Countdown to (sewing) fun!

A big thank you to all of my family, friends and blogosphere buddies who reached out to make my birthday magical this week. From Tinker Bell cupcakes  by day to an artsy-crafty painting party by night, it was a truly wonderful birthday and I wouldn’t change a thing! I’m being completely truthful when I say it’s the best birthday I’ve had in years.

I finally got a chance to open some gifts last night, and I have two exciting sewing books to add to my collection! I talked about one book, Fabric-by-Fabric One Yard Wonders, in a blog post a few weeks back. The second book is called Countdown Calendars and just came out last July.

Countdown Calendars: 24 stitched projects to celebrate any date!

I first discovered the project shown on the cover  - a birthday countdown calendar – about two years ago when I was thinking about buying a sewing machine. It was a finished project listed for sale on Etsy, not a pattern, so I saved a photo for inspiration.

It’s such a fun concept – just add a fabric candle to the birthday cake on the wall hanging each day leading up to your birthday! Advent calendars were always a big deal in my house around Christmastime, and I know I would have loved this birthday calendar if we’d had one in our family.

I can already imagine an infinite number of color combinations in my head and can’t wait to give this a try. It would make a great gift for all of my friends who are exploding my social media newsfeeds with photos of their new babies! Plus – the book has lots of other fun countdown calendar ideas too, including a Christmas advent calendar.

Happy counting! Not gonna lie – all of this talk about countdowns and I can’t get the Pixar Pals Countdown to Fun Parade music from Disney’s Hollywood Studios out of my head… Five, four, three, two, FUN!

The most magical workroom on earth!

An avid follower of the Disney Parks blog, I recently stumbled across this video in which a Cast Member from Walt Disney Parks & Resorts Creative Costuming shows viewers how to put together a quick no-sew pirate costume for Halloween. While the costume is nice, I’m more interested in the amazing workroom, located at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Doesn’t it look amazing?

 

 

This is the first year in many that I will not be able to put together a new Halloween costume, which means I’ll be pulling a previous year’s costume from my closet!  Does anyone out there have an amazing Halloween costume in the works?

 

 

Keep moving forward

It’s been more than a month since my last blog post. In general, the longer I wait to write, the more and more pressure there is to write something astounding, similar to when an antsy crowd is waiting for a speech and goes silent as the speaker steps up to the podium. That pressure just makes me procrastinate more as I prepare my next what’s supposed to be my next earth-shattering move.

But truthfully, a lot has happened in the past month, and I’ve been wondering how to address it. When I started this blog, I wanted the focus to be on sewing, not my personal life. But obviously, my sewing is intertwined with my personal life, and the things I experience day-to-day will affect how, when and why I sew.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking about the major themes woven in and out of my personal life lately, whether it be my empty blog, exciting changes at work or horrifying letdowns in my personal life. And I realized that lately, my mantra for all of the above has been the following: KEEP MOVING FORWARD.

One of my favorite Disney movies of all time is Meet the Robinsons. If you’ve never seen it, PLEASE do yourself a favor and watch it immediately! The screenshot above showcases a phrase that is used over and over throughout the movie: KEEP MOVING FORWARD! Here’s an inspiring (non-spoiler) clip from the movie to wet your appetite and show you the emphasis of the phrase throughout the movie.

So, what does “KEEP MOVING FORWARD” mean to me?

It means that no matter how wide my blogging gap, my goal should be to simply pick up where I left off without feeling pressure. Each day deserves equal opportunity for a blog post, regardless of what happened yesterday or the day before. Keep moving forward!

It means that when exciting changes at work come with a bigger margin for error as I try to learn the ropes, I shouldn’t live in fear or making decisions, meeting new people or trying new things. Keep moving forward!

And when I experience the ultimate betrayal in my personal life , all I can do is continue to put one foot forward at a time… hoping, trusting and having faith that happiness is just around the corner. Slowly, slowly, slowly, but surely… keep. moving. forward.

Getting me through it all have been a variety of creative endeavors, whether it be sewing or making silly videos with friends. But more importantly, I’ve taken on a handful of new sewing projects throughout the past month which I anticipate that you’ll be hearing about very, very soon!

Stay tuned as I KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

As Seen on TV: Style Snaps (Stink)

I’ve been seeing a commercial lately for a product called Style Snaps. The first time it came on, I was immediately drawn to it, wondering what kind of sewing-related product would be exciting enough for an “As-Seen-on-TV!” style commercial. Within seconds I was less than sold. Watch for yourself:

I just don’t get why these Style Snap things are supposed to be so amazing. The “finished product” – or faux hemmed pants – LOOK like a faux hem. They don’t look nice at all. It LOOKS like the pants are folded under, which is exactly what I’m trying to avoid when I hem my pants.

One more thing – what is up with the borderline-provocative visual right around 0:59-0:60? “Sexy and tight for a look that’s DEFINITELY right!” Ugh, I’m sorry, I thought I was watching a commercial about HEMS.

Of course, I had to look up the reviews for these things, and they are terrible! Not only are oodles of reviewers complaining about being scammed as far as the shipping and handling costs go, but the product isn’t even working well as advertised. The snaps have a sticky backing that either don’t stick to the fabric at all, or leave sticky adhesive behind when they do.

Beware Style Snaps! (But if you MUST try them even after reading this post, get them from eBay or Amazon and steer clear of the “official” site, BuyStyleSnaps.com – that is where most reviewers are getting scammed with misleading shipping costs)

Could you see yourself trying Style Snaps?