It's been nearly 4 months!

Wow!  It's been nearly 4 months since I've posted here!  

We've had a very busy summer.......

we have camped several times........

attended a Vintage Camper Rally in Terre Haute, IN.....

Such fun!

My youngest daughter and her family are staying with

us currently. They've been here since the end of May.

My son-in-law finished up his 4 years enlistment in the Marines

and they have moved back home.  They have 1 daughter who is

14 months old now......love her to pieces!

My daughter is working FT now,

my son-in-law is attending college FT now,

they are getting ready to put an offer down on a house,

and then they will be moving,

but not too far this time!

Then things will be getting back to normal.........

Our next big camping trip with Penelope,

will be the last weekend in October.......

we are attending the Fall-O-Ween at McCormick's Creek State Park near Spencer, IN.

Should be great fun!  

Our whole family will be together....

our oldest daughter and her family will be pulling 

in from Grandview, MO for the weekend also!

Can't wait!

All FIVE of our grand daughters will be together!

Trick or Treating and activities at the campground!

Until then......

Win an Empire cover!

http://littlevintagetrailer.com/2012/05/new-give-a-way-win-a-new-rv-or-car-cover/

Bye Bye Clay-Tucky!

We've had some wonderful memories with our popup camper,

Claytucky, but it was time for her to retire........

this is how she looked this year when we opened her up.....

(TAPS playing in the background)

Ceiling leak had gotten very bad,

 she hadn't been open for 2 years....

Mold and mildew on the canvas.......

and, my gracious hubbie, working diligently

to remove the water pump and water tank to

install them into Penelope.......

he is a GEM!

Not much of a post, but needed to anyway....

Have a Blessed Sunday everyone!

Keep Calm and Love Flying Pigs!

Penelope

"Glamped" Up

Loft Bed

Sheets bought at a yard sale  $2.00

Red blanket bought at Dollar General on clearance  $3.00

Nantucket throw, from www.lakesidecollections.com $17.95

Nantucket pillows $9.95  Set of two...

Shelf for flat screen TV was added by the previous owner,

I added the 2 green striped placemats from Walmart  $2.00 each

The basket came from Hobby Lobby  $2.00

The cross from Hobby Lobby   $4.00

Picture frame (Hallmark) from yard sale  $1.00

(still need to insert a picture of us!)

The little metal crafted dog came from inside my house,

it reminds me of my Kate!

"Always" sign from Kirklands  $6.99

Hanging basket from yard sale  .25 cents

Vintage 1965 Indiana trailer license plate

was a gift from the same friend that sent me the link

for Penelope!  Perfect!  Green too!

All items were hung with Command Velcro picture hangers

to prevent damage to the walls.

More Decor....Keep Calm sign from Kirkland's  $9.99

Kohler's pig (printed from internet with free

photo prints from CVS)  in a frame from my house

Metal star from home too!

The flying pig I purchased from http://www.patinastores.com/ $4.95

I attached all pieces to the top of the microwave with Command

Poster Hangers, that I cut to fit!  No moving here!

Woo Hoo! decor from Lakeside Collections also $4.95

Vintage frame with  "50's Club" quote came from one of my 

dearest friends (one of the friends that thinks I've lost my mind..)

Other end of the camper...

Another red blanket from Dollar General,

and another throw from Lakeside

Still need to purchase another set of sheets for this bed

The free standing air conditioner was purchased

by the previous owner....he devised a set up

to strap it in so it would not move during travel

(I did not unhook it for the pic)

I would like to add a floating shelf about 6" deep

above the sofa....for more glamping!

Also, I have not made my pillows yet from my

previously found yard sale pillow forms....I will

probably move these 3 pillows to the bed, and put the 

new pillows here....6 total!

Kitchen area of the camper....

Another frame from the house, with a print out

from the internet with a free print from CVS

And, of course her signage bearing her name!

Set of 4 hand towels from Sam's Club $9.99

I do not recall where I bought the Friends towel,

but it's perfect.....the metal sign decor was purchased

at Hobby Lobby on a 50% off sale....$9.99

Coca Cola paper towel holder will most likely hold paper towels...

I will purchase a magnetic towel rack for the towels to 

put on the front of the frig!

2 Zinc lidded vintage canning jars.... $1.00 each

Wire holder from Walmart.... $5.99

Egg sign from Kirkland's sale......$7.99

Cutting board from Walmart  $5.99

(hung with 2 Command hooks)

Decorative Honey Dipper from the same friend

that gave me the license plate........so cute!

Sink that is awaiting it's new faucet and LP hot water heater!

Green tea pot and plate....yard sale again....$3.00 for the 

tea pot......50 cents for the plate!

Organizing drawer baskets....yardsale and Walmart

2 Throw rugs from Rural King....$3.99 each

We had our first "catastrophy"....

our rear window leaks!

We had some pretty heavy rain here over the last two

days.....when I discovered the leak (which we knew about previously, the previous owner informed us)

I put plastic wrap and a micro fiber cloth in the window

while I was at work....I checked it when I got home...

needless to say, I was stunned at how much water was on the plastic wrap and in the micro fiber cloth!

I nearly panicked!

This pic really does not show how WET the wood had gotten....

This one window is a sliding type window, 

it has a gasket on the right side which is stationary,

well....part of the gasket was missing, and another part did

not meet in the corner.....

I caulked the areas....

I will keep a very close eye on the window!  

Leakage like this could be the end of a beautiful

camper if left unattended!  

Which will not happen!  Nope!

Close up view of the gasket after caulking....

If this does not take care of the problem....

then.....I will be looking to replace the window,

which would be a shame.....it's original and works well.

The remainder of the windows are crank out louvers...

they do not leak one drop!  Yay!

Well, that's all for tonight.....

I will blog again on how the plumbing and hot

water heater install go........

hopefully they'll go off without a hitch!

Remember,

(Maybe I will buy the canoe next!) 

;)

She's Home!!

Penelope is now at her new home, MY home!

You see, when we brought her home 10 days ago

we were waiting on our roofers to get here to re-roof our

home.....we had a huge hail storm here on March 6th.

So to prevent Penelope from getting in the way and possibly

being damaged......God Forbid!.....our close friends and neighbors

let us store her in their back yard.....Bless theirs hearts!

We finally brought her home yesterday evening....

and my youngest daughter and her 9 month old daughter

are coming home today also!  They have been in California,

her husband is a Marine.  He will be coming home the end of

May, his active duty will be completed May 27th!

Can't wait to have them back in the local area!  Woo Hoo!

I will try to post pics tomorrow of the 3 of them!

Ta Ta for now!  

Glamping Dreams

1965 Arrow Camper

I am brand new to this "blogging" thing......so please be patient with me!  

On April 13th, 2012 I had my 50th birthday.....I am an empty nester and was looking to try new things.....so my oldest daughter introduced me to Pinterest.com!  Well, needless to say.....I am addicted!  I began looking at pins.....and pinned many things that I loved. I started out pinning photography, kitchen ideas and DIY decorating and cleaning products.  Then I stumbled upon a pin for a Vintage Camper......then found more pins for Vintage Campers......everything from Airstreams to Shastas!  Almost instantly I was hooked!  Two of my dearest friends think that I have totally lost my mind!   You see, I have always loved the outdoors......and we already owned a "vintage"1985 Scamper pop up..........but the problem was that I didn't realize that it was "vintage", I thought it was just OLD.  It leaked badly, every Spring when we would open it up to get it ready for the season......it was always home to thousands.....no, millions!.......(no exaggeration here) of ANTS!  I dreaded opening our pop up each Spring because I knew that we would have this to battle.  Of course with the ants came their larvae........ick, is all I can say.  We would take a broom and sweep out what we could, then put Terro out to kill the remaining critters......but seems they were always around.....I truly believe there was a huge nest in the ceiling of our pop up due to the leak........they were following the water.  Along with the ants, came mildew on the canvas and vinyl in the interior of the pop up, so I would need to wash down all the vinyl with a bleach solution......and the canvas, well.....there's not much one can do to clean canvas, so we just dealt with the smell and appearance.  The pop up had it's other problems also.....one summer while my hubbie was climbing into the bunk for the night, he accidentally bumped the rail with his knee while I was sleeping......that was all it took to knock the whole bunk off the end of the camper!  Thank goodness my brother-in-law was still awake.....he heard our screams and came to our rescue.......we were very fortunate that the two of us and our daughter, who was asleep in the bunk on the opposite end of the camper, were not severely injured or killed. Our homemade safety poles that we had zip tied to the riser poles had held.......Praise the Lord!

So, needless to say........our 1985 Pop Up Scamper.......has served us well, but it's time to retire "Clay-tucky".........this is what I had named it several years ago, it looked like a camper that a backwoods redneck would have.......and we live in Clay County, IN.   I've always said that I needed a sign so everyone would know it's name!

This is one of the few pics that we have of "Clay-Tucky"

minus the 15 foot tarp that usually covers the whole shebang!

So.........now onto my GLAMPING DREAMS!  

What is Glamping?   It's Glamorous Camping........search Google and you will find thousands of links!

When I discovered the Glamping category on Pinterest.com I had made up my mind that I would make the best of things and Glamp up our pop up camper.......after all, surely it would LOOK better!

Then.......it happened........

A dear friend of mine had sent me a link on my 50th birthday for a 1965 Arrow Travel Trailer that had been completely renovated and it was only 10 miles from where we lived!  My heart was pounding when I opened the pictures!  I showed them to my husband and he said, "Uh huh..."  He really didn't have the enthusiasm that I did......kinda disappointing, you know?  I kept coming back to the link throughout the day.....I just had to drool over this little camper! 

 I had pinned this to my Glamping Inspirations page on Pinterest a couple of months previous........

Having a different camper was always in the back of my thoughts but I had never prayed for one......gee, it would be nice to not have to deal with setting up the pop up, killing the ants, and removing the mold.         The Lord gave me my desire and so much more!  

I was looking at the pictures of the Arrow once again when my husband came over to see what I was doing....I was looking at the pics, when I said......"Can I make an appointment to go and just look at it?"  He said we could go to look at it. (a little sign of hope)  That evening on the way to the seller's home, he asked me how I would pay for it......I suggested that I can take a small loan from my 401K retirement fund.  He said "yeah, you could do that". (another little sign of hope!)  We arrived at the seller's home, we chatted, then we entered the camper.......the seller began to explain to us everything that he had done to renovate this little gem of a camper.  Within 5 minutes I knew I wanted it!  He had done such loving work to the Arrow.......it was everything that I had dreamed of! While his back was turned...I looked at my husband and he new instantly that I wanted it badly!  So we wrote a check to the seller, and 3 days later (on a Monday) after the check cleared the bank, we picked up our "new" Vintage Camper!   I was soooo excited that I could hardly contain myself!  

Below, are the pictures in the order that they were listed in the ad.........

Driver's side

Curb side

Loft full/queen bed........dinette was removed
Not a problem for us, we eat at the picnic table anyway!

Furnace closet and microwave

Kitchen area (minus running water, that we will install soon)

Sofa seating area that makes into a full size bed

So........

this is just the beginning of my Glamping Dream!

Future plans for our Little Vintage Camper are:

- Add running cold and hot water......we will recycle our water tank and water pump from our pop up          camper and install them into our new one, we will be purchasing an LP instant hot water heater too

- Paint the LP tanks so they will look better

- Maybe add a stripe to the exterior

- Polish and buff the raw aluminum on the exterior

- Glamp up the interior!  My colors will be.....red, sage green, cream and a small amount of brown

- and lastly......she needs a name!  

I had pinned this a few weeks ago......and fell in love with it!

Kohler's Pig

I thought he looked as if he wanted to fly,

but didn't have the wings to,

so it was an impossibility!

Then I found this!

I was in Love!

I pinned this too.....

Call it my mid-life crisis if you will,

but this is how I feel.......

(I love the little wings!)

I'm not Lost........I'm just Wandering 

into a new chapter of my life!

And, Lovin' Every Minute!

So -

won't you follow along with me

while I Glamp my Vintage Camper? 

Oh, one last picture........

I found this and thought it was perfect....

Penelope

(may just be the perfect name, if I can convince my hubbie!)

I did promise him, that since he will be camping in her also,

that I wouldn't make the glamping too girly!  

After all, Penelope is a much better name than "Clay-Tucky", don't you think?

First "Glamping" project!

So....now that I've kind of figured out how this whole "blogging" thing works

I'm posting my first Glamping project!

I wanted to have plenty of fluffy, comfy, throw pillows in my own colors,

but I didn't want to spend $5-$6 a piece on pillow forms, or buy new pillows that would cost much more...

So....

off to the yard sales I went!

And 

VIOLA!

6 pillows with perfectly good pillow forms inside!

They were even clean!

I found this inside of one of the green pillows

$17.99 (for one)
  I paid $10.00 for 6!

These pics on Pinterest are my inspiration!

The Bunting Flags may be next!

I already have the little dog,

her name is Kate...

she is half Chihuahua and half Mini Schnauzer...

She is called a "Chizer"

best of all she was Free!

 I thought I might get this in her honor....

And, remember...

 Keep on keeping on.......

Whatever seems to be an impossibility.....

Just may be fulfilled!

and don't forget to........

!