemones were they had taken over most of the garden and it's taken us til now to remove all but a few that are where we want them to grow....if you leave even the tiniest piece of root it shoots up and spreads!

We kept the old garden shed because it still had a lot of life left in it and as you can see there are now some really pretty plants growing up it.

We cleared areas of the garden to have as lawn for the children and Milly to play on.

This is the latest addition to the garden.  Since we got here we have wanted a small veg patch so now my darling hubby is winding down to retirement he has had more time to get his head around building us a new raised bed to grow a few plants in....we've had all sorts of comments about it looking like a spa or a coffin so all I will add is if I go missing then you will all know where to start digging to find me :-)

Hopefully the top soil will be delivered today so we can get at least a few salad veg growing for this years enjoyment.

As you can see its tucked around the side of the kitchen extension by the water butt and little greenhouse where there are already lots of tomatoes growing so it should be perfect.

Here's a few of the latest flowers coming into bloom...there's always something coming out into bloom to make me smile.  I really love our little garden.

I have found a few gardening funnies on Pinterest that I thought I'd share with you....hope none offend.

I will add that the cucumber plant we planted was eaten by the slugs so we won't have any this year.

 I've not been able to kneel down since I had my knee replacement so maybe this is the answer?

 Think this is the mug to get Dod for his retirement....I'm hoping he will enjoy playing in the dirt and growing us some yummy veg.

We have so many bees and insects enjoying our garden that this one made me chuckle....I'm easily amused.




I hope you have enjoyed your visit and will share your smiles with us by linking them below.  have a great week.

Hugs,

Annie x