I hope you and yours had a lovely holiday and a fabulous beginning to the new year.

After doing all the 'things' in December and throwing everything and everybody into a completely different schedule, life tends to be a little chaotic. Everyone is off. There's all this extra stuff in the house. You're eating things you don't normally eat and allowing a lot more sugar in your diet. Not everyone is getting to bed on time. And there's always, always something else to do. 

As much as I love all of it, it's always nice to come back to the norm. And it seems like January is all about getting back into your routine and getting your house and your family back in order. So that's what I've been doing.

Now that things are settling down, I thought I'd share a little of what I've been doing.

I had an idea for some additions to our congregation's visitor bags so I've been working on some samples of those. 

First up was coffee sleeves. I don't drink coffee or soda much either so I didn't really look twice at these every time I've seen them. But they are apparently quite popular.

They are the same as the little cardboard sleeves you get from the coffee shop but these are better. They are thicker so they protect your hands better and they are reusable so you are using something that won't be thrown in a landfill. On top of that, you can make them in any fun print you want which personalizes your drink making it easy to identify from other similar cups.

I got the pattern from here.

The next thing I wanted to try out was a journal cover. It uses these little inexpensive ones (this one was at Walmart for just over a dollar).

I picked out two coordinating fabrics. These came from that bumblebee fat quarter bundle I mentioned before.

Cut out my pieces and started putting them together.

And it turned out pretty cute too.

I had initially intended to put this hexagon fabric as the lining and the other as the outer fabric but when I turned it, I liked this so much better I left it. I ended up putting a ribbon in the hole for turning because I liked this side better for the front too.

I guess there's a little room to play with in this pattern. If you want to see the tutorial for these, it's here. 

I also plan to add to my list for us to consider:

Pocket tissue covers (By the way, they were a hit and everyone loved them.)

Bible pen holders

A zipper bag

A mug rug or coaster (to go with the coffee cup that's usually in there)

Or some other thing I come up with.