I Wish I Wasn't Such a Chicken

Jeremy and I were in Ocean City on Saturday visiting Salty Yarns and Malibu's Surf Shop. This Dregs longboard was out on the porch at Malibu's. How cool is this?? We didn't buy it but it's totally Jeremy and me in 10 years - travel trailer, red pickup, the ocean.... aaaah.

I used to have an Arbor longboard in college but was too scared to ride it. I didn't want to fall off and hurt myself - not the best mindset for an aspiring skateboarder :)

Maybe if I buy this one I'll have a better chance of climbing on and rolling off into the sunset. Or maybe I could just hang on to the back of the trailer while Jeremy pulls!

Check out the 37" South of the Boarder ditch board here.

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!

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!

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!

Etsy Monday

We went to Weller's, in Bridgeville, DE, yesterday night to take a look at utility trailers. I love going to car lots on Sunday evenings because they're almost always closed so you can browse around without a salesman lurking over your shoulder. We found tons of 5x10 trailers - our now agreed upon size. Some had slat beds and others had mesh bottoms. It makes sense to me to have a mesh bottom to protect the camper from the wear and tear of driving - but I haven't seen any built on that platform so far, just bare frames. Any opinions on this? I'm open to suggestions.

Changing gears, Etsy is my new favorite spot to look for vintage goodness. Who wants to spend the time and effort bidding on eBay items when you can just buy the stuff flat out? Over the weekend I did a search for vintage camping supplies. I found a few great things for the tear, window shopping of course. Check out the plastic spaghetti tumblers, Tupperware S+P shakers, the like-new camp stove. And who could ignore the greatest, most tacky find of the day? - the dashboard hula girl covered in silver glitter and faux fur!! I feel a trip to Regretsy coming on.


Hopefully we'll have some construction news to share soon!

Gathering Some Thoughts

While Jeremy plans out the design of the teardrop I've been using mood boards to put my decorating thoughts to "paper". Over at OlioBoard I put this together:

Created with OlioBoard

It's pretty good for a first draft. (Notice the very rad Chevy C10 - a magnificent tow vehicle if I do say so myself. If only she were mine. *sigh*) So, at least at this stage, the design is going to be very retro, very DIY. Lots of stitchery, homemade pillows, curtains, table cloths and as many vintage camping impliments as I can find. Remember those hourglass, Tupperware salt and pepper shakers? Yes. That old metal tea kettle? Want. Those enamel plates that have seen way too many family picnics? Perfect. That money tree better start producing this year! :)

Speaking of money, Jeremy and I took our first look at trailers a few days ago. We're still trying to decide on a size, 4x8 ft seems too small. That means that your sleeping quarters are only 4 ft wide. Seems a little tight. A standard queen-sized mattress is 5 ft. But we're looking at around $600+ for a new utility trailer. It's definitely something we'll have to research. Hopefully I'll find a good teardrop forum and ask around.

If you have any suggestions, leave me a comment.

Thanks for reading!

The Inspiration

It all started early last week. I decided to look through my cross stitch stash and reassess my situation. There's something completely wonderful about sitting on the floor, surrounded by a guilty pleasure. As I thumbed through my charts I found an old kit that I bought early on in my x-stitch life but never stitched - Home is Where Ever We Roam...

Of course that got me thinking of traveling and camping, all those things that get pushed aside with your typical 9-5 job. When I drove to work the next day I took an extra long look at the RV dealer's lot that I always pass. They mostly carry these huge monstrosities that are just yachts on wheels; however, they also have a few R-POD trailers - smaller, rounded campers, much better for a couple of D.I.N.Ks like us. Normally we're tent campers but a few years ago we got a French Bulldog who is not tolerant of heat/cold at all - not to mention he's extremely obnoxious :) So tent camping doesn't work so well for us anymore.

When I got to work I looked up the r-pod. They have all the makings of a typical camper - kitchen, bathroom, bed, pop-outs. Still too much for us, not to mention the price! All I really wanted was a bed, simple kitchen area, and an air conditioned enclosure for the pup. My boss saw what I was looking at (oops) and told me that those type of campers were called teardrops. Teardrops? How cute!

Needless to say, I googled teardrop trailers and found Big Woody Campers. My world was changed forever. When I got home from work I showed my boyfriend, Jeremy, the trailers. He was equally as excited and decided that instead of saving up money to buy one, he'd just go ahead and make the darn thing. And I haven't stopped day dreaming since!

Big Woody Photostream