Inspired

I was hoping that while I was on vacation that I would find something amazing to inspire me to create.  I figured the colors of the ocean and beach would, if nothing else.  And it did, but in a way I never really thought it would. 

I'm inspired to make some jewelry. 

This is what kicked it off for me....

I saw this gorgeous necklace in a shop in Cozumel.  I have no clue what it costs because my first thought was "I could totally make that."  It's just seed beads with a few larger beads mixed in.

The Pandora-style bracelet I bought has stoked a bit of an obsession with lampwork glass beads.  I spent way too long tonight browsing through Etsy, looking at some of the most beautiful pieces of glass.  I've always loved glass, especially stained glass, so it's up my alley. 

Source: etsy.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

I've decided to reward myself for losing weight with jewelry as motivation.  This might be my first little gift to myself.  Lampwork glass bead and spoons.  It's like it was made just for me.  I love spoon jewelry.  Forks, too.  As a matter of fact, I'm a little distraught at the moment that I have lost my keys... because I had the most awesome key chain.... a fork stamped with "MY FORKIN' KEYS"  I can replace it, the lady I bought it from has another one in her shop, but I'm still really sad about it.

I'm totally making something like this, too:

Source: etsy.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

I also want to sew really badly.  What do I want to sew?  Scrubs.  I need more scrubs, but I really don't like much of anything I've seen.  The prints are so juvenile or loud.  Of course, it's almost hard to justify the work because, depending on the fabric, it's almost more expensive to sew scrubs than to buy them.  It would be more of having something I truly liked kind of thing, instead of being thrifty.

I just have so much I want to do.  Maybe part of it is because it's my first week back at work after vacation, but I spend half my day daydreaming about working from home, making a living doing something I enjoy.... crocheting, sewing, things like that.  Not stuck in a corner, trying to stay awake, punching numbers into the computer.  C'est la vie.

Had to have them.

I don't buy books very often.  I don't like to have to make room for them and are free at the library.  I especially don't buy pattern books very often, because it's hard for me to justify paying $15-$20 on a book unless there are several patterns that I like in the book.  Instead, I check them out of the library, and if there is a pattern I have to have, I copy it.  Shhh... don't send the book police after me.

The other day, I picked up a copy of this book from the library:

Source: interweavestore.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

I've been on the wait list since before the book came out.  I love Kristin Omdahl's designs, so I knew it would be an awesome book.  Plus, it's seamless projects.  Seamless.  I am always so paranoid of my seams coming undone.  Because it's happened.

And I was right... it is an awesome book.  There are at least 4 patterns in here that I would love to make, and a few more that I would if there was an occasion to make them.  That's a lot of copying.  Plus, it comes with an instructional DVD.  I might need some instruction, you know...

So I thought about it.  And thought about it.

And looked at it on Amazon.  Debated.

And I bought it.

I also bought something else.  Without checking it out at the library.  Mostly because my library doesn't have a copy.  But I have wanted it for quite a while.

Source: amazon.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

I just adore overlay crochet.  I seriously, seriously doubt I'd make anything in this book with the recommended sewing thread.  I'd probably just make pillow covers or something with worsted weight yarn.  I am having a hard enough time not going cross-eyed using embroidery floss on my mandala. 

I have one other pattern book in my sights, but I am going to check it out of the library first.  I'm on the waiting list, but it's a short wait.

Source: amazon.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

I've pinned a few sweaters from the book on Pinterest, so I have a feeling I'll have enough to justify the purchase eventually.  Eventually.  I am just itching to make stuff right now and it's killing me to have to actually be a responsible adult and go to work and clean my house and junk like that.

Do you have any favorite pattern books? 

About the cruise... Part 1: the ship

I think I'll try to smoosh my week into two posts... the ship and the places we went. 

We cruised on the Carnival Magic, which I believe is one of their newest ships.  It was HUGE.  We were always the biggest cruise ship in port, everywhere we went.



I shared a stateroom with my sister and her best friend.  There were only two beds, but the couch converted to a third bed.  I took the couch.  It was firmer than I like, but the beds seemed pretty much the same.



Our stateroom steward was named Pichit.  I don't remember where he was from, but he was too cute.  You meet people from all over the world on cruise ships.  Our waitress was from Lithuania.  But Pichit came in twice a day... in the morning to make our beds and at night to turn down the beds.  I've never experienced turn down service before.  I felt quite pampered =)  When he turned down the beds, he left the itinerary for the next day and a towel creation for us....







We missed one night of towel creatures.... we all kind of passed out early after Jamaica so we didn't have turn down service that night.  I'm not sure what we missed, because different rooms had different animals.  I know some of our group got a penguin one night and some got a platypus.  At breakfast one morning, I heard someone complaining about the towel animals and how they were a waste of towels.  A waste of towels.  Some people just are anti-fun, I tell you.

You had three options for meals... room service (which was excellent, but slow), the Lido deck (buffet-style and crowded), or the dining room.



Aside from breakfast and lunch being open-seating and having to sit with strangers with weird opinions, I don't know why you wouldn't want to eat like that every meal.  =)  We actually met a lot of really great people at breakfast, and the one time we went to lunch, we made friends with the sweetest old man who wanted us to mail him some wine. 



I had a slight fascination for the fancy butter.  It doesn't take much to impress me.



During dinner, the maitre'd would sing a song.  He was Irish and sounded like Dean Martin.  Everyone would twirl their napkins.  Then the wait staff would do a "friendship dance" with whoever wanted to get up and dance with them.  It was so fun.



I tried so many new foods.  Sushi (no fish.... these were tofu and imitation crab.  They were OK, but I think I'd love cucumber rolls), Mongolian, Indian, I had an awesome cucumber dill soup one night.  I tried escargot.  Won't do that again.  I wasn't quite brave enough to try the alligator, shark, or a few other things.  I'm not a very adventurous eater, but I did love most of the stuff I tried.



These are the ladies that I was on the cruise with, all dressed up for our first Elegant Dining evening.  We all play Pokeno.  What's Pokeno?



This is a Pokeno card.  It's like Bingo, only instead of letters and numbers, the caller is flipping through a deck of cards.  We did play on the ship... we had a conference room reserved on the "at sea" days for 3 hours.  It drove me a little batty, especially the first day.  I mean, it's my first time on a cruise ship and I'm confined to a little room instead of exploring.  ;)

There was always something going on... there were shows every night - like musical numbers or there was an illusionist one night.  There was a comedy club.  Karaoke at least once a day... my sister sang Adele on our first "at sea" day and the group kept trying to get her to sing for the rest of the week.  They tried to get me to sing too, but somehow I took too long choosing a song to sing and they ran out of time.  Darn.  ;)

You want water, there are pools (salt water, which was surprising when you're not expecting it), hot tubs, a water slide.  You got water.

There's a casino on board, but I don't gamble, so the most experience I had with that was just walking through on the way to karaoke.

And shopping.... I'm not much of a shopper, but for some reason (probably because there wasn't much else for me to do sometimes since I don't gamble and had more than enough sun and water) I really enjoyed the shops.  I have to say that I spent more money on myself than anyone else.  My favorite purchases....



My "Pandora-style" bracelet and extra beads.  According to the tags, it was $160 worth of jewelry.  I paid $45. 

I can't really think of much more.  I had fun on the boat, but I think our shore excursions were more fun.  Of course, it was much easier to get homesick on the boat. 

Next up, what we did in Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica.  Well, what I remember of Jamaica anyway.  ;)

An Idea More Than A Tutorial...

I have lost my keys.  I had them the Saturday before my cruise for sure, but I don't know where they are now.  Bill handed me is spare key to the Old Man Truck (it's getting so old it's creaking and groaning) and I had forgotten all about the key chain he keeps it on.  It was a Valentine's Day present I made for him a few years ago (pre-blogging era) and I thought it would be cute to share with you guys in case you have any men in your life who would get a kick out of something like it.

 The tag reads "I'M NUTS ABOUT YOU, THE WIFE"  That's what he calls me... "the wife."  Better than "old lady" I suppose.  =)

I can't take full credit for the idea.  I saw a key chain like this in an Uncommon Goods catalog and had to have it for my mechanic hubby.  But I thought it was a bit pricy for a key chain and realized I could totally make it on my own.  So I did.

It's really simple. 

Head to Home Depot, Lowe's, or you probably could find everything in the hardware section at Walmart.  You need an eye bolt, about 2-3 inches long.  You will need to make sure that the rest of the parts will fit onto this, so pay attention to the size.  Get an assortment of nuts that are slightly larger than the eye bolt, some wing nuts, and some little nuts that will fit snugly onto the bolt.  Try not to go crazy... if you get nuts and bolts that are huge, it's going to be really heavy and impractical.  Just arrange everything on the bolt and tighten that little nut onto the end to keep everything from sliding off.  If you have some Loc-tite, use it.

Next you will need some sort of keychain.  This was kind of before I really got into crafting, so I didn't have any supplies and I never thought about making a key chain for it.  Now I would go find a plain tag-style keychain at Hobby Lobby and stamp it myself.  However, at the time I went and had one engraved.  The nuts part was super cheap, just a few bucks at the hardware store.  The tag.... well, let's just say I didn't get out of this much cheaper than buying it from the catalog. 

But anyway, get just some plain tag keychain and stamp it yourself.  You can find stamping kits and blank key chains way cheaper than having one engraved.  My stamping set was $5 at Harbor Freights. 

So there you have it.... 

Oh, and as a bonus, when you lose your keys and have to take your husband's keys to work with you, you can make punny innapropriate nut jokes.

You're welcome.

Fruity Pebbles

I'm still busy sorting out pictures and stuff from vacation.  I was asked to make a copy of my pictures for several of the women I was there with.  I went with a group of 17 other women, but mostly did stuff with only 2 of them, so I'm sure the other 15 don't want a ton of pictures of my sister and her best friend.  When I'm done, I'll probably just post a few highlights on here and a link to the bulk of the photos if you are interested in looking at them.

I took two projects with me... the baby blanket and the overlay mandala.  I made really good progress on the blanket, not so much on the mandala. 

I don't know if you can see it very well in this picture, but there is my mandala-in-progress, laying on top of my green and black hook bag.  Not very big.  =)  Underneath it all is the baby blanket.  It reminds me of Fruity Pebbles cereal.  My gauge was off, as usual, so I'm going to need another skein of yarn.  I really like it.  Everyone else ooh-ed and ahh-ed over it.  In fact, on the first flight, the flight attendant loved it so much that I ended up giving her the label so that she could give it to a friend of hers to have her own blanket made.

One of the ladies I traveled with is trying to learn how to crochet, and I tried to help her out a bit, but instead I told her I'd just give her a link to Craftyminx's Crochet School.  I'm not the best teacher in the world and I hold my yarn funny.

I had decided before I left that I was going to take the stuffed stick man that I made on the trip to take pictures of in various places.  I really had fun with it.... until I lost him. =(  It's not a huge deal since I can always make a new one but the trip wasn't over yet and I still had plans for him.  I put together a little album on Flickr of his adventures and you can go see it here.

My favorite photo of Stick Man

Honey! I'm home!

I got home today and I'm so, so, so happy to be back with my babies and my husband.  I was so homesick for them.  I did have a wonderful time, which I'll tell you all about, but once I got over the guilt of being off having fun without them, I was missing them like crazy.

I'm still rocking like I am still on the boat.  We had a very rocky cruise for most of the trip, but I don't get motion sickness at all apparently, so it was just a matter of trying not to fall into people most of the time. 

I think maybe one day we might take a cruise as a family vacation, but other than that I'm not sure I'm cut out to be one of those people who cruise frequently.  I enjoyed being pampered - and you do get very pampered - but there was just no way to escape and be alone very often.  So. many. people.  It's a bit overwhelming for an introvert like me.  We met people who had been on dozens of cruises, though.  One lady had her 5 year old grandson with her and it was his 13th cruise!  It was her 28th on Carnival... and she'd been on almost every other cruise line multiple times also. 

I'm interested to weigh in tomorrow.  I ate very well, but we also walked and took the stairs a lot.  My jeans today are literally falling off of me, but they were new and I hadn't worn them before the cruise, so it may just be that they aren't very true to size.

My house is a total disaster, there are about 4 loads of laundry to fold and many more to wash, and I'm really afraid to check the bank account, but it's good to be home.  I have about 600 photos to go through, so be prepared!

Bon Voyage to me!

I couldn't tell you if it was the zinc or the cinnamon/honey mixture, but I'm keeping my cold at bay.  I woke up feeling better than I did when I went to bed, so that's good.  I feel kind of icky every so often, but the zinc usually brings me back to life again.  Today is my Daddy's 65th birthday and with all the stuff I had going on and this dumb cold, I couldn't go see him.  But I did call him to tell him I love him and wish him a Happy Birthday.  We'll celebrate birthdays in a few weeks.. he, my husband, and my brother-in-law all have birthdays within weeks of each other.



I'm pretty much packed except for those last minute things you can't pack until you're about to walk out the door.  I have a card tacked up on the fridge with all the info Bill should need, complete with numbers to friends who have offered to help him if he needs it and the girls' doctors and schools.  Just in case.  I feel like writing out pages of instructions, but he is fully competent of taking care of them.  I'm just nervous.  =)

I can't tell how much my luggage weighs.... our scale is all jacked up.  It says one of my bags is 17 lbs and I know it has to be more than that.  Of course, even weighing myself and then weighing myself holding the bag, it was still about 17 lbs, but that just doesn't seem right.  I'll compare it to what Isabelle weighs on it tomorrow.  She's about 50 lbs, which is the limit for the plane.

I decided to leave a little treat for the girls each day.  I put a Hug and a Kiss in a bag for each of them and put them all in a brown bag with a little note from me....



I made sure that the one for Saturday reminded them that it's their Daddy's birthday.  I feel bad that I'll be gone for his birthday, but I figure since he forgot my 30th birthday (and 31st...) that it makes us even.  ;)  I thought about having something delivered to him for his birthday, but he's not a flower kind of guy and I don't know if he'd like one of those edible bouquets.  If only they made a edible bouquet out of beef jerky and cheese....

Well, I need to get a few more things done before trying to sleep.  I can't wait to share pictures and stories with you guys!  Have a wonderful week....