A Family Affair

This year for Christmas I have been making people presents. My first completed project is a sampler for my best friend’s family. I have incorporated symbols and colours that remind me of them. They are from Texas and Mexican; I have used the Lone Star, red, white and blue for America and the State of Texas. I added a Mexican Day Of The Dead skull to represent their heritage and a Cross to show their faith which is very important to them. In the centre I have put a heart to symbolise their love for one another and for me – they have always made me feel very welcome.

I’m really proud of this piece, I really like the way it finally came out. I can’t wait to find out what they think of it!

Repositioning

For the Summer and Winter seasons, cruise ships change the areas that they visit. This is known as repositioning and is often a long cruise of between 12-21 days visiting ports that you may never get to see again. Crew call this time ‘repo’ for short. We are currently on repo from New York to Miami to start our winter Caribbean run. On the way I realised what my niche is for ‘Lost & Found’

I have been collecting shells, pebbles, coral and beads from all the ports we have visited. This is my niche. I will make jewellery and clothing out of the things I pick up while I travel!

I currently have bags of shells, coral and such from Samana, St. Kitts, Aruba and Roatan. During our Caribbean run we will be going to Roatan, Belize and Costa Maya… I think I should be able to pick up some interesting things there. Keep and eye out for my creations!

Halloween!!

Yes, Halloween has been and gone, with only the left over decorations and a costume in the corner remaining.

I love Halloween! I particularly love Halloween on ships. There is always at least one big party, often two. My first year on ships there were two parties – the crew party and the passenger party. For the crew party you can basically go as whatever you want – as slutty, messy, pornographic, usual craziness you like…. However, for the passenger party you have to be a bit more sedate ;-) As with always when you work on a ship, you are on display when in passenger areas, which means you represent the cruise line, and in my case my production company as well. So, you have to be a bit careful about what outfit you choose. My first year I was a vampire for the crew party and then Ginger Spice with a bunch of my dancers as the other Spice Girls for the passenger party. The second year my ship was in dry dock being mended so we had no passengers… cue huge crew party on the pool deck! That year I went as slutty Dorothy, mainly for my boyfriend at the time who had a thing for the Wizard of Oz and pig tails!

This year I got to dress up twice again. For the crew party I was going to go as Jem from Jem and the Holograms, that great 80’s cartoon. I have the whole costume made…. Then I got with my friends on the ship and we decided to go as the witches from Hocus Pocus! I made my costume on the fly out of vintage dresses and I think it came out pretty well! We had a great time taking photos with everyone and posing, as all good performers do! For the passenger party we went sexy, but covered! I bought a black and purple pirate wench outfit from Ricky’s in New York and made bloomers to go under it to cover me up more. It worked out pretty well, and I love having extra costumes around!

What do you think of my Halloween creation? Leave me comment to let me know!

Bowiegirl1982