Unbox Love Date in a Box

Bring Back Date Night!

“Romance is thinking about your significant other, when you are supposed to be thinking about something else.”- Nicholas Sparks

My husband and I are always looking for new ways to spice up our marriage. Let’s face it…the days can be long when you have young kids, and sometimes there is just simply no time to plan something “romantic” once the kids have finally gone to bed. Your idea of romance becomes lazily molding to the couch while zoning out to The O’Reilly Factor (no offense, Babe!)

I think this card (above) that I made for my husband last Valentine’s Day sums up a majority of marriages once kids become involved. J

I researched and found an online company called Unbox Love (unboxlove.com). This particular company sends us a box every month with everything needed for the perfect at home date for that busy couple. We absolutely love it!

Photo Courtesy of unboxlove.com.

We receive our date box subscription in the mail around the 15^th of each month. It is always a surprise as to what we are getting. The box includes everything you need to enjoy about two hours of quality time together.

There are three subscription options, with free cancelation at any time! The boxes run around $39 per month, which can sound a little pricey! However, think about it!  You probably don’t get to go out very often if you are a parent. This box replaces that money you used to spend going out on a date, and I guarantee you would spend more than $39 out on the town!

Our Gingerdead cookies we made together!

An Example Box: December

Our December date was really cute! Each box comes with date cards that guide you through the date. You follow steps, very user friendly. The climax of the December date was a “Gingerdead Kit,” gingerbread zombies! We made the cookies together and decorated them using the zombie-like cookie cutters provided, while discussing conversation starters provided in our box. It was very unique and something we probably would not have come up with on our own.

The boxes are such a great way to ensure you have at least one scheduled, planned date night together as a couple each month! And everything is already taken care of for you!

For more information and to subscribe, visit unboxlove.com!

The Cat Dress

Angela and I have been taking a small break from blogging. Lots of changes have been going on (all good!) and we needed to focus our energies on our families. For my family things are finally starting to settle down, and just in time. The rain has finally subsided and the temperatures are rising so we are spending more time outdoors enjoying spring!

This week is Kid’s Clothes Week and I have been busy sewing up a storm of clothes for my little ones. This week so far I have sewn 1 dress, 1 shirt, 1 tank top, and 2 shorts. The dress above was my first project for Kid’s Clothes Week and also my May item for Sew Japanese With Mie. Petit a Petit and Family is hosting a Link Party where sewers can share clothing they have made using Japanese patterns, fabrics or inspirations.

The first item I made my daughter for Sewing Japanese With Mie was the “Side-Button Skirt” from the book “Stitch Wear Play” to go along with the shirt I made her from the same book. However this project didn’t turn out very well. Some of it had to do with me not giving myself enough time to finish the project and part of it had to do with the pattern pieces. The skirt is barely wearable due to how small the waist is and I am not sure how much wear we will get out of it.

My next project I used Japanese fabric instead and a pattern by Violette Field Threads. The dress turned out better than imagined, and I needed that. Before I sewed the side-button skirt and had attempted to make my son a pair of shorts and after assembling most of it I found out the pattern had an error and the seam allowances were missing on a few of the pieces, (Oliver & S’s Sketchbook shorts). Needless to say I couldn’t save them. If you have the same pattern Oliver & S keeps a log of errors for their patterns on their webpage (called Errata). I highly recommend checking there first before starting a project. To put it mildly, I really needed a win in the sewing department.

The Grace dress by Violette Field Threads was an “easy sew”. The scallops were the most technical part of the dress. There are no sleeves to set and the dress uses the same pattern pieces for the front and back. There are three layers for each bodice piece. Because of this, I would recommend using the thinnest possible fabric so the garment isn’t too warm.

The fabric for the dress was awesome. I have loved everything I have purchased from Miss Matatabi. For this dress I used a mint blue cat print and butter swiss dot from Miss Matatabi. Both of these are a cotton lawn and fairly sheer. For the lining I used a cotton silk voile I had leftover from another project that I had purchased from Mood. These fabrics worked really well together and my daughter had no complaints about the dress being too warm. However these fabrics frayed, especially the voile. I had to take special care when handling it and finishing the seam allowances.  The only change I made to the pattern was to add a second layer to the skirt. The cat fabric is pretty sheer and I wanted to line it. I used the swiss dot as the bottom layer, then hemmed the cat fabric slightly shorter than the swiss dot.

I love the end result of this dress! We wore it to a place called Grounds for Sculpture and were stopped several times by people asking me where I bought it, or telling me how much they loved it. Did I mention I really needed a win in the sewing department, so it did my mojo good to have these positive reactions to this dress. So thanks to Mie, Violette Field Threads, Miss Matatabi, and Kid’s Clothes Week for helping me get out of my funk and finding my sewing mojo again!

Written by: Shawna

And finally the garment only pictures!