A birthday party and other happy things

Last Saturday we celebrated the girls' birthdays.

We had a party for them and their friends and they had a wonderful
 time. I'm so glad it went well, especially after all the baking and party
 preparations that we did. I just wish I had remembered to take photos
 while the party was happening. It got so busy that I forgot. Ooops!
 But it was still lovely though, and now we are all looking forward to having our little celebrations on their actual birthdays this weekend.
We're going to have a picnic and on Sunday there will be a trip to a
 toy shop. It's going to be great. I'm so excited for my birthday girls!

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I always appreciate a quiet day at home and we had this on Sunday.

It was so nice to slow down after a busy week and all the previous
 day's partying. We napped in the afternoon and there was time to read
and crochet. It was just what we needed and it did us all a whole lot
 of good. I love quiet, restful, staying-in days, just can't do without them.

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I was given this orchid as a belated birthday present.

I always love an orchid. We had many orchid plants in our back
 garden when I was growing up. My father was a very keen orchid
grower and he was very good at it. So this reminds me of home,
family, sunshine. Good memories. It's a lovely gift.

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These are my recent charity shop finds: two novels by two
excellent authors.

I've started with Kate Atkinson's book. So far, so very good and
a lot of people have told me that 'Death in Pemberley' is also a great
read. They're very good finds then. I'll be looking for more to add to
my summer reading. Hope I'll get lucky again next time I do a charity
shop stop.

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Markie loves to draw and her work just keeps getting better
and better all the time.

They have so much more detail now and they're always so colourful.
It's wonderful to watch her draw and see how much she enjoys it.
There's always a story behind each picture too. Our little artist's
work always make me smile and I'm very proud of her.

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I'm not too far away from finishing my shawl. Hooray!

I really like this stage in every project when I'm just a few rows and
stitches away from completion and whatever it is I'm making is looking
all right. Fingers crossed I'll have my very own handmade shawl soon.


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Those are some of my happy things from last week. I hope your
weekend was lovely too however you spent it.  I'll be back with my finished patchwork blanket. See you soon!