Why more people are choosing a cruise holiday in 2022, and why you should too

This is a collaborative post

There are so many reasons to go on a cruise. From having everything you could want to do all in the one place, to seeing many new places all in one trip without the added stress that planning flights between various countries would bring, a cruise is the best choice going for an exciting yet stress-free holiday.

Whether you’re an old hand at cruising, or you want to try something new and exciting this year, here’s why you should choose to go on a cruise holiday in 2022.

No more stress!

Cruises make for a great low-stress holiday. No need to plan lots of flights and transportation to airports and various accommodations, it is all in the same place. Once you’re on the ship you can relax anywhere you like, whether it is in your room or by the pool, a cruise is made to be relaxing from start to finish.

Cruises also mean you don’t need to plan a packed itinerary. Most cruises offer lots of activities and plan all the stops for you, so you don’t need to worry! You no longer have to limit yourself to just one location, as cruises are designed to give you a taste of lots of different places in one trip.

Planning a trip on a cruise also makes getting travel insurance much easier. Where you ordinarily would have had to purchase insurance for your flight, insurance for your trip as well as health insurance for each of the countries you visit, if you opt for a cruise you can take out a cruise insurance policy to cover your whole trip.

Offer a huge range of activities

Although you are mostly confined to the ship while you are on a cruise, modern cruise ships are huge and offer a massive variety of restaurants, bars, and activities for customers to enjoy. There will always be something to do on a cruise ship, and you’ll not only never get bored but you’re likely to make friends through your time there. Talk to people you meet, make connections, and enjoy the various lounges, pools and games on offer across the ship together.

The variety of things on offer on a cruise ship means that you don’t need to plan every day in advance, you can instead wait to see what mood strikes you on a day-to-day basis. This also means that travelling in a group can be a lot easier, as individuals can take part in different activities at the same time.

Cruise ships often have an extensive range of food options, with everything ranging from classic breakfasts to 5-star restaurants, cruise ships can feature some really incredible food. If you’re looking for a place to try out something new while having the experience of a lifetime, look no further!

Cruises are unique

Cruises are an absolutely unique experience and one that everyone should try out at some point. The ability to do so many different things from the middle of the ocean is an experience like no other. It is a time to forget about the worries of real-life and take time out for every moment.

More people than ever are choosing to go on a cruise in 2022, and you should do the same. Step away from the outside world for a while and step into the immersive, vibrant atmosphere of a cruise ship. See incredible sights and try out luxury restaurants all from the comfort of the ship, and spend your days filled with fun activities and experiences like no other, all without the stress of planning!

The Titanic Artefact Museum in Orlando, Florida

On the last day of our recent holiday in Orlando we were looking for something to fill a couple of hours on our way to the airport for our evening flight. We chose the Titanic Artefact Museum which is located on International Drive, about a twenty minute drive from Orlando International Airport. Harry has long had a fascination with the Titanic, and when he was about five he made a brilliant Lego model which he used to play with. It's also a subject that really interests me, I remember watching documentaries from when the shipwreck was discovered and being fascinated by the blurry underwater images.

I'm really glad that we made this choice! We spent just over an hour at the museum, and I have to say that it was excellent. I was so impressed that I felt I had to share our visit here, as I really would recommend it to anyone that is in the area and has a passing interest in the Titanic.

At the beginning of our visit we were each given a different boarding pass for a real passenger, along with some history about them and their reasons for making the trip. Both Mia and I were rich ladies travelling in first class. In fact she was one of the richest passengers on the ship, travelling in a suite with a private promenade deck and two staff. Ram was a first class gentleman and Harry was a Swedish immigrant travelling in third class. We were told that at the end we would find out what had happened to our passengers, and that gave us lots to think about as we went around the museum. Mia sometimes struggles to maintain her interest, but it really engaged her when we found a map of the ship showing her private deck, and a reconstruction of a stateroom similar to the one that her passenger would have occupied.

The reconstructions throughout were in my opinion the best part of the museum. As well as the stateroom there was the famous grand staircase, one of the dining areas and part of the boiler room. Then my favourite part was the Promenade Deck. It was a short section of decking with mirrors at the side to make it appear longer, in an area of the museum with the air conditioning turned down low so that you could feel the chilly air. It was set at night, with clever projections of the sea on the floor on the other side of the rail. I've travelled on cruise ships at night and it felt so realistic and also spooky.

The museum story began with the history and building of the Titanic, then a large part of the museum focused on life on board and the amenities available to passengers, with an interesting look at the differences between the different classes. Then followed information about the sinking and the salvage. There are plenty of genuine artefacts scattered throughout, including a piece of the hull and a small piece of the ship that you can touch. There's even an actual iceberg!

In the memorial room we discovered what had happened to our passengers. The first class ladies had survived but the first class gentleman had not. Sadly, we weren't surprised to find out that Harry's steerage passenger had also perished. The lists of names were organised by their ticket class on the ship, and it was sobering to see how few of the third class passengers had actually survived.

If you do decide to visit the Titanic Artefact Museum do remember to have a look online or in a voucher booklet for current discount coupons as we managed to save quite a bit on our entry.

Ten craft projects to complete by the end of the year

I seem to have collected rather a lot of new craft materials recently, as well as already having a sizeable stash. So in order to motivate myself to get on with some projects I thought that the best thing to do would be to make a list of the things that I want to work on and get finished. Only one of these projects has already been started, so I have plenty to be getting on with! 

Ideally all of these crafts will be finished by the end of the year. 

Felt Autumn leaves - I have lots of felt that I need to work through so I fancy making some Autumn leaves, something like these ones from Bugs and Fishes - Embroidered Felt Oak Leaves. I'm not sure yet if I want to string them into a garland or just leave them on display in a bowl or basket.

Felt sugar skulls - Another project to use up some of my felt! I've seen lots of inspiration online but I do particularly like these Felt Sugar Skull Sachets. I've got lots of felt scraps in bright colours and plenty of embroidery thread, and I bought some pumpkin ribbon last week which I might use to string them together with.

Cross stitch Christmas hanging - This is the one project that I've already started. Last year I bought three mini Christmas cross stitch kits from Hobbycraft. I've finished two and have just the caravan to complete. I also bought some Christmas fabric and so I want to put it all together to make some kind of hanging. I'm not quite sure how yet though, I need to do some planning!

Three Christmas themed wooden shapes to decorate - I bought this sleigh, wooden house and hanging sign from The Works a few weeks ago, they were only a pound or two each which I thought was a bargain. I'm going to paint them in acrylic paint. The wooden house will definitely be a gingerbread house and the sleigh will be used to hold chocolates. I'm not sure about the wooden sign yet, I need to come up with four (short!) Christmas words to paint.

Stretch beaded bracelets - I also recently bought some beading supplies and I'd like to have a go at making something like these stretch bracelets from Accessorize. I've got lots of little coloured beads and also some glass beads that look a bit like sea glass so I'm going to go with a blue/green/cream theme. I've not done this before really so I need to have a think about the best way to do it so that I don't end up with beads pinging everywhere!

Wooden READ sign - I bought a wooden sign which spells out the word 'read' to go on my bookshelf. I'm torn between leaving it neutral and painting it cream, or going all out to decorate it with different colours, beads, buttons and so on. 

A sea themed fabric project - I recently acquired some new fabric with sea themed motifs and some ocean themed ribbon. I'm not sure what I want to make just yet, maybe a simple zipped pouch or pencil case. 

A Christmas mini cross stitch designs craft - I'm not sure exactly on this one either, but I want to make some kind of Christmas craft using the free mini Christmas cross stitch designs which I shared last year. I also came up with a red and white Scandi colourway so I think I'd like to use that in some way, perhaps for some individual hanging decorations.

That gives me plenty to be getting on with! I think that I'm going to start with the felt Autumn leaves as I love working with felt, and I need to get a move on now as Autumn will be over before we know it!

My holiday craft shop purchases

Whenever we visit the US I always make a beeline for a craft shop. It's not quite as exciting as it used to be - thanks to online shopping we now have access to a much wider range of products, and on this trip in particular we found that prices over there have really shot up. But I always enjoy having a good look around and there are always plenty of things that I can't resist bringing home to add to my crafting stash. 

I made trips to three large craft stores - Michaels, JOANN and Hobby Lobby. I also browsed the craft aisles in Target and Walmart and picked up a few bits at Dollar Tree (although thanks to inflation products are now priced at $1.25!) If you are planning a US shopping trip it's well worth downloading the app or looking on the website for each store and looking for coupons, as they are almost always available. I found coupons for 20% off the whole shop, or 40% off the highest priced item. Many of the shops also had rotating offers on specific product categories, with further discounts of 40% or 50%. If you are downloading the app from a non US phone then you might need to change your location settings to download the US version of the apps.

Here are some of the bits that I picked up, and I think that I was very restrained! Firstly fabric. I know I know, I've been writing about working through my fabric stash and trying to use some of it up. But the fabric that I have is all quite similar, mainly pink and flowery, and I wanted some more blues and greens. I found some lovely sea themed fabrics and all of these fat quarters were so cheap, some of them were just $1 each.  

I also found some lovely rolls of ribbon, including some more sea themed patterns and a couple of Christmas ones. 

I love a bargain, and lots of this ribbon came from two discount trolleys which were filled with rolls of ribbon for less than $1 each! I had a good rummage through and I love this photo that Mia snapped of me digging away - I was so engrossed that I didn't even notice her taking it!

I was recently given some beading supplies and that has given me a hankering to try some simple jewellery making. I want to make a simple stretch beaded bracelet with several different strands of coloured beads, mainly blue and green. On the right you can also see some lovely glass beads which look a little bit like sea glass which I'm planning to mix in. I just need to do a bit of research to find the best way to do it!

Finally two projects which I can start on right away. A little cross stitch kit of a colourful cat and a wooden letter shape to decorate - it says 'READ' and I think it would look good on my bookshelf. I've not planned what to do with it yet, I'll definitely paint it and then see if I think it needs something else added.

I'm really pleased with all my purchases and I didn't really spend that much. I'm looking forward to crafting away!

Back to school after the long summer holidays

September is here, and the beginning of the summer seems like an awfully long time ago. We were lucky enough to enjoy two amazing holidays this summer - a last-minute cruise at the beginning of July and then a long delayed trip to Florida and Disney World in late August. In the middle unfortunately I was mostly recovering from Covid so we didn't get up to much!

Because we have such intensive (and of course expensive) holidays away, when we are at home I don't feel the need to take the children out and about too much, or to fill their time with pricey days out and activities. Luckily like me they are quite content to stay at home. Harry has been spending lots of time on Minecraft building all sorts of complicated projects and Mia can occupy herself for hours with her coloured pens and stationery collection. We had a major sort out in Harry's room which took almost a week here and there, and I've also had time to get on with my work when it was available.

But now it's time for us all to get back into a proper routine, in particular with reasonable bedtimes and a reduction in screen time. Mia will be starting at the senior school this year which is quite a change for her. Luckily it's a small school, Harry is already there, and many of the children in her classes will be the ones that she has come up from junior school with. Harry is going into Year 9 and I'm assuming that at some point soon he'll have to make some decisions about which GSCE subjects he wants to take, although he already has a pretty clear idea.

Photo credit Elena Mozhvilo via Unsplash

I'm not looking forward to the return of the school run, which I find quite stressful as it involves driving through the traffic and then finding somewhere to park. I'm also not very fond of making packed lunches. And I miss the children when they are at school, I like having them around to chat to and see what projects they are working on.

Over the weekend I shared some of my September goals, and I enjoy having a few goals to work towards. I've set up a habit tracker with three new daily habits - declutter ten items, do a short tummy exercise routine and write a blog post. So far so good! Although I'm already struggling with the decluttering, I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to keep it up!

Fingers crossed it will be a smooth back to school for us all.

September goals

For me September always feels like a new start, maybe even more so than January. Of course it's linked to the children going back to school, but I think even when we are done with school it will still feel like a new start! At the end of a long, hot and lazy summer it's a chance to get organised, get the house back into shape, and it's an uninterrupted stretch to work on some new projects.

So here are some of the things that I'm hoping to achieve this September.

I want to get on top of my blog. I have a number of posts scheduled for the run up to Christmas, with lots of gorgeous crafts to share. But the next few weeks are looking pretty thin. We have just returned from holiday and so I have plenty of travel content to write. I'm aiming to publish at least four holiday related posts, and ideally I will be able to spend this month both planning and writing posts to schedule until the end of the year.

As I said we've just returned from holiday and following a summer of unhealthy eating it's time to reign in a bit and cut back a bit on the calories. I don't like to call it dieting, but there's definitely some reducing to do!

Photo credit Elena Mozhvilo via Unsplash

On a similar note my exercise routine fell by the wayside due to the lack of routine and also recovering from Covid. As well as getting back into my running, over the summer my daughter and I bought some roller skates and I'm intending to get myself down the seafront for a skate from time to time. I also need to make the most of our gym membership.

I have several sets of friends that I've neglected over the last few months so I'll be planning some catch ups.

The house needs a bit of a tidy, and I find that a good way to go about it is with a decluttering challenge. I've not decided yet whether to do the Minimalism Game again or whether to come up with my own targets but I'll definitely be doing something! I'm most likely to try the Minimalism Game in reverse where you get rid of 30 items on Day 1, 29 on Day 2 and so on, making it easier as you go along.

I'd like to get back to daily journalling as I find it very helpful to write out the things that are on my mind. I need to also set some limits on my screen time, in particular the mindless scrolling and the obsession with stories in the news that aren't healthy for me to keep reading about. To fill my time I have some borrowed jigsaws to work on and plenty of craft projects to think about and start.

Here's to a productive and relaxing month!

Different types of decluttering challenges

I always find myself in September with a longing to sort out the house once the children are back at school. I find that a good decluttering challenge helps me to stay motivated and can make a big difference to the tidiness of my home, so I thought I'd share some of my favourite challenges below. Some of them I have tried in the past with great success, and others are ones that I definitely want to attempt in the future!

The Minimalism Game

I love playing the Minimalism Game, and I've done it several times over the years. It's very simple, you just discard the same number of items as the number of the day in the month. So Day 1 is one item, Day 2 is two and so on. It's very easy to start with, but it's pretty tough by the end! It also requires a certain amount of self-policing - for example do you count smaller items in a container as a group, or as individual items? A twist on the game is to play it in reverse, so that you get the most difficult part out of the way first thing. 

A certain number of items each day

This is the challenge that I'm working on this September. It's a variation on the Minimalism Game, but you remove the same number of things each day. For me, ten items per day is a manageable amount.

A particular amount of time each day

Set a timer, for example fifteen minutes or half an hour, and declutter as much as you can during this time. This challenge doesn't work so well for me because I get easily distracted and then panic that I'm not working efficiently, but I can see this being effective if you have a very cluttered house or lots of rubbish lying around.

A different area each day

Plan for this by making a list of all the areas in your house that need decluttering but try to keep it manageable, for example a cupboard or drawer at a time. Then work on one area each day. It's best not to be too rigid about it, and to keep the larger or more difficult spaces for days when you have more time.

Photo credit Elena Mozhvilo via Unsplash

A different category each day

This is the core of the Marie Kondo method and I find it works really well for me when I need to have a big clear out. Sorting by category means that it's easy to get rid of duplicates which might be missed if you are working on different areas at a time. It can be quite overwhelming and messy at times though, and you need to have the space to set aside an area for sorting.

Declutter the things that you don't use

This challenge works really well for clothing but can also be used for other items. Take out all your clothes, and only return them to the wardrobe or drawers once you have worn them. After a certain amount of time you will easily be able to see the clothes that you don't wear regularly and pass them on. Of course there are exceptions for seasonal items and special occasions, but it's a good way to remind yourself just how much you own.

Photo credit Sarah Brown via Unsplash

One item in, one item out

Every time something new enters your home, something else must leave. Ideally this would be something from the same category, for example a new pair of shoes or a book.

Join in with an online guided challenge

There are plenty of online challenges that you can take part in which can be very motivating and inspiring if you want to share your progress with others. Often there is an attractive printable calendar available for download.

My favourite challenges are run by Apartment Therapy, and they host regular free decluttering challenges using a daily e-mail to keep you on track. The next one starts on the 19th September 2022 and you can sign up here - Decluttering Cure 2022. You can also find the older completed challenges with links to the daily tasks, for example the January Cure which I did this year, or a previous two week Decluttering Cure challenge.

I hope that I've given you some inspiration for a September declutter!