How to Care for Naturally Curly Hair – Part 1

Posted on by
Reply

All-About-Curly-Hair-Part-1-of-3 I have fought my curly hair for years.  I really wish someone would have told me how to care for my naturally curly hair I was younger.

Believe me, I’ve had my share of bad hair days.

Come to think of it, I really had bad hair YEARS.

I’ve also had a slew of bad hair cuts.  All of them were basically attempts to tame my tresses.  In fact, when I was 4, my mom butchered chopped my hair off and I looked like a little boy. I had short short hair because she didn’t know what to do with it.

The reality is curly hair can be very difficult to care for if you fight the curl or don’t understand what your hair needs.  Add to the curly hair dilemma, the fact that I have unbelievably thick hair, (which can be rare for curly-headed folk)…

It was bad people. Really really bad! The picture below is me in that boy haircut.  I’m the boy on the left.

My hair was kept short until I was about 9 or 10.

short-hair-at-4

My hair was kept short until I was about 9 or 10. By then I had finally talked my mom into letting me grow it out.

For years I fought the curly hair. I always had it tied back and never let my hair down – literally.

Just before joining the Air Force, I chopped it to a bob and straightened it everyday. It still wasn’t right but I finally had the straight hair I longed for. When I joined the military, I cut it even shorter to a boy haircut again and straightened it as best I could. I was desperate and didn’t know what else to do to keep my hair under control.

Turns out humidity (I was first stationed on Guam) and straightened naturally curly hair are not a great combo, but I survived somehow and even got a few dates.

I finally decided to grow my locks out.  What do ya know…Mark loves me in long hair so I’ve pretty much had to learn how to deal with it over the years.

BUT for the past 5 years I’ve not just dealt with it, I’ve learned to embrace it.

I have found that there are really 2 things that make or break a curly head of hair.

  • Dryness
  • Control Issues

This is the first installment of 3, I cover how to wash your curls and what tools work the best.  The next, will be all about how to style your curly hair. And the last one is all about how to tell your stylist to cut your hair (if you’re looking for a long style).

So without further adieu…

How to Wash Curly Hair

1.  Give Up Shampoo.  Curly hair is just naturally dry and that is because of the structure of curly hair.  No way around it.  Curly-haired folks NEED to apply more moisture to their hair and avoid harsh shampoos.  I opt for NO-POO.

You read right.

I do NOT shampoo my hair.  Seems crazy? But believe me, I CANNOT shampoo my hair.  If I even shampoo my hair twice a week, it becomes very brittle and damages quickly.  Not only that, but it is frizzy and out of control.

It sounds gross, but if you have curly hair, you understand the dryness and need for moisture. Without shampoo, my hair is not funky. I don’t have any problems from not using shamPOO my hair.  But trust me, my hair is not nasty and neither will yours be.

2.  Wash With Conditioner.  So what do I do? I wash my hair every couple of days with conditioner.  I put a generous amount of conditioner in my hair and scrub my scalp.  I then run my fingers through my hair to remove any tangles.  I rinse out most of the conditioner but leave a little in there since my hair is a moisture hog.

3.  Periodically Clean Scalp. Every 2 weeks or so, I scrub my scalp with a  conditioner/sugar scrub mixture. I can tell when I need to scrub my scalp because it starts to get a little itchy.

For the scalp scrub, mix 1 tablespoon sugar to 3 tablespoons conditioner to make a paste and scrub that into my scalp followed by a good rinse.

Curly Hair Products ~ From the Grocery Store

curly-hair-products-of-choice

I’m not big of buying expensive salon-formulas and I’ve been using grocery store hair products for years. Today, I have 3 products I use on my hair and would never want to do without.

  • Conditioner – I already told you about my conditioner of choice.  I prefer TRESemme Moisture Rich Vitamin E formula.  It’s reasonably priced and gets the job done.
  • Oil – I recently started using an Argon oil blend by Shea Moisture.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE this stuff!  I put it on just before I put gel on my hair (but I’ll get into that in the next post)
  • Styling Gel – Again I love TRESemme.  For my hair, #4 is just right.  #5 makes my hair crunchy, and #3 is not strong enough.  Just call me Goldilocks.

Recommended Reading

Curly Girl Handbook.  I cannot recommend this book enough!  It is full of so much information.  I read it years ago and what an eye-opener.  I’ve found what works for me from the book and made my own way.  If you have curly hair, this book is a great starting point!  It is packed with loads of information.

The author breaks curly hair down into seven 7 different types of curls.  For each type they have very specific tips and hints to work with your curl. The book has been updated from years ago when I first read it and it has even more valuable information.

Everyone with curly hair should have this book!  It also contains hair recipes and helps for getting a good cut along with other valuable information.

Here are some photos from the book to give you a peek inside.

 

Next we’ll cover how to style curly hair…

Until next time,

Julie-Signature

 

 

 

 

 

Print Friendly

Finding Our Bearings

Posted on by
Reply

I haven’t updated in a while and it’s been a monkey on my back so today serves as a catchup of sorts.

fort-walton-beach

In summary, the past 3 weeks we’ve:

  1. Said goodbye and shed tears with some of the best friends we’ve ever had.
  2. Driven 1,834 across country with 4 children, a dog, our 96 Winnebago, and our minivan.
  3. Enjoyed eating Chik fil A 3 times.
  4. Chased down our master escapee dog 5 different times, once near a busy street.
  5. Had the brakes fixed on the Winnie unexpectedly in Birmingham.
  6. Met a dear online friend in Birmingham.
  7. Pulled the RV through Nashville during heavy traffic for a stop at Trader Joe’s. INSANE!!
  8. Enjoyed the white sand beaches of the Emerald Coast.
  9. Got sunburned at the campground pool.

So now we are trying to find our bearings and settle into some sort of normalcy.

Mark started work just a few days after we got here and the kids and I have been plugging away at school. The campground we are at has a nice pool that’s been luring us out on warm days.

But there are 2 issues that have been especially hard.

Issue #1

The lack of friends for the kids. . .

I love how my kids make friends easily. However, In this campground, there are very few kids. The kids that have come by, leave after 3 days it seems.  So I’ve been busier trying to help them wade through this time.

I think this would come with any move but maybe the camper situation makes me even more sensitive to the absence of friends. They are adjusting.

Correction – we are adjusting.

Which brings me to our 2nd issue.

Issue #2

We lack a 2nd vehicle.

This of course limits us to do much outside the campground.

By moving here, were were able to reconnect with friends from San Antonio and Germany. The friends we’ve met up with from Germany are letting us borrow their vehicle this week.  Oh it’s been so nice!!

Some may say, “Just buy a vehicle.”  Yes, we could do that.  But financially, it is not as easy as it would seem.  We are nearly debt-free and not about to add more debt or payments to our plan.

Overall as a family, we are striving to be content.  Striving to be in a place of joyfulness and embrace where we are at this stage of our lives.  Never have we been less burdened with debt or commitments.  We are in a place where God can move us or tell us to set down roots.  We’re open and listening.

I realize more and more that my life is full of an attitude of discontentment.  It’s always been something with me.  For once I just want to rest and be content.

So my goals are to:

  • Grumble less.
  • Unplug from the Internet more.
  • Play with and enjoy my kids.
  • Pray often.

Simple goals really, but I’m a simple gal who needs simple goals.

Julie-Signature

 

 

 

Print Friendly

Updating RV Counters With Giani Granite Countertop Paint

Posted on by
Reply

Kitchen-Countertop-After-Painting Kitchen-Countertop-Before

After we did the transformation of the cabinets with Nuvo’s cabinet paint it was painfully obvious that I needed to update the countertops.

In all honesty, I hadn’t even considered the counters when I chose to do the cabinets in Platinum White.

But as you can below, the counters looked dingy next to the updated cabinets.

Countertop-Before-Painting

 

So I contacted Giani Granite, which is the same makers of Nuvo Cabinet Paint, and they agreed to send me a kit to update our countertops.  I decided on Bombay Black for the countertop color.

I got my kit in the mail and was happy to see it came with a practice sheet of paper.

nuvo-countertop-paint-kit

I used wrapping paper and lots of painter’s tape to protect area around the countertop.

There was a little bit of prep work such as sanding and removing the plastic trim around the base of the countertop.

removing-plastic-trim-in-bathroom-for-countertop-paint

 

 

 

plastic-trim-removed

I also needed to apply wood filler to the nicked areas of existing counter, which was mostly around the sink cutout.

nicks-patched-with-wood-filler

I applied my primer coat (which had amazing coverage).  I decided to do the dining room table because we had more than enough primer to complete the job.

primer-coat-for-counter-top-paint-nuvo

 

primer-on-countertop-paint

While the primer was drying, I used my practice piece of paper to try the sponging method.  Now keep in mind, I’m no artist.  I watched the application video, which was very helpful, but I still felt intimidated.  I’ve never done any type of faux painting but I plunged ahead.

Once the primer had dried the appropriate time, I started sponging on my colors.  It went very well I think.  It was hard to visualize the end product and I just kept sponging more colors on.  I didn’t want to have a uniform color so I had to go back and forth with colors a bit.

spinging-on-nuvo-countertop-paint

 

 

countertop-painting-almost-finished

As you can see, someone took the paper down too quickly and the wall got messed up. countertop-paint-in-bathroom

countertop-paint-prior-to-cop-coat countertop-prior-to-sanding

I sanded the counters after the paint had dried but before I applied the clear top coat.

Countertop-After-Painting

 

Above is a closeup of the countertop after 2 top coats were applied.  The top coats really seem to meld the colors together and make it look more finished.

I’m very happy with how it turned out!  I made mistakes with applying color and noticed them later but everyone I showed the “mistakes” to didn’t notice them.  My mistakes consisted of drops around the edges and splatters of paint.

As far as wear and tear, the paint has held up very well.  You do want to make sure water does not rest on the countertops.  I noticed that when it does rest, it bubbles slightly and has to dry out to go back to a smooth finish.

Would I do the countertop paint again?  Absolutely.  It was quick and it made such a difference in the look of the camper.  I’m very happy with it!  Since we have leftover paint, we can alway touch up the paint if need be (we tend to be hard on countertops).

Kitchen-Countertop-After-Painting

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Print Friendly

RV Window Treatments

Posted on by
Reply

In continuing with the remodel posts, I was updated almost all of the fabric in the camper.

Today’s post is all about the window treatments in our 96′ Winnebago Adventurer.

Main Living Area Windows

When Mark demo’d the camper, he threw out all the old cornice boxes.  They were dated and we didn’t want to recover them.  Instead, we decided that we’d reuse the privacy blinds and I’d sew new curtains throughout.

One of my best friends went with me to Hobby Lobby and helped me pick out the perfect fabric for the camper curtains.  I wanted a fabric that would allow us different color options.  I didn’t want it to be drab or boring.  I also didn’t want it to be an eye-sore.  We settled on this.

curtain-fabric-for-rv curtain-fabric-for-rv

I love that it has an array of colors.  Gray, brown, lime green, mustard yellow, seafoam green, fuschia.

I CANNOT say that Mark loves my choice.  I think he used the word “girly” and accused me of trying to feminize him.

Oh well.

Since I love him, I wanted him to be happy with the camper.  I made a few adjustments and added a gray panel to the top of the curtains.  I hoped it would help.

Curtain Hardware

But before I go into the curtains, lets talk about the curtain hardware.

I saw this pin on Pinterest about how you can make cheap curtain rods.

cheap-curtain-rod

I went with it because I loved the look.  Now in all fairness, I didn’t do it exactly as the website suggested. I bought some beautiful drawer pulls from Hobby Lobby for 50% off.  Dowels would come from the hardware store but I found that I’d have to buy hardware to attach the curtain rod dowel to the wall. That pesky hardware drove my cost up per window and turned out to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.

For the each window, the price broke down as follows:

$2 – for the Dowel (average)
$3 – for 2 Drawer Pulls
$3.80 for Hardware to Attach Curtain to Wall

$8.80 Total/Window

Now that may not seem like a lot but when you consider that we have 8 windows. It adds up to $70.  I was even willing to pay that price because those drawer pulls were gorgeous.  My MORE frugal husband put the brakes on and said that was not worth it.  So I bought these cheap curtain rods for $3 to $4 a piece (depending on the length).

cheap-curtain-rod

So it cost me just $28 for our (initial) curtain hardware.  Initial means I’ll go into that later.

Curtain Design

First, let’s go back to the curtain design.  I have to tell you about this VERY cool blog, Ana White.  She has a tutorial up about how to make hidden tab top curtains.  I loved the look of her curtains!  So clean and a simple way to sew in hidden tabs.  The design makes it so the fabric is not bunchy at the top. (I may sound slightly picky) I decided that was exactly how I wanted my curtains to be and I pressed ahead on making them according to her tutorial.

As I mentioned earlier, I tried to tame down some of the wild colors of my main fabric and appease Mark by adding a gray panel to the tops of the curtains. They were a little more work, but I was sure the results would be worth it.

The problem was, I hadn’t considered the fact that the privacy blinds would be visible when the curtains were open.  Once we got the first curtain up, I realized it would not do.

rv-privacy-blind privacy-blind-visible

Bummer!!  I really didn’t want to have to put a valance up and I wanted the benefits of the hidden tabs. I just couldn’t stomach seeing the privacy blinds all day long when the curtains were open.

Valances

So I made valances, not my first choice obviously but I’m happy with them today.  I used the same gray color that was at the top of the fabric and my valance hangs down about 7 inches.

But now we had a problem with the cheaper curtain hardware we had bought.

The valance would need to go on the cheap curtain rod and we needed something for the curtain panels.

Hidden Bungee Rod

Hello Pinterest!

I found this pin that talks about using a bungee cord for making a curtain rod behind a regular curtain rod.

bungee-cord-slipped-curtain

The pin actually links to some expensive curtain rod, but the description is all we needed.

So Mark went out and got about $16 worth of bungee cords.  We got them about 5 or 6 inches shorter than the curtain rod so there would be enough tension to hold the curtain up and snug.

But we found that the bungee cords did not stay on the ends, instead they slid along the curtain rod like this…

bungee-cord-slipped-curtain

Our fix?  Screw in a self-drilling screw to the end of the rod so the bungee cord can hook to the screw and not slip.

screw-to-catch-bungee

Here is another view of a self drilling screw tip for those of you who may be as unfamiliar as I was.

self-drilling-screws-bungee-cord-curtain Here is a snippet of the before…

old-cornace-for-96-winnebago-adventurer (Oh how I wish I had taken better before pictures but you can’t really undo a renovation) And after pictures are here…

RV-Window-Treatments

I do like how the hidden tabs make the curtains lay underneath the valances due to the hidden tabs.  In a regular stick built home, I do the same tutorial in a heartbeat.

Front Window Curtains

So that covers our main window treatments but we still needed to update the front window curtains.

The original fabric before was like a seafoam/blueish embossed rose color.

original-fabric-for-96-winnebago-adventurer-rv-curtains

I decided to layer a chevron fabric onto the existing curtains because I wanted the added insulation and didn’t want to have to reinvent the wheel in this area.

I’ll tell you that I laughed at the person who sewed the original RV curtains. Yep, I did. I thought maybe they had a rough night or they got trained on the particular curtains that went into our RV. Pride. You know what they say, pride comes before the fall, (which I’ll go into in a bit).  The curtains were sewed so sloppy and they were a mess when it actually came to taking off the curtain hardware.

The hardware I’m talking about is the glide tape.  I really couldn’t work with the existing glide tape because the plastic was cracked, brittle, and falling apart. I had actually hoped I could glue it and patch the glide tape but it quickly became apparent that it wasn’t possible so I got out my seam ripper and went to town to remove the tape and rig something up.

damaged-glide-tape-for-rv-window-treatments Since it was so old and hard to remove, I wasn’t able to salvage it.  I ended up ripping the glide tape off.

removed-glide-tape-from-RV-curtains

I ordered 3 packs of 72 inch glide tape from Amazon. The 2 curtain panels measure 86 inches each.  So we needed to use part of a 3rd glide tape for each of the panels.

After I pieced my chevron fabric together to get it wide enough I sewed the panels to the top and sides of the existing curtains.

Next I sewed on the first 72″ strip of glide tape and then I started at the opposite end of the curtain top and sewed the other glide tape on (going towards the direction of the already attached tape).  I did this to make sure the bracket was positioned near the edge of the curtain and it wouldn’t sag at the end.

So this is the part where I describe my fall after pride. Sewing on the glide tape was comical. For the life of me I couldn’t keep it straight.  There is really no way to pin it to the curtain since the plastic on the tape is so thick.  You just have to wing it.  I tried 3 different feet for my sewing machine and finally settled on my zipper foot.

It was tricky and it wasn’t pretty, but the glide tape was attached.  Once I hung the curtains, I pinned the bottom hem up, removed the curtain and sewed along the pinned hem.

front-rv-window-curtains-closed

The front curtains are busy, crazy and make me twitch.  I love chevron, but this was too much.  I’m hoping someday I’ll muster the time to add a solid panel somewhere in there.  I think that may help stop the motion sickness when the curtains are closed at night.  But during the day, they don’t look half bad.

So here is the before and after of the front curtains.

96-winnebago-adventurer-rv-window-curtains-before 96-Winnebago-Window-Treatments-After

Curtain tie backs were added later to keep the curtains contained.

Now I have one last thing to show you about window coverings.

Fabric Covered Roller-Blind

We have a roller-blind at our door and it was just a plain white plastic.  I know I sound slightly obsessed with Pinterest, but this time, it failed me.

roller-blind-pin

When I covered my roller-blind, I ruined it.  The Pin above is for instructions on how you use hot glue to adhere the roller-blind to the fabric.  Nope, that doesn’t work.  The glue is too thick and it makes it so the blind will not actually retract due to the bulk

I had to take as much glue off as I could and remove the fabric.  Since I put most of the hot glue on the edges, I actually had to trim the roller-blind edges away.  The only way I could find to adhere the fabric effectively was by using this spray adhesive.

spray-adhesive

And here is the after of the roller-blind when it is down.

chevron-covered-roller-blind

The reason why I have a green trim on my edges is because I was using fabric scraps.  So I just sewed trim on both edges of my chevron piece to make it wide enough.  I centered the blind over the fabric and voilà.  A fabric covered roller-blind.  The fabric is bunchy and I’m not happy with it.  Basically this just so show you how this doesn’t work.  Someday I’ll figure it out.  But for now, it works fairly well.

When the blind is rolled up, it tends to get lopsided like this…

uneven-fabric-roller-blind

We have to readjust the blind by tugging it when it’s rolled up.

straightened-roller-blind

Kid’s Bunkroom Curtains

One area I didn’t address was the kid’s bunkroom.  I don’t like the curtains in there because of how they lay.  The black material was a black-out fabric I bought. I did NOT do the hidden tab panels from Ana White’s site  I’m wishing I would have, but I had to be skimpy on my curtains because I was short on fabric.

I may redo the curtains in there, but for now they do the job and the room is fairly dark.  Since that was the goal, mission accomplished.

So that’s it on our window coverings.  Our friends call us hippy or gypsy-ish.  I have to agree, it has that feel.

If I ever get tired of the curtains, I’ll go with more neutral curtain fabric.  I still love that it gives us decorating options with all the colors and you know, we are sorta gypsish.

Blessings,

Julie-Signature

 

 

 

 

Print Friendly

Boondocking at Wally World

Posted on by
5

I have to laugh that I’m posting this.  I was just talking with a friend the day that we left South Dakota about this very topic.  Sleeping at Wal-Mart.  I joked with her about the notion and said I wouldn’t blog about it.

Well that decided it, I’m blogging about this.

For those of you that don’t know what our deal is, we are traveling from South Dakota to Florida with our 4 children in our 96′ Winnebago.

We had intended on pulling our van with a car transporter.  2 days before we left, we realized our hitch couldn’t support our Honda Odyssey.  So we settled on me driving our 4 children across country.  Our youngest is just 15 months old so I was really lacking in enthusiasm about our situation.

Here we are today, about 2/3rds through the trek and I have to say, it’s not been as bad as I thought.  The first day was pretty rough through and we ended up stopping earlier than planned.  Up north you don’t find many campgrounds open so we decided to park at a Wal-Mart.

Both sounded *NOT FUN* to me but with tired kids and a long day, I really didn’t care.  We pulled into the Wal Mart at Albert Lea, MN and I called them to see if it was okay.  Mark had read that you can park at Wal Mart overnight but I also had heard that some Wal Marts do NOT allow it.  We got the okay and went to our little corner of the parking lot to settle in.

Let me tell you, it was so NOT the big deal I thought it would be.

And really it was actually NICE.  Umm hmm.  I said it was NICE sleeping in the parking lot of Wal Mart.

Since we are in a Class A, everything is self-contained.  We have our own power, water, sewer.  We didn’t try showering or anything but we did put the slide out and had the bathroom to use if we needed to.  It took all of 10 minutes to get on the road in the morning and we really didn’t need the amenities that a campground would have provided.  We just needed to sleep.  We ran the generator that night because our refrigerator is a regular household type.

But the biggest plus to this scenario was the fact that we all slept like babies.  We had our normal beds and the same sounds (kids sleep with a sound machine)  I’d do it again.

Tonight we are camping in Kentucky.  Normal campsite, internet, water and sewer hookups.

All this to say, that boondocking at Wal Mart was easy and convenient.  There was zero stress in trying to find a location and we left very early in the morning.  I’d prefer a campsite, but I think there are times when it’s pretty pointless to go to the trouble of getting one.  In total we spent 9 hours parked at Wal Mart.  I appreciate that we could just park and sleep.

So that’s it for my thoughts on Boondocking at Wal Mart. What do you think?  I know many people don’t want anything to do with Wal Mart.  But what about truck stops?  Would you boondock there?

Print Friendly

Best of the Black Hills

Posted on by
1

We are heading out in less than 1 week.  As I’ve considered our time here in Rapid City, I naturally think about the things I will miss.  Of course I will miss friends, but if I could recommend my favorite places here in the Black Hills, what would they be?  Below is our list of the best of the Black Hills.

Favorite Restaurant

We love Minerva’s.  Love it!  The last time Mark and went out on a date I had the Champaign Chicken.  Amazing.  My mouth waters even now it was that good.  The food has always been quality and it’s very kid-friendly.  Minerva’s is what I would call upscale family dining. I will miss Minerva’s.

Best Donuts

Jerry’s Cakes & Donuts.  These are the best donuts in town.  We’ve tried at least 4 other places.  Jerry’s wins.  I always get their maple bacon.  Everyone loves bacon right? Don’t knock it until you try it.

Authentic Bagels

So it’s pretty funny that I have a category for bagels, I think this recommendation might be the ONLY bagel place in Rapid City.  But Black Hills Bagels is authentic.  My favorite is the Everything Bagel, (White Chocolate Chip is a close 2nd) but everything I’ve had from there is  yummy!  Perfect bagels.

Local Coffee

I say skip Starbucks and go to Black Hills Blends.  The little coffee huts throughout town serve up delicious cups of joe and as a bonus the company is local.  I think their coffee is better than Starbucks and the LaCrosse location even has Black Hills Bagels available on the menu.  Win win!

Pampering

Mystique Edge is the place to go for some local pampering.  The services there are superior, but the ambiance at Mystique really makes it a retreat.  I love going there and it is a relaxing enjoyable experience.  I’ve never had a better massage than at Mystique.  The pedicures and haircuts there are also top notch.

Camping

Spearfish City Campground & Legion Lake were our absolute favorites.  There is so much great camping in the area, but these particular campgrounds made the favorites.

I realize my list is short.  With 4 kids, it’s not often that we go out to eat and we are living on a budget.  But these are most definitely the cream of the crop and what we enjoyed in Rapid City. For the food recommendations, I specifically avoided mass-marketed chain restaurants.

(Also, I did not receive any compensation or incentive for these recommendations, just so you know.  These are honest recommendations with zero strings attached)

Anyone else familiar with Rapid City that has a local favorite?  I’d love to hear your recommendation of where to go.  We have only a few more days to enjoy the Black Hills and would love to hear what we may have missed out on.

Julie-Signature

Print Friendly

Favorite Pinterest Pins Tested in Our Home

Posted on by
Reply

The great thing about Pinterest is how it motivates.  Motivation to try a new recipe or follow a tip.  These are some of my favorite pins from the past few months if you want to check em out.

Perfect Salmon by Pioneer Woman – Perfect.  Truth.

Triangular Folded Grocery Sacks – Ummm, I HATE the grocery sack dilema.  I hate having a bunch of scrunched up grocery sacks and I love this tip.  On the surface, it seems a little over the top.  But oh it made my heart happy to see all my triangular grocery sacks neatly tucked inside the box I store them in.  And I have bought reusable grocery bags but without fail, I forget them.  That is something I’m working on.  For now, I have a neat way to store the plastic sacks and reuse them.  And it is the perfect job for the kids while I put away groceries.

triangular-folded-grocery-bags

Crockpot Honey Sesame Chicken – Delish!  Everyone loved this one.  I added the dried red pepper flakes to my plate separately.  It is a keeper!

Sugar Cookie Bars – Oh my word, I love these and have made them several times!!  I made them recently when I got together with friends.  They are a favorite.  Only thing I change on these is I sub in almond extract instead of vanilla extract for the frosting.  These taste very much like Eileen’s Colossal Cookies but better.

 

Sprinkle-Cake

Sprinkle Birthday Cake – A few months ago, we celebrated Eva’s 3rd Birthday.  I wish I would have loaded up her cake more with the sprinkles but this was a cute and easy idea.

And if you want to follow me on Pinterest, you can here.  Do you have any favorite pins you care to share?  I’d love to know what gems you’ve found recently!

 

Julie-Signature

Print Friendly

Winter RVing & Waterlines

Posted on by
Reply

Since we are officially into Spring, I figured I’d post some thoughts about winter RVing and our issues with the waterline freezing.

Waterline-Issues-and-winter-rving

This past winter, we made it through some bitterly cold days and nights in the camper.  I have to say, it was not all that bad.  One thing we ran into multiple times was freezing waterlines.

You know how we put out the heat hose and insulated the line?  In theory, that works GREAT, just as long as the outlet on your breaker doesn’t trip.  Yes, we had a couple of nights where the heat hose wasn’t even getting juice.  Honestly, we can’t figure out why it tripped, but it did.

tripped-outlet-breaker--heat-hose-winter-rving

Another night it got around zero and the line froze again.  Not through the entire hose, just where the line attaches to the spigot.  This was in the 2013 Forest River Sandpiper.  Obviously it wouldn’t have mattered what RV it was.  The spigot gets mighty cold and it freezes.

So The Man insulated that portion of the hose with a Rubbermaid tub and placed a sandtube on top to hold it down during the 300 mph South Dakota gusts of wind.  Problem diverted.  (I’ve seen other campers put a 5 gallon bucket over the spigot)

tub-to-stop-freeze-at-spigot-point

But I will say that at the time, the freezing water was annoying.  Since we hadn’t filled up our water tank we had zero water.  It really is a trade-off…

  • We had our entire 5th wheel freeze over when we went on vacation over Christmas.  If our tank had been filled we would have likely had to replace it because it probably would have cracked.
  • But when our line froze and we had no reserve water in the tank, we got thirsty.  I’ll take thirsty any day of the week and twice on Sunday over replacing our water tank. We simply had to go get water while we waited for the line to thaw.

It’s a good thing we don’t like to be prepared.  :)

So now we’ve weathered the storm and we feel sorta like pioneers.  This statement is likely laughable since we weathered the storm in a very comfy and heated RV.  Regardless, we like to focus on perceived positives rather than reality.

But all these waterline freezes were in the 5th Wheel.  It really wasn’t so bad looking back.

We had high hopes of no waterline freezes once we moved into the Winnie. In a slightly insane way, I’m comforted in telling you that we also dealt with frozen water in the Winnie.  We are seasoned vets at this water freezing deal.

So the problem at our Winnie was due to the fact that there is a little piece of a pipe fitting that connects through the outdoor shower hookup.

point-prone-to-freeze-in-96-winnebago-adventurer

It is not insulated and we are certain it was the culprit.  We tried wrapping the excess heat hose around that area, but it just couldn’t keep up to the freezing temps.

We wised up and bought a shop light.  $5 bought us a thawed waterline and peace of mind.  No more problems since that $5 shop light.

mechanics-light-for-winter-rving

All this to say, keeping the water flowing is NOT completely impossible.  You just have to be prepared to roll with the punches.  It’s best to save your energy and sanity and not get all worked up or upset about the problems that come with the cold weather.

Could we do another winter in the RV?  Absolutely.  Am I happy we don’t have to?  Absolutely!

Julie-Signature

Print Friendly

How to Make Fitted Sheets From a Flat

Posted on by
2

I don’t know about you, but my kids refuse to use a flat sheet. I’ve tried off and on since they were about 2, but the flat sheet always ended up wedged to the foot end of the bed. So we only use a fitted sheet for their beds.

Kids will be kids. It’s always nice to have an extra sheet or 3. Today I’m going to share with you how I sew my own fitted sheets from a flat (or a piece of fabric).

This really came in handy when we made the custom bunks for the Winnie.  Since all 4 beds were odd sizes, I needed to custom fit all the sheets or deal with tucking lots of extra fabric under.  I hate tucking and readjusting sheets.  A mama’s got enough to do in my humble opinion.

Back to my fitted sheets…

My big kid’s mattress tops measure 27″ X 57″.  The mattress thickness is 4 inches.  You need to know all these measurements specifically for your own bed to fit the sheets properly.  I don’t want to get hate mail because you followed my measurements.  That and I doubt anyone has the same size bunks that we do.  We like to be different.

But given my bed size example, here is how you figure out the size of your fitted sheet.

Width of Sheet

  27 (width of the mattress)
8 (thickness of the mattress multiplied by 2)
+ 4 (for hem and overhang )
 39 inches

Length of Sheet

  57 (length of mattress)
   8 (thickness of mattress multiplied by 2)
+ 4 (for hem and overhang)
 69 inches

So you’ll want to take fabric or cut your sheets to the measurement that you find you need for your particular bed.

Cut Out Corners

Next you need to cut out notches so you can make your corners.  As I said, I have a 4 inch thick mattress and I have allowed for 2 extra inches on each side for the hem and under tuck (if that’s a word).  So I cut out a 6 inch square from each of the 4 corners of the piece of fabric.

cutting-corners-for-fitted-sheets

Time to Hem

Now is the easiest time to hem your sheet. I tend to sew like a mad woman and go as fast as my machine will allow. I don’t want to have to fuss with any corners which is why I recommend sewing the corners together AFTER you have hemmed the edges.

I fold over my hem 1/4″ and then another 1/4″ and sew along the edge. I loathe pinning and have an dislike for the iron so I just do this turning under by hand as I go along with the sewing machine. It doesn’t need to be perfect.

hem-outside-edges

Sew the Corners

Sew-Corner-Edges

Corners need to be sewed together next.  Simply line those cut out corners that are missing the 6″ squares and sew a 1/4″ seam from the point down to the edge.  Now you have a nifty corner for your sheet.

seam-sewed-closed

Attaching Elastic

In order to get the sheet to fit around your mattress, you need to attach elastic to the edge.

On the top of the sheet I start on the left side about 8 or 9 inches from my corner seam and zig sag stitch a 1/4″ piece of elastic to the edge.  Once I’ve got the elastic attached with a couple of stitches at the beginning, I pull that elastic VERY tight as I let the machine pull the hem of the sheet through.  You just want the elastic pulled tight so it will scrunch the fabric and give you fitted corners.

I do the top of the sheet as one big strip and finish about 8 or 9 inches on the other side of the right corner.

elastic-attached-pulled-tight

And that is it.  So easy and it makes making beds a breeze.

custom-fitted-sheets

I’d estimate that one sheet takes less than 10 minutes to sew custom fitted sheets from start to finish.  Worth the time in my book.

Julie-Signature

 

 

Print Friendly

What We Are Left With

Posted on by
1

As we prep for our move to Florida, I’m coming to terms with our life. That may sound like I’m miserable or have regrets. I assure, that is so far from the truth.

The reality is, we have sold almost all that we own. If it doesn’t fit into the van or the Winnie, we will no longer own it in 2 weeks.

It’s a crazy realization that you can contain all your belongings into an RV and minivan.

The past week has been huge for us in terms of getting rid of things. We sold our 5th Wheel, (thank you LORD!) and our 2nd vehicle.

sold-camper

We really don’t have much left, just a few things in the storage unit that we’ll either be selling or donating. Basically, if it doesn’t fit in the van or the Winnie, we’re not taking it with us.

You know, it’s funny. Part of me is sad to realize we have so little. But another part of me feels like we are free. (not that stuff determines whether you are free or not)

We all want nice stuff right?  I’m mean for the most part, we want to have a nice home, nice clothes, nice furniture, nice belongings.

But I refuse to think either my or anyone’s value is found in possessions.  At the end of the day, I hope we possess worth within ourselves rather than in our possessions. So as I finish selling some things on Craigslist, I strive to stay in the place where I know it is all okay. Those things are JUST things.

We’ve donated far more than I thought we would have to, (time dictated that we needed to start donating since certain items were not selling). I’ll be honest and say, that was hard. I had to let go of the value I saw in the item and view our donations as blessings for others.

This whole process has caused me to stop and think about what I value and where my heart is. I’m grateful for less stuff. I don’t really miss anything that I’ve gotten rid of and I have all that’s important.

What we are physically left with? All that is important. Family.

I don’t think this life is for everyone. I know many people have priorities right and don’t get caught up in stuff. I’m just grateful to be learning the lesson of simplicity. It’s taken me living in the camper and I’m so grateful for it.

Julie-Signature

Print Friendly

RV Remodel

More from category “RV Remodel”