Hello Monday

Hello all you Monday peeps! Hope today is bright and cheery for you. I've been snuggling a teething baby who is comfort nursing like crazy all morning which has been lovely so far. His first tooth is coming in, just barely peeking up in those pink little gums of his, so we will see how lovely nursing is once it fully comes in {he's a biter!}

Ok so my weeks inspirations are sewing spaces. When we decided to try for a baby we knew that meant giving up our office/sewing room to a nursery. At first I was all for it and once baby came, sewing wasn't on the top of my list of to do's. But now that he is older and I have more time to sew and am getting back into it all, I really miss my sewing room! Right now it is on a small wall in our main living space on a tiny {but amazing} Singer sewing table as well as strewn about our dinning table and is cluttered beyond all belief because our entire home has no storage space! Sad me right now. I'm trying to find a way to make it all work and I am hoping I can do that keeping my sewing table where it is right now, but I'm finding that it is quite difficult. I have some options: keep it there and work with the space, move it into the garage {which we would have to make room for me in there}, or put it in my closet in our bedroom. I like the third option the best because it's practical and I won't freeze {or sweat during summer months} my hiney off! So lately I've been trying to find some inspirations to help fix this issue of mine and get me excited about sewing again.

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I think this would be a great fit for me because I can close everything up {I would still keep my closet doors on} and have plenty of room for storage and whatnot. Plus, my honey is moving his office into our bedroom {with the promise to not be a clutter fiend} so we can spend time together while working.

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I love the cutting table. I have one in the garage, which is great, but it's freezing and it's in an inconvenient spot. I know that most of my sewing storage will need to be out there, so I also have to work on making a space that works for me and is easy to get to.

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I currently have a space like this. If I decide to keep it where it is now, I will definitely pull from this and use vertical wall space {we have vaulted ceilings!}

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I just love how there are so many elements, but it doesn't look cluttered at all. I think it is because of the white space; it keeps it open, airy, and light, which makes you able to put different objects, colors, elements with out it being dark and cluttered.

{{Via}}

Needing a long table space for my serger and machine. Plus I like to have things on my 'desk' so I'll need all the space I can get.

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I love the vintage everything! I also love the organization of the fabric and the jars to store things in. Im very visual so when things are packed up in bins and shut away, my inspiration gets shut away too. Plus that machine is to die for! And I actually have one of those with its original table too!

What are your weeks inspirations? 

Pixie Candy's Projects Review + A Giveaway

I had the opportunity to review a kid's sewing DVD from Kids Sewing and Katrina Marie Design's called Pixie Candy's Projects - a level 1 sewing tutorial for kids. First off, I received this DVD in a super cute, hot pink, bubble mailer lickety split. I know that doesn't really factor into the whole review of the DVD, but still - hot pink bubble mailer? So cute! Since this was a 'kids sewing' DVD, I actually had Bry watch the DVD with me and she did all of the sewing herself. For her own review on the DVD, head on over to her blog Bry's Stories.

We put the DVD in and watched the whole thing before she started sewing to make sure we would be able to follow along. It was cute! I loved the little 'pixie' music that played through out the tutorials and how everything was pink. The color scheme went well with the Pixie Candy theme. It was definitely appealing to my daughter. There was even a section where Katrina {the maker of these DVD's} had a demonstration of one of the items with a little girl so you could see the whole process through kids eyes. In the DVD you have five projects to make - a pillow, a hair bow headband, a purse, a neck pillow, and an apron. Very simple and very appropriate projects for kids.

Once we watched the DVD we got our fabric out to start. Katrina did a very good job at directing you through the steps. She used simple words that kids could understand and did simple steps. Bry was able to follow along quite well and get her projects done. The tutorials weren't too long so Bry didn't have a chance to get bored like some kids might if each step took too long. Katrina broke each tutorial up into great sections that gave it a real organized sense and made it easy to follow. Even though there are five projects to complete, it cost us hardly anything at all in materials, too. Which was a real deal breaker for me. I find that if your child is testing the waters with something - whether it be sports, sewing, music - you don't really want to invest a lot of money if it doesn't work out. And though Bry has learned how to sew and knows how to make things, it's not something she sits down to do every day so I didn't want to invest too much in fabric. We got through the DVD and she completed all her projects perfectly. They really turned out so cute! 

Pillow

Purse

Neck pillow

Apron

{Cute ribbon, huh?!}

Hair bow headband

There were a few things we changed in going along...

The neck pillow called for 3/4 yard batting for the inside. We just used fiber-fill since we have boxes of it from a futon mattress we tore up.
Also, the purse called for batting which we skipped, It would be nice to have had structure in the purse with the batting, but we decided against using it. We also made the ribbon strap longer so Bry could use it as a cross-body bag.

Both of those things didn't change the structure of the tutorial, though.

Bry had a lot of fun sewing the projects and loves that she has five whole things to look at and be proud of... and use! And all of her friends are like 'what? you made that?? I wanna make that too!' So I think we are going to have a sewing day with a few of her friends so they can make them too! I would definitely recommend this DVD {and the whole series!} to anyone who's child is wanting to learn to sew, or wants to add more projects to their list. It's fun for moms too!

I just have to say that Katrina is the sweetest person ever. She is so adorable and I think it is great what she is doing - putting together easy tutorials for kids to follow so they can create something for themselves {or maybe for a friend or family member} and be proud.

Giveaway time!!!

Katrina is so awesome and sweet that she is giving away a copy of Pixie Candy's Projects to one lucky winner! Simply enter to win on the Rafflecopter form below. Giveaway will run from January 16 until January 25. For full terms and conditions, please see Rafflecopter form.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Kids Sewing and Katrina Marie Designs. All opinions and experiences are 100% mine.