Making a list...

checking it twice, gonna find out...

And checking items off my list. I actually made several gifts earlier this year like these and these, and though I have a few more to make, I'm getting very close to being complete. It feels good, but I think it feels best that I let go of the frantic Christmas a few years back. Many of my gifts are now handmade and straight from the heart, and I've cut back on the number of gifts I give. That came after much soul searching and realizing that I was only one of many who gave gifts to my family members and there was just too much 'stuff' for the recipients to keep track of and take care of after the holidays.

Another change I made is to make name tags for each of my kids' and grandkids' gifts instead of buying an ornament. This will be my third year of doing this and I've just finished up this year's tags. Tah dah! 

My intent is for each of the handmade tags to be hung on their trees in subsequent years and I'm hoping they have fun looking back at the year each was given.

While the idea for this year's tags came from the purl bee from way back, I saw an opportunity to use up some of the felt, beads and sequins in my stash. Stash busters are the best even though I barely put a dent in the sequin supplies. Why don't they offer just little bits of colors instead of whole bottles? I'm not sure about you, but there is no way I would take the time to sew a whole bottle of sequins on anything at one time. By the way, I sewed jump rings onto the back instead of making my loops out of thread. This way, an ornament hook can be slipped onto the jump ring to hang. Just a thought.

Now, back to that list...