Sewing Room Friday, 8/18/23

 As mentioned yesterday, I have lost my motivation to sew lately. I'm hoping with the cooler weather, which hopefully will begin any day now, some of it will return.

While on the cruise, we celebrated Aaron's 45th birthday. Before we left, I made these coasters for his gift. It was a quick project and I'm really pleased with the results. Have you tried sewing with rope?

Charlotte and Gabe have an absolutely phenomenal piano teacher. When she requested a custom pencil pouch, I was happy to oblige (maybe I just need more requests--it's fun sewing with a purpose). I used the free tutorial by one of my favorite designers, Anna Graham of Noodlehead. I actually made it twice, because the first time the piano key fabric was too far down on the pouch and it just looked like black and white stripes. But Charlotte liked it--so I was happy to give that one to her.

The only other thing I've made recently is this zipper pouch with printed clear vinyl, jelly vinyl and an absolutely perfect orange striped zipper. I have ordered quite a bit of printed vinyl, as well as jelly vinyl, as well as zipper-by-the-yard. I need to get in gear and start using it up. We have an upcoming craft show at our church in December and I'd really like to have an inventory of cute pouches. And maybe some coasters. I figure if nothing sells, my family and friends know what they will be getting for Christmas.:)

Really Random Thursday, 8/17/23

I had my last one-on-one date Saturday--this time with Charlotte. We had lunch from Chipotle and then crocheted while we watched the movie Into the Woods. So much fun. I forgot to take a photo, so snapped this one just before she got out of the car. 

Then this one popped up in Shutterfly memories, from eight years ago.  This girl is just so amazing; spending time with her is such a treat.

This week they all began a new year of school. Where did the summer go?  Senior, 10th, 6th and 4th. 

(above school photos by Christa)

And I've done pretty much nothing but read. I just can't get in the mood to sew. Although I did see a really cute zipper pouch by a German designer. I ordered it. It took many emails with their customer service to finally find the link. Probably because everything was in German. Ha! Anyway I finally got the pdf link and printed it out. All 47 pages of it. All in German. Except for the word "optional" sprinkled here and there throughout the pattern. Although I'm not really sure what is actually "optional." The photos are excellent so I think I'll be able to figure it out. Oh, and did I mention that everything is in metric system? Stay tuned...

Really Random Thursday, 8/10/23

Hello, August. Inching closer to cooler temperatures. I'm always hopeful that they are around the corner, but in reality it will probably be October before it feels cooler. 

Books I read in July: Continuing the series by William Kent Krueger and I continue to enjoy it. Hello Beautiful was an interesting book. The Great Unexpected was really a wonderful book. The rest were just okay. 

I've been trying to sneak in one-on-one "dates" with grandkids before school starts. Ella and I spent a morning at Color Me Mine, with lunch from McDonald's. No surprise there.

Levi requested Chipotle and Cold Stone.

Gabe had requested a place neither of us had been before, Fatburger. The name was apt. The burgers were greasy and the fries were not great. We won't return.

Three down, one to go. Charlotte and Christa were at a Taylor Swift concert (envious...), so I'm hoping she will have time in the next couple of days.

I decided to sell my beloved Barbie doll. I had hoped to pass her to a granddaughter. However, no one is expressing any interest. Not even with the current Barbie mania. So I'm thinking of striking while the iron is hot. I got my one and only Barbie--no Ken, no Midge--for my 10th birthday, November 1962. The back story is that we had a really annoying chihuahua, and not a lot of money (my father was a minister). So my parents said if I agreed that they sell the chihuahua, they would buy me a Barbie doll. Other than some green discoloration around her earlobes from earrings (I'm finding out that is common), she is in pristine condition. Also, I didn't realize how many store-bought outfits I had--not sure where the money came for those.

Grandkids seem to think in the interest of coming full circle, whatever money I get from the sale should go toward buying a dog. Haha.

A couple of weeks before the cruise, I spent an entire day changing so.many.passwords to avoid having duplicates. Ugh.

We have a summer kids club at church. Mark gathered a lot of glass scraps and the kids each made a little piece of fused art. They turned out so great.

This would be a perfect t-shirt for our son, who tracks the info on nearly any plane flying overhead.

Anyone else relate to this? Currently I still prefer staying home and watching the service stream live on YouTube.

This is just funny. It's for real--I checked it out. 

There is no way this will ever be a good idea.

And finally, sorry this is blurry, but I did not make this up. I got a text from Mark's brother, Pete, who works for the city of Driggs, Idaho. He got a call the other morning: "Hey, there is a bull by the playground." 

And that's it for the first week of August.

The Great Alaskan Adventure, Part 3, July 28-30

On Friday, we arrived in Ketchikan. Our excursion was to the Totem Bight State Historical Park, which has a large collection of totem poles. Learning the history and symbolism of the poles was fascinating.

Our ship was so large that we docked 7 miles from town and had to take a shuttle in.

Since we had been in Ketchikan two previous times, we headed back to the ship for lunch, as we sailed again at 1:15 p.m. anyway.

Everyone spent the afternoon relaxing. Then we got ready for "formal night," to celebrate our anniversary. Charlotte made this sign for our door.

Norwegian does not have any specific formal nights--it's all "freestyle dining"--you choose what time you want to eat and where. We did have reservations for dinner again in the formal dining room, the Manhattan. Prior to dinner, since we were all dressed up, we had photos taken.

We sailed all day on Saturday, and everyone did a variety of things on the ship. I spent a lot of time reading on the balcony of our room because the weather, and the water, was so beautiful.

We docked in Victoria, British Columbia, at 8 p.m. Our last excursion was the Butchart Gardens at night, complete with fireworks.

We arrived back at the ship at 11:30 p.m. and the next morning, the cruise was over. 

This week was exactly what I was hoping for--time together as a family and do-your-own-thing time. Alaska is an amazing state, and I could return again and again. Sharing this time with my favorite people was the icing on the cake. I hope they all have many special memories of this time together.