Why to Take a Magnet on a Cruise Ship

It's Cruise Ship Saturday! Today we're talking about why you should take a magnet with you on your cruise.

When traveling we subscribe to the belief of packing half as many clothes and twice as much money as we think we’ll need. When we cruise I add one more thing to our packing list. 

A magnet. 

Did you know the walls on the cruise ship are magnetic? A magnetic clip (even a big magnetic chip clip) can be placed on the wall and used as a bulletin board area. The clip can be a good place to put all the papers that are delivered to the cabin each day. The daily paper, the invitations to the art auction and health seminar, the ads for the boutiques and spa specials. 

Here's what we received on just the first day of a cruise.

Multiply that by seven days and yep, you'll get A LOT of papers. 

Grab a magnet with a clip, stack the papers together, and put them on the wall. Instant bulletin board!

The Friday 15

The other day I was going all KonMari on my daughter as I was helping her organize and tidy her den. (So proud of kiddo - six big garbage bags of things left their home!) As I was working with her as she culled her books, it occurred to me I had forgotten about some books at my own home.

Just a couple weeks ago I bragged about going from all these books and bookshelves:

down to just these few books:

But I forgot about all my kids books and teaching materials. When I left the classroom years ago I got rid of hundreds and hundreds of books. But I kept a couple containers of books and materials. Things I thought would come in handy someday when I had grandkids. 

Well, no grandkids yet. And a realization that even if and when grandkids arrive, I really didn't need everything I had kept. So the other night after hubby had gone to bed I went through the closet and the containers. I did keep a few things (can't get rid of that set of Dr. Seuss books - that's an order from my daughter), but I can happily report today's Friday 15 is actually a Friday 101. Yep, 101 books and materials that had been important to me over the last 30 years will no longer be mine. 

I just noticed something about the picture. Since less stuff = simpler life = more free time it seems pretty ironic that the last book I put in the stack was Teacher Tested Timesavers.

Make Fabric Covered Buttons and Magnets - Tutorial Tuesday Flashback

In the spirit of simplicity I'm continuing to offer up some of my simple crafting projects from the past. Today's video is from my first official Tutorial Tuesday on August 2, 2011. Back then I could never have predicted that more than 36,000 people would be interested in this project.

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.

Click on the step-by-step tutorial video and learn how to make your own homemade fabric covered buttons and magnets.

Sewing for Good Sunday

First up, I did NOT mistake WD-40 for compressed air like I did last Sunday. Woo hoo. Second of all, I neglected to mention an important piece of information last week. The quilts I am working on will be going to the Quilts for Kids organization. It's a nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming fabrics into patchwork quilts to comfort children facing serious illness, injury or trauma.

Let's see what I got whipped up for Quilts for Kids since last Sunday's Sewing for Good day.

Last week I finished this quilt top:

 And put together these blocks.

I still have more work to do with them, but right now those purple blocks are resembling a quilt top looking like this:

I also cut and did some stitching of these three fabrics:

 And they too now resemble a quilt top looking like this:

 I also sewed some kitty cat fabrics and white fabrics into strips. I think I'll be adding some white strips to the top and bottoms of them.

 And I also put together these two fabrics:

To make even more blocks:

Which I think I will use with this panel:

 It appears I now have five quilt tops in various stages of completion. It might be time to start to get the completion completed!