Happy Christmas! Happy New Year!

Yea, okay. So I'm a little late with both of those greetings. As I mentioned, my family came for the holidays. They were here almost three weeks. While they were here we had: 3 cases of food poisoning, 1 stomach bug, 1 trip to A&E, 1 case of travel sickness, 1 bad two-day trip, and 1 ceaseless head cold. Luckily we got most of that out of the way before Christmas, so the rest of their stay was much more pleasant. So please forgive my absence [again, ahem].

Paper fir tree made for an origami-loving neighbor, following this video.

If you remember, I had a little list I wanted to complete before Christmas. Here's the list and how I fared:
  -Complete a certain pair of stuffed items for two boys for Christmas - DONE!
  -Make stockings for said boys - DONE!
  -Finish any custom orders from Etsy - DONE!
  -Make a sweatshirt for Scooch - Still not done. I took a little break from sewing.
  -Make ornaments for our mini tree - I didn't make any ornaments, but I have a plan for that. Plus, my dad found little toys to hang on the tree instead and I thought it looked rather cute, and fitting for us this year.

Stockings for my boys, made from Noodlehead's pattern here. 

I made them longer so the top was folded over.

I'm pleased with how I did. We also got loads of cookies made. Well, I say we, but Mom did most of it, along with cooking us dinner every night AND cleaning up EVERY night AND doing all our laundry. Yup, my mom rocks. I know, you're jealous. Too bad, she's mine. *evil grin*

Crappy night photo of this bag by Punkin Pattern, made for a tween boy friend of mine.

The reason for my sewing hiatus was due to the three custom orders I last completed. Since I had gotten out of the swing during the holidays, I cut stuff the wrong size, sewed stuff together wrong, and even put the wrong buttons on two of them. So I decided to take a week or so off. Now I'm itching to get back in there. I've been inspired by one of my favorite bloggers, Katy, of No Big Dill (she's amazing by the way. with 6! little ones she still sews and blogs and is just so darn sweet all at the same time!) talked about her resolution to finish up standing projects. Luckily my unfinished pile is rather small, but I'm definitely ready to take care of it. So in between something new (including some new stuff for the shop), I'm going to finish up something old that has been laying around, waiting to be finished. Most things are sooo close to done that I could realistically finish two or three in an evening.

Small version of Style C of the Perfect Zip Bag from Oh, Fransson! for a girl friend of mine.

Small version of Style A of the Perfect Zip Bag from Oh, Fransson! for same girl.

Buttercup Bag by Made-By-Rae for same girl (I know, lucky girl, right?)

As far as my own resolutions go, I know myself well enough to not make any. My resolutions list always ends up being too long, with unrealistic tasks, that goes unglanced at from about 2 Jan on. So I set myself goals as I see a need for them. One at a time. Sometimes I meet them. Sometimes I don't. I've learned to cut myself some slack. *smile*

Fat Dragons for my boys. I like them more than they do.

Tomorrow (yes, tomorrow) I'll be back with a new, year-long feature. I know my track record for features on this blog is laughable. I do plan to complete this one, as well as revive the others. Here's to sticking with things! (And no, that wasn't a resolution either, just a pledge to be a better blogger.)