Carnival Cruise

To the Bahamas fortunately, not Mexico.  No problems on our cruise.  Friends and relatives were in a panic when the news first came out about Carnival's Triumph cruise ship that was sailing (or limping) at the same time as our cruise.

We were fine with palm trees and beautiful beaches.

Entertainment was fun, food was great, and service exceptional.  Being a lover of cloth creatures, the daily towel creations always made my day.

Tilly and One-Eye were along for the adventure!

I tried making an elephant.  I need to work on this skill before posting pics, though.

This one was for Valentine's Day.

Atlantis' predator lagoon is truly filled with sharks.  Oddly, there is little between you and those sharks!  They are fairly small and, hopefully, well fed.

There is no fence here!  Now this should make parents watch their kids closely.

The walk-through aquarium there is amazing.

Got to love seahorses

These things were huge!

We sailed from New York City. Cool to get to sail past all the landmarks.

Setting out

and returning home.  Those are cranes on the not-quite-finished Freedom Tower.

Proof that Mr. Easton had a good time.  This is Cocoa Beach in Florida.

Proof that Mrs. Easton forgot her sunscreen at Cocoa Beach and got a sunburned nose.  It was worth it.

Only downside is coming back to this COLD weather.

The New Travel Sewing Kit

I'm supposed to be getting the house cleaned and packing finished for our vacation.  I don't like either one of those chores.  Instead, I made this sewing kit for the trip.  My old kit was just not working for me anymore.  I looked all over the internet for a design but none of those I found worked for me.  I ended up creating my own design.

 

 

It opens flat.  The inside has four zippered pockets and a few open ones for small things.  I guess I'm in a rectangle mood lately.  Like the sewing machine covers, this is basically two rectangles.  Each rectangle has a zipper at each end.  Then the two are sewn together down the center like a book!. 

I'm not sure why those pink zips look so bright in the photos.  They're not that vivid in person.
Back to the bag!  One side of the bag is for my yo-yo making supplies.

I forgot to take a pic of the fabric for the yo-yos which is in the first striped zippered pocket right next to the yo-yo makers.

In the middle, I overlapped the striped fabric a bit to hold the odds and ends--scissors, pens, needles.  It's a bit hard to see in the photo.

The other side has my embroidery things.  The striped pocket has the thread

and the back pink zipper pocket has the hoop and fabric.

Yes, that is black fabric in there.  I've got a ton of fabric with designs in primary colors on black backgrounds that I'm hoping to coordinate with these embroidery designs.  I'm going to have  to do some free-hand drawing cuz I've not been able to come up with a way of getting the designs on black.  Wish me luck with this idea.  I am not known for my ability to draw much beyond stick figures, but I'm determined to give this a go. 

I really, really wanted those center pockets (pink stripes) to be clear plastic but failed MISERABLY in my attempts to sew zippers on plastic.  I spent hours trying every trick I could find.  First, I'm spatially challenged.  I had the worst time trying to figure out how to put it together.  Then, my use of tape to keep the plastic from sticking to the machine didn't quite work out.  The plastic kept shifting away from the zipper even when pinned.  Any tips for my next venture with zippers and plastic would be most appreciated.

Taking Mistakes in Stride

When I finished the second sewing machine cover today with this lovely design from The Embroidery Library

and set it on the machine next to the first one, something was definitely wrong:

Yup, that first bird, on the right, was heading in the wrong direction.  The good thing about my easy cover design is that I could just flip it to the other side and redo the embroidery design there.  I did own up to being on the lazy side yesterday, so I'm sure you knew I was NOT gonna start over from the beginning.

Much better this way, and no one but my blog readers and me will know about the little mistake on the back.

Another plus about the easy cover design is that it sits nicely on the back of my chair when I'm using the machine.

 Two covers down and two more to go.

This is how lazy I am

First, despite having had sewing machines for over 30 years, I'm just making my first machine cover.  I've thought about it FOREVER, but always found excuses.  I finally decided that something simple was better than nothing.  This is the result.

Yup.  It's just a rectangle of fabric--not even little ties on the sides.  It's made of duck cloth which is pretty stiff, but I added the two lines of top stitching to make the sides stand out. It hangs more evenly with the extra stitching.

I found the embroidery design at the Embroidery Library.

 See--here's the little Project Runway underneath.

I'm feeling a bit guilty about copping out with such a simple piece.  The embroidery machine did the hardest part with very little help from me.  Frankly, though, I finally realized that it was going to have to be simple or I'd never get around to making covers for the machines.  I have a saying that I use all the time that definitely applies here--it's so much better than nothing.

One down.  Three more to go!

The Finished Window!

Thanks for the advice on the window, ladies.  I went with the cornice and panels.  Here's the before:

And the after:

I love it!

Another Window Cornice in the Almost Finished Room

I'm finally finishing this little room.  It was once my sewing room, then a study for the kids.  Now it's my meditation room! 

The last part needing to be finished is the window.  I thought I might leave it but, it was just too bare for me.

I decided on a wood cornice like the one my husband made for our living room.

This one was a massive beast!

Turns out that men buying molding are much like a woman buying clothes.  What do you think of this?  How about this combination?  Is this too short?  Does this make my ass look fat?  Okay not the last one, but Brian was driving me nuts with the many kinds of and possible positionings for molding.  Here is what he decided on.  Brian is the woodworker and I'm the painter.

He's getting fancy here with 3 pieces of molding at the top!

The finished product!

And here is where I'm was open to opinions.  Originally I was thinking of doing curtain panels, too.  I made them from this fabric.  After holding them up to the window, though, I thought they might be too much.

 What do you think?  Just the cornice or the panels under the cornice? UPDATE:  Finished product!

Linking to: 

Look What I Made!

A sewer!  My daughter, Keegan, is finally REALLY sewing.  I waited for a few projects just be be sure it would stick.  She sewed curtains for her living room with assistance and her bedroom all herself.  This time she designed a valance complete with company logos embroidered across the top for her employer.  I helped with the embroidery.

Keegan is fortunate to have a job at a great company, and she wanted to show her appreciation by making a window valance for the new office.  She took it in to test out the width before finishing up the sides.  I'll post a pic once the valance is up.

UPDATE!  Here's the valance.  Keegan works in the regional Orkin office--hence, the diamond Orkin logo. 

Keegan has to come to my house to sew because she doesn't have a machine.  I'm torn on the idea of gifting her with a machine of her own.  I like having her come here for hours on end of sewing, coffee drinking, and a bit of gossip.  I think I'll wait until she asks for a machine;-}