Just a tad crazy!

I'm recently back from a trip to Costa Rica and just had to share what my sister, niece and I did.

But first, something quilty.

Sitting by the pool (Azura Resort, Samara), in the shade, a rum drink on hand and some EPP.   Got to have some hand work to do to keep me occupied and my hands limber.

Once back home, this is where this piece is at.  This project will be discussed more on a separate post.

Now, onto the crazy bit.  Do you see this?  Zip lining!  What the ..... My sister and I went with my niece on a day excursion so that she could zip line.  My sis and I had no intentions of doing anything like that.  So, how did it come to be?  We still don't know.  We were just going to do horse back riding, the water slide and the hot springs.  Zip lining was not on the cards at all.

We all did the zippy do da.  Eight runs in total.  For me, it was awesome and I would do it again.  On the last two runs, it started to rain and the wires were slippery and faster.  Here I am concentrating on braking on the last run.  What a day that was.  Something to cross of my bucket list, even though it was never on the list to do.  So, if a 68 yr. old lady can do it, you can too!

On our way back to the rendezvous place to switch buses, our bus broke down about 1/2 hr. away.  Our guide noticed there was a restaurant that we could easily walk to and wait there for our new bus.  So we walked with the temptation of a beer at the end of our walk.

A beer, some nachos and a view like this?  What more could we hope for?  We had just enough time to drink and eat and then our bus arrived.

On another excursion, we did a river boat trip.  We saw lots of birds, iguanas, a few monkeys and crocodiles.

Can you see this crocodile?  It is very well camouflaged.

 This one lunged at our boat.  We all screamed.  LOL

Back at our resort, we would see horses walking or galloping on the beach  They would be in packs or alone.  Just walking along making their way to a field beside our resort.  We did see a few on the road going to the town of Samara.

This time of year is the rainy season.  Where we were located, it would rain but late in the afternoon and on/off during the night.  The mornings were always sunny with some cloudy periods in the afternoon.  This photo is from our outside eating area and the rain was so intense that we couldn't see the beach.  It rained like this for about 15 mins. and then it cleared and so on.  After dinner, we would sit in the bar and watch the lightening and listen to the rain and enjoy our Bailey's.  A lovely way to wind down our day.

The sunsets were spectacular on the evenings when it was not raining.

That was my fun week in the sun.

Have a great day.

Too many seams

Since I've gone with this version of Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Mountain Majesties, well, there are too many seams that are all ironed in the same direction and the seams just don't lie flat and are bulky when that happens.

So, what to do?   The top section had a few seams that were in the same direction and a bit of unsewing had to occur and that was when a plan had to be made on how to handle all those seams.

First thing, each row is marked with a letter.  Next, the arrows were pinned on pointing left or right (for ironing all the block joining seams in one direction).  Lastly, do you see on Row F the FIX  in pink?  It means that all the blocks in this row are to have the inside seams (not the joining block seams) ironed towards the light coloured fabrics.

Once the FIX row is done, the rows are pinned on my design wall so that the seams are facing towards me.  This is where I can visibly line up the seams to make sure they are all in opposite directions before sewing a section together.  It is easier at this point to make any corrections before sewing.

Below, the top section has all the stars appliqued on.  Doesn't this sparkle?  My trademark stars and I'm in love with them.

What is better than one section done?  I'll take two sections, thank you.  Only two more sections to go.

Later this afternoon, my sister and I are flying to Mexico for a week in the sun.  With all the snow shown in a previous post, we need a bit of warmth and sunshine and it will be so nice to look at sand and the beautiful blue sea and sit under a palm tree/palapa and sip a nice cool drink.

Have a great day!

Cabin fever .... be gone!

It truly is amazing what a week in the sun can do for cabin fever! This year, our winter has been long, cold with lots of snow and a week in the Dominican Republic was most welcome. My sister and I stayed at Punta Cana at one of the Iberostar resorts. What can I say, except it was "wonderful".

This post is photo heavy, but bear with me as there is something about sewing at the end.

We stayed in this block of rooms and if only we took our bearings when we first arrived, we would not have roamed the resort trying to find our room later in the afternoon. The resort is huge and we walked different paths throughout our stay ... some more interesting than others. I just loved the wooden planks laying on top of the sand. Lovely colour combinations.

We walked the beach the first afternoon we arrived. Again, my sister and I forgot to take bearings and after 45 mins. of walking we turned around and headed back to our resort. Mmmm .... what did our resort look like from the beach? There were no signs posted and after seeing other people on beach longers wearing the same wrist bands like we had, we figured that was our resort. Phew .... lesson learned.

We walked the resort grounds which were absolutely beautiful. Lots of photos were taken from various vantage points. We had to walk off the wonderful food we ate each day otherwise the plane would never have been able to take off.

A day excursion into the countryside revealed the reality of this island life away from the resorts.

A quick swim at the local's beach was gorgeous and breathtaking. No development here .... just a beach as one would expect.

A day of snorkelling was amazing. Unfortunately, we had no underwater camera to take shots, but the mural on this bench gives a good reflection of what we saw.

We were quite happy to sit under a beach palapa .....

... and watch the world go by ....

.... and take a few snoozes like this trio during the hottest part of the day.

When I least expected it, inspiration snuck in and surprised me.

I did get some sewing done on the beach and late at night in our room. The lighting in the hotel rooms are always the pits, but I brought a book light (the kind that you just clip onto your book) with me and it really came in handy. My light has an adjustable goose neck and it was perfect to adjust to whatever angle I needed to see and sew.

Now, don't laugh ... but I just plunked my book light down the front of my top, adjusted the goose neck, turned on my light and relaxed back against the pillows and sewed away to my heart's content. This book light was under $10 and worked like a charm for me.

My sister laughed when she saw what I was doing but thought that it was a great idea.

Anyway, have a great day!