This year I participated in the the same ornament swap that I done for the last five (or is it six?) years. I almost opted out this time, mostly because I don't do much crafting these days and I didn't know if I'd have the time, but now that it's over I'm glad I did it and I'm already thinking about what I can make for next year's swap.

I made these little cupcake ornaments, and I think they turned out pretty well. I had an extra one that I made for myself, but I ended up giving it to someone else. I'd like to have one to keep, but I'm pretty sick of making cupcakes, so I don't know if that will happen!As always, I got some pretty adorable stuff in return. It's always fun to hang the new ornaments on the tree.Since I was already doing the ornament swap, I went ahead and did another swap that included making something for four other friends. I made them each a set of four cloth napkins.In exchange, I received a Christmas plate, two knitted washcloths, a hanging kitchen towel, and a decorated canvas that is now hanging in our living room.For both of these swaps, I am happy to say that I used only items that I already had in my basement. My goal was to not buy anything new, and it isn't as fun as going to pick out new fabric, etc., but I did it. There is so much fabric, yarn, and other random crafty stuff in my basement that I could probably do swaps for several years and still never have to buy anything new!

Last week I was reading through some of my old blog posts, and feeling sorry that I haven't blogged nearly as often in the last two years. I am feeling a little more inspired after reading old posts, so now I'm going to try to blog at least once a week. In the past I always tried to have pretty pictures on here, but now it seems like whenever I take pictures with the intent of using them in the blog, it just doesn't ever happen. The pictures sit in my camera for weeks and never see the light of day. So, I am hopefully going to be blogging more, but be warned that most pictures will likely be those of the crappy cell phone variety. Since I can take those and immediately email them to myself, I am much more likely to actually blog about them!