Fun For Friday - What The Dickens?

Happy Friday, I hope it's a fun day for you.  This morning I tried my hand at making a video on my camera.

Well, I'm no Marty Scorscessi, but here is my 2012 Dickens Village display.  The music is a little to soft to hear, but it was early and someone was still sleeping.

The area on the table is the village with cottages (watch out for that deadly train!) and on the piano is the town with shops.

coco has a dog crate in our dining room and it got a new draping.  I love this antique bow tie with my wallpaper.

This week I made one of my favorite recipes:  Honey Mustard.
It is great on Ham or Turkey or with pretzels.  It will thicken when refrigerated. 

Honey Mustard

Ingredients:

4 oz. coleman's dry mustard
1/4 tsp ground red pepper
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp black pepper

1 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar
2 cups of sugar
2 sticks butter

3 beaten eggs

Cooking instructions:

Combine the first 4 ingredients with 1/4 cup of water in sauce pan - whisk to make paste.
Add vinegar and sugar, keep whisking.
Bring to a boil, whisking regularly
Add 2 sticks butter, keep whisking until all better is melted.
Turn off and let cool for 2 hours.

After cooling, add 3 beaten eggs to mixture and bring to a boil again.
Remove from heat and let cool for a couple of hours,  then refrigerate.

Recipe makes about 3 cups and keeps very well.









Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Just Elfing Around!

Not much is happening quilting wise, so today I'm sharing some Holiday Decorating that I've been doing.

This is a vintage jewelry piece I purchased at a craft sale years ago.  I think it would be fun to make one of these.  It includes a rosary and lots of pretty baubles.

Hooray!  My Christmas cactus bloomed and it is Hot Pink -  My amaryllis was a total dud this year, never sprouted :(

I hang a lighted garland with fruit and nut ornaments around our eating area.  It is lovely at night but hard to photograph.  The paper whites are doing well on the table.

Even the bathroom is not safe at this time of year.  Our master bath gets a couple of decorations.  The feather tree has miniature vintage ornaments.

Here is my homage to my favorite holiday movies, The Christmas Story (you'll shoot your eye out! Fragileee) and Charlie Browns Christmas (I killed it).  The quit was made by Illinois friends when I moved to NJ.  

I collect lighted ceramic trees and it looks right at home on my 50s drink cart.

Hope you are having fun Decking the Halls!

Fun For Friday - FRANKENSTORM!! and a Feline Rebellion

Happy Friday!
I just finished my Sandy commemorative quilt; Frankenstorm.

I quilted it with a spiral - what else?

It was fun to pick these tiny fussy cuts.  They are 3/4"

The backing has a FQ of this Peanuts "Great Pumpkin" print that I have had for years and years.  I have no idea where I picked it up.

I wish I knew why Linus is having a converstion with himself in the upper left hand corner.  Seems like a weird misprint, very funny.

 

Here is a photo to show scale.  It is 21" x 21".

 

On a recent trip to NYC I picked up this fun christmassy fabric from City Quilter.

I made up some quick Kleenex covers with it.

My coco seems to get all the face time here, but we also live with two sweet cats; Starbuck and Luna.  They delivered a harsh reprimand about never being mentioned, so here is their moment.

 

A quilt I made in 2005 for my daughter.

Starbuck seems appeased.

Have a Wonderful weekend!

Fun For Friday - Giving Thanks

I hope everyone had a wonderful day yesterday feasting and watching football and enjoying family and friend time.

Sharing our feast with coco is one of my favorite parts of the day.

What a good girl, here she is sitting and waiting.

It was gone in about 1 minute.  She's a clean plate club kind of a girl.

A shot of our table before the main event.

Instead of shopping (no way) I'm spending the day getting organized for Christmas decorating and sewing.

This morning I was collecting the turkeys for storage and I thought they made a funny flock.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone and Happy Friday!

As The Iron Steams - Season 2 Premier

I can't believe it!  I've had to lay another iron to rest.  It was only 8 months old.  You can see the first installments of the serial HERE and HERE.

In order to provide full transparency, I must admit that I dropped the old one.  I was concentrating on my pressing and thought I was over the board..... It seemed fine at first, but I fear it was just stunned.  In no time it was leaking all over :(

All I could think is "I don't deserve nice things".  So I bought a cheap iron this time.  So far we are getting along just fine.

I've made progress on my storm at sea.  I'm shocked how long it takes to make such a tiny quilt.

Here is a photo to show the scale -

I've sent these blocks to Beth for her House Swap.
There is still time to participate.  Deadline is January 1st. 

This is my "girls just wanna have fun house"

She is also collecting 12 1/2" blocks for charity quilts.

With so many things to be Thankful for this Thanksgiving I want to take a moment to thank all my blog friends and readers who leave me nice comments, words of encouragement, and who have also shared their inspiration with me.

Happy Thanksgiving U.S. friends, and thanks to friends everywhere!