Dicken's Festival 2018

We have been doing some traveling lately. 

This was our annual trip to Holly Michigan for the Dicken's Festival.  

It was not the usual frigid trip and we had a lot of fun!  

There were carriage rides, although we didn't go on one this time.

We love checking out the local antique shops. It is where I usually pick up a creepy elf or 2. 

 No luck this year though.  Maybe they are getting wise to me?

I did see these cute vintage toy sewing machines.

And this adorable puppy basket that was embroidered.  It needed to be finished so I left it. 

 I'm still thinking I should have bought it.  

It would have made an adorable pillow!

There was a guy walking around on stilts.  

I don't think I have ever seen that before IRL!  He was holding mistletoe over couples.

Look who I found as we were leaving.  Of course I needed a photo with him!

More travels tomorrow!

~XOP~

My New Great Niece and the Holly Dicken's Festival

My chenille blanket arrived and my new niece is now wrapped up in some love from me! 

 Isn't she a doll?

This weekend we did a little Christmas shopping and 

on Sunday we ended up in Holly for the Dicken's Festival.  

We try to go every year.  

There are characters from A Christmas Carol strolling around some were singing, some were acting.  Always fun.

There was a live nativity too.

I think this was the first year there was no snow. 

 I usually pick up a few "creepy elves" for my daughter but there was not a creepy elf to be found.  Sad.  I did spy a "Pansy bowl". 

 Have you ever seen them?  

My grandma had one, hers was green.  

You put Pansies in all the slots and eventually you end up with a beautiful Pansy ball. 

 I would love to find one of these.  

This one was close but the slots were a little big and it was not quite domed enough.

I did find this adorable reindeer but not creepy enough and my daughter said 

we are keeping to elves or angels or Santas.  

So I left him in the store.

I tried these odd felt animals but she said no go with those either.

I found the cutest apron. 

 I think, in the future, I may try to make one similar.  

Wouldn't this be adorable with Dresden plates along the hem?

Of course hubby liked this cuter apron. 

 He really wanted to get it for me, but between you and me, I think he had ulterior motives ; ) 

 It was kind of sassy!

On Saturday we did some thrifting in our shopping extravaganza and

 I found this great cake stand, still in the original box! 

 It is called Spirit of Christmas made by Portmeirion.

 I think it looks pretty Scandinavian, don't you?

Well that was my weekend, almost, in a nut shell. 

 I did get a couple of things cut out and ready to sew. 

 I REALLY need to get the Christmas decorations put up, the tree too. 

 Most of the Christmas shopping got done though and that's a great thing.  

I am making some things this year and we are cutting way back, obviously, 

since hubby is still unemployed.

How was your weekend??

~XOP~

Dicken's Festival

Hubby and I go to the Dicken's Festival in Holly, MI every year and this weekend was the time!

They have Dicken's characters strolling about and also some some re-enactments.  

They have loads of antique shops which we love.  

We didn't find a lot of things this time, but the weather was GREAT. 

 We had a really good time.

They came into the main street with a dump truck full of snow and

 we had no idea what they were doing.

  Then we saw this.

Isn't that a great idea?

They also had horse drawn carriage rides

I loved the look of this building, don't you?

The last thing was the food! 

 They were making ribs etc and it smelled soooooo good.

I saw someone that hd the pulled pork nachos. 

 I could not believe how amazing these were.

Even the chips were made fresh!

Then Hubby and I went into a hop and he found this candy bar.

I leave you with this. 

 He was a good sport about the photo!

I have been busy in the sewing room too, so more photos of that soon too.  

Don't forget that if you want to be in the giveaway you need to go here and leave me a comment!

~XOP~

Dicken's Festival Holly Michigan

Yesterday DH and I went to the Dicken's Festival in Holly MI.  We try to go every year.  They have some amazing antique shops and we like to spend the day together.  First though I need to tell you that I finished the embroidered towels.  So if you have not done so then go to the post before this one and enter for a chance to win them.

Here is a peek down the main street

We saw this Dicken's character making these amazing bubbles

Look at who else we found

There was even some ice sculpting

We found some cool antiques too. a GIGANTIC Fostoria punch bowl

A beautiful peacock figure and tapastry

Then I found my usual creepy elves.

And the best two things I found are the Holy water font and the musical angel

So all in all it was a great day spent with DH, getting a few gifts and having a great time! Today I have to finish cleaning and I am *hoping* to get some Christmas stuff put out. I need to order a few more gifts online too. If this isn't enough, my car is making a bad noise and DH thinks we may need to get a new car! I have no idea why, since this one only has 200,000 miles on it! I hope it is something easily fixed with not a lot of money. Anyway, have a great Sunday and don't forget to visit the giveaway post and leave a comment to be entered to win. 

~XOP~

Dickens Festival Holly Michigan

Today, DH wanted to go to the Dickens Festival in Holly Mi. I love going but not so much for the festival but for the amazing antique shops. I always manage to find some creepy elves for DD2 for Christmas. I also started to collect these porcelain headed, angels. It's too dark to take photos tonight but I will do it tomorrow. I believe they are Japanese. I had one when I was growing up and happened to find some others when we have been in Holly.

I went to the gym first, came home showered and we had asked PTM and her DH to join us. They came over and we all went to Holly. We had some great finds today. I think it was especially fun for the guys to finally meet and spend some time together. It's interesting that they seem to have quite a few things in common. Antiquing is one of them. We found 2 cast iron muffin pans and my DH had been looking for those. My favorite thing that I got was another angel a BIG one.

I managed to get a photo of PTM in front of the Holly hotel and then one of her and her DH by the horse drawn carriage.

I think I've shown you this before but they have 2 amazing vampire hunter kits. They are so cool and pretty old (circa 1860).

In addition to that they had a werewolf hunters kit too, complete with Wolf's bane and silver bullets!

They were a little out of my price range!

We left around 5:30 and headed home. We decided to stop at our favorite place to eat, Chopstick House for dinner and then they dropped us off at home. DH and I watched A Christmas Story and now it's time for bed. It was a wonderful day spent with good friends. Bring on the holiday!
XOP

Dickens Festival Holly Michigan

Every year we try to go to the Dickens Festival in Holly. We love the "characters" playing the parts and putting on shows, as well as the antiquing and shopping. It is just a fun place to go. We usually choose the coldest day and go (at least that's how it seems) but this year it was not bitter cold. Here are some of the players.

I saw this neat sewing stand but it was a little too expensive for me! Cute huh?

This desk is so close to one at my dad's I had to take a photo so I can tell him how much it was. Oh, wait...maybe I shouldn't as I want that desk someday.

Look who was wavin' at me! Yep, it was Santa!

I saw several things in Holly Hills Primitives that caught my attention and several had this cute little mouse on them.

At first I thought he was real. Then I looked a little closer.

She also had these really cool wooden icicles. They were so amazing.

The best thing ever though was this vampire hunters kit in the antique shop.

All in all it was a lot of fun. Every year I buy DD2 a "creepy elf" which I usually find in Holly. This year did not disappoint. He is a small little guy but great creep factor. Can't show him until after Christmas though!!

We did manage to get the tree up and the lights on the tree but that's about all. It was a busy weekend. I hope you all had a good weekend too.