52 weeks of Happy: week 16

 Well it's been another 'busy but happy' week here in Poppy Cottage!

Busy preparing for the village Quiz night - a long story, but I'll try to be brief. 

Mr B and I toddled along to our first Village Hall Committee meeting about a month or so ago. We had offered to be on the committee as we knew a few people were 'standing down' and thought it would be a way to become more involved in village activities. It was the AGM -  surprisingly attended only by committee members and nobody else from the village! The Chairman and Secretary not only 'stood down' from their positions, but left the committee altogether, along with a third longstanding member. That left 4 existing committee members and Mr B and I, and 2 other new members. The existing Treasurer said he would stay on in his role, but nobody, I mean NOBODY, from the existing committee would act as Chair or Secretary! 

I may have had a glass or two of wine by this time, in fact I think I must have, as I found myself announcing that if Mr B would be Chair, I would be his secretary!

What a fool!

Anyway, we found ourselves in the unenviable position of organising the annual Quiz night! Luckily we had a lot of help from other committee members and it turned out to be a very good and successful evening. No photos I'm afraid, we were far too busy taking money, selling raffle tickets, and running the bar!!

Tired, but HAPPY!

The other thing that has kept me very busy and happy this week is preparing for the arrival of Annie the Airedale!

Sorry, couldn't resist popping in a little picture of her here!!

I think we've probably bought nearly as much 'stuff' for our first puppy as we had to buy when expecting our first child!!

There's the fun bits - the toys! I didn't realise toys for puppies could be so cute! There's nearly as much to choose from as in Toys-R-us!!!

We just got a few to start with

This one looks like it knows it's going to be chewed to bits soon!

 

But this one looks HAPPY!

Then there's a matter of where she will sleep.....

Ooops, looks like the cats have already been sleeping on the mattress!

And she'll need a little hot water bottle to snuggle up to and keep her warm.

And a plug in diffuser so she doesn't miss her mummy too much....

Of course she has to be kept safe from the cats at night, and safe from chewing dangerous wires (to say nothing of my shoes) so she'll need a crate to put the mattress in....

Then there's the maybe not-so-happy bits about owning a puppy.....

And if we survive until she's old enough to go out she'll need all these.....

Hmmmm, getting a puppy was definitely not a cheap choice!!!

The cats are making the most of the peace and quiet

Enjoy it while you can pussies!

Oh, and in between all this I've managed to have a marathon baking session (thank you Mary Berry, I LOVE your cakes!!!) and take Miss M out to buy a new pair of Converse!

Happy Miss M!

I've found time to stand in the garden and watch the sheep and the new lambs

And of course I've found time for the odd bit of crochet too!!

All in all a pretty HAPPY week!

Hope yours was HAPPY too!

xxx

52 weeks of Happy: week 15

Most of last week seems to have been spent cleaning Poppy Cottage!

I don't believe in doing a lot of cleaning, obviously there are far better things to do to occupy my time, but it was our turn to host the village 'drinking club' on Friday night so I thought I'd better try to make a good impression! After all, many of the guests hadn't been in Poppy Cottage before (at least not since we moved in!!)

This is a monthly get-together of twelve couples, so we only have to host it once a year. But at least that way the cottage will get a thorough annual clean!

It's great fun, with no pressure to prepare food to impress people! Just plenty of wine and beer, and lots of nibbles to soak it all up!

And to help with that all-important first impression, my lovely daughter Karen from Henrys Shed made me a beautiful new table runner!

 Isn't it gorgeous?

Definitely a Happy!

You may remember it was only a few weeks ago that we went out to choose the fabrics, so she has made it really quickly!

She clearly understands how important it is to make a good impression on the neighbours!!

We had great fun choosing all the fabrics, and then deciding which order to put them in!

I think we made a good choice!

It is beautifully made, and quilted with heatproof wadding.

And backed with another lovely fabric, just in case I feel like a change!

It's long enough to hang over both ends of the table, and to stretch the whole length of the table when it is extended fully.

 It was very much admired by all the ladies on Friday night!

Can you see my hoover in the background? I did put it away before everyone arrived!!

WE had a lovely evening, and fortunately nobody stayed too late, as we had to get up early-ish on Saturday morning to go for another puppy visit!

This time we took Miss M to meet the new addition to the family!

There were plenty of cuddles!

She is absolutely adorable, from the tip of her nose

To the tip of her tail!

Then it was time to play for a bit!

So much fuss!

She got a little over excited

Oh dear

Whoops!!!

Me? It wasn't me!

We get to bring her home in two weeks

Happy!

And we have finally decided on her name

She is Annie

Annie the Airedale

xxx

52 weeks of Happy: week 14

Hello again!

It's been a funny week.

It started with our rather over-excited trip to choose our puppy on Easter Monday.

On Tuesday I had to stay in all day, for two reasons:

1. My car was in for service 

2. I had to wait in for a delivery

So of course I got on with a bit of crochet
And did a bit of baking

Mary Berry's lemon drizzle traybake

Easy, very delicious - last piece

And all gone!

My car was returned in the evening with a clean bill of health and a new MOT

That definitely made me HAPPY!

She's over 11 years old and I've had her from new and certainly don't want to part with her!

The delivery?

Nah

That didn't arrive!

Mr B was supposed to collect Miss M on his way home from work

And he FORGOT!

Can you believe that?

Forgot his own Granddaughter!

Miss M was NOT happy!

Next morning, Wednesday, I got a text message to say the parcel would be delivered that day.

So I waited in

It didn't come

Was I happy?

Most definitely not!

I tracked it online, and was told delivery had been attempted and a card had been left!

Liars!

Another wasted day!

But at least Mr B remembered to collect Miss M after work and bring her back!

So she was HAPPY!

Thursday morning I tried to ring the delivery people; they put me on hold for a very long time, then cut me off!

Happy? No!

So Mr B rang them, and they promised it would be delivered that day, around 12 noon.

Did it come?

Most definitely not!

Finally, I could wait no longer, I needed to go shopping; so Miss M and I popped out to Waitrose.

We were just loading the shopping into the car when my phone rang - the delivery man was at the cottage, where was I?

Happy? Still a definite NO!

Grrrrrrr.......

Now you need to understand that we had been told the parcel could only be delivered to MY address, would have to be signed for by ME, and I would have to provide proof of my identity (a bit OTT I thought, who else would be at my address?)

But the delivery man said he'd left the parcel with a neighbour!

Happy? Getting there!

So, home, shopping unpacked, cup of tea made, Miss M dispatched next door to collect the parcel.

Nobody there!

Oh well...

Finally, when Mr B came home from work (he hadn't forgotten anyone or anything today!) we decided to go to the pub (it was curry night!) and collect the parcel on the way.

Success!

Happy?

YES!

What was in the parcel?

My new iphone!

HAPPY!

The rest of the week was fairly uneventful
I found some rather nice cake tins in Dun Elm Mill

Perfect for Poppy Cottage!

Mr B remembered to collect Mr R on his way home from work on Friday

We all had a haircut on Saturday

We took Mr R home on Sunday, and popped in to see both daughters at the same time

Then on Sunday evening we got an email from the puppy breeder with a new photo of our baby, now aged 5 weeks!

So cute!

HAPPY!

xxx

Where We Went....

Hello lovely people!

Some of you may have been trying to guess where we went on Monday amid such excitement

So here is a little clue....

 .

And another ...

Yes, we went to choose our puppy!

And here she is

Isn't she gorgeous?

Despite all the frantic planning that went on, and the worrying about getting lost, or being late, or forgetting the camera, we didn't have to go very far at all, just about 30 minutes to a village near Kettering, and we were actually ten minutes early so we parked up just outside the village and had another 'What shall we call her?' discussion.

We decided to wait until we met her to decide, although we had quite a few possibilities in mind.

We only ended up having two puppies to choose between, which is probably just as well as that was difficult enough! How can you be expected to choose one and discard the other? They were both gorgeous!

 (Mind you, all the puppies were reserved within a couple of days of being born so we needn't worry that the other one wouldn't find a home!) 

In the end we chose this one because she seemed less nervous than her sister!

And her markings are a bit prettier on her face (not that that makes any difference as we know they will change very quickly and look nothing like they look now!)

I tried to get a picture of the mummy but she was so excited she was bounding around so most of the pictures came out too blurry!

They had three fully grown Airedales bouncing around excitedly as well as 7 sleepy puppies (not sleepy for much longer though! ) - hard work!!!

We are taking Miss M to meet the puppy next weekend, and then we get to bring her home (the puppy, not Miss M!) in another 2 weeks.

So excited!

We took a little blanket along with us, to leave with the puppy so when we bring her home she can bring something familiar and smelling of her mum and siblings to help her settle.

Crocheted of course!

I was going to take this stripey one

But when I went to pick it up one of the cats had been sick on it! 

YUK!

So we took this little one instead!

Which is probably a better size anyway!

Anyway, back to naming the puppy....

We need a pretty name, maybe something a bit old fashioned, like Annie, or Betty, or Mabel.

We need something that we are happy to shout out in a loud voice when necessary without feeling embarrassed!

We need a name which doesn't already belong to any of our human friends and acquaintances in the village! (That rules out Annabelle and Lulu!)

And we need something that doesn't sound too much like any of our cats' names (or even ours!) as that would cause much confusion!

Annie sounds too much like Angie

Maggie sounds too much like Maddie the cat

Oh, it is soooooo difficult!

At the moment we are toying with Tula or Tullula

But I'm not sure.....

Any ideas out there?

xxx

52 weeks of happy: week 13

I hope you all had a great Easter weekend!

Last week for me started out very quietly...

I did my usual Waitrose shop on Monday, and bought some gorgeous tulips

But then my MOT ran out. 

I know, I should have known it was about to run out, but I forgot! Then couldn't get booked in for a service until today and so I was stranded at home for the rest of the week!

Not that that is any hardship of course, with all the usual crafty occupations here to keep me busy!

I did quite a bit of crochet

A lot of blogging!

Snuggled up with my latest book

Image courtesy of Amazon as I'm reading it on my Kindle!

Really enjoying this so far; I've read a lot of Barbara Erskine books and they've all been good - though some of them have been a bit scary if reading alone at night!!!

I baked some flapjacks and some Easter biscuits (sorry, all got eaten before I even thought to take a photograph!!)

I even managed a bit of painting!

I finally finished this one of the canal; it's been nearly done for weeks but the light just hasn't been good enough to paint!

Not very happy with this one, but had enough of it now!

(I've started another one of the village pub, but I'll save that for another time)

(Did you spot that there was no housework mentioned there? Tut tut!)

On Good Friday Karen and I discovered Poppy Patch - a new (to us) patchwork and quilting shop in nearby Great Doddington

We had a lot of fun choosing fabrics! Karen is going to make me a table runner and placemats!

Isn't she kind?

On Saturday Mr B and I went to a 60th birthday party at our old next-door neighbour's 

 It was the first time we'd been back to our old house (well, next door anyway!) and it felt a bit strange to park in the road and not in our old driveway!

It was lovely to see everyone again though and catch up on old times and new news!

On Sunday I was getting excited about our planned trip on Monday. 

Mr B and I managed a bit of a welly walk around the village 

Then came back and cooked rack of lamb for lunch

Delicious!

Then we prepared for Monday's trip.

Directions - how long will it take? Don't want to get lost! Don't want to be late! What time should we set the alarm for?

What do we need to take with us? Definitely a camera. Oh, and a list of questions of course!

Where were we going?

Can you guesss?

xxx