Tear Jerkers Elk Neck State Park Gathering

I'd like you to meet some of my new friends!

Jeremy and I just got back from our first Tear Jerkers gathering and, boy, did we have a good time :) We met tons of wonderful people, ate some amazing food, listened to great stories, and got some fresh building inspiration. I wanted to share some pictures from the weekend. Thanks also go to Ken, Zach, and Wayne for some of these great photos!

Chapter Banner

The weekend's mascot

Ken and Susan so graciously lent us their extra trailer so I made this Thank You gift for them. I cross stitched their Serro Scotty Highlander (both sides) and filled it with dried lavendar from our garden. A true Kate + Ice Cream original!

Here's their trailer...

Here is the trailer that they lent to us - a 1973 AMF Skamper aka the Wiener Wagon :)

Our Campsite

Here are some of the other Tear Jerkers' trailers:

Besides the trailer crawl, a group of us went for a paddle.

Some people went to the Turkey Point lighthouse...

On Saturday night we had a potluck dinner. Jeremy and I made campfire cakes which are basically individual servings of yellow cake cooked inside hollowed out oranges. Soooo delicious!

Awards were also given out on Saturday night...

Best Spam Carving - Sam Samson

Founder's Award - Orville Mooney

Special Guests

Flamingo Queen

I'll end with a few random fun pictures from the weekend.

What a blast! I can't wait until the next party... October 22-24, Pocomoke River State Park.

Tear Jerkers Unite!

Our first teardrop gathering is tomorrow!! We're meeting up with the whole gang from the Chesapeake Bay Chapter (and beyond) at Elk Neck State Park in Cecil County, MD. This is also the chapter's first gathering under the direction of Orville and Rose Mooney. It should be a great time!

Pictures to come!

They Call it Finishing, but We Just Started

We have been really busy applying a coat of finish each day for over a week. I had to get in the paint post before we are off to a Tearjerkers event this weekend at Elk Neck State Park. Woo hoo! Lots of design ideas up close.

We were trying to achieve a pickled finish, but nobody really pickles anything anymore, they just use a white stain. We chose Cabot because they had the most vibrant colors available in a transparent finish. The problem we encountered was the stain would run underneath the taped edge.

To overcome the wicking I first used an exacto knife and scribed as deep a line as I could manage along the edge of the design. The first line we tried, we cut the line, taped over it, and then tried to run the knife in the same line to cut the tape. We realized pretty quick that this was not working and ended up with more than one line. You can still see the mistakes through the varnish, but luckily it didn't ruin the side.

First we taped off the wave and stained the field white, and then sealed it with sanding sealer.

Then we reversed the masking and stained the blue. Beautiful! The sanding sealer bled a little under the tape and I had to sand it out leaving some shallow gouges along the blue edges. On the other side we stain both colors first and then seal.

We were a little afraid that the white was going to be over powering, but it came out exactly as I had envisioned. So well that we decided to use the same white on the interior surfaces.

Next comes 7 coats of Spar Varnish, lightly sanding between each coat. After this we will set the side to the side and finish the door and the trim ring. Then we flip this side and finish the interior surface.

Can you say labor of love???