Fact: Three out of Four Cats Hate Christmas Hats

Merry Christmas!

I’m pooped! But I had to share that my wicked awesome daughter got me a Keurig “Elite” coffee maker and a ton of assorted accessories!  I’m so excited- I can’t wait to try it tomorrow am.

I hope everyone has had a marvelous day with family and/or friends. Thanks for  visiting and all the wonderful comments you leave- I truly appreciate them all!

(Image from the Green Mountain Coffee website)

I made an apron for her:

It’s reversible- “evil” side and “good” side.

I also finished this pillow, and made a second:

I have to get a bigger form for the top pillow.

I made this for Michelle at the barn:

“Barn Yard” by Bent Creek I think. Here’s the back and a 3/4 side shot to show the thickness:

 

The horse I tried to emulate Molly, the horse Michelle rides. She’s a chestnut Appaloosa, although the only white spot is low on her belly on the left side, and she has two white socks on the rear.

Off to the couch for me. Merry Christmas and good night!

Almost there…

I finished this for my barn owner:

Here’s the backing fabric:

I think my obligatory cooking is done. I made this:

- a cheesecake for Tom. It came out perfect!

These:

Almond Poppy Seed Breads from Our Best Bites

and this, from Joanne of Thursday Stitching group:

White Chocolate Popcorn with Craisins. So easy! Pop 3 bags of salted-only microwave popcorn. Pour into a huge bowl. Melt one 12 –oz. bag of white chocolate chips- 2 to 2-1/2 minutes on high at 30 second intervals should do it, stirring each interval. Pour chocolate over popcorn and mix to coat evenly. Add one 5-oz bag of craisins and mix again. Spread out on baking sheets to set for an hour or so if you’re packing it up for gifts or start eating- your done! I melted about a 1/4 cup of semisweet chips (the same microwave method) and drizzled that over the spread out popcorn.

Tomorrow I have to brine my turkey, and make cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning, and a batch of chocolate chip cookies because I’m out. Almost all those cookies I made last weekend are gone. I’ve gone thru 5 lbs of sugar, a dozen eggs, and 3 lbs of butter. So far.

Time to wash dishes and have supper and finish another stitchy gift.

Why do I do this to myself???

Every year!! Craft projects right up to the last minute! One down, 5 more to go (that I can think of right now):

Meet LaLa:

The pattern came from Riley Blake Designs, but I realized on my way to work this morning that her pattern is for a two-legged elephant. What 2-year-old wants a two-legged elephant????

So flying by the seat of my pants, I made my own gusset for the belly. While I can now see where my gusset design went awry, it does allow for LaLa (as opposed to Layla) to stand upright on her own. So I suppose I’m somewhat successful.

Five different types of cookies have been baked, a batch of chili on Saturday and a batch of beef stew on Sunday. My feet are killing me! Two batches of baklava, some white chocolate & craisin popcorn, a cheesecake, and possibly almond poppy seed loaves left to do. Plus the craft projects….

Time is Getting away from me….

We had our annual Stitching group Christmas party last Thursday. We went to an Italian restaurant called The Chateau. I had a combo plate of chicken parm, fried ravioli, and a meatball. It was so yummy I ate almost all of it! Then we went to Jeanne’s house for dessert.   I wish I hadn’t eaten 2 slices of Scali bread!

Joanne had brought Cupcake Charlie’s (of Food Network’s Cupcake Wars!) 

Berry Champagne flavor and Chocolate Candy Cane:

Jeanne baked the Pecan Tassies in the foreground- so delicious!

She also baked Surprise Cookies; they are in the back beyond the plate of tassies.

Here’s Deborah, of Cranberry Samplings, taking my picture while I took hers. Check out her latest blog post for more of our merry shenanigans.

Jeanne pulled out all the stops when it came to decorating her house. Just get a look at her Christmas Village display:

   

Two tables’ worth! Her husband wires all the houses so it’s entirely lit. It’s just stunning.

Here’s a view across the kitchen island back towards the breakfast area:

 

And this is so cute- it’s a glass block filled with mini lights. Jeanne changes the adornment for each holiday throughout the year.

Here’s the tree:

It’s actually very straight, despite the photo. I promise it’s NOT because I was drinking! I wish I could decorate my tree like this. It seems it’s a skill I was born without. My tree always looks like I threw the ornaments on from across the room.

An Anna-Lea (?) doll- a lamb knitting a sweater!

Jeanne gave me 2 wonderful gifts- I can’t wait to use them both:

magnetic measuring spoons

And Joanne Chang’s cookbook “Flour”

I want to make EVERYTHING in this book! The recipes look easy, with in-your-cupboard-already ingredients. Plus a lot of the recipes have a stop-here-and-refrigerate-for-when-you-have-more-time-to-finish steps. Awesome for those of us who have places to go & things to do every day after work.

If you click on the pictures they should enlarge.

Thanks to Jeanne and Joanne for a fantastic evening!

HaHa! Another video!

I didn’t have my sound on (at work- shhh!) so I don’t know how noisy this is. I found it on this blog, which looks interesting.  It was a Blogger Blog-of-Note back in November.

Impressions of a Night Before Christmas…

Yet Another Give-Away!

Nancy at Victoria Motto Sampler Shoppe must have gone temporarily insane- too many candy canes or too much eggnog - she's having ANOTHER give-away! Click here to enter!
Drawing is Christmas Day. For those of you who just celebrate generic "Holiday", that would be December 25th.

Give Away Alert!!!

Nancy at Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe is having a give away of her beautiful hand-dyed floss.

But you’re not suppose to enter so that I may win! (Just kidding!!!)

Hurry- drawing is December 17th- just in time for Christmas!

Ummm…that’s …..interesting?

from Etsy:

Anatomical Heart Cross stitch

TGIF..

for lack of a better post  title.

I stitched on Beacon House yesterday:

As you can see, I finished the main portion of the house, and started the roof. This design tickles my soul- I’m very happy to work on it.

I also worked a tad on the CaHRH ornament:

It’s not very much, is it? It’s hard to tell, but it’s over one…

For supper tonight I had the anti-turkey:

For a store-bought freezer pizza, this one wasn’t bad- rising crust with 3 meats: pepperoni, Italian sausage, and Canadian bacon. Plus having the oven on warmed my house a bit!