Wahoo a new award for me.....

Sam or Hettie from Hettiecraft has awarded me the versatile blogger award.  Thanks Sam.

Well, I have been called all sorts but rarely versatile.  Apparently it means...

"...capable of or adapted to many different uses, skills etc, liable to change..".

I have a coaster in front of me that Twiglet gave me many years ago with the meaning of my name on it.  Apparently Ann means

From the Hebrew meaning 'graceful'. [I'm certainly not that!!]

She is industrious and practical and can turn her hand to anything. [guess that means versatile.]

A lady of many talents. [I have to say I do wear many hats in a day.]

Now the Rules of accepting this award.

• In accepting my award I must place a link back to the person who awarded it - done
• Share 7 random things about myself (OMG!) - next job
• Award 7 recently discovered bloggers and contact them to let them know - might just wimp out of that one.

It is becoming difficult to tell you more random things about me that you don't already know but I will have a go.

Here goes. 

1. I have met Prince Charles...he was a lot shorter than I imagined.
2. I was once commissioned to design and make sets of 6 puppets to be used in puppet theatres for a company in London. [You can buy my puppets here over in our blog shop]
3. I used to be able to touch the back of my head with both feet at the same time and even when 8 1/2 months pregnant with my youngest daughter I could still bite my toes nails! [not any more, alas].
4. I used to be trusting enough to stand spread eagle against a wooden shed and let my brother throw darts in the spaces around me!! [yes mad I know!!]
5. I have used the same single felt pattern to make the heads of literally 1000s [2500 at least!] of tiny felt bears.  I have made 800 of them into Shrewsbury bears and sold them to the tourist info office so I know these ones are all over the world.  I love the though of the smiles I have spread all over the world.
6. I taught all my 3 children to cross stitch [and even went into their school and taught the children there] and we were featured, as a family, in a magazine when our eldest daughter was commissioned to do two cross stitch pictures to commemorate a church bell ringing link up between a local church and a church in Sarasota, America.  We even went over to Sarasota and were hosted as a family by the church people as a thank you.
7. I now live in the same house that my family have lived in for over 60 years although it has changed much in that time and when I was born there was 8 of us living in a third of the house that the two of us now live in.  Back then we had no bathroom and no running water and my cot sat at the foot of Twiglet's bed in the same room as Mum and Dad's double bed!!  Happy memories.

Thanks again Sam for making me use the old grey matter this time on a Monday morning.  I would like to pass this award on the the very many versatile bloggers that read my blog [you know who you are].....all the clever people that juggle busy lives, their families and all the challenges life throws them and still find time to craft and create wonderful things.

Nearly there....

Yesterday I finished knitting the squares for the latest baby blanket and last night I sat sewing all the squares together while I watched telly....yes I do have to admit it was a late finish but I hate to leave anything in the middle  :-)

All I have to do now is crochet the border  :-)

WOYWW...

It's been another week of fun and celebrations for me.  We have had fab 4 days hosting our Dutch visitors with lots of fun, laughter, sight seeing and showing off our wonderful family.  Sunday saw the second birthday of my blog....I struggle to believe that I have been blogging for 2 years but I'm aware that lots of water has gone under the bridge in that time.  I have blogged a little about it in the last couple of posts so if you would like to know more feel free to check it out. 

Today is that wonderful, midweek day of crafting exposure all over the world....so many now join in the fun and they all link up on Julia's blog.  Please feel free to pop over there when you've finished here and join in.

Today I am showing you my table full of finished knitted squares....only another 4 to go then it's time to sew them all together and crochet the edging.

I'm also showing two little children's baking aprons I have been asked to make.  They are for 3 year old twins who love baking.  I have printed out the horizontally flipped lettering on paper, transferred it to bond a web then cut it out in white fabric so I can applique it onto the front pockets.   :-)

Finally I am sharing the latest scan picture we have of my youngest daughters third baby, a brother for little P & L.  I think he looks so much like his daddy.  He is breech as yet.....what intelligent baby would spend 9 months standing on their head by choice eh?  :-)

That's about all from me for today.  I need to get the little aprons finished and have a few other sewing jobs waiting in the queue.  Hope you all have a great week.  Don't forget to make every day count and keep smiling.

Learning to share...

We have had a couple of very special Dutch friends here for a few days staying with us [you know the sort?...you meet them on holiday in France in 2000 and say if you are ever over in England then pop and see us....and they did!....and we have had at least one holiday a year together ever since :-)].  Good friends are a blessing and these are the sort that even though we only meet up once a year its as though we have never been apart.  We love them to bits.

We usually meet up on common ground in that we usually have a week together in a cottage in France but the last few years we have met them for a holiday in cottages in England.  Of course, this year has been pretty hectic with work and family developments and when they rang us just over a week ago asking if they could come here to stay we jumped at the chance.  It had been 3 years since they had seen our family so we had new family members for them to meet  :-)

Saturday night we had an evening of fun and laughter.  Sadly our son and his girlfriend are over in Fuerteventura at the mo on holiday so they missed to join in the fun [of course I'm sure they were having plenty of fun there too  :-) ].  We had a warm, dry evening [if a little cloudy] and a BBQ in the garden.  Our little granddaughters, of course, were here with their Mummy [plus bump] and eldest daughter M [plus twin bump] and her gorgeous other half  B joined us too.  It was a very special evening....I felt 6foot tall with pride  :-)

I thought you might like to see a few snaps of our little girls learning to share  :-)

'Which button do I press to get this thing started?'

'That's it.  Now hold on tight L'

'My turn to drive P.  Give Nanny a wave'.

'Now P don't get too clever!'




Happy happy memories  :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

2 years of blogging....

I took the plunge on 3rd July 2009 to start up a blog....the idea was to write it to record life here at Sewing by Annie's [a bit like a diary] and along the way to put a few smiles on the faces of the folk who just might stumble on my blog.

So what has changed since then?........

• I still aim to record a little of what is going on here but I now have 169 followers and many of those drop in regularly to leave wonderful comments.  Many of then I would now call friends although only a very few of them I have actually met in person.
• Back then I just had 800 or so customers that visited me for sewing alterations etc and now I have over 1090 and my sewing business has gone from strength to strength.....I love it.
• Towards the end of summer 2009 I found a very special blog called Stamping Ground...it was written by, 'The Queen of snoop', Julia and she had started up a group of crafting bloggers who on Wednesday every week were taking pictures of their crafting spaces and 'exposing all' on their blogs.  I took the plunge and joined in the fun and have been completely hooked ever since.  There are some really talented, creative people out there and the world seems a much smaller place to be.
•  Early 2010 I joined a group started by the wonderful Fi over at MarmaladeRose.  Fi encouraged us all to spend 20 minutes of our day crafting of some sort.  It could be sewing, knitting, crocheting etc and, I know I spend my days sewing for work, I started also putting aside at least 20 minutes for creative crafting for fun.  Of course there have been the odd days when I haven't managed it but mostly I still do at least 20 minutes every day and still love it.
• In Jan 2010 Twiglet [my much older sister  :-) ] and I were encouraged to open up our blog shop and since then we have been given a lot of positive encouragement in filling the shelves with wonderful crafty creations [we have even sold some of it too  :-) ].
• I now have 2 wonderful little granddaughters and have another granddaughter and 2 grandsons on the way.....I feel very proud to say we are filling our little bit of the world with lovely young people.

What a lot I have to celebrate.  Please join me in raising a glass to the next 2 years.  Thank you to all who call by here.  Please leave me a comment if only to say hello.

Cheers!

WOYWW...

Well folks it's as if I've never been away....except I have had my batteries recharged and I feel the break really did me good.  I'm sure life is the same for others in that we all have highs and lows but just sometimes I need to shut the door and chill out to cope with the lows and make the very best of the highs when they arrive.

You will see from my last post that the family excitement is growing well  :-)  I am blessed with just the best family in the world and can say that each one of them goes out in the world and makes the world a better place for them being in it so can't wait for the extra little family members to arrive.

Funday Monday was another brilliant day of laughter, chat, cuppas and, as always, a chocolate or two [thanks T].  Twiglet brought down her Cuttlebug with the new Tim's Tattered flower and leaf dies and she provided each of us with a wonderful ceramic button [thanks Jo].  We each chose fabrics to suit the colours of our buttons and cut flowers out using the new toy.  A bit of heating with the embellishing heater and a few stitches here and there and ta da here is the brooch I made.

I have spread out the knitted squares I have made so far for you to see so you know I did manage to do a few while away last week but I'm sorry to say Jo that I didn't manage to knit while in the car very successfully....I dropped my needles once or twice then had to put it away  cos it made me travel sick :-(

Nearly 15 now so that's 7 more since last week  :-)

I've been busy doing a few sewing jobs this morning but have still managed a batch of yummy wholemeal rolls for lunch.....feel free to cut one in half and fill it with what ever you choose.....they smell wonderful.

I usually like to share a little of my garden with you all and this week it's lavender.  We have lots of bushes around the garden and it's really looking and smelling wonderful at the mo.....even the little bee seems to be enjoying it  :-)

And how's about this for honeysuckle?  It's really beautiful and smells divine especially with a drop of rain on it.  :-)

Hope you all have a really fab week and can enjoy a few sunny days.  Please pop over to Julia's blog and join in the WOYWW fun.

My book ends....

I have promised to keep you all up to date with the developments of my expected Grandchildren.  Last night our house was filled with love and laughter.  We had all our family here for a catch up.  We aim to do this regularly and I really love our special times together.  Of course, as you can all imagine, the baby bumps are growing fast and furious now and I think it was a shock to both our daughters to see just how much bigger M is with her twins than A is with just one.  Thankfully they are both keeping really well at the mo even though the heat is a little draining of the energy.  Me, being me, just had to request a photo of the bumps [and thank you girls for allowing your Mum's madness] and thought you would all like to share it  :-) :-) :-)

How's this for a pair of book ends?

M with the twins to the left [little boy at the top and little girl in pole position for delivery :-) ] and A with a single baby boy to the right  :-)  I've seen smaller bumps than M's at 8 months.  From the front M's bump is much wider than A's too....and hey they are both only 25 weeks pregnant so have a way to go yet!! 
M will be taking her twins to a Take That concert tonight.....hope they have a lovely time  :-)

Ooooooooer I'm sooooooooooooo excited  :-)  Really can't wait to meet our new family members and fill our sitting room with even more love and laughter.

A few days away.....

As you will know I have had a few days away with my darling hubby in Aberavon in South Wales to recharge our batteries.

We stayed in the Aberavon Beach Hotel and I have to say if I had seen it from the outside before booking  I might not have booked cos it looked a bit like Colditz....Old and rather shabby..... but inside it was just perfect.  The staff couldn't have been more helpful, the service was faultless and the decor was really lovely.....there was even a spare single bed in our room so we could have taken Twiglet with us  :-)

We were surrounded by lovely beaches and scenery to give us plenty of fresh air and chill out time.

We visited Saint Fagins National History Museum with all it's quaint little houses, shops and stores.  It was a lot of walking but well worth the trip.  Each little house had a lit open fire and really tiny little windows and oh how it made me appreciate modern electric lights...the tiny rooms all seemed so dark and gloomy to have spent their days in.

The Tailor and outfitters was just fab with all it's sewing machines and fabrics etc.  How I would have loved to rummage through the fabrics and all the old clothes.

Inside the store was filled with many items that didn't seem so very long ago that we could see in the shops and even remembered buying many of the items.  We saw many young children chuckling at the outside toilet and the old school etc.

Thursday evening  we went to watch a 20 20 cricket match in Cardiff.....thankfully it stayed dry but it was a really cold evening.  I really enjoy watching cricket so this was a real treat for us both regardless of the temperature.

Here are just a few of the wonderful owls we saw on our travels......especially for you Twiglet.

Hope you have enjoyed my show and tell of our wonderful break away.  I have got a few aches and pains from all the walking but really feel to have blown away the cobwebs.  I now hope to start feeling rather more creative in the days to come.  Thanks for dropping in.