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I feel like I'm waking from a long, dreamy nap...you know the kind that makes you question where you are, what happened and what time is it already?! The past week flew by like that. Actually, I'd say right after Thanksgiving things were on fast forward and haven't stopped since. Our family had a great time celebrating the holidays with friends and family. The above was one of my favorite gifts. A very modest, beginner-style sewing machine. Perfect for someone who said to her helpful mom..."You mean thread comes down from the top AND up from the bottom?! At the same time! WOW." And that would not be my daughter talking to me, but me talking to my mom who guided me through my very first sewing project.

disclaimer: I did have a Holly Hobbie toy sewing machine way back when, but that couldn't really be classified as sewing could it?

So from a "Pattern for Dummies" with Mom standing by, I made this table runner for the dining room. It even has a fancy navy cord detail on the edges that is hard to fully appreciate in this photo. Trust me it's there and I have to say I'm pretty proud to have managed this.

After the runner, the sewing bug officially took hold. A day or two later, I wandered into the fabric section at IKEA and fell in love with this fabric. And like many of my project ideas, I couldn't sleep until I had whipped up two valances for my office with a touch of vintage brown seam binding. This project was a little bumpy with no pattern or Mom to guide me, but I'm getting better.

Two no sew projects (my specialty) also happened over the last week. First, I decided to cover my drafting table chair. I used my fancy upholstery tool a.k.a.flat head screw driver to shove fabric into the crack between cushion and rim.

This actually was a piece of cake. That fabric is wedged in really tight and is nice and smooth all around. Now I've got a spiffy "new" chair for a new year of art.

Finally, Modge Podge and leftover fabric scraps transformed my office switch plates. Another easy, inexpensive, satisfying kind of project. So besides the usual holiday stuff, you've caught a glimpse of the threads I've been working on here. Time to flip on 2009. Happy New Year to you!