The MOST amazing week of my LIFE!

That's a big call I know!

But if you've been to the Woodford Folk Festival, north of Brisbane, you'd understand instantly what I mean. 

Here are some snapshots from that most heart-warming and life-affirming week

I can't believe I haven't been there before! It's only an hour away from my house.

Mind you, it was one of the wettest festivals they have had in their long history, thank goodness for Ivan our campervan for keeping our dry!

Have you been? What are your experiences? Do you have any festivals that you go to every year?

I will certainly be going again!

The emergence of Ivan

One of our dreams of owning a campervan came true last month.

Certainly doesn't look too pretty in this picture does it! Our ex-Wicked van has been thrashed and bashed by backpackers all over this country (we know this by the graffiti on the interior!). Surprisingly only minor mechanical issues were detected after a once over by a mechanic, which were promptly repaired. Safety first people!

Then we were off on our first adventure! Down the Gold Coast highway, along the Tweed river and into the North-eastern New South Wales hinterland... to Nimbin! Now if any of you know what Nimbin is most famous for don't worry we certainly didn't go there for that! The hinterland driving was absolutely beautiful, gave our new camper a work out and we found a gorgeous almost-empty campground on the edge of town and a huge tree-lined river. Just perfect, although I don't we need to visit Nimbin again any time soon! You can see why a facelift was next on the agenda from the picture above hey? Definitely not my cup of tea!

So back home to begin the arduous task of cleaning, scrubbing, and even chemically-removing, the traces of previous travelers.

We all of the work work ourself (because we are scroungers and definitely not living the high life!), which included:

• sanding back the exterior slightly
• undercoat on exterior
• top paint on exterior - YELLOW!
• using nail polish remover to take of permanent marker from the interior
• then, realizing were are going to paint it anyway so could have saved myself 3 hours and a back ache!
• painting the interior ..with BLACKBOARD paint, oh so cool!
• scrubbing gunk from the seats, carpets and cupboards - I do not ever want to know what that stuff was!
• using spray adhesive to cover the ceiling with foam then yellow gingham material! hehe so cute!
• installing the fan
• learning how to check the various oil, water, air and battery levels
• AND, naming our new little beauty! IVAN was born!

Our very next camping test was the big one. Woodford Folk Festival for 8 long days of camping! I had never ever camped that long in my life. This was certainly going to test Ivan and ourselves!

Long bloggy absence

Goodness me does time fly when you're having fun!


Haven't I been a bit of a bum to not keep this blog updated though. My goal was to use this blog as an online journal to look back on in years to come and it so happens I have become apart of this great blogging community. It's for this reason that I have really missed hearing everyone's stories and being a part of this online group. 


This is just a short post to say hello and that I am still around and will be updating my blog in the next week or so with ALL of the fabulous things I have been up to so please keep an eye out for my posts shortly. 


Also, just so you know, my family and I have not been affected by these devastating floods in my home town. I am certainly affected by what is happening to my fellow Brisbanites but have no personal property damage. I feel so lucky to be spared this heartache. I have been awed at the velocity, destruction and loss of life of the 'inland tsunami' that hit Toowoomba and Grantham then to see the iconic Bremer and Brisbane River inundate so many houses in Ipswich and Brisbane. It's hard to believe this is all happening 15 minutes down the road, especially with the sun shining and the sound of lawn mowers in our suburb, just surreal! I went to school in Ipswich and my sister currently lives there - there were some very nervous text messaging between my sisters and I on the night the floods were peaking! But thankfully no damage or injuries, just a lot of disbelief and the occasional tears at the horrible stories that are coming out of the flood areas. I will be heading to Northey St City Farm tomorrow to help them with the clean up before this weekends organic markets that they are still putting on - troopers!

The Northey St City Farm chickens are high and dry thanks
to some ingenious volunteers (photo from Northey St
Facebook page)

I will finish off this post with some sneak previews of what I have been up to in the past two month. I will post about these in detail shortly, stay tuned!

Campervan facelift and MUD....

Tiny clothes for tiny bodies...

A handmade holiday...

A tutorial...

In the kitchen....

A whole new world...

AND.... most exciting of all.... A WHOLE NEW LIFE!


Stay tuned. I'm back


xx

We're buying a camper!

How awesome would it be to just jump in the car, drive for a few hours then set up camp for the weekend?

How much more awesome would it be if you didn't have to pack everything, because it was already in the car? And how much MORE awesome would it be that if it did rain you wouldn't get too wet like you would in a tent?

So I know you know how excited I am to be getting a campervan.

I can just picture us cruising down the highway with our tunes blaring to some 80's hit, hair down, curtains swaying in the back, on our way to a destination unknown, what bliss!

It's not fancy, new, rust-free or probably leak-proof, but it's mine! YAY

We'll be picking it up in a few days then starting to put our own stamp on it with a new colour, a good clean and then decking out the interior. I will be positng photos of the transformation.

Now I should start thinking about some decorating for the inside, maybe some curtain and pillow sewing. I'd love to put photos and pictures up on the inside too. Your ideas are most welcome!

Stay tuned!

:)