Deb's Days

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

Happy New Year! and a Pocket Tissue Holder Tutorial

As a former teacher, back to school time was when I made new plans for the year. New schedules, new routines, and new resolutions for change. Now that I'm not on a school schedule I find myself in the group of folks using the New Year to make those plans.

I looked back at my blog post on this day last year. I had titled it Simplicity. Here's a bit from that day:

"Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail." ~ Henry David Thoreau

Many of Henry David Thoreau's quotes have spoken to me at different points in life. I even felt strongly enough about "suck out all the marrow" to have it tattooed on my arm in 2013. But today is about simplicity, not sucking the marrow.

My husband and I have been on a journey these last few years. A simplification journey. I'm guessing close to 80% of what we owned five years ago has been donated/sold/recycled/shredded/trashed. We've given up furniture and electronics and clothes. Tools and Christmas decorations and even trash cans have been sent away. Nine trash cans were in our house back then, one for almost each room. Now? Only two cans.

In the spirit of simplification, I'm going back to basics with the blog. A picture a day.

Well, how did I do? I didn't simplify the blog with a picture a day and I didn't simplify my life. If anything, I made life more complicated by all the traveling we did. While we hope to do some traveling later this year to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary (Greenland, here we come - I hope!) it won't be spread out over eight months like it was in 2018. Where I DID simplify life was in the number of possessions owned, thanks to the Friday 15. Using many of my Fridays to donate or discard 15 items resulted in 400 fewer items in our house. Here's the wrap up of that downsizing.

So what about 2019?

I would again title it Simplicity. And I've already started.

I've collected 15 things to send off this week. I'll continue each week until I have no more to give. Fewer possessions = a simpler life. And I'm giving the blog a mini working-towards-simplicity makeover. I've removed most of the ads I've had floating around. It made the blog messy and I don't do messy. (Amazon, I'll keep you in one spot. I do love you.) I'll also be cleaning up some of the posts that need more editing. I got sloppy when my internet was limited on the ships - sometimes I caught the mistakes but didn't want to spend more internet minutes to fix them. So I'll work on that.

What else will I focus on? The crafting tutorials. Cutting fabric, a sewing machine humming, and projects seen to completion makes for a good day. I'll also be starting back on sewing projects for charity. Sewing for Good Sundays has a nice ring to it. And the Encouraging Words Project is on the front burner. I've dropped several off in Boise locations just this week. Writing about cruising and travel will still happen, but with most of this upcoming year not being spent living on a cruise ship the travel posts will be less frequent. (At least until a trip comes back up.)

So there you have it. My intentions are released to the Universe to use them as it (she? he?) sees fit.

Now, in the spirit of simplicity, on this month's Tutorial Tuesdays I will be sharing some of my most popular sewing and crafting videos. (Don't worry, I'm still working on filming new ones for later.) Today's tutorial is from August 2011. It was the day after my mother in law's funeral and a day I was questioning whether to continue the tutorials. (Here's the original post from that day where we learned how to sew our own decorative pocket tissue holder, in case you're interested.) It's the most viewed tutorial I've filmed with over a hundred thousand views on YouTube.

For this project you will need:

Now available in my Etsy store as a digital download with the written directions, step-by-step photos, and link to the tutorial video. Click to find out more!

Looking for more quick and easy projects? Check out these ideas!

Click on the step-by-step tutorial to learn how to make your own homemade decorative pocket tissue holder:

Disclosure: Deb's Days is a participant in affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to affiliated sites. This means that, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Your purchase helps support my work in bringing you new sewing and crafting content.

Simple project. Simple life.

Happy New Year!

Saturday, December 29, 2018

Communication with the Outside World When Cruising

It's Cruise Ship Saturday and today we're talking about communication with the outside world while cruising.

Nowadays communicating with the outside world while you're on a cruise ship is more efficient than ever before. Efficient but not necessarily inexpensive.

•Cell phones can often be used on the ship while at sea but high roaming charges may be incurred in international waters. Even if you have an international roaming plan, proceed with caution. Roaming rates at sea are a lot higher than regular international roaming rates. For example, I pay 20 cents a minute for calls all around the world. But once at sea the cruise ship rate kicks in and charges me $5.99 a minute. That cost is set by the cruise line, not by my carrier.

Rather have this?

Or this?

And we're not even talking data! (That's $15 for 1MB - which amounts to browsing one webpage or reading one email. Yikes!) Many a passenger has come home to an outrageous cell phone bill. Don't be one of them. My daughter who worked for a mobile company tells me she once had a customer call with a bill over $2,000 (double yikes!) because they didn't understand how it worked on a cruise ship.

Contact your cell carrier before leaving home as they can advise you on the best plans for voice and data while in port or at sea. Otherwise keep your phone in airplane mode, particularly at sea. The alarm, clock, camera, and any stored or downloaded music, movies, games, and books will still be available.

•The internet is a great way to communicate but not necessarily when cruising. Internet is not free and may be slow. (Now if you're sailing on the Caribbean Princess or Regal Princess it's a different story. MedallionNet™ is super fast and super reliable. Check it out!) Your ship may offer internet packages for a flat fee. Internet services can be accessed either on your own electronic device or at the ship’s internet café. To conserve internet minutes compose those emails offline first before logging on.

•Some ships have an app for texting other passengers on the ship. Sure makes it easier to track down the rest of your group.

•The ship has a satellite phone if there is a need to make a call from the ship to back home. This can be an expensive way to communicate and is used primarily for emergencies.

Check into all options before heading out on your cruise. Once on the ship it will be too late. Don't be one of the $2,000 bill people!

Friday, December 28, 2018

The Friday 15 Year End Wrap-Up

It has been a while since I've posted The Friday 15. It's hard to downsize when you aren't home! But now I'm back and today is a wrap up of the year. Here is everything I discarded or donated or sold off in 2018. Yay for downsizing!

January

eBay sales

emptied my computer trash

February

March

April

May

June

July
0

August

September

October

November
No photos, but to my daughter went two pair of pants, one sweatshirt, two Christmas ornaments from upcoming tutorials, four stuffed fabric pumpkins and one candy corn trick or treat bag from the tutorials earlier in October, and one rope toy for her dog. And a fidget quilt went to our neighbor.

December
Just this wrap up.

Between the things I have photos of and the things I wrote down but didn't take pictures of, over 400 things left my home this year.

Now that rocks!

Thursday, December 20, 2018

2018 Year of Travel Wrap-Up

While we’re not quite done with our last cruise of the year, we have our last port today (Cabo San Lucas) so I’m calling it close enough to do a wrap-up of our travel year. It was a biggie and boy, it was a whirlwind! We spent close to 120 nights away from home. We traveled during the months of February, May, June, August, September, October, November, and December.

Here are the numbers:

11 cruises
7 different ships
90 nights at sea
12 flights
19 hotels
7 National Parks
2 NASCAR races
2 Major League Baseball games
3 road trips

This year, just by cruise ship, we visited:

Amber Cove, Dominican Republic
Barcelona, Spain
Belize twice
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico twice
Costa Maya, Mexico
Cozumel twice
Fort Lauderdale, Florida seven times
Grand Cayman three times
Grand Turk
Icy Strait Point, Alaska
Juneau, Alaska twice
Ketchikan, Alaska
Livorno/Pisa, Italy
Los Angeles twice
Manzanillo, Mexico twice
Mazatlán, Mexico twice
Nassau, Bahamas
Ponta Delgada, Portugal in the Azores
Princess Cays in the Bahamas twice
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico twice
Roatan, Honduras
Rome/Civitavecchia, Italy
San Francisco three times
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Seattle, Washington twice
Skagway, Alaska twice
St. Maarten twice
St. Thomas three times
Vancouver, Canada three times
Victoria, Canada,
Whittier, Alaska

I can’t believe I’m typing these words, but it was too much travel too spread out. 120 days over eight months again? No thank you. Squeeze those 120 days into four solid months of travel? Heck, yeah!

I have a few things worth mentioning about the year. Let’s call this list the best of the best:

*Most heartwarming feeling: Learning what happened after I posted a video to YouTube of our cabin steward on the Caribbean Princess making towel animals. His family back home was so excited to see him making towel animals on the internet. His six year old son couldn't believe his dad knew how to do it and his wife shared it with family and friends and posted it to Facebook. I am happy I was able to be part of him feeling like a movie star.

*Friendliest taxi drivers: Key West, Florida. Hands down. Nowhere else even came close.

*Best itinerary change due to a hurricane: When Hurricane Isaac caused our ship to be rerouted to San Juan, Puerto Rico.

*Most animal sightings in the same day: The Tundra Wilderness Tour in Denali National Park.

*Most unique lodging: The trailer on the beach in Islamorada, Florida.

*Best food: Breakfast – the Denver Omelet at Pig ‘n Pancake in Seaside, Oregon; Lunch – Patty Melt at the Sweet Tooth Café in Skagway, Alaska; Dinner – BBQ at The Smoking Rooster in St. Thomas.

*Wildest weather: We thought it would be when we were trapped in Panera Bread in September in Fort Lauderdale. But it actually wound up being a couple months later when we had to walk through the flood in Costa Maya, Mexico.

*Best last-minute change of plans: Instead of grabbing breakfast at Subway we decided to head into Talkeetna, Alaska for breakfast instead. And ran across this beauty called Denali.

*Best back-of-the-car picnic: In a snowy but sunny parking lot in Olympic National Park.

*Most interesting barber shop for two middle-aged white people: The barber shop/salon in Grand Cayman where hubby got a shave.

*Longest lasting sunset: In the Caribbean, of course. Here are just a few minutes of it, but it went on and on and on.

So what’s next? Well, we need to get hubby into physical therapy to gain some strength and mobility. As for me, wrestling with the bathroom door on the transatlantic voyage may be requiring a visit to my orthopedic surgeon. He’s already done seven surgeries on me so might as well make it an even number and go for eight, right? I will also have some exciting news to share about the encouraging words project and a major woman’s magazine. I’ll announce the details soon. Otherwise we'll be back to our regular life. I'll keep making crafting videos, keep writing about cruising and travel, and keep downsizing our life.

Speaking of cruising…we currently have no other cruises booked. Like 0. For the first time ever we will be leaving a ship without any future plans to be on another ship. While I could certainly jump on a ship next week and stay for the next few months, hubby’s ready for the comfort of his rocking chair and TV for an extended period of time. If you have a disability, or care for someone with a disability, you know how tough travel can be on both parties. It can be frustrating, challenging, and downright exhausting. After spending this year getting him out into the world again, I suspect the coming year will be instead be spent at home where he feels most comfortable.

Thanks for following along, and hope to see you from a cruise ship sometime in the future. Hopefully sooner than later.