WOYWW.....

 It's been another busy week here at Sewing by Annie's.....I'm never sat idle :-)  

I've shortened trousers, lifted a dress at the shoulders and have altered the bodice on a pretty lemon bridesmaid dress.  On top of that I have been sewing for the H J trust.....

The little piles of fabrics I put on my blog last week became 6 pretty patchwork bibs and when I put them on my Facebook page I had orders for 3 of them so.....

....I made some more and here you can see them all sitting on top of my new little ironing board that my darling hubby fitted to the top of my new Raskog cart that we bought from Ikea this week.

I love my new little trolley....it's so handy to iron the smaller items I am busy with and it's storing my projects that I have on the go.

I've also made 6 new peg bags [there's two in each colour] because one of my customers asked for some to give as presents....it all helps to raise the funds for the charity :-)

That's all from me for this week.  I hope you're all fit, well and happy and I will pop over to see what you're up to as soon as I can.

Hugs,

Annie x

This week's smiles.....week 148

Hello Friday Smilers.  Last week was another week of wonderful smiles shared by many.  Thank you to all who link up and share their smiles with us.....it really does make the world a happier play so keep up the good work.

I am featuring Tilly's post from last week.  She dropped in late [but of course it's never too late] so some of you might have missed her post with the gorgeous daffodils already in bloom.  They are rather too early and I really hope they are prepared for colder weather to come but what a welcome sight they were.....I love Spring.  Thanks for sharing them Tilly.

My smiles have been many this week....as always...and here's a few snaps to share with you....

As most of you will know we have been putting in an Ikea kitchen over the last couple of weeks.  I'm thrilled to say it's nearly all finished now but thought you might have a giggle at the pile of instructions we have been left with!  There is a set of instructions in every box and with the kitchen coming in 150 boxes it's made quite a pile.....do you think Ikea would like to buy them back off us?  :-)

Some of you may have heard of Elf on the Shelf before but for those that haven't he is a mischievous little elf that gets busy during the night when children sleep and in the morning can be found in his latest hiding place by the children in the house.  He mustn't be touched or he loses his magic powers and each night he reports back to Santa about the sort of day the children have had.  The twins have one that has moved into their house for December that they have named Bob and as you can see he's already been up to mischief......there may be more pics to follow of his adventures throughout the month :-)

Steve has been shopping with his mummy while his sisters were in school and just look at his face at the sight of the inflatable snowman they found.....don't you just love him?

Lulu had to dress up as a little maid from the Fire of London for school this week.....I bet she was one of the best dressed maids there  :-)

It's been a great week here with lots of exciting sewing coming through my door but that's all the smiles I'm sharing for this week.  Please leave me a little message to let me know you've called in and link up your own smiles below.  Have a great week.

Hugs,

Annie x

WOYWW....

Hello all.  I know you've called by to see what's on my desk this week but I have to say it's been a quiet one there for me with sewing because we have been busy elsewhere  :-)

My new sewing room is nearly finished....it just needs skirting boards and a few finishing touches.  The carpets will come at a later date.  So,  I'm guessing you would like a peep at what we've been doing?.....

All the bare plastered walls and ceiling had to have a covering of half/half paint and water first. Then the ceiling had another covering of white paint and....

.....so far the one long wall has had two coats of pale dusky pink paint [crem de la rose] ready to put up my new wall cupboards.

Sunday we payed a visit to Ikea and filled our trolley with new cupboards and work tops to go in my new room.

With a bit of careful loading we managed to get it all in the car.  :-)

Sadly when we got it all home we found that two out of the three wall cupboards were faulty and we had to have them replaced yesterday [but when the delivery men arrived with the two new replacement cupboards one of those was also faulty!....thankfully I checked before they left and we were able to swap the faulty side pieces so that we now have two complete cupboards :-) ].

All being well by the time you come back next week there will be new developments in my sewing room and before long I will be able to move in there and get busy creating [I guess there will be lots of boxes/bags emptied and sorted first].  :-) :-) :-)

Thanks for calling by.  Leave me a little message and I will pop over to yours ASAP.

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

Wedding plans and Friday's smile....

It's been another really busy week for me [no change there then!].  Michelle and Brent's Wedding plans are going well.

• I've done a final fitting on Michelle's Wedding dress after it's alterations and she looks stunning in it.  [of course :-)].
•  I've done the alterations on 3 of her 4 bridesmaids dresses and just need final fittings on those.  The 4th will be coming up from Cornwall soon for her fitting.
• Amy and Dave have printed the table plan onto their Corex board and that looks amazing. [Thanks both].
• The sweets have arrived for the Favour boxes....just need to keep them hidden so my darling hubby doesn't eat them before the big day!

All in all we are getting there.  I just need to make my outfit ....yes I do know there is less than a month til the wedding!  And for those wondering when it is just watch the Olympics countdown....we think thats just for us cos the Wedding is 28th July!

Now for my Friday's smile ....or as I was gonna call it  'Start them young I say'

When my family was growing up and we wanted a trip to Ikea we used to have to say nothing til we were nearly there because the idea was met with moans and groans.  We have been known to turn into their gate before they realised where we were heading.  :-)  [ Anything for a quiet life eh? ].

How times have changed.  They now all love to go to Ikea to shop for their own homes and Amy is training the next generation to love it too.

This was a snap of their trip this week.  Admittedly Amy had wisely left baby Steve at home with his Daddy but as you can see the girls certainly seem to be enjoying their visit.  :-)

My other snap is of Phoebe helping mummy with paperwork in their office.  Yes she is only 3yrs old !  She knows her alphabet, her colours and can easily count to 20.  What a bright little button eh?

I hope my snaps have raised a smile for you this morning and you can all have a great weekend.

Hugs,

Annie x

Ikea and Amateur Dramatics

What a fab weekend we have had. Saturday morning we took our son and his girlfriend to Ikea :-) Our son, M, has memories of being taken there as a child [and not really enjoying it :-)] but his girlfriend, G, had never been before. They are setting up a little home together early next year and are in the planning and gathering the essentials mode so had requested a visit. G was so excited at seeing all there was to walk round. There were oooos and awwws and "would we have room for one of those in the ....". There was measuring and debating and notes taken for the isles they were to be collected from in the warehouse. It was a real pleasure to watch.

I had, of course, my own list of wants too and managed to pick up all I went for. A new cupboard for my sewing threads because the old one is just too small. A beautiful little wooden dolly's bed for our Granddaughter, little P's Christmas pressie. Nanny can now, of course, sew and knit to deck it out with bedding :-) I also managed to get a picture frame I have been hunting for since buying my embellisher. I wanted one with space between the glass and the mount to allow space for 3D embellishments so I can embellish a picture....watch this space. In all it was a very successful visit.

Saturday night was the last night of my son M's amateur dramatic group's play "Fly in the ointment". It was at Bayston Hill and had been performed on Thursday, Friday very successfully with great reviews. M was playing the part of Albert the pizza delivery boy and frequently had to say "my mum used to say". [It looks like he listened at some point then ?!] All I can say is I have paid to see professionals act and this was far more enjoyable. We all laughed 'til faces ached. It was performed by just 6 actors/actresses and was brilliant.....Well done son, I'm soooooooo proud of you.

Sunday was, of course, a day of cardboard boxes, screw drivers and putting together of our purchases. I only have to ask and my supporting other half sets to. I am now the proud owner of a new set of drawers for my cotton reels [ if only we had remembered to pick up a set of drawer knobs!]. The new drawers are twice the size of the last ones and he has fitted them to allow yet more storage space for boxes etc so I'm thrilled to bits [I am easily pleased]. Thank you D for all your hard work. Love you to bits xxxx