Glamping

Sorry for the absense, but I'm sure you'll understand........this is what consumes us in the summer.

I look forward to a return when the sun stops coming out to play.

Caravaning Around

Ok so crap picture alert but I feel like I owe it to you. Do you remember a while a ago I promised to share the completed caravan refurb? So sorry for the delay peeps but here at last are some pics of what was made in my creative space for our little caravan, in situ and in use.

Yep I took the melamine in the end. I was just too scared of breaking the Alfred Meakin. Can you spot Vera? And the gorgeous embroidered pillow slips which were still in their sweet presentation box when I bought them from charity shop.

Beaded curtain in doorway to keep out pesky flys, blackboard cupboard doors for notes and lists, ‘Vera’ the quilt on our bed and a great big aluminium tea pot on the stove that psychologically has become abit of a comfort blanket type thingy for me......you know me and tea!

Late night adventure arrival at Seal Rocks; boiled eggs and soliders then straight to bed. Maggie’s quilt on her bed in the background was the first I made in this design. All quilts I currently have for sale are the similar patchwork design top, vintage sheet backing and snug 100% wool blanket inside all held together with bias binding. Single bed size.

Remember the bench seat covers and the cushions? What a little star Maggie-May has been. She makes such a great gypsy girl with her outgrown haircut, two day old clothes, long finger nails, black between her toes, sand in her belly button and grazes on her knees. Sorry child health police, I promise she’s still 'flourishing'J

All in all this road trip has been an experience with highs and lows and lots of other stuff inbetween. Plus, I've learnt lots about myself.

1) I love my little girl more than anything, she is truly amazing.

2) I'm really bad at doing nothing.

3) I need a combination of country, coast and city to be happy.

4) I love sleeping in fresh air.

5) I tire of shopping pretty quickly.

6) I will never be able to surf.

7) I don't enjoy cooking in a caravan as much as I do at home.

8) I get frustrated if I have a book to read and don't get time to read it.

9) I can drive a troopy whilst towing a trailer carvan.

10) I need to stare at the telly for a short while before I go to bed to turn off my tired brain.

11) I can't cope with a two year old by myself.

Sorry For My Absence

They say "absence makes the heart grow fonder".  So I stayed absent and waited and waited but still there was no fondness for my blog and my words seem to fail me. Bum I thought, I've lost my blog mojo already. What kind of blogger am I lasting only eight months...........not a very good one that's what! But hey, I think my blog mojo may be back at last. Today (day 5 of our road trip) we arrived in Leura and I feel very very inspired to tell you all about it! After all it would be such a shame to miss this opportunity to share my road trip stories and discoveries with you. This was taken on day 1 in Trentham where we stopped for lunch.

We had been driving through central Victoria and NSW for 3 days whilst the rain continued to pour and a few bad experiences in towns less than welcoming made us move on. But this morning we woke up to a beautiful crisp sunny winters day and decided to head East towards Sydney, crossing the Great Dividing Range and into the Blue Mountains. Leura came upon us quite by surprise this afternoon just in time for our 'tea and pee' stop. Upon noticing a CWA market in a cute cottage, I shouted STOP, then added a little more softly "maybe we could have a really quick little lookie here pretty please you wonderful wonderful person you".

This kind of pleasant mannered begging has become an essential skill when pursuading a husband driving a campervan towing a trailer caravan in small narrow winding roads and towns to do a U'ey just for me to look in a shop! Anyway, he agreed it would make a good "tea and pee" stop so we clambered our stiff bodies out of the miniscule front seats of our campervan with Maggie chirping in support "walk, walk" and headed up the high street of Leura for a little lookie. My oh my, what a divine little vilage. Characterful heritage cottages, beautiful gardens and a small high street with wibbly wobbly pavements lined with blossom trees and speciality boutique shops.

I managed to get a glimpse in Leura's Toy Shop, buy dinner for the evening in Leura's Gourmet Deli and jostled alongside some students in a Leura's Vintage before closing time and pursuading 'the driver' that we should stay the night so that we could continue our little lookie in the morning.

Now, just before I go, I need to mention a few things. Firstly I need to apologise in advance for the rubbish quality of the photos I'll be posting whilst we're on our road trip, I've just realised that I don't have the same editing programme on our little old laptop.

Secondly, I can't wait to share some pictures of our little caravan with you now that we've finished the refurb once we're all set up in a caravan park in Sydney, so please pop by again soon.

At lastly, but most importantly, I want to say a massive thank you to Justine Telfour at Mixtape for featuring Baby Boudoir in the latest issue - All Around the World. Stoked I was to be included in such a fantastic publication, made my heart proper flutter. And if you've found your way to my blog after seeing the mention and wish to make a purchase from Baby Boudoir, just email me and mention "Mixtape rocks" to get 10% OFF your purchase. My bunting, softies, bags and quilts can be seen over there on the right so scroll back up to the top to see all.

Caravan Refurb - Part 3

Time to get down and dirty!! This weekend Maggie and I scrubbed the inside of the old girl from top to bottom, the caravan that is. Not very exciting for you guys though so I'll just take this opportnuity to share with you a quick little Good Housekeeping tip which was also highlighted by the lovely Sarah over at Red Gingham who recently wrote a fabulous post about all the wonderful efforts she was making towards a more environmentally friendly existence - well done you! Using Bi-carb and white vinegar for all your cleaning needs is a cheap environmentally friendly alternative to harsh chemical cleaning products. I use it to clean floors, sinks, bathrooms and surfaces, basically anything you'd otherwise grab a commercial 'squirty product' for. I also add a few drops of my favouriote oils to make it smell lovely, lavender and rose are my favourites. But tea tree or eucalyptus is good for germy areas.

Anyway, back to the caravan refurb, once we'd finish the cleaning, I lined all the cupboard shelves with the polka dot vinyl I used before for the drawers. What a difference it makes, and the melamine plates and bowls look so cute in there don't they.

Or should I use this set of Alfred Meakin china?

Which would you use? Once again the old impractical me says use the Alfred Meakin, it'll be so cool to have lovely china when camping, but the new practical me says don't be so silly, it'll break!!. Wotcha think, plastic or china?

Caravan Refurb - Part 2

With the bench seat covers all finished, next comes the curtains. I've had so much fun with curtains in my previous campervan refurbs. In my old VW kombi I used denim for the bench seats, Bintang t-shirts for cushions and vintage surf t-shirts for curtains. But age and experience has led me to slightly more practical/robust window furnishings of late.

With this caravan refurb I wanted to reach a compromise between the old creative, impulsive, impractical, fun me and the new family, slightly practical but still (hopefully) creative me. That's why I choose the blue gingham; a little bit cutsy vintage but still practical, easy to sew/wash and very cheap. I also lined them otherwise there could have been some rather interesting silhoutte shows coming from camp Galey:)))

 

And of course, a girls gotta have cushions.........just for fun.......completely unnecessary really:)

Next job is the transformation of some completely ridiculous size shelves and then the table. These projects need power tools though, which I am terrified of......so will have to wait for help from 'him outside'.

Caravan Refurb - Part 1

As much as I love the 1970's curtains and table in our new caravan, it just looks abit dull with the brown laminate cupboards and the beige cushion covers. So some brightening up was seriously needed. This is my fourth campervan/caravan refurb and I have discovered that I HATE making the bench seat covers so that had to be job number one. Here's what I picked to do the refurb.

Yucky brown seat covers.......

Beautiful new blue seat covers.......

The drawers also looked abit tired.....

I love this blue/white polka dot vinyl.......

I can't wait to get on with the curtains and then make some pretty cushions for the bench seats. Pop back again to see more sneak peeks showing how I transform this caravan. I hope you'll share this journey with me. I'd still love to receive any reccomendations of places not to miss on our road trip between Melbourne and Byron and thanks soooo much to those that have already suggested some brilliant places. Peppergreen Antiques will be a definate, as will Tilba and Berry in NSW.