The Ever Changing Sewing Room...

I have a very hard time making decisions on things.  Not really important things, but things like home decor and my bridesmaids dresses (which took a good 6 months for me to decide on).  I constantly change my mind and second guess my judgement.  However, once I really decide on something and think it through, I am extremely happy with my choices and don't have a second thought.  Many of you will remember a couple months back that I told y'all I was using my favorite new(ish) movie as my inspiration for my sewing room, Marie Antionette by Sofia Coppola.  I was envisioning striped dupioni silk drapes, blue walls, and gold accents.  I do still think this would beautiful, but a few reasons have made me rethink this. 

1. I am not planning to buy a new desk, and the old one I have is oak veneer (yuck) and I was planning to make a tablecloth/skirt thing to cover it.  While the oppulent fabrics like silk and taffeta are gorgeous for windows, I feel like this would not breath very well when I am sitting at the desk for hours sewing.  I would probably get very hot and wouldn't like this in the long run. 
2. The space might be overwhelmed with this oppulent look.  I think I want the space to look a bit more relaxed.
3. My bedroom at my mom's house was very shabby chic and floral.  I still have a lot of those decor pieces and want to be able to utilize them. 

So with these changes I am still using Marie Antionette as my inspiration, but instead of her suite at Versailles, I am using the Petit Trianon and the Hameau de la reine as the vision.  It is just more me and more liveable. 

Source: images.google.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

The colors and  look of this part of the movie will be my inspiration for the space. 

Source: whisperedwhimsyvintage.blogspot.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: tumblr.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

The flowy fabrics, flowers, and colors are what I want to envoke in the room when it is done.

I am using my normal style of French Country and Shabby Chic.  I plan to paint the walls blue.  I purchased a bookshelf off Craigslist the other day and am in the process of fixing it up (another post coming soon).  It will be painted creamy white and distressed.  I have fabric on the way to make a chair cover for my oak desk chair, and to make a new ironing board cover and a dog bed for my sweet puppy.  He likes to sit with me while I sew and feel so sad for him when I have to keep making him move off the fabric. 

Source: tarafrey.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: sisboom.com via Cammie on Pinterest

Source: theoldpaintedcottage.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

I am also planning to buy some white linen for the drapes and tablecloth, and I want to incorporate some glass knobs into a shelf and pull-backs for the drapes. 

Source: urbanoutfitters.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

I also will buy some new accent pieces and eventually want a chair for when Thomas or Ashton hang out in there with me. 

Source: madebylova.wordpress.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

I would love a three tiered basket for storing my ribbon

Source: flickr.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

I plan to make myself some fun little items for sewing eventually, like a ham, seam roll, and pin cushion.

It will be a work in progress for the time being, but I will keep you posted throughout.  I am so excited!!!

Honeymoon Part 5 - Day 7 and Going Home

The last day of our honeymoon was spent relaxing by the pool.  We woke up and ate a leisurely breakfast, then headed out to the pool.  Of course, it was packed since everyone was confined to the boat, but we lucked out and got a couple chairs and parked ourselves there for a while.  I enjoyed laying out and reading, and Thomas enjoyed napping and getting in the pool.  We decided to go back to the room early to pack up and get ready for dinner.  We decided that way we could go out to the pool in the evening when everyone was packing and we would have it all to ourselves.  This plan worked and we got to enjoy the hot tub to ourselves one last night. 

Also, I haven't mentioned our wonderful dinnermates that we had throughout the week.  They were the sweetest people and they were also on their honeymoon.  They were in school to be ministers and they were just a joy to eat dinner with every night.  We also had a great head waiter and assistant waiter.  The head waiter was very attentive to my allergies (to chocolate) and would make sure I had a special dessert to eat every night.  Throughout the week, our waiters danced and I might have gotten up and joined a conga line with them at some point too.  :) 

The next morning, we got up and sat on the Lido deck for a good 2 hours waiting to get off the boat.  We were able to eat the breakfast buffet one last time, and just enjoyed doing nothing for a little bit.  However, we were ready to get on the road since we had to drive about 5 hours home that day and go to work the next day.  The trip home was uneventful and as every newlywed does when they get home, we stopped by our in-laws to open our wedding presents.  That was a lot of fun.  We were staying with my mom when we first got home due to our house not being done yet, so we were able to visit and tell both of our parents about our trip and enjoy seeing them after our time away.  Our honeymoon was better than I ever expected, and will be a fond memory for the rest of our lives.  Thanks for reading the many posts on this and humoring me in reliving it! :) 

Honeymoon Part 4 - Days 5 and 6

Day 5 wasn't much to report.  We were Isla Roatan, which was beautiful!!!!  We didn't get off the boat though as it was raining and we were sunburned and tired.  We soaked in the hot tub when it was sprinkling and ate loads of yummy food and mostly just relaxed.  It was nice and just what we needed.  However, we did take some pictures of the scenery from the boat.  I would really like to go back to Isla Roatan and do an excursion of some sort one day.

Day 6 was beyond fun!  It was our absolute favorite day. We were in Grand Cayman, and once again were tendered.  We had to be ready for our excursion at like 10:30, so we woke up and ate a leisurely breakfast and got ready for the day.  We were worried because it was sprinkling when we got on the ferry boat and we saw a few bolts of lightning.  We had booked an excursion for swimming with the stingrays and visiting the turtle farm, so we were scared this might ruin it.  However, once we got on the island and met up with our group, the sky cleared up a good bit and we were on our way.  We were taken by bus to the other side of the island to get on our boat to go to Stingray City.  We were expecting this to be a place where there were stingrays in tanks or something, but we were wrong.  They drove us about 30-45 minutes into the middle of the ocean where there was a sandbar that had naturally built up.  The stingrays naturally congregated there, and I am sure they were used to getting fed as well...so that probably helped too.  They briefed us on what to do in the water to keep the stingray from feeling threatened and then we got in the water.  I was a little scared, but Thomas kept telling me that it was fine and that stingrays won't hurt you if you don't attack them and that they wouldn't bring tourists here if it was dangerous.  When I got in the water, I realized that he was right, but Thomas was now freaked out!  We would stand there and the stingrays would come right up to you.  I loved it!  Thomas liked it best when they kept a little distance from him.  Luckily, the company had a man that would take photos in the water, so we were able to buy the CD from him and have these photos forever.  I really enjoyed the stingrays and Thomas and I both thought that it was so cool!  We had snorkels as well, so we could put our faces in the water and watch the stingrays and the fish that would swim by.  The water was so clear, and it was just beautiful!!!  The best part was when I got to feed the stingrays.  You would put squid in your hand and then the stingrays would swim over your hand and suck it up.  Thomas did not want to feed them, so I got to feed them 3 times.  BUT, on the last time, 2 or 3 stingrays all came towards me at once and I guess I dropped the squid or one of them ate it, but this one was all about getting something to eat and BIT my finger!  I was worried it would have poison or something, but the tour guide said they don't even have teeth, just really hard gums and that it was fine.  So, I decided that my story when I got home would be that I got attacked by a stingray and that was why my leg was so messed up and everything.  haha!  (I didn't really tell anyone that)

 Stingrays!!!

 Beautiful clear water at the sandbar!

 I was scared to get in there!

 They were right next to you!

 wave knocked us over when we were holding one

 Holding the massive stingray!

 Kiss a stingray on the front part for 7 years of good luck!  I kissed him 3 times ;)

 They felt like wet velvet...very cool!

After Stingray City, we got back on the bus and went to the Turtle Farm.  There were green sea turtles like the ones on Finding Nemo that were bred here to help remove them from the endangered species list, as well as use them in the native dish of Turtle Soup.  UMMM, does that make sense to anyone?  We were able to look at the different pools and ages of the turtles and learn a little about them.  The best part was getting to hold the little 6 month old baby turtles.  I LOOOOOVED them!  They were so cute and I really wanted to take one home with me.  Afterwards, we had access to their amenities such as the snorkel pond that had turtles, fish, etc.  The shark tank that you could look at, the bird sanctuary, and the swimming pool with waterfall.  We decided to go snorkel, but it wasn't very good.  It looked like a pool with algae all in it and a couple fish and maybe one turtle.  We enjoyed it though and then decided to go look at the turtles some more.  I got to hold some more tiny turtles and then we looked around the giftshop.  The excursion took all day and we didn't bring any money for drinks or food since we thought it was only a couple hours, so we were so hungry and thirsty when we got back to the ship!  We got ready for dinner, and then after dinner we went to the casino and Adults only deck again.  It was a fun day!

 The turtles were "hugging" each other.  It was so sweet!

 I loved these turtles!

 You had to rub their little necks to calm them down or else they would flap like they were swimming away from you. 

Up next: Part 5...the end of our trip, day 7 :(

Honeymoon Part 3 - Day 4

On Day 4 of our honeymoon, we visited Belize. We had heard from our friends that actual island of Belize was not very nice, so we went ahead and booked an excursion since sightseeing wouldn't be very good here.  We ended booking a snorkeling excursion with a private island visit.  Our excursion was scheduled for around 1:00 so we slept late, ate a leisurely breakfast, I read some of my book for a while, and we ate lunch before we really started our day.  I will also add that we put on sunscreen before we at lunch at like 11:30...and I will say that we had interesting tan lines for the rest of the trip (even now, haha) from those life vests you wear when snorkeling.  The boat was tendered (out in the water where a boat has to ferry you in rather than at a dock), so we expected the ferry boat would take us to Belize and then there would be a boat that took us from there.  We met on the boat with our group and went to get on the ferry and we were very surprised to see our catamaran was already waiting for us at the ship.  We never did make it over to the island of Belize because of this, however it sounds like we were not missing anything as we were told is was a sad place and very very dirty.  Our dinner-mates told us there were t-shirts and takeout boxes floating in the water and another couple told us a taxi driver ripped them off by paying $40 for a quick ride to a "beach" that was a hole in the ground with mud for the floor that was not on the coast...apparently that is the only beach Belize has and it cost them $20 each to enter.  I will always book an excursion if I go to Belize on another cruise.  So, we took off on our catamaran and had a great time!  The barrier reef was about 30 minutes away and we really enjoyed the island scenery.  It was gorgeous!  Also, there was a lab swimming in the ocean!  Everyone was really concerned, but apparently he swims there every day! haha!  We also met some really nice people from Atlanta that were so fun!  The lady made wedding cakes and we enjoyed talking about my wedding.  When we got there, Thomas and tried to take a few pictures of us in our gear!

 Ferry boats coming to get people

 Waiting to board the boat

 Waiting to get off the boat to snorkel!!!

The snorkeling was really fun.  Once we got the hang of the flippers and got our masks on right, it was really easy.  We had never been "real" snorkeling, so it was amazing to see all the stuff that was under the water.  There was a ton of coral, and apparently that is the location of the 2nd largest barrier reef in the world.  I was expecting it to look like pictures from Discovery Channel, and I will say it did not.  The coral was mostly brown with a few bright purple places.  There were lots of fish, but again they were dull colors minus a couple I saw that were bright blue.  It was gorgeous and so fun, but I guess I was expecting it to be brighter!  I will definitely snorkel again when I go to the Caribbean.  After the snorkeling was over, we were taken to a private island.  It was absolutely stunning!  PARADISE!  The sand was white, the water was clear, there were tropical trees, etc.  It was just what I picture the Caribbean looking like.  There were floats to lay out on, so I took advantage of that.   However, I just kept floating back up to shore with the waves, and would have to push myself back out.  Thomas gave up and took pictures while I was determined to lay on the float in the water.  After I finally gave up, we decided to walk around the island and take more pictures.  It was so fun and I will always have that memory. 

  Paradise!!!!!

 Our catamaran boat

People kayaking around the island...you could use kayaks and pedal boats for free! 

We stayed at the island for about an hour, then we headed back to the ship.  We had to hurry to get ready for dinner and then did our usual of eating, casino, and relaxation.  I believe this was the night that we realized that no one was every really on the Adult Only deck in the evening.  We walked around and ended up relaxing in a cabana.  Afterwards, we decided to put on our swimsuits to go in the hot tub.  We did this every single night of the cruise after this and there was never anyone there!  Everyone was just walking around, but no one would get in the pool or hot tub.  It was such a good romantic memory! 

 The night Thomas found Mr. Lucky's Fortune Cookie...a completely politically incorrect slot machine that was HILARIOUS!

 The wake of our ship

Up next: Days 5 and 6...Isla Roatan and Grand Cayman.