Good Morrow to Ye!

This weekend my friends and I went to the Florida Renaissance Festival. I have never been to one before, but have always wanted to go. We don’t have Renaissance Fairs at home because we had the real Renaissance instead! It was everything I had always hoped it would be. I was very sad that I couldn’t get a costume together in time, but I did buy a flower garland for my hair and an eye patch with an actual eye in it, so I managed to pull it off in the end. I met some fantastic people there, including my new friends Prunella and Eglantine Tawdry, the colourful sisters of Mug Bottom Village who helped me realise my Ren Fest potential! They are from the Cobblestone Characters who kept us entertained all day long!

I ate a giant turkey leg, drank ale, watched jousts and plays and even got a henna tattoo all while listening to the delightful sounds of The Lost Boys, who might be my new favourite band!

All in all, one of the best days of 2010 so far! Huzzah!!

Showing My Creative Potential...

I just found the CoolMomPicks Valentine Colouring Card Competition. They needed colouring sheets that could be used by kids for Valentines cards, the 9 best would be made into PDFs that could be bought on Etsy.com. The proceeds would go to the American Heart Association – what a great cause! I only had 24 hours to come up with my idea, but I created a card that I think is simple but affective and could be customized multiple times. I’m quite proud of it, and I might not win, but I had fun making it and putting my creativity out there. Hope you enjoy it too ;-)

So Long, Farewell...

The drawback to working on a ship is that you meet so many great people, but they don’t stay. I just went through cast change over in my show company, which means I had half of my cast (and good friends) leave and a new set come in. The new guys are great… but I miss my guys from before! As a parting gift I made a necklace for one of my girls and earrings for another.

The necklace is made from a shell from Samana, a shell from St. Kitts and a piece of coral from Aruba – our favourite place we have been to on the ship. It was my first time trying out wire wrapping and I think it turned out quite well. The earrings I made after seeing a necklace in my friend’s room and having beads that matched. I think this is the start of a great creative adventure! Now I just need to make stuff to sell ;-)

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Let’s say goodbye to the old and welcome the new.

As I look forward into 2010, I want to reflect a little on the year that has passed. It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was getting ready to join my first ship of the year, but I guess it was.

I have met new people this year and now have friends in Paraguay, Peru, Belarus and New Zealand. I partied with the Canadians on Canada day like it was my own celebration. I celebrated Independence Day for my American friends because ‘it’s not my fault nowadays’!! I visited Bermuda, Bar Harbour, Boston, Quebec, St. Kitts and New York for the first time. I returned to Miami, Costa Maya, Roatan and Belize.

I have been lucky enough to meet up with some of my very good friends this year, some who I was unsure if I would be able to see again. I have had time with my family and friends at home… some might say not enough, but nothing is ever perfect, right?!

I don’t make resolutions as they are so easily broken, but I do have plans for 2010. I want to get my business, Salvaged Mutiny, up and running. I want my designs to be seen by the world. I want to spend the first summer in three years with my family on land and I want to take my nephew to the zoo ;-)

I think that sounds like a pretty good year ahead, don’t you?!

Bowiegirl1982

Sugar Skulls Dress

When I was in Halifax, Nova Scotia, I found a book called Sublime Stitching by Jenny Hart. I had just heard of the website and loved the embroidery patterns in it, so bought it and rekindled my love of decorative stitching. I also bought her other book Embroidered Effects which has this great pattern of Mexican Day of the Dead sugar skulls in it. My friend on the ship loved it too so we decided to find her a white dress to embroider it on. While in Roatan, Honduras we found the prefect dress and I got going… in a couple of evenings I had finished and this is the final result. My friend loves it and wore it around the ship all the time! I’m really proud of this one and can’t wait to get started o my next embroidery project!

Yuletide Greetings to One and All!!

Yuletide Greetings readers!

Today is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, a day where we give each other gifts to raise each others spirits in the dark as we look forward to the coming spring!

I thought I’d give you a little update on the Yuletide festivities going on around me right now…

This is the first time I have spent the holidays on the ship; it’s also the firsttime I have spent the holidays away from my family, ever, so this is a very new experience for me. I have heard all about what happens over the holidays on the ship, but never experienced it, and it is an experience!! We are almost at full capacity of guests for the Christmas cruise, which means we have over 2800 guests, 700 of which are children. It is a little hard to see families enjoying the holidays together when we are so far away from ours, but my cast is my family right now and we are having a good time.

I am spending most of my time making and adjusting costumes for the Christmas show we are going to have on Christmas day. We are also going out to villages in Roatan and giving presents to under privileged children tomorrow.

The most fun aspect of Christmas here, however, is Secret Santa! We are giving out five small presents from the 20^th to the 24^th, then we all get together and give one big gift to our Secret Santa person on Christmas day… so far I have been given fruit Tootsies rolls, strawberry Mentos and a Starbucks frappuccino – well done Secret Santa!!

More Christmasy things to follow!!

Have a Happy Holidays!

Bowiegirl1982

Yule Is Coming!!

I don’t think I’ve mentioned before, but I’m Pagan. So I don’t celebrate Christmas, I celebrate Yule. I do participate in the season with family and friends though, and event though every year I try to convince my Mum that she should

give me my presents on the 21^st December (which is when Yule falls), she doesn’t let me!

As it is said, Santa Claus is Pagan too! So here is my first Yule craft – stockings! I made one for me and one for my friend for on the ship. Now I just have to find stuff to go in them!

On a side note, I am thinking about moving this blog to my own website, when I can get it up and running... so if you read this, keep an eye out for the moved notice...

Bowiegirl1982