Saturday, October 22, 2016

Glamping in our remodeled 1980s Lazy Daze

Last year Mike and I took the plunge and bought a pretty fugly 1984 Lazy Daze. I've had the dream to travel trailer across the United States with our boys for awhile and they are now at the age where it's doable for all of us without too much xtra work.

However because our budget only allowed an older RV - boy did we have to compromise on the interior and how it looked. It was super mid 80s looking with ugly brown paneling for the walls, brown and light blue striped fabric for the cushions and brown shag carpet. The previous owners had redone the kitchen with more updated tiles - but it was still just more shades of brown.


But knowing how handy Mike is and how thrifty I am I was pretty sure we could whip this camper into shape with a little shopping and a lot of elbow grease.

The first thing Mike did was replace the carpet with wood floor laminate. So much cleaner and brighter! Then we painted all the brown paneling with a pale warm yellow.


For the kitchen, Mike pulled out all the brown tiles and replaced it with faux tin ceiling tiles. We were lucky that once we painted the walls the light butter yellow that the terracotta colored counter tops actually looked great together.


For the light fixtures I had found these gorgeous patchwork mirrored umbrellas in Little India. Mike was able to jerryrig them has hanging lampshades.

I found the perfect fabric for the curtains at the thrift store! I found 4 pairs of these 1940s barkcloth drapes that had the best scenic imagery on it. Gorgeous pattern of trees and hillside - like the outside is inside - in deep jewel tones of blue, magenta, green and gold.



All that was left after that was to get the cushions recovered. We trekked downtown to the fabric district with a swatch of our curtains in tow and found the perfect deep raspberry upholstery fabric to recover them with.




The final touch was adding a bit of art. The U.S. Map was a vintage puzzle that I took the pieces out of and then painted the inside with chalkboard paint. The blue panel is going to be a place where we can decoupage souvenirs from our trip!





We're so excited to take our updated boho retro camper on our first cross country trip next summer!!

Friday, October 14, 2016

Boho glamping gypsy tents!

My friend Haleanna and I have ventured into boho tent making! They are so fun to make. We hit the thrift stores in search of unique vintage linens, textiles, saris etc and then bring all the luscious fabrics home to patchwork them together.

They make great wedding tents, boho bed canopies, glamping tent, photo backdrop, etc.

Here's a peak at a few that we have made.




Sunday, February 28, 2016

God's Eye Mobile - Elementary School Project

Every year Quinn's school has a Silent Auction and each class is asked to come up with something that the parents can bid on. This year I got to spearhead the project with 2 other moms. I wanted to come up with something creative that each child could contribute to. And then it hit me - I loved making God's Eyes at that age. I made a ton of them and decorated my room with them. So I hit Pinterest and found the idea to make a mobile out of them.

I found most of the yarn at the thrift store (plus parents donated some). I also found the wire mobile frame - used to have butterflies hanging from it - at the thrift store. Armed with all my supplies I headed off to Quinn's school to teach them how to make God's eyes. I was really happy that both the boys and the girls really enjoyed making them.

 My friend Ashlynn wrapped the yarn around the wire mobile frame.


The kid's at school making their God's Eyes. We also had beads available so the kids could add beads to their God's Eyes if they wanted.



Then Ashlynn and I used a yarn + yarn needle to attached the God's Eyes together and to tie them to the frame. I am so happy with the finished product!!




Saturday, February 20, 2016

UnDead Queen of the Sea - Art Doll Assemblage

My 11 year son likes to work on art together - so the other day we brought out a bunch of my bins of collage / assemblage stuff that I've been saving and sat down and brainstormed on collages together. Quinn's is still a work in progress - but I did finish mine...
The process is always interesting - I probably had four different art dolls started in various stages of completion - but all with something not quite right about them. And then BAM something clicks on one of them and you know it's done!
One part baking tin + plastic bird part from the 99cent store + Cranium toy part + vintage doll head....