Adventures in Paradise

My Little Princess

Continuing with Project Run and Play, though this week was more of a challenge than the last one at sea. The Puppy and the Nanny were sick, so lots of misery. And working 10 hours a day with another hour of commute time isn't super conducive to sewing either. 

This week's theme is "Crafting a Story" and asked the designers to design something inspired by a favorite story. Well, Puppy loves her books, and I probably could have picked something based on that, but I kept going back to one of my favorite childhood authors, Frances Hodgson Burnett, and A Little Princess in particular. I always identified with Sarah Crewe...despite all of the portrayals in the movies (Shirley Temple in one and someone else in a more recent rebelling), she was described as having brown skin and black hair. She lived inside her head and tried to always be a good person.

I pulled the book out and re-read it, only to discover almost no descriptions of clothing and I realized that I wasn't really fond of the drop waisted styles of girl's clothing of that era (written in the early 1900s). I decided on a modern little Princess' look and drafted a pattern for a dress that Princess Charlotte would wear...delicate floral lawn lined in voile, with pink piping, puffed sleeves, and a full skirt. I got as far as drafting the pattern when we returned to port and real life (see above: sick household). I found a pretty pink blouse on clearance at the exchange when I went to pay our rent and it struck me as suiting the color description of the dancing dress Sarah Crewe wore when she struck up her friendship with Becky the Scullery Maid: "Today a frock the color of a rose had been put on her...in which she had been skimming and flying about the room, like a large rose colored butterfly." I bought it in an extra large size and envisioned a little slip dress with flounces and something to match for her very first doll, as Sarah might have had for her beloved doll Emily.

I worked from pictures of bias cut slip dresses and did some draping and came up with a pretty little dress. It's trimmed with some vintage lace that I bought on Portobello Road last summer, and it adds just a touch of trim to such a simple dress. The flounced sleeves are gathered to create lots of volume from the top, and trail down her back like butterfly wings.  Nanny liked it, so I know I'm not completely out of my mind. She liked the doll dress, too. Sadly, the important one HATES it. This was about the best I could get...I never even managed to get the tights on or the shoes that her previous Nanny had given her, that somehow exactly match the color and style of the dress (they're from a Disney Princess line, so I guess it's not all that surprising.)

Not only does she hate her dress, but she demanded I remove the dress from the doll, too.

Ultimately, my own Little Princess more resembled Lottie, "When she wanted anything or did not want anything she wept and howled", than Sarah. But it's still inspired by the book, so it's a win, right? (Ha, NO. But I'm still linking it because I did the work and toddlers will be toddlers.) 

Lest you think this response is mostly because she's got a cold, this is her moments after I removed the offending garments.

The fabric is a new addition to the house from Cali Fabrics and was meant for me. She claimed it out of the box yesterday evening, took it to bed with her, and has been hauling it around all day. I guess we'll be sharing.

A Kitten's First Christmas

My first thought about Christmas with a five month old kitten (and living on the third and fourth floors of a walk-up row house), was to go easy and kitten-proof. I took a Friday evening , some internet inspiration and a bunch of fabric, both scrap and yardage and came up with this:

The bird shapes are leftover from bird ornaments I made years ago and the long shapes are leftovers from cutting the birds out of fat quarters. The circles are just that. The tree is lime gree Kona cotton that I bought with a quilt in mind (one that hasn't materialized) and the trunk is a fat quarter of Kons folded up to suit the tree. It's all just stuck onto the quilt batting that I use as a design wall/display space (since I haven't sewn a stitch since I got to DC). Harvest enjoyed helping me put the tree togther, but when I posted the picture to FB, I was gently chastised for not giving him the full Christmas tree experience.

I thought about that for a while, and the likihood that I will ever adopt another kitten...and changed my mind. (Also, they were inexpensive on the Army base I was visiting.)

I put it up and put lights on in the day I brought the tree home (Balsa, very light and easy to haul up the stairs...and the young man at the lot got a big tip for vectoring me this way after hearing that I had four flights of stairs!) I had a paper to write the next day, so didn't do anything else, which was just as well since it took the boy some time to figure out just what I'd brought home.

Over the course of Thursday and Friday, I've slowly added decorations to the tree. I started with some pretty red vintage-y baubles I'd bought years ago, clear plastic balls that I stuffed with gree tissue paper and gold plastic balls, all of which I bought on sale at Michael's Wednesday night. Then I found a template for paper flower balls and started making them. I started with card stock, which made nice, sturdy balls. Then I realized that plain old printer paper balls would fit over the colored lights and make for pretty decorations, so I made a bunch of them. Rather more than actually appear in this picture...

Thankfully, they're pretty easy to make and put back together after the little guy has plucked them off the tree and had his way with them. By now (Sunday afternoon), the lower branches of the tree are bare of ornaments and he's taken to jumping up and trying the get the higher hanging ornaments. (Don't worry about the base - it's made for a bigger tree and is very stable.) This pic is pretty blurry, but he's only five months old. Most of my "playing with ornaments" pictures look like this...

I did get him in a pause yesterday...

The red ornaments are glass, but are very heavy duty - solid rather than hollow. I will leave you with one of my favorite pictures from the other day...Harvest trying to make a choice.

I have to say, I'm thrilled with my decision to give my boy a tree for Christmas!

Sunset

I generally think sunsets are pretty but make for uninteresting photographs unless there are clouds, mountains, people or something else to add contrast and scale. Looking out to sunsets at sea in San Diego, which is generally cloudless doesn't really give you much to look at, unless you're in the middle of an anchoring exercise during sunset.

My Stars

So, one of the things that's been hard to get used to (and hopefully I won't have to get used to) is that after all the media stuff on me during and immediately after the deployment, people started asking the Navy to send me to their gatherings as a guest speaker. I just fulfilled what I think is my final commitment last week. I spoke at a reunion for a ship that had been commissioned in 1943 and saw service in three wars: WWII, Korea and Vietnam. There were only two gentlemen left who'd served on the ship in the 1940's, but the 50's and 60's were well represented.

I got to speak about my favorite thing - my sailors - and then answered some questions. The gentleman who organized the event told me that he thought the old guys were testing my knowledge, and I think they came away with a little bit of respect. Their wives loved me. I don't think they told anyone outside their organization committee that the ship CO who was going to be addressing them was a woman because the buzz that started when I walked into the room before dinner was impressive.

One of the wives gave me a thank you gift that was just stunning.

The lights on the ship do awful things to the white on the quilt - but seriously...

A pretty eagle panel...and the gold stars are appliqued.

And the star blocks throughout are highlighted with hand quilting.

Isn't it lovely? Most of my quilts are less traditional in design, but I can totally respect the work she put into this because it's harder than the simple lines I'm used to sewing. This one will stay on the ship with me.

Thanks Mom

Some of you may have heard that San Diego and the surrounding area experienced a little bit of a power outage last week. I was in a meeting when the power wound down but because we were in the middle of a heat wave, we knew that power outages were possible. I was surprised to find things a little different this time - it took me 30 minutes to drive the 2 miles from the base to the ship, and that was on the highway (which I only take because it minimizes stoplights and school zones.) I decided to keep my fridge and freezer closed and headed to the local store to see if they had any stock they wanted to get rid of, but I never quite made it. I stopped to chat with the neighbors three doors down, who are the local neighborhood social club even on normal days. We started chatting and then they offered me a beer and  not only am I a Sailor but my mom tought me to be polite, so I said "Yes, please" and sat down for a bit. I stopped at one because I had a funny feeling, and sure enough, about two hours later I started getting texts from the ship that were coming in random order, so I headed in. There was the oddest sight on my way...

No power = no trolley. This was just sitting on the street, thankfully not blocking any interesctions. All the riders had been evacuated well before I drove past. On the dark, deserted street, it gave the road an eerie feeling. The ship stuff was well in hand when I arrived, so we discussed the possibilities given the uncertianty of getting power back that night or the next day, so I cancelled work - schools were already cancelled, so it was the best thing for my guys.

We did get power back - at my house around 11:30 that night and to the shipyard (2 miles to the southwest) ar around 2:45 the next morning. I went in but given the continuing instability of the power grid, I elected to keep the sensitive electronics secured. That included computers...which meant there wasn't much to be done, so I went to a couple of meetings and then headed home to do the paper-based work I had left at home. And, I did a little finishing...

Yup, that's actual quilting you see there, on mom's "Thanks For Taking Care of my Dog-Hating Cat for Eight Months" quilt.

And there's binding...

I sewed the binding down normally, but I really wanted a little punch of color on the binding, so I did some fancy machine stitching as well. (That's about as fancy a stitch as my trusty machine gets, but it's exactly fancy enough for me.)  You can see that I did a single line of stitching on the narrow black pieces and a double line on each side of the wider "wave" pieces.

Here is the finished quilt in the natural light of my living room on Saturday afternoon (after I'd fixed a couple of bobbles that reminded me I shouldn't be sewing at midnight), so the colors are pretty true here.

 

North to Alaska

I've been singing that one line to that old song for something like three weeks. Also, I've been singing it wrong my entire life. I always thought the line was "Go north to Alaska, go north, the west is won" because the Gold Rush in Alaska followed the ones out west and because so many westerners continued north, like Wyatt Earp. Anyway, the lyric is actually "...the rush is on."  No reference at all to the winning of the American West.  Not that there is any point to this other than that my ear worms tend to be very specific to the circumstances, I don't know any other songs about Alaska and I can't get the darn thing out of my head.

This, on the other hand, is the pointy end of my ship headed into Kachemak Bay. This is June, but my guys were dressed for December.

It was pretty apparent walking and driving around town which were my Sailors and which people were locals - my guys were not the ones in shorts and flip flops! It wasn't so bad when the sun was out, or at least when the sun wasn't obscured by the clouds.

I have lots to say about Alaska...the views, the people I met and played with, the food I ate, the animals I saw (Clint's comment in the last blog post will give you an idea, but one incident involves a charging bear) and lots of other stuff.  So, as usual, I will cut it up into small bits and then add a BIG folder of photos to the sidebar.  And yes, I am indeed a poster child for the old "Join the Navy, See the World" slogan - and I love every second!

I is for Incredible

Once again I'm behind in Lorri's alphabet along and my post-deployment lethargy has also sort of extended to my photography. Except the for the week I was up on the ranch in Oregon. Then there was lots to photograph, particularly given the impact thisplace had on my childhood. Then there was also this Incredible sunset...

No need to ever wonder again where the phrase "purple mountains majesty" came from. And that's the view looking east, not west at the sunset itself!

That's the view from the front of my Aunt's house - and all that land was evened put by my grandfather, his brother and their father. It belongs to someone else now, but in the summers of my childhood, we roamed at will. 

Near Miss

Mom and I spent the last three days (not including two days of travel time) at the ranch where she was raised. I have lots of amazing pictures that I will share, even though I still haven't shared all of the pictures from the last week of the deployment or homecoming. But the main thing is that I did NOT bring this dog home.

Mom, however, did bring her home. She needed a new home and after a few days with her, we both knew that she needed one of us - at just about a year old she has lived in several homes and in one of them she was hit and thus is very skittish around men. She's an amazing sweetie and my cousin's wife and youngest daughter really, really wanted her to go to a good home. (Here's where the small town thing comes in - we got the dog because she was living with my cousin's youngest daughter's boyfriend's brother and they just couldn't take good care of her with the arrival of a new baby and a dog that is fearful of men.) 

Mom is going to try her as a search dog, but if she doesn't work out, she'll come live with me and being my running buddy. She's a low enough drive Border Collie that she should do fine with me, but don't think I'm not aware of how much work she would be, and Stormy wouldn't be very happy either. A small part of me really does want her to come live with me.

The larger part of me says "Look, she already likes bones!" and hopes she'll work out for mom. Either way, say hello to Piper, the newest canine addition to the family.

H is For Hawaii

H is for Hawaii...I think that only makes sense, since that's where I am in my story. Of course, I'm a day and a half away from San Diego, and a week behind in posting events, but it's been that way for the entire trip.  This is from a trip we took to the Waimea Valley.

Hula Dancers just say Hawaii, don't they? I know women are the typical pic, but I do love to watch men dance.

And sunset at the luau...

Can you see why I'm still homesick for Hawaii?

Lovely

I had to pick up a friend at the airport, but thanks to an amazing set of appetizers at Nobu Waikiki that included half a bottle of sake and an even more amazing dinner at a local sushi joint that also included half a bottle of sake, I opted to take a cab to the airport. I arrived in enough time to grab a lei for him, and since his flight was delayed, I asked some of the ladies if they'd mind if I took pictures. It was late in the evening, but one lady in particular loved that I was taking pictures, and brought me back to show me some of her more special leis.

I really enjoyed playing with the colors as they lined up against each other.

The colors of this one lei alone deserved their own photograph though.