Friday Smiles 2026 # Week 45

As usual I am writing this on Thursday. Tomorrow it is my little grand-daughter Niamh's first birthday, so I will be out visiting her. How quickly that first year passes. She is the most contented baby I have ever known, always smiling. Now she has found her feet, standing unaided, but not quite taking those first steps, she is into everything, but still happily amuses herself with whatever she has found.

So part of my week has been making her a card, and again I used Ai to put her smiling face in the cetre of a flower.

But I have also continued to make odd bits with my new cutter, always exploring new ideas. I engraved on a slate coaster for the first time and that turned out quite well. I tried several ideas I have seen on Facebook, and the one I think gave the best image, is prepping the slate with a light covering of varnish before engraving on it. Here is one I did.

I also looked at all my trial pieces and thought it was wrong to waste them so I used all my little print-and-cut images on card, to make Christmas cards using a very old stencil of a sunburst that has languished in my box for many years without being used!

Then I found the wooden engraved and cut, cute cat and I coloured it with acrylic markers. I thought it looked quite good and I have since given it  a quick spray of varnish to make it shine.

Last Friday my son Mike and his partner had a trip to the town of Bakewell and they brought us back a Bakewell tart and a Bakewell pudding. I didn't know such a thing exosted as a B. pudding but it was very tasty. It differed from the tart because the base was very flakey pastry and there was no icing on the top. Neither of them tasted strongly of almond, but I think maybe my taste buds are not as good as they used to be, because nothing tastes as strong as it once did. But we enjoyed the treats all the same.

On Monday I had a 'kitchen' morning. First I made a big container of my sugar free muslie. It has lots of nuts and seeds in it as well as oats, bran and other cereals, and is a very healthy start to the day. I sometimes add a few blueberries or some banana, and occasionally plain yoghurt, and always some milk.

Then I baked a batch of Wesh cakes on my griddle. My new light-weight griddle, bought to work on my induction hob, is quite good, but I miss my cast iron one that became too heavy for me and I have passed it on to my son who's partner loves Welsh cakes. I do cook other things on it as well, and we both like drop scones which it is perfect for. Here are the Welsh cakes, after we have eaten some of them! It is a big mixture but fortunately they do freeze really well so we can enjoy them on future days too.

Our second youngest son, Jonathan, was so 'chuffed' to learn that the band he plays drums in, is featured on the front of the latest edition (issue 514) of Wire magazine, which is readily available in most good stationers. There is a big article about them inside as well. He has been a drummer in several heavy metal bands since he was in school, and has always dreamed of hitting the big time. But he has needed to earn a living too and that is not easy in the music industry, and he has worked hard in several difficult situations just to keep a roof over his head. But his hard work has paid off and he now has employment which not only pays for him to provide a home for his wife and two little daughters, but also enables him to take time off to tour with the band. They do several gigs in UK each year, and he has also toured with them throughout Europe. So now he is living his dream. I don't care for his chosen style of music but I am very proud of what he has achieved.

A van pulled up outside this morning and the man driving it jumped out and started  topping the holly hedge between us and our neighbours'. He had to come in our garden to do the last bit and seemed surprised that we weren't expecting him, but it is a good job done. I'd happily take it out completely because any dead leaves are painful to come across when working out there, but the hedge is in next door's garden so the only thing we can do is cut it back now and then. He filled the back of his lorry with the cuttings anyway, so it has let more light into the front garden.

Also out there is a small shrub that we nearly took out last year because every leaf was deseased to the extent that I couldn't identify it. However, when Chris went out to dig it up he said that the main stem was healthy and perhaps we could just prune it right back and give it one last chance to come good. So that is what we did and this year it is a healthy shrub and has just produced a few clusters of pink and white flowers. As soon as I saw them I thought it was a Viburnum and when I put this picture into google lens, it confirmed that. So I am glad we didn't dig it up last year.

And that is it for this week. My cold is almost gone so I am getting back into my usual activities. Thank you for visiting last week, and all your nice comments. I do appreciate it.

Friday Smiles 2026 # Week 44

It has been a mixed week but there is still plenty to smile about. We are both a bit bogged down with bad colds, but we had to get to another hospital appointment on Monday which was almost another full day out. But since then we have mostly stayed at home so I have had lots of time to play with my new 'toy' that Chris bought me as a combined birthday and Christmas present. I said I would show it this week so here it is.

Yes it is another laser cutter engraver. I know there wasn't a lot wrong with the one I  had but it did have some limitations. This one takes up a lot less space, it is entirely enclosed with its own air assist and extractor fan, so there are less cables and extras like a pump to clutter up the work space. And most importantly, this one includes a printer module which is a new asset. The laser module in the photo (the little grey box) is held in place by magnets, so it is easy to exchange it for the inkjet module, print an image, then change it back and cut it out. That is a real game-changer. Also the bar coming out across the lid is a camera that enables you to position the cut line exactly over the printed image, and also to work accurately on small pieces of wood etc. It is advertised as being safe to cut paper and card which I was always hesitant to even try on my other machine as there is a risk of it catching fire! This one incorporates a fire alarm which is a bonus though you are told to never leave it unattended when in use.

So this week I have tried printing on paper, with one pass and then with two passes, printed on wood though they advise coating the wood first so that the ink doesn't seep into the grain and as yet I have not got the right medium for this, cutting out wood and paper which both worked beautifully once I got the settings right! I tried some intricate cutting with paper and wood, and also engraved a robin and then cut it out on plywood, and also a flat engraving on a small wood slice that I bought from The Works, just to try the positioning tool on small items. As you can see, I didn't always get it right, but I am certainly more confident to use it now and I am pleased with the results so far. It uses different software, so it is a bit of a learning curve, but I am getting there.

The print on paper which I cut right, (top left photo), and two others I did later, have all been used on Christmas cards.

A few weeks ago I showed you some poppies I had crochet for a Remebrance day project. The ladies organising it are now stitching all the poppies onto the net which will be draped from the top floor office of the Guild Hall in the market square, right down to the front wall. I like to think that 12 of these are the ones I made. Our sewing group promised to contribute a hundred flowers and we did make at least that many. They have sewed on 2,000 so far with many more to go. I think it will look really good.

Last week Angela metioned that they had an unusual number of magpies around them. Well we don't see many magpies but we have loads of jackdaws. They are omnivores eating both insects and berries etc, but after the rain they flock to the park and appear to be hunting for worms. Of course when I approach to take a photo of them, they all fly off, but are soon back again. (Our house is the one on the back right of the photo so you can see what a great view of the park we have, even without venturing outside).

This morning I needed to go across to the pharmacy to collect my prescription, so I arranged to meet my grand-daughter Emma on Red Square for a cup of tea. She had my grandson Reuben with her as it is half-term holiday here. There are four cafés on the square each with their own area of indoor and outdoor seating, and it is a popular spot for meeting up with friends and family. As we sat chatting my daughter-in-law Ella came past with her two little girls Aisling and Niamh, so she joined us for a chat.

While we chatted Reuben and Aisling amused themselves collecting ladybirds which seemed to like the black bollards around the square, then they discoverd sycamore seeds and made helicopters, and finally they had a climb on the statue of the shepherd which my own boys climbed on when it was first put there many years ago. (Aisling is wearing a dress she had just borrowed from the cloths rail at the library).

Although Reuben's mum Emma, and Aisling are actually cousins, the two little ones are growing up together. The generations get a bit muddled in our family. (e.g. There is a twelve year gap between Emma's dad and Ella's husband even though they are brothers). But I love having these impromtu meet up between family members, and it is one of the best things about returning to UK.

And that is enough rambling for one day. Have a good week everyone.