It’s Orca Bay Eve!!

All week long I’ve been giggling to myself!

Never in my wildest dreams could I imagine the build up that would present itself over the past few weeks, including mails asking what TIME this first clue would be posted tomorrow morning!

OH. MY. GOODNESS!!

I had to think about it. I live on the East Coast of the USA. Someone asked if it was going to go live just after midnight my time tonight….I guess those people on the WEST coast think they can get in a day early if they can start sewing at 9pm the night before..LOL!

Let’s just say that I will post each part on Friday Morning --- sometime during the morning! When I am able to write posts ahead, I usually set them around 7am eastern time. But it could be as late as 9am or so…do I want to be up that early the day after Thanksgiving? I plan on IGNORING Black Friday and sleeping in.

So they post when they post, with no set schedule, because I really have ENOUGH deadlines right now.

Posting these clues has to go along with what is going on in my life. I’m done with my traveling teaching for the year, but I’ve got Thanksgiving and Christmas to deal with too – and a little upheaval has happened the past couple days.

DS Jeff has reached irreconcilable differences with a really bad room mate who isn’t paying their share of the bills. Jeff can’t afford the 2 bedroom apartment by himself. There is no one else to move in, and we can’t afford to pay his bills for him…he’s working all the hours he can at this job, but they’ve hired on new holiday help…meaning everyone is getting their hours readjusted, and his hours aren’t enough to cover what he is needing too. They love him there. They don’t want to lose him. He is a great worker.

But I think the past nearly 6 months on his own has not only helped him mature in many many positive ways ((Those of you with 21 yr old sons understand where I am coming from here! Growth comes in micro-millimeters sometimes!)) and he wants to go back to school AND work…and can’t afford an apartment right now on his own, and he doesn’t WANT a room mate anymore. We’ve all been there, haven’t we?

So he came home last night….through a thunderstorm with tornado warnings!

This was also prompted by the fact that he’s been dealing with a “cold” the past few weeks that I suspected was MORE than a cold ---- but who would listen to mom over the phone?

This morning I hauled his coughing and hacking carcass off to the doctor. VERY bad case of bronchitis ((Oh, don’t *I* Know these symptoms SO well?!?)) and it’s aggravated his asthma. He’s drugged up here at home on a Z-pack, Steroids, and cough medicine.

I’m making a big pot of soup for dinner!

I just need to love on this guy a little bit.

He brought home ALL his dirty laundry! ((I was always told they do this, but this is the first time I’ve witnessed it—>_<)) and that is running as I type this.

There is a possibility that he will be able to transfer from his job at Fatz Café in Columbia SC, to the Fatz Café location up here in Greensboro. His boss is supposed to call and give him a good recommendation. We hope so.

He will be heading back to Columbia "temporarily" tomorrow..he plans on finishing out his work schedule. He is working Thanksgiving....maybe move up the weekend after Turkey Day.

Regardless, things are in a bit of a transition HERE again….I guess I need to move all the quilt-stuff back out of his room, cuz I think he wants it back!

And with that, I’m back to writing up the directions for clue number 1, to go live tomorrow morning, my time. Sometime. During the morning ;c)

Shore Day 2! St Thomas!

Of all the places we were seeing on this cruise, the one place I was looking forward to was St Thomas! It’s just the most beautiful place!

We were off the ship by 9am to meet with our guide out on the pier --- today’s adventure? The Water Island Bike Adventure!

We hadn’t done much research before leaving for this cruise – there just wasn’t time. So we had a couple days on board before we started reaching ports to decide what we wanted to do – and there on the St Thomas day, was the listing for the Water Island Bike tour --- however, it never said anything about Water Island being a completely separate island from St Thomas! Adventure indeed!

We left port with our guide….only FOUR participants in this group! I guess you could say we got very personalized attention! A Van took us to the ferry dock, a ferry took us out to Water Island, which is a 3 mile by 5 mile stretch of land not far from St Thomas. There are only about 200 residents at “peak” season on the island, it’s very remote --- very beautiful, and VERY MOUNTAINOUS!

Much to my alarm, we did NOT have Granny bikes with comfy cushy seats as we did in Puerto Rico the day before --- we had Cannondale Mountain bikes! With GEARS! LOTS of them!

After the ferry dropped us off, we were trucked up to the highest spot on Water Island ….here we are looking over toward St Barts --- I just love seeing the mountainsides dotted with the white buildings!

Water Island has an interesting history. During WWII It was a strategic place for defence from U Boats….there is an underground fort at the top of the mountain, and that is where we are standing to take these pictures!

The underground bunker was literally abandoned around 1950 --- and today the residents use it as a hurricane shelter. There are lots of rooms and things underground, but if you want the best spots, you have to show up early --- oh, and bring lots of food and beverages of the adult variety and any other kind, it’s a huge party down there!

When Hurricane Hugo came through in 1989, it completely wiped out a BEAUTIFUL resort on Water Island --- it’s never been replaced.

More history can be found HERE! You know I love history, and it was all so interesting to me…

A little instruction on the changing of gears, and using which brake for what..and we were off! Climb climb climb…..down hill down hill, NOT TOO FAST!! ((Oh, I’m afraid of out of control speed, I don’t like speed at ALL!)) The roads were mostly unpaved, the vegetation was very very jungle like!

We had a GREAT time, burn baby burn! We crossed muddy areas, and even saw where the remains of the resort stood….we found we were there standing on all that was left…tennis court concrete. And off we went again, winding our way down toward the beach…..

This little guy was curious as to what we were doing --- crazy tourists! From what our guide told me, this one is a male, because his cheeks are rosy red. He didn’t stay long, decided he’d had enough of us, and dove right into the water ---

There ARE a few businesses on the island, but you know how laid back island life can be? I got a huge kick out of the “Hours of operation” sign:

LOL!! I love that last line! “On some days we’re not here at all, but lately we’ve been here a lot, unless we’re not.” Works for me!

A glimpse of a US flag, and a St Thomas flag…..and the water beyond!

Would we do this again? In a heartbeat with helmet hair and sweaty dirty gritty everything!

Ahhhhh! Swim suit on, feet in the sand!

A lazy cove with aqua turquoise water, blue skies, but enough cloud-shade to keep the glare away….we swam here until it was time to meet our ferry to get back to the ship!

On the ferry back to the dock…..

Pretty enough for a calendar? I think so! This was just standing at the dock waiting for the ferry ---

That evening, as our ship left port…we sat on our balcony deck and watched the sun sinking low into the west….stopping to pause a minute on top of Water Island, where we had spent our day. The sunset was magnificent! It was definitely a moment to stop and appreciate all that we had been gifted with this fantastic trip ---

And then to pop a couple ibuprophen, drink some more water --- and realize that there is yet ANOTHER bike tour the NEXT morning! ((OY!!))

We are on our way to the Samana in the Dominican Replubic! The trifecta of terror --- a bike, hike AND kayak tour!

Afternoon Edition–Free Kindle Book!

Oh My Goodness --- there is no fighting it! As I am typing this, Harry Connick Jr is singing “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year…..” on my radio station --And I am SO not ready for this! I guess there is no stopping it though, and I thought this little freebie MIGHT..just MIGHT get me a bit closer to being in the mood for the holidays just around the corner.

Angel Be Good by Kathy Carmichael is free today from the Amazon Kindle store, and has received an average user rating of 4 out of 5 stars based on 32 customer reviews.

Category: Humor / Romance

Book Description:Romantic Comedy
Sensuality Level: Warm

Miracles still happen in modern day New York when “Scrooge” (Nathaniel Danvers) meets “Heaven Can Wait” (Daphne), who has been sent to give him one last chance at redemption. ANGEL BE GOOD captures the essence of the classic Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” and offers a touch of humor and romance. A perfect holiday feel-good read.

I like that it is listed as WARM but not over the top --- I just don’t get into that graphic stuff, please leave SOME up to my imagination. At the same time, I love a feel good story with a happy ending, because, after all, this IS fiction!

Some more from the Amazon page itself:

"ANGEL BE GOOD is another heartwarming and funny tale from romance's latest and ever-so-talented romantic comedy author. Kathy Carmichael makes you laugh and makes you cry and always leaves you satisfied."
--Trish Jensen, bestselling author of Stuck With You

"This is without a doubt one of the sweetest renditions of "A Christmas Carol" I've ever read. I thoroughly enjoyed each and every page. "
--Kathy Boswell, Managing Editor, The Best Reviews

"...ANGEL BE GOOD is a read to fill your heart with warmth, and is filled with emotional scenes that have you laughing as well as bring tears to your eyes. Don't miss the inspirational message hidden between the lines of this romantic comedy."
--Carol Carter, Reviewer, Romance Reviews Today

About the Author

Award-winning comedy author Kathy Carmichael resides on Florida's west coast, along with her Scottish husband, two not-so-wee-sons, and a bevy of cantankerous felines. Kathy's women's fiction/romantic comedy, HOT FLASH, was named as one of the Top 10 Romance Fiction titles for 2009 by the American Library Association's BOOKLIST magazine.

Check before clicking to purchase that it is still free --- things change rapidly and what was free earlier may not be later by the time you get around to it!

Enjoy!

A bike tour through San Juan!

Our first port of call, and a short one! As far as day light hours goes, that is….we pulled into port about 3pm, and we were there until 11pm, but we only had 3 hours of daylight left to cram in all we could!

Being as I had lots of beach time and boat time and snorkel time on the last cruise ((Quickly translate that into SUNBURN time, ya’ll!!)) and was not really in the mood for repeating those activities, DH and I did something REALLY fun this time ---we planned bicycle activities for THREE of our port days!

This should be easy-peasy! After all, I was just ON a bike last---- ummm---- well ---- JULY!?

All of a sudden I had the feeling I should have packed bike shorts! A little padding would have been a welcome addition, and I’m not talking about the kind of padding I’ve gained from too much travel food over the past year!

It was hot when we disembarked….only about 90 degrees! We met our group at the end of the pier, and we were walked over to where our bikes were ready and waiting for us. My first sigh of relief! GRANNY BIKES with large comfy seats….no gears, pedal backwards to brake. This is a good sign!

But the San Juan traffic is hot and heavy and hectic! Our guides were quite the dare-devils getting right in there and stopping traffic for us to cross intersections, etc! The one hard thing for me, the shutter bug that I am….it is impossible to take pictures when you are pedaling like mad to keep up. I kept seeing things that I wanted to take pics of…houses with cool tiled fronts! Oops, there it goes!! Zoooom---maybe we’ll catch that on the way back? Oh heck, just quit worrying about it and ENJOY THE RIDE!!

One of the first landmarks we did stop at was the capitol building. Beautifully constructed of marble, The capitol building was started in 1919, and inaugurated in 1929. It’s also commonly referred to as Palacio de las Leyes, or the Palace of Laws.

I took several pics of the inside….of course, phone cam pics are not the greatest in inside light..but check out the inside of the dome! And I loved the marble staircase as well :

		Capitol Building, San Juan, Puerto Rico VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

There’s even a pic of DH looking up as the guide tells us what all the different corner depictions represent ---it was just beautiful!

On our bikes again and off we went, riding single file through the city, traffic being stopped for us, just soaking up the feel of what San Juan is all about!

This was the one pic I managed to catch of DH and our guide on the bike path section ((We didn’t always have this)) telling him little bits about San Juan ---as for me..it was all I could do to pedal pedal pedal to keep up!

We stopped at a park for a water break…..thank heavens! My legs needed it! Granny bike or no, did I tell you this was a 12.5 mile tour?

Little snaps of local buildings --- we stopped at one local place for fruit smoothies. Clear out of the touristy area, into the REAL San Juan. I’m sure all the locals out enjoying the evening were thinking….crazy tourists! It’s too hot to be on a bike today! They were enjoying the shade of umbrella tables, families out enjoying the Sunday evening beauty.

A lot of businesses are not open on Sunday afternoons….but that was fine with me! How was I to shop, and how could I get anything back to the ship on that bike anyway!?

I just love colorful buildings! There is a time and a right place for it I guess. I’m not saying I’d be happy if my neighbor painted their house purple, but when I am somewhere where it is part of the culture, I just love it!

Hello, pussy gato!! This little girl was just there in the midst of all the people in the marketplace where we got our smoothie! DH says…don’t pet the animals!! I know…but she is so beautiful, I at least have to get close enough to get a picture! Look at those eyes!

We rode past more beaches as the sun quickly began to set. Our guides said we needed to really pedal fast to get back to where we started by dark time. Our guides had lights on their bikes, but ours didn’t! Oh pictures, I got so FEW of you on this day!

Getting darker still….we are waiting for the slow pokes to make it up the hill behind us..LOL

Quick, DH! Take a pic……can you see the cars with lights on over my shoulder? And believe me…the hair is so sweaty it’s a better idea to leave the helmet ON to hide it!

Our final photo shoot place! This is the statue of John the Baptist, whom San Juan is named after. He looks ANGRY doesn’t he? Pointing back over his head, out to sea? What’s the deal with this? :cD

So…our guides had us all mimic him for our silly group photo…

Don’t we look JUST LIKE the statue? LOL! What a fun fun tour! I’d recommend this one to anyone…we saw a lot of the city, we got away from all the touristy areas, and had a blast while getting some beautiful ocean views and great exercise!

One more of us all in front of the Capitol building! Awesome!

It was completely dark by the time we got our bikes back to the starting point, and we walked our way through piles of cruising tourists to get back to the ship, sweaty, tired, and exhilarated. There was another ship in port besides ours, the Carnival Victory. What a nice ship that was too! Our first thought was that we would go back to our room, take showers, get rid of the sweaty clothes and sweaty helmet hair and go back out to dinner in Old San Juan….

But we were both so tired by this point that we wimped out on finding some San Juan night life, grabbed our dinner in the Windjammer and spent a quiet evening on the ship instead.

Afterall --- the next port of call was just the next morning in St Thomas, and we had bike excursion #2 to deal with.

Yep --- at this point I was REALLY wishing for those bike shorts I’d left back home!

More Backing Fun!!

I SERIOUSLY needed to get on the ball and get some stuff done when we returned home. Deadlines were looming, so much needed instant attention….but we returned home Saturday evening, and I decided that all “ELSE” ((Aka- BIZ STUFF!)) Could wait until Monday. I was continuing my vacation through the weekend, and that was all there was too it!

Let’s face it – I had spent the past 10 days watching 50+ other people taking turns on their days with the machines on the cruise, watched them enjoying their sit n sew time in the evening….did I get to sit and sew at ALL!? Well, only by the grace of my hexies that is!

Here I am stitching in one of the lounge areas during the second group's morning make it and take it time! Yeah...still plugging along on this! Each piece added is a victory, right? Or so I keep telling myself. I did get some work done on this during the cruise, but not as much as I had hoped I would!

I worked on bindings all the way to/from Baltimore and when daylight ran out, that was IT for the hand stitching time ----

Remember me whining about the Orphan bin and what a mess it is? Of ALL the things in the world I could have chosen to do, that was the one Sunday thing that got done…I tackled the orphan bin! I sorted blocks into categories by size. I put them all in large ziplocs by size…and some stuff…I PITCHED! Yes. I did. I don’t know why I have saved some of this stuff over the years, but there comes a time when it’s not even worthy of passing on into a dog-bed stuffing.

And before you say “save it or ship it to someone who might want it”….that SHIP has already SAILED! The trash went to the curb this morning….GONE, Baby, GONE!

Somehow, putting that mess of blocks and parts in some semblance of order was just the ticket ---in just this one small area, I was in essence taking steps to put my life in order. I'm home for 6 weeks now. Traveling is done for the year, and I have 6 weeks to put it all in order, including finishing a book manuscript that I really need to be done by the end of December.

It's time to put it all my ducks in a row!!

While sorting, I knew I needed a backing for yet another quilt for the next book….and I dug. And I found…and combined….several different sets of block quarters from Boxy Star blocks that have been sent to me over the years from all 4 corners of the globe. There was enough for 8 blocks total! Enough to start me thinking of piecing them into a backing…..

I dug into stacks of squares that had been gifted over time as well….some were 10.5” left over backing squares people sent my way, some were 9.5” --- and some…8.5”?! How can we make all of these work together and get them out of here?

Piece them into panels, that’s how…let them run the length of the quilt, and join the different panels together, letting seams fall where they may, until you have a backing big enough! The only thing these fabrics have in common is the color blue. There is every kind of blue from plaids to florals to batiks and geometrics. There are old calicoes in there…remember the white hearts on williamsburg blue?! It’s in there. And it’s now GONE! Anyone have that blue plaid with watermelon slices on it? Egad! It’s gone too!

Lots of stars in all different varieties and sizes, swirls, leaves….you name it. I figure I cleared out about 7 yards of unwanted stuff in this backing. GONE! Now I can’t wait to load the quilt and get it going too….

8 stars might not be enough for a quilt TOP…and who wants to make more? It’s the perfect way to use them, down the back of a quilt, clearing out another space in the orphan bin and keeping me from having to go out and BUY 7 yards of something at full retail prices just to back a quilt that was made out of humble scraps to begin with!

All through the photography Chloe was being her pissy self and hiding out under the picnic table on the deck. Nope. Still can’t pet her….she runs away. I guess I interrupted her sunbathing in the warm sunny spot on the deck. I just don’t GET her at all…free belly rubs? And she turns her nose up at the idea and runs away! Such a huffy girl!

I'm about to load this backing on the machine...along with an undisclosed top that has been sitting around unquilted for far too many years too!

Happy Scrappy Evening, Everyone!

Rockin’ Rollin’ & Cruisin!!

The difference between sailing from Port Canaveral, Florida in August, and Balitmore, Maryland in November?? WEATHER!!

Here is a pic of Pat and myself...along with a random stranger guy in the background! :cD We were just leaving Haiti --

We had waves, baby! And swells that had us rockin’ and rollin’! Our sea legs got well conditioned rather quickly, and some of us applied the help of either the sea-sick patch, or dramamine. It didn’t matter! We were here to SEW, and sew we did!

It made for some interesting rotary cutting, but I think we are all candidates for the Extreme Quilting Games now!

((You do start to worry a bit when the crew is tying down all the potted plants and other items in the ship! LOL!))

This pic was taken at night, with a flash – so the color isn’t great, and the tilt has been added by tilting the picture, but THIS is what we felt like!

The day we left Haiti, we had to leave a couple hours early due to a storm that was coming off of Bermuda. The Captain did a great job of explaining the whys and wherefores – but it still had some of us nervous. I learned that I do NOT need dramamine..it just puts me in a 24 hour benedryl type coma/fog! I’m better to just ride it out!

What was funny was watching everyone walking around like they were drunk sailors….the ship would pitch this way..and everyone would stumble to the left down the hall…and then it would rock the other way..and pretty soon everyone is going catty corner to the right…I think our core muscles got quite the workout just keeping us UPRIGHT! Being one who doesn’t get sea-sick….it was fun! And I sleep like a baby when the ship is moving, even big babies like me love the feeling of being rocked to sleep!

Oops, I've skipped several days, so let's back up a bit!

We left Baltimore around 4pm, and at 5 pm on Deck 6 in the Spotlight lounge ((Some of us got confused and thought it was Deck 5 at 6pm, but that could be to the abundance of fruity umbrella drinks too..LOL!)) we met for our intro, and everyone was handed their booklet and schedule during the meet and greet.

We introduced ourselves to each other, mingled a bit, and found out who was going to be in GROUP A and who was in GROUP B. And then in typical woman-fashion, we did some switching around because of course we want people who traveled together to BE together.

After dinner, One group got their introductory class with a make it and take it on the machines, the other group had the night off to explore! There were GREAT shows on the ship, and DH and I took advantage of that every night.

The next morning, the second group got to start their day at sea with their make it and take it to learn the machines, and after lunch…we were off and running on the cruise project! We had two and a half days journey until we reached our first port of call, San Juan, Puerto Rico! That’s a good CHUNK of sewing time!

We had 26 machines brought on board, thanks to Sue & Scott of Citrus Sew & Vac!

Doesn’t it look like we are having a great time?!

Repeat this scenario twice, because we had Two groups of 26!

Pat Sloan’s class was up on the top level in the Crowne Lounge working on their applique project…they had Lots of light from the full window and a gorgeous view of the sea…comfy chairs for hand stitching too!

Doesn’t this look like bliss?! Would you like to see what we were working on? I know the August cruisers have been keeping this under their hats a while longer, but we are ready to show what our project was! You can all feel free to blog and share now!

This is Mai Tai’s in Paradise! It’s a scrappy mix of EVERYTHING and we had so much fun working with 3 packs of unrelated charm squares from 3 different lines that were not intended to go together. Everyone was instructed to bring fabrics and strips as well, for swapping and sharing and adding to the mix! And because of this, we had 50+ quilts that all look DIFFERENT! Some came with color plans in mind on how they wanted to work their quilt….some quilts evolved as they worked on them…and some went for broke and used EVERYTHING! It was wonderful to see the variety that was coming out of these quilters…

		November Cruise class 2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Do you see that SEVERAL tops were completed by the end of the cruise? All that remains are borders! Even on non-class days in port, the sewing room was open for Sit n Stitch EVERY evening from 8pm-10pm. You could sit at a machine, or do hand work...that is if you WEREN'T in the theater catching a great show with singing and dancing, or funny comedy acts-- You had the option to set the quilt straight, or put it on point….we LOVE options that send quilters into trying their own thing…didn’t these turn out great?!

Pat took this pic of our Captain Gus next to the quilt! ((Yeah, Pat, I had to steal it! LOL!)) Oh, save me from swooning now! I can’t resist a man in uniform, and one with an accent?! WOWEE!! I miss his “words of the day” every morning—and how he said “So for now --- Buh-Bye!” with that adorable Swedish lilt at the end of every announcement. Carry on, Captain Gus!

If you like this quilt and want to make it, never fear….It’s in the works for a future Quiltmaker magazine issue…either as my Addicted to Scraps column, or the full quilt. If they choose ONE block for the column, I’ll publish the whole thing on the blog in conjunction with that…so just hang tight a bit and we’ll get it out there for you.

As we approached warmer water, the sea took on an amazing deep blue hue…I took a moment on an afternoon walk around the top deck to just admire how our wake stretched out into the horizon…aren’t those clouds lovely?

And we still had so many days of adventure to go!

Be sure to click HERE for Pat's blog to get HER run down on things...you just might catch a glimpse of me doing the Electric Slide on the deck for the sail off party!