This week's smiles....week 90

This week I have many of you to thank for joining in last week, It's so lovely to think that you all had something that had made you smile and you wanted to share it with us all.....keep up the good work girls.

I really struggled to decide which one of you I would feature this week cos each and every one of them made me smile but I eventually decided that I would choose Robyn's post over at Waterlily Cards for her gorgeous photos of her flowers. It's so lovely, when all around us here in England is taking on it's Autumn/Winter coat that, from in my sitting room, I can share the gorgeous flowers from the other side of the world. Thanks Robyn for sharing your gorgeous flowers.

I have had so many things to smile about this week because yesterday was my birthday and I have been really spoilt.  My gorgeous family have clubbed together to treat me [and hubby too of course] to tickets to go to the Tower of London to see the poppies....I'm sooooo excited.  Plus while we are down there hubby is treating me to go to see Matilda at the theatre.  Wahooooooo I can't wait.

So today I am sharing a couple of pics of what the twinnies drew in my birthday card....

Lexi drew me a ballerina.....I've never seen myself as someone who did ballet but had a chuckle at the thought she thought I might :-)

Now Sam is into drawing random pictures at the mo.  Don't you just love his snail?  Quite why he is trapped or what he is trapped in we don't know but Sam was determined that was what it was.  Oh what fab imaginations little ones have.  They never fail to make me smile.

And finally for those that have only seen their smiley faces here they are pulling scary faces.....think they are practising for Halloween cos they have promised to walk round with their three cousins to scare Nanny and Grandad next week.  :-)

So there you go....just a few of my smiles from this week.  I hope you're all having a great week too and will snap a pic or two to share with us by linking them below.

Hugs,

Annie x

WOYWW...

Happy Wednesday to you all.  Here we are at yet another fun day of the week when we can all go snooping round the world at each others creative spaces.  If you want to find out more or would like to join in the fun then pop over to the Stamping Ground where Julia will have the links with all the details.

I have had some free time this week because Shell is now thankfully well enough to be able to do more herself  and hasn't needed me at hers every day. I'm certain all your kind wishes have aided her speedy recovery so thank you all for caring so very much....you really are such a lovely bunch.

In my spare time this week I've been making a start on a few ideas for Christmas.....some of which of course I can't share with you just yet but I am happy to show you my start to my Christmas cards for this year....

I spent a while searching for ideas on Pinterest and decided to have a go at some free machining with red on white fabric using a few designs that I rather liked.

Here are the eight that I've decided on so far.

After free machining the designs I trimmed each of them and rather liked them mounted on the red fabric so..

I mounted them each on a piece of red fabric and have machine embroidered each of them in place.

 A closer view of a couple of them so you can see the machine embroidery detail.  I then trimmed the red fabric to leave a border and have now mounted them on white cards.

I plan to make prints of my 8 designs to use for the rest of my Christmas cards.  I hope you've enjoyed seeing my making process.

Thanks for calling by today.  Please leave me a little comment to let me know you've called and I will pop over to yours to say hello.

Hugs,

Annie x

This week's smiles....week 89

Hi all.  It's been another quality family week for me.  I've really enjoyed being needed by Shell during her recovery from her surgery and have enjoyed all the extra play time with my little twinnies munchkins.  Out of a difficult time has come lots of positives.

Thanks to all of you who joined in the fun last week.  I would like to welcome Geri for joining us for the first time and hope you will all pop over to say welcome and to check out her amazing paintings....very life-like even the spiders!!!!

This week I'm sharing...

Another couple of treasures I've found in our new garden...

A beautiful papery white poppy and...

....a pretty pink cyclamen hiding under the bushes.

A picture of some of the fun and giggles with my munchkins....do you remember playing twister?

We had another special third birthday at the weekend.  Steve really loves tractors and here he is blowing out the candles on his tractor cake.......

....and here he is playing on his new tractor.  What a happy boy he is....always smiling.

So there you go girls thats just a few of the captured moments that have had me smiling this week.  Please snap a few of yours and share them by linking up below.

Hugs,

Annie x

WOYWW.....

Hi folks.  Here we are at another fun catch up day with all our crafty blogging friends from all over the world.  I love my snooping days and for those that would like to know more about what I'm talking about you can find all the information over at the Stamping Ground with our Queen of snoop, Julia.....just click on the link to find out more and join in if you're tempted. 

It's been another quality 'family together time' week again this week while I help and support Shell while she recovers from her surgery.  She's slowly getting there and will be able to manage her little twinnies again soon but for now we are really enjoying our special time together. So what I'm showing you this week is where Jo and I went on Saturday.

We booked on a quilting workshop a few weeks ago and as others could step in to help out with the twins over the weekend I managed a girly day out.  We enjoyed a morning's workshop at the Quilters Trading Post at Buerton Old School, Woore Road, Buerton, Cheshire and by the end of the morning this is what I'd made...

I'm rather pleased with mine and also really love how choosing different fabrics give such different results as you can see from this pic that I took of all the finished quilt blocks made by the others in the group...

Aren't they all lovely.  We had a fab day doing something we love in the company of really special friends so what more could we ask for?......well maybe being surrounded by all these gorgeous wall mounted quilts for stimulation helped....

Oh and having a room filled to capacity with the most amazing fabrics available for us to buy...if we wanted to [and of course who wouldn't?].

I think you should be able click on the pics to enlarge them but better than that if you are in the area it's well worth dropping in to check out the gorgeous fabrics yourself....and I dare you not to buy some yourself.  Here's the rainbow of fat quarters that I came home with [ an early birthday treat from my big sister...thanks Jo].

Don't you just love the gorgeous colours?  I'm really not certain what I will be making with it all but one thing is for sure and that is I will spend many happy hours stroking it all before using it  :-)

Thanks for calling by today.  If you leave me a message to let me know you've called by I will do my best to return the visit as soon as I get the chance.

Hugs,

Annie x

This week's smiles....week 88

As you can see I've been sharing my happy moments with you all for 88 weeks now.....wahoo! thats a lot of smiles isn't it?  I'm thrilled to say there have been many of you sharing your smiles with me too and I thank all that have joined in the fun.  There was just three of you last week so I thank all three of you and don't feel it's fair just to pick one.

I've had lots of happy moments since our daughter was discharged from hospital on Tuesday.  She has needed looking after as she can't lift, drive etc for a few weeks so we have spent some quality time together caring for the twinnie munchkins....and the pic I've chosen to share with you this week, I feel, says it all....

I think this little girl has really missed her mummy whilst she's been in hospital for the week.  Since Shells been home she's kept giving her gentle hugs and telling her she loves her....isn't it a gorgeous photo?   

It's soooooo good to be able to say Shell is making a good steady recovery too.  :-)

So there you go folks.  Just one photo from me this week but I feel that's enough to make you smile.  Please share your smiles with us too by linking them below.

Hugs,

Annie x

Hello all fellow WOYWWers.  Here we are at another Wednesday full of fun time world snooping.  If you'd like to find out more then please pop over to Julia's at Stamping Ground and check out the links there that will explain all.

Most of you will know that we have had an anxious week with our eldest daughter Michelle in hospital.  She was admitted to hospital last Tuesday morning in the early hours with severe abdominal pain and it took them til Wednesday lunchtime before she finally had a laparoscopy to see what the problem was....and then an appendicectomy for an appendix close on the point of rupturing.  She was sent home from hospital on Friday afternoon following her surgery but was rushed back in early hours on Saturday morning by ambulance when she passed out from the pain.  She has had a pretty rough time of it bless her but thankfully was discharged again yesterday morning....here's to a good steady recovery now Shell....we have all missed you especially your gorgeous little twinnie munchkins.

As you can imagine I've not done much crafting [and probably won't for a week or two while helping out] so I'm sharing a pic of the craft fair from last Saturday. 

 

As you can see I managed to cover a table with all the things I'd made from all the wonderful gifted fabric and can proudly announce that I managed to raise a wonderful £130 for our local hospice.  It's easy to encourage people to buy raffle tickets for such a great cause and very many happily bought tickets for the quilt that I managed to get finished in time.

Thanks for calling by today.  Leave me a little message to let me know you've called and I will do my best to pop over to yours for a catch up when I can but it may take me a day or so this week.

Hugs,

Annie x

This week's smiles.....week 87

Hello all.  Hope you're having a great week.  Thanks to those who joined in last week.

I'm featuring Kate's post from last week......You've just got to love those smiling clouds  :-)

Thanks Kate...you made me smile.

It's a quick post from me for this week.  It's been an anxious sort of week because our daughter went into hospital early hours of Tuesday morning with severe abdominal pain.  She had ultra scan and CT scan on Tuesday to see what the problem was but it took them til Wednesday lunchtime before they decided to take her to theatre for a laparoscopy to investigate further.  Whilst there they confirmed that it was appendicitis so they cut her yet further and took it out....she now has 4 wounds on her tummy and is looking a bit like spaghetti junction!....so why am I smiling?

We visited her last night and she had her sparkle back and was looking much better thankfully and this photo she put on Facebook really made me chuckle...

This pic she put on Facebook yesterday morning having not eaten since Monday with the caption..

"Marmite and toast never tasted so good!!!"

I guess you either love it or hate it but she has loved since she was a baby.....and trust me when I say it's no easier having your baby in hospital poorly even when she's 30.

Simple pleasures eh?

The other pics I'm sharing today are the ones her little twinnies drew to make her feel better...and they certainly worked their magic on her :-)

And the funniest thing is that they both insisted on drawing her spiders and she has a real phobia of them....just like me!! :-)
I really hope she makes a very speedy recovery and continues to give us lots more to smile about.

Thanks for calling by today.  Please link up your smiles below and share your happy times with us.

Hugs,
Annie x

WOYWW...

Hello folks.  It's just a quick post for me today before I rush off to have another twinnie munchkins fun day.  I seem to spend most days chasing my tail but am loving every minute of it.

On my desk this week is...

 A quilt that I am in the process of machine quilting.  It's one the wife of one of my customers was making before she died and I am aiming to get it finished to take it with me on Saturday to the little craft fair in Pontesbury [it starts 10.00 am in the hall behind the Congregational Church, Pontesbury if you're in the area...I'd love to say hello] to raffle it to raise money for our local hospice.....wish me luck on getting it finished cos it's rather intricate and is taking a while to quilt.

She had also started to make these little tree hangings so I have now completed them and will sell those too I hope.

I have used some of the gifted fabric and have used a pattern I found on Pinterest to make these two little reversible children's aprons....cute or what?

It's been a busy week trying to get ready for Saturday's sale because I've also had a steady trickle of customers popping in with sewing jobs for me too and today will be my third munchkin day of this week but life here in our new home is just wonderful :-) :-)

....and of course I managed to slot in a visit from our new little family member too.....well a Great Aunty has to have a cuddle doesn't she? :-) :-)  Little Ben is simply gorgeous.

Thanks for popping by this week.  If you leave my a little hello comment to let me know you've been I will do my best to catch up with you at some point tomorrow.

Hugs,

Annie x