Happy New Year!

I hope you've had a wonderful Christmas (Hannukah/Yule/Kwanzaa/Festivus) & New Year!  Of course everyone is talking about New Years resolutions, and there's no exception here.  Since sharing it is supposed to make you more accountable, I guess I ought to, right??  Here's my little countdown list:

#5   Blog at least once a week!  I've really been slacking lately with my blogging, but I'll show you why shortly.  I really feel the need to blog regularly, and I want to get into a routine with it, so I don't have an excuse.

#4  Game night at least once a month with the kids.  Don't get me wrong, we spend quite a bit of our free time with the kids, but I want to have at least one night a month where we play a board game (or two).  This New Years Eve we played Monopoly and Life and had a ton of fun, and I think we need to do that more often.

#3  Work on at least 1 project a week.  I tend to do lots and lots and lots of working on projects, then I have dry spells.  I want to even this out a bit, and work on at least one thing a week, even if I don't complete it.

#2  Excercise more.  You knew it was coming.  This is big on my list.  Again, I might start this for a week, maybe even two and then stop.  But, I seriously need to lose some weight, and we will be joining the YMCA within the next 2 weeks to work on this.

#1 You guessed it: Eat healthier.  Over the last year or two, our food choices have been getting worse and worse.  We've really gotten away from home cooked meals a lot lately, and I want to get back in the habit of cooking nightly.  And by cooking, I don't mean throwing a frozen pizza in the oven!  I want home cooked meals at least 5 nights a week.  I will add more fruit and veggies to our diet.  And no more fruit snacks for the kids!

Alright- you didn't come here to read about my resolutions.  If you've made it this far without running away crying from boredom, I congratulate you.  So, without further ado, the latest project I finished was a purple and pink twirly skirt for Miss Maya (aka Misses Boss). 

1. Pouty Girl, 2. Silliness, 3. Seriously mom?, 4. Just let me watch Spongebob, 5. Slow Twirl, 6. How many pictures do you need to take?

This was made from the tutorial here at the Polka Dot Chair.  I didn't have the full yardage in any one fabric, so I ended up using 4 fat quarters, plus a little more for the waistband & ruffles.  I had some sparkly pink ric rack that I had no idea where it came from or what I was going to use it on, but Maya loves it.  Also in the pictures are leggings made from some clearanced Target socks, tutorial is here.

Lastly, here is the project that's been keeping me away from the computer:

This is my first lap-sized quilt made for my mom for Christmas.  I was very rushed, and had to cheat to complete the binding Christmas Eve, but I did it!  The fabrics in the 9-patch blocks are from Rural Jardin by French General for Moda fabrics.  The rest of the fabrics were just picked up from JoAnn's, except for the top 2/3's of the backing which is a sheet from Target.  I worked on it nearly every night from Thanksgiving until Christmas Eve, many times into the early morning hours.  It is definitley not perfect, but I love it and I can't wait until I have one made for myself.  The pattern is a slight variation from the one here, the difference being I discarded the border for time constraints.