This week's smiles.....week 103

Many thanks to those who shared their smiles last week.  It really does make the world a happier place because smiling really is contagious and don't we all feel better when we're smiling?

I'm featuring a blog this week because it really made me smile when I saw Elizabeth joining in.  She had been rushed into hospital with pneumonia and gave us all a worry so it was so lovely to know she had been discharged home for lots of rest to recover fully.....So glad you're on the mend my friend.

Our new 'family' members have settled into their new homes really well and my photo for this week is of Poppy the puppy...

It seems we all love Frozen  :-)

It actually looks as though Anna is talking to Poppy too.  :-)

That's my smile for this week.  What's yours?  Please share your smiles by linking them below and let's all make the world just that little bit happier.

Hugs,

Annie x

WOYWW.....

Hi fellow WOYWWers.  Hope you're all having a great week. It's been another busy one here for me.  We still don't have our building planning permission but things sound to be moving in the right direction thankfully.

My show and tell today is one of my crafting table that has been lifted into the sitting room for me to open it out for some cutting out this week.

I have struggled to find enough room to pull my table out in my 'make do' little sewing room and my fabric pile was growing so for a day or two I am opening my table out in the middle of the living room so I can cut out a few tops for myself.  You can see there are 3 tops now cut out at the end of the table and the next one is on it's way  :-)

Of course this doesn't include the 4 pieces of fabric to make some summer tops out of so the table may be used for a while yet  :-)

This is a before pic of the room that will eventually become my sewing room....why would anyone clad the walls in a modern bungalow to give a Tudor effect to one of the rooms?....answers on a postcard please  :-)

Thankfully it's only wood cladding and will all be removed so the walls can be plastered once the doors are blocked up.

And wahoooooooo there is progress.....here's a pic of my darling hubby and son obviously discussing something important and as you can see they have been really busy removing the cladding....now it's about half stripped and the room already seems so much bigger.

I really can't wait to get in there now....exciting times  :-)

 Thanks for calling by this week.  If you leave me a comment to let me know you've called I will do my best to call by at yours to see what you're up to.  Please note that I do call by at all who have visited me but I am unable to leave comments on many of the google+ blogs....sorry.

This week's smiles....week 102

What a lovely bunch of you you are.  I'm so thrilled that so many of you join in each week sharing your happy posts.  There really is far too much sadness in the world so it is good that happy moments are shared....the world smiles with you so keep up the good work.

My featured blog this week is one of a family tradition that Laura shared with us last week.  It really made me smile that there is a new Onxby being given to her little nephew....I'm not telling you more because it is well worth clicking on the link and sharing her smiles.  :-)  Thanks for sharing it with us Laura.

My smiles this week have been many but I am sharing just two pics that I just know will make you smile.  Please welcome our two new 'family members'......

This is Tilly our son's new baby  :-)

Isn't she just sooooooo cute?  She only arrived on Saturday and is already settling in well to her new home.

And this little darling is Poppy the puppy.  She belongs to our daughter Amy and her family and although only 8 weeks old she has settled in to her new home like she has been there before.  On her very first night she slept all night, was dry and asked to go out first thing in the morning.

I just know there will be lots of ooooos and awwwwws now.

Why not share something that has made you smile this week by linking up below and let's make the world a happier place to be.

Hugs,

Annie x

WOYWW....

All I want to say is IKEA today  :-)  I am on a roll with the sorting and tidying and planning for my new sewing room.....I'm ever the optimist even though the plans for our building work 'got lost' at our local planning office and we have had to submit them again!!!

So I will get going with my show and tell for today...

Sunday we took a trip to Ikea to pick up a few more jars for my ribbons / lace & trims......Ok ok I know I said a few!!

Can a girl ever have too many storage jars?

Result....all my ribbons now have new homes and I have 3 jars full of lace and trimmings.

Oh and the little jars????

I have rather a lot of buttons that needed sorting...these are just some of the small ones!!

Another result....well all but the black, navy and brown ones!!!

And I need more jars for those!!  :-)

Some of you will have seen that I managed to get some gorgeous fabric off a site I've joined on Facebook [well worth a look if you are into fabrics....just follow the link in the post below].  In that post I mentioned that our local shop rarely had the sort of fabric I like to use to make my tops out of.  Well,  I called in there on Friday as we were passing and they not only had a shelf full of just the fabric I've been looking for but it was in the sale reduced from £8.95/metre down to only £4/metre!!!  I grabbed enough to run up 4 new summer tops for just £10 each....far too good a bargain to miss eh?

 The other quick show and tell for today is this one of the two lined drawstring Lego mats I've made for our two daughter's children.  They both had boxes of Lego for Christmas and asked if I would make them these to make picking it all up so much easier.

I will say enough is enough for today now but will add that there are two awwww moments coming up on my Friday's post for this week that I'm sure lots of you will want to see so be sure to pop back so you don't miss out.  :-)

Thanks for calling by today.  Please leave me a little hello message so I know you've called in and I will do my best to call by at yours asap.
Hugs,
Annie x

This week's smile....week 101

Thanks to all that joined in last week by linking up their smiles.  I am featuring Gill's post about Norman.  It really made me giggle that they had named their Christmas tree and I wanted to welcome Gill back [it's been a while since she joined in] but I also wanted to say I'm sorry Gill but I seem unable to leave comments on any of the google+ blogs so just wanted to let you know I had been over and read your post.

This has been another week of happy times spent with my little twinnie munchkins.  Their mummy had a birthday on Wednesday so there has been lots of happy memories too of the day she was born....she had masses of gorgeous auburn hair when she was born and I spent out first night together wide awake just watching her sleep  :-)

My pic today is one of some gorgeous fabric that arrived through my door yesterday.  As someone who likes to make her own clothes I am always in search of good quality fabric at sensible prices but to be honest finding any suitable fabric is never easy.  There is only one dress type fabric shop in Shrewsbury but that one is pricing themselves out of the market lately and rarely has something I fancy using to make my tops with......it has lots of craft cottons.

I have received this gorgeous fabric today from a place I found on Facebook. The fabric is Crepe de Chine and is simply gorgeous. It doesn't crease and should go nicely into pin tucks and wash well so should be perfect .....plus it was great value too.

If you like to make clothes you will see just why this has made me smile today  :-)

Thanks for calling by today.  Please share your smiles by linking to your happy posts below and I will pop over to check them out as soon as possible.

Hugs,

Annie x 

WOYWW....Oh decisions decisions!!!

My show and tell today is full of indecision today.  Some of you may already know that I'm a Libran ....I'm not the best to ask if you're looking for an opinion on something :-)

I started yesterday with my table like this...

Determined to sort out my ribbon stash into my new Ikea storage jars I tipped out the contents of my 4 old plastic [and now very tired] sweet jars onto the table in my make do sewing room.  I started to sort it all out into colours but OMG the indecision was overwhelming.....

• They say blue and green should never be seen....does this apply to ribbon jars?
• Can in fact should creams go in the same jar as the white?
• Should peach go in with the pinks?
• Oh and which jar do all the multicoloured ribbons go?

I bet you're all laughing now.....I know my much older sister was when I told her [and she's a Libran too so is just as indecisive!!]

Here I am part way through the sorting process......

• Reds in one jar
• Pinks in another
• White and creams in another and 
•  Blues, turquoises and greens in another [ cos I couldn't decide if some of the turquoises should go in the green or blue jar!!] 

What has gone wrong?
I started out with 4 old jars and have them all sorted now but I've ended up with 9!!!  So I now need a visit to Ikea to buy 5 more glass jars for my  ribbons and......

This is another old plastic jar jammed full of lace trimmings.....will I need 2 or 3 glass jars to sort these into?

Life is just tooooooo stressful at times isn't it?  :-)  :-)

But can you imagine just how much fun I've had sorting and stroking all that lot?......I've had some of it for years and still can't bring myself to use some of it  :-)

Thanks so much for dropping by today.  I can well imagine I've made some of you chuckle today so please leave me a little message to let me know if you struggle with these important decisions like me and I will do my best to pay you a return visit as soon as I can.

Hugs,

Annie x

This week's smiles.....week 100

Wahooooo it's week 100 and it's the start of a whole New Year......not the best of starts though cos I've only just realised it's Friday so am running late with my blog post today :-)  I'm sure I'm not the only one who doesn't know what day of the week it is.  :-)

Firstly I want to say a huge Thank you to each and every one of you who has taken time out of your busy lives to share your happy times.  The world really is a better place because of it.  Smiling is contagious so let's spread as many as we can in 2015.  I would also like to wish you all a very Happy New Year full of good health and everything that makes you happy.

My word for 2015 is PROMISE.....

• The promise that at some point the plans will be passed for the alterations for our little bungalow
• The promise that we will get a new kitchen/dining room and can then empty boxes of stored kitchen stash
• The promise that I will be able to set up my new sewing room with my 5 machines, empty and organise all my bags full of fabrics and look forward to many creative times in my new space with all my crafty friends.
• The promise of many special family together times......these mean more to me than anything.
• I promise to make big efforts to stay well, watch what I eat and exercise as much as my arthritis allows

My happy snaps today are these....

Our 5 little Grandchildren all in their Christmas dressing up outfits...we have 2 Elsas, an Anna, a Darth Vader and a Buzz Lightyear....Oh what fun and giggles they all had playing together.

My little apprentice in deep concentration learning to sew...."like Nanny" and.....

....very proudly showing off the finished cushion she had made.  What a beautiful job she made of it too.  :-)

 My last smile I'm sharing with you today is this pic my youngest daughter put on Facebook this week....sort of says it all doesn't it?

I bet you've all got memories of tins like that.  :-)

Now it just leaves me to say please feel free to drop in at any time during the week to add your smiles and link them below and I will post mine each Friday featuring the best from the week before....there was only 4 of you last week so how could I possibly choose just one?  I love you all :-)

Hugs,

Annie x

WOYWW...

I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas and Santa brought you all you deserved.  We have really enjoyed many family together times over Christmas and for me that has made it all simply perfect. 

I am still focusing on plans for next year with what I'm sharing today.  Our family does a Secret Santa for the eight adults.  We are limited to just a £20 limit on what we spend and as you can imagine much hilarity is enjoyed when we open our gifts.  There is always a good mixture of joke and sensible gifts but my Secret Santa really knew what I wanted this year.

A gorgeous storage box filled with glass storage jars, 2 packs of pretty fabric fat quarters, ribbons and much more :-)

It was just what I wanted for my new sewing room and this is what I have planned for it....

In one of my temporary cupboards in my make do sewing room are my 7 old plastic sweet jars filled to the brim with ribbons and trims but the jars have now gone brittle and have seen better days so I will be sorting the contents and filling my fab new jars at some point in the New Year.

The dolls clothes you've been seeing made leading up to the big day really put smiles on my little grandees faces as you can imagine and I've now been given an order for proper dolls sized blankets as the baby blankets that have been used are "just too big Nanny" :-)  Of course I'm more than happy to please and have needed something to do with my hands.  I've now finished 3 and the 4th will be finished soon.  :-)

So that's what I've been doing.  How about you?  If you'd like to leave me a little hello message to let me know you've been then I will do my best to pay you a return visit as soon as I can to see what you've been up to.

Wishing you all a very happy New Year and here's to many more fun times together in 2015.

Hugs,

Annie x