Some awesome blog linking

Thanks to :
A Cup of Jo and swissmiss  I have found a few new things to obsess about. Allow me to demonstrate.

1. I have always been a brand loyalist. My non-negotiables are Jello brand jello, Aunt Jemimas table syrup, China Lily soy sauce and Heinz ketchup. I will generally forgo the 'alternatives' and go condiment free if my fave is unavailable (soy sauce and syrup are sometimes forgivable in fine dining establishments).

Enjoy. I know I did, word for word.  I love you Heinz

2. I love to read about people taking the road less traveled in life and things working out swimmingly for them. I think I'll be a regular over here from now on.

3. Book nerd alert

Surprising (and great reading list potential!)

I NEED one
 
just one more reason to get knocked up
 
From Winnie the Poo. Cue the Awwwweee

DIY Thursday

So we have been working on a total tin can trailer overhaul. We bought a 1983 Avion (similar to airstream) last year and lived in it for 8 months while travelling the province. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. 

A few of the worst a were hitting our heads on the overhead cabinets, cracked plumbing again and again, and the stinky old person smell. 

So early this spring Quincy decided to tackle the plumbing. Every time we had moved somewhere new it cracked because its just so old. That turned into a complete gutting and rebuild. I'd say we're about 78% of the way there. I'll share some of the process with you after Ive collected photos from various digital devices. For now, let's have a painting tutorial! This is a segment that I should probably call D. I. DONT.

We had settled on 2 main colours for the painting portion of the project, and one of them is a creamish yellow. Without my authorization Quincy painted the entire bathroom in that colour. I didn't give a shit. Not until we realized we would have to reuse our nasty old tub. It is specifically designed for the round cornered structure and contains plumbing that would otherwise have to be exposed. I believe people refer to its gross hue as 'almond.' This is funny though because it is so close to the creamish yellow. Not a good combination. At. All.

Enter $50 of grey-blue paint. Of course I purchased it 2 days before Quincy came home after working out of town for the week. Of course I didn't crack the lid until 8:30pm an hour before his E.T.A, wanting to surprise him. This is one part procrastination, one part it's a long story. Of course he didn't even look until moments before his departure back to the out of town job site when I forced the issue.  

Rule number 1 of painting in the dark: Use a colour that is a high in contrast to the existing one. This way you can still see the difference in shade long after you can no longer see colour as night sets in.

Rule number 2: Paint

Rule number 3: Bring a flashlight or some such thing so that you can see the numerous gaps and errors and attempt to fix them before the paint dries.

It is important to note that as you can not actually see the colour while you are painting it is impossible to verify that the colour is correct. My bathroom is baby blue at this point, not blue grey as I had specifically planned. Whoops.

This is Awesome

So basically I love to collect stuff. Junk, really but it's all in the eye of the beholder, no? Here, you get to see what I've foolishly spent my money on and wither I in fact love it or hate it.

Welcome to the find of the day. A weaving loom.

A few weeks ago I forced my hub to take me to this 'estate sale crap' store. Really great stuff, reasonable prices. The owner had an amazing little teak kitchen cabinet set, some GORGEOUS oak filing cabinets, a real stunner of a lamp shade that I bought for my horse lamp - hey, new post right there! and then he had someone's grandma's craft supplies. An antique Singer sewing machine operated by foot peddle, a spinning wheel and a weaving loom. All in mint condition - someone was buying but sure wasn't using this stuff for the last 50 years. I got all excited and like a big shot got a price on the package deal. All three pieces of junk could be mine for only $350.00. So I went home to Google, and mull and obsess and after a few Etsy searches, YouTube tutorials and castanet scours I decided that I must have a loom.

The ones currently available were either enormous things that need an entire room devoted to them, or some mini tabletop ones. You can only imagine the feelings of.. ahem.. inadequacy I would have if I came home after spending a chunk of change on something so small when it could potentially be sooo big! They ranged in price from $150.00 - $600.00.

I was driving by the junk store again today and at the last second wheeled into the parking lot. Waltzed into the place, checked on my kitchen (gone), checked on my filing cabinets (there woohoo!) and checked on my loom. It had in fact been tucked into a dark corner, that thing wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. I casually asked the guy if the thing was intact and he pulled out all of the pieces. A unicorn appeared and the loom turned out to be the perfect size, it stands on the floor, has a mid sized width and all of the parts are present (well, except for one but still).

So it had a $300.00 price tag on it. I ask the store owner what his real price was, he tells me $200.00. I tell him $180.00. He tells me his kids will starve. I know he has no kids at home, he is a retired divorcee married to a retired divorcee. HAH. Loom is mine for $180.00, and he threw in an enormous roll of white wool yarn for free. Which, as it turns out does not function in a loom.

 In general, I think I love this loom - hate the wool. I must buy something more appropriate. After that well, watch out world, you're all getting scarves for Christmas!

 It came complete with instructions, a bill of sale (ordered on boxing day 1945 at a whopping $22.50) and a letter written to the original purchaser signed by the president of the company! Quite neat.

We've been spending all weekend painting and building and improving our Avion travel trailer. I took a quick break (aka I'm hiding inside) and came across this link. WOW humans have made an enormous investment in the internet in the last... 5 seconds.

Check it out!
                                                 
                                                    http://onesecond.designly.com/

This is our older dog Axle. Such a sweet photo of him, such a huge wart!!!! It is gone now thank goodness, I hadn't been able to make eye contact with him for the last month of the wart's life on his face.

And here is Buster the day we got him last spring. AWWWWWWEEE

Introductions

This is me, Heather Burr. University graduate, hot dog sales person, wife of two years, over the top empathetic, parent of furr children (horse, 2 dogs). Vagabond.

This is my husband Quincy. Engineer, hard worker, parent of same furry children, loves machines that move dirt in large quantities.

This is us together. We are in the process of buying a property (yay), just returned from 2 years of traveling and homelessness (unless you count a 35' vintage rv as a home... I do :) ) It has been exciting, frustrating, surprising, a million other descriptive nouns and a couple of special four-letter ones as well.





We have been having the 'most exciting year of our lives' 'so many big changes happening this year' 'wow, things can change so fast' kind of a year for about 3 years in a row now. I keep trying to keep up with recording it all in a blog for those years that we are longing for adventure (I can't even imagine what that is like anymore) but there is so much going on I can't seem to keep up.

Maybe I will do a few 'back stories' on our recent adventures in the coming weeks. Thrown in there will (hopefully) be posts on property search, animal love, summertme in the okanagan and some sweet vintage finds!