Product Review – 2013-2014 Blog Planner

(Note: No products were provided to me for this review. I purchased the Planner and liked it so much I wanted to share with all my blogging friends.)

Last month Kristin from Modjeska Designs released her 2013-2014 Blog Planner. I have to admit, I was intrigued by this notion of planning your blog. It just seemed so foreign to me because I am a fly by the seat of my pants type of blogger. In all honesty throughout this entire year only the posts related to A Lovely Year of Finishes have been planned. I like the idea of being organized so when payday rolled around I bought her Blog Planner.

Image courtesy of Modjeska Designs

What I love most about this planner is that it is a way to keep track of practically EVERYTHING! There is a month by month calendar where you can write in your individual posts. I have already started filling in dates for A Lovely Year of Finishes posts.

Blog Planner - Modjeska Designs - https://www.sewbittersweetdesigns.comI clearly need to get some more ideas in store for my January planning, but I think 3 posts is a good start.  There is also a section with all of the holidays listed. What is nice about this is that holidays are a great opportunity for special sewing projects and with them listed all in one place I can easily see what is coming up and decide if I want to do a project around a holiday theme.

Some of the sections include:

  • Holidays
  • Budget Tracking
  • Project Sheets
  • Linky Parties
  • Giveaways
  • Weekly Timesheets and planning guides
  • Security section for passwords
  • Advertising (helpful if you are trying to monetize your blog)
  • And many many more (for a full list – click here).

Idea Sketches - Modjeska Designs - https://www.sewbittersweetdesigns.comThis might be my favorite part of the planner, a section of Idea Sketches. I am a bit of a doodler (not a very good drawer, but great doodler) so this section is perfect for me to collect my ideas for a quilt design and write out my supplies list. I know I will refer back to these sheets when writing my tutorials and it will be so wonderful to have them all in one place.

The entire Blog Planner is 67 Full Color pages and you have so much flexibility. I didn’t print every section, just the ones that make the most sense for me right now. You could easily print this at home or take the instant download PDF file to your local print store and run off a copy of the file. I also like that I can go back and make as many copies as I want of specific pages – ie. the Idea Sketches.

This is a very complete planner, after spending several days picking out which pages I wanted to print, there really wasn’t anything else I could think of to include. Kristin really did think of it all.  The only thing I added really, was my super pretty binder that I bought at Target. I thought that the outside of my planner needed to be as pretty as the inside.

Blog Planner - Modjeska Designs - https://www.sewbittersweetdesigns.comIt is a 2″ thick binder, though now I am only using about 1/8 of the space. I have a feeling I will be reprinting the Idea Sketches and Supply List pages of the planner over and over again and will easily fill this binder. If I do…that will mean that I had a successful year of actually planning ahead of my blogging!

So if you are in the market for a little organization for your blog, I highly recommend the 2013-2014 Blog Planner by Modjeska Designs. It is only $20.00 and well worth every penny! (Oh yes! She has one for food bloggers too!)

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

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Posted in Modjeska Designs, Uncategorized | 7 Comments

A Lovely Year of Finishes 2014 – A Whole New Year!

ALYoF 2014 LGShanna and I are happy to announce that A Lovely Year of Finishes is coming back again next year! That’s right! 12 new months, 12 more finishes!

The response this year was overwhelming! You all were amazing! I can’t believe just how many incredible creations were finished during the first 11 months of this year!  I am really looking forward to next year to see what everyone comes up with.

There will be a few changes in 2014 – we are excited about them!

  • Next year we will continue with our monthly goal parties – live from the 1st to the 7th of each month.
  • We will also continue our finishes parties – live during the last 7 days of each month.
  • We are discontinuing the mid-month check-in party. We have decided to go with something fun and exciting that will bring attention (and hopefully lots of traffic!) to all of you crazy talented people!  We are going to do monthly features of the most clicked on finishes from the previous month.  We want to drive some traffic to YOU!
  • We’ll have a minimum of 6 months of successful participation to be eligible for the big finale in 2015.
  • We have a new facebook group. That’s right we’re here for all your social media finishes. Okay not all just another one. This page is a closed group, anyone can see this but you can only post (your finishes, blog posts, make comments) with an ‘invite’ or permission to join the group. We want to prevent as many trolls as possible.
  • We’ll still love to see your twitter or Instagram posts use #ALYoF to show off your stuff.

Here is our awesome new button, designed by the incredibly talented Kristin from Modjeska Designs.

A Lovely Year of Finishes

If you are interested in sponsoring any month in 2014 for A Lovely Year of Finishes – we would love to have you! Big or small we love all of our sponsors, you make A Lovely Year of Finishes so much more FUN!  Email Melissa at melissa (at) sewbittersweetdesigns dot com or Shanna at fiberofallsorts (at) gmail dot com.

Sponsorship Benefits Include:

So there you have it! The party will continue on in 2014! We are so excited.

Grab a button and help us spread the word!!!

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Posted in A Lovely Year of Finishes, Fiber of All Sorts, Modjeska Designs | 22 Comments

November Winners – A Lovely Year of Finishes

Winners! Who doesn’t love winners?!? I’m sorry this post is so late, life has gotten in the way of my blogging habits these days.

Thank you again to our sponsors. Remember, if you are interested in sponsoring next year please contact either Shanna or myself, we would love to work with you!  Look back tomorrow for a big announcement concerning 2014! I think you will be excited!

1.A Prize from The Intrepid Thread

Tammy – Karamat Sews

2. A $15.00 Gift Certificate to Fat Quarter Shop

Samantha – Making Life Prettier

3, 4. TWO winners each getting to choose one pdf pattern
from Sew BitterSweet Designs – that’s me!
($10 value)

Beth – FlickrFenna – FABulous Home Sewn
Kim – One Krafty Kitty Mama

5. Choice of $15 or 2 charm packs from Stitch n’ Giggles

Mary – handmade by Mary Emmens

6. A Paper Piecing Kit from Paper Pieces

Ellie – Color My World

7, 8, & 9. One Thread Chart & 2 Thread Packs from Aurifil Threads

Heather – Creative BlessingsCathy – Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting
Allison –Flickr

10. Quilting Patterns designed by Quilting Lodge

Carrie – A Passion for Applique

Congratulations to all of our winners! Please stop by tomorrow for an important announcement about 2014!

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Posted in A Lovely Year of Finishes, Fiber of All Sorts | 7 Comments

10 Sewing Days Left…

Let me start out with an apology. This week I haven’t been able to get on email at all. Anne has been having some pretty complicated health stuff going on, in fact today we are running up to the army hospital because in the last week she has broken out in hives 3 separate times and we don’t know why and tomorrow morning we head up for an emergency kidney ultrasound.  Email has taken a bit of a backseat, but I want everyone to know I am reading every comment and I truly appreciate every single one of them.  That being said, I distracted myself from all of this crummy health stuff yesterday.

I have 10 sewing achine days left before I leave for the holidays. This naturally means that I should start a new quilt project that will need to be finished before I leave…right?

Charming Christmas Quilt - https://www.sewbittersweetdesigns.comPictured above are 154 Christmas charms and 14 solid white charms. I participated in A LOT of charm swaps 2 years ago. In fact I probably have enough left that I could make a second quilt this same size!  I’ve decided to name this quilt the “Charming Christmas Quilt.”

This quilt will be for 2 very special people in our lives and I am excited because I have never made one for them before. I know this will go together quickly. Hoping to have the top 100% done tomorrow during preschool and nap time. Then I just need to figure out a backing and quilt it. Easy…right?!?

Are you quilting anything special in the last few days running up to Christmas?

signaturePS. For a sneak peek at my next pattern, head over to Orchid Quilts today!

Posted in Christmas, swaps | 15 Comments

Paying It Forward Sewing – The Tohoku Tote

A good friend of mine that lives in Olympia asked me for a favor. Would I sew something to donate for her son’s preschool. Each year they do a silent auction to raise funds for the next year and general maintenance. I said yes and asked what she thought would be a good donation item, she asked for a bag.

I had no idea which pattern I would do. I bounced ideas of Kristy from Hopeful Threads and then saw Katie from the Littlest Thistle’s review of the Tohoku Tote as part of Purse Palooza this year.  I fell in love and knew this was the tote to make. The pattern and tutorial are by I am Momma – Hear Me Roar.

At Anne’s birthday party I had my friend pick out the main fabric and went from there.

Tohoku Tote & Wallet - https://www.sewbittersweetdesigns.comI usually don’t sew with such busy prints so this was a bit of challenge for me, especially when it came time to match up with print in the pleat. I decided to make a little wallet to go with it. Sweeten the deal for whomever wins the purse.

Tohoku Tote Added Pocket - https://www.sewbittersweetdesigns.comThe tote didn’t have a zippered pocket in the tutorial but I added one because I always like a secure place to store my keys when I’m out. I thought the winner might appreciate that.

LittleWallet - https://www.sewbittersweetdesigns.comI used A Valori Wells Designs sewing card called “Little Wallet” that I picked up 3 years ago at Sew Expo to make a matching wallet. The best part of the whole purse and wallet set was that I had ALL of the supplies in my stash, right down to the pearl snaps and the pop of color zipper I added to the pocket. I love when I can avoid a trip to the store and sew with what I own. I even had all of the interfacings I needed!

Tohoku Tote - https://www.sewbittersweetdesigns.comFinally a simple picture of the tote hanging up. I am very pleased with how it turned out and I hope it fetches a good price for the preschool. In October the school was struck by lightning causing over $10,000 worth of damage, they need every penny! If you are local to Olympia, WA, the auction is this Saturday, Dec 7th, and I can get you more information!

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Posted in pay it forward, Purse/Pouch | 14 Comments