That'll do.

Rosette Wreath

2012-01-21T12:12:00.001-05:00

Ah, Pinterest. While perusing one day, I came across this wreath. I wanted to make a thoughtful and nice Christmas gift for a friend and, fortuitously, she ended up pinning the same wreath. That means it’s a winner, right? So I set to work.

I started out with 40 sheets of cardstock and made up the shapes in my Silhouette software so I wouldn’t have to cut them by hand. (If you have a Silhouette and would like the file, let me know and I can send it to you. They do sell them, but I’m cheap, so I made my own.) I rolled and glued per the tutorial (skipping the glittering part) and ended up needing another full 10 sheets of cardstock.

The project ended up taking a lot more time and materials than I had counted on, but it did turn out very nicely.

Of course, I discovered that Target has this wreath for $40 and have seen a smaller red one (very similar to the one I made) for about $20. The materials cost on this was over $15 – probably around $18. DIY fail? Maybe.

But, my friend seemed to legitimately like it, so that was fabulous. Gift fail? Nope.

Old project

2012-01-08T15:02:00.000-05:00

I made this skirt probably a year ago, but it sat for quite awhile while I waited for a coordinating shirt. I finally acquired a shirt that matched well enough and went with it. The skirt is from this tutorial, but didn’t turn out quite as well as the example. It was one of my first times working with knits (and not just knit, but rayon knit, which is quite wiggly) and my old machine had a hard time with all the gathers.

The problem also arose that I never managed to get a good picture of it. This is as good as it gets (it was taken back in June).

I wasn’t all that happy with the skirt when I first made it, what with the troubled-looking gathers, the fact that it ended up being too long, and the non-existent waistband, meaning it was a bit loose. Plus, that rayon doesn’t hide anything. There’s a lot of prepwork before wearing this thing out – you’ve got to make sure there are NO wrinkles in your underclothing! But now that the belly is big enough to hold the skirt up and at a decent length, and I’ve had enough time to get over the imperfections, I’ve made my peace with this skirt. It’s in the regular Sunday rotation and I even got a compliment on it the other week. Huzzah!

Early Empire Cinch

2012-01-05T21:50:00.001-05:00

Aside from a few really cute outfits that a friend loaned me, my maternity wardrobe is pretty lame. I had one dress in particular that I never wore much in my last pregnancy because it was super tent-like and not flattering. Now that belts are so popular, though, I knew that a belt would be an easy solution. And what’s better than a homemade belt made from fabric you already have on hand?

(image source: The Cottage Home, who, incidentally, made her own lovely cinch)

I was a little nervous about using bright colors or doing the patchwork, as I wanted it to match anything in my wardrobe. So, I went with the cop-out: fabrics with the base colors of ivory and gray, and patterns that weren’t too clashy. The cinch is reversible and can be worn with the ties in the front or back, with the widest part of the cinch in front or back. Quite customizable!

I probably should have taken pictures of it with the dress for which it was intended, but I find myself wearing it frequently, even with fitted t-shirts, so this will do. (And is this collage evidence of what appropriate posing can do to flatter your figure or what? I look so much smaller in some of the shots that others…)

Simple gifts

2012-01-03T17:25:00.000-05:00

At church, I serve with three other ladies in the women’s organization and needed a simple (and quick, since I didn’t think about it until we were getting ready to go out of town…) gift for them for Christmas. I haven’t been serving with these women for all that long, so, honestly, I don’t know a ton about them. That meant that personalized gifts were out, so I had to figure out a decent generic gift. This is what I came up with:

Crocheted dishcloths and scrubbers, Bath and Body Works soap, and a treat (a bag of homemade chocolate and vanilla popcorn – not pictured). The scrubbers were a neat design and worked up pretty quickly. They’re on Ravelry here. The dishcloths are a Lion Brand design, found via Ravelry, but the pattern is from their site.

The scrubbies are a great way to use up old acrylic. (I used cotton for the dishcloths, though.) I might have to make a few more of those. All in all, I think this was a successful gift.

Peg people

2011-12-31T14:14:00.000-05:00

Peg people seem to be all the rage, especially lately. I’ve seen families of peg people done a couple of years ago, but now there are super heroes sets, princess sets, and more. What fun!

I went for a family set, much like those seen here and here. I didn’t go too in-depth on most of the clothes or hairstyles. They were a gift for the Wee One at Christmas, and she did initially think I was one of the grandmas, but I straightened her out. (Since when do I have gray highlights?) She now remembers who everyone is, even if we all look a bit similar.

The entire lot, including baby brother. She has mentioned a time or two about how baby brother is out with her dolls, but, in real life, he’s still in mommy’s tummy…

Our little family. (David got the most detailed and interesting outfit. She knew who that was right away!)

And the grandparents. None of them are completely gray (at least in appearance), so they just got highlights.

The wood was from this Etsy shop (I liked their service and dolls, but, really, you could find any number of sources and probably get them cheaper – shipping was a bit much). I used the high gloss (poly?) sealant as recommended by Clumsy Crafter, and I really like it in practice. It looks super nice and has held up well (admittedly, it’s only been a few days…), but it doesn’t photograph well. Especially at night.

Stockings

2011-12-29T14:03:00.000-05:00

Growing up, we each had a stocking that was handmade by my aunt and featured an applique character/person. I was an angel. I loved it. I wanted the same thing for my family but have been putting off making anything for years. I wasn’t sure where to start. Consequently, we haven’t even had stockings for most of the years we’ve been married.

Now that the Wee One is a bit more interested in Christmas and some if the traditions, I figured I’d best get at it. I bought some Christmas fabric for 50% off at Hancock’s, then got to work designing some appliques, with a lot of inspiration found from clip art online. (Thanks, Google Image search!)

The final products include one stocking for each of us (Wee One gets to be the angel now), including baby boy on the way.

My applique skills could use a little work, but overall, I’m pleased. Everything is pretty sturdy, too, as the stockings survived being stuffed rather nicely on Christmas. They got a total display time of about a week and now will be put away for next year.

Once upon a time…

2011-12-27T13:22:00.001-05:00

I made things, and posted them on this blog. Then, you know, a little parasite (aka baking baby) came into the picture, and I made a lot fewer things. And those things I did make were largely Christmas related. And we traveled. And Christmas happened, and that keeps us all busy. I’m finally ready to share a few projects. Hooray!

Today’s project: Family Subway Art

(I’m not much of a photographer anyway, but I do my best to get nicely lit shots. I pretty much ended up doing a lot of night shots with these projects, though, so the picture quality is poor. Oh well.) The last name is mostly cropped off – an effort at privacy, since it’s a pretty unusual name.

I looked all over online and on Pinterest for inspiration and found art similar to this one to largely copy. (Can I find it again though? Apparently not.) I thought it would be a pretty simple task, but things always come up, don’t they?

I spray painted an 11x14 canvas with brown paint and let it dry. I designed the art on my Silhouette software and was ready to cut it out of the vinyl. But, wait – the vinyl is only 9” wide, and 2” of extra space on the canvas was a little too much. I redesigned so that it would cut out the vinyl sideways and I’d apply it in two sections, but application was problematic. The vinyl did not stick well to the spray painted surface. It stuck much better to the transfer paper. It took a lot of time and effort to get the vinyl on the board, and it moved around a lot. Next step: try Mod Podge. But I didn’t have any. Supposedly a 50/50 mix of Elmer’s glue and water does the same thing. So, I made some up and applied (carefully, as letters were moving all over the place!), then let it dry overnight.

And in the morning? Success! All the letters were stuck on and the glue/water had dried clear as expected. Whew! I liked the result, but wish the process had been as easy as I’d anticipated…

Oh, what do you give for a first birthday

2011-10-02T22:11:00.000-04:00

You’re invited to attend?
Do you give away toys,
(Not ones that make noise,)
To take up space and then be set aside?
Is that what you give? So do I.

Oh, what do you give for a first birthday
You’re invited to attend?
Do you gift some clothes,
Because everyone knows,
For the parents’ priorities, they’re high.
Is that what you give? So do I.

I admit, I’ve never been much for first birthdays. I figure the kid doesn’t really know me or my child or care that we’re there (especially at this point, when my child is not really in a 1-year-old’s peer group). The child doesn’t really care about receiving presents, yet you feel obligated to bring some… then watch the parents open them.

And what is the best gift for a 1-year-old anyway? More toys to clutter up the house for the parents (and likely not get played with)? Clothes, which are useful, but ever boring? How about a yes to both. But, you know, as long as I make the gifts, I feel I’ve made some sort of contribution, even if the kid doesn’t care about it.

Thanks to this tutorial and a lovely, yet no-longer-used skirt in my closet, we had a toddler dress:

It’s a 2T (because, well, that’s what my model is), so the giftee will have to grow into it. I only did elastic on one side of each of the straps – I thought it looked nice this way, with slightly “flowing” sleeves.

And, of course, a toy. The Wee One was disinterested in most dolls until about 18 months, but then it was the soft dolls all the way. Hard plastic dolls haven’t crept their way into her play rotation, even though they’re available. So, I thought maybe a Waldorf sack doll would make a good friend for a 1-year-old:

The body is nice and squishy, almost like a pillow. The process was, naturally, much faster and easier than the big Waldorf doll, but involved quite a bit of hand sewing. Maybe not the kind of gift I’d make for every child, but I definitely like it. And I think it was one of the only gifts the kiddo got that didn’t require batteries or have wheels. Sometimes simple is nice, right?

Ah, purple dress!

2011-09-28T21:50:00.001-04:00

I haven’t watched The Simpsons in years, but certain quotes have stuck around at our home…

I haven’t made a ton of stuff for us lately, but do still get the sewing machine revved up when it’s gift-giving time. Case in point: a recent baby shower.

It was the mama’s first girl, so she definitely could use clothes. I had some sleepers to pass on (okay, okay, it was a re-gift – my girlie just wasn’t born in the right season to use them), but wanted something else to add to the loot. It was the perfect opportunity to try out one of my newer sewing books: Handmade Beginnings by Anna Maria Horner. I've had my eye on that book forever, and finally got it as a late birthday present a few months back.

And so, the dress in question, the Pretty-as-a-Picture Dress:

I made it in the 9 month size, for which I have no model, so I can’t verify the fit, but it looks super comfy. The top is a crossover, so there’s plenty of room for baby’s head (I went ahead and added a snap so baby can move without flashing everyone), and the waist is made with elastic to give it plenty of give. I had that scrap of yellow Monaco fabric that I thought looked nice (and really popped) with the purple. The bodice lining was also a great opportunity to use some lightweight broadcloth scraps I had.

It got plenty of “oohs” and “aahs” at the baby shower, which is always the goal, right? Well, maybe not as many as some of the tinier and frillier dresses, but that’s to be expected.

Sleepover Pals!

2011-09-23T17:50:00.001-04:00

This was definitely one of the projects that first caught my eye from the Wee Wonderfuls book.

Sleepover Pals!

These little ladies were a lot of fun to make (I did take a few liberties in changing up their hair).

Their faces are simple muslin with features embroidered on. Hair is felt (I’d intended to get some wool, but failed, so it’s the ol’ plastic kind). The bodies were a good use of fabric scraps. I think these girls will have a lot of fun together. I gifted them to a friend and she said her daughter has enjoyed playing with them. That’s always nice to hear!

They go to sleep and wrap up so nicely. I dare say this is an easier cleanup than you’d get with a real sleepover.

Repurposing: Toddler T-Shirt Dress

2011-08-18T15:54:00.001-04:00

I occasionally see offers for women’s clothes on Freecycle and, if the pickup location is close, I’ll jump on it. Free clothes? Why not?

I recently acquired a black and white striped t-shirt and knew it needed to become something like this. But, I had a lot of solid-colored shirts as well. Why use cotton yardage when there are other shirts available? Inspired by this tutorial, this is what I came up with:

The shirt started out as a women’s, so I had to first make it the right size for my toddler. I’ve done it before, but I think it went even better this time. The most helpful tip I found regarding making t-shirts is to cut out the neckline ribbing (just more of the jersey I was already using) 15% smaller than the neck hole it’s going into. Then, when pinning/sewing, stretch it to fit. It makes the final result look professional and clean, without gaping and sagging. Hooray!

The shirt that I used for the bottom was a pretty fitted women’s small, so it wasn’t significantly bigger than the baby’s big toddler belly. But, you can still see the effect of the shirring, so it all worked out.

I love that this dress was quick to knock out and it’s super comfy and easy to travel with. So, if you’ve got a toddler who could use a new dress and you’ve got a big repurpose pile to work with, this is a winning option.

Yellowness

2011-08-03T12:20:00.001-04:00

After seeing some cute brightly-colored pants here and here, I decided that I needed to make some yellow shorts. The trouble is, there weren’t any inexpensive thick cotton poplin or twill options in a nice color of yellow. I decided to just go with a quality Kona cotton.

The Kona was great – a lovely color and thick for a quilting cotton. But when I decided to add in some blue polka-dotted fabric as a cute pocket lining, it was a mistake. The Kona was sheer enough that those polka dots could be seen from the front and it just didn’t look great. So, I lined the front with a white muslin (or was it broadcloth?). Success!

And, so, using this basic tutorial to make the [girly] bermudas, plus a few buttons as accents, I had my finished shorts:

And what’s that behind? I decided to make the shorts a part of a cheerfully yellow set for a friend.

The top is a simple peasant top with sleeves made from the Monaco line. I really like the combo.

Will that kiddo be stylin’ or what?

Make-your-own sheets

2011-07-27T23:17:00.001-04:00

Until I saw Dana’s tutorial for crib/toddler bed sheets, it never occurred to me to make my own. I recall being disappointed with the selection of not-ridiculously-expensive sheets back when I first shopped for them after the baby’s birth. So, I bought one fitted sheet that I didn’t particularly like and went with it. As we were preparing to put the baby into a toddler bed, though, I remembered Dana’s tutorial and decided to upgrade the sheet.

Two yards of $3 fabric from fabric.com and a bit of elastic later (so, yeah, it probably worked out to be more expensive than I’d be willing to pay at Walmart, but I got some fun fabric in the baby’s favorite color!), we had a new sheet!

I wasn’t shooting for chic, just for yellow and fun. And the baby loves it. When it’s in the wash, she asks for her “apple sheet.”

The pattern worked out really well. Threading the elastic wasn’t fun, but it went fairly quickly. This is definitely a good pattern if you’re interested in customizing your kiddo’s bedding.

When she insisted on getting in the picture, I told her to pretend she was sleeping. This was the result. Hmm.

Leah Tunic

2011-07-07T23:19:00.001-04:00

I loved Jess’s Leah Tunic the first time I saw it. (I might have even begged her for a tutorial in the comments.) And, what luck! A sewalong came along…

Truth be told, I didn’t actually participate in the sewalong. But, you know, I still made the thing. Twice. So it’s all good. All it takes is a little patience in pattern-making, a half yard of fabric (plus a little more for the bias tape)…

… oh yeah, and an over-the-top button. This one is nice and big and features glitter inside. Surprisingly cute.

This one – ahem, two – went out as gifts. Heaven knows my child does not need any more clothes in her current size. But, she was still kind enough to model the thing for me. It only cost me about five chocolate chips. Man, she’s got the system figured out already.

Bird Baby Shower

2011-06-29T23:12:00.001-04:00

I recently co-hostessed (yep, I’m making up my own words here), along with several other awesome ladies, a baby shower for a good friend. The theme incorporated pink, brown, and birds, a la her chosen PB Kids bedding. I was in charge of decorations, minus the table centerpiece, which I passed off to a helper.

I made three major things:

Tissue paper pom poms
Martha Stewart’s famed tutorial is here, though I found it best to use 9-10 sheets of paper in whatever standard size they came to me from Walmart. They were super cute to start, but scotch tape failed me and all but one fell before the evening was through. I forgot to bring my camera to the shower, so there are no photos, but ultimately they were a lame bit of decor anyway.

“Wishing tree”

Seriously, the thing looked much nicer sitting on a side table next to the favors…

The idea came from here, though I “girled” it up a little. Without a vase, I shoved a bunch of old, homemade play-doh into an old peanut butter jar and stuck the sticks in there. (Slightly humorous side note: I kept collecting giant branches when I’d take The Wee One out for a walk and would attach them in random ways to the stroller until we got home. The Wee One frequently complained about the unsightly sticks on her stroller, and I told her I was collecting them for a baby shower. She now frequently brings me sticks [much smaller than my branches, thankfully] from outside and tells me they’re for the baby shower.) I wrapped the jar with scrapbook paper and ribbon, and we hung Silhouette-cut birds from the branches.

Bird’s nest jewelry favors

These are actually pretty small and would make darling necklace pendants, but I went ahead with the pin option. I attached them to tie tack pins with E-6000 (works great, but I’m a little turned off by the “this stuff is a carcinogen” warnings on the package…), then mounted them on a Silhouette-cut cardstock bird house that said, “Thanks for coming, you’re so ‘tweet.’” The basic tutorial came from here, and they were easy to make. The only trouble was with the quantity. There were 92 invitations sent out and about 10 RSVPs received. How many favors would we need? I made 30 and I think the turnout was right around 20. That, combined with the fact that I think a few ladies missed the favor basket, meant I had quite a few extras. Uh, what do I do with a bunch of nest pins?

I had a ton of fun making the stuff, despite the minor stresses. I only wish it would have been perfect. But, then, no one would have known I’d had anything to do with it: I seem to repel perfection!

The Bapron

2011-06-25T11:56:00.000-04:00

With much thanks to Jessica at Craftiness is Not Optional for the pattern (she seriously has the awesomest toddler clothing tutorials), I finished some other quick baby shower gifts. They’re called Baprons, and they provide the ultimate in bib coverage. Sweet!

Boy version (Germania fabric again):

Girl version (fabric from Hobby Lobby):

I tried them on The Wee One for reference, and they’re just a little too small. I’ll have to figure out how to make it a little bigger for her so I can stop tying flour sack towels around her neck. That’s been my MO for the last year or so. Our towels have just about had it.

This is a great pattern, though, as it’s super simple and quick to make. Useful too. Kiddos seem to go through a ton of bibs when they start feeding themselves…

I’m a bi-winner!

2011-06-23T11:45:00.001-04:00

(Man, that dude is crazy. But he seems to be all but forgotten now. Fine with me.)

Sew Mama Sew recently hosted their giveaway day again and I won! With much thanks to Emily (how cool is her blog address and shop name? Anything with “flippin’” in it is automatically a winner), we received this dress for The Wee One:

Emily’s a pro at using vintage fabrics. I mentioned that The Wee One is fond of yellow and Emily incorporated it nicely. I also mentioned that I love me a little aqua. So, check out the button closure:

This dress is a super easy and lightweight style. Perfect for Texas summers and a wiggly kiddo. Plus, you can’t beat the pocket:

Thanks again, Emily, you’re so sweet!

And, to cap off my bi-win, I got this book last week from Sew Mama Sew’s summer giveaway series. It’s seriously the awesomest softie book ever. What luck!

Blankets!

2011-06-22T10:25:00.000-04:00

Let’s face it: most store-bought receiving blankets are way too small, especially for swaddling. They’re also rarely square, which is the ideal shape for swaddling. Since swaddling blankets are so easy, I thought a nice big one would be a great gift. 1.25 yards of each fabric creates the perfect square.

The cotton is some Michael Miller Snow Dots that I bought a few months ago; the flannel is something I recently picked up at Hancock’s. I thought it was super cute when I saw it on the bolt like this:

And then I brought it home, washed it, and started my project. I noticed that the selvage said something about “skulls.” Yep, that lovely floral design is part of a skull theme:

David says that the skulls are creepy. Sugar skulls are a bit of a fad right now, though, and I don’t think it’s too bad. Plus, it’s going to get spit up on and pooped on. It works.

I also decided to throw together a crocheted blanket. It’s small, a good size for a car seat blanket. I can’t say that I always love the look of crocheted blankets, but they are useful. Because of the holes, they’re a little lighter weight and more breathable than some other options, plus they seem a little less of a suffocation risk for younger babies.

I used two full skeins of Caron’s Simply Soft in Soft Pink and didn’t want to buy another just for the border, so I used some white Wool-Ease that I had on hand.

Specs:
Pattern – One Ball Baby Blanket by Red Heart (via Ravelry)
Hook – K
Yarn – Caron Simply Soft in Soft Pink (2 skeins), white Lion Brand Wool-Ease for the border

Sleep sack

2011-06-20T10:06:00.001-04:00

I have several baby shower creations to share over the next few posts. First up is the sleep sack:

I used the basic pattern from Anna Maria Horner’s Handmade Beginnings, but modified it to have a zipper. The original pattern calls for an overlapping front that utilizes Velcro, but Velcro isn’t my favorite baby wear closure. It wears over time, losing its grip, and it’s noisy. I made the sleep sack a little longer and wider to accommodate an older baby, so hopefully there aren’t any middle-of-the-night changes, but just in case…

The front was a great scrap buster, although it also showcases my lack of piecing skills. It is also evident that I’m just not quite sure yet how to install zippers…

The lining is a simple yellow flannel and the back is yellow “windowpane” fabric from the Free Spirit Monaco line.

I made up the [very simple] zipper cover at the neck. It also hides the fact that my neckline isn’t totally symmetrical.

Every project shows me just how much I have yet to learn, as there are many imperfections. Still, at least I can almost always produce something functional. And I’m learning. Very slowly.

Sister dresses!

2011-06-11T17:39:00.000-04:00

One of my college friends was expecting baby girl #3. She is not opposed to her girls wearing matching clothes. Obviously, these facts merited three identical dresses.

The pattern is Simplicity 3511, the same I used for this dress. The main fabric is a lightweight cotton/poly shirting from fabric.com. I lined it, as it was pretty sheer. The sleeves and bottom panel were from a line called Snow Flower. I think the designer was Lena Gibbons? The bottom panel is slightly smaller than the dress is, creating a bubble effect. I used elastic thread on the sleeves instead of a casing.

The sizes are 3T, 2T, and 6m. Which, of course, may or may not fit all the girls at the same time. But, you know, they’ll all get to wear them at some point, and #3 is so lucky as to be able to wear them all! What mom doesn’t want their kid wearing the same exact dress for three years straight?

But, back to the point: it was fun to knock out three little matching dresses. But, yeah, I may not make another one too soon…

Day 13-14: Naples and going home

2011-06-08T17:13:00.001-04:00

We got up and got going quickly, in anticipation of getting right off the boat, but it was not to be. Instead, we waited and waited (on the stairs next to the rope prohibiting us from going to the first floor gangway). Status updates weren’t coming. Finally, someone went upstairs to ask guest relations: the ship was waiting for one Italian official to come on board and clear the passengers for entry. The captain announced that we would not be getting off the boat at 7 am (duh), but, at the earliest, could get off at 8:30. Apparently Italians like to sleep in.

We went upstairs to kill time playing mini golf and ping pong. By the time we came back down right around 8:30, the gangway was open. We rushed off the ship and headed toward the hydrofoil terminal. I wanted to double check the prices to Capri, just in case the 18 euros quoted was round trip. It wasn’t.

So, off to the train station we went. We caught a train headed for Sorrento, standing room only. We were standing next to an Italian man who spoke very broken English and asked where we were going. I told him Sorrento, and he gave a “thumbs up” and said it was a good choice – beautiful. He then pointed to the last five stops on the list and pointed from his eyes to the outside, saying, “Watch. Beautiful.”

It didn’t take long for the passengers to thin out enough for us to get seats. The ride was a little over an hour, and, as instructed, we watched through the last several stops. They were indeed beautiful with good views of the mountains on one side, and the ocean on the other. There were also a ton of lemon trees – the region is known for them.

In Sorrento, we did a brief Rick Steves walk, which gave us some great views:

A classic Sorrentine road

Looking down on some ruins

And, of course, we stopped for some gelato.

We then headed for Marina Grande, which was a little bit of a walk from “downtown.” Along the way, we had to go down some streets with small or non-existent sidewalks. On one of the streets with a very small sidewalk, there was a man standing on the corner, not moving. We stepped off the sidewalk to pass him on the street, and, as David passed him, he seemed to stare David down for a moment. Then he chuckled. It was really odd.

Our plan was to just sit on the beach at Marina Grande and enjoy ourselves. Along the way, though, a women with a beachside restaurant stopped us. She first asked if we were Australian, then seeing our Rick Steves book, said, “Oh, Americans.” She proceeded to tell us how too many Americans rely solely on Rick Steves and won’t experience the other great restaurants there are – like hers. She tried to get us to stop in and eat, after which we could contact Rick Steves and tell him to include her in his book. We had just tided ourselves over with gelato and intended to save our appetites for pizza in Naples. So, we declined and raced off to the beach.

The beach was black sand, not busy, and very relaxing. It was a small beach on a harbor, which was kind of grimy and didn’t seem great for swimming. For sunbathing and relaxing, though, it was perfect. (Although it should be noted that the beach is not very big and much of it is used for boats.) We were able to access someone’s unlocked wifi, too, so we got a lot of computing done while we relaxed.

The walk to the beach

Views from the beach – it was black sand, obviously volcanic

We wanted some time to go to Naples and eat pizza, so we limited our beach time a little. On the way back to the train station, we stopped at the grocery store to stock up for our trip home, then stopped at a cafe for what looked to be liege-style waffles. They didn’t turn out to be quite like liege waffles, and were covered in Nutella instead of chocolate, but they were tasty nonetheless.

The train ride back to Naples went smoothly. We had seats the whole time and dozed a bit. At one point, the train filled with high school students on their way home. It was kind of interesting to watch their interaction with one another and notice the styles. One kid even had crazy low-rider jeans. Like, his front boxer fly was exposed low. I’m not sure why anyone wants to sag their jeans, but it still amazes me that the jeans can be that low and not fall off completely…

In Naples, there was a little wait outside the pizzeria, but, once we decided we weren’t going to try to get into the museum too, we knew we had plenty of time.

The pizza was delicious, of course, but this time it was a little, uh, darker than before. Guess the oven guys weren’t as prompt as they should have been…

The next stop was gelato:
We then headed back to the cruise terminal and took a break in front of the cafe where we’d had expensive hot chocolate 6 months ago. They very kindly hadn’t changed their wifi password, so we spent a little more time online. David had some schedule stuff to look over, so he spent more time than I did.

And I was bored…

That night, we had our last dinner in the dining room. Our tablemates were nice, and generally interesting. Besides us, there was one couple from Wales, one from Ireland, and one young couple from North Carolina on a delayed honeymoon. Obviously the last couple had the most in common with us, but she was almost awkwardly talkative, and they only came to dinner twice. The rest of the nights, we would have been happy to converse with the others, but we were seated too far from them to hear the conversation. That, and the Irish couple were crazy hard to understand. His accent, especially, was super thick, and he spoke very quickly. All we could do was smile and nod and joke later that he was offering us Lucky Charms.

The next morning, we had a 90+ minute trip to get to the airport. There was a traffic jam in the port and it was very nerve-wracking to sit at a standstill for 15 minutes, not knowing how long it would be before we could go again, yet knowing we were in a bit of a rush. The whole morning was not really planned appropriately, so by the time we got to the airport and checked in, we didn’t have much more than an hour before our flight was to leave. Then, the worst news: we were pointed toward a RIDICULOUSLY long, snaking line that was leading to the security checkpoint. We stood in it, but after 20 minutes, it became obvious that we were not going to make our flight if we had to wait. We watched a worker go back and forth, calling out flights and taking people to the front of the line as necessary. We tried to ask her about our flight, but she gave a cranky look and ignored us. Not good.

Fortunately, we had previously scoped out another girl who we knew was supposed to be on our flight. We kept our eye on her and, with not much more than 30 minutes to go, finally saw her and another woman being escorted to the front of the line by the worker. We stepped up behind them and got ourselves to the front of the line. There ended up being a high school group of about 25 kids and chaperones that fell into line behind us, so it was nice to know that there weren’t just 3 of us that were cutting it close.

We made it onto the flight with little time to spare and got our own center row (5 seats). We were on United instead of Continental this time, but the entertainment system was still lacking, so I spent a lot of the flight sleeping. We ultimately made it home at about 11 pm, as expected, and were able to fall asleep fairly quickly. Of course, we were wide awake at 4 am, but what do you expect from jet lag?

All-in-all, it was a great trip. For me, it was just a little too long to be away from the baby, but it was still nice to get a break. I found that I felt much happier with life and parenting upon our return, as I really had been reenergized. Hooray for vacations!

Days 11-12: Cruising

2011-06-02T10:33:00.001-04:00

After Istanbul, we spent two days at sea on our way to Naples. It was a good break, sure, but it was hard to have two days of doing “nothing” so close to being done with the cruise. At this point, I was getting a little antsy about going home and being with the baby again, and probably could have dispensed with the last of the cruise. Nonetheless, we did enjoy ourselves while enjoying the ship’s amenities.

And so, in no particular order, our days consisted of:

Rollerblading (only me; David’s pretty terrible at it)

Shuffleboard (we’re both pretty terrible; we even hid from one of the workers who was trying to get us to compete in a shuffleboard competition)

Ice skating (David clung to the wall the whole time)

Mini-golf

Sunning on deck (or, in actuality, just enjoying the warm weather – we tried to stay sunscreened and shaded to avoid sunburn)

Making new friends

And, of course, we did plenty of eating and sleeping. We also played Wii for the first time – bowling. My score was MUCH higher than it is when I bowl in real life, as I didn’t get any gutter balls! It’s just not all that realistic. We played against a Spanish guy and his daughter, who beat us (but not by much), then we stomped some Germans who said they had a Wii at home. Thanks for boosting my video game self-esteem, guys!

One of the nights, we went to an Abba show. There was a lot of great talent in the evening’s performances, but there were many that were very specialized (and thus boring to us uncultured folk). You know, like a violinist, a pianist, and a singer. The Abba show was a ton of fun and totally Abba – a group that dressed like them and sang Abba songs. I was a little surprised (and disappointed) by how many people walked out during the show. The group channeled Abba well and the songs were fun. What did these people expect when they came to an Abba show?

Our last port day was to be spent in Naples. Before the cruise, we hadn’t been able to decide whether to go to Capri or not. By the end of the cruise, after all the money spent, I just wasn’t sure it was worth it. It cost 32 euros per person just in hydrofoil costs to get to/from Capri. I decided that we’d shoot for Sorrento instead. Nonetheless, our day was full, so we wanted to get off the boat as close to dock time – 7 am – as possible. So, bedtime was fairly early on our last night of cruising.

Day 10: Istanbul (day 2)

2011-05-27T12:02:00.000-04:00

We started our day at the Underground Cistern. It was cool, but overpriced. That seemed to be my opinion of most sights in Turkey.

The Cistern utilized lots of recycled columns, most of which were boring. There were, however, a couple of interesting ones. Like:

And then there’s this one. Well, it’s one of two. There are two Medusa heads that are pretty much the most popular pieces in the entire Cistern. This one sits on its side and the other upside down on its head. The line to see them was long.

There were a ton of fish in the water. And a bunch of change.

Our next stop was the Grand Bazaar. I was interested in getting some sort of handmade plate or bowl and we wanted to get a souvenir for the baby, but there were so many shops and so many options. We wandered around for a long time, enjoying ourselves, but we couldnt’ decide on a purchase. I’d read negative statements about the pushiness of Grand Bazaar shopkeepers, but we found them to be pretty tame. No one even called out to us – it was much better than Kusadasi.

The shopkeepers did, of course, pounce when you entered the shop. The Grand Bazaar is known for being a place to bargain, so they pull out all the stops. “Only 20 lira, but, well, for you, I’ll go to 15.” “Where are you from? Texas? I love Texas! Just this once, since you’re from Texas, I’ll go to 10 lira!” So, instead of going in to the fabric shops, I settled for taking pictures.
The next stop was the Mosque of Suleyman the Magnificent. It was gorgeous! The colors were more pastel than bright blue, which gave it a very calming and bright look inside.

Up next: the Spice Market. It was definitely a smorgasbord of sights, smells and sounds. I really enjoyed looking at all the candies and foods available to buy, as well as the ubiquitous touristy stuff. We bought a half kilo box of various Turkish delights and an “I love Istanbul” shirt for the baby. I also settled on a small bowl for me for only 3 lira ($2).

We stopped in at the Rustem Pasa Mosque next. Their rules were the same as every other mosque (women cover heads, dress modestly, remove shoes, don’t take photos of worshippers, etc.), but it was the only place I thought to take a photo.

This mosque is known for its tile. It was definitely impressive.

After the mosque, we were feeling hungry and decided to seek out some Turkish pizza. We were looking in the window at a restaurant and one of the workers came out to invite us in. They spoke pretty decent English, the food looked good, and the prices were great too. The perfect combo!

We shared a meat and cheese pizza, and it was about $5. And a visual bonus: even the pizzeria had pretty tile.

Our day was nearly over, so we decided to blow the rest of our money on treats in the Spice Market. We happened to see one shopkeeper giving another a neck and scalp massage. Hmm…

Loaded with baklava and chocolate-covered hazelnut nougat, then headed to the port. Just beyond the entrance was a park along the water, so we sat at the benches to enjoy some of our purchases. Those Turks sure make some tasty treats!

There was a midnight buffet that night on the ship. I wasn’t very hungry, but I enjoyed dipping fruit in chocolate. The atmosphere was fun too – who can beat a party with a roast pig?

With that, the day was over. And with just a cruising day and a day in Naples remaining, our cruise was almost over too.

Days 8-9: Cruising and Istanbul (day 1)

2011-05-24T21:53:00.001-04:00

Our cruising day was spent sleeping and eating (and finally getting our passports back!). It was nice to have a rest after our three busy port days and prepare for Istanbul. Of course, we may have played a little shuffleboard, watched movies, and golfed too. What else do you do on a cruise ship?

Our first day in Istanbul was busy. We got going a little late, which made it so we didn’t get quite as much accomplished in the morning before our Bosphorus cruise as we would have liked. We did Rick Steves’ walk from the ship, starting at the Galata Bridge. The ship was a bit more of a walk to the sights than was ideal, so after that first walk, we started using the tram (though it was a bit pricey for the relatively short trip, at about 1.50TL/person a trip). Shortly after we left the ship, we were passed by a ton of bike riders, police cars, and follower cars (stocked with more bikes). Apparently there was a race. Random.

A ton of guys fish off of the Galata Bridge everyday, hoping to catcg something to sell. I think they pretty much only catch small fish (when they’re lucky), like sardines. With all the competition, it seems like it wouldn’t be worth the effort to sit out there just for a few small fish. And, considering how much boat traffic there is in the water, I wonder why anyone would really want to eat those fish.

Our first stop was the Hagia Sofia. It’s one of the famous sights in Istanbul – it was once a Christian church but was converted to a mosque (and thus the altar had to be moved slightly off-center so it would face Mecca instead of Jerusalem). It’s kind of ironic, really, since pretty much every mosque since then (well, at least in Istanbul – I haven’t seen any elsewhere) has been built to share its basic architecture, and yet it started as a Christian building.

The worshippers wash their feet before going inside to pray. This is the fountain that was originally used for washings at the Hagia Sofia.

There were lots of impressive mosaics in the mosque. This one depicts Emperor Constantine presenting a model of the city, and Emperor Justinian presenting a model of the Hagia Sofia, to Mary and Jesus. It seems a bit pretentious, don’t you think? Because icons and depictions of people inside churches are seen as a distraction to worshippers (which is why the lovely geometric and floral designs reign supreme in mosques), all of these were whitewashed over when Hagia Sofia became a mosque.

The Hagia Sofia was quite impressive. Its size was massive and I all-around felt better about being inside it (and other, operating mosques) than I do inside Catholic cathedrals. It just felt more light and welcoming. And the Hagia Sofia isn’t even as light inside as other mosques, as they didn’t totally have a grasp on how to keep structural integrity in such a large building with many windows installed.

After the Hagia Sofia, we went to the Blue Mosque, but they were having prayer, so we couldn’t go in. We waited outside for awhile, but were running out of time before our Bosphorus cruise, so we moved on. We perused the Hippodrome (a large square that once held a racetrack) and checked out the Egyptian obelisk before heading off for our cruise.

Everything I’d read online said the cruise was at 2 pm, but when we got there to buy tickets, we found the time was 2:30. So, we had a half hour to kill. We bought some fried dough ball things (glazed with honey and dusted with ground pistachios) and the famous Turk “bagel” (a dough ring coated in grape molasses and sesame seeds, then baked) and ate our lunch along the water. The smell of fish was strong, as there were many fried fish stands. I’m sure the fish was fresh, but with the smell especially, I just wasn’t feeling it.

The day was cold, so when we boarded the boat for our cruise, I was hesitant to sit outside. David wanted to, so we tried it for a bit, but I knew it’d be torturous for me once we got moving. I found us a seat inside instead. It didn’t make for great picture taking, but it was a lot more comfortable.

One thing we noticed throughout Istanbul was that there were a ton of Turkish flags. I guess the Turks are patriotic.
There were a few cool buildings to see along the cruise over the two hours, but overall, I don’t think it was worth the cost. We’d had plenty of cruising already. :)

After the cruise, we decided to go to the Blue Mosque again. As we walked up, a young man approached us and said that they were in prayer so that we couldn’t go in. We weren’t sure what to make of him and thanked him for letting us know. But then, of course, he struck up conversation and it was obvious he was selling something. He said he wanted to take us to his family’s carpet shop to show us around. We awkwardly tried to make an excuse that we wanted to go see the Hippodrome (which we’d already seen), to which he said he’d show us around the Hippodrome and then take us to the shop. Great.

At the Hippodrome, he talked about the obelisk a little bit, then we turned to one another, pulled out our Rick Steves book, and acted like we were consumed in looking at the obelisk. We moved to the next statue there and he stayed behind, talking to a street vendor. We took our dear sweet time and apparently he gave up, as we couldn’t see him anymore. We snuck back into the Blue Mosque courtyard from another entrance and cursed our cowardly ways.

We waited around for awhile outside the Blue Mosque before figuring out that it had opened, but non-worshippers were supposed to go in through another entrance with a long line. We waited and finally made it in. It was crowded but very pretty and worth the wait.

By the time we were done at the Blue Mosque, it was getting close to dinner time. We wanted to get back on the ship for dinner (it was already paid for!), so we hurried to the tram and back on the ship to get dinner. After dinner, we got bundled up and went back out to experience Istanbul at night. We stayed on the port side of the Galata Bridge and went into the more modern area of Istanbul to walk amongst the shops. The street was very busy and there were lots of places to shop and eat. We stopped at an internet cafe (that was crazy noisy inside; obviously there was a dance club next door) so David could sort through his work schedule while the schedule enhancement window was open, then stopped in a treat shop for some baklava-type rolls.

We walked back to the ship along a steep road that was all torn up from construction and was rather dark. It was kind of weird, but I didn’t feel unsafe. Istanbul was a big, busy city, but I felt plenty comfortable there. We got to bed a bit late, but were excited for our next day’s adventures in Istanbul (again).

Day 7: Rhodes, Greece

2011-05-19T21:13:00.000-04:00

We had planned to get off the ship first thing, but our wake-up call didn’t work, so it was our backup alarm – set for 20 minutes later – that woke us. We hurried to get ready and get breakfast so that we could get off the ship and make the 8:30 am bus to Lindos. We rushed to the stop, only to find that the first bus wasn’t until 9 anyway.

Once the bus arrived, we hopped on and enjoyed an hour+ bus ride out to Lindos. The drive was pretty, and at one point the bus went off-roading into a wash because the bridge was damaged. That was a bit of a surprise!

Lindos was a gorgeous town, and we got a pretty good look at it from the bus as we were driving in.

From the bus stop, we had to walk for about 10 minutes downhill to get into the town area, then walk back uphill toward the acropolis. Those who wanted to save a few steps – or smell like, uh, donkey – paid for a ride on the donkeys, which were certainly no faster, as they had to be led up the hill by their masters.

We, of course, walked.

If we didn’t feel like we had to rush our day a bit, we could have waited until 12:30, when entrance to the acropolis was free. It didn’t fit with our schedule, though, so we had to shell out 6 euros apiece. The acropolis provided some great views and I’m not sorry we did it, but, ultimately, we found that there was very little original stuff there – what was standing had been rebuilt in the ‘40s, and again in the 2000s. This made the whole thing feel rather fake, and a little disappointing.

The weather was absolutely fabulous, though, so it was nice enough to linger up on the hill in the sun for a bit. When we’d [finally] had our fill, we headed back down to town to eat. Rather than seek out real food, we opted for gelato and baklava. I really wanted to eat some baklava while we were in Greece, but when we were billed 7.50 euro for it (about $10), I determined that, in the future, I’m better off making it at home.

After the food, we went to the beach. Surprisingly, it was sandy, and therefore it was very nice to relax on. The rocks started as soon as you got into the water, though, which made me think that the sand was imported. Either way, we waded a bit, laid in the sun, and otherwise relaxed until we figured we needed to get back to make sure we had time in Rhodes.

In Rhodes, we got some real lunch (chicken pita gyros, yum!) and walked around the old town fortress and moat.

Our last stop was the harbor, where the Colossus of Rhodes (another Ancient Wonder of the World) supposedly stood. I guess that most historians don’t believe it stood there (if it existed at all?), as the legs spread as they were would not have been able to support the massive statue that it was. If it did stand across the harbor, though, it’s rather said that it’s been replaced with two tiny deer statues. Lame.

We were supposed to be aboard earlier than usual in Rhodes – at 4:30 pm. Since dinner wasn’t until 6:30, we had some time to kill. David went to exercise and I stayed in the room. It was starting to get late and the ship hadn’t left port, so I decided to look out the window to see what was going on, as our room overlooked the gangway. It was about 4:40 and I saw that gangway was still there and there were some women running along the port to get to the ship. But, since they didn’t start pulling the gangway in, it was obvious there were still some folks missing. I heard an announcement made a few times for two men – if they were on board – to report immediately to guest services. This is a telltale sign that there are people about to get left at port, so I stared eagerly out the window to see what was going on.

I watched one of the Royal Caribbean workers pull out some passports (unlike in past cruises we’ve been on, the cruiseline took our passports and we weren’t to get them back until the next day – that really made me wonder what would happen if we got left behind at port!) and show them to two men - one in a car and one on a motorcycle – who subsequently drove off, presumably to go looking for the missing passengers. Awhile later they both returned, shaking their heads. By about 5:15 (15 minutes after we were supposed to have left), the Royal Caribbean worker handed the guy in the car a folder – he opened it and I saw two passports and some paperwork – and they pulled the gangway in. The ship started to pull away and just as we did – at about 5:20 – two man came racing down the port, shopping bags in hand. Because the ship was so close, I wondered if they’d pull back in for them, but no. We continued on. It looked like the men were shouting and gesturing to the workers at the gangway door, like, “What are we supposed to do now?” I assume the response was to tell them to talk to the guy in the car, as they immediately turned around and started communicating with him.

The ship waited 45 minutes for the guys, so you can’t feel too sorry for them, but I’m sure that was a bit of a fiasco. Rhodes is an island and we had one day at sea before Istanbul, so they would have had to get a ferry to the mainland, get to Istanbul, and pay for two nights in a hotel. Bummer. But, well, I guess I know now what happens if you get left at port and the cruise ship kept your passports!

Day 6: Kusadasi, Turkey

2011-05-18T23:15:00.000-04:00

Our day in Kusadasi started promptly at 8 am. We hurried off the ship and walked toward town to catch a dolmus (minibus) to Ephesus. It was early enough that many of the touristy shops near the port weren’t open, which was nice, as I’d heard that the shopkeepers are especially pushy there.

The directions I’d seen online said to catch the dolmus in front of the Casablanca restaurant, but we waited for a few minutes and saw quite a few dolmuses, but none headed the right direction. We walked down to what looked to be a more major traffic area and saw some vans parked. As we were looking around, a man asked if we needed help and I asked where to catch the domus to “Sel-cook.” (This is the final destination of the buses headed to Ephesus.) The man looked confused as I repeated “Sel-cook” a few times, then said, “Efes” (the local term for Ephesus). He pointed us across the street to the stop and we went and waited. I later found out that the city is pronounced Sel-chook, which apparently sounds different enough to the locals that the guy couldn’t figure out what the heck I was saying.

A dolmus came along soon enough, we waited for a few more passengers, then we were off. The ride was nice – we each had a seat, the van had A/C, and we saw some lovely views of the Turkish countryside (and resorts and water parks). We were dropped off at the lower entrance to Ephesus, along with several other people (including a couple from Baltimore who’d struck up conversation with us on the bus), and we all walked together to the entrance. Bathrooms were free there (they weren’t at the top entrance), so we got our tickets, stopped in the bathrooms, and headed for the site. We hadn’t made it in time to avoid all the tour group crowds, though, so we battled them nearly the whole time we were there.

The weather was lovely and Ephesus was a fabulous site with a ton of stuff to look at. I had printed out a paper guide to the major sites, which was nice, but I did wish we could have had more information. It probably would have been preferable to have a human guide, but, even saying that, I’m still not sure it would have been worth the cost.

Font for adult baptisms

We had initially walked back toward the entrance to see all the above ruins, but as we wound our way around the ruins, ended up on a worn trail that started leading back toward the main site. We kept on it, figuring it would eventually lead back (and not wanting to retrace our steps and walk all the way back the other way to get to the main site). The trail got pretty sparse, but we followed – all the way to Harbor Street.

This was a long road that lead to the harbor before it silted out. It’s long and straight, and as we walked down it toward the site, we noticed that there were no other people on the road, which meant we weren’t supposed to walk on it.

Sure enough, we emerged from the street (with tons of people there to watch us walk down and around the sign) and saw the “No Entry” sign. Fortunately, there really weren’t any guards to get us in trouble, though we did happen to walk out right on to the area where they stage gladiator fights every 5 minutes. We were just in time for a show.

The competitors

On stage are the king and queen. Directly behind them is Harbor Street.

Fortunately for him, the loser’s life was spared. We continued on to the Great Theater (Paul came here to speak to the Ephesians).

From the theater, we could see the old gymnasium, now just a bunch of column pieces.

Back along the main road, there was some graffiti. Apparently it was a carved advertisement for the brothel down the street. “Follow this footprint with a crazy long middle toe to a lady(?) with some sort of headdress.”

And, of course, we saw one of the more famous buildings at Ephesus: the Library of Celsus.

And we took a break on the other famous things: the public toilets.

Gotta love the thought of sitting “cheek to cheek” with your neighbor, being serenaded by a band to cover up any sounds. But, hey, at least the seat was warm – that’s what the slaves were for!

We skipped the slope houses (which cost an additional 15 TL to get in, on top of the 20 TL Ephesus entrance fee) and continued up the hill toward the Odeion and agora area.

Odeion (small theater)

We left the site at the upper entrance, where we saw evidence of the supposed honesty of the Turks.

Our intention was to around the hill that Ephesus is built on to get to the Cave of the Seven Sleepers and a path to Selcuk. From the map, it looked like there was an actual trail aside from the major road, but we couldn’t find it. We had to walk for a bit on the road, which had no sidewalks, and a lot of blind turns. David was a bit more concerned about our safety than I was. After a bit, we were able to turn off onto a side road that went around the hill, though the walk was a lot longer than I’d anticipated and I wondered many times if I had lead us astray. We passed people working on their farms, and what appeared to be a few homeless camps. It felt plenty safe, though, and I loved being away from the crowds and, despite the occasional traffic, walking what felt like a secret road, unknown to tourists.

We finally came upon the Cave of the Seven Sleepers. It’s really the ruins of an old church, but that was supposedly built upon a cave wherein seven righteous guys slept for ages until Islam came to be and they would fit in.

And, of course, there was the lovely toilet paper tree, which made me wonder how many homeless people hang out in this area after hours.

We were the only ones up there at the time, though, so we had a relaxing rest and commanding views of the area.

Ultimately, we walked back down the hill and easily found the farm path leading into Selcuk. Again, I loved the secret trail that is surely unknown to tourists. The area was beautiful and the weather matched. Because of all this, I think Kusadasi/Ephesus/Selcuk wound up being my favorite cruise day.

Walking the farm path

The path brought us out into a cemetery, from which we walked down the main road toward the Temple of Artemis. It’s one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World, but there’s not much remaining and it’s not all that impressive. We were more excited by the public exercise machines/toys that lined the sidewalk to get there.

After the temple, we continued walking to Selcuk. The parts of it we saw were quiet and not too busy, which made it all the more appealing. We found a cafe to eat at and sat outside, where we enjoyed free wi-fi while we waited for our food. David was also provided with a water bottle so he could squirt the “one-eyed crazy cat” that comes around occasionally.

After our late lunch, we walked the short distance to the bus station and hopped a dolmus back to Kusadasi. This time, although we’d filled up in Selcuk, the driver stopped at several places along the way and the bus got very crammed. It’s really just a van with added seats, but people were sitting on each others’ laps and standing by the door. We had seats and were comfortable, but I’m sure they weren’t.

We got the “privilege” of walking past all the pushy shopkeepers on our way back to the ship, but we made it without being swindled or fondled. The day was a success!

Day 5: Piraeus/Athens

2011-05-17T01:18:00.000-04:00

To me, Athens is one of those places that has some great things to see, but, once you’ve seen them, there’s not really a need to go back. I could go back to Paris or Rome again and again, but Athens? No need. So, when I saw that this cruise stopped there and we’d already been on our first cruise, I started looking for other options. We were a little limited, however, in that we were only to be in port for about 8 hours instead of most ports’ 12.

The decision: Lake Vouliagmeni.

The lake takes a bit of time to get to, but it’s pretty easy. We left the Piraeus port and walked down the street until I found a bus stop and newsstand. I bought four one-way bus tickets from the stand and asked where to catch the A1 bus toward Voyla, and he told us to walk up the block to the next street north. We easily found the stop from his directions and waited for the bus. The trip was about an hour to our transfer stop: Plateia Glyfadas. From there, we took the 114 bus (which only runs hourly, but fortunately we arrived just in time for it) out to the lake. The lake is the last stop, so it was super easy to find.

Unfortunately, the weather was rather chilly. I believe it was in the 50s and it was certainly windy. The water is from some natural springs, so it contains a high mineral content and is a lovely 75ish degrees year-round. Because of the mineral content, it’s said to have healing properties (for the record, though, I haven’t noticed any improvements to my health or skin). We paid our 8 euros each to get in and headed straight for the changing rooms.

The water was comfortable enough, but because the air temperature was so cold and windy, I just couldn’t last long in the water. I swam a bit and enjoyed the fish – they nibble at your feet and surely must be related to the famous Japanese “doctor fish.” I guess we didn’t spend enough time letting them do their work, though, as there was no real improvement to our foot calluses after we were done.

David had more tolerance for the cold than I did, so he stayed in for awhile watching the fish after I’d already gotten out to warm up.

I’d seen a worker bringing food around, so I went up to try to order hot chocolate. The man said he’d bring it to our table. Fortunately, I asked how much it was before he brought it – 11 euros! $15 for two hot chocolates? I quickly said never mind and had to laugh – what a ripoff!

We sat around and enjoyed the view for awhile, but ultimately decided that the weather would hamper our day at the lake. We decided to take the bus into Athens and get a gyro before going back to the ship.

We left the lake just in time to grab the E22 express bus into Athens, which dropped us off right by a metro stop and we used the bus ticket to get on. Ultimately, we were able to walk the Plaka, get some free wi-fi, and eat gyros in Athens before heading back. We didn’t find the same gyro place that we’d eaten at before (which was exceptionally delicious), but our food was still good and a nice ending to our Athens day.

Days 3-4: Embarkation and Cruising

2011-05-16T10:59:00.001-04:00

Our day started out somewhat leisurely. We couldn’t find exactly what time the ship was supposed to be available for boarding in our documents, only that we had to be on by 3:30. We were under the impression that we probably couldn’t get into our room until about 1, so we slept in at the hotel and leisurely took our time with their provided breakfast. We watched a little more MTV, leisurely got ready, and headed out right at checkout time – 10:30.

We took the tram to Termini, then the train to Civitavecchia. The trains to Civitavecchia were closer to the end we’d come in on, but there weren’t any ticket machines there. We had to walk out to the main terminal to buy them, then head back to the far tracks for our train. We had just missed one train when we arrived and had a bit of a wait. It was fine, though, as we got seats and it was a much better trip than our previous train rides to/from Civitavecchia.

Check-in was inferior to our previous cruises. The lines were significantly longer, the building was hot, and the refreshments were hidden in a corner and not readily given out. They also kept our passports, which hasn’t happened in the past. We weren’t to get them back until halfway through the cruise – after completing our port days in Athens, Kusadasi, and Rhodes. We wondered what would happen if we were to get left behind without our passports.

Once on board, we were able to go to our room. We had a room with a window this time – when we bought the tickets, Perx was showing $699/interior, $749/oceanview, $799/balcony. We were ready to get the balcony for such a small price difference, but the only thing remaining when we called was the oceanview. Definitely not worth the $50 more than interior, but oh well. The room was also a connecting room, so there was only a chair instead of a couch so that the door would be clear. Not a big deal, but still not preferable.

The remainder of the day was fairly relaxing. We explored the ship, played games in the game room, ate at the buffet, and had a fancy dinner, as usual.

We were a little annoyed with our stateroom attendant at the muster drill, though. The drill was to be at 4:15, when they would play the emergency signal and we were to go to our stations. This is always how we’ve done it in the past. However, just past 4, our stateroom attendant pushed open the door and commanded us to get to the drill. No real knock, no warning. At our station, there were other people waiting, but the alarm went off at 4:15 as promised and we didn’t start until after that. Consequently, we waited out there for at least 20 minutes, which seemed like 10 more than was necessary.

We left Civitavecchia at 5 pm and were ready to start our trip.

The next day was my birthday and it was a day at sea. I slept in until probably 11, though David left to eat breakfast. We had a leisurely day, which included eating a sit-down (fancy) lunch and playing more games. I even got a nap. How different from being at home!

And, of course, David “took” me to a fancy dinner. (Hee hee. :) It was a lovely day and we were very excited about our trip to Lake Vouliagmeni the next day.

Days 1-2: Traveling and Rome

2011-05-13T13:21:00.001-04:00

We went on another cruise! From April 18-29 we cruised the Mediterranean (again!). We began in Rome, stopping in Piraeus (Athens), Kusadasi, Turkey, Rhodes, Greece, Istanbul for 2 days, and Naples. This was our longest cruise yet – 11 nights – though there were four days of just cruising, so our days at port were about the same as usual. Herein begins my long (of course) travel log for each day of the trip.

We had initially planned to fly on United from Dulles to Rome on April 16 (arriving the 17th, starting our cruise the 18th), but that flight started to fill up somewhat early. The flight on the 17th - arriving on the 18th - was still open, but that didn’t leave a lot of breathing room to get to the ship, so we pegged that as a last resort option. We decided instead to take Continental from Newark to Rome, but, sure enough, that filled up two days before the cruise. We settled on a more sure, but pricier alternative: fly from Houston to Amsterdam, then purchase tickets on EasyJet from Amsterdam to Rome.

We said our good-byes to the baby in the morning and headed off. Everything went smoothly on our flights, aside from the fact that Continental didn’t have a video-on-demand system, so the entertainment options were limited and boring. I got more sleep than David, but that wasn’t saying a whole lot.

In Amsterdam, on the 17th, we had about 4 hours to kill – not really enough time for us to explore outside of the airport (especially toting our bags), so it made for a boring day. We sat around the airport and were ultimately herded onto the plane, in a fashion expected from European low-cost carriers.

At the Rome airport, as we were getting on the train toward the city, a man who’d just gotten off stopped David and asked in broken English if we were going into Rome. David said yes and the man handed him two transportation passes – they were unlimited use weekly tickets and there was a day remaining on them. That’s how long we were planning on being in Rome, so this gave us free usage of the metro and buses for our stay. It was really nice that that man did that and we greatly appreciated it.

The train ride to town took about 90 minutes (we didn’t take the Leonardo Express, which, although faster, costs significantly more) and caught the metro to get to our hotel. Before we left, I’d looked on Google Maps and found a stop right by our hotel marked with the telltale “M.” So, we intended to go there, but it wasn’t on the metro map. Later, we realized it was actually a tram stop and not a metro. From the next closest metro station, then, we ended up with a bit of a walk to our hotel, but it worked out fine.

We wanted a nap, but also wanted to see the town a bit, so we set an alarm for two hours later. It was really hard to get up when the alarm went off. I laid in bed groggily, drifting in and out of sleep, for quite awhile before dragging myself out of bed. Our goal was to do one of Rick Steves’ walks that would take us through the major sights: Piazza Navona, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Spanish Steps. We went ahead and took the tram from Porta Maggiore (the stop near our hotel) to Termini. Porta Maggiore is a piazza area that seems to be surrounded by old Roman aqueducts.

The tram dropped us off at Termini, but it’s a huge station, so it was still a bit of a walk for us to get to the bus area. We took a bus to the Campo Forno area and started our walk there. We hoped to get some pizza at Forno – a very tasty by-the-gram place we’d eaten last time we were in Rome – but it was closed for the evening. It’s a shame, as there were some lovely street performers in the Campo that would have been fun to listen to as we ate.

It was starting to get dark, so we walked along the Tiber as the lights were turning on. Gorgeous.

We meandered our way toward Piazza Navona, stopping for some pizza at a random shop along the way. After the piazza, we made a mandatory gelato stop at Giolitti on our way to the Pantheon.

After the Pantheon (without a traditional bathroom stop at the McDonald’s, which appears to have been closed down), we headed for the Trevi Fountain. It was dark, but I managed to catch some pretty good shots with my new camera.

The Trevi Fountain really is beautiful and would be lovely to sit near when it’s quiet and listen to the water. Too bad it’s always so thronged with tourists and pushy salespeople. We skipped out on the coin tossing tradition this time, as the smallest coins I had were 1 and 2 euros, which I refused to just throw away. Hopefully that doesn’t mean we’ll never be back…

We finished our walk at the Spanish Steps, then found the metro was closed for the evening. So, we hopped on the first bus we saw that was headed for Termini. We weren’t all too eager to walk from Termini to the hotel, and had seen buses running in Porta Maggiore, so we found a bus that was to stop there and hopped on. It was only four stops from Termini, but the bus got packed. It took a lot of pushing for us to get to the door at our stop, at which point the driver had already closed it. Fortunately another passenger kept ringing the bell so the driver would open it again, we jumped over some luggage, and barely made it out the door. It was a bit of an experience, but worth it, as we were right by our hotel.

At the hotel, we took some much needed showers, then I explored the satellite TV for something in English. The only thing I could find was MTV Classic, which was playing 80s music videos. We delighted in some Cyndi Lauper, A-Ha, Bon Jovi, and others, and finally went to sleep.

Waldorf doll

2011-04-03T23:02:00.001-04:00

Months ago, I discovered the existence of Waldorf dolls, and found some sellers with particularly cute wares. The trouble? Dolls cost $150+. Ouch. Quality dolls are made with quality materials and are all made by hand (and not in sweat shops). So, yeah, the price is reasonable in that regard, but still more than I’m willing to spend.

The next option? Make my own. I bought Maricristin Sealey’s well-regarded book, some supplies from Magic Cabin and an order-by-phone-only sheep farm in Pennsylvania, and I was ready to go. It took me a while to get started, and there were some periods of inactivity in between various stages of completion, but…

She’s done!

The doll wasn’t as difficult or time-consuming as I had imagined (though I think I had mentally prepared myself for the worst), and I knew first-time dolls are never the most beautiful, so overall, I’m pleased. Her chin isn’t well defined, her neck is too big, her eyes aren’t as round or symmetrical as I’d hoped, and her hair just didn’t turn out right. (Not to mention the shirt. I didn’t show you the back for a reason.)

But, hey, she’s done and not too shabby. For now, she’s sitting around waiting for Easter. I’m pretty sure The Wee One won’t care very much about her (she hasn’t so far, and the doll has been within reach), but eventually maybe the doll will be a loved playing. For now I’ll toy with the idea of keeping this as a new hobby. Like I need any more…

Wes the Giraffe

2011-03-30T22:30:00.000-04:00

The baby and I had a first birthday to attend, and I needed to come up with a gift fairly quickly. I’ve had Hillary Lang’s Wee Wonderfuls book for awhile, but had yet to make anything from it (despite the fact that I think most of the projects in it are a-freakin’-dorable). I decided that a softie and matching t-shirt would be just the trick.

Meet Wes the Giraffe:

This pattern was a little difficult, what with all the gussets, not fitting together precisely, and finishing touches required. And, David thought it looked like a dog. But, it’s still a cute toy that feels like it will have some longevity, even with a toddler for an owner.

The shirt was navy blue with a simple giraffe-shaped applique in the same orange fabric, eating some freezer-paper stenciled leaves that were peeking out from the pocket. Too bad I was a bonehead and forgot to get a picture.

Kimono PJs (again)

2011-03-26T16:09:00.000-04:00

Another baby shower, another gift! This time, it was for a little boy. It was the perfect opportunity for me to try Amy Butler’s Kimono PJ set again and utilize some of my remaining Germania fabric.

I made the 9-12 month size and did a short/short sleeve combination. I had a much better time making and applying the bias tape this time. I saw a trick for making bias tape on a blog awhile back:

Get a long pin or needle and poke it through the fabric of your ironing board, coming back up a short distance away. Then, measuring from where your needle comes out of the fabric, poke it in again the distance that corresponds to how wide you need your single-fold tape to be. Poke your needle in and out of the fabric again – as you did previously – and use this to make your tape. Feed your tape between your ironing board and the needle, guiding it in so that it make even folds, then iron it as it comes out the other side.

I don’t know where I learned the tip, but it’s a great idea. Trouble was, I never had a long enough pin/needle. Now that I do, this works fabulously. The fabric still needs a bit of guidance to keep the edges folding in evenly, but it’s much better than trying to measure and do it all by hand (I don’t even have one of those cheapy Clover bias tape makers). I also did some searching online to find out exactly how to apply tape successfully. All in all, this was a MUCH easier go-around.

And, success! Hopefully the finished product will be a fun and useful addition to the baby’s [nighttime] wardrobe.

Easter-ish

2011-03-23T17:29:00.001-04:00

While I was making the first shirt, I figured I might as well continue purging my old t-shirt stash and make another.

This shirt, as with the first, started out as a t-shirt for me (in fact, they were both the same cotton/spandex blend SO shirts from Kohl’s) that I recycled to one of the baby’s size. Then, I took this design from Me Sew Crazy and edited it in the Sillhouette software to my liking. I cut it from freezer paper and used Tulip’s Velvet Yellow fabric paint for the design.

The velvet paint didn’t turn out as velvety as I’d expected, and it was quite puffy. It’s also prone to cracking more than the other fabric paint I’ve used. I probably wouldn’t buy it again. Still, I like the shirt. And The Wee One is decked out for Easter. I guess.

The big 0-2!

2011-03-17T15:31:00.001-04:00

Next week, The Wee One will turn 2. I guess she won’t be as “wee” as she once was. Last year, I made her an Uno shirt for her first birthday. I couldn’t come up with anything as cool this year (that idea was all Dana’s anyway), but I did come up with something:

In an effort to save a few bucks and acquire some new skills, I even made the shirt. Can you believe that? It was an old shirt of mine that I cut down to size using another shirt of hers as a template. You can see there was some [unintentional] gathering in the neckline – evidence that I still need some practice – but all in all, I’m very pleased with it. The color is a khaki green. Not exactly girly, but it works just fine.

I Googled “peace fingers” to find the image, then imported it into my Silhouette and cut it onto freezer paper. I then stenciled it using the same paint as last time – Tulip’s Soft Fabric Paint in Linen. Super easy.

This kid just keeps growing. Her hair’s getting longer and everything. Seriously, where does the time go?

Simplicity 3511

2011-02-26T21:42:00.000-05:00

The baby needed another dress. I was happy to oblige.

This is Simplicity 3511 in some of Valori Wells’ Del Hi line. I thought about getting creative with multiple fabrics, or doing ribbon accents across the neckline and yoke, as per some of the variations on the envelope. But, well, I didn’t.

This was a relatively quick and easy sew and I really like the results. I even managed two buttonholes by myself, with just a zig-zag stitch available on my machine.

The Wee One seemed pleased. She usually doesn’t express interest in what clothes she wears, but she didn’t want to take this dress off. It made me feel good.

The size 2 fits pretty well, but I have noticed that the front yoke puffs out when she’s moving around and playing. Contrary to the appearance of the photo, it’s only slightly longer than knee-length. Also, I was somewhat perplexed by how tiny the underarms of the sleeves would have been (it would have gone into the elastic casing) if I’d stuck with the 5/8” seam. I ended up going for a small 1/4” seam where the sleeves connected to the bodice. It seemed odd that I had to, but it worked.

Hooray for new baby dresses!

A cozy

2011-02-25T14:13:00.001-05:00

For Christmas, I got a portable hard drive. I decided that if I weren’t going to pay for an online backup service, I’d better put my pictures on the thing and tote it around with me. That way, if my house were to burn down or be burgled (isn’t it funny that that’s even a word?), I’d have my most important photos with me.

And, of course, every good gadget needs a cozy!

I used scrap fabric from the Cosmo Bag (obviously) for the outside, and some scrap green flannel for the inside. It utilizes a Velcro closure and has a pocket on the backside for the cord.

It was pretty simple and it does the job. And it used up fabric scraps. It’s a win-win-win, as Michael Scott would say.

Bags!

2011-02-14T16:40:00.001-05:00

I bought Amy Butler’s Style Stitches book long ago and knew I wanted a Blossom Bag practically from the beginning. But, you know, actually making it was another story. I finally decided that I’d be better off having my cousin, Tori, do it, as she has a bag shop and is very familiar with the materials and procedures that go into making a structured bag.

I picked out the fabric (which was a terrifying ordeal in itself – what would be the best combo? All the fabrics are so pretty, how could I decide?), had it mailed to her, and she cranked that bag out in a jiffy!

She did a fabulous job and it turned out beautifully. I sprayed it down with Scotchguard, so hopefully it’ll stay pretty for awhile. It’s a bit bigger of a bag than I’m used to carrying, but now I have room to tote ANYTHING I need!

Since I had the book, I decided to make a go of another bag, the Cosmo Bag. I’d heard how gigantic it was and figured it would be good for a church bag. I’ve been serving as the Primary chorister and end up taking a ton of stuff for it. (There is a monthly bag challenge going on with this book, and the Cosmo Bag was the bag for January, but I ended up finishing about a week too late. Of course, I started it on the 31st, so I didn’t have much hope anyway.)

The outside fabric is from the Monaco line, the inside is a combo of leftover Moda Hoot (from my Blossom Bag) and possibly more Monaco (I can’t remember who the designer for the orange is). The outside and orange interior fabrics were both part of that clearance sale last year, so they cost me $3 a yard. The interfacing on this thing cost nearly more than the fabric (it most definitely would have if I’d used all that was recommended)! The black is some solid twill I got at Hobby Lobby some time ago for another project.

I’d heard complaints about sagging pockets, so I decided to try a full-length one with elastic in it. To support the elastic, I had to tack down the lining on both sides, and it still pulls the bag inwards. There’s just not quite enough structure to support it. It was a nice thought, but it really doesn’t work as intended. I also added some patch pockets to the other side to give more storage options. If I were smarter, though, I would have sewn them to the lining itself instead of the pockets.

I read a lot of complaints about the complexity of this bag. Many felt it shouldn’t be ranked as an “easy” pattern. Maybe not, but I didn’t think it was a problem. It was time consuming, sure, what with all the interfacing and the size of it all, but I didn’t find it difficult. I did iron down and pin all of the inside of the handle before turning the bag right-side out, though, so it really cut down on my time matching the handles and sewing them together.

I did agree with one Challenge participant, though, who felt that the bottom panel should be attached differently. I did it as Amy instructed for the outside of the bag, but found it very difficult to get all the corners sewn in nicely (square) and without holes. I did as the other participant suggested for the lining and it worked much better to sew the bottom panel to the front and back first, then attach the sides to the whole thing.

More peasant shirts

2011-01-30T10:59:00.001-05:00

I had a last-minute baby shower to attend, and with this being the mama’s second girl in as many years, it was hard for me to decide what would be a useful gift. Ultimately, “useful” got pushed aside and “cute” took over. I saw the girls on Sunday and they were in matching outfits, so I figured the family would be okay with me enabling some more matchi-ness.

I used my standby Simplicity 4206 for the 3T top (on the left; I added 4” in length to the pattern), then adapted a Whimsy Couture dress pattern for the 18M top (on the right). I was willing to do a little fussy cutting, so it only took 1 yard of fabric. Because I was short on time, I bought some pants to go with these instead of making some.

I really like how the fabric looked with these shirts too. It’s part of the Valori Wells Del Hi line that went on [great] sale during the Free Spirit clearance event on fabric.com back in June. Think they’ll do that again this year?

I made a dress! (Be proud, please.)

2011-01-10T15:35:00.000-05:00

A couple of months ago, I got it in my head that I needed a sheath dress. Hobby Lobby was having a $.99 sale on McCall’s patterns, so, naturally, that was my starting point. Between Google, Flickr, and McCall’s website, I found 5927.

There were a few examples on pattern review sites and Flickr of pretty good-looking completed dresses, so, despite the rather tragic real-life examples on the envelope, I dove in. Some $2/yard cotton and $3/yard lining (something’s wrong with that picture, isn’t it?) later, I was ready to go.

I had a few snafus along the way, up to and including:

Making the bodice for the sleeveless version and not figuring it out until it was complete, at which point I couldn’t figure out how to insert sleeves. I remade the bodice.
Discovering – several times over – that pieces were too small and having to shrink the seam allowance to a miniscule 1/4”.
Hand-sewing the lining to the inside of the armholes – which took FOREVER – only to find that, in the last inch or so, I had too much outer fabric and not enough lining to match up. I unpicked the work I’d done, pinned it together, and re-sewed (by hand). Success.
Attaching the skirt lining inside-out to the bodice, thus exposing the lining seams (of just the skirt portion) to the inside of the dress. I had been working on the project for too long already and had unpicked too much lining to be willing to do it again.
Discovering that somehow my bodice lining was significantly shorter than the outside fabric, which was going to be a problem when installing the zipper.
Scratching the planned invisible zipper and still having a terrible time figuring out how to attach the zipper to the dress and lining, especially due to #4. Ultimately, I just went with it. The zipper looks a bit, uh, wonky.
Ultimately discovering (upon completion of the whole dress), that I had mistaken the finished measurements for body measurements, and had therefore made a dress that was 3 sizes smaller than I should have. Between the decreased seam allowances and the fact that the dress probably allowed for more ease than I needed, it’s probably only 1 size too small.

So, all in all, it was a bit maddening and a LOT of a learning experience. But, I actually really like the dress and, now that it’s been a few weeks, would consider making another. (I’ll just have to figure out how to cut it to an appropriate size, now that the pattern pieces are already chopped to their smallest sizes…)

And, now, because none of the pictures turned out fabulously, I shall post them all:

You may now proceed to shower me with praise. ;)

Peasant dress

2011-01-07T15:12:00.001-05:00

Thanks to this sweet tutorial from Prudent Baby, The Wee One has a new dress:

It’s made from some Valori Wells fabric I got on sale for $3.00/yard (score!). The pattern was great: super simple and just the right size. I’m glad I took the 3/4 sleeve-length option, as I think it’s super cute. On cooler days I put her in tights (cotton – I hate nylon or microfiber tights for anyone!) and it’s a winning combo.

Simple and sweet. My child may be wearing 100% peasant dresses and shirts from now on, at least when I can’t find good clearance buys at the store…

Acorn wreath

2010-12-29T19:18:00.000-05:00

This is an old idea from 2+ years ago on Dana’s blog, but I just got around to making it. The local park had some lovely acorns, and, though it took several trips because I always underestimated how many I needed, I really like how the wreath turned out overall.

The hanging arrangement isn’t the prettiest, but the screws were already there and anchored, so I didn’t have to make another hole and worry about supporting this thing (it’s surprisingly heavy).

I also really like the blue color. One of the benefits to never really decorating your home is that you’re not stuck with a set color scheme. The blue doesn’t clash because there’s nothing to clash with. Ha! Of course, that didn’t keep David from raising his eyebrow skeptically. “Blue?” he said. “That’s not very Christmas-y.” Uh, sorry, Love, this isn’t Christmas decor.

The only trouble is this:

The tutorial recommended baking the acorns because they can have eggs inside and potentially spring forth with maggots. Unfortunately, my acorns cracked terribly when exposed to heat. Because of this, I only baked the first batch and then froze the others (I’ve heard that fly eggs can’t stand freezing temperatures either; I’m not sure it’s true, but my acorns haven’t hatched). Still, my first batch was a large one, and even some of the frozen ones have subsequently cracked, so the whole thing is far from perfect to look at up close. I think if I made it again, I’d just seal up all my acorns in a big bag and set them aside for a few weeks before using them.

Christmas decor

2010-12-24T18:47:00.001-05:00

It seems that December has gone by much more quickly than I expected. Considering Christmas is almost here, I figured I’d better share the few Christmas decor items I made this year, or risk having to wait until next year when they’ll probably be out of style.

First up: styrofoam ball and yarn trees:

Next: an ornament-filled vase (I should have gotten smaller ornaments, but…):

And finally, our good ol’ cardboard-and-garland tree (making its second appearance):

I’m too cheap to buy a real tree and a fake one takes up too much space. This is just two pieces of cardboard cut into equilateral triangles, then slit so they can interlock into a 3-d shape. I wrap a garland and some lights around, and we have our gorgeous 18” tall tree here. I knit the stockings three Christmases ago when I was first learning to knit.

And that is the extent of Christmas decorating in this house, aside from one old tole painting project I pulled out and an advent calendar from my mom. Which is all much more impressive than last year, where I was hard-pressed to decorate at all (and when I did, it was on Christmas Eve). I wonder what it’ll look like around here next year…

Merry Christmas, friends!

Coin quilt

2010-12-09T22:58:00.001-05:00

While I’m still waiting for Snapfish to send me some mailers for my disposable camera (seriously, I’ve made 3 different requests – including to a customer service rep – what’s the deal?), I’ll move on to some sewing.

I felt the urge to make a quilt for a friend, but I don’t have ~~any real~~ much experience with quilting, so it had to be something simple (so I’d be able to finish it in a reasonable amount of time and would look halfway decent). I’ve really loved some of the coin quilts I’ve seen on various blogs and Flickr, and had plenty of FQs and scraps to work with, so that’s the direction I ended up going. I bet you can’t guess what colors I gravitate toward when I buy fabric…

Oh, wait, with the terrible coloring on these shots, maybe you really can’t. My pictures, especially of the back, didn’t turn out great because the color balance was off on the camera (a cheap tide-me-over one) and Picasa’s tuning options (my usual go-to) couldn’t fix it.

I did a patchwork strip on the back (love those!) and decided to go slightly quirky – but still simple – on the quilting. I zig-zagged across the main coin panels, then straight stitched 1/4” in on both sides of the white. My only qualm with it is the size. I read that a good, personal-sized quilt is approximately 40” x 60”, so that’s what I went with, but I think it’s just a tad too small. Adding 10” each way (making it 50” x 70”) would have probably made it about right. Still, I like how it turned out and am proud of my first solo quilt endeavor.

Days 10-11: Barcelona, Madrid, and coming home

2010-11-20T15:51:00.000-05:00

It was Sunday and we had every intention of going to church in the morning. We had several things that we wanted to see in Barcelona after church and before we headed to the airport to catch our flight to Madrid, so we tried to hurry a bit to get everything in.

After getting off the ship, we headed straight for the central train station to check our bags in their luggage lockers, then rode the metro to the location of the church. We were in a bit of a rush, as we were nearing the time the meeting was to start and we still needed to change clothes. It was quite the uphill walk to get to the church and we were panting a bit when we arrived. The verdict? It was closed. We could see through the windows that there were chairs inside and nursery toys, and there was the familiar Church of Jesus Christ… sign outside, but the building was dark and locked. Stake Conference maybe?

There were no other ward meetings that we could make it to at that point, so we headed for the Block of Discord. I’d never heard of it before researching Barcelona, but it’s a famous area of town where the houses have crazy architectural design – each family was competing against the next.

The next stop was the Sagrada Familia. Again, I’d never heard of it, but it’s Barcelona’s claim to fame. The fact that I wasn’t aware of any of these things probably reflects my lack of cultural awareness.

The building is definitely unique. Not my style, but worth a visit. Of course, we didn’t pay to get inside.

The park right across the street featured a bunch of old men in a serious game of lawn ball. Nearby, others were playing chess. It was great fun to watch, and we sat around for a bit to enjoy the exchange.

Our last stop was up on Montjuic Hill to walk around and see the Olympic stadium. We enjoyed the views for a bit (no pictures, sadly), played on some giant foot and air-powered musical tubes, then walked over to the stadium. They were holding some kind of event there, so it was full of people. Mostly families. Good to know it’s still being used…

After that, we headed back to the metro station to get our bags, then took the metro to the airport. As luck would have it, our flight was a bit delayed, so we had to sit around the airport for a bit.

Upon arrival in Madrid, we were picked up by the hotel’s free shuttle and taken to a really nice hotel near the airport. It’s not near any sites, so it was brand new and stinking cheap. $53. Sweet. But, it was in a largely commercial area without a lot of food options nearby. The front desk lady told us about the mall that we could walk to, but because it was Sunday and so late, there weren’t any stores open and most of the areas of the mall were closed. We explored a bit and were pleased to find a bustling food court with lots of eateries still open. We settled on some gyros from a Greek fast-food place, then headed back to the hotel. Our flight in the morning was bright and early, so we spent a little time on the hotel’s computers before taking showers and hurrying to bed.

The next day went smoothly. We actually arrived into Dulles in time to make an earlier flight, but we knew we’d have to hurry. We raced through customs and through the airport – I’m sure we were the first ones from our flight to get back into the regular part of the airport. When we arrived at the gate, they weren’t even boarding yet. Figures.

I checked my voicemail and had a confirmation of an appointment for the baby at the doctor’s office, which worried me a bit. I’ve only taken her to the doctor once for something other than a well visit, so if David’s mom had scheduled a visit, I thought something must be wrong. His mom had told us she had a cold, but what else was going on? David called her and she said that she’d been worried about the baby’s coughing a few days before and had called for an appointment, which they denied because she wasn’t a parent (despite the fact that I’d signed forms to allow her to do it). Apparently they changed their minds, though.

They didn’t end up going to the doctor, but it made me all the more eager to get home and check the baby out. We made it to Houston just fine and in time for the earlier flight home, but, sure enough, it was delayed. We ultimately made it home about 2 hours before we were supposed to originally, but it was late enough that David’s mom had to keep the baby up after bedtime. It was all worth it, though – we got home safe and sound and were happy to be there with the babe.

Day 9: Toulon, France

2010-11-18T12:14:00.000-05:00

As anticipated, we slept in a little, but decided to go outside the boat nonetheless and see what we could see. We spoke with a local tourism agent who was waiting outside and she said that, indeed, there wasn’t much to do in Le Seyne su Mer and she recommended we take the public ferry boat over to Toulon and spend the day there. We had no idea what there was to see in Toulon, so we didn’t plan to stay too long, but figured we’d go nonetheless.

The public ferry boat stop was an easy walk from where the ship docked and it was pretty cheap (1 E/person, I think). We stopped in Le Seyne su Mer town and saw that it looked like a decent enough town – more than we’d thought based on the tourism lady’s description.

In Toulon, we spent some time wandering the outdoor market. There was a man there dressed in 1700s-type garb doing some odd show with cats. He would have them hug each other or put their paws on one another and otherwise interact in unusual ways. I’m not sure what his outfit had to do with it, but it was all rather intriguing.

We spent some time at an internet cafe, checking emails and the loads for our flight home, then headed for the local Carrefour (grocery store) to get some snacks for our flight. There’s something fun about foreign grocery stores – they’re similar to our own, yet different in so many ways. They have a lot of the same brands of cereal and candies, yet the wrappers are different. And labels are in a foreign language, of course. It’s fun to pick out new cookies and pastries and see how we like them. David even bought a box of pistachio flan mix to take home.

We headed back to the ship and did a little rock climbing before the night was over. I kept forgetting to bring the camera when we’d gone previously, so it was a little sad that when I finally remembered, we had the crappy camera.

That night’s show was Jaz Danion and Majestic (Mad Jesse!) again, which we weren’t too interested in. Instead, we relaxed for our last night on the boat, and tried to get to sleep a little earlier than usual.

Day 8 (continued): Villefranche/French Riviera

2010-11-17T16:14:00.000-05:00

I finally got my pictures developed, and, boy, did they turn out poorly. I don’t miss film cameras at all. Every picture has a varying degree of bright orange glow from one side, and all of the pictures are washed out. They look like they were taken in 1980 and sat in an acidic photo album for 30 years. But, it’s all I have. Word to the wise: don’t break your digital camera in the middle of your vacation.

In Monte Carlo, we walked around the outside of the casino (which wasn’t all that impressive), then over to the Cathedral of St. Nicholas, where Prince Rainier III and Grace Kelly are buried. We took a brief walk inside and saw their headstones.

Then it was back toward the palace, which is on a hill and has some great views of the city and all the rich folks’ yachts in the harbor.

We walked down a pretty path through a garden-y area toward the aquarium. Apparently one of the Rainiers was a big fan of sea life. We didn’t get all that close to it, though. Instead, some American couple took our picture in exchange for taking theirs. (That’s the aquarium on the left, nicely built on the side of the mountain.)

Once we’d had our fill in Monte Carlo (which didn’t take all that long, considering it’s a small place with a lot of tiring hills), we headed back toward the train station. At first, we couldn’t find any trains headed back toward Villefranche that would get us there in time. After a brief moment of panic wherein we had to scan every stop for trains in that direction, we found one.

The sun was getting low and nearly behind the mountains, so, though it wouldn’t officially be setting for awhile, Villefranche was dusky and shady (and a little chilly). Nonetheless, we used our extra time to hang out on the beach for a few minutes and go in the water. It wasn’t too cold, but, as usual, the pebbly beaches aren’t really conducive to a lot of beach fun.

Once we were done at the beach, we headed back to the tender boat. On the boat, we saw one of the Frequencies performers from the night before. We were, uh, starstruck?

We wanted to go ice skating, and this was the last night we could do it, so, once onboard, we hurried to the rink. The rink was quite small and a little boring. It was entertaining, however, to see the Frequencies guy skating around like a pro, even texting while doing so. David, however, was as bad at ice skating as inline skating. He hung out near the edge the whole time. My pictures didn’t turn out well, but I got a good laugh at the time.

That night we received our Compass for the next day, which told us that we’d be docking at La Seyne-sur-Mer instead of Toulon. There would be a Royal Caribbean shuttle running into Toulon, but it was expensive, and was scheduled to stop running early in the afternoon because they wanted to avoid any delays from “a strike.” We’d planned to go into Marseilles, but with the added time to get to the train station from La Seyne-sur-Mer, and the reduced shuttle service, we knew we’d never make it. We were very unhappy with this change of plans and felt a little defeated. We decided to sleep in and maybe spend the day enjoying the boat or exploring La Seyne-sur-Mer, if there was anything to see.

Day 8: Villefranche/French Riviera

2010-11-16T21:09:00.001-05:00

Thanks to a friend’s comment on the last post, I have learned that blue lighting in public bathrooms keeps druggies from shooting up in there because they can’t find their veins. Interesting. If I would have known that, I would have paid more attention to my veins to see if it works.

The French Riviera turned out to be our favorite destination of the trip. I think the main reason is that we didn’t have a ton of stuff planned, so we just got to wander around and enjoy the beauty of the area, nearly deadline-free. We tendered in Villefranche, then trained and bused around the area and saw Nice, Eze-la-Village, and Monte Carlo.

These were the first views we got of Villefranche as the tender boat brought us to shore.

We walked Villefanche briefly on our roundabout way to the train station. We walked to the top of the Citadel (once a minor fortress, now the home of the city government).

Next stop was Rue Obscura, a street mostly covered by a roof, which has definite dark, medieval feel.

Aside from the decidedly modern powerwasher guy.

We then hopped a train to Nice, where we took the Rick Steves walk through town. We saw a Notre Dame-esque church, a cute market, took a quick detour to the beach (just for a peek), then stopped at a bakery and gelato shop.

I’d been cold in all our previous ports, and the forecasted high temperature had been in the low 60s each time. According to our cruise “Compass,” the estimated high for Villefranche that day was to be 51 degrees. To be prepared for such cold weather, I wore leggings, yoga pants, a long-sleeved shirt, a sweater, a jacket, and scarf. Within 15 minutes of being off the boat, I realized it wasn’t anywhere near 51 degrees, and had to remove the scarf and jacket. I ended up shedding many layers that day, which David was kind enough to carry in his backpack. By the end of the day, I had just leggings and my shirt, with the sleeves rolled up. And I was still warm.

We saw a grandpa (I assume) enlisting the help of his toddler granddaughter to get him a cigarette and lighter. Oh, the things that are acceptable in Europe…

Next we went to Castle Hill, which was one of my favorite parts of the day. It was a peaceful area, provided a good hike, and rewarded us with great views. Best of all? It was free!

We had a mini picnic with some of the bread we’d purchased, and I did give some change to the accordion player, because I appreciated the ambiance he created.

Next, we took the bus along the Middle Corniche to Eze-la-Village. It was a lovely drive with some awesome views, but none of our pictures turned out well, as we always seemed to be a second too late and ended up with a shot of a wall. The village is small and medieval. It’s a hilltop town that once surrounded a castle which is now gone. Many of the houses have been turned into tourist shops (of course), but it was cool nonetheless.

At the top, we paid our 5 euros apiece to get into the Jardin d’Eze. It’s a cactus garden (who knew it was arid enough in the French Riviera to grow cactus), full of saguaros, prickly pear, and aloe vera – nothing special to an Arizona girl. The real draw, though, were the views. Beautiful.

See our ship?

We had another mini picnic, this time with both chocolate and regular croissants. (Uh, can I say, ‘Yum!’)

We then found a peaceful little water garden on the side of the mountain, which was fairly secluded from the rest of the garden. It was warm and sunny, and a great place to spend an afternoon. If we hadn’t had any other places to see, I could have hung out there for quite awhile – it was as good as the beach (especially since all these Mediterranean beaches are so pebbly).

Ultimately, we did have to leave, though – we had to catch the bus to Monte Carlo.

In Monte Carlo, though, I only managed to catch a few shots of fancy cars before I dropped my camera and broke it. It was a sad thing, and left me feeling a bit naked. I ended up buying a disposable camera from a souvenir shop (for 8 stinkin’ euros!), but have had a bit of a time trying to get it developed without spending a bunch of money. Seriously, NO ONE uses film cameras anymore. Once I’ve got the pics, I’ll do some more posts. Until then, friends…

Day 7: Livorno/Pisa

2010-11-14T21:14:00.001-05:00

What a crazy day! We knew we’d be on a tight schedule to do it, but we intended to see both Pisa and Florence. We were docking in the “nearby” city of Livorno, and according to the map of the port that Royal Caribbean had posted online ahead of time, David had researched and determined that it would be a fairly easy walk from the ship to catch a bus to Pisa. On the ship, we’d heard talk of there being a Royal Caribbean shuttle service to take us from the dock into town, but for the $10 they were charging, we just knew that walking would be the best bet.

When we got out of the port, however, it was a very different story. The ship had parked in a completely different place than we’d expected, and we were deep into a very industrial port. There wasn’t sidewalk for us to walk on, and it took us a good half an hour just to walk out of the port. When we got into “town,” we were nowhere near what David had seen on the map and we had no idea where to find the Pisa bus. After spending over an hour in Livorno when we’d only planned on a ten-minute walk, and still without direction, I wondered if we’d better just go back to the ship. Frustrated, I almost considered doing so, except that I knew the walk back would be nearly as long as what we’d just done. Ultimately, we were able to find a local bus stop that showed the train station on its list of stops, so we cut Florence out of our plans, and decided to just train to Pisa.

After our frustrating morning, it was very nice to be on track again, even if we weren’t going to have as full of a day as we’d planned. The train to Pisa was a simple, short trip, and we were soon walking the relaxing walk to the Tower.

At the tower, we took the requisite photos, even though I was slightly embarrassed to do so. It’s such a touristy thing, and you look like an idiot doing it, but at least you’re not alone – everyone else is looking like an idiot as well.

Of course, David was much better at setting up the shot and positioning me than I was.

There’s also a baptistery in the complex surrounding the Tower that leans – though not as much – in the other direction.

We spent a fair amount of time walking around the Field of Miracles (where all these buildings are) and taking pictures, but there wasn’t much else to do in Pisa, so we decided to head back. We knew that we’d have a nice walk ahead of us when we got back to Livorno. We decided to take the bus back instead of the train, and on our way to the stop (which was right by the Pisa train station anyway), we got ourselves some waffles. They were similar to Liege waffles, but were definite wannabes – not as good as the Belgian originals.

We also had to get some gelato, of course!

Our final stop was a bathroom in the train station, for .30 euro each. The lighting was crazy blue. I think it was their way of preventing loitering. I’m not sure who loiters in public bathrooms, but with that lighting, it sure wasn’t going to be me!

On the bus back to Livorno, David fell asleep and I watched out the window. We drove along a country road for awhile, and on a couple of lanes that led from the road, I’m almost certain I saw prostitutes. They were sitting in chairs, scantily clad, and looking altogether bored. I found it very confusing and woke David from his sleep to look, but was always too late. How much business can “working women” drum up on a back road from Pisa to Livorno?

In Livorno, we were dropped off right where David had seen the stop on Google Maps, and we saw a cruise ship nearby, but it happened to be a Moby ship (from Naples, I think). I’m not sure why we got the crummy parking spot, but the port isn’t even connected at that point. We tried to enter the port there, but the worker told us that we couldn’t get to our boat that way and we had to walk back in toward the town to cross over to our area of the port. It was another long and frustrating walk, but we made it. When we got back to the boat, we happened to see a sign near the shuttle ticket sales area that told us the port was industrial and closed to pedestrians, so we “had” to take a shuttle. Interestingly, we’d walked right past that ticket area and not seen the sign, no workers had stopped us, and no bus stopped us when driving by. Not a soul seemed to care that we were walking. (Well, except for us – had we known, we definitely would have bought the shuttle tickets, even though $10 a person is highway robbery.)

The evening entertainment was Frequencies, a group of one South African and three Spanish men singing songs that, despite the cruise director’s promises, were mostly sung in Spanish. I’m not artsy enough to enjoy music sung in other languages. They did sing “Bohemian Rhapsody” in English, but their thick accents detracted from the song. They were talented, but I didn’t really enjoy the show.

Total steps walked: 22,737.

Day 6: Rome

2010-11-07T22:00:00.001-05:00

We ported in Civitavecchia, which is about a 75 minute train ride from Rome. There were already several other cruise ships in port when we arrived, and the train station was quite full. There were tons of train company employees trying to sell tickets on an express train – specifically for cruise passengers - into Rome, for “only” 13 euros (roundtrip) apiece. We opted for the regular ol’ second class tickets on the standard train, which didn’t have many stops anyway, for 9 euros apiece.

Unfortunately, the train had quite a few cars in the back that weren’t open, so everyone had to cram into the few cars that were. Seats aren’t guaranteed, so we were standing and it was a bit crowded. A couple of stops into it, though, the cars were opened, and we were able to get a seat – and a little bit of a nap – into Rome.

Our first stop was the Colosseum (it had a bathroom), but since we’d been before, we didn’t feel the need to go inside.

We next walked over to Capitol Hill, which is one of the major landmarks in the area that we hadn’t explored before.

View from Capitol Hill

We stopped in at the Capuchin Crypt, which is a collection of rooms full of artistically arranged monk bones, housed in the basement of a church. It was certainly morbid, but also oddly cool, as there were TONS of bones, and it was quite intriguing to see the way they’d laid them out. There were also a couple of mummified guys in monk robes. We weren’t supposed to take pictures in there, but obviously some people have. I’d highly recommend looking, at least briefly, through the photos.

Even though it was obviously not nighttime, we began Rick Steves’ Rome Night Walk, which took us through a square with a big market going on. It was interesting to people watch and see the random junk being sold. It was mostly fruit, but there were tons of souvenirs and even a special knife that cut carrots into spirals – for what purpose, I don’t know. We ate pizza that was sold by the gram, and it was tasty! I got a decent-sized portion for about 1.50 euros.

Next up: Bernini’s Fountains in Piazza Navona.

Fontana del Moro

Four Rivers Fountain

At the Four Rivers Fountain – it’s supposed to be an armadillo (I’m guessing Bernini had never seen a real one before)

Fountain of Neptune

Next was the Pantheon, which is less photogenic than last time we saw it. The McDonald’s nearby provides a free, albeit poorly maintained, bathroom, so it was a useful stop nonetheless.

We stopped for gelato at Giolitti’s (a Rome standard),

then stopped at the Trevi Fountain, which was a madhouse. It was very obvious that there were a lot more tourists in town than last time, no doubt due to the cruise ships. We elbowed our way to the front to throw our obligatory coins in (it must have worked last time, right?).

Finally, we made our way to the Spanish steps (and the sinking ship fountain out front).

We climbed the Spanish steps for the first time, and boy was it busy! The peddlers were out in full force, too, trying their many tricks to get money. One of these is to make a dinky friendship bracelet for you and ask you to make a wish. I imagine they’ll tell you your wish comes true when you pay them 10 euros or something, but we were insistent with our ‘no’s. One guy kept trying by asking, “Americans?” We smiled and nodded as we moved past, and he held out his bracelet and followed us for awhile, chanting, “Obama, Obama, Obama!” Not the most effective sales pitch…

It was time to head back, so we hopped on the metro to get us to Termini and connect there for Civitavecchia. The train was jam packed, and they even left a few minutes late to cram as many people on as possible (and probably so that the track worker could flirt with the Canadian girls who were standing near us). It was standing room only as it was, but with each stop, more people crammed in. It soon became a bit ridiculous as my arms were pinned to my sides, we were all sweating like crazy, and when the occasional person needed to get off, it was practically an exercise in futility.

One American girl was being rather vocal about her displeasure with the trip, while another woman clung to the doors, trying to stay sane despite her claustrophobia. It wasn’t an experience I’d care to repeat, but I chalk it up to an authentic European experience, and still say that we made the right choice by not going on the “special” train (it didn’t appear that anyone was assured seats on those anyway).

While walking back to the ship, we counted 8 other cruise ships in port. Our ship had 3,400 passengers, but was bigger than most, so even if the other ships only had 2,000 passengers, that’s still nearly 20,000 people in port. I guess that explains the craziness in Rome that day. The day’s step count: 16,177.

Day 5: Naples

2010-11-05T22:16:00.001-04:00

It was at this point that I started trying to keep track of my walking with a pedometer. We always walk quite a bit when we’re on vacation, but I’ve wondered how much, especially with these sight-intensive ports. Up until this point, I’d walked approximately 47,000 steps (around airports, the ship, Barcelona, etc.), but hadn’t kept track of the actual number per day. Still, at an average of over 15,000 steps per day, with some of those days not really involving sight-seeing, I was feeling pretty pleased.

Our room service arrived bright and early at 6:30 am, and aside from the “gratuity left to your discretion,” it was free (as is most any other food you find on the ship). Nice. The ship arrived at port a little later than 7, so we weren’t able to get off until after 7:30 am. It was about a 15 minute sunrise walk (it sure got light late there!) to get to the train station, and we hopped the 1.80 euro/person train to Herculaneum.

In Herculaneum, our intent was to take the twice daily public bus from the train station to Vesuvius. Bus schedules online were spotty, but we thought there would be one leaving at 8:45. At the station, though, a man insisted (in not very good English), that that bus doesn’t run anymore and we had to use the private company across the way. I was pretty sure that he was an employee and was skeptical as to the truthfulness of that information, but, based on the stop, it sure didn’t look like the city bus was still running. We ultimately decided to buy our tickets from Vesuvius Express, but the guy did mention that they wouldn’t leave until they’d filled the minibus, which needed 6-8 passengers. It was about 8:30 at this point, and he said he thought they’d leave at about 9:30.

We didn’t have anything else to do (and didn’t really want to leave, just in case people did show up before then), so we hung out, but it was rather boring. We ended up sitting in their small lobby, listening to about 6 employees holler in Italian at each other while trying to change the brakes on a minibus. One took to smoking in the lobby, though a no smoking sign was present, and when some other customers wandered in, they were ignored for a good while. I really wasn’t too surprised – “customer service” just doesn’t seem to have the same definition over there.

Sure enough, around 9:30, a big batch of customers arrived, and we were soon on our way to Vesuvius. We arrived around 10 and the driver told us to meet him at the van at 11:30. The hike was a little harder than I’d thought – the path was easy to navigate, but it was quite steep and tiring. Worst of all, though, was that it was a dreary and cold day, and the higher up the mountain, the more exposed we were and the colder it got. By the time we were at the top, it was downright frigid with biting wind and a sprinkling of icy raindrops. We really enjoyed the view, though, and walked around for a bit, before deciding to head back down instead of complete the trail.

Steam coming out of Vesuvius – it’s still considered an active volcano. (Which begs the question, why live anywhere near it, especially considering its history?)

The crater, featuring a lot of sheer drop-offs.

I had certainly not dressed warmly enough for this, and ended up tying my scarf around my head to shield my ears from the wind. As we headed back, the rain started coming down harder and I was crazy cold. I told David I was going to run down in an attempt to warm my body and hurry my descent. He wasn’t keen on the idea, and as I got to running, I wasn’t sure who chose better: I was warming up slightly and surely moving faster, but I was also getting hit fairly hard by rain in the face and eyes as I ran. Once we got down enough that we had some protection from the wind, the walk was much more manageable.

The bus driver hadn’t left, so, when we got back, we were able to take refuge in the bus and wait out our additional 20 minutes or so. The other passengers had come down at about the same time, but some had gone souvenir shopping, and David utilized the .50 euro port-a-potties. (Seriously, $.50 for a plastic-covered hole in the ground?) We left a little early, but not much.

Back in Herculaneum, the weather was better, and we were comfortable as we walked to the archaeological sight. We chose Herculaneum over Pompeii because I’d read several accounts that declared it to be a better sight. Pompeii is bigger and more well-known, but supposedly Herculaneum is better preserved, has more stuff in it (as opposed to having most artifacts taken to the Naples museum), and its size is easier to manage. We really enjoyed our visit and were happy with our choice. There were tons of things that were quite well preserved, and it got to be old hat after awhile. “Oh, another well-preserved painting? Boring.” “What, an original mosaic floor? Seen it.”

Old Herculaneum with the New Herculaneum in the background

Those black squares are charred wood from support beams that were burned by the molten mud that covered the town. It’s hard to believe there’s any wood remaining from 79 A.D…

A wall mosaic with much of its seashell border remaining.

Boat storage areas

Herculaneum residents had a little more notice about their impending doom than Pompeii residents did, and in excavating the town, there had been very few skeletons found, so archaeologists figured most residents had escaped. However, in the 1980s, when these boat storage areas were excavated, hundreds of skeletons were found inside them, as the people huddled together seeking protection and possibly awaiting rescue by sea. (This used to be the beach – the Mediterranean came all the way to Herculaneum back then.) Unfortunately, a pyroclastic surge came through with 500-degree Fahrenheit gases, killing them instantly. Bummer, huh?

This is how far archaeologists have had to dig down in order to uncover Herculaneum (that archway/tunnel is significantly taller than a person).

We had a lovely time in Herculaneum, but we were famished and ready to walk Naples and get some food. Our first stop (after being held up while attempting to cross the street by a big protest parade) was Pizzeria Da Michele. Pizza was invented in Naples, and, according to Rick Steves, it claims (along with a couple other joints) to be the original. Apparently, it’s the same place featured in the book/movie Eat Pray Love.

The Neopolitans do their pizza a little differently than we do, and this place is for purists. The menu was small, and, as far as pizzas go, you have two choices: with cheese or without. The pizza is thin crust (though more chewy than crispy), and cooked in a wood-fired oven. From looking at other customers, it was clear that the pizzas were very big, but everyone ordered their own. And eating it with a knife and fork was commonplace. We dove right in. The first few bites seemed a little unspectacular, considering what we’re used to in the states, but it grew on us. By the end, we were very pleased with our – completely finished – pizzas, and I’m craving more right now. (And, at 4 euros per pizza, it felt like a steal.)

We should have been stuffed after eating all that we had, but there’s always room for gelato, so we went to a nearby Naples original, suggested by Rick Steves.

With no other sights in mind, and about 90 minutes until boarding time, we headed back to the ship. We hadn’t checked our email lately, though, and that was our main form of communication with David’s mom (and thus our link to the baby), so we stopped at an internet cafe near the port. Internet was 3 euros for an hour, or they provided free wi-fi to customers. We decided to get some hot chocolate and use the iPod to check our email. I knew the hot chocolate would be overpriced, but never imagined it would be 4 euros a pop! Oh well, it was delicious (thick, as in Madrid), and we were able to surf to our hearts’ content.

That night, on the boat, we attended the Mystery Dinner Theater that David had been so excited about, instead of our regular meal. It was a corny act, to be sure, but it was entertaining. There was unlimited alcohol for those in attendance (too bad we didn’t get a discount for not utilizing it), and sodas usually cost money on the boat, so I asked the bartender if we could have free sodas since we weren’t going to drink. He obliged, then turned out to be our server and kept the soda coming. I’m not a big soda drinker, so I didn’t really need the 4+ glasses he brought, but I kept sipping. The dinner itself was in Portofino – the Italian restaurant that has a cover charge – and was delicious, although not significantly better than the main dining room. My biggest complaint was that there weren’t very many choices. Dessert was tiramisu with no choice whatsoever. I asked the server if I could just have ice cream instead, but had apparently waited too long to ask, and the kitchen was already closed. He brought us some nonetheless, and it seemed to have been a bit of an inconvenience for him, so we appreciated that. It was a pricey evening, and though we did have fun, I wouldn’t do it again.

Steps walked: approximately 23,000. (According to the pedometer’s estimations, this is 11.5 miles, but my stride is fairly short, so I’m assuming it was less.)

Day 4: At sea

2010-11-03T21:50:00.001-04:00

Our trip was to take us to several cities in Italy and France that are right along the Mediterranean. On a map, Barcelona is on the left of everything, and Naples – our first destination city – is the farthest right. The day at sea was taken first so that we could get to Naples, then work our way back with each stop. It was a lovely day, but I almost wished it had been at the end of the cruise so we could have a rest before we had to get off the boat. Especially since we’re prone to choosing port-intensive cruises…

I was interested in sleeping in, but tickets to the ice show were limited and being offered starting at 9 am. David was worried they’d sell out (and, per the reviews, the ice show was a must), so he got up and went to get the tickets. There were plenty. :)

We spent the day playing games, rock climbing (though I failed to get a picture), and also took a spin on the inline/Rollerblading track. It’s been quite a few years since I’ve Rollerbladed (or even roller-skated, for that matter), but it came back to me well enough. I had no stopping or circle-spinning skills like I’d had at age 10, but I felt in-control of myself. David was another story.

He spent most of his time hugging the rails and getting passed by little girls (and by me). It made me chuckle, and – admittedly – it helped my ego, considering how much better he is than me at a lot of other things.

I spent most of the cruise being cold, while David was just the opposite. We bickered over the room temperature while inside, and I took his sweatshirt while outside. It worked, though I probably could have fit my doppelganger in there too.

The ice show was at 5:30 and lasted just under an hour. It was entertaining enough, but I felt there were too many people – usually around 20 crammed on the already tiny rink. It wasn’t so much impressive as it was distracting. I’m no appreciator of art, either – all I care about are the jumps. Those were relatively few, and a lot of them turned into falls. The best part of the show was when Vladimir – the guest who only performed in this capacity – brought out a big silver ring, held on to the inside, and spun in all sorts of crazy circles on the ice. It was very impressive.

Dinner that night was a formal evening. I’d bought a clearanced wrap dress online that I’d never worn and found that it gaped terribly at the neck. Without an alternative, I resorted to a bobby pin to hold the two layers together. It looked – um – classy. As did my rather non-formal shoes, as I’d forgotten to pack nicer ones. Good thing they’re pretty unconcerned about what is actually worn on formal night.

On the menu:

Escargot. David ordered it two years ago on the last cruise and we both enjoyed it, so we both got it as our appetizer this year. It’s slathered in so much butter and garlic that you can’t get any definitive flavor from the snails themselves, so who knows what they taste like? The texture is lovely and tender, though – not rubbery at all.

Our table was able to seat 10 people – 5 couples – but there were just three couples. One, older, couple (probably in their 70s) did most of the talking (well, he did – we didn’t hear much from her). They were from Singapore and he spent his time discussing the greatness that is Singapore, by giving us illustrations as to how strict the laws are. His accent was very strong and it was difficult to understand what he was saying. Some of his stories, though, included:

“You drop a cigarette butt on the ground, you get a tap on the shoulder: ‘Show me your identification!’ $300 fine!”

“You own a restaurant and not wear gloves when preparing food, you see a badge: ‘I’m an inspector!’ You’re shut down for two weeks!”

“You shoot a red light, you get 12 points on your license. Shoot one again, you have 24 points and lose your license for two years!”

I must say, that while Singapore sounds orderly, it makes me a little afraid to go there. What if they catch me jaywalking? He also declared – over and over again – his love for gambling and his theories regarding winning at blackjack. I guess he was pretty good; he said he averages a gain of $100 every night he’s on a cruise. Each night he shared that he was a very poor eater, so the cruise food was a waste for him. He insisted on giving David half of his meat. David tried declining – politely and more forcefully – but the guy wouldn’t take no for an answer. The food ended up on his plate two nights in a row, but only after (both nights) it was dropped on the tablecloth first. This night was the last night it happened, though, because our server seemed frustrated with the whole arrangement and brought David another plate of food thinking he was still hungry. The old man apologized and never forced his food on David again – though he did offer several more times.

We caught the ship’s singers and dancers performing a production show that night – a collection of famous songs from movies – and it was okay. I thought they were all pretty talented, but the problem (as with other nights) was that I didn’t know the songs. The singers were also fairly boring, as they were either old, or seemingly incapable of dancing and would just walk back and forth across the stage to sing. I suppose you can’t expect too much from cruise ship entertainment.

We ordered our breakfast room service for delivery between 6:30-7 am and went to bed early so we could get up and go in Naples – we had a full day ahead of us.

Day 3: Barcelona and boarding the ship!

2010-11-02T09:13:00.000-04:00

Sunday morning, church was supposed to start at 10:30. It wasn’t all that far away, so we checked out of the hotel (had them watch our bags), and gave ourselves a little more than a half an hour to get there. Unfortunately, we missed a metro while running around trying to find an alternate train with fewer stops (the city has both trains and metros running through it), then found that Google Maps gave us the wrong walking directions when we arrived. All-in-all, we were about 5 minutes late.

It was a fairly normal (by our standards) looking building, but one peek into the chapel proved that finding a seat would be difficult. We didn’t want to interrupt the meeting, so we sat in the lobby. Trouble was, they never brought the sacrament out, and there was no sound piped in. We decided that the meeting was a bust for us and headed back to the hotel to get our bags. (I did get to show off my fine *cough* Spanish, though, when a guy said hello to us in the lobby. He asked if we were in that ward, and I said something very eloquent like, “No, Americano. Ingles.” He spoke passable English, so he asked where we were from and then said, “You’re welcome.” My initial thought was, Uh, did I say thank you? before I realized he was welcoming us to the area. Duh.)

Getting to the ship turned out to be quite easy – metro to Drassnes, walk a bit to the blue port bus (very obviously marked) by the Christopher Columbus statue, pay 2 euros apiece to the driver, and stand for 10 minutes in a crowded bus before being dropped at our ship. Check-in was simple and we were soon exploring our stateroom (which, of course, didn’t take long, since I think they’re something like 170 square feet).

Our ship was the Voyager of the Seas, and it was definitely bigger than the Splendor, though we’re doubtful that it’s nearly twice as big, as the travel agent had said. The layout is a little more annoying than the Splendor, as it seemed harder to get from the front of the ship to the back. The options were walking through the Promenade (5th floor), or outside at the top of the ship. Accessing the fun stuff at the top (levels 13 and 14) always involved more walking and stairs than seemed necessary.

We ate lunch at the buffet and walked around, discovering windows into the bridge, where we could watch the captain in action. (Though there was a time or two where we found the windows covered, so apparently they can hide if things get particularly interesting in there.) Of course, every ship captain needs his own, personalized, scooter.

The 14th floor held the Starlight Chapel, which was empty and made for some exceptionally cheesy photo ops.

The dining room was empty and available for perusal. It was three stories high and featured a grand staircase, only to be used by the wait staff when performing their corny dinnertime songs. Sadly, the gigantic harp was never used.

David checked in with his mom (to get updates on the baby, of course, who had suddenly decided that staying in her crib was for the birds and thus was no longer taking naps) on the phone before we left port, and by the time we sat for dinner, the ship was pulling away.

The last part of the evening was the opening night show, which featured an unimpressive juggler named Jaz Dannion, and a circus-y performing couple (he’d throw her in the air, she’d contort in weird ways, they’d both balance in awkward positions that proved they must have awesome abs) that we lovingly refer to as Mad Jesse. (The cruise director, who was Argentinean with a strong accent, introduced them and that’s what it sounded like. The guy looked like a skinnier – and meaner – Mr. Clean in a tiny leotard with a mostly uncovered chest. Mad Jesse seemed like a more appropriate name than their “real” name: Majestic.)

Tomorrow: day at sea.

Day 2: Madrid to Barcelona

2010-11-01T00:01:00.000-04:00

The Madrid Temple, along with many other things in Spain, closes for siesta from 12-2 pm. Leaving over an hour for travel time, this meant we needed to be up and at ‘em fairly early for being some jet lagged folks with little sleep. We left our hotel around 10:15 (they kindly let us store our bags there again), stopped at a local bakery for some Janets (chocolate napolitanos), and headed to the metro.

Our plan was to attend the 12 o’clock session, but since it was the last one before siesta and the 2 o’clock was too late for us to catch our flight, we knew we had to get there on time. Being Saturday, the trains were running less often, which we hadn’t fully planned on. By the time we arrived at the temple, we were pushing it. They had a sign saying that the sessions started promptly on the hour, but fortunately, that didn’t end up being true, since a series of unfortunate events (getting lost, trying to put my stuff in a broken locker, putting my dress on backwards, etc.) made it so I waltzed in the room at at least 5 after. Once we got settled and got our headphones, though, everything was calm and it was a lovely session. The temple is beautiful – as always – and it was our first session in awhile, so it was especially nice.

Afterwards, we had to hurry a little to give ourselves enough time to pick up our bags and get to the airport. At the airport, however, we discovered that our flight was delayed and we had more time than we thought. We dove into the package of jamon and found that it was super greasy (they’d packed it in oil), and probably not meant to be eaten warm. It was okay, but certainly not worth 16 euros. Grr.

When we finally arrived in Barcelona, it was another long airport walk (which included a terminal transfer bus) to get to the train station, but because the train and metro tickets are interchangeable, we bought a ten-pack, and paid a whopping .80 euro for each of us to get to town.

Our hotel in Barcelona was the Hotel Ginebra, and was right on Placa Catalunya at the top of the Ramblas. It was easy to find, though less nice even than the hotel in Madrid. They’d also ended up giving us two twin beds, so we had to rearrange our own furniture – we’re not a Dick Van Dyke Show couple.

After settling in, we got ourselves together for a nighttime Ramblas walk. As is the case in Spain, it was after 10 and the place was hopping. Barcelona, though, and especially the Ramblas, is known for being rife with pickpocketers, so it made me a little nervous, despite our money belts and empty pockets. We got some tasty gelato and joined the flood of people moving down the Ramblas.

There were tons of street performers and also plenty of seedy-looking salespeople (selling caricatures, random light-up toys, aluminum can change bowls, beer, you name it), but I dared not stop to stare. It was an interesting experience, but by the end, I was just anxious. We crossed the bridge past the Christopher Columbus statue at the end of the Ramblas and sat next to the water. It was much more peaceful, and aside from the second hand smoke pervading the area, was a good place to relax.

We tried looking around for a bit to find the stop for the cruise port bus, but to no avail. (No problem, though, as it was SUPER easy to find the actual bus the next day.) We walked back up the Ramblas and stopped at a gyro place for a pita (for me) and a wrap (for David). I’ve developed a bit of a love for gyros and I really enjoyed mine. We ate with our backs to a tree, then headed back up to our hotel to get some sleep.

Once upon a time, we went on a cruise

2010-10-30T21:34:00.001-04:00

I mean, another cruise. We had so much fun on our cruise two years ago that doing another was definitely on our list of potential vacations. David had two weeks off, we found a good deal on another Royal Caribbean cruise, and that’s all we needed. David’s mom was (as always) willing to come watch the baby, so we had a week and a half to ourselves. We returned just a few days ago, which [partially] explains my lack of posting. Now, of course, there will be a bit of posting, with trip details provided ad nauseum. Enjoy!

Day 1: Madrid

Our cruise was scheduled to leave from Barcelona on Sunday, October 17, but it quickly became apparent that the flights to Barcelona were pretty full. We decided, then, to go to Madrid via United’s Aer Lingus partnership, and bought some $40/person/way plane tickets to Barcelona. We left ourselves with a day and a half in Madrid to start, and a sleepover in Madrid on the way home. The flight to Madrid wound up getting pretty full, and for awhile we wondered if we’d make it at all. Some additional seats appeared a couple of days before, however, and though we didn’t have a row to ourselves (as we so often have on international flights), we did get to sit together and utilize the on-demand entertainment systems, so that was something. It was fun, but we got absolutely no sleep.

We landed in Madrid at about 7 am on Friday morning and walked the LONG walk to get to the other terminal and the metro station. Once there, however, it was a simple 2 euro/person ticket to get wherever we wanted to be in town. We’d reserved the Hostel Acapulco online, and Javier had been more than kind, but without reserving a room the night before, we were crossing our fingers that we could do an early check-in. The lady manning the desk seemed less than interested in helping, and I think they were full anyway, so we left our bags and went to explore until check-in at 1 pm.

Our exploration started at 10 am at the Chocolateria San Gines, which, according to the sign on the wall next to the mostly closed gate, was open all day, everyday. Ha! They opened at about 10:30 and we were soon enjoying delicious churros and hot chocolate. The churros are slightly smaller than what you’d get in the US, and not covered in cinnamon sugar. Fresh from the frying oil, they also taste better (and greasier) than any I ever got at my school’s snack bar. The hot chocolate is also unique – it had the taste and consistency of melted chocolate, and is intended as a dip for the churros (when you run out of churros, though, you most definitely consume it plain). Very tasty, but one serving was all I could stomach for the trip.

We walked around an indoor market that featured fruits I couldn’t identify,

passed a convent where the nuns apparently sell sweets if you know the secret to ordering (it sounded a bit like the Soup Nazi routine from Seinfeld, but alas, they were closed), and passed some big buildings on our way to the palace.

The palace serves as a museum when it’s not needed for royal events. No pictures were allowed inside, but the place oozed opulence and it was pretty cool to walk around. We saw – among others - the throne room (“wallpapered” in red velvet, ceiling brushed with gold leaf, full of huge flat-screens), the HUGE royal dining room, and the smoking lounge, which was adorned with Asian art and apparently used as an opium den back in the day. Many rooms had fabulous frescoes on the walls and ceilings, gold leaf and fancy chandeliers abounded, and one room was entirely done in inlaid wood – furniture, floors, and even walls. We’re not usually interested in museums, and I often feel I’ve wasted my money when we do go, but I was happy enough to pony up here. Despite the fact that David was about to fall asleep while walking…

View of Madrid from the palace

We returned to the hotel a little after 1, but a room was still not ready, so we sat on their couch and nearly passed out while waiting. It only took about 10 minutes, however, before we were able to get in and quickly get ready for a “nap.” 5 hours later, we were ready to face the world again.

The room was small, clean and basic. Just what we look for in European hotels, as they can get pricey really fast. This one was one of the cheaper ones available - 69 euros/night – about $97.

We were up and ready to go along with the Spanish dinner crowd (it was late). We stopped first at the local department store/Super Walmart-ish place – Le Corte Ingles – to buy some cheap cell phones for emergencies (after getting separated in Belgium, we thought it wise), then shopped in their grocery store for some cookies. When we got out on the town, we decided it was time for tapas, and headed to El Museo del Jamon for a crazy tapas experience. It was super busy and the general idea was to elbow your way up to the bar and yell at the workers to get you some food and/or drinks. We’re much too passive for that kind of thing, so we waited for quite awhile to get up to the front and get served. We shared a simple ham and cheese sandwich (the ham there looks like dry, raw bacon, though it’s pre-cooked and not smoked like bacon), and tried to buy a small bit of jamon ibericas (the fanciest ham around – supposedly tasty because it’s taken from pigs who “never experience stress”), but failed miserably. We ended up with a large package of it for 16 euros.

The next tapas bar was less chaotic and we ordered some shrimp a la escargot – cooked in oil with garlic and butter, and thoroughly tasty. There was some sort of pepper in there that made it a little spicy, and after the shrimp was gone, it made a great dip for the provided bread. It was ridiculously pricey, at 8.80 euros for a tiny cup, but we ordered extra bread (free) and felt a little better about ourselves.

Our night ended shortly thereafter, as we had full (enough) bellies and tired eyes. After some much-needed showers, we made it to bed around 1 am.

Gaucho-riffic!

2010-09-24T23:47:00.001-04:00

(If you’re my husband, you will follow with “Gaucho-tastic!”)

Over a year ago, I saw these gauchos (culottes?) for free at BurdaStyle (fabulous website, by the way). I thought, Hey, that would make exercising a lot cooler than the yoga pants I currently wear. (Though in the interest of full disclosure, I don’t think I’ve actually exercised outside of our house since then…) I bought some bamboo rayon/cotton jersey fabric from fabric.com and, uh, it sat there. A year later, I printed out the pattern and laid it on the fabric only to discover I hadn’t bought enough anyway. Genius.

Determined to get the project done, I finally bought some more fabric and made me some shorts!

Unfortunately, I forgot to cut out the hem allowance (although I didn’t quite have enough fabric anyway – I know, I really am lame when it comes to estimating how much fabric I’ll need), so they’re slightly shorter than I’d like. I did a zigzag overlock on the bottom to hopefully prevent curling, though it’s not the prettiest looking hem around. But since gauchos aren’t the most stylish or flattering bottoms I could wear anyway, I don’t think I need to spend too much time trying to make the hem look better.

And, of course, the baby’s room had the best light for pictures (it’s really hard to take pictures of black clothing). Not only does this mean a cluttered floor, but also some interesting goings-on in the background:

Did you catch that? I was in the middle of getting her ready for bed when I realized I’d better get the pictures in her room while the light was still decent (which is why she’s just in a diaper – sorry!). I set her up with a box of cereal in my room while I ran in and did some timed photos in hers (10 of them in a batch, one every two seconds). She’s usually not a big “dumper,” but apparently decided that this was the day to change that. Nice.

A nursing cover

2010-09-13T21:50:00.001-04:00

I made myself a nursing cover back in the day, but always had trouble with the boning flopping down and making the whole “peek-at-the-baby” thing nearly impossible. Floppy or not, I found it to be a very valuable baby item and wanted to make another to give as a gift, so I did some searching to figure out the problem. Apparently, the boning must overlap your straps halfway so it gets some support on either side. It’s the method shown in this tutorial, and it’s fab (much better than the other tutorial I’d used).

I studied some of the nursing covers at the “fancy” sites and found that the pockets on the bottom corners were pretty big, and stitched twice to create two triangular and one rectangular pocket on each corner. Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture, but if you’re super interested in the details, let me know. I utilized some stash flannel and gave the cover pockets in each bottom corner. In addition to being practical, it adds a nice weight that should help prevent any Marilyn Monroe issues, should the mama ever be nursing over a street vent.

Ultimately, I didn’t manage to get any great photographs, but hopefully you get the idea. (Or, you could just Google “nursing cover,” if you’re still confused as to what they look like and how they’re used.)

Hooray for non-floppy boning! (The fabric, by the way, is from Valori Wells’ Del Hi line – I love that line and it was recently part of an excellent blowout sale at fabric.com. I just finished ironing and stacking all the fabric I got from that sale. It looks so yummy!)

The benefits of a power outage

2010-09-10T21:20:00.001-04:00

It’s after dark and the power is out. Apparently I’d be a terrible pioneer, because it took me a LONG time to figure out what I could do in this situation. I hand sewed something for a few minutes by candlelight, determined I didn’t want to become blind, and moved on to composing a blog post in Windows Live Writer on the laptop. Thank goodness for the laptop, although I know that its battery life is not up to a long outage. But, then again, neither are my sweat glands.

I made some shorts for the baby at least 6 weeks ago and never took pictures or blogged them. Now they don’t fit quite the same, although they’re plenty usable. They look more like shorts now (which is good, as they were a bit clamdigger-ish 6 weeks ago), but are too short in the crotch. I guess I’ll have to find a new pants pattern from here on out.

It’s the Simple Sewing for Baby pant pattern again, just shortened (by estimation, obviously) to short length. I used fabric from Heather Ross’ Mendocino line – love it! – I think it’s called Underwater Sisters. The girls are all topless, which makes me wonder if the fabric is too scandalous for a church dress, but you can’t see anything, and I do love the fabric so. We’ll see what I do with the rest of it…

New shoes all around!

2010-08-14T13:56:00.001-04:00

Well, at least for 2/3 of the household. David got nothing.

There are two for me:

And two for her:

The child seems to have jumped from a size 3 to a size 5 overnight, meaning we had only one pair of shoes that fit:

By the way, these are See Kai Run shoes. I won a pair via a giveaway, and when the insoles fell out after I received them, I contacted customer service to ask how I could fix them at home (considering it was a giveaway and not from SKR themselves, I didn’t expect anything else from them). They said I could pick a new pair. Their girl selection was all sandal-y, and I wanted a tennis shoe look, so I chose a boy pair. My mom thinks they look funny, and I’m sure they don’t help the babe appear any more feminine, but I still love them myself. Their shoes retail for over $30, which is WAY too much, in my opinion, especially since the quality doesn’t seem significantly better than other brands. But the customer service was awesome (quick to respond and tracked down my free pair when they didn’t show up the first try), so I’d buy more from them if I found a good sale.

The Wee One says “shoe” quite clearly and loves to wear them. I’m not the kind of mom who gets super excited over dressing my girl, but I do love me those leopard shoes, especially with a skirt and the ever-adorable baby cankles.

Dressing myself

2010-08-11T14:44:00.000-04:00

I bought the ubiquitous Built by Wendy Simplicity 3835 pattern over two years ago when we lived in Maine. I rushed to buy the fabric, wash it, and pin my shirt pattern to it. And that’s where it sat. It ultimately ended up in a plastic tub in the bottom of my closet here in Texas.

I finally pulled it out the other day and finished it. Finally, I’ve sewn something for myself to wear!

And, fancy that, it’s a peasant shirt! I skipped the sleeve elastic and added the back darts from the dress pattern. It’s still less form-fitting than I’m used to in my clothing (which is actually good, really, considering it’s intended to be pulled over the head and it’s hard to get on and off as it is), so I fear that it makes me look pregnant.

I think it looks better on me in the pictures than in person, but it’ll do.

Stencil me

2010-08-09T08:25:00.000-04:00

While I had use of the Cricut, I cut out another stencil, this time for myself. My wardrobe tends towards t-shirts and jeans exclusively, and plain t-shirts, specifically. I figured freezer-paper stenciling would be a quick (and free, considering I already had the supplies) way to change things up just a little.

Thanks, Old Navy, for the endless supply of cheap, plain t-shirts.

Snappy toddler top

2010-08-07T13:50:00.000-04:00

I saw this top from Prudent Baby and thought it was too cute. I’m working on eliminating sleeveless items from the baby’s wardrobe, but this made me regress slightly. It seems I couldn’t help myself and I had the perfect vintage fat quarter for this shirt!

I left the pattern sized as-is, as it stated it was a 12-18 month size. Ultimately, though, the arm holes are too small and cut into the baby’s armpits. (Though she didn’t seem to notice.) My markings on the yoke (as to where to insert the front and back) weren’t perfect, which is likely the culprit, although I’m guessing the original pattern didn’t leave a lot of wiggle room. So, unfortunately, she won’t be getting much wear out of this shirt anyway. Maybe that’s what I get for being slow in my modesty endeavor.

I don’t have snap pliers and wasn’t planning on purchasing any, but have a VERY basic sewing machine that does only straight and zig-zag stitching; there’s no automatic buttonholer. I had the hardest time trying to make buttonholes on my own. I almost went for sew-in snaps, but ultimately, a trip to my parents saved my project. My mom’s machine had a lovely automatic buttonhole feature that made quick work of it.

The pattern almost fit on a fat quarter. I ended up cutting the back yoke into two and piecing it together (with a little seam allowance, of course) in order to utilize just one FQ. (And, well, the armpit bias tape had to come from another source.)

I had a fairly difficult time sewing the curved parts of the yoke – they’re not exceptionally pretty. If I made this project again, I’d definitely go for a larger size and spend a little more time being conscientious of my curve sewing and turning.

Shopping out-of-season

2010-08-05T21:31:00.001-04:00

I’m cheap and proud of it. When I found some long-sleeved shirts for $2 at Children’s Place in The Wee One’s size, I was all over it, despite the fact that 100-degrees and 70% humidity is far from long-sleeve weather. But here’s the secret: knit (as in jersey knit, not handknit) items do not unravel or fray. A simple pair of scissors can turn long-sleeves into short-sleeves with no additional work required.

And so, with a little snip-snip, a short-sleeved shirt:

And, well, it was a little boring before, so I freezer-paper stenciled the butterfly on. I had enough forethought to bring some freezer-paper the last time I visited my parents and used my mom’s Cricut to cut it out. MUCH easier than cutting it by hand with the X-acto Knife.

As an aside: despite the fact that the shirt features a butterfly, apparently the blue screams “boy.” The Wee One was referred to as a “he” and a “boy” no less than three times today. Oh well. I can’t dress her in pink all the time.

Shirt number two also got the slice, but I went ahead and sewed cuffs on from pieces of the remaining sleeves.

I decided to jazz this shirt up as well, this time with a single ruffle. Too bad it’s crooked. Note to self: “eyeballing it” isn’t the best method.

Check out those teeth! She’s got her first set of four molars too. It looks a little funny when you get a look at the whole mouth, what with the incisors not in yet. A little hillbilly-ish, if you will.

A knitted item

2010-07-26T21:39:00.000-04:00

It’s been awhile since I’ve knitted a project, but it felt good to use the needles again. A friend sent me a link to this pattern, which happens to be an accessory I’ve been seeing a lot of recently. While I don’t think I pull it off well, I have a friend who would look great with it. Because, well, she happens to be one of those girls that looks great in everything. (Cough *jealous* cough.) And, well, it’s an ear warmer after all, so it’s got some practicality to it too.

Specs:
Pattern: Headband Ear Warmer by T. Matthews Fine Art
Yarn: Vanna’s Choice in Dark Grey
Needles: 9 straights
Mods: For the life of me, I can’t remember exactly what I did, but I know I changed the decreases to make them look more symmetrical to the increases. I ripped and re-knit those decreases MANY times trying to figure out a good look.

I don’t have a picture of the headband laid out flat, but it does have a button closure as the pattern instructs. Despite the many re-dos required, the decreasing turned out well and I like the look of the thing, if not for myself.

Fat quarter apron

2010-07-23T09:56:00.000-04:00

I still had some lovely vintage bedsheet fat quarters to be used and couldn’t think of a better application than an apron. Aprons have been pretty trendy lately, so what better gift to a cute mama than a cute apron?

It can be quite challenging to get decent pictures with a toddler running about and trying to get at your camera. But, the facts remain: it’s a cute vintage print accented by simple white cotton and another cute and simple checked print. Bow-tying skills are lacking. White legs with flip-flops are not ideal for modeling.

Fortunately, this mama is tall, so she can make great use of the length. I, on the other hand, am not and could not. Although it is a great length for the aforementioned toddler to yank on while whining to be picked up.

Reusable bags: take one, make one

2010-07-20T21:15:00.001-04:00

For this year’s latest Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day, I won a reusable shopping bag from the Green Bag Lady. It wasn’t very difficult to win, as there were 100 prizes given away! The Green Bag Lady is dedicated to making and giving away reusable bags and encourages others to do the same. This giveaway came with a catch: I had to make another bag with the provided fabric and give it away.

I already had plans to make and send some gifts to a friend, so this went off with it (you’ll see more items in the coming days as well). I basically followed the pattern provided on the site, though I tried to make it look a little nicer. Instead of leaving unfinished seams, I made French seams. For the top of the bag, I made an enclosed hem, which also covered the ends of the handles. Nothing too fancy, but a little better than the simple, sample pattern (I think).

I don’t claim to be very “green,” but I do love saving money. Our local grocery store deducts $.05 for every reusable back you bring, and I have the CVS Green Bag Tag that effectively gives me $.25 for utilizing a reusable bag. And, hey, it comes in handy for library and farmer’s market trips too. So green or not, I think everyone should have one (or more) reusable bags around.

Yogurt anyone?

2010-07-15T16:38:00.001-04:00

As we’re all aware, I have a toddler. Said toddler does not like to drink whole milk. Since whole milk is the easiest (and “traditional”) way for children this age to get the necessary fat and calcium in their diets, we had to improvise: yogurt. Same idea, but just a little something “extra.” And that “extra” happens to be pretty popular. It seems like everyone now is talking about taking and giving their kids probiotics. So, giving my toddler lots of whole milk yogurt is a win-win, right?

Mostly. Plain whole milk yogurt isn’t super easy to find in the store (my Walmart stopped carrying it in favor of the nonfat version) and it’s pretty pricey: think about $2.50 for 32 ounces. Milk here runs around $3 per gallon, which is 128 ounces. The solution to all of this? We make our own yogurt. Sure, we still buy the individual cups for David to take to work (and to enjoy all the fun flavors), but for baby, it’s homemade all the way.

We got our process here, but there’s also a crockpot version here. It sounded good to me initially and I was going to try it, but ultimately I decided not to. My reasoning:

1. The stovetop version works for us. Always a plus.
2. The stovetop version utilizes a thermometer, so I’m assured that I’ve taken the milk to a sufficient temperature to kill bad bacteria, then wait until it’s a low enough temperature to cultivate the good bacteria (instead of killing it) before I add my starter.
3. The stovetop version requires about one hour of my attention, then it sits for about 5 hours before being put into the fridge. The crockpot version requires various smaller bits of attention, but at several lengthy intervals. I don’t want to have to worry about my yogurt all day.
4. The stovetop version utilizes canning jars, so I only need to have one open and disturbed jar (32 ounces) in my fridge at one time. I believe that this increases the lifespan of the other jars, preserves the firmness of my yogurt, and is also more convenient for me.
The crockpot version requires you to scoop out the yogurt and put it in separate containers for storage. I don’t know about you, but when I disturb my yogurt very much – even storebought - it gets pretty runny. By utilizing separate jars, I avoid this problem.

Although my process is pretty much the same as what I shared in the link, I’m including it below – with pictures – for your viewing/reading enjoyment.

Making Homemade Yogurt

Supplies needed:

Pot (preferably thick-bottomed)of sufficient size to hold the amount of milk you’re using
Whisk
Thermometer (we use a meat thermometer)
Canning jars with lids (I also use an old pickle jar with success) – there are 4 quarts in a gallon, but adding the yogurt starter will increase your yield, so you’d need 5 jars per gallon
Cooler (we use a cheap styrofoam one from Walmart)
Something in which to heat water, unless you can get several gallons of 120-degree + water from your faucet.

Ingredients needed:

Milk (preferably as fresh as you can get, any fat content will work, though, in my experience, skim tends to produce runnier yogurt)
1 cup (per gallon) of plain, active culture yogurt (can be from the store [should be fresh] or from a previous batch you’ve made).
I prefer to use Dannon as an initial starter because it just contains milk and cultures, rather than gelatin, pectin, or any other of that firming stuff that my local generics contain. I’ve heard that your own starter will weaken over time, so you cannot use your own starter indefinitely. I have used it up to 3 times before, although I didn’t notice a difference in yogurt consistency, that was all I dared do.

The process:

(Note: The website given above insists that you won’t be successful without properly sterilizing all your materials first. We gave that up many batches ago and are still successful. I wash my jars and whisk in the dishwasher, but do not boil everything before preparing.)

Heat your milk in the pot over medium-ish heat, stirring regularly. You can use higher heat, and/or stir only occasionally, but you’re more likely to get scorched milk stuck to the bottom of your pan. I have a nice, thick-bottomed pan and am willing to accept some scorching, so I use medium-high heat and stir every few minutes, at least until the temperature gets above 120 degrees or so.

Meanwhile, start another pot of water heating on the stove.

Why yes, my stove is dirty. And the temperature in the room is 82 degrees with 60% humidity. All good to know, huh?

Once the temperature of your milk has reached between 185-195 degrees, remove the pot from the heat and cool it quickly. I do this in a sink full of cold water.

While your milk is cooling, pour your now-heated water into the cooler (if it’s boiling, that’s fine, if not, that’s fine too). Add enough cold water to bring the temperature of the water to 120 degrees. Get your jars and starter ready.

Once your milk has cooled to 120 degrees, whisk in the starter. Whisk it well to avoid clumps of unincorporated yogurt at the bottom. Once incorporated, pour the milk into the jars – right up to the top is great - and close them.

Put the jars in the cooler. Once the level of the water has risen from the jars being added, the water should be at or higher than the level of the milk in the jars. If you have too little water, add more (using a Pyrex measuring cup in the microwave is a good way to get hot water fast). If your water is overflowing, by all means, remove some.

I used baby food jars to get rid of the added yield from the starter. It’s convenient to have the little jars of yogurt available.

Put the lid on your cooler and let it sit, undisturbed, for 3-6 hours. 5 hours is usually about right for me.

Generally, the longer it sits, the firmer and more tangy the yogurt gets. At some point, though – obviously – the yogurt will get as firm as it’s going to. You don’t want to let it sit for too long, though, because the water will naturally cool and the cooler (but not refrigerator) temperatures can allow bad bacteria to grow. So, a 12-hour overnight sit is probably not a great idea.

When I’m ready to pull out my yogurt, I always tilt one to the side to check it – there is a firm lump of yogurt in the middle and some liquid on the outside that moves. Perfect.

Once refrigerated, the yogurt comes out smooth and firm.

(Note that the rust from the lids is on the OUTSIDE of the rim.)

The liquidy stuff that settles on the top once you’ve opened the jar is whey. You can drain it off or mix it in – I prefer to drain it, because – as I mentioned before – disturbing the yogurt too much by mixing it tends to make it runny. If you really want thick yogurt, you can strain your yogurt in muslin/a flour sack towel or a coffee filter before use, thus eliminating even more whey. Do it overnight and you’ll have yogurt cheese.

If you’re concerned about the thickness of your yogurt (particularly if you’re using skim milk), you can add a couple of tablespoons of nonfat dry milk. It helps firm things up a bit.

For vanilla flavored yogurt, you can add sugar (or Splenda) and vanilla just prior to adding your yogurt starter. You can’t add fruit at this time, though – that has to be done after the yogurt has set up.

And that’s that! As I mentioned, it takes me about an hour to do the heating and jar prep process. With the amount of money it saves, as well as the fact that I can control what goes into my yogurt, I figure it’s worth it.

Another peasant shirt

2010-07-15T08:08:00.000-04:00

That Simplicity 4206 pattern is a fast one. And a cute one. Which means I was destined to make another toddler gift from it.

A simple shirt in a simple and sweet calico. That’s it.

Swaddle me

2010-07-12T20:03:00.000-04:00

Swaddled babies are so cute! Between the picture in Lotta Jansdotter’s book and the examples on the Simple Sewing for Baby Flickr page, I was smitten with this swaddler pattern (psst – if you follow the link, the pattern is available online too). I used cotton for the outside and cotton flannel for the inside. I contemplated using minky, but considering this is being sent to Arizona, I’m not sure we need to keep the baby that warm. I also tend to think that cotton – being breathable and all – will work better for swaddling. Both fabrics were from Hobby Lobby (and were previously featured on a bib).

Overall it was simple, but those connecting curves proved to be a bear. I also didn’t pay sufficient attention to the placement of the Velcro to make efficient use of my sewing. In one area (bottom left wing in the picture below), a piece on the front and back overlap – had I pinned them on at the same time, it would have looked much nicer, as I probably wouldn’t have had to sew through the opposing side of Velcro. It’s still functional and only visible when open anyway.

One thing about the patterns in this book is that I always end up with significantly more fabric than I needed. This pattern called for 1 yard of each and I could easily have done with 3/4. 1/2 was almost enough. Translation: you will see this fabric again.

The Ruffle-Butt

2010-07-10T10:29:00.001-04:00

I saw this pattern (option #2 at the bottom) months ago and put it on my “list.” I purchased a pack of plain onesies awhile ago to do baby gifts like this and this, so I already had the onesie and fabric.

I think I read how to do fabric rosettes somewhere, but I never did find a specific tutorial, so I just winged it. I had planned on attaching it to a pin so that I could be removed for washing, but it just ended up being super floppy. So instead, I sewed it on a piece of felt, then sewed it all securely to the onesie.

I’m back – with bibs!

2010-07-07T13:25:00.001-04:00

I’ve been making quite a few baby gifts, but taking my time to do so, which should [somewhat] explain the lack of posting. I’m pretty much done now, though, so here we go with the first of them: bibs!

I traced a bib that we have that I think is a good size, then cut it out in cotton, cotton flannel, and low-loft batting. I added Velcro, quilted it for extra spill-catching action, and there you have it! These fabrics are from Hobby Lobby. I like the shape of these bibs as they’re big enough for a good amount of coverage, but not so big as to get in the way of the baby’s arm movements, so they can be used for older babies who feed themselves.

The front of this one is Amy Butler’s Wallflower fabric, and the back is some simple flannel from Walmart. I tried my hand at a little free-motion quilting on this one, though since I don’t have the proper foot, it just entailed keeping the presser foot up and moving the fabric around. The stitches are nowhere near being even, but it still looks decent and I think the quilting will serve its intended purpose.

More crochet toys

2010-06-19T21:14:00.001-04:00

It’s been awhile, huh? I’ve actually got several crafts in the works/planned for baby gifts, but considering they’re gifts that haven’t been given, it’s hard to show anything. For now, I’ll share some more crochet baby toy goodness. I still prefer the look of knitting, but it certainly requires more patience than crochet, so often crochet wins out.

This is a caterpillar baby toy. I put jingle bells in his head and tail and stuffed him carefully so that they still jingle. The rings move up and down the body pretty well and, heck, they keep me entertained! Noise and movement, but no batteries – how could a baby toy get any better?

Specs
Pattern: Caterpillar Baby Toy from the Lion Brand website (once you create an account, they have tons of free patterns to access)
Hook: G
Yarn: Everything except the head and antennae (and the embroidery floss facial features) is Red Heart Super Saver, though I don’t know their exact colorways. The green head is Vanna’s Choice.
Mods: I miscounted my rows and ended up making the yellow ring slightly larger than intended, so it’s a little bigger than the pink. It works, though, and reminds me of the baby ring stackers. I also extended the body by one row to ensure there was enough wiggle room. It would have been fine without the extra, but it works this way too. I also, as previously mentioned, added jingle bells inside.

This was a fast, fun little project and I think it’s one of my bigger successes as far as toys go, at least in the looks department. Whether or not it wins a baby over remains to be seen.