27 October 2014

Week 1 of October for Project333

I tried to document my outfits as I went along. The photos make me really look critically at how I am displaying myself to the world. For example, I'm not sure that I like the first outfit that I wore on day 1. The tights are too light for this I think. Or maybe its the boots. I don't know yet. I may soon be in the market for some new tights. It gets cold here and I wear them in winter under pants anyways. 




Day 1

We went out. 

Day 2
I took a selfie on this one. I didn't do a lot fashion wise, but I did work wise. So, I didn't care what I wore today. I wore my pink long sleeve shirt,  blue sweater (I didn't include sweaters because I wear them for warmth and not really fashion.) and my jeans with my working shoes. (I did a lot of work scrubbing the camper today! 

Day 3

Jeans and a Tee day. Didn't leave the farm all day. Did so much work that I had some left to do the next day. (sigh) Canning.
No Picture, too tired.


Day 4

 DH didn't want to stand up to take the picture, so I look like a giant here. Side note-Bingley is getting      SO big! He's bigger than Krunchee now! ( I think I need more long sleeved undershirts.)



Day 5

Out to the farmer's market with the pups. I just had my jeans on the bottom half. Sometimes it's hard to get a picture taken... especially when some people are griping about it. (ahem, Bingley!) I wore my mint tee over DH's grey long sleeved tee, jeans and sneakers. (Note: I stole DH's warm comfy shirt today. He didn't mind at all. I really need to get my own?)


Day 6

Didn't get to take a picture of myself today. I cheated and work a tee from the workout drawer since I didn't want to mess up my other clothes. Worked on the camper with DH today. Very excited to get this project done so it will not leak anymore. Plus, I can get to decor after all the repairs are finished! YAY!
We were working with caulk and we did a lot in the camper. I'll post on that soon too.
Guess what? I wore jeans again. Darn I need more pants options for fall!!


Day 7
Worked in the Children's Church today so I needed to be able to move about freely.

I wore my mint sweater, khakis and my white linen shirt. and my keds. Comfy and I thought I looked awesome.  Oh, and the children loved the puppet show. Too much going on for a picture-again.



We are starting to see that I live in jeans. So, I need to make sure that I have a few pairs of them so they can get washed. Also, a nice pair for out days and a grungy pair for working days is going to be a good idea.
I lost weight up here and now my 'work jeans' are too big. So the belt gets worn a lot!
I don't get time to take a lot of pictures of myself, but I tried to get some in there. I do a lot of work, so jeans-YAY! I'm thinking about adding a pair of dungaree overalls to this, what do you think?

How are you fairing on your project 333?


24 October 2014

Why we quit paper products

In our house there is no paper towel roll and no paper napkins on the table. My DH had trouble with giving them up, but I didn't have too much trouble with it. Until we got a puppy...

Instead of paper towels we use cleaning rags for cleaning and dishcloths for the kitchen. No sponges either.  Things that have changed by not using paper products. Not to mention the money that is saved.

Things that have been affected by not using paper products
  • We don't toss out so much trash.
  • We do not spend as much money on paper products.
  • We save money buy washing the cloth rags/dishtowels.
  • It's one less thing to buy at the store.
  • I can use up old clothes or fabric by cutting it up for rags. Getting even more use out of it!
  • I feel good about our consumption of goods going down because of this change. 
  • We are not in the cycle of consumerism as often. I will discuss how we have made other changes in this area in a later post. 

In the dining room instead of paper napkins we have cloth napkins. I have a fancy white linen set (with a matching table cloth) for 4, a pair of green cotton ones that I made, and 6 purple and blue flowery ones for everyday use.  When we aren't at the table they hang on the backs of the chairs. (Only when it's me and DH at home.)When they get too dirty I swap them out and wash them. 


One last thing. We still use toilet paper. I'm not sure if you thought we didn't by the title, but DH was concerned that someone might think that from it. Although when I was in Turkey, people there do not use toilet paper and if you asked for it you had to pay, per square. So, I've gone without it before. But, it wasn't pleasant at all and I'd rather not unless I absolutely can't afford it or SHTF and there isn't any. 

Thanks for stopping by today!
Would you consider going paper-less in your home? Or have you already? I'd love to hear about it. 

20 October 2014

Water damage update and demo

I have to keep telling myself that this camper was free. I know that means that it comes with problems. But DH and I were talking last night and we haven't ever owned an RV, much less repaired and remodeled one! So, he's talking about scrapping it if it doesn't work out. At least we wouldn't have lost anything right?

So I decided if he wants to toss it out I'll at least try to see if I can fix it before he takes it to the dump (Not that he knows where it is anyways. HA HA) So, with my trusty tools and some gloves I ripped out the luan and some of the rotten boards (After I took some pictures so I would know where they were before so I can get new ones in the same place.
This camper, it killing me. I cleaned another section of the top and caulked where I think the leak was in the kitchen. It was still leaking, I felt wetness when I was taking the luan out.


This is where I thought to take a picture. Then I tore out some more of it. 




So much crap gone from here. I'm thinking about taking the window off and getting the luan from underneath it and putting it back on when the boards are up and the luan is cut to fit and back on. Too much? I'm not doing it today or anything, but I think it would make it look better. I'm going to need some more caulk though. 
Remember when I thought I might be able to reuse the insulation? HA, it's so wet that I would never be able to dry it out and then I would worry about it molding inside my nice clean and new walls. 


I'm really thinking about taking all the cabinets down in the kitchen and taking all the walls down then putting up new walls and putting the cabinets back. I'm a little worried about taking them out though. The one I took out already I had to tear out. I don't want to have to buy new ones. I already need a new backsplash. *le sigh*
This is only the kitchen. The rest of the RV is pretty good. 

Another thing I did was take down all the 'valance-esqe' curtains, and the other curtains. I also took the roman shades, blinds and all hangers for these things down so I could work a little easier. Also, they make the room look smaller and the fabric they used was ugly! With them all gone, I can visualize the space a little better. 
I took the dinette cushions inside and took one out to see if I could undo it and make a pattern out of them for my own fabric. I haven't decided what I want yet. It's a little early anyways. I need to get my walls back up still. A lot of people take the dinette out, but I kinda like mine. Plus, it folds down into a child's sized bed. When we have little ones I would like to have a place for them to sleep. (Or even just the dogs.) 

Since DH was talking about tossing it it shouldn't be too mad that I demolished the walls without him.(He's at work on last day of 12s)
RIGHT??
He has the next week off from work and I'm going to have him working on the camper with me for most of the time. 


Question for you, my readers, should I completely gut the kitchen or try to repair what's there first?

17 October 2014

Camper update

A few days ago I did a little more demo work in the camper. Also, last weekend DH and I got the bathroom fan and cover on.

Here is a cool picture that I made featuring what we accomplished last weekend. 
Since the bathroom is so small, we couldn't both work in it at the same time. So, Frank concentrated on the bathroom and I worked on some things in the kitchen. I don't know if you can tell or not but the lower right photo is the kitchen after I took down a water logged cabinet. It's unfortunate that it was the one over the sink. We had to figure out how to get the light fixture out of the bottom of the cabinet. Also, the the left of that cabinet and directly over the stove there was a HUGE microwave. It was probably an 80s unit. It seemed like it was built in the cabinet, so it probably came with the camper. But, we don't use microwaves anymore. I thought that having one in the camper would be weird and I wouldn't have anything to 'cook' in it. So, we took it out. We decided that we would put the girdler in that spot when we finish, or even use it as a pantry.  
While Frank was applying the caulk on the vent in the bathroom I scrubbed down part of the roof side and back of the camper. There is so many/much lichens growing on the entire outside surface of the camper. It needs to be scrubbed. EVERYWHERE!

After we finished these projects we went outside and scrubbed the flip up awning on the front of the camper. If you remember the pictures before, it was black. We scrubbed together, taking turns scrubbing and the other one wiping off the blackness. Our cleaning rag was gray afterwards. YUCK. But, the camper looks better and even better than that, the bathroom is no longer leaking. 

Unfortunately, I found another leak. This one is probably worse and had been going on for a lot longer because it was hard to see the leak and it looks like someone had tried to finish it before. 





Ok, so this is behind the panel that I ripped out (In pieces) the black thing is a board. Or was a board. It needs to be replaced immediately. 




Here is a picture before I ripped out the ceiling panel and saw this board. 
It still needed the panel replaced, but now we have to do even more to it! GRrRRr. 
I know, I know. Someone GAVE us this camper and we knew that we would have more work because of it. But, still. I was hoping that we wouldn't have that much work to do on it. 
I can't believe that we still have repairs to do on it before I can even prime anything. (That's my annoyance at not being able to start the decorating!)

All of the rotted board needs to come out, the fiberglass insulation will probably have to be taken out as well. I don't know if we will have to replace it or if we can use that, I'm kinda thinking if it was wet we should replace it just to be safe. 
But, the good news is that after this board and the panels in the kitchen here and in the bathroom get put up we will have most of the repairs finished. At least the major ones. 
We are probably going to work on this over the weekend, assuming that the weather is nice to us. 

Thanks for looking at my annoying camper!!
One day it will be beautiful.

13 October 2014

Camper Cleaning and update.

When we got this camper I was envisioning all the fun things that I could do to it to make it 'homey' away from home.
I had visions of soft pink cabinets with aqua cushions and a cute lace tablecloth with my fiesta in flamingo and turquoise on the table.
I wanted to recover the pull out couch in the same aqua or turquoise and pull up that nasty carpet and put down some laminate 'wood' on the floor.
All the curtains need to be replaced with something that flows with the wind and matches my vision (I don' know about it yet. Maybe yellow?)

And then it hit me this morning (Ok so by the time you read this is was actually a few days ago) "how do I know that's what it needs when I haven't even seen it?" It's under years of caked on dust and grease and the water damage in the bathroom. I'm envisioning the 'perfect camper' in my head and I haven't even done ANYTHING to this one yet.

Well, that settled it in my mind. So, I got up and got dressed, prepared some hot water and cleaning supplies and walked out to the camper feeling ambitious and ready to tackle some dirt. Oh, was it ever dirty. I don't think this camper has been used for about 6 years, maybe longer.

Scrubbing the kitchen was just so soothing. There was nothing in the camper. Everything that was just laying about I took out and put in the shop so I could see the camper. The carpet just kills me. It was mauve, but now it is an orangey-pink tie dyed mess. It looks like parts of it were faded in the sun and parts were covered by a rug.

So, in my perfectionist mind and haste to start (and finish so we could go somewhere) I forgot that all things take time.
I took out the mattress to make it easier to work in here.

Here are my elbow grease pictures for the day.

I took the wooden divider down, I might put up a curtain later on. But this makes it more open feeling. 
The kitchen is where I focused most of my efforts on today. It was filthy! You can still see where the panel needs to be replaced on the ceiling. 
The couch folds out into a bed and I'm still working on how I am going to recover it. Also, that carpet used to be pink, I checked inside the cabinets. YUCK!!

Looks better already doesn't it? I'm working on baby steps to the finished project! I'm so excited to take it on the road in December! But, we aren't there yet...still much more work to do.


01 October 2014

Project 333 for Autumn

Today I officially start my project 333. Although mine is always different from the original. But, it's about making it work for you. So, keep that in mind if you want to do this for yourself. It has to work for YOU. It will never be perfect. Something I have to tell myself constantly. And your preferences and style will change over time. So, updates are allowed. Just as long as they are thoughtfully considered and not just a spur of the moment buy or a mall grab because you feel bad. (Honestly, I hate the mall. Especially the one here in MN, it is too huge!)

I debated on color schemes for autumn.  (My favorite season.) Should be colors that I feel good in and that look good on me. I love olive green and it's the closest I ever get to a neutral. I was originally going to go with that. I have shoes, a jacket and a skirt in that color.
But olive green isn't my best color. It's too warm for my complexion. I realized that I don't really have a lot of neutrals in my wardrobe and it does make it hard to match things so I went shopping. I love pinks, mint green, raspberry and lilac and they look good on me. So I was looking for those colors. Wouldn't you know that they aren't in season/style right now! Classics never go out of style. But I'm looking for a specific color. Boo.

I'm building off my summer wardrobe. At the moment I've got too many clothes and I need to weed some more out. And yet, I went shopping...It was thoughtful. I tried to look at the pictures I took of my wardrobe on my phone, but it's hard to match that way. After much thought, I have added in the mint green and taken a little of the olive out. I am making some room for the shorts to be rotated out and pants or more sweaters to be moved in. When you live in Minnesota you have to think of these things early. :)

My trusty purple Fluevog bag is of course staying. :)
I'd love to get some turquoise Malibrans (pictured left) to go with it, but...it's not in the budget yet.

Also I've looked over my brown boots and I'd like to get a quality pair next year. They are fake leather and flaking off on the inside part of the leg side of the boot. So, I save for these things for next year. Or maybe someone reading this will get them for me for Christmas. (Fluevogs I wear a 10.5, most other things I wear a 10)

I've made some adjustments to my summer wardrobe to keep it going. I've realized that a lot of the colors I was wearing were...a little dark.(like the olive and black!)
In the seasonal color palette (to see more about this look here) I am a light summer.
This is my best color palette.


It's mostly pink and blue and some pastel colors. But I like the light purples at the bottom and the pinks and raspberry with the greens. This green shirt I have on in the picture is not in the palette exactly, (pretty close!) it's a spring color. Yet, I like it a lot on me. I took this picture to show how long my hair was getting.
I never did order the 'Joker' Tee. I like it a lot, but I'm not sure it rounds out my wardrobe. And, I really don't need another Tee shirt. I have a hard time going through the ones that I already own.

Deciding on a specific color palette is hard! I noticed in my closet that I had a lot of patterns and not a lot of solids and a mix of colors so that nothing really matched anything else. I find this to be my greatest problem with project 333. Making sure everything matches or at least mixes well with the other articles of clothing.





So this in mind I have rearranged my wardrobe to reflect this revelation. So here is what I decided. Only 33 clothing items will be counted, not to include sweaters for warmth, shoes,  clothing for exercising or purses. I did pare these down previously, so I feel good about it. And they all (except the shoes) fit in my dresser space.)
Now on to my selections. Please keep in mind that all of these look better on me than on the hangers. 

1. 
 Pink dress. I wore this dress on our engagement photo shoot. One of my absolute favorites!

2.
On the hanger this looks weird right? But I made this dress from a 50's vintage pattern and I love the pattern of the fabric. 
4.
I actually love this dress so much I wore it in our engagement photos last year.

5.
 Shirtwaist dress. 

6.
 Denim jumper. Looks better on me than the hanger.
7.
 Raspberry dress.

8.
  Reversible raspberry and olive skirt

9.
 You can't see it, but this has pockets! Love that detail. Also matches a lot. 
10.
 This is from a store in Charleston, SC. I don't know if they are still open or not. I loved wearing the hippy styles in my college days. The fact that I can still wear this makes me smile. The bottom has a lot of color and matches a lot of my shirts. 
11.
Zips in the back, vintage knit shirt. Matches everything because of the neutral color.

12.

Super comfy mint shirt. I really wanted to infuse this color into my wardrobe. This will layer really well. 
13.  
  Lucky 13. My Chambray shirt. I bought this last month after realizing that I had so many patterned things in my wardrobe and not enough to match with them. This fixed a hole in my wardrobe. It was an intentional and well thought out purchase. Even the color I debated on for awhile. The soft blue denim looks better with my skin tone than the darker ones. 

14.
I made this shirt as well. I love it because it's linen and soft. 
15.
This shirt is a workhorse in my wardrobe. Matches so much.
16.
Longs sleeve linen shirt. Needs to be pressed, but I love it and the soft color. 
17.
Long sleeved white linen shirt. Are you noticing a pattern here with the linen? I love it so much!!

18.
Bright green spring shirt. (I call it my lucky shirt.)

19.
I thought this would look nice with mint and other things as well. It is cute with the mint shorts. 

20.
Brown cardigan. layers, layers, layers
21. 
blue checkered shirt. I don't know what it is made of, but it is soft on the skin and the blue is muted and looks good on me. 

22.

Just bought this one and I'm looking forward to wearing it this season.
23.
Pink Sweatshirt material shirt. Comfy for lounging or going out. I sometimes work out in it, but I also go to the store in it too. 

24.
My Ariel Shirt. It's fun, cute and hey-I like it. 
25.
 Green peplum top.
26.

27.
 Raspberry shirt. Matches a lot. Love the color, not crazy about the fabric.(poly blend)
28.
 Pink and purple 3/4 sleeve shirt. Needs something underneath, because it is somewhat a sheer cotton.
29.
 I love Marie Curie. She is one of my namesakes and she did a lot of work and helped Women's Rights move along. DH has a job because of her work.
30.
BraAaains..... It's another just plain fun shirt. 

31. There will be pink pants here. I just haven't found them yet. I can't decide on raspberry or light pink. 


32.
      Khakis. Not my favorite normally, but these I like. 

33.
These are my sexy jeans. (So my DH tells me.)

So, this being my second round of project333, I will be trying to take a picture of my outfits as I go along. There is a challenge to post the first 33 days of outfits on the project333 website.
What do you find to be the hardest part of project333? Are you thinking about minimizing your wardrobe??