Are You Ready for Some OONAPALOOZA!?

Twitter and myself have struck again. Gillian of Crafting a Rainbow and caretaker of our Sewcialist blog footed the question "What should our next color theme be?" and when there was some back and forth I tweeted:

What about #OONAPALOOZA?

And everyone, including the Diva Herself said HECK YEAH OONAPALOOZA!!  So this month of July up to August 1rst, Oona is your inspiration. Post your makes in the Sewcialists Flickr Group. Challenge yourself to sew with bright colors and wild prints, make it in something that you've always wanted to try but were afraid of what people might think. And if you find yourself dizzy from the choices, do what Oona does and grab a cocktail and tackle that apprehension with boozy glee.

 If you don't know who Oona is, then you are missing out! Head over to her blog here and lurk her closet here. Here are a few of my favorites.

That's a BHL Victoria Blazer with the most awesome of maxi dresses.

Feather skirt. NEED I SAY MORE?

I've got a few ideas brewing in my head, please tell me yours!

Summer Vacations and Destination Weddings

Remember back in school when the teachers would have you write an essay on what you did during the summer? I kind of feel like I'm about to write one of those now but I'm only a month into the summer school break. Remember that cruise I mentioned? Yup, that was awesome. It was also almost three weeks ago but I didn't get any of the actual wedding photos until today. Its kind of hard to take pictures of yourself when your job is moral support for the bride. Not that she needed much, its the happiest I've seen her in two decades.

It was a lovely wedding and a lovely vacation. The wedding was during our first stop in the Grand Turks, it was just family and best friends there, most of us were actually in the wedding. We'd had no rehearsal or anything like that, and seeing as it started at 10am we'd all managed to forget to eat. Which made cocktails at 11am extra fun. The food was amazing. It was sushi and other hors d'oeurves, and an entire section of gluten free, including cake. I had two pieces of cake because I NEVER get cake anymore.

I'll be honest, when I saw the photos I freaked out. I was like "I am not that wide!!", and then proceeded to have a melt down over my weight.   Then hubby pointed out they used a wide angle lens. Ug. Oh, and Dreama is the same height as Felicity when she's not wearing 5 inch heals. So I'm like a giant compared to all the other women. Or a Viking. Let's go with Viking.

*warning, picture heavy post ahead*

Me, Dreama, Dreama's beau, Dreama's Niece Cas, Felicity, Phaedra, Aurora.

The Soon to be Mr. And Mrs.  Of note, the necklace and earrings are my Mother's. She loved Dreama very much and so Dreama wearing her jewels meant she was there in spirit.

This adorable little girl. She and her cousin were very serious about their flower girl duties. Later she also decided my arms are the best thing ever. She'd crawl up in my lap all during the cruise and hug them and go "squish squish squish!" and then blow raspberries and giggle over and over.  Its kind of hard to hate a part of your body that gives three year old girls that much joy.

Obligatory photo, I'm trying not to cry. 

Let's not forget about Simon. I couldn't make him a suit so I had him pick one out from the Easter day ZuLilly sale. I was like "really" and he said "really".  I had to hem the darn thing up like 10 inches (its a size 12 for boys!!) and he was just the coolest mac daddy around.

So after the wedding we still had six days ahead of us!  Its honestly the best vacation I've ever been on because I didn't have to do one lick of cooking or cleaning. The next day was St. Thomas and when we all woke up and headed out to the Lido deck the entire thing was covered in towel animals. It was AWESOME! Except the part where Simon almost got eaten by a fuzzy alligator.

Baby elephants love to sun in lounge chairs.  I don't have any photos of our first trip onto the shore, I just didn't feel like lugging around my dslr.

Simon and Felicity swimming in the Lido deck pool.

Our next stop after a day at sea was Tortola, where we got to swim with dolphins!  It was also Felicity's birthday, and since Dreama and family were going on a deep wreck dive their niece wasn't old enough to go (that entire family is scuba certified).  So after talking to Cass' grandparents she came along with us. Again, no DSLR and the photos they took during the swimming with dolphins were not great AND 35 dollars FOR EACH PHOTO. OMG, I'm still mad about that racket. I got one cell phone photo of the three, with dolphin photo bomb.

Smile!

Cas was gracious enough to take a photo o the four of us together. I'm wearing a hummingbird skirt here that I have yet to blog about. I'm a bad blogger, sorry. 

The next day was St. Maarten, we docked on the Dutch side. At the last minute we decided to book an excursion out on a catamaran to do some snorkeling and swimming. We were warned the French beaches are clothing optional. We were unconcerned and figured that warning was why it wasn't a full booking. Felicity was the only one that even noticed one person. 

As it was both of them were much too busy swimming from shore to boat so they could jump in as often as possible. We anchored in 16 foot deep water and it was almost like glass, you could see the bottom so clearly. Hawaii wasn't even this clear.

Seriously, have you ever seen water so clear?

After the first snorkeling trip I decided to stay on the boat. The snorkel was tons of fun but as I was swimming back to the boat my legs gave out on my and I felt myself starting to panic. Since I'm more aware of most of what impending panic attacks feel like I started calling for Daecon. He was keeping up with the kids and reminded me I could inflate the flotation device, I did, but kept saying in as normal a voice as possible that I need help to get to the ladder. One of the crewmen swam to me and grabbed me by the arm and somehow LIFTED me onto the ladder saying in a Jamaican accent "Its OK baby girl". Daecon had my towel and a xanax in hand, told me the kids were OK and didn't complain that i had to SEE them before I calmed down.

The same lovely crew member gave Felicity some shells he found. Nice ones too!

Daecon and Simon enjoying some wind.

This was the view from the swimming cove. The amount of sun made it challenging to get not over exposed photos. Problem was that the moment it was cloudy I had to change the settings again. I can't lighten some of my others without out graininess. Its OK though, I did come up with a few good snapshots.

And hopefully soon I'll be posting more. I just haven't wanted to take the time to write lately and didn't want to post anything out of obligation. It never really seems fun. I hope you have something planned for the summer, Northern Hemisphere readers!

I'm a Teapot in a Boat!

Little girl is my daughter, baseball cap is my brother in law, and the man behind the wheel is my Elusive Husband. 

Did I mention my brother-in-law* bought a boat?  Like, a ski boat that seats about six. I found out and was like WHOA, AWESOME!  But not until after my friend Jenna talked me out of an anxiety attack about the kids learning to ski.  She pointed out this is why they make life vests. Oh right... durrr.  And seeing as we live close to the lake, their grandma takes them to the pool, and we like to vacation at the beach, well, our kids pretty much develop webbed toes and gills in the summer time.  Not to mention the ever adorable freckles across the nose.

Felicity is biting the strap to keep it from flapping against her face.

We're all happy about swimming here.

Last weekend they went out and it was kinda last minute and I had an Epic Meltdown because I couldn't go.  So this was a sunset ride so I could go. SO. MUCH. FUN.  I didn't actually go swimming,  I'm not happy with my current swimsuits for that purpose. The one I want is on back order and I might just have to modify this pattern to make one I like. We'll see. There are just some things I don't feel like spending the effort on.

In any case, this means there may be some more beach style cover-ups in my future (shirring anyone?).  So obviously, we had a blast.  The funniest thing happened as we were all driving back to my Brother-In-Law's, a friend of mine ended up pocket dialing me.  This particular friend, Kris, has known me so long he still uses my maiden last name.  My husband says its cause he's an optimist.  I reply by sticking my tongue out at him.  It devolves in maturity from there. Anyway, pocket dialing.  If you've ever seen "Real Genius" and remember   Val Kilmer's character then you have a pretty good description of both looks and personality. So of course, after hearing Kris talking AND I could tell he was talking to some other people, I realized that the phone was actually in his pocket, I couldn't resist what happened next...

Me: HELLO KRIS?  CAN YOU HEAR ME? YOUR PANTS ARE TALKING TO YOU!!! HELLO!
*wait a minute, still hear talking*
Me (singing at the top of my lungs):  I'M A LITTLE TEAPOT SHORT AND STOUT, HERE IS MY HANDLE HERE IS MY SPOUT!!!! WHEN I GET ALL STEAMED UP AND START TO....  *devolves into a fit of giggles from me and the kids in the truck* 
Me (after I still hear talking): HELLO, KRIS, YOUR PANTS ARE TALKING TO YOU!! HELLO!
Some other person in the room: Dude, your pants are talking...
Kris: Uh, hello???
Me: Hi Kris, you pocket dialed me.
Kris:  Who is this?
Me: Elizabeth
Kris:  Elizabeth [my maiden name]
Me: Yes, that's right.  Your pants dialed me.
Kris: My pants dialed you? Why would they do that? Are you seeing my pants behind my back?
My Husband in the background:  I don't know, you should ask them.

At which point I completely lose it and start laughing so hard tears are going down my face, which sets Kris and everyone in the truck to laughing too.  Eventually Kris says he has to go.  Have I mentioned I know awesome people? True facts, man.

Goggles a must!

Why yes, I'm a sassy redhead, what makes you ask?

Awesome, right?

So, great times!  What do ya'll have planned for those in the Northern Hemisphere for summer?  Don't  forget there's always fun things to do even on a budget, like Finding a natural swimming hole or even going on a day trip to the nearest State Park.  For those of us in the U.S. of A. I say explore the fun out-of-doors. National and State Parks are there for a reason and you should get your tax dollars out of them!

Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta finish padding out my new dress form,make some zucchini bread, and coleslaw.  

*My brother-in-law and sis-in-law live eight miles from me in one direction. My mother-in-law/father live eight miles in the other (basically live in a house turned into a duplex).  I gotta say having family close makes life easier.