Ok so here’s the super long post with lots of details about the cruise. This still doesn’t cover everything that happened but it has most of the highlights. If you want to read all about it, click below to read more.
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Sorry about the break from posts, I'll try to post extra this week to make up for it :) On Thursday, I drove to Jacksonville with my friend Liz. It was an awesome drive up because we chatted about anything and everything. Liz and I try to make plans and hang out but we are both usually pretty busy so it was nice to have a few hours with nothing to do but catch up. When we got to Jacksonville we went to my sister-in-law Melissa's house and met with the rest of the girls there. The whole time was a crazy whirlwind of girls trying to get ready and it didn't help when I spilled half a bottle of nail polish on Mel's carpet. I went to shake the bottle of polish so i picked it up by the lid to shake it and didn't realize I had already taken the lid off so it flung up and went everywhere. I was pretty much mortified. What a way to start a trip. Then after much craziness, we finally set off towards the port. We had 4 days and 4 nights of craziness. There were 9 total girls and most of them had never met each other. There was drinking, laying on the beach, LOTS of eating, karaoke, little black dresses, wigs, feather boas and lots of general craziness. I was pretty surprised that we all pretty much got along and there wasn't any major drama. Here's a few pics from the trip. Sorry I didn't post more detail but that's all I can muster right now, more to come later in the week. As part of my quest to stay continually busy with crafts and sewing throughout the year (in case I don't already commit to enough projects, lol), I decided to start a new project called "Shoebox Swap". The goal of this swap is for each person involved to create a craft or handmade good of some sort that they are willing to give away. In return, they will receive a box of handmade goods from another member. The items made should be of approximate size to fit in a shoebox (should also limit the amount spent to a small amount). On the first of the month, the names are given out and each person starts making their crafts themed to the appropriate month (Valentine's for February, St. Patrick's for March, etc). Then before the end of the month, you mail out your box to your designated recipient and patiently wait for your box to arrive.
I got the fabric I needed for the last piece of Tammy's diaper bag. So where were we? I cut the 4" x 13" piece I needed for the side of the lining and finished stitching the lining. The picture above shows the completed lining but from the outside (you won't see this part once it's sewn in. Next, I put the lining inside the bag exterior and got it ready to sew together.
Over Christmas, the Blu-ray trio of Underworld movies was on sale for $38. You got Underworld, Underworld: Evolutions, & Underworld: Rise of the Lycans. AND...a $20 voucher towards going to see the new Underworld: Awakening" when it came out on January 20th (today). So I bought the dvd's and Ryan and I watched them recently, excited about the upcoming release of the newest movie. Tonight we went to see it of course and here's my review:
And i feel like a schmuck for not having her diaper bag delivered to her before the baby!! Granted, I never would have guessed that the baby would be 5 weeks early, I will have it done this weekend and mailed ASAP so I figured she would get it in time even if the baby was a week or two early. Guess I should have finished it at christmas like my original plan. And there's not much I can do about it at the moment except for wait for that fabric to arrive. Oh well, hopefully it gets here soon.
On a completely different note, I got some initial sketches from the woman who is designing a new logo and brand for me. They are looking pretty good and I am getting excited about having a logo that ties in with a proper scheme/brand so everything can be better tied together and more easily recognized. Okey dokey, as usual I've stayed up way past my bedtime so I'm going to cut it short. I'll let ya' know when I get that fabric in (darn my procrastination!!). For Christmas, I got a neat gadget - a Zoku popsicle maker. Well actually I got two of them so I exchanged one of them to get all the neat accessories that come with it. Since I can't do any more work on the diaper bag until I get my fabric...I decided to try it out. First I got out my supplies:
Sometimes that's all you can do...a little at a time. Tonight i did a little laundry, a little cleaning and a little sewing. And now i'm doing a little watching tv (that hopefully won't turn into a lot of watching tv). I finished the interior pockets for the lining:
I finally got all of the materials gathered and set to work on Tammy's diaper bag. A girlfriend of mine from college is having a baby soon. She asked me if i would make her a diaper bag several months ago. I asked her when she needed it and she just said "oh sometime before the baby comes". I'm not sure if it is because i didn't have an urgent deadline or what but I definitely procrastinated getting started. Then when I went to buy the fabric, one of them was back-ordered. But today I finally put in some hours to get it done.
I gathered all of my materials, got out the instructions and carefully started cutting. Everything was going well except...one of my fabrics ended up too short! Argh! And it was one of the fabrics that I have to order online (Optic Blossom in Linen by Amy Butler, super cute fabric...check it out). So I cut all the rest of the pieces and started working on the parts of the bag that I had material for. I only need one 4"x13" strip of fabric so hopefully it will come soon. I ended up getting the entire exterior of the bag done, pockets and all! Yay! Today's task: Cook enough food for breakfast, lunch and dinner for Ryan and I for the next 5 weeks. Here's the recipes i chose:
Breakfast: Banana Bread Muffins, Breakfast Burritos Lunch: Chili, Buffalo Chicken Casserole (new recipe) Dinner: Quiche, Pop-up Pizza Pie, Chicken Enchilada Casserole, Stovetop Sausage Mac N Cheese, Seafood Casserole, Italian Meatball Burgers, Meatball Sub Casserole, Chicken Risotto, Apple Meatloaf, Spaghetti Pie (new recipe) & Tuna Noodle Casserole Other: Dog Treats for Willow :) I decided what order to cook the recipes in based on what meats was in them and also trying to order them so that I wouldn't have multiple recipes that need to go in the oven at the same time. Then i just started cooking and kept going until everything was made. It took quite a while this time (about 11hrs) but I cooked for 5 weeks instead of 4 and Ryan was only helping for part of the day (the rest of the time i was on my own). Here's a few pics of what I made: |