52 Weeks of Happy 38/52

Hello to you all. Here are my happy things from last week:

1. The things children say... My niece (5 yrs) and older nephew (3 yrs) were playing in the sandpit outside the back door and as I was cooking the dinner, all of a sudden, I saw a cloud of sand flying past the door! When I looked outside, ALL of the sand was out of the pit and was everywhere! 
When I asked 'Who put this sand all over the floor?' 
My nephew said it was my niece. 
'Why did you put the sand on the floor?' I said in my cross voice. The reply wasn't what I expected!
'I was pretending it was fairy dust and I forgot it's not supposed to go on the floor.'
Well, I couldn't help but laugh!

2. Outing with my nephew. I have been babysitting my younger nephew (17 months) on Wednesday mornings. As it was good weather, we went to the local library, which is about 10 minutes walk. It's now a community library so is only open either AM or PM. After getting some books we went to the park on the way home. It was nice to have a little outing as I don't go the library much, I have so many books on my shelf already!

3. 1st party. The 1st party out of five, between now and December, was a 50th Birthday party, at the local football stadium. It was really nice to see lots of people I used to work with.

4. LOVEFiLM trial. I really wanted to see the pilot episode of Our Girl but didn't really want to buy it just to watch it once. I couldn't find it anywhere to rent or stream so I signed up for this free trial. They have so many DVDs and if you don't mind waiting for them to come through the post, it's a good service. You can have two discs at home at the same time and unlimited rentals during the month. I have Sky TV at the moment so I'll probably cancel it after the free trial but if I leave Sky, I think I would do it again.

52 Weeks of Happy 37/52

My happy things for this week are:

1. Volunteer meeting. I've finally had a meeting about the Maternity volunteering at a local hospital, that I mentioned here. I just need to get my documents checked, wait for the DBS to come through and then I can do my training for the role. I first applied back in March but due to a change of managers, my application didn't get passed on.

2. Last warm weather. Enjoying, possibly, the last of the warm weather. Although, someone said it could be warm until the end of October!

3. Outfit shopping. I have four parties coming up over the next couple of months. I usually wear jeans and a top, it's what I feel comfortable in but don't ever really feel smart so I wanted to buy something a bit smarter. I don't really like shopping but I went with my friend and tried a few bits on- one was a dress. Now, I'm not really a dress person but I really liked it, so I went back on Friday and tried it again and bought it! It had 20% off so wasn't too expensive either.

4. Birds singing. I've noticed the birds singing a lot more this week now they've finished moulting. I didn't realise I missed the birdsong until they started up again, it's been quiet without it.

52 Weeks of Happy 36/52

Hello all, hope you are all well? Here are my happy things from last week.

1. Funfair. The fair was visiting again, it was here the same time last year and you can find my post about it, here. We went on Sunday and it was much busier than last year, the kids had fun on a few rides but always want more! You can just about see the driver waving back here!

2. Granny Stripe Blanket. Every time I look at it, the colours remind of the beach! I realised that I didn't have a yellow shade for the sand, so I managed to get one the other week and have added it onto the blanket. I haven't taken a photo as I want to add a bit more before photographing it.

3. Kids sleepover. I had my niece and nephew over on Saturday night for a sleepover as my sister was going to a wedding. They were good apart from a bit of messing about when they first went to bed! We did some playing and they watched Frozen while I made the dinner.

4. My niece's wish. My niece found one of those wishing things in the garden (sorry, can't remember what they're called!) and made her wish. She whispered, 'I wish I was a princess'. This has given me an idea for her Christmas present, I know it's a bit early!

Widmer Fields

This is Widmer Fields, about 10 minutes drive from where I live. It's a sort of conservation area, I only found out about it earlier this year. I went on 17th June with my mum and sister and the dogs, it was a sunny, warm day and we took a picnic. We spent about two hours there and only saw about five other people. 

I hope you enjoy these photos!

This was the next field and not actually part of Widmer Fields.

The next field, again.

I like the little seat under this tree.

52 Weeks of Happy 35/52

I'm slightly more back on track than I was, with regards to blogging and have caught up on reading most of your blogs now. I have five happy things from this week! I think this is due to me remembering to make a note of them. So, here they are...

1. Strictly Come Dancing advert. I love it when I see the advert for SCD, although it means summer is coming to an end. I love most of the Autumn TV schedule. I think they put good shows on to try and combat that depressing feeling a lot of people have as we go into Autumn. I know Autumn can be just as good as Summer but the combination of shorter days and colder weather makes for a depressing feeling.

Photo Source

2. Finishing my book. I finally finished reading my book, I can't remember when I started it! I really enjoyed the story but I don't think I'll read another book yet, just catch up on my magazines for now as I've fallen about five issues behind!

3. Magic! - Don't Kill the Magic. I've been listening to this album, it has a sort of reggae sound. I bought the album on iTunes yesterday as I really like their song Rude and it was only £4.99!

Photo Source

4. Socialising. I met up with a friend on Friday, I took my nephew as he'd been playing up so I said I would take him out to give my sister a bit of a break and my mum took my niece and other nephew out. We met at a coffee shop for a drink, then drove to a local park, next to Widmer Fields and we went in there afterwards. I visited the fields once before and have written a post about it but didn't realise I haven't published it! This photo is from when I visited before, Friday was very grey and it started raining as we were coming out of the fields.

5. Red Admiral butterfly. I didn't get a photo but this butterfly landed on my nephew's shoulder, in the garden on Thursday. I don't think I've seen one before.

I hope you've all had a good week.

52 Weeks of Happy 32, 33 & 34/52

Hello again! It seems so long since I've been here (again!). I haven't done very well at catching up with reading/writing posts, I think I need to focus and make time for it! I don't have four things for every week, I find that if I don't write my 'happy things' down, I forget them. So here are the last three weeks!

Week 32
1. Blackberries. I'd noticed some blackberries that were ready to pick so I took my niece and nephew up to a local field. I don't remember them being ready this early before. Although there wasn't enough for a crumble, it was enough for the children to eat after their dinner.

Week 33
1. Camping. This was a very last minute trip, my sister wanted to have a holiday and now that my niece is at school they can only go in the school holidays. So they decided on camping! Although, after buying all the gear we could have had a couple of caravan holidays! The park was near Warmwell in Dorset and was very quiet, there was no bar or entertainment and we couldn't get electric hook up. I didn't take my camera and as we had no electric couldn't charge my phone very often to use the camera so I didn't take many photos. It was nice to get away but I wasn't sure about camping at first as I hadn't since I was a child but after the first night and everything was sorted out, it was good. We only went to the same places as usual, the market, Chesil Beach, Dorchester, Weymouth and Bowleaze Cove. One evening as we walked to the shower block, there was a heavy downpour and a double rainbow appeared over the shower block. At one point there were only four tents in the camping field so there was plenty of room for the children to play!

Bowleaze Cove

Bowleaze Cove

Week 34
1. BBQ. My nan likes to have a BBQ every August for my late Grandad's Birthday. It was good but there was too much moaning for my liking! 

52 Weeks of Happy 30 & 31/52

I thought I'd actually caught up on these posts but realised when I came to type this that I'm still behind!

Week 30
1. Having a long overdue catch up with a friend. I finally got around to meeting with a friend I used to work with, I hadn't seen him for about 10 years! I went over to where he lives and we went for lunch then had a trip to Epsom Downs. We sat overlooking the race course with a drink and cake, it was sunny and warm and so nice just to chat and catch up on each other's news. He is in his 80's now but still independent, which was nice to see.

2. First wild flowers. These are the first wild flowers from the pack of seeds I got from Countryfile.

3. Fleurfest music festival. This is a music festival held by a pub in a local village. This was the first and last time I've been to this festival as it was the last year. I didn't get any photos though.

Week 31
As I didn't realise I was behind on these posts, I can only remember one thing from last week.

1. Lighthouse Holiday Club. I volunteered with the toddlers, doing the refreshments as this is what I do at the toddler group. I volunteered Tuesday to Friday, in the mornings. It was really busy with at least 40 children each day!