Day to Day

Hot water bottle covers - comfy camping

Remember those delightful crochet hot water bottle covers that arrived in my mailbox for our caravan?  Well, it was finally cold enough to give them a whirl on our last camping trip.  Normally the cold winter nights aren't something to get excited about, but to be honest I've been itching to try them out.

The hot water bottle heat came streaming through the yarn and they were so comfy to snuggle with at night.  I am super happy with them, much nice than wrapping a hot water bottle in a towel, like I remember doing as a child.

Want one?  You can make or buy your own!  They would be super cute for handmade gift giving too.

Buy your own hot water bottle cover like mine HERE.

Crochet your own - pattern HERE.

Knit your own - pattern HERE.

Make one from a felted jumper - pattern HERE.

Camping joy

{Pure camping joy - Bella with her cousin Bonnie}

Some of my fondest childhood memories were created on our family camping trips to the beach.  Every summer we would pack up the caravan and head off to the beach - sometimes it felt like we were there all summer long, but I'm sure it was more realistically just a week or less.

Here are a few of my favourite memories from all those years ago:

• Dad waking me up at 3am to crawl out of the caravan and spot Halley's Comet.
• Playing on the beach for the entire day and only heading back to the van for meals.
• Driving to the shop for ice cream treats.
• Seeing a pod of dolphins in close to the shore.
• Hearing about a sea snake that was spotted swimming at the beach and wondering if it was just a story.
• Finding crabs under rocks.
• Collecting shells & making sand castles
• Hearing about a boy that was speared through the leg a few vans down and thinking it was exciting that an ambulance turned up at the beach. 
• Fishing in the bay with Dad and catching fish after fish for dinner.  

Did you go camping as a child?  Do you have some memorable moments or were they hairy experiences?  

Easter camping

We're just home from three fun filled days of Easter camping.  There was chocolate, good food, lots of company and board games too, but let me tell you there was also a whole lot of rain of mud!  

The river swelled as we huddled under our make shift shelter and new little friendships were formed.  The kids blew bubbles, cooked marshmallows, played totem tennis, rode bikes and whined a little bit about at times about being bored.

There were 6 adults, 5 children, 1 dog, 1 caravan, 3 tents, 5 cars and 3 instant quick shades.

We went to River's Edge again and despite all that rain, it was a fantastic time away.  Oh, aside from the horribly drunken, cursing crew that were camped to one side of us.  Thankfully that only lasted one night though.  That's the one down side of camping, you never quite know if you'll have nice neighbours or not.

Now we just need to make our way through the truck load of chocolate eggs and bunnies that kindly found their way into our home.  I hope your Easter was a good one!

The caravan curtain

You girls rock! Thank you so much for all those lovely suggestions the other day when I put out my S.O.S. to hide our messy caravan shelf.

I loved the idea of doing matching fabric baskets all the way along, but was a little bit lazy to sew them all.  Instead I went for the curtain idea and I must say that it did the trick!

Good old vintage sheets came to the rescue and I whipped up a mini curtain of sorts in an hour.  I probably would have chosen a different fabric if I was buying fabric especially for the project, but I wanted to use what I had and vintage seemed perfect to match the era of the van.

It's nothing fancy but it does the trick.

Thank you to everyone that left a comment and came to my rescue, I appreciated your help. 

Painting the caravan

Now that my final coat of yellow paint is on, I'm super happy with that teensy splash of colour - much prettier than the raw pine that showed before.  It was tempting to keep going on that tiny end cupboard at the foot of the bed, but it would have needed a really big sand first and I didn't have the patience for that.

In hindsight I should have also been more patient and bogged up the screw holes in the bunk bed first, and then sanded them back before painting.  But, it's only a caravan and does it really matter if the screw holes are showing? I think not. 

I love pottering around in this tiny home on wheels - fun!  Next up is a mini curtain (that all my lovely readers suggested) to hide the messy end area.

Sprucing up the caravan

After the groceries, cleaning up, washing, bill paying and dinner organising today, it was time to do a little bit more caravan sprucing up! 

I started with an inspiration board of sorts for Bella, just above her bed.  We'd discussed creating her one when we first bought the caravan and have been collecting all sorts of goodness to put up - Belle and Boo postcards, Scrapps Flea Market prints and other random postcards that have arrived in our mail box.  It only stretches about a third of the way along her bed at the moment, which is okay because it means extra room for adding on later.

Tucked around the corner (near our double bed) I decided to start a photo board of trips away in the caravan, plus I threw a few new magazines in our magazine holders.  A few people asked about the holders on instagram a while ago.  They're just cheap wire racks that I bought from the local hardware store - probably meant to hold foil or cling wrap in the kitchen - but they're also the perfect size for books, etc..  

The one thing that keeps bugging me, is the messy shelf that runs along and above the double bed.  You can see it below in the photo - holding a toiletries bag, game and a couple of the fabric storage baskets that I made.  Do you have suggestions on how I can make this look more streamlined??  I just don't have a good idea for it and I'm not loving the way it is right now.

Another thing that has been bugging me (I know, two things!!) was an ugly pine beam that was holding up the bunk bed, plus the piece of MDF on the side of the bed.  So, I took it upon myself to give it two coats of undercoat today.  Yes!!

Do not tell Mr Goodsell though because I couldn't be bothered (shock!) finding undercoat in the shed, so I whipped out my trusty scrapbooking white gesso paint and used that instead.  I'm positively sure it will do the same thing.  I also decided the top coat is going to be a sunshiny yellow, so I found a sampler paint that we had of bright yellow and kept on adding my trusty scrapbooking gesso to it, until the colour looked right.  Goodness only knows how this will hold - another reason I am not saying a word about this whole thing to Mr Goodsell just yet.  He only reads my blog every week or so and I'm sure he skims over the writing, so GO me and my Gesso.  He will never be any the wiser, until the paint possibly peels off and he has to sand the entire thing back for me.  Oops.

So..here is my progress - and no I did not worry about removing the linen to paint.  I'm a very careful painter.

Well, I did flip the bottom mattress on it's side out of the way - it seemed like the right thing to do.

So, that was my afternoon!  I hope yours was nice.  I will share my sunshine yellow corner of the van, once it's all finished.

Don't forget that I'm in dire need of suggestions for that messy corner!

Yours in renovating caravans - the easy peasy way,

Three day camping

On Friday morning we set off to River's Edge again, for a little dose of rest and relaxation.

{note the broken thong}

The rhythm was a little different this time around, because Bella made new friends and spent the entire time swimming, playing and just hanging out with them.  She had the best time!

The rest of us spent our days around the camp fire and supervising water play.  Oh, the boys had a dip in the swimming hole too - the water was cold, icy cold.

I crocheted, and crocheted, and crocheted.  The granny stripe blanket is growing - hooray for that! I'll share my progress soon.  Surprisingly, we barely took any photos this trip.

There were new camping toys to unwrap - Lego men, of course.

.....and today Mr Goodsell and myself celebrated 18 years of marriage.  Good things!

I hope your weekend was a good one.

Final photos from camping

I was looking through our last camping trip photos the other day, and realised that I hadn't shared them all on my blog.  Oh no!

Let's not fill your computer with every single photo that I took from the weekend, because I think there were a couple of hundred all up.  Instead, I've chosen a few of my favourites.

The toasting fork of all toasting forks! We use this for marshmallows :)

There was a lot of this going on - hanging out, rolling around the grass and happy doggie moments.

Family snapshots, with a crazy one thrown in to boot.

More doggie moments...

Oh, and scones.  My Mum baked these and delivered them to camp for us!  I know, I know....I have a very good Mum :)

We're off on a whole new adventure this weekend - I have my crochet packed, magazines to read and a giant sized packet of marshmallows ready to toast.  Everything a girl needs :)

Camping food ideas

Before we left for our last camping trip, I realised that it had been so long since we'd ventured out to the bush, that I was all out of camping food ideas for the trip.  My lovely readers on Facebook came to the rescue, giving me so many fabulous suggestions! 

The first one was a main dinner idea - I adapted it slightly to suit the ingredients we had on hand.  It's basically bacon (diced), onion, capsicum (chopped finely) and garlic, all fried up in the pan.  Then I added a couple of cans of Deb Potatoes (quartered) and a tin of baked beans - warmed throughout and served.  Delicious and easy!

The second idea was Bella's favourite from our weekend away.  It's just peeled and chopped apple, sprinkled with brown sugar, and then we threw in a few marshmallows for good measure.  Seal the mixture in some aluminium foil and bake in the coals, until the apple is nice and soft.

So good! The leftover sugar and melted marshies were a little treat too:

If you have a 'must try' camping recipe, I'd love to hear it!

Camping essentials

A friend told me the other day that she doesn't like camping.  What?!  Okay, I get it...but why?  When pressed a little further I expected the answer to be all about snakes, spiders, no technology, etc... But it turns out, that she misses her cosmetics while camping.

Well, I reassured her that I always take cosmetics camping, just a few of my favourites to see me through.  Here's a peek at what I packed on our last trip.

• Revlon lipgloss - because I end up with cold sores if my lips dry out too much. This is a new favourite - a gift from a nice friend of mine.
• Jane Iredale Pommisst - another new favourite of mine! It's a hydration spray that feels beautiful and fresh. I used this continually while we were away, to rehydrate my skin from the sun and camp fire - I'm still using it now that we're home too.

• Benefit, Confessions of a Concealaholic kit - I bought this a few months ago and love it.  Actually I love all Benefit cosmetics, they're fabulous.  For camping I used the Erase Paste - a concealer for dark circles under the eyes, in a cute little tub.  I also wore the yellow coloured Lemon Aid, that you can see inside the kit.  It's a colour correcting eyelid primer, but is also nice and fresh to wear as an eye shadow.
• Garnier BB cream - The lovely Sarah and Nikki first introduced me to this miracle foundation, on our trip to Kuala Lumpur, and after a bit of a chit chat, it seemed like I was the only blogger on that trip who wasn't using BB! I rushed straight to the supermarket and picked up a tube when we returned home - yes, supermarket! It's around $12 - $14 for a tube and I've been loving it ever since.  It also contains SPF 15 - perfect for camping sunshine.  The coverage is amazing, but it looks perfectly natural on your skin and has a lovely little glow about it too.  If you're not BB-ing it yet, go and buy a tube - I promise you'll love it!
• Garnier Body conditioning lotion - I've been using this for a while, love it and it's perfect for dried out campfire legs and arms.

So, there you go - my camping cosmetic essentials. Ta-da!