Another year wiser ...

I am now 'another year wiser' according to my sister Fiona - I do hope she's right! Wouldn't that be the perfect compensation for the onset of my mid life 'laughter lines'?! It was my 45th birthday yesterday and I had a steady stream of family visitors from lunchtime right through to dinner time, so the whole day went by in a whirl of coffee mugs, chat, beautifully wrapped gifts and birthday cards.

My birthday cards!

My youngest sister Laura brought her two gorgeous daughters to visit me in the afternoon; seven year old Sian is so proud of her new baby sister! I had lots of lovely newborn cuddles with little Erin - there's nothing quite like that special baby warmth huddled against your skin is there? She's growing already and is very alert too. A real cutie! I also had visits from my Dad, my Mum and then later my other sister Fiona, her partner Simon and my lovely sixteen year old niece Lauren arrived. My sister Tina phoned from Hampshire for a long natter in the morning too! Phew! It really was a great big family 'catch up' from one end of the day, 'til the other!

I was absolutely delighted in the morning when the 'phone rang. It was my son unexpectedly ringing from work to wish his Mum a 'Happy Birthday'! Then in the evening my daughter came home from work with a delicious chocolate birthday cake to surprise me and yes, even if you are 45, apparently you do still have to have 'Happy Birthday' sung in raucous unison and a 'huff and a puff' blowing out session! Thank heavens she only put a token number of candles on the cake!

Birthday cards on the fireplace (thought I'd sneak in a pic of my new fire!)

My pretty birthday jewellery box

Along with many pretty cards (and of course, a couple of cheeky ones !) I also received some super pressies: a delicate hand embroidered jewllery box, a Piers Morgan book I'd had my eye on for quite a while, a DVD I'd hinted at so that I can tuck myself away upstairs one afternoon to watch it as I sew, boxes of yummy chocolates, a bird feeder for my garden, a rose scented candle, stylish black and white flower patterned 'useful things' for my holiday .. passport holder, luggage tag, sunglasses case, cosmetics bag and last but definitely not least, my very own SatNav for my little car! This gift is supposed to help me gain the confidence to branch out into the big wide world. I only passed my driving test three years ago and am still lacking sufficient confidence to drive away from the familiar roads of my home town on my own - this SatNav system will hopefully give me exactly the shove I need to enable me to visit my two sisters and their daughters in Hampshire, on my own!

Well, with such a lovely fuss being made of me yesterday, of course I didn't have any time to work on my show bears, so this afternoon, that's exactly what I will be doing. I have a very handsome ivory white bear still waiting on my work table for his legs to be attached!

This morning I've been trying to sort out some advertisements for a couple of magazines; I have finished the one for Teddy Bear Scene (sorry I can't share it with you just yet, but it features one of my newest show bears and he's still 'under wraps'!) I'm struggling a bit with the one for the US Teddy Bear and Friends magazine, so I'm going to 'phone my sister this afternoon and see if she can help me sort it out - she has a much better understanding of the editing programme Photoshop than I do. These things are so time consuming to organise that sometimes I find it very frustrating I can't quite get them to work the way I want them too. Hopefully I will have the second ad ready to show you very soon.