Sailing day Southhampton England

FYI:  The vacation posts will have a lot of photos so I am going to make them smaller in the posts.  You can make them larger by clicking on them and just scrolling though the photos themselves.  Or individually.  Some of them are very well worth making larger!

The plan was to take a flight from Baton Rouge to Houston, then we had first class tickets from Houston to London directly.  But the Baton Rouge flight took off almost an hour late and we missed the connection in Houston by 5 minutes.

We always build a day into our travel in case of disasters and we needed nearly every second of this one.


We were put on the 4:30 pm direct Houston/Heathrow flight (didn't make it on), then on the 8:30 pm direct Houston/Heathrow flight (got cancelled), then on an 11:30 pm flight to Washington DC Dulles  to sleep overnight in the terminal waiting for the 7 am London flight the next day.

We had no idea we would be on the Washington Dulles flight, we wondered if our luggage knew it would need to be on that flight as well.  We wondered if we would ever see it again because we knew we would be in no place to be able to receive the luggage.

 Finally we made it to London after a 12 hour flight, Frank in the back of the plane sitting next to a very young woman with a 6 month old baby, both of whom cried the  entire light.  And me in the middle section of the plane watching 3 movies trying not to wake the people on either side of me.  Obviously not first class.

We had planned on touring around London a bit but that didn't happen!  Alas, Big Ben.

On Friday, as we rode the bus to the pier we passed at least 3 Ikeas!  The Costco stores I saw Norway and Iceland had 3 stories! Wow!

We were sailing on the Norwegian Jade, a ship we had been on several times before in various locations in Alaska and the Caribbean. 

As we left the Southhampton pier, we were reminded of another famous ship that had also sailed from that great city so many years ago, heading on nearly the same path as we were taking toward Iceland.....the Titanic.  Luckily the passengers on the Jade had a happier cruise.



 It was a clear day when we left port. If I owned a sailboat like this, I would greet the passengers on cruise ships too!  What a lovely way to spend a weekend outing.

As we were sipping our tea and eating crumpets on Deck 12, I don't think I had found those amazing brownies yet, when I realized a thick fog was rolling in.



We watched the cloud come over the ship as the foghorn sounded.  We went from clear day to heavy cloud overhead.  I have never seen a fog like this. 

As the Jade went deeper into the the fog you could see the layers from the ocean looking up to the clearer atmosphere.

I have a number of sunset photos if anyone is into that, let me know, I can share with you.  I play with screwing up the camera settings and taking a bunch of them. 

As we walked down Deck 7 Promenade it was unbelievable to see the fog thick enough to obscure the ship a quarter of the way down the deck.

We sailed like this throughout the night. This was not the only time we would run into this incredible fog on this  trip.

Next stop, Bergen Norway.

52 Photos - Week 46 - Gold

Bella has dragged me kicking and screaming and complaining loudly into the 25th Century by forcing me to learn instagram.  I think I have it now, although i am not sure how I can see the photos of the others who post to the #52Photosproject.  I have not worked out all the bits and pieces of Instagram yet.

If you want to follow me on instagram, for what it is at the moment, find me at #quiltswissy .

Is that right?  I put the hashtag in there?  If now, just do quiltswissy.  Aughh

Gold -----

This Week 46 in 52 Photos Bella  gave us the prompt of Gold.  She thought of St. Patrick's Day and the reward at the end of that lucky rainbow. 

It is still early in the day for a lot of postings on the site, but i see some fall trees golden with leaves and gold wrapped Easter Chocolates.

You know  my DiNozzo, he is one one of the rescued bassets I have.  I tell him he is the golden color of a palomino pony that is highly prized among breeders.  

This photo was taken on one of the first trips we took him on.  It was to see the bonfire structures along the Mississippi River that are lit to guide Papa Noel to the children on Christmas Eve.

He was so carsick.  You can see how he is just hoping to make it home without dying!  I guess he was thinking, look at these people, they saved me and love on me and take me on torture rides!

He is better now, but we still watch for signs of drooling and we don't take him on long rides anymore.

The golden sky in this photo was taken from the Carnival Triumph on our way down the Mississippi River in 2010.  We were going to the islands in the Caribbean with Carrie and Andrew.  It takes about 8 hours to run down the river from New Orleans to the Gulf.  And there are so many interesting things to see all along the way.

Ohhhhh!  Here is thick, rich, golden cheese....covering chili....covering french fries.



Need I say more?

Birthday Fabulous-ness

looking thru the window

I-55 bridges

I did have a great day.  Got calls and emails from friends wishing me Happy B-day, had lunch of Chili Cheese Fries at Brewbachers, saw my two pieces in the Swamp show, got a fabric present from Carrie, AND had dinner at Middendorf's!

Here are photos.  I took some incredible photos of the sunset over Lake Maurepas at Lake Manchac. Pronounced Mau-re-pah and Man-shack for the non-Cajun among you.

Look at the contrails.

Possibly two of the best photos of my life.  I will share them later.  I want to do some prints on fabric, but wait till you see the colors!  Ohmy!

AND  I wore my lace up Ralph Laurens.  (I sound like a fashionista now, don't I!!!)

Maurepas Swamp

But I have to tell you a funny story about Carrie's gift.  (She groaned and said, I'll probably be on the blog now!)  Of course!

 She got here about 4 PM since it is an hour to Middendorf's for dinner.  And she had a huge bag and an empty glass in her hands.  She said, open your present QUICKLY! and shoved it toward me.

I took it, puzzled, not sure why it had to be QUICKLY, and took out some Ecology Cloth and two sets of fat quarters in delicious fabrics.  And they were all wet.

She had gone to the quilt shop.  Bought me some presents.  Got in her car.  Fluffed up the tissue paper and dumped her entire glass of water into the bag!

I literally poured water out of the bottom of the bag.

She said she chose the fabrics for their nature patterns because they would make great parts of maps!  I love that she did that!  I am so happy!

And her card said, We love you!  She has her moments!   

She also got a set of FQs for a baby quilt for another friend.  Lovely greens!  They aren't sure of the sex just yet and Carrie fell in love with the colors.  I did too!

Like I said, an amazing day!

Sunset At Carrie's New House

We went to see the progress Thursday afternoon, late.  And this is what we saw.  Beautiful, just beautiful.  This s from her front yard, the house looks out over the pond there.

The house?  Oh, nope, no pictures!  LOL

Stash Reduction 12-8-12

Forward Progress Slowed.......that should be the title.

used this week	-0.25
used in Dec	-0.25
added this week	3
Add in Dec	3
Used YTD	-220
Added YTD	205
Stash Reduction	-15

I used 1/4 yard to bind a tablerunner.  But I ordered 3 yards of fabric.  One is a great black huge print of sailboats, the other is one of the Madonnas.

The sailboats are huge on the fabric.  I copied it into my computer from the website, then I put it into the kaleidoscope maker and fell in love.


And of course the Madonnas are perfect for the season, even for me!  LOL.  I really liked what I saw Victoria over at Bumble Beans do with her when we were in that group together last year.  And the Madonna was on sale even!  So much for atheist view!

And another is a special yard for a special friend for Christmas.  I will mail it off this week with instructions NOT to open until Dec 24.

That ought to make her crazy!

And it will be out of my stash as fast as it came in.  You know the only reason I ordered the two yards I am keeping is because of her.  If I wouldn't have HAD to order this fabric for her, I would NOT have ordered the other stuff for me.

You know.......

So McGee had his 3rd and final heartworm treatment this week.  Thank whatever Dog Gods watch over him because he needs to be roadworked!

He is barely surviving each day....because of his inability to be calm and good and not get into to trouble.

And we have three more weeks of inactivity to get through.........and if he survives me not killing him and him eating fabric for those three weeks, he will be rewarded with a mile twice a day for a week then two miles after that each walk.  Maybe that will wear off his energy......

And this was the sky last night as we rode to meet at Isabella's for dinner.  See the heavy bank of storm clouds in the two on the left.  All came from the same night, but about 1/2 hour apart.  We never got the rains, but we did have a change in weather this morning to such humidity.  It will get cold cold tomorrow.  Well, at least cold for here!  LOL





I have not seen my stalker for a while, I wonder if she is laying low.

Working Friday

Thanks to all who shared my grief at the demise of my beloved iron.  It was such a good iron.  I am hoping the one I ordered will be as good.  We shall see.  I have heard several bad reports about the Oliso Irons.  The quilt shop has stopped carrying them and sent the rest of their product back to the distributor.  They had major problems with them.  So sad, it was such a good idea!

Today was a frustrating day, between saving McGee's life repeatedly and trying to do some work with the longarm, I gave up on both and finally told McGee if he has such a death wish, he might as well get it over with.  He broke into my sewing room and distributed the contents of my trash can throughout the living room.  For which I put him outside.  He undid the tie out and got into the bird seed.  For which I put him inside.  He then broke into Frank's office and at the corners off the Land's End box that was delivered this morning.  For which I put him outside.  This went on three more times.

I am currently not speaking to him and considered not feeding him due to all the bird seed and fabric he probably ate.

The long arm is a pain in the patooty today again.  I gave up when I finally got the tension set correctly, I think, because of the number of times I had to leave to save McGee's life.

Then I decided to work on the Saints quilt, and now have all but two squares quilted.  I can get those done tonight after dinner with friends.  I think I will have some stiff beers!

And a few minutes ago, I was greeted with this marvelous scene.  Have you ever seen a more beautiful end to a day? Is that color magenta?  Whatever it is, it is beautiful!

glen

Tuesday

The day is incredibly beautiful!  Cold and clear, something that makes me so happy I live in Louisiana   No snow but just the right amount of cold.  I have been wanting to take some sunset pictures for you, maybe today will be the day I actually remember that at sunset.

If I sew with Ann I will cut out several of the purses and make them for Christmas presents.

If I don't sew with Ann I will load a quilt on the frame and use one of my new and exciting Pantos from Urban Elementz.  (No they didn't give me a discount for saying their name a thousand times!)

I could do either.

This is my Junk Yard quilt and the Roses was raffled off to a lucky employee at my mom's nursing home last year.

McGee is at the vet with his second heartworm tx.  It is so quiet here.  I have not yelled at a dog once and usually by now he is frantic about something.  It will be so much nicer when I can walk the energy out of that pup, but that is not till the first of the year............

He is a trooper though.

tomorrow will be a very busy day.  Dog appointments, lunch with a friend  CAAWS meeting.  And some time this month, Big Buddy is raffling a dog house off to benefit CAAWS so I will provide some details as I get it.

glen