Day to Day

Still going

The meals aren't terribly exciting around here this week - eggs on toast, pasta, toasted sandwiches....there's just too much caravan cleaning and making going on for much more than that.

We are throwing in a bit of chocolate cake eating here and there though, baked by my girl on the weekend.

Sometimes I lose myself in the planning and dreaming. I can't wait for the first weekend to come when we can all climb in the car, hook on the caravan and head off for a couple of days of pure relaxation.  But for now, there's still a whole lot of cleaning and house keeping left to do.

The first van blanket is well underway.  I'm doing a granny stripe in 8 ply, which seems to be crocheting up reasonably fast.

A tiny owl found it's way into the van too, happily watching the clean up process as it pans out.

Tomorrow I have a few different things to tell you about - a fabulous Etsy store with the sweetest prints and artwork, a new children's book and some delicious products that arrived in the mail...although they're not of the eating kind!  I might need to split all that news into a couple of posts, we'll see.

Caravan cleaning

We pretty much hung out in the caravan today - cleaning, cleaning and oh wait....cleaning!

There was lots to do and still a whole heap more to go.  But, we're slowly getting there and this caravan business is so, so fun.

While we cleaned, this little pile of lovelies sat happily in the corner and waited.  They're waiting for everything to be all shiny, so they can move right into their new home.  The bottom green stripy duvet is from Freedom and so are the teatowels on top.  The vintage floral doona cover was an op shop find for $3.

One window down and four to go.  Yes, there was a wee garden growing in there before we started.

I used some leftover fabric laminate to line the cutlery drawer - much prettier and easy to wipe out when needed.

Oh and a new yarn project might have just jumped straight onto my crochet hook.  I'm not sure how that happened!

{Candle holder - also new season from Freedom}

So, that was our day. How was your Saturday?

Before the restoration - vintage caravan

Ta-da! The before photos of our new caravan:

We're going to start rubbing back the paint first thing tomorrow morning....hoping for an end result that's a little more like this, with slightly different colours:

{original source}

The inside needs a little bit of love too, but we're keeping the basics and just doing lots of accessorising:

I was unsure whether to keep the dining table area in the original orange fabric, but it's actually in really lovely condition and is pretty much in keeping with the design ideas that I have in my head.  My super lovely friend Janelle was kind enough to put together a little colour palette for me to work with - orange, aqua, lime green and pink. I really love this colour combination and can't wait to get started with my ideas.  First up is bedding and then some new curtains.

I'll keep you posted on my progress.  Have a lovely weekend!

Let the adventure begin!

See that little 1979 caravan gem above?  It's now sitting in our back yard - summer is going to be so much fun!

A few months ago we sold our Jayco camper, but the lure of camping has sucked us right back in again and we've been feeling like it's time to get away again.  Time to roast marshmellows on the open fire, hang out in wide open spaces and listen to the Tassie Devils growling in the night.  I am beyond excited!

We've had some pretty good family memories away in our first van and although I shared most of these quite some time ago on a separate blog, I'll be blogging all the new memories right here.  There's some cleaning, scrubbing and all sorts of crafting to be done in the new van before we head away away - I'll be sure to share photos as I go.

Yours in happy camping memories,

The Lego Ideas Book

Books always seem to make it onto my Christmas purchase list, although this year I've only bought one so far as a gift - The Lego Ideas Book.  It's for my nephew, to go along with the handmade pillow I sewed for him.  It's a fantastic book and I thought I'd share some pages with you, for all the die hard Lego fans out there!

The book is divided into sections - ideas for building cars, houses, animals, etc... Each section has a double page that details some of the Lego pieces you'll need to recreate the ideas that follow.

There are some super cool ideas inside, but my favourite would have to be the very cool house with furniture.  I'm sure that will be my nephew's least favourite part!

I thought this siege was an easy idea for an army style set up:

Other than buildings, cars, trains and other interest Lego creations, towards the back section of the book there are ideas for pencil holders, CD stackers and all sorts of other goodness to build.

Oh, and fabulous Lego storage building ideas too!  We have several Lego books in our house and this is definitely one that I'll be adding to our own collection some time.

{Lego: The Calendar}

Confession: I also bought the 2012 Lego Calendar, ready for next year.  It's really cool with lots of interesting Lego dioramas photographed inside!  Ahh, Lego - we love you!

P.S. I'll soon be sharing photos of the 16+ Lego Fire Station that we bought while we were away. The detail is amazing!

Meet Pippi

Thank you for all of the name suggestions for our new Blythe. A lovely reader (hi Kathleen!) suggested Pippi after one of her babies....well, Pippi it is!  Lots of other names made the list, but that one just kind of stuck.

Thank you! My readers are the best :)  

We like to make things!

It's true, we always have a multitude of projects on the go at our house.  The littlest is always scheming up new ideas, including that piece of yarn tied onto the hat that she's wearing - it's to prevent it from blowing off in the wind.  Genius. 

Styrofoam, balsa wood, nails, and a rubber band.  That's all you need for an afternoon of boating fun - plus a Dad to quickly hack saw up the styrofoam for you.

She's thinking of being an inventor when she grows up......or a nurse, scientist, artist, cupcake shop owner and all round crafter.  I love listening to her career ideas and how they vary depending on what's going on around her.

Blythe cardigans

I've been knitting like a crazy thing these last few evenings! I've just popped quite a few new knitted Blythe cardigans in my Etsy store this afternoon and wanted to say thank you so much for your Etsy love and support over the last week.  It's been lovely to post off so many little cardigans to different parts of Australia. 

I'm knitting again as I type and hope to add a few more during the week, plus try my hand at a  few knitted skirts,  perhaps with a little applique on the front - we'll see how I go.  Sometimes the vision I have in my head doesn't turn out exactly how I'm hoping once I start a new project.  Fingers crossed though.

I hope your weekend was a lovely one. We've just popped a roast in the wood fired oven and have been soaking up the sunshine in the garden most of the weekend.  Looking forward to watching Terra Nova on t.v. tonight - knitting in hand of course.  Is anybody else enjoying this new series?

Nice Etsy stores to visit

Being a handmade kinda girl, I love a good bit of Etsy shopping.  I occasionally share nice Etsy finds in a blog post, but today I thought I'd share a few of my most favourite stores - shops that I have personally bought from recently and love!

Dusty Plum - Jo sells the most divine hair ties and jewellery and they're packaged up so well.  The hair ties are also perfect for Blythe dolls, so Bella and our Blythes are forever sharing.

Bliss Bars - We have one of these soaps in our shower right now & it smells delicious.  I loved the soaps so much that I bought a few recently to pop away for Christmas gifts.

Namolio -  I bought two of these pretty pincushions recently. They were both going to be Christmas gifts, but I'm thinking of keeping one for myself.  They're beautifully made & came smelling like pretty lavender, which was a lovely surprise.

Belle & Boo - everybody loves Belle & Boo goodies, but at the moment their store is stocked with all sorts of Christmas goodness.  Shipping is pretty reasonable to Australia too, which is always nice.

There are lots of other stores on my 'must visit' list too - do you have a favourite store?

Outdoor building

Our backyard seat building is coming along nicely. There's not a lot to go before we're all finished - some extra limestone for the ground, a few more boards and a bit of tidying up.  Yesterday we bought a new barbecue, because our other one was feeling a bit worse for wear after 17 years.

There's nothing like a spot of sunshine in air to get you moving with outside jobs. We seem to add/build something every year in our backyard and I really like how it's shaping up.  

Oh and that's James helping with the construction - how is it that my boy is nearly 16 and helping with the building?  Sometimes I feel like shrinking him down a bit.