Camping Cuties

like I said in past blogs, I have this grandiose dream of "pretty camping". I have realized that it is going to take a few trips to get everything in order. But here is what I have so far:

 (I made the bunting in the backgroound with some napkins I found in the dollar bin at target.)

(here is another shot of the bunting with a pretty swallowtail butterfly. I had a lot of fun finding all the dishes we used on the trip. The plastic stemless wine glasses were on sale at Target for $2.50 for four! We also have a fantastic oilcloth table cloth that makes camping sanitary AND beautiful.)

(I bought these a few weeks ago at a thrift store and had this idea that I would transform them into "Camping Caddies". I cut a half inch pvc pipe to 6" and used wire to attach them to the baskets. then I decorated the pvc pipes with washi tape and Voila! Adorable little caddies.)

(This on is the Bathroom Caddy, complete with Clorox, air freshener, hand sanitizer, toilet paper, lysol disinfectant spray, and a little lantern)

 

 (This one is the "Beauty Caddy" with all the things you need on an hourly basis on a camping trip but don't want to go digging through you luggage for every time. We filled ours with a brush, baby wipes, dry shampoo, spray deodorant - we felt it was easy to apply AND every one could share it- a mirror, spray on sunscreen, an arsenal of bug sprays, and hair ties)

(here is a shot of the two baskets together. We also had one for first aid supplies and another that we used to collect drift wood and flowers in on our hikes)

cute eh?

Here's What I've Been Up To

Tool Belts.
           Face it: Busy girls need tool belts. Cute ones. They need a place for their pens, and tape measurer and calculator, tip money, receipts, recipes and whatever else a girl needs while on the job. I first started making these about a year ago when I got a job at Compass Wines here in town and I got sick of running back and forth for things like box cutters and paper clips.

I am hoping to start selling them soon. I've made a few for coworkers and I have another in progress for my sister who works with kids at a day camp. Here is what I have going on for her:

This one is made of vinyl with an oil cloth lining for durability and easy cleanup. She is super stoked to get rid of her hideous fanny pack and fill this shiny new Tooly with Band-Aids, ice packs and Goldfish crackers. Just because you spend all day chasing kids around doesn't mean you have to sacrifice fashion for functionality. These have both! The only problem is that they are taking me forever to make. Even though all the pieces are predominately geometric shapes, I find myself over thinking the project in terms of how I am going to assemble it. Ugh. I spent an entire evening making cardboard stencils of all the pieces I need for each Tooly, and still it takes me twelve freaking hours to make one. Bleh. At that rate I will have to charge $100.00 a piece! Crazy!

How a Dining Room Became Kelly's Bedroom

So since Kelly Deans moved in with us, it has been my mission to redecorate her dining room turned bedroom into a calm, relaxing space with basically zero dollars to put towards it. Ugh. No money? Really? Well, she did splurge on a duvet from CB2 for $80.00... not even that pricey, really. And then we spent five bucks on a dresser, fifteen on paint and another twelve on shelving.  Super cheap makeover!!!














SO, the biggest challenge was the dresser... ugh. It was crazy cheap so I excused it for being flimsy and broken and completely ugly. However, after a very traumatic paint stripping experience and a few coats of teal spray paint, it came out looking decent. Kelly also added a drawer lining to protect her clothing from all the splinted wood. Looks good!

The second biggest project in her room was the picture frame installation. We found a bunch of unused frames in the garage and painted them the same teal color as the dresser. Putting them on the wall would have been easy enough, however, the large open archway leading into the living room was still part way finished a whole three weeks into the construction. So now a whole two months into this project , we finally put those silly frames on the wall. I like the addition of the cheap plastic wall clock... it gives it an Alice in Wonder Land kind of vibe.




Then Kelly found these plastic letters at a thrift shop for ten cents. Not the whole alphabet so she didn't know what to do with them. But after I put her shelves up, I realized that they would make a great letter mosaic. Sweet!! That has to be the cheapest artwork of all time.





Last of all, we spray painted a pink birdcage black. I think it cost 8 bucks... it's meant to hold jewelry but I think it looks pretty just sitting there. :)