The Biggest Hit This Christmas
You know, I'm still sort of reeling from the holidays. I have all these unfinished posts about the great stuff and the not-so-great. But I wanted to share something with you guys, because it is really a great, great thing.

My eight-and-three-quarters-year-old daughter has been hounding my sorry, sorry buns to teach her to sew. We've bought embroidery patterns and floss, hoops and special needles. Long about the time the thread tangled for the first time, (about four seconds after puncturing the fabric for the first time, my daughter loses interest, and wanders off into the blue yonder, leaving me with the decision - do I sew this thing for her? Or do I add it to the heap of non-finished mother-daughter projects in my closet and go about my day?

Yeah, I go about my day. I don't have time to sew.

As the holidays got closer and closer this year, and the wish lists got longer and longer, I really wanted to get away from all the commercial, gimme gimme crap that was popping up. During those final weeks before Christmas hit, I was starting to get a bit panicky. Then I happened to catch one of the BlogHerAds over there for a little company called Ticche and Bea, and clicked on through.

I work for BlogHerAds, as many of you know, and so I like to investigate the ads that show up. As soon as I landed on the Ticche and Bea site, I was like, "Oooh! This is exactly what I want!"

See, okay. I'm a veteran of buying stupid, stupid sewing kits and activity kits and craft kits of all stripes, and have developed a kind of jaded wariness when it comes to "fun, do it together activities!" My daughter, while very good with her hands, doesn't like to follow directions. At all. Ever.

And I don't like to skip steps. Or color outside the lines. I'm a rule-follower when it comes to crafting projects. This all dates back to a disastrous six-months spent hooking a rug with little shreds of acrylic yarn, where I screwed up the pattern in a fit of pique and ended up with a baby-poop yellowish brown run with a cyclopsian Winnie the Pooh on it. Don't wing it. Learn from me, my child.

She doesn't learn of course, and so usually, there's me, dotting my i's and crossing my t's and there's her, spray-painting her initials on the embroidery canvas and calling it done.

Where was I. Ah yes. I bought one of these kits: Design-A-Doll. It seemed a little steep, price-wise, but it came with a lot of stuff, and most importantly to me - it came with a DVD showing my daughter (and me) the importance of following The Steps.

Christmas morning, the kids ripped into their loot, and right away, my daughter was excited by the kit. Since we were all sick, she and I crawled up into my king-sized bed and watched the first segments of the DVD on my laptop, while exploring the contents of the box.

The doll came dressed in sweet little long-underwear pajamas and with simple shoes on her feet. The box also included patterns for a pair of pants and a dress, iron-on transfers for her face, yarn for her hair and, most impressive to me, not just one or two little needles with just enough thread for a single project - this great kit came with a full selection of needles, lots of thread in lots of colors, pins, a pin-cushion, scissors, a seam ripper... basically, a whole sewing kit with all the tools my daughter would need for this project and beyond.

All of a sudden, the price didn't seem quite so steep.

The DVD is utterly charming and watchable. The company's founder and her sister-in-law are both women I would like to sit down and have coffee with. Um, Mary? You should come to BlogHer. I'm just saying...

Although the DVD is made as an instructional video for children, it is never saccharine or condescending. It is broken into easily followed segments, and everything is clearly demonstrated without unnecessary flourishes. We had a blast selecting a face (although we sort of scorched ours, um, oops) and giving our doll two-toned hair.

My daughter took the dressmaking into her own hands, and crafted a ribbon-strapped sheath for her doll, instead of following the pattern provided - and you know what? I'm okay with that. I'll pick up some fat quarters at the fabric store and let her have at it when she's ready for a more structured sewing project.

For the first time, I wasn't freaking out because she wasn't doing it right. She wasn't fighting to make the project her own. We made some great memories, snuggled up in bed, stitching and laughing along with the DVD. You can't put a price on that - we are both going to remember this Christmas morning for years to come.

If you've got a kid whose ready for this type of project, or want to make a special gift for someone - I really can't recommend this enough.

Let me know if you get one - we could totally do a sew-along project, or want to make a special gift for someone - I really can't recommend this enough.