I don't know when the last time I posted was, how sad is that?! My cousin said I needed to post again, which is very true! I have been so very busy since November getting things ready for Christmas and then for a baby shower for my sister in law, who is having her first, which is a little girl! We are so excited for her!

Need some ideas for Christmas gifts for this year, since it's January and all, it's never to young to start planning, right?

For neighbors, we made about 20 dozen mini muffins including, lemon poppyseed, butterscotch chips, pumpkin chocolate chip and oatmeal. It's pretty easy to make that many when they are small and you double the batch. We ended up taking around over 20 plates to neighbors and friends in the ward.

Then I started on teacher gifts. I don't usually do these because of the time and money that you have to put out. Guess I'm just cheap, and always forget until the last minute. I decided to do something that maybe they didn't have already. I know some of you have made these before or have even received them as gifts before. This was my first time trying these out and I have to say, they were very easy!

I found some little terra cotta pots at Michaels for less than $1 each and had the kids each paint one. Then I made flower pens. The pens I had gotten for free with coupons sometime last year, which helped me to use quite a few of them. I got flowers and floral tape from the dollar store and then wrapped pen with tape and a flower. I also had some little wooden letters that we painted and put on the pot for the teachers initial of their last name and then we glued a butterfly on the side as well. I put popcorn kernals in the pot to hold the pens in. They turned out so very cute and from what I hear, the teachers just loved them! So yay for us!

I just had tons of little projects that I did up until Christmas. The next one is an upcycling project.  I have wanted a necklace holder for quite a while now and have tried to figure out the cheapest and easiest thing to do. Since we finally finished our shed out back, we had some scrap wood left over that we werent using. Cedar 2X4s to be exact. So I had my most wonderful and handy husband, cut it down for me. I painted it with some acrylic paint that I have had for a long time now. For the knobs, I kept them from a dresser we had that our kids destroyed, but I just couldn't throw out the knobs, they are so vintage. So here is the finished necklace holder. It hangs in my closet and I just love it!

So my final project that I finished was a rag quilt. In trying to decide what I wanted to do for my sister in law for her baby, I remembered I had a bunch of girlie flannel. I googled and looked on pinterest how to make a rag quilt. I found one pattern that I just loved. It doesn't have a back on it, you make each square with batting inbetween each square and then sew them all together. I started cutting out what flannel I had and then realized I really didn't have enough to make the whole blanket, and I had way too much pink in it. My sister in law is not a fan of pink, so I didn't want it to have too much, so I ran to the store and way able to find some really cute blue fabric that had kittens on it and a green check fabric, these turned out so cute with the rest and went very well together, especially for being random. It was time consuming, probably took me about 10+ hours start to finish, but it was easy, all straight stitches, so it sewed up pretty easy, the worst was trying to cut all the edges so they will fray when you wash it. I dear friend of mine let me borrow her sharp scissors, which went really well, but I cut for about 2 hours straight and must have damaged a nerve in my thumb or something because my thumb was pretty sensitive for a couple weeks after, so if I were to do it again, which I hope to, I will take a break every 20 minutes or so. It turned out great though and she just loved it and I hope she gets some good use out of it!

So this was my month before Christmas. 2013 has been busy and fun as well. So many more projects, not so many sewing, but crochet. I learned how to make round scarves. I did make a little tote bag for a girl I babysit that she can take to church and keep her things in. But more on that another time. Have a great day everyone!