Something Small, Something New and a Little Progress Too

After all the large projects I've been doing, I felt the need to do something small, so that I'd feel I actually accomplished something.
So here they are, a book mark and a Christmas decoration.
The hanger on the Christmas decoration is actually green, but for some reason my scanner picked it up as blue.

So with those finished I was ready to move onto something else. I decided to work on this cute, stamped cross stitch panda.

As a general rule I hate stamped cross stitch. You can't get the stitches even and cover the markings for stitching at the same time. But I didn't realise it was stamped cross stitch when I bought it, and I intend giving it as a gift.

I have done a little more on African Sunset, but not much. I find it very frustrating having to change colours all the time, and the colours are much different that what I usually work with. I really hope the person I plan to give it to still likes it by the time I finish.

Now the question is, can I get African Sunset and Hang in There Panda done by the time I plan to give them to the intended recipients. I'm beginning to have my doubts.