lately.

I haven't done much for sewing... a few Christmas gifts were made and are ready to give. I've done a lot of painting, cleaning and decorating though. Things that need to get done and taken care of before more time gets away from me. My boys each have their own space now and that called for new paint and organization in each of their rooms. I hope I'm almost finished with that now because I'm itching to sit down at the sewing machine.

I've been enjoying browsing Pinterest for fun ideas of things to make with the kids. We decided to make these snowman ornaments yesterday. They're simple and quick and once they're dry, the kids had fun decorating them with markers.

We made these Jolly Elves a couple weeks ago. Ours aren't as cute as the original idea, but no one wanted to wait for paint to dry and we just went with the really colorful elf look (and I didn't want to go out and buy other beads).

I'm also enjoying seeing these two projects around the house again. They're both in a new book by John Q. Adams (Quilt Dad) called Pretty in Patchwork: Holidays! The book is available as e-book right now and will be printed next spring or summer. I'm so excited about it... there are so many projects that I would actually make in this book.

I hope you are all doing well with your Christmas preparations. I just have some wrapping to do and kids to entertain. Hopefully I can make some time to sit down at my machine and sew. Somehow, that's quite a relaxing thing for me to do.
~Jessica