A Chandelier in the Making

Any and every chance we get to go to another town, we just have to find somewhere to go Junkin'...

We are always on the look out for something or anything we can reuse, renew, or gypsy up!

In an earlier post I mentioned making a homemade, one of a kind, chandelier to put above Camp Gypsies bed.

This was our inspiration....

Well, these were our find of the day. Any one of them will be perfect for our little homemade chandelier! and we got them for a steal!!!

 And the Candelier just may get wired up into a bathroom light!

I think this is the one Judy would like to use! 

Another start to a project that I can't wait to see the finished product ;)

Flowers for Mama

With all those windows only two where broken. One in the back has a small crack and one on the side towards the front was missing completely and had metal covering it! 

In the new floor plan, the window missing towards the front, would become one of the bathroom windows. 

We started to look for frosted ideas and we found some crackled Plexiglas. Two layers with the bumpy side in should do just fine. Judy and I started taking about stenciling a design on it.

We found some Wyoming inspiration instead....

So I painted some Flowers for Mama....

If we painted the design on the inside the window could still be washed without damaging the paint.

view from outside

view from inside

It is a little hard to see in the pictures but there is even 

a little Love Note "Judy Heart Bob" painted down in the corner...

 

Go'n Junkin' in Your Own Junk

Some may not understand the "stash of stuff", the "almost but not quite hoarding", the "but I may use that someday" mentality, but there are those times when it really does pay off!!!

I have a few (a limited number to keep it under the defined amount of a hoarder) few totes of "stuff", crafty stuff, like fabric, lace, and ribbons. A few years back I had decorated the kids rooms and Britney's happen to be turquoise and brown and Brooke's room also had brown in the design. I knew I had some lace that might work for Camp Gypsy so I went looking for it. What I found was that I had kept all the extras from the girls rooms. 

While looking for something else I happen to look in one of my totes. A Junkin' we will go!....lol

We placed some of the items we found with the pillow shams and fabric from the dress to see how it would all go together.....PERFECT!!!

 

I also had some older cream satin perfect for another Glam addition ;)

Putting the Glam in the Glamper

Bryan works over three hours out of town, so through out the summer we will take trips to go stay with him so Bob & Judy get to visit him a little more while they are here. On one of these trips Bob found himself playing chauffeur to two happy Junkers. Bryan was working so we had some time to go play before he got off work for the day. We explored a couple second hand stores one town over. 

Our new fun game to play is to try and find things we can change 

and give a new purpose. 

This way the new things have an old story... we like stories!

In the very first store we went to we found this old (somewhat out of style) bridesmaid/prom dress. 

It is the perfect color!!!! 

Grandma Judy asked Britney to try it on before she started to unpick it so the fabric
could be used on projects through Camp Gypsy

Before we moved to Wyoming, I was at my sweet sister-in-law's home one day and I was admiring some things she had refinished. The fabric was so beautiful! I hadn't seen that print of fabric in stores. I asked her where she found it and I was amazed to say the least at her answer... she told me it was an old sheet that she had found that was in perfectly new condition. She had found it at a Second hand salvage store. Inadvertently she had taught me good lesson on worth and value. I learned even more to see things as they can be not just as they are. I am starting to see the mother daughter pattern in that...lol... remember that ability in Judy is what started to journey to find Camp Gypsy :)

This amount of fabric would have cost a small fortune!

A Clean Slate

 

By Judy's birthday, all but the kitchen sink had been cleared out! 

Judy & Bryan in the cleared out Camper

Interior Back

Interior Front

And Let the Paint Chips Fly......

When One Door Closes... Bob took off Gypsy's old homemade plywood door, and installed the door from Freebie our Free Find Trailer....

And shortly after with all the old paint removed new seal was applied to the exterior!

It looks like a totally different Camper!!!

Mother Hubbard went to her Cupboard....

Old Mother Hubbard's Cupboard was empty when she went to get her dog a bone... but lets face it Buffy (Judy's little poodle) will never have to worry about Momma Judy's Cupboards being empty. There will always be treats at the ready for cute little Buffy!

When your husband and sons have built custom cabinets for years and years... you kind of know they can build you anything you want in cabinets!

So Judy had no doubt when she saw this craft board that they could mimic it for her upper cabinet doors.

She spotted this cutie on an outing about an hour north of our home. Bob had taken her up there for her birthday diner and they were looking around a hardware store. (pricing things for Camp Gypsy no doubt)

So a few week later we decided to go up there to the county fair and of course we convince the guys to pop back into the store so she could show me (and so I could get a pic of it) 

In a home the design and details of kitchen cabinets can set the design for the kitchen and sometimes even the surrounding rooms too. Well in a camper it is no different! In fact it is even more so, since it is pretty much all one room!

These are a few sample pics, none of which are completely what Judy sees as Camp Gypsy's final look but they give a pretty good idea of where she wants to go with it!

 (Can't wait until we can post final picture!!!)

So I went out to the camper to work on more of the electric rough in and there on the wall of was Bob's Cabinet layout notes! 

Judy had been out deciding exactly what she wanted in her cabinets... it is so sweet to see how much he wants to make sure every detail is just what she likes :)

I can't wait until I can post the final pictures... but that might just be a while.

Bob has decided to take the measurements and build the cabinets in Florida over the winter and bring them back out with them next summer.

Catching Magic

Over the 50+ years Bob and Judy have moved between Arizona and Florida a few times and traveled on many journeys exploring the different beauties this land has to offer. Many of the stories I have gotten to hear these last few months take place in Florida where Judy grew up and where her and Bob met.

When I think of the south and romance I can’t help but think of fire flies!

The idea of catching one of these little lightning bugs in a mason jar feels like catching magic!

Camp Gypsy is a small camper, a very small camper. This means each detail that goes into the small space has to be thought out. It must be useful, go with the décor, and if it has a special connection for Bob or Judy, that’s even better.

Catching magic was the inspiration for our Mason jar lighting.

                 

Here is a little funny side story…

I grew up in the good old West. We don’t have lightning bugs up here in the mountain desert. The only time I had seen these little glowing butts was in Disney movies (where they spelled out words and made heart shapes). Well that and in movies like Reese Witherspoon’s Sweet Home Alabama where again they happen to glow just at the perfect romantic moment. My point is I didn't think they were real! I didn't believe in Lightning bugs any more than I believed in fairies. I mean come on, glowing butts? Really?

Well, when I moved to Tennessee (my first trip to the South), I saw them first hand for the first time! I was a little more than excited…lol… I woke up the kids and had them come look and even chase them! I called my sister-in-law who was from Tennessee. She laughed so hard I thought she would pass out. My excitement at this new found real life magic hadn't lessened any by the next morning. Let’s just say, my co-workers had a real good laugh with me! The magic seemed to spread as they recounted their childhood memories of growing up in a place where this magic was a big part of their lives.