xo,
Alana

When I started shopping around for a camper to fix up a year ago, the Airflyte was the one that made my heart skip a beat, but I couldn’t touch them at around $3,000, and that was on the low end. But apparently I built up some good camper karma by fixing up the others and putting them back on the road. My roomie out at the hangar had his paws on one that looked pretty scary on the outside. So scary that I wasn’t sure about taking it on at all. But he spent a couple of days on it, cleaning it up and putting down fresh 8″ tiles, and she looked SO cute that I was hard core smitten and snatched her up.

Here’s a shot of the Yellowstone out at the hangar this winter with the Shasta just shivering off in the background, all alone. Can you see her off to the right?

I was interested in the sense that here was a gem that was melting away in an old airfield. Very sad looking.

It’s amazing what we might pass by because it looks trashed, but really it’s just dirty. Look at the cabinets here.

Now check out what a scrubbing and a coat of amber shellac can do:

Again, nothing but a clean up. She just needed a bath to start looking more like her old self.

Randy the hangar roomie put down new tiles:

Took her over to the local car wash and did a top to bottom pressure spray, then prepped for paint.

Dave pulling off the old wood panels. We’ll recover these spots in the future, but not sure what to do with them yet. Right now I’m just using some foam core and white duct tape as a placeholder to keep the elements out. Classy-looking? No.

After working on it for a couple of days, Sophia and I decided on a quick overnight trip to Lake Shabbona to enjoy our new clubhouse for a bit.

There is still a lot to do. I need to roll out the dings and dents, finish painting, and fix the dinette cushions. They need to be wood-glued, clamped, and screwed back together then recovered. We might tackle that this weekend.

Right now I’m in-between gigs [see my portfolio here] so I’m pouring all that extra energy into finishing the Airflyte, rehabbing another 1958 mystery trailer, re-webbing a stash of vintage aluminum chairs, fixing up an old 40′s kitchen wall clock, and sanding lots and lots and LOTS of estate sale furniture. So lots of creative posts in the pipeline. Check back soon!

A 1973 Airstream Tradewind. (yippee!)

(Tons of pics here)

I think we’ll stand on the Airstream for awhile. What’s funny is that all of these upgrades required no additional money. It was just better opportunities to trade up that presented themselves. Kind of like a vintage camper version of Property Ladder.

Anyway, so there’s work to be done. I was very inspired by the cottage in the Swedish version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, how it was light and airy with traditional touches and graphic florals. We’ll be doing a Scandinavian Cottage vibe with the new trailer.

The sunny yellow Formica on the counter tops is in good shape, so I let that inspire the color palette. Well go light gray and yellow in graphic prints and bedding, then try to mix in touches of color anywhere else we can, but still keeping things light and bright.

I chose a yellow and gray modern floral from Amy Butler’s Midwest Modern line for curtains in the rear bunk areas. Maybe in the front as well, but not final on that yet.

I’ve been doing some shopping around the house. After we moved into our 1927 bungalow, I started going more farmhouse/flea market with the decor and packed away a lot of our mid-century modern stuff. Now they’ll get a new life in the Airstream.

That’s about as far as I’ve gotten on decorative daydreaming aside from my Pinterest board devoted to this project. There’s a lot of real work to be done before I start primping our new little caravan.

I’ve already done lots of scrubbing.

And took care of some easy fixes.

(rear bunks before)

(rear bunks after) New wood on the bed frames, new twin mattresses.

Scrubbed all the carpet gunk off the wood floor, put down a gray runner as a placeholder until we can replace the wood in the front area and put down permanent flooring.

Assessed repairs to be done.

There are lots of dings in the aluminum skin, many which (thankfully) can be pulled or rolled out by hand.

She needs new tires, a brake job, and we need to do a good check of the water system. All the electric and gas lines were redone in the last 4 years.

I’ll be adding sets to my Flickr collection as each project takes another step forward.

So what do you think? Any suggestions for the decor? Any tips for the repairs? Do you own a vintage Airstream? How did you do things?

You have no idea what I’ve been through in the past month. One afternoon I got an email from my dad and his wife informing me that my blog was throwing up redirects to some Russian spam scam site. After a little investigating, I found articles about how my host, Dreamhost, had their servers hacked with the exact same outcome I had experienced. Oh…ok. They’ll help me fix it, right? Surely I’m not alone and they’re all over this, RIGHT?

Nope.

So lots of email was exchanged back and forth. At the end of the day, they assumed no responsibility for straightening out the mess and denied that the reported hacking was in any way tied to my 24 domains, even though they all had the exact same redirect that was written about in the industry websites.

Sad. I was very, very sad. It put Bluebird Goods out of business. I’m still not sure how I’m going to rebuild that situation. But at least my little blog is back. I haven’t had anyway to share our Airstream fixer-upper project with you guys, or what I was dealing with, coping with the loss and attempted backups of 13 years of web files. Images, databases…Combing through them a little here, a little there. I’m very happy to be moving all of my sites over to HostGator.

So here we go. The blog is back. Not dead in the water as I thought for awhile.

Maybe it needed a special day like Leap Year to click into place.

Whew.

Anyway, so I’m trying to tell you that I rented an airplane hangar. One-third of a hangar, to be precise, which is plenty of space for me.

Funny…My grandfather being one of the first licensed pilots on the country, my father being a pilot, one brother working as an aerospace engineer, another working for a national airline.

I don’t fly, but I’m the only one with an airplane hangar. I think that’s kind of funny.

[Dad's edit via email this morning: "Your grandfather was flying before there was pilot licenses!!"]

And now I know my dad reads my blog.

Anyway, so what I’m really trying to tell you is that I rented an airplane hangar and that I’m going to use it to store and fix up neat old furniture. Stuff like this:

But if I were to pull you aside and whisper in your ear, I’d also tell you that I’m very much looking forward to warm days with my family in the countryside, away from the TV and internet, and letting it all wind down with a view like this:

I can feel my soul freeing up, moving like a thawing river, gaining some momentum, getting ready to create some good stuff.

More to come…

So I got hold of a used coffee bean sack and the rest was all stuff I had on hand. I mean, granted, it’s not a project destined for Project Runway, but it’s a fun, quick, and super easy project that you can whip together in under an hour. Think of how proud you’ll be when spring rolls around and you go tooling along through your favorite market with your cuted up cart.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 6″ wide strip of oilcloth (or any fabric you like)
• 4 grommets
• 4 12″ long strips of cotton ribbon, cording, or rope
• 1 burlap sack (procured from a coffee roaster or feed store)

First, situate your burlap sack so you can assess how tall it needs to be. Let it pool a bit at the bottom. That’ll get filled up with treasures. You’ll need a little extra bulk down there.

Hem the excess height from the top of the sack.

I pinned then stitched about a 1/2″ seam around the top of the sack, then trimmed the excess with pinking sheers.

Now, these burlap bags have 1 side seam, and when you fold it over to make a hem along the top of the bag, it’s going to make a marble-size bit of bulk. I trimmed off as much of the bulk as I could without getting too close to the stitches I just sewed.

Next you’ll need to trim a 6″ wide strip of whatever non-stretchy fabric you like, the same length as your bag is around. Just eyeball it, but give yourself a little bit extra. You can trim extra length off after you pin it in place.

Once you get your trim cut, fold it over and pin it. I’m sure there’s a better way to do this, but for the oilcloth I just pressed it with my quilting ruler to make a crease. If someone knows a better way to make a crease in oilcloth, I’d love to know about it.

Fold the trim over the hem you sewed along the top of the sack. Pin it, stitch it, and Bob’s your uncle. Again, I used about a 1/2″ hem. Next, we grommet!

I cut a small X with a box cutter keeping in mind the size of my grommets. They need to be large enough to fit your ribbon or cord through for tying to your cart. Then fit both sides of the grommet through the hole before smashing it closed with my grommet gun. (I love grommets!)

The final step is to take your 4 strips of ribbon, rope, cording, or whatever you like and tie it to your folding shopping cart.

Here she is! A super cute folding shopping cart liner ready to cruise the outdoor markets all summer long.

What do you think? Would you try this? If you do, please let me know!

From the most vibrant to the most plain, I think it all looks wonderful. When such a rugged material is paired with sweet fabrics, it only enhances the pretty factor.

For quick projects, it lends tons of character and is incredibly affordable. In these tough economic times, I think it makes all of us look for affordable materials to feed our creative sides and the fact that so many things have been made out of a “throw away” material both warms my heart and inspires me.

I know this is just the tip of what is out there. What are some of your favorite ways you’ve seen burlap used? Have you made anything with burlap yourself? Any tips for sewing with it? I’m considering recovering some chair cushions with it this weekend. I LOVE comments and look forward to your ideas below.

Click through to my Pinterest board for more creative ideas for using burlap:

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My friend Carrie over at Loyal Order of the Glamper had this one made from oilcloth, which inspired me to look around for other examples. Isn’t it cute? Love the vintage styling, and the oilcloth would certainly be durable and easy to wipe down.

Then I looked around on Etsy and found a couple other examples, finally settling on this one designed by Karla at Remixed Stitches as the style I’m going to try to make. I love the resourcefulness of her design. The old coffee bag trimmed with scraps of leftover fabric…charming and hard-working. At $28, it’s a great deal for something unique and handmade. I’d buy one if I didn’t feel like I wanted to try making one myself.

I’ve ordered a used coffee sack to upcycle and I have plenty of cute vintage fabrics to use as trim along with a grommet set for attaching ties to the basket. This should be a fun and easy thing to knock out this weekend. Can’t wait to get it it!

Sources for materials
Oilcloth: Fabric.com, Oilcloth Addict, Oilcloth.com
Market carts: Amazon, Container Store
Used coffee sacks: Artisan Coffee Works (Etsy)
Pattern for sewing a shopping cart liner: Perfect Pie Lady (Etsy)

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In an act of closure and appreciation, my brother put together a video documenting their journey that is so sweet and beautiful that I just had to share it. Even if these are not people you know, I don’t know how anyone couldn’t be moved. I’m so proud of all of them.

Enjoy.

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