Finishing What Has Been Started

I have a dozen or so unfinished projects just sitting around my craft room and overflowing, occasionally, into the rest of the house. It always makes me feel guilty for starting something new, knowing that, lurking in some forgotten corner of a neglected shelf, there is a project. A project that was planned, obsessed over, worked on, and then...nothing. It sat. And sat, and sat. And, sitting there, it was forgotten, or at least it was pushed to the bottom of the priority list. (This often happens to me when some holiday or birthday comes around, just begging to be celebrated with hand-made gifts. My current projects, or projects, gets side-lined to make time for the new, shiny idea that I have latched onto. Have I mentioned that I like shiny things? No? I like shiny things.) And, now that project has lost it's luster. It's become difficult to pick up again. Maybe it was more challenging than I originally thought it would be, causing me frustration. Maybe I don't know what the next step should be, and it's something that requires more research. Whatever the reason, it's there collecting dust and guilt.

Time to get moving on it. This is one of my resolutions: If I need to craft/create, let it first be to finish one of the projects that is already started. I would, ideally, like to finish all of my UFOs (un-finished objects) before starting any new projects. Ideally.

So far this year, I have finished an amigurumi octopus that I started more than 2 years ago....

...A yurt, for my cat...

...A couple yarn bowls (one is in my son's play kitchen)...

...And, some painted leather flower hair clips...

The flowers were so much fun to make! I saw these on some awesome blog somewhere...oh, wait...here it is! Between the lines

They started like this, wet and twisted and stretched:

Then, I painted them...about three coats of 50/50 water and acrylic paint,  two to three coats of undiluted acrylic paint. (Paint the backs first. You don't want to mess up the front painting the back, like I did, but you want the back and the edges painted.)

After they were dry, I punched holes and stitched them up with waxed linen thread.

Happy crafting! And, to those of you who are also caught up in this arctic vortex or epic proportions, stay warm, my friends!