Still afloat and trying to sew

I must be the laziest person on the face of the earth. That's the only excuse I have for not posting in so long. Anyway, we're still living aboard our boat here in Florida and now that our air conditioner isn't battling 90 something temps I've managed to do a bit of sewing.

A long time ago I printed some nautical charts onto fabric and these prints actually made the trek from PA to FL with us. And as I've been itching to sew I didn't think I really needed to buy 'new' when I should be using up 'old'.

On the spur of the moment I grabbed my Nicole Mallalieu Belle Bag Pattern and came up with this.







It's actually pretty cute and one of the charts I used was of Tangier Island in Virginia (if you've never been there, you're missing out on a good time, but BYOB since alcohol isn't sold there).












Here's a side view. The solid fabric is a brushed denim of some sort that my mother gave me out of her ancient stash a couple of years ago.

I learned a valuable lesson though.

I purposely decided to use Velcro instead of a magnetic snap on the inner tabs that pull this purse 'inward', and that worked out fine, BUT, since I've made this bag many times before and didn't bother to re-read the directions, I totally forgot about the snap that needs to be installed in the facing.
Oops!
Too late.
So I thought, oh what the heck, just use another piece of Velcro.

Word of advice. Don't do it.

Using Velcro on the tabs appears to be okay, but unfortunately, Velcro in the facing of this bag won't hold any kind of weight. Really. I'm just thankful I wasn't making this for someone other than myself or I might not have figured this out.

What I'm saying is, don't use anything other than a magnetic snap on the facing.



Now that we no longer feel like we're living in a pressure cooker, we actually use some light blankets in the evening.

Whose legs do you suppose are peeking out from underneath this blanket?

Well, they're certainly not mine!

We're settling into a nice routine here in our marina and enjoying life on our boat. I'm now able to ride my bike one mile in order to get to the Gulf so I can then get in an hour walk along the shore. This is a hell of a lot better than fighting snow and living daily with dreary gray skies, and yesterday we finally broke free from our dock lines and went out in the bay for a sail.

And even though someone stole my newly purchased potted plants and tossed my cheerful Halloween pumpkins into the marina, I still plan on decorating our dock box for Thanksgiving.