Mall Trip

I haven't been to the mall in ages. Truthfully, I'm not really a mall person, but this past weekend was just to unbelievably hot to do much else. Jeremy and I went to Arundel Mills Mall in Hanover, MD. This mall is great! Anything you need to find, you'll find there. (I went for the Lego store and the Quicksilver outlet.)

I bought these two great books at Books-a-Million. I had been stalking them on Amazon.com for a few weeks but hadn't committed to buying them. I've looked for them at our local Barnes and Nobel but they stink and never have what I'm looking for. Leave it to good ol' Books-a-Million to come through in the end! Jeremy even found his mag, Monster Children!

Teardrops and Tiny Trailers, Douglas Keister

Sisters on the Fly: Caravans and Campfires, Irene Rawlings

I just started reading Teardrops and Tiny Trailers yesterday. It's an awesome resource and is filled with great pictures. And Sisters on the Fly? Well let me just say I'm green with envy. Definitely take the time to check these books out.

In the Lego store was another great teardrop find. Side note - being a Lego artist must be the best job ever!

In the distance, a choir of angels sings...

Below each shelf, stocked with kits, were little peepholes into make-believe worlds. One of the dioramas was a couple on a lovely teardrop getaway. This made my day.

Look at the fire - and the marshmallows!

It looks like Yogi got into the garbage and is getting scolded by the park ranger.

Well, I hope everyone in the Mid-Atlantic is keeping cool. Beat the heat and reconnect with your inner child by pulling out your old Legos and building something, preferably while enjoying an ice cold margarita!

Drawer Pulls Galore

Vintage drawer pulls, coming right up!

How cool are these? Some are a little junky looking but it's nothing sandpaper and some paint couldn't clean up. All these classic details could really help reinforce the retro design of the Tear. Isn't shopping vintage and second hand fun? It's like recycling. Why let all these old bits and pieces go to waste when they're just screaming out to be reused? Now I just have to find a lot large enough to outfit the whole trailer.

1. Violette Slippers Vintage 2. Vicious Vinatage 3. DK General Store
4. Never Too Old 5. SYDG 6. Bay Home
7. Vyeshi 8. Vintage Mementos 9. funretro

We Love Big Woody

We got the best thing today. Big Woody Campers, who was our original inspiration, sells detailed plans for building his camper. He also sells templates, a package with the hard to find parts, or he will build you one custom from scratch. His instruction manual is incredible, it is over 150 pages and includes parts lists and pictures of every step. There were several questions I couldn't find a good answer to, and the answers were all there.

The Big Woody is built on a 4 x 8 platform and we want to stretch it to 5 x 10, so we will not be able to follow the instructions step by step, but I find them invaluable to my design process. Thanks Big Woody!

Teardrops on Etsy

I spend waaaay too much time on Etsy. But look at all this great teardrop stuff I found! Trailer Perk?? Classic.

1. Dusty Dog Studio 2. The Green Daisy 3. Strictly for the Birds

4. Skull and Cross Buns 5. Vitamini 6. RP Feik Graphics

7. Glen Hibline Illustration 8. Leah Giberson 9. RJ Charms

Tear Jerkers Represent!

I joined the Tear Jerkers forum a few days ago. Todd Brunengraber, Tear Jerkers founder, explains it this way...

TEAR JERKERS was formed in late 1997 by Todd Brunengraber with assistance from Grant and Lisa Whipp of Tales & Trails/Teardrop Times. Our group encourages and supports membership in TEARDROP TIMES, the international fellowship of Teardrop Trailers. Our members include owners, home builders, manufacturers, restorers, parts suppliers and creative craftsmen that build their own from scratch. We enjoy not only our small vintage trailers but also, vintage vehicles to tow them with. TEAR JERKERS started out on the East Coast of the U.S. but, has expanded to include members from Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Finland, Sweden, Canada, and The Netherlands.

TEAR JERKERS is an informal group of people who share their love of Teardrop and small Travel Trailers through discussions & Gatherings. "If you enjoy the great outdoors and fellowship with others, our campsite will always be open."

The local chapter is the Chesapeake Bay chapter with includes West Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware. From what I can gather on the forum so far, the chapter has been inactive for a little while. And its been logo-less! The push is on to create a kick-ass logo for the chapter. This is what I came up with. I'm kind of in love with it. What do you think?

Designing the Frame

We have had an adventure trying to find a trailer that would be suitable for our needs. Everything we have seen has had rails around it, and I cannot justify paying $750.00 for a new trailer and immediately cutting it up. Plus they are only made with L-shaped steel and I think cutting the rails off would undermine the structural integrity. I have been searching through other teardrop project blogs and came across Ken and Noel's Blog, and I am going to completely gank their design. These are pictures of their project.

They have many of the same concerns that we have with the size of typical teardrops, they are usually 4x8 feet. To accomodate a queen mattress it would have to be at least 5 feet wide, and to give the puppy a place to sleep that is not on the bed, we need a couple of extra feet in length, so we are stretching the dimensions to 5x10 feet. They had this frame constructed of tubular steel, with everything needed and nothing extra, for $650.00.

I returned to Wellers Trailers during business hours and the nice salesman said he could order anything we want. I did not have a design or pictures in hand but from my description he seemed to think around $600.00 would do it. So I drew this design, and I will take it and the pictures to him to get a quote. Let's cross our fingers he doesn't say $1200.00!

Now We're Cookin' with Gas!

The other night Jeremy made this great teardrop template. He designed it with a 5x10 trailer in mind. It's all scaled out - each square represents a 3in x 3in area. In case you're wondering, its a roof rack, not antennae :)

Yesterday inspiration hit and I printed out one of the templates (we scanned it for just that purpose). The night before we were talking about putting a big, graphic wave on each side but couldn't get the proportions right. I think it was because we had the wave moving towards the back of the trailer, not in the direction the trailer would be moving, cruising down the highway. So I redrew the wave in the other direction. This is what I came up with. Jeremy was very happy.

The Tear looked great until I colored it with Crayons - boooo. So I brought the template into work and - at lunch - digitized it with my GIS software. The template is now fully interactive! I found paint samples similar to the finish we'd like to have online at Iron Mountain Wood. The colors are clear acrylic for the trailer and Monet blue for the wave. We were going to go with a white pickling stain on the trailer but, since that would come out with a somewhat blue tint, I figured the 2 shades of blue wouldn't contrast enough and clear coating it might be a better option.

Of course, you have to have Yakima racks on top. I grew up in a Yakima family so I've got loyalties - plus, I already have a ridiculous kayak set-up. You can't let that go to waste!Now I know this is only the first template creation but I'm pretty hooked. I can see all my decorating ideas falling into place. Muahahaha!