Christmas Stockings are Finished!!

I had 3 stockings to make for this year.
THEN, I ended up having one more to make, for our new SIL.

Linking up with Crazymomquilts 

First up is the one I made for my nephew's newest daughter, Reagan.  Their colors are blue and yellow. (Yes you know, my *favorite* colors to work with!).

Next up are my other nephew and God son and his new wife.
I used the line North Woods by Kate Spain.
 I love this line!  So Nordic!!

It's a little difficult to see but I used the birds in aqua and in red to line the stockings.

A closer view of the stockings. 

I realized that our new son in law would be at our house Christmas morning
and he did not have a stocking!
Since he is co-owner of the peacock farm, I made his in peacock colors.

With peacock feathers on the back.

I will link up to Crazy Mom Quilts (or I will try) once she is live.

Have a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday (to those that don't celebrate Christmas)

~XOP~

WIPs With Friends

Can you believe it is almost Christmas? Are you working on any last minute projects?  

I have been wrapping like a boss!  Ah and look who is "helping" me wrap! 

I was sitting at the sewing machine the other night and 

she also decided that she needed to show that machine some kitty lovin'.  

My Bernina is now HERS!

Then I decided that our new SIL needed a stocking at our house so I cut one out and sewed the front.  The next part was to cut out the lining, with help from herself of course!  

How do I manage to get any work done without her help??  

Once the requisite amount of cat fur was evenly distributed I was allowed to cut it out.

I am still working on finishing this one.  I hope to show all the stockings on Friday.

~XOP~

Now it's your turn to link up your finishes here. 

 Remember that if you do post in the link up here

 you should post a link back to this post on your own blog too.

So now it's your turn to share what you are working on.  

Please use the linky to link up and share that you linked up to WIPs With Friends on your blog too.  If using Instagram please use the hashtag

#wipswithfriends.  

We can't wait to see what you are working on!

Use the blue Inllinkz button to link up and spread the word by linking back to this post!

An InLinkz Link-up

Roasted Beet and Carrot Salad

I rarely post about food I have made but I just had to share this with you all.  

I have joined Weight Watchers (again) and it was a recipe from them.  

I did not have lime zest or scallions and used Romaine and head lettuce 

(it's what I had on hand) 

and this was an amazing salad!!!

I ended up roasting the veggies for about half an hour longer than they suggested. 

 I used Fat Free Feta cheese as that is what I had at home too.  I also used regular carrots. 

 I guess I really made it my own!  LOL  

Mine was not so pretty as the one they have in the photo above. 

 I used a LOT more lettuce and then tossed it all together.  I took this pic after we had eaten half of it.  

People, this was amazing!!  We had pot stickers for dinner with this hearty salad. 

 Hubby doesn't like beets but I love them.  

Using fresh roasted veggies made this incedible!!  I can NOT stress this enough.  

You need to try this!

That is all...Cary on

~XOP~

Christmas Tree Remembrances

I finally got the house decorations up and got the tree decorated!  

I have decided that I will put an ornament on the tree for each cat from our family 

that has crossed to the rainbow bridge.  

I thought I would share the latest two with you.

We lost Mosen in the fall of 2015.  He was a beautiful tuxedo cat. 

 He was the brother of Aiden and Autumn.  

I was able to train him to say "mama" when he wanted my attention.  

Oh my sweet, sweet boy, you are so very missed.

This is the ornament I bought to represent him.

We lost Aiden last March (2016).  

She was the sister of Autumn and Mosen.  

We called her Fatty McFatty and she was super sweet. 

 VERY much a talker and loved to lay next to me whenever I was sitting on the couch.  

I miss her sweet, purr infused voice.  We miss you too Aiden!

This is the ornament I bought in honor of her.

Since I don't have ornaments for some of my past cats, I decided a Day of the Dead cat could represent all of the cats that have crossed over to the Rainbow Bridge.

I worked on another Christmas stocking too.  

I got all of the Christmas cards addressed and ready to send out. 

 I made some banana bread and did laundry.  

Hubby did all the snow blowing since we got a crap ton of snow on Friday night.  

Also my car got a flat tire and he had to deal with that today.

I leave you with a fun photo of Beep "bird watching".  

She will be over for Christmas as well as our dog Abbey and our nephew's dog, Segram. 

 It will be a house full of people and pets!

I hope all my friends are gearing up for a fantastic holiday season too!

~XOP~

WIPs With Friends

I don't know if you missed WIPs With Friends last week, but I was SO ill! 

 Last Wednesday I slept for all but about 4 hours of the day.  

I apologize for not posting but I was face planted in my bed. 

 I am much better, only some congestion left.

So what have I been working on you ask?  Christmas stockings!  

I have three to make and can only show some of them until next week 

(then it will be on a finish it Friday post!)  

I have a pattern that I like to use that I got for free from the Internet.  

The person that posted it has since taken it down. 

Thankfully I have it printed and keep it where I can find it!  

Here is the beginning of one of the stockings.  

Actually I totally spaced on taking progress photos but 

here is the first stocking before I put the name on it.

The other two are almost finished but I will only show you the backs.

I am totally in love with this line by Kate Spain, North Woods.

What are you working on?  Share with us!

~XOP~

Now it's your turn to link up your finishes here. 

 Remember that if you do post in the link up here

 you should post a link back to this post on your own blog too.

So now it's your turn to share what you are working on.  

Please use the linky to link up and share that you linked up to WIPs With Friends on your blog too.  If using Instagram please use the hashtag

#wipswithfriends.  

We can't wait to see what you are working on!

Use the blue Inllinkz button to link up and spread the word by linking back to this post!

An InLinkz Link-up

A Little Trip

On Friday I went with my SIL and my husband to visit Shipshewana.  

If you have followed me at all you know that this is one of our favorite places to visit.  

I was hoping to pick up some Christmas fabric that I needed to finish the stockings I wanted to make.  We went to Lolly's and Yoders and NO luck!  Can you believe that??  

How are both shops about not to have what I need??  I

 chose the North Wood line by Kate Spain for the stockings.  

I am TOTALLY in love with this line of fabric.  My especial favorites are these two prints.

My heritage is Scandinavian and this line is so representative of that.

  I only took a couple of photos while we were in Shipshe.  

It was a cold overcast day and almost no one was there.  Perfect!  T

he only down side was that they don't make fry pies in the winter.  

WHAT???  No fry pies???  I was crushed.  

I did find these amazing fish chairs.  

Too bad the resin furniture is so expensive or this would have been my daughter's.

You can see how the sky looked on Friday.  Cool photo op though.

We started decorating the house on Saturday and on Sunday we got dumped on!  

This was my deck in the morning.

This was a peek into the back yard.

The view out the front door about 9pm.

This morning as I got on the bus to go to work, this was the parking lot.  We got about 10" last night.

So that catches you up on my doings.  

I did manage to make progress on the stockings 

but I can't show you until they are delivered to their new homes.  

How was your weekend?

~XOP~

Aren't Friends the BEST?

I am sorry that I missed WIPs With Friends on Wednesday.

  I took the day off work. I was so sick! 

 I think I slept all but 4 hours of the day yesterday.  

I am better today, (read with cold dope on board) but wowsa did this cold knock me for a loop!!! 

 I hope to be back at it next week and I hope you will have stuff to share too.

I was showing a friend the Ghastlies fabric and I think I told you all I asked on IG if anyone could share the one wee peacock with me.  

One of my friends sent me an entire FQ!!!  Woo Hoo look at that bird!!!  

Can't wait to cut into this one!

I also met up with my friend Jackie one morning and she gave me this amazing Halloween fabric to use as I can in my Hallowedding quilt!  

She also brought me some Cat Nap scraps.  This is probably one of my all time favorite lines. 

 It is no longer in production.  It was by Lizzy House.  

Those cats...swoon!!!

Thank you so much my dear sweet friend!

I have begun collecting navy and indigo fabrics for the Ocean Waves QAL quilt too. 

 I'm not sure which ones will make the final cut but it's a good start.  

I am unsure if you have heard of Lularoe clothing but I am HOOKED!

They have the softest leggings ever.

I bought a Christmas pair (it has bunnies on it) 

and this dress (called a Carly) to wear with them.

(Sorry I look like such a goof ball.  I didn't know she was taking a pic of all of me!)

Closer up of the leggings.  So comfortable!  

My husband asked if everything had to be worn with leggings and I said YES! 

 I hardly ever wear jeans anymore now.  If you are not familiar you should be!

I am off to Shipshewana for the last visit of the season today with my hubby and his sister.

I will report back, most likely on Monday so have a great weekend everyone!!

~XOP~

Hanging With My Friends

I was able to go shopping with a few of my work friends last weekend.  

There is a BIG outlet mall a few hours away.  

So we loaded up our car and drove there, picking up another friend on the way. 

 The first stop was Bronners.  

A HUGE store full of Christmas ornaments and related items.

I snapped this outside of Bronners. 

 I bought some Santa headbands but no one wanted to wear them...YET

This was cool but too dark.

Here we were inside the shop.

Isn't this winter scene so cute?  I loved the light up trees.

There was a light up pond with Rudolph and Clarise on it too!!

 I have a Jim Shore nativity but this white version is so pretty!

My daughter does not put up a Christmas tree or this peacock tree topper would have come home with me!

 Next up was lunch at a famous place called Tonys. 

 Known for their gigantic portions of food. 

 Especially bacon!  

None of us got the bacon but a nice man let me snap this pic of his club sandwich.

After we were all fed we were off for some serious shopping. 

 Here are the four of us wearing our Santa headbands.  We had such a fun day shopping together!

This was the back of the car with all of our purchases!!!

Judith (in the red) was wanting to go so she borrowed my scarf and blindfolded our other friend to lead her out of the store!  

A fun time was had by all.  As we dropped off our one friend we all ended up back at our friend, Robin's house for a glass of wine and some chatter to talk about our trip.

I think we are going to make this an annual event.

~XOP~