A little bit of sewing/crafting...

actually has been going on in these parts-- *i know big shocker there* Mostly, they were Christmas gifts (I know, I am seriously behind in posting about these!), I am sad to say that very few of my gifts were handmade this year. So LAME. Grand plans were made, poor execution of laid out plans and a crazy flu bug that hit our family hard. Note to self: I am starting Christmas in July or now for that matter... 

The first gift I made was for my secret santa at work (she happens to be one of my fave ladies, totally lucked out!) I came up with a simple idea of a yarn wrapped idea (ok Pinterest influenced that a little) so I made a quick venture to the dollar store (picked up a floral foam wreath, hey it was a buck and it was going to work), went through my stash of yarn and started wrapping--- then it turned into this:

I used the some fabric and heavy fusible interfacing to make the leaves (I ran a quick blanket stitch around the edges) and then I used the Clover templates to make fabric pom-pom things- you can find them here. I made one large (the solid) and two medium (the while/patterned ones). They are super easy to make just lots of cutting, but it turned out to be a great weeknight project. Hot glue holds it all together. She loved it!

Also, the best pal was dying for a mug rug (I mean literally talking about, hinting at, every day or so... I almost couldn't take it anymore- just kidding) she got one after Christmas (when i was back on my almost A game) with a little hidden paper pieced gnome:

She was jazzed to say the least and it now resides on her desk.  I also did some hand embroidery on 8 fur stockings (names)- I never took any photos of them :( and I worked on them when I was insanely sick. They turned out alright and the recipients loved them. 

I have several more projects in the works that just need to be finished up! Can't wait to show you :)