Camping with the Casita!

Well I finally got to go camping in my lil Casita last month!  Went to Custer State Park in South Dakota for a great week ... beautiful scenery, great company and a ton of fun! 

Then onto the Nebraska Junk Jaunt for even more fun ... and shopping ... and junk!  Not sure why I bought half of what I did but that's the fun of the JJ ... you never know what you'll find.

My best friend for life finally named my camper (yes again, this poor little thing has gone through so many name changes).  Her new and permanent name is Aqua Polka.  Yes, it's a weird name but it has meaning!  The inside is done in an aqua color AND polka dots plus I'm half Polish so it fits. 

Here she is all glamped up ... isn't she adorable? 

Sadly it's now time to get ready for winterizing.  :(  I'm not ready for cold weather but luckily for me (well not really lucky but making lemonade out of lemons here) hubby inadvertently crashed into the garage door necessitating a replacement.  So in a moment of brilliance, I decided we are going to make an 8-foot garage door so we can winter the camper inside.  Yay!

Until next time, stay warm and happy trails!

Stuff and Nonsense and Cushing's

I've been slacking off with the blogging, the camper and the crafting although I did finally name the Casita ... she's now "Storybook Cottage" which incorporates my love of reading, my love of all things cottage, the tiny little space and the fact that whenever I look at the flower wall pops I put in there, I think of Storybook Land at Disney.  So ... it fits.

On the crafting front, I finally finished the afghan for my daughter that took me nearly a year to do.  So I'm project-less which is wonderful.

I'm also being tested for Cushing's syndrome which kind of sucks.  For those of you who have never heard of this, it's an ugly little disease that takes over your life and screws up everything.  It causes excess cortisol (the stress hormone) and can cause all kinds of nasty side effects like a round face, fat neck, fat trunk, fatigue, mood swings, osteoporosis, facial rashes, muscle weakness, high blood pressure, elevated glucose, etc.

I have every single symptom of this disease but my lab tests are crazy.  Some are off the charts high, some are normal.  After going to 2 endocrinologists, I finally have found one that believes me (a rarity since so many doctors write off symptoms as this, that or the other).  She thinks I may have cyclic Cushing's which is even harder to diagnose because I could have elevated levels one day and normal ones the next.  So I'm in for a roller coaster ride of testing until they can determine exactly what is causing this.  If/when I'm diagnosed, I'll likely have to have a tumor removed from my adrenal gland or my pituitary gland ... what fun.  But the good thing is, at least I'll know why I've felt like crap for so many years.

The main thing I just want to scream to everyone is "THIS ISN'T ME!"  I'm not the person this potential disease has turned me into ... I don't want attention, I don't want to be sick, I just want my life back.

For those of you who have suffered with this disease OR know anyone who has, feel free to drop me a line.  I'd love to share experiences.

Until then, onward and upward!

Fun Stuff with the Casita

Boy I'm having a ball decorating the Casita.  This is fun to me and I'm so thankful I don't have to worry about rebuilding and all that "guy" stuff.

I've been busy this past couple weeks ... sewed curtains with some great aqua-green material I got at Walmart of all places.  Seems they have a featured quilt pattern called "pink lemonade" and some of the fabrics were pink, aqua and yellow with little white polka dots.  I put my melmac next to all 3 and it was a near perfect match.  Thirty minutes later (and after asking 3-4 people their opinion) I decided to go with the aqua.  When I got it home, hubby said "Of course you did, it's green!  The color also coordinates with a quilt I'm going to use so that was a nice bonus!

So I made lined curtains, vacuumed the whole thing, cleaned the interior (not that it needed much of anything), made a bunting out of coordinating fabric since that's all the rage in the glampers group and then when at Menard's I found Wall Pops!  They had a package of the mini pops for $9.99 and they were in my colors!  These were called "cutsie blooms" and I just had to grab them.  These are removable wall stickers so they won't hurt anything in the camper and they add just a nice little touch.  I actually had to run back and get another package.  The only thing I'd change is I'd put a few more smaller flowers in the package and a few more stems ... but oh well.

What do you think?

Curtain Ideas

I really don't like the curtains that are in the Casita currently ... they're actually just neutral draperies that the previous owner cut down and they do match/coordinate with the cushions so I'll save them in case I ever decide to sell her (doubt it) but since she's going to be done in a cottage theme, I've decided to attempt something.

I'm going to use vintage pillowcases that I have tons of and see if that works.  I've got sets of them with detailed embellishments ... embroidery, crocheted/tatted edges and I've picked out the ones that have the most pink in them to kind of have them coordinate.  I'll use 2 on each of the 3 windows in the back by folding the bottom edge over and making a pocket.  The previous owner had a brilliant idea of screwing a little curtain rod into the frame of the mini-blinds so will use those.

I've sorted pillowcases, measured and ironed them and now all I have to do is sew a straight seam on one as a tester and put it up.  Hopefully this works and doesn't look goofy.  I've seen it done in another camper and it looked really cute so we'll see.

I'll post pictures as soon as I get the curtains up this weekend.  I'm also considering using a white eyelet comforter on the bed so will be scouting around looking for one although if I find a pastel polka dot or a nice non-gaudy plaid, I might be really tempted.  Hurry spring!

Pictures of the Casita

I finally got out and took pictures of my new little Casita ... this is pre-decoration of course.  She's going to be done in an English cottage theme (probably mentioned this before) and I can't wait for spring.  I have a ton of vintage pillowcases that have embroidery or fancy trim on them that I'm going to use for curtains.  Hopefully it will look cute ... they're all white with colored embellishments so hopefully that will tie it all in.  Will have to go out and test one out today I think before I start sewing seams for the rod pockets.

Anyway, here she is in all her glory ...

I Have a Camper!

Well as luck would have it, I now have a camper!  Completely gave up on the Forester ever being renovated as hubby hasn't done anything to it (well I take that back, he did a couple of little things but nothing major) and so decided to try to sell it.  I had just listed it on eBay when he decided he might want a second chance so asked me to cancel the auction.  Well since I had just listed it, I couldn't do that for 24 hours so stuck a reserve on it.  Nearly 4,000 views and 67 watchers, we got nothing.

So we took it to Sioux Falls, SD to a camper place to get an estimate on renovating it.  Also contacted a guy in Lincoln.  Both came in at roughly $6500.  Not worth it to me because I had bad karma with this thing anyway.

So we went to look at an Apache pop up a few weeks ago and it was super huge so passed.  Plus I honestly don't think I could manage the setup and take down every time I wanted to go out so nah.  Stopped by an RV place on the way home and looked at a 2010 Sportsman's Classic.  Very cute, very basic, no amenities, pretty much bare bones (no propane, no stove, no bathroom) for nearly $8000.  Thanks but no thanks.

As a last ditch, I decided to put an ad on craigslist looking for a late model camper 14' or less.  As luck would have it, within 24 hours I had a reply from a nice lady in Iowa who had a Casita.  I had to ask her what a Casita is because it wasn't anything I had heard of.  She sent pictures, we talked over the phone, we emailed and I'm proud to say I'm now the owner of a 2002 Casita Patriot Deluxe (the one with the bathroom/shower).  This is fully self contained, runs on propane, electric and 12V and is teeny tiny but adorable!

Now if it would just warm up so I can get to decorating ... hurry spring!


PS:  To further make my day better, we sold the Forester to a person in Sioux Falls saving us a trip back up there to get it.  Yay!

SOPA BLACKOUT