Vintage Travel Trailer = FUN

If you haven't heard about the vintage travel trailer craze -- WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!! It's the latest trend for those of us who LOVE anything vintage and the nostalgic feelings that goes with it!

While I was visiting in my favorite place in the country - Colorado - we stayed at the STARLITE CLASSIC CAMPGROUND for the "Trailer Trash Bash". It was a great time! What a fun group of vintage trailer-lovin' folks! Check it out -- you'll be hooked once you see how much fun it is!!! 

Canon City, CO

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this yellow range! It's SO VINTAGE!!

If you're old enough to remember "The Long Trailer" movie starring Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz, this is the exact trailer!! How cool!!

Complete with full retro kitchen!

Did you know that there were several makes of travel trailers manufactured in Iowa?!!

This is one of them!

Too much fun!! Are you a vintage trailer convert, yet?

And there was the 'TRAILER TRASH BASH QUEEN ' contest, too! That will be another blog on it's own!

I can't believe that I didn't get any photos of Vicky & Richard's Shasta! But, you can see the entire renovation they did on their vintage trailer here http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=30b423da1daa8f48&sid=0AatHLNi5YuGTiY . It's a pictorial of "start-to-finish"!

 
Happy campin'!

The Heart Of The Matter

BEFORE

It's just a plain old wooden desk. Nothing special. Your folks probably had one in their home once upon a time. Mine did. I can visualize my Dad sitting at his desk paying monthly bills, keeping receipts and important papers in the double file drawer on the right. He was so organized and neat. The top drawers were always stained from the old leaky bottles of ink that were used to fill the 'fountain' pens! If these desks could talk, I'll bet they'd have lots of stories to tell - or write about! Ah, the memories. The good old days!

I found this desk at the Goodwill Store. It was okay as far as old desks go, but you know that I would HAVE to give it a NEW look!

Ta-da! Here's the 'AFTER'!

The heart design came about by accident! Honest! I couldn't even have made attempted it and have it turn out this good beautiful! I LOVE it!

I was going to put it in the garage- um, I know that sounds awful - to keep for an upcoming sale, plus my house is too small to accommodate any more furniture. But, I really like this piece and just wanted to be able to look at it. I made room for it and, who knows, I may even decide to keep it for myself!

Surround yourself with people and things you love!!



Change Is Good!

When I bought my little cottage house, I liked the colors the previous owner had chosen. Each room was different and they all complimented each other as a whole. Well, knowing me, like I do, I had to make some changes! Having recently re-painted the bath, I felt like the bedroom needed to be lightened up a bit!

Here's the BEFORE:

Yeah! That's RED alright!

This is the new, lighter version ....

Mocha color. Much more soothing, don't you think?

The silky curtains add a softer look. I like them better than the stark-white wooden blinds.

The next thing on my wish-list is to have carpet installed. I would love to keep the original hardwood floors bare, but unfortunately, someone did a botched-up job in a previous remodel and pieced toghether a large section of the floor! It was done so badly, it can't even be repaired. So for now, a colorful rug covers the boo-boo!  And I can live with that ... for now!

Happy Valentine's Day To Me!

I LOVE chaulk board paint! So much that I used it on my kitchen door! It needed to be painted anyway, so now I can write something inspirational or leave myself a note. I tend to be forgetful!!

I've made several projects into chaulk boards - old cabinet doors, old windows, boards, and vintage sterling silver. They have many uses - memos, phrases, drawing pictures, decor. And, if you want to change it all you have to do is erase it and start over!

Maybe my love for chaulk boards makes me nostalgic for my early school-girl years when they were on the walls of every classroom. Teachers would write their name on black boards the first day of school. We created a lot of chaulk dust doing arithmatic problems and spelling words on them. You could always cause a shriek from classmates if you ran your fingernails down it!  Does anybody else remember those days? I guess that ages me!!

Still young at heart!

A Gem Revived!

The 'glitter' desk has been redone! Here it is with its new look. It makes a lovely impression in its new life!

The before ......

Now presenting .......... THE AFTER!!

All That Glitters Is Not Gold!

I saw this cute little desk at Goodwill the other day. It had an unusual painted surface that lookd like a bag of glitter exploded all over it! The $5 price tag blocked out all sensible thinking, like what a PAIN it would be to remove all that glitz and that all the labor involved would be a labor of LOVE 'cuz no resale price is high enough to cover that!! But I was up to the CHALLENGE!

I can see why this piece ended up at GW! There was no way to remove PINK paint splatters without also taking out some of the camo-color undercoat & muli-color glitter with it! It was time to bring out the heavy-duty stripping solvent, gloves, scraper, and goggles.

Two days ......... multitudes of steel wool and an entire container of stripper later here's how she's lookin'! Bare naked - no paint - no glitter! After a lot of sanding, now its on to a new coat of primer. Stay tuned for the final unveiling!!

Thrifty Headboard

I love to find neat old furniture! I happened across this nice decorative antique headboard and matching footboard at my favorite thrift shop.My original plan was to convert it into a beautiful bench. My bed was looking a little forlorn and bare, in desperate need of a headboard! So, plans were changed! I still have the footboard piece and I'm sure it will make a fine bench some day!

Did you notice that I almost forgot

to get a 'before' shot! 

Sweet Dreams!                                                                       

Bon Giorno!

I just returned from a fabulous trip to Italy! I feel like such a worldly traveler now! Although this this is the first time I've been out of the country :} In a week's time I saw Rome, Siena, Montecatini, Florence, Santa Margherita and Portofino. That's a lot to see in a short amount of time! Magnificent architecture, fascinating culture and so full of history. I enjoyed the Tuscany region the best. What beautiful scenery!! There's no way to describe just how picturesque it really is. Unbelievably decadent food, wine, and my absolute favorite - gelato! Good thing there was so much walking involved to work off those extra pounds! If you haven't been to Italy,you have to experience it for yourself. You won't be disappointed. It's a very romantic place to be!

Ciao bella!

Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater

Here's something fun for your fall outdoor decorating. I got the old window screen at the What Cheer Flea Market this Summer and thought I would try painting a design on the screen part. Doesn't Fall make you think of pumpkins and Halloween! BOO!

Little Girls Are Special

It's a beautiful gown with a flowing train of silk organza and a sheer overlay. Pearls and appliques were applied with the utmost care. No, I didn't buy this dress with the anticipation of a marriage proposal!I got it at a garage sale to use for the fabric! For some reason it's owner no longer felt a romantic connection to the dress with a $1 price tag! I envisioned using the sheer part to make chair skirts on one of my current projects. I took this photo to commemorate the dress before I dismanteled it into sections!

Here's how my vision turned out! It's a child-size table and chairs that's been transformed into a fairy-princess tea party setting! That wedding dress would have been boxed up in somebody's attic and most likely never to be seen again. But look at it now! All sweet and frilly little chair skirts! What little girl wouldn't LOVE to be the princess seated at this table? Isn't that what you always wanted to be? I know I did!

Bloom Where You're Planted!

I've been spending most of my spare time working on the landscaping of the house I just moved into. It's been more of a challenge than I anticipated!

Apparently an extremely large tree used to stand majestically in this spot in the backyard for many decades. By the size of the remaining stump, it must have been massive. I could see that there was no way to get equipment in to remove the stump so I incorporated it into a perennial garden! You can see that I even used the stump to display my newest acquisition, an old ventilator from some farm building. I really wanted a cool cupola off a barn but this rusty piece will work fine for garden art!

I hauled these three deer with me from Colorado and they seem right at home among the hostas! They're not just for Christmas decorating anymore! They actually light up and I thought it would be fun to have them twinkling out there under the tree. Kind of like those lightning bugs that come out after dark!

I've got a lot of outdoor projects that need attention! And I still need to get things in order inside the house, too. I had to do some major downsizing moving from a 3 bedroom house with a large 2-car garage to a 1 bedroom place with 1-car garage! That was the hard part. So I had a garage sale, closed my eyes, and let a lot of my favorite things go. But, I'm doing OK with it. Sometimes change is a good thing! We could all use a little less STUFF!!