I know it's just the fourth of January, and things have gone along swimmingly!! You're sticking to your "I'm not going to eat a pound of butter" resolutions, your "I've made it on to the treadmill four times this year!!" attitude, and your "I haven't yelled at the kids once…well, that one didn't count" goal. 

For me, I didn't really make specific "resolutions". You'll remember my Creative Odyssey goals for this year…pretty general so I could keep safe!! LOL!! 

I am the kind of person who LOVES new, change, adventure, hanging by a thread just for the excitement of it all…and as routine creeps back into our lives, we tend to let that "new car smell" dissipate! We tend to lose our adventure…we lose ourselves and wonder were we really ourselves anyway?

So what do we do?

We go to our Creator…we seek His face…and in His outpouring of love and creation, …

we create!!! 

Here are 5 ways to create your way to keeping your "new car smell":

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1. Grab cool new fabric that makes you SWOON and wish you were in PARIS{ville}!!

Melissa Averinos' Swoon fabric

I'm going to use her book(below) (that I got for my bday back in Aug) to make something using this!!
 

probably something having to do with cool unicorns!! 🙂

and…

Tula Pink's Parisville…ohhhhh yummmmm!!

*sigh* I don't know what to make with this fabric, but it'll be fab whatever it turns out to be!! 🙂

BTW, go organic, just cause you can…

have you felt organic fabric or bamboo batting??? delicious!!!

Ohhhh this is Daisy Janie's fabric Geo Grand. I'm thinking little bags and deco pillows with this!! Check out Jan's blog for more ideas!! You know I will!!

Monaluna's Monaco fabric; I can't wait to create some Earth Day mini quilts with this fabric!! (You will love them, I promise!!!!)

and this little organic ditty by Michelle Bencsko (below)

This is called My Happy Garden Toadstools!! Isn't that fab??? (you should feel it!! YUMMMM!!)

 One of the things I want to add to my shop this year is a sustainable (well, most, if not all, of my products are definitely sustainable!!) organic line. Stay tuned to the shop for that new category…I promise no matter your stance on the environment, you will LOVE this new line!!

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2. Do something challenging and NEW for yourself! (for yourself is the key word here!!)

For me, I'm doing a quick Fabric Stash challenge! This will declutter my craft room, add a little competition to my life (ie, accountability) and produce something fabulous for ME!! :) 

I grabbed all of my scraps that were picked over pieces of Kaara Meng's Lumiere de Noel from French General and I put them in one of my cool locker baskets. I put away the Christmas fabric that was in there (it's now in my "christmas fabric basket" – organization is going to be key to finish millions of projects this year; i can tell!!), and put all of these scraps in there. 

Later this week, I'll figure out a design for my quilt and get to cutting!! yipeeee!!!

Locker Baskets make me super happy!!

and what's up with cats in craft rooms?????

Penny found a nest of Mockingbirds in the ligustram bush outside my window…so fun!!

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3. Go shopping to better yourself in your particular craft!!!

For Christmas, my darling mom blessed me with a GC from my LQS (local quilt store), Quilter's Emporium. I love that store and I usually gorge on fabric (as you can see from above!!), but this year, I got some necessary tools needed in my craft. The best thing was I went on New Year's Eve and got 20% off everything!! Including thread, fabric (not showing that fabric cause it's for a super surprise for a family member!), a pattern (will show that in a sec!) and these goodies…

(sorry for the glare…sometimes my after photo processing goes overboard!! LOL!!)

One of my fave things to do on my miniquilts is to do machine applique…ie, zigzagging around a shape. I found I can't see the edge of the material, especially if it is close to the same color as the background fabric. Enter AcuFeed OpenToe Foot!! Yay!!! (It's like an F2 foot, only it's the even feed foot for the Janome 6600…back to english now!!LOL!!)
 I also grabbed these fun quilting gloves. According to all the quilters I've chatted with, quilting gloves are a necessity! I have a bunch of quilts to make this year, and in the process, I want to learn how to free motion quilt…these are my pass to doing that!! yay!

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4. Go ahead and "outsource" what you need to to keep your sanity!!!

Here's what I did…

several years ago, I entered a contest at my LQS, similar to the one above, and i created a quilt top that won third prize!!! It was a quilt that I let my Emma (11yo) help me design, too, because it was for her! When I embroidered the names of the nursery rhymes she picked, I added batting to actually quilt those blocks. But when it came time to do the actual quilting, I was overwhelmed!! I almost used my fave, quilt basting spray…but this quilt is about 60×60, bigger than I've quilted before…

So I met this girlie online and saw her quilting on her blog…pure gorgeousness!!!

Natalia at Piece-n-Quilt

So I sent Emma's quilt to her right before Christmas and she got it back to me right before Christmas. I finished the binding last night!! (Only took me 2.5 episodes of MI5 to finish it!!) and here it is!!!

(I see a lot of quilts in pics outside, so I had to try it, too!)

It's going in the dryer right now and I can't wait to feel how fluffy it is when it comes out!!! 

("It's soooooo fluffyyyyyyyyyyy!!!" from Despicable Me)

Did I mention how much I love quilts????

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5. Write out all of your projects you want to get done this year, this month, this week…whatever your cutie little brain can handle!! 🙂

I have a page in my notebook with different categories…UFOs (unfinished objects…not from Roswell), Quilts to finish, Quilts to start and finish, BOMs (block of the month – these are old ones that I never finished!!)…

I can wake up with a spring in my step now, because my brain is not worried about forgetting something that I know I need to do!! yay!! and for me, the beauty of this page is that I can pick and choose what I want to do that day, so my RUT isn't created, my adventurous spirit is still assuaged, and I will follow the core value of "Doing what I LOVE" at all times!! (yes, I'm learning to love laundry…I love the people whose clothes I fold…that's for sure!! LOL!!)

Here are some of my projects…

Cora has been asking me for a quilt for when she graduates (year and a half away…Lord, help me!!). She has stolen her father's quilt that his great grandmother Cora made for him, so I promised her one just like it! When we saw this pattern at the quilt store, she said, yes!! and then she remembered that she had received this fabric from our dear friend for Christmas!! And she's letting ME USE IT!!! woooohoooo!! (total win, win!!) LOL!!!

yep, the return of the silly bandz quilts!! I am going to do a whole line of them for the shop!! I knew I was addicted for a reason!! LOL!!

so you have to look closely (click the pic), but when i was quilting this, I accidentally got some fabric stuck in the backing without knowing it. Luckily, it was on a part of the quilt that was okay to cut off. So this will become a piece of fabric collage art!! Can't wait to experiment!! :) 

…….

So as not to overwhelm you (I know, too late!! LOL!!), I'm going to keep some projects for another post! LOL!! 

But as I leave you, here is my NEW52 project for this week…

I took a digital drawing Cora did for her YouTube channel (kids these days!! LOL!!), and I created this little mini quilt! I think it's adorable!! Her drawings are adorable and they translate to fabric super well!! 🙂

I plan on putting this in the Etsy store when I get home from rehearsal tonight!! yipeeee!!!

adorable!! 🙂

 What are you doing to keep the New-ness factor up in your life????