Downtime. Upcycle.

1971 Aristocrat Camper Remodel Before and After

2013-05-20T10:22:00.000-07:00

The Jones has come a long way since November. Here is the progress I've made on him in five months.

Before:

Despite the condition of this 1971 Aristocrat, you can tell I how ecstatic I was to get it for $450. lol

After

Made a long pillow out of a flannel skirt

Sewed flannel shirts into curtains

Painted over that awful, 70's blue

Spray painted all of the hardware shiny silver

Put to use some wedding decor ironed on decals to thrift store pillows

Sewed lazy-(wo)man slipcovers using $5 Wal-Mart Sheets

Redid the counter tops

Spray Painted the outside white and hunter green

Skidaway Island State Park

Hot Springs, NC

Left to do:

1. Install an air conditioner

2. Sew an awning

3. Paint an outdoor rug

Flannel Bombing the Camper

2013-05-20T10:05:00.000-07:00

Turns out we love flannel.

Maybe a little too much.

Nah, that could never be ;)

Instead of paying tons for fabric to make new curtains for our vintage camper, I hit up my local thrift store on a sale day and brought home a bag full of flannel shirts for $2.

Then I cut all of the large portions off and lined them up.

Then I sewed them together one by one and added a loop thingy at the top to put the curtain rod through.
It only took me about one hour to do this project, and I absolute adore my custom made curtains for our little camper :)

Also, while I was at it, I took a flannel skirt , made one cut (cut the waist off) and sewed a pillow out of it. Love.

Hot Springs, North Carolina

2013-05-20T07:57:00.000-07:00

Our second trip in The Jones was to Hot Springs, North Carolina. It is a neat little town about 30 minutes outside of Asheville, NC. The campground is privately, not state owned, so it's a little pricey at $40 a night, but the good thing about it is that friends can set up tents on the site, and no one will say anything, so we split the price and saved some money. Camping is always more lively with friends :)

This campground has a lot of sites that are right on the river where you can float, raft, or sit in a lounge chair and just watch.

But the best part about this campground though is that you are within walking distances from a spa, a bar-b-que, place, and two taverns. This town is really dog-friendly too, so we were able to take Hank with us and sit on the patio to eat at Spring Creek Tavern.

My friend, April, took some really awesome photos of our camping trip at: NamastApril

Our little camper looks so cute in the woods!

Camping versus Hotel

2013-05-20T07:12:00.000-07:00

On our maiden voyage to Skidaway State Park, I decided to do a cost comparison of camping versus staying in a hotel. Here are the totals:

	Camping	Hotel
Stay	$80 ($27 per night x 3)	Around $500 for 3 nights (this price is based on the average hotel cost close to downtown Savannah, GA)
Gas	$130 (had to take the truck)	$80 (based on my small car’s gas millage)
Food	$125 (based on only eating out once a day plus the grocery bill for breakfast & lunch food)	$150 (based on eating out 2 times a day since most hotels offer free breakfast)
Dog Care	$0	$30 boarding fee
Total	$335	$760
	Saved $425

We almost saved the price of the camper ($450)! Obviously by saving money you lose luxuries like private showers and such, but sometimes it does the heart well to rough it a little :)

DIY Candle Holders

2013-04-01T10:53:00.000-07:00

Supplies:
Stair spindles from Lowes around $2 each
Wooden platforms from Lowes around $2 each
Upcycled salsa jar lids
spray paint

Time :
about 30 min plus drying time

Steps:
1. Paint
2. Glue or screw platforms to spindles
3. Hot glue lids to top of spindles

This is a great way to upcycle lids. Aaron also had the idea to paint pop lids to hold long candles.

Maiden Voyage : Skidaway Island State Park

2013-03-31T06:20:00.000-07:00

It was my goal to have "The Jones" ready by our spring break, and though it's not finished *completely*, he was ready enough to get us the hell out of East Tennessee where snow was in the forecast for each day of our vacation.

Turned our storage door into a chalkboard

We had planned all along for his first trip to be to Hot Springs,NC with some friends, but alas, we were snowed out/in. So, we did indeed have a case of March Sadness and on a whim loaded him up and headed to Skidaway Island State Park in Savannah, GA.

Sun Shine and Spanish Moss does the heart good! I found this campground just by googling "campgrounds near Savannah, Ga" It had lots of great reviews, and they all proved true. The sites were private, the showers clean, and the trails well marked.

We hiked each day we were there. I say "hiked," but it was more just like a walk since the land is very, very flat unlike the trails in the mountains were we are used to. Above are just a few of the amazing scenic spots we saw along the way.

Rooftop Bar View From Bohemian Hotel

Each night, we made the 25 minute drive into downtown Savannah. We heart Savannah. It's where we honeymooned and may very well be our favorite city :)

The Azaleas were blooming all over the city!

To get to the nearest beach from Skidaway, you have to drive about 40 minutes to Tybee Island. I'm not going to lie, even though the sun was shining, it was chilly on the beach in March. But.....

We did throw down at The Crab Shack on Tybee. A platter as big is Aaron's face. Amazing.

After 3 nights, sadly, it was time to head home :( We will definitively return though; we LOVED it!

*Next post will be camping versus hotel when traveling*

Vintage Sports Baby Shower and Maternity Shoot

2013-03-20T07:57:00.000-07:00

Our Whichcrafters craft club hosted a shower for one of our members. She did the baby's room in a vintage sports theme, so that's the theme we went with for her shower and photo shoot. It turned out to be such a fun theme to work with!

I decorated my mantel with basketballs, daisies, and patriotic colors.

We took pictures before the shower at a local baseball field.

Baseball cake!

Here we are cheering our little mommy on! The flags that you see in the above two pictures were made out of felt and scrap fabric.

H is for Holden :)

I found some old trophies of mine and used them as food markers. I tried throwing the trophies out many, many times, but my mom always jumps in to rescue them. Thanks mom, they finally came in handy for something!

For our craft, we each painted a onesie. They are each so different and so cute! She loved them all!

Another Christmas Ornament

2013-02-25T11:16:00.000-08:00

Well, with over a million repins, I've become a Pinterest sensation with last year's Christmas ornament, so I thought I would post another one to keep my fans happy ha :)

After our wedding, I dried my bouquet and used it to make a shadowbox. I had a few petals leftover, so I had the idea to use them in a Christmas ornament.

All I did was cut out a picture of our wedding flowers, roll it up, and insert it into the ornament opening. Then, I used tweezers to straighten it out. Lastly, I put in a few dried rose petals from my bouquet.

Ahhhh, memories.......

Egg Carton Seed Starters Year 3

2013-02-20T07:47:00.001-08:00

This makes the 3rd year that I've used this method of starting seeds, and each year I've gotten great seedlings!

Here is how to make the mini-greenhouses : Link

This year I had a new helper :)

I've used this method as well: Link

Both methods have their benefits. When you use the egg carton method, you create a mini greenhouse that you don't have to water as often while the plants are tiny enough to keep the lids closed. However, you have to disrupt the roots when you plant them. Using the newspaper method, you have to water more often, but you can plant the newspaper and all into the ground. Last year we used both methods, and we saw NO difference in the plants once they matured and produced. We will probably use both methods again this year too because we are out of cartons and have tons more vegetables dancing in our heads :)

DIY Counter Tops...Finished

2013-02-08T11:28:00.000-08:00

The camper's counter tops are now finished! See the first steps in this post. I really love how they turned out! However, if I were to use this method in my house (which I very well may do), I would make the first coat of color a solid and even color. I was going for a rustic/stone/granite look, and this is exactly what it turned out like. As you can see, the black paint under the stone paint is a little uneven, but I think that achieved the look I set out to obtain.

Remember is what they looked like before:

And here is after:

After all of the camper updates are complete, hopefully I will be able to get some better pictures for you :)

Camper Progress and DIY counter tops

2013-01-21T14:12:00.001-08:00

UPDATE...FINISHED TOPS:
Click Here

I'm making progress with my vintage camper renovation! You may think that the cold and snow would have put a damper on the camper work, but no, it's warm and toasty in "The Jones," and I've managed to put a few hours into to it each week. What I'm working on today are the counter tops.

As you can see (or maybe not from the dark and horrible photos), is that I was working with some U.G.L.Y tops and had nothing to lose, so I tried out this tutorial on using American Accents Stone Spray Paint to create a faux granite look. The tutorial used the sand colored stone paint, but I went with a darker choice.

Steps:
1. Tape everything well
2. Spray paint the base layer using just regular and cheap spray paint. It doesn't matter if it's all well covered or not because you will be covering it up with the stone spray paint.

3. Let dry and then spray on the stone spray paint.
4. Let dry for a long, long, long time. Every time I checked my stone paint, it was still damp, so I ended up letting it dry two nights before moving on to the polyurethane.
5. Polyurethane. This is the step I'm currently on. I applied my first coat today, and now, I'm going to let it dry over night before applying the next coats

There's the sneak peak! I will post the finished outcome in the next week or two! I can't tell they are going to be so so so much better than what was in there :)

Cost:
Cheap black spray paint $2
Stone spray paint x2 $10 (I ended up using 1 and 1/2)
Polyurethane $8
Total = $20

UPDATE...FINISHED TOPS:
Click Here

Old Shutter Christmas Card Holder

2012-12-20T08:09:00.000-08:00

I made this shutter card holder for our wedding, and I loved it so much that I kept it to use as a Christmas card holder as well.

It looks really cute sitting in our kitchen on a couple of picnic baskets also left over from our wedding :)

Our Vintage Camper

2012-12-10T12:00:00.000-08:00

I'm so tickled to have finally found an old camper to call my own :) :) :) I've been on the lookout for a vintage (such a better connotation than 'old' haha) camper for months and months, and my patience has paid off. He may not look like much now, but I have some big plans for "The Jones." I let my husband name him since he so very sweetly drove an hour to haul home a cute piece of "junk" that he can't even stand up in all the way because it's so short and he's 6'1. He chose to name it "The Jones" after George Jones because our little camper is old, beat all to hell, and can hold quite a few cold ones. hehe

This is a 1971 Aristocrat. It makes me smile to think about all of the joy it's given previous owners in the past 41 years. I have a lot of plans on how to fix it up, and I will share all of the before and after photos as I finish. My goal is to have it ready by our spring break (March!) so my honey and I can take off somewhere wonderful :)

Here is a mood board of what I have in mind for the inside:

If you are wondering how to begin the hunting process for a camper of your own, here is what I did.

1. Set a budget. I knew I didn't want to put more than $600 into a camper. Sure the new ones are nice, but for me, the pleasure I will get from fixing this one up is worth loads more. Plus I'm cheap.
2. Check Craigslist and your local newspaper....everyday
3. My husband will attest that I became obsessed. I checked listings every morning and night for about 5 months. But, this served two purposes....1. I would catch the good listings 2. Aaron knew this wasn't a "phase" I was in. He realized how much I really wanted one, so he gave in ;)
4. Search for the words "Vintage" "Older Camper" "Hunting Camper" "Aristocrat" "Scotty" "Shasta" "Airstream" as these will show up out of your regular local search.
5. Over the coarse of 5 months, I probably found about 15 campers that I thought fit what I was looking for. Out of those, only about 5 owners emailed or called me back. Out of those, we looked at 2. So, I guess this step is to be patient.
6. Take someone with you that will be the voice of reason. I wanted the very first one I saw. However, Aaron pointed out that the floor and ceiling were....umm....rotting out. He knew that would be too much for me to fix, so finally I agreed.
7. Always bring cash and talk them down. The man had this camper listed for $1000. I told him via email my budget ($500-600), and then Aaron was able to talk him down to $450 once we got there because we had cash to pay. Whoop!

Aaron laughed at our hoopty trailer all the way home, but haters gonna hate. lol He won't be laughing when he wakes up to biscuits in the tiny oven, a river rolling in the background and coffee by the fire this spring :)

Upcycled Sleeping Mat into a Headboard

2012-11-14T11:36:00.000-08:00

Our king size bed really needed a headboard, and I had full intentions of making one since May, but the hassle of measuring and getting the wood cut at Lowes turned my intentions into procrastination. However, just so happens that my sleeping prima donna (husband) , decided to throw out my little one-man camping mat since his highness needed a fancy air mattress for camping ;) Never fear though, I snatched it back and made this handsome headboard out of it. :)

Time: 15 minutes (I know, crazy fast project)

Supplies:
Old sleeping mat
Cloth
Push pins
Hot Glue gun

Steps:

1. Cut mat to size if need be

2. Cover front of mat with fabric and hold in place with push pins (if you use decorative ones, you can leave them in)

3. Flip over, pull fabric tight, and hot glue to back

4. Nail to wall

This is the before picture above, and...

This is the after. I like how it anchors the room with the black.

Also, I finally framed my $5.00 prints as you can see in the picture. I am ON it this week!

Fall Kisses

2012-11-11T16:09:00.001-08:00

This is a simple little way to spread some fall kissy poohs :) Just add some googly eyes, and use puffy paint for lips and eyebrows.

We love fall!

$20 Living Room Update

2012-11-03T13:08:00.001-07:00

This October marked the 3rd year that I've been in my house, and I was in the mood for a little update.

Here is the before picture:

(We really aren't this messy. I had already begun moving some things before I remembered to take the picture) As you can see, I had a tiny little rug under our trunk/coffee table. I found a much larger rug at Big-Lots for $19, and I think it pulled the living room together so much better!

Then, I finally did something with a $1 yard-sale canvas I had. The canvas originally had brown circles painted on it, but I gave it a white coat, and then I got to work using the same colors found in my new rug.

It took me about an hour to free-hand it, and I REALLY love how it turned out. It also blends well with the tree painting I did when I first moved in. Both of these DIY paintings were fairly easy to do, but I think that anyone, regardless of artistic talent, could do the abstract one. All you need is 3-4 colors of paint and to be able to draw a leaf-like oval. After getting the ovals, simply rotate the ones your fill in all the way, or leave as outlined.

Scarf Holder

2012-10-26T13:58:00.000-07:00

I used a behind-the-door towel rack and curtain clips to create a much needed storage solution for my scarves.

DIY Wedding Flowers

2012-09-23T17:22:00.000-07:00

When we started planning our wedding, we knew that we wanted to do our own flowers because ~~we are crazy~~ we both love arranging flowers. Neither of us has any training or anything, we just love to arrange fresh flowers for our kitchen table. If you like natural styles, arranging is so simple and fun :) However, simply finding the flowers was a huge deal. There aren't any whole-sale flower companies in our area, and going through a florist was pretty expensive even though we would be the ones arranging. So, we took a huge chance and ordered our flowers online. We used FiftyFlowers and could not have been more pleased.

I was pretty clueless as to how to go about having the flowers delivered, but they walked me through each step. I'm not going to lie though--it was extremely nerve-wracking because nightmares of wilted/black/too small/every other worry imaginable keeps running through your head the days leading up to their arrival (2 days before event). Istalked the diverly guy via UPS tracker every 10 minutes, and then I ran out to greet him once he came. :)

This is what they looked like when they arrived. Literally our entire kitchen was covered with gorgeous flowers. Day 1 was spent letting them refresh in buckets of water (4 hours) and then cutting them down to size and pulling away outside petals. Day 2 was spent arranging the flowers for the reception. The BIG day was spent making corsages and my bouquet. Aaron made all the men's boutonnieres including his own. He did a wonderful job :)

Loose petals to toss

Single roses in a jar with baby's breath

Upcycled Seed Saver

2012-09-23T16:36:00.002-07:00

Easy little idea if you are saving seeds. Just use your empty vitamin containers and label your seeds. I've been saving seeds for about 3 years now. I simply dry them out on a paper towel and put them into a baggie, but I figured this may be a little more air-tight, and I can reuse them each year.

Cheap Posters/Prints

2012-08-02T14:22:00.000-07:00

These two gigantic photo prints cost me a whopping $3.00 each. If you take your photos to Staples on a jumpdrive, they can print you engineering prints. I found this tip through Pinterest here: Link The creative lady who had the tip used wood to carve out a frame for her huge photo, but I'm unsure of what I will use yet. They turned out really well especially given the price!

I also had a poster made for my classroom. I took a picture from our honeymoon and used Picasa to add words.

This is a really bad picture of the poster, but it will look great in my room!

DIY Wedding Shadowbox

2012-06-21T11:43:00.001-07:00

My friend Emily got married in September and her mother surprised her with a gorgeous wedding shadowbox for Christmas which was done by a professional. When I saw it, I fell madly in love with it, but knew that it was out of my price range. Even though it was worth the money ( the woman who made it meticulously hand painted each and every petal of Emily's bouquet then put it all back together), we were completely broke after our wedding, so I decided to try and make my own version. I'm thrilled with the outcome and the price ($36.00).

Time: 1 hour

Supplies:

Shadowbox (I bought mine at Hobby Lobby with a 40 % off coupon)
Dried bouquet and boutineer
Other wedding tokens
Pins
Tape

Steps:
1. When you get home from your wedding, (or have someone do this step for you) hang your flowers upside down in a dark room or closet. In hindsight, it may have been better to take it apart and hang each flower individually (but taking an hour to do this might not go over too well with your new husband...;)

2. After you get back from your honeymoon and the flowers are completely dried out, you will need to deconstruct the bouquet. You will need to do this because your bouquet is probably too fat to fit in the shadowbox.

3. Put the bouquet back together by stacking the roses. What I mean by this is, don't make your bouquet round---make it flat on the back and stacked in the front (opposite of the "Baby Got Back" song...ha) You may think the flowers will be too delicate to do this, but mine were very sturdy, and this worked perfectly.

4. Pin the bouquet to the board. Then, as you can see from the picture above, you will need to remove any unsightly petals (this is where the professional earns her pay because all the petals would be painted the exact color of your original flowers if this were done by a professional).

5. Pin or tape the rest of your items on the board. Replace frame and you are finished!

I wanted to use our original vows, so as you see, my husband did some editing to his as he went along haha. I like to think this adds charm :)

I love the rustic look that my flowers took on ; they match perfectly since we had such a lovely rustic wedding

Western Shirt turns Summer Sundress

2012-06-19T11:50:00.000-07:00

This thrift store western shirt has turned into one of my favorite sundresses! It was super easy to make too!

Time: 30 minutes or so depending on sewing skills

Supplies:
A man's shirt (this one was a 2X) It's pretty short on me, so watch the length as well.
Sewing supplies
A dress to go by

Steps:

1. Find a dress that fits well

2. Lay the fitted dress over the big shirt and, using a fabric marker, draw the outline of your fitted dress. Be sure to give yourself about an inch for the seam

3. Cut through the front and back of shirt along the lines of the outline.

4. Turn the shirt inside-out and sew back together

5. Do something with the sleeves. I decided to quarter mine.

Just Married Umbrella

2012-06-05T08:55:00.000-07:00

Ok, this project isn't upcycled, but it was the best 19.75 I've spent for something new in a long while :)

We are back from our honeymoon (lots of wedding posts and pictures to come....an AMAZING day), and this umbrella is still being used simply because it makes me giddy every time I use it. First of all, we just happened to be visiting Savannah, GA and Hilton Head, SC the same time Beryl decided to drop in. We were surprisingly blessed with mostly clear weather though...so clear in fact, that we almost didn't get to use our Just Married umbrella that I made and adore! Beryl did give a us one evening of showers however, so Aaron was a great sport and a perfect gentleman and carried our umbrella for us. We had a ball with it! Everyone on the streets would get a big smile on his or her face when they passed us, and a lot of people wanted to take pictures for us and give us their congratulations :)

Supplies:

1 Clear Bubble Umbrella (I got mine from Amazon)

White duct tape

Directions:

Cut tape in blocks then cut in half length wise

Form letters on umbrella

I thought that the duct tape wouldn't stay very long on the umbrella, but even after multiple uses, it's still holding strong. I debated whether paint would work better since it took a while to form the letters, but I'm glad that I went with the tape since I can take it off (if I ever have the heart to) and use the umbrella for regular use.

I got this idea from this picture on Pinterest

Self-Portrait for barn dance invitation

2012-05-09T18:13:00.000-07:00

Option 1

Rustic barn and wonderful sunlight

Option 2

Flower Favors

2012-04-30T13:20:00.001-07:00

This idea sprang from my garden marker idea. I thought it would be cute and inexpensive to make seed flags as our wedding favors.

Time: 30 minutes for 30 flags

Supplies:

Seed packets
Skewers
Hot glue

Steps:
1. Make sure all seeds have fallen to the top of the packet
2. Fold the bottom of the packet and spread hot glue down the fold

3. Put the skewer in glue, and then you are finished :)

They could also be used as "Cheering" flags and seed tosses