Goofin' Off With Projects and Disney Cruise Trip Report Day 3

I keep plugging away on my projects.  Sometimes they seem to move slow as molasses depending on what all I've got going on.  At the moment, each one of them continues to bring me smiles as I work on them.  Captain America is bringing me the biggest smiles.  I have begun laying out the blocks to see what they will look like - and I really, really like it - but I'm not sharing just yet.

During the latter part of the week, I finished these little sub-units...

Step III - D Units

...which came from these sub-units.

Step III - C Units

And for a stitching update, I am beginning to see a little of the actual picture begin to show on Mickey and Pirate Friends cross stitch.  Goofy's pirate hat is emerging...it's the oranges that you are seeing.  It's always fun to see the details emerge when working on such a large project.

Mickey and Pirate Friends Cross Stitch - As of 06/04/2017

Thanks for all the nice comments and e-mails I have been receiving about my trip report.  Always feel free to leave comments or questions below or e-mail them to me.  I love to talk quilting, cross stitching, and Disney...especially when I know someone else is planning a trip.  Now let's see...where did I leave off with the cruise trip report?  Oh, yes, we're beginning Day 3.

Day 3 was our first full day at sea as well as "pirate" day on the ship.  All of the character meet and greets were with the various characters dressed up in pirate attire...very similar, actually, to my the attire that will appear in my cross stitch picture.

We began our morning with breakfast at Cabanas buffet.  From there we decided we would participate in "Anna's Chocolate Scavenger Hunt"...Anna being the Anna from the movie "Frozen." It was actually an odd day for them to hold the scavenger hunt because there was a "Frozen" day later in the cruise, and it would have made more sense to do it on that day.  There were symbols from the movie "Frozen" hidden all over the ship.  There were clues as to where you could find them.  If you found them, you could add them to your "Chocolate Chase" paper and leave your paper on your bed...and then, voila, this little baby would magically appear in its place while you were out.

Prize for Anna's Chocolate Chase Scavenger Hunt

I mean, seriously, it was like the chocolate fairy was coming to our cabin all the time and would leave us chocolate...all...the...time.

After the scavenger hunt, we headed to the movie theater for a movie.  One of the unique things about a Disney cruise is that they show first-run Disney movies in their movie theaters.  Every movie that Disney had released during the past year (including Marvel movies and Star Wars) was shown in the theater.  It was a nice way to catch up on the movies I had missed.  The movie we watched this day was "Born in China".  I absolutely loved it despite the fact that I didn't follow my own rule of not getting too attached to the animals in a Disneynature movie.  Well, the circle of life, you know...I won't give away any spoilers in case you haven't seen it yet...but don't get too attached to the animals no matter how adorable they are.  Here is the official trailer:




When the movie was over, it was time for lunch already.  It felt like we just ate.  We hurried to the buffet for a light lunch then went and watched "The Great Dubois".  It was a live show featuring magic and a few aerial acrobatics.  In case you're thinking, Wow, they sure were inside a lot for a cruise...yes, we were.  Our days at sea were all overcast, gray, windy, and chilly, so we did a lot indoors.

After the show, Mr. Goofin' Off and I walked some laps on the track outside.  We had to work off breakfast and lunch because it wasn't going to be too long before it was dinner time.  At dinner, everyone was encouraged to dress up like pirates...even the waiters and assistant waiters were dressed up.  Here is a picture of our nephew dressed up in his pirate attire for the night.

Pirate Night in the Dining Room

Mr. Goofin' Off even noticed the menus were printed specially for the night.  

Pirates in the Caribbean Dinner Menu

After dinner, it was time to head to the show for the evening.  Tonight's show was "The Golden Mickeys".  It's a take on the The Oscars awards show.  Various Disney Broadway-style musical numbers are performed as Mickey receives awards in different categories for the various Disney movies.  It's fun to enjoy listening to some of my favorite music from the Disney movies while watching them being performed live.  

After dinner was the "Pirates in the Caribbean" party up on the top decks of the ship.  There is a dance party with the crew all dressed up as pirates.  The dance party is followed by fireworks off the ship accompanied by various pirate music.  It was very chilly outside that night, so everyone was bundled up in blankets on deck.  It didn't stop me from enjoying the fireworks, though.  The fireworks off the ship are one of my favorite things about a Disney cruise.  

After the pirate party ended, we returned to our room where we found this on our bed:  

Pirate Night Towel Folding by Cabin Steward

It looks to be some sort of sea monster and/or pirate.  Did you notice the chocolate gold coins for the eyes and embellishment?  Yes.  More chocolate...always more chocolate waiting for us in the cabin.  It's a good thing I love chocolate.  

Thanks for following along with my adventures.  And as my friend Tigger always says:  "TTFN...ta ta for now."

It's National Goof Off Day...

This morning an article come across my Facebook feed stating that it was National Goof Off Day.  Now, how can a blog that’s name starts with “Goofin’ Off…” not do a blog post on National Goof Off Day?  I followed the article to the daysoftheyear.com website.  It gave the following explanation for Goof Off Day: 

“A chance to step back from the rigors and pressures of everyday life, Goof Off Day encourages you to take some time to be silly, waste an hour or two, and to do something a bit different!” 

Hubby and I work hard, so we like to use our goof off time to release some pressure so that we don’t get stressed out.  I’m not sure what we’ll be doing tonight to celebrate, but you can rest assured that we WILL be celebrating. 

In honor of National Goof Off Day, below is a picture of hubby and Goofy doing the “secret” Goofy handshake on our trip a couple of weeks ago. 

There is a little story to accompany this picture.  We were standing in line to get our picture taken with both Goofy and Pluto.  When Goofy saw hubby’s shirt with his picture on it, he gently shoved Pluto to the side and made it clear that this picture was to be taken only with the two Goofs.  This is when the two did their secret Goofy handshake.  I stepped aside to comfort Pluto whose feelings had been hurt.  Thank goodness Pluto forgives easily, because he was hopping around and posed for a picture with us after all the goofiness was over. 

I don’t have progress pictures to show on my projects just yet (although they will be coming soon).  The center of the Tinkerbell quilt is almost finished.  I am so excited.  I played with the original layout to find the one that I liked better for my quilt. 

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been working on a few quilt designs for my next quilt in EQ7.  The quilt will be for a queen-sized bed.  Below you can find the focus fabric that features Captain America that will be the fabric used in the center of each block.  The center of the blocks will NOT be a solid white like in the design pictures. 

I’d love some input as to which design you like the best.  I have my own preference, but I’d love to hear what you think.  Feel free to leave a comment below with your favorite design. 

Quilt Design #1: 

Quilt Design #2: 

Quilt Design #3: 

I am pretty sure I won’t be using so much black in the outer borders, so I am mostly trying to decide on the design of the blocks in the center of the quilt for now.  I have tried to simplify the sewing of the blocks by making it strip-sewing friendly. When I am finished with the quilt, I will be posting the pattern for free on my blog.  

This will be one quilt we keep at home.  Captain America is hubby’s favorite Marvel superhero…along with Ant Man...so I jumped at buying the fabric when I saw it at JoAnn’s.  Once I’ve decided on the quilt design, I should be able to go ahead and finish picking up any fabric I may be missing to complete it.  I am hoping I’ve got what I need in my stash, but I won’t know until the design is complete. 

Oh, and HAPPY GOOF OFF DAY!!!