"If you don't like the road
you're walking, start paving another one."
~Dolly Parton
Sometimes
you find yourself making goals and organizing your life and you suddenly realize
that the more successful you are at achieving those goals, the less your life
looks like you.
And all the work and planning is
moving you faster and faster down the wrong path and further away from the one
your heart yearns for.
It’s never
too late to stop. You can always turn
around. And if you find yourself
realizing your life doesn’t fit your heart’s journey anymore, it’s time to pave
a new road, building on what you’ve learned.
Each mile of hard-won knowledge is another step into wisdom. Every stone you’ve stumbled on is a gem of insight
into how you can build your dreams.
Life is
sometimes a straight path. Sometimes it’s
a winding road. At big moments, we come
to crossroads with clear choices. And
sometimes? Sometimes, we come to a dirt
road leading off the highway we’re barreling down. If we’re moving too fast, we’ll miss it. If our lives are too loud, we won’t hear the
call to go off-roading; to follow what seems like a whim but is actually our
heart calling to us, wanting to find something new and wild and just a little bit scary.
Take time
to slow down. To listen to your heart
and what it’s telling you. And then take
those dreams and wishes and pave another road—the one that takes you there.
What brave
thing will you do TODAY to make your dreams come true?
The biggest adventure, though, has been discovering Young
Living Essential Oils.
I purchased the starter kit in October and have been incorporating
these wonderful oils into our daily lives. I started with diffusing these
beautiful scents into our home and workplace. Knowing that these oils
have beneficial properties makes it even better and I love the lift I get to my
mood when diffusing them.
The StressAway roller ball is a game changer on a tough day and my
miracle face serum are two other favorite ways I've been using these oils on a
daily basis.
Thieves and Purification are two oil blends that I also use in my
laundry. I've been placing a couple of drops on a washcloth and throwing
in with the load going into the dryer. It makes the house and the laundry
smell amazing!
I've always used rubber laundry balls to lessen the drying time
and to reduce wrinkles without using dryer sheets. Now that I'm using
essential oils in my dryer, I decided to make my own felted wool dryer balls so
I can add a couple of drops of oil to them.
DIY Natural has a great tutorial on how to make these.
I used one skein for two
balls, with Patons classic worsted wool. It took two washes in hot water for them to
felt. I wanted to try a looser weave, but I couldn't find anything
similar that was 100% wool in our town, so, I ended up ordering a couple of
skeins of this kind of wool:
According to her tutorial, this kind should felt a little easier.
Can't wait to make some more! There was something soothing about
rolling the yarn into balls. And it turned out a lot better than my
previous crocheting projects...
So glad I don't have to use my Grandma's rub board to do laundry!
If you are interested in trying Young Living Essential Oils, the
premium starter kit is a great beginner kit. Plus, I'm offering a $25 gift card if you sign up under my subscriber number (link below) and some other goodies along the way!
The premium starter kit comes with:
Dewdrop™ Diffuser
Premium Essential Oils Collection;
Lavender 5-ml
Peppermint Vitality™ 5-ml
Lemon Vitality™ 5-ml
Copaiba Vitality™ 5-ml
Frankincense 5-ml
Thieves® Vitality™ 5-ml
Purification® 5-ml
R.C.™ 5-ml
DiGize™ Vitality™ 5-ml
PanAway® 5-ml
Stress Away™ 5-ml
AromaGlide™ Roller Fitment
10 Sample Packets
10 Love It? Share It! Sample Business Cards
10 Love It? Share It! Sample Oil Bottles
2 NingXia Red® 2-oz. samples
Product Guide and Product Price List
Essential Oil Magazine
Essential Edge
Member Resources
order here Christmas Spirit giveaway only good through 12/31/16
To enroll
with my group,click hereand make sure the
number 10358214appears in both the “Enroller” and “Sponsor ID” fields.
By signing up as a wholesale member, you will get 24% off retail
prices which is the only way to go!
If you have questions, feel free to email me at bluejeansandturquoise@gmail.com.
I'd be glad to help you and would love to have you join up with our
wonderful sisterhood! We have an awesome facebook group that will support
you in your journey to better health.
Life is full of obstacles--hard things (or people) we find on the way to living our dream.
If I find myself doing something and it seems too easy, my paranoia sets
in and I am just sure I’m doing it wrong!
Productivity gurus always tell us to make our goals BIG and SPECIFIC. Both of those things invite obstacles and hardships on the way. It's our job as dreamers and doers to make sure our path DOES have obstacles that we have to overcome. It's our job to make sure our path is leading somewhere worthy of the journey.
And it's our job to remember to enjoy the journey itself.
What brave thing will you do TODAY to make your dreams come true tomorrow?
When you're wondering which way to go, make your own way.
When you're wondering who you want to be, be your best self.
When you're wondering what the future will bring, decide what you want it to be and make it so.
What brave thing will you do TODAY to make your dreams come true tomorrow?
It is finally feeling like fall today and I couldn't resist adding the beautiful orange leaves from the vines on the front of our home to this photo. Today I'm sharing a great way to use two of the oils that come in Young Living's essential oil starter kit: Purification and Peppermint. Peppermint is great for adding to your tea to aid in digestion and also to add to your daily water bottle. I like to use it in my diffuser in the morning to wake me up (I need all the help I can get!) Purification is a great blend made up of six essential oils for the ultimate weapon against odors- Citronella, Lavandin, Lemongrass, Rosemary, Myrtle, and Tea Tree. It helps with cooking orders in the home, dirty laundry (kids' athletic clothes, anyone?) and the car.
My favorite way to use these oils together is in my car. I add one drop of peppermint and two drops of purification to a cotton round pad (like the kind you use for make up removal). We always have these in the house for make-up, craft projects--there are a million ways that they come in handy.
After I've added the drops of oil to the pad, I clip it onto the air vent in the car with a cute wooden clothespin. I buy them in the dollar bin at Michael's whenever they're available because I like to have them around for attaching cards to gifts, closing chip bags, and lots of other little needs. Here are some cute ones I found:
This makes a cute and easy essential oil diffuser for your car. There's minimal clean up. I use the pad several days because I like the same scent. If you want to change it out, just get a new pad and add the oil you'd like (Christmas Spirit is nice this time of year!)
If you'd like a more permanent type of diffuser for your car, this one's a nice option that fits in your cup holder and has gotten good reviews:
Diffusing essential oils in the car has made riding around in the mom-mobile much more pleasant. Even though we're long past the stage of finding funky sippy cups in strange places, Peppermint and Purification essentail oils make the car a happier place to be!
If you are interested in trying Young Living Essential Oils, the premium starter kit is a great beginner kit. Plus, I'm offering a $25 gift card if you sign up through my subscriber # (link below) along with membership in our wonderful facebook group!
The premium starter kit comes with:
Dewdrop™ Diffuser
Premium Essential Oils Collection;
Lavender 5-ml
Peppermint Vitality™ 5-ml
Lemon Vitality™ 5-ml
Copaiba Vitality™ 5-ml
Frankincense 5-ml
Thieves® Vitality™ 5-ml
Purification® 5-ml
R.C.™ 5-ml
DiGize™ Vitality™ 5-ml
PanAway® 5-ml
Stress Away™ 5-ml
AromaGlide™ Roller Fitment
10 Sample Packets
10 Love It? Share It! Sample Business Cards
10 Love It? Share It! Sample Oil Bottles
2 NingXia Red® 2-oz. samples
Product Guide and Product Price List
Essential Oil Magazine
Essential Edge
Member Resources
order here Christmas Spirit giveaway only good through 12/31/16
To enroll with my group,click hereand make sure the number 10358214appears in both the “Enroller” and “Sponsor ID” fields.
By signing up as a wholesale member, you will get 24% off retail prices which is the only way to go!
If you have questions, feel free to email me at bluejeansandturquoise@gmail.com. I'd be glad to help you and would love to have you join up with our wonderful sisterhood! We have an awesome facebook group that will support you in your journey to better health.
*Some affiliate links are used in this post at no extra cost to you.
So travel lightly in my heart You and I will never part And far beyond this world we see There's a place for you and me ~ Rodney Crowell I went home this week to a place I haven't lived in for thirty years. This little town will always be home in my heart even though all the family has moved on. As I drove down the highway that connects me to my memories, I thought about all the different roads we'd all gone down. Some of my childhood friends stayed; some of us moved on but still carry those rolling hills and muddy creeks close when we think about home. My friends and I met to see another one go Home. Her journey here on earth ended far too soon and we joined together to remember and laugh and cry. Together. To wish we had done it sooner. To wish we hadn't waited for when we weren't as busy or for when our children were grown. To promise each other that we would all find a time to get together and share our lives with friends who "knew us when." My sweet friend would have loved seeing us there. She would have been in the middle of us all, laughing about driving out to a country cemetery to find the glowing tombstone, driving down a one-lane rickety bridge across the river, carving notches in her dashboard every time she had a wreck in her old car. She was smart and funny and, most of all, loyal to her friends. She loved with a big heart and I will miss her always. Driving back, I thought about the home I've made with my family. I wish for my kids the happy memories I have of growing up and the kind of friends you can just sit down with and pick up right where you left off. Those are the things that matter; the things that count. I haven't always remembered that but I want to. I want home, no matter where they go, to be that safe place where they are known and loved. And I think that's about the best thing you can wish for in this life.
This fall I have been trying to be more mindful about my health and taking time and care to make good choices. One step I've taken is essential oils and I am brand new to the Young Living Essential Oils family. I have been curious about them for a long time and finally took the plunge to see what all the fuss was about. I have really enjoyed exploring my starter kit! This week I took a short road trip and I made sure to take these two new favorites along.
First up: Lemon Vitality Oil!
I have been adding 2-3 drops of lemon vitality oil to my water bottle every morning and love how it helps my digestive system. And--big bonus--it actually tastes good and makes me actually want to drink water. Oils shouldn't be used in plastic bottles, so, I use this glass bottle, with a protective silicone cover. (Note: the vitality line of Young Living is designed for internal consumption.)
These bottles are a perfect size (which means it fits in my cup holders in the SUV) and there are three different kinds of lids that come with it--a wide mouth cap with a carry loop, easy flow straw cap and a simple flip cap. I kind of like it. A lot. The other oil I took with me was Stress Away. I use it with the snap-on roller top. One swipe is the same as 1-2 drops and I just rub some on my neck when I start feeling some tension from gripping a steering wheel for a long time or any other time I need a little feel good pick-me-up (like every afternoon.)
The little bag I carry them in is a make up bag I won at a silent auction once upon a time. I sewed some elastic to the inside lining and put my little bottles in there to carry with me. Lemon and Stress Away are always in there! If you're an essential oils fan, I would love to hear about your favorites and how you use them!
*Some affiliate links are used in this post at no extra cost to you.
This photo makes me smile every time I see it! And every time I see it, I try to pin it which makes the Pinterest ghost-in-the-machine says "Pssst! Looks like you've already saved this Pin to 2015 Shasta Airflyte Reissue & 1967 Playmor 140.." Eventually my message will look something like "For the love of all that is holy, WE KNOW YOU LIKE THIS PHOTO!"
Anyway... This little backyard oasis is what I have in mind for Jolene, our 1967 PlayMor 140. I want enough of a shelter to keep the rain and occasional hail off of her, a little porch, and some groovy chairs to hang out in next to my random cactus plantings.
On the Jolene front, there isn't much to share. There hasn't been a lot of free time the past couple of weeks to work on her. Painting is something that is going to have a certain amount of blocked off time and I'm trying to set that aside very soon. Meanwhile, I go out in the garage, pat her and reassure her that her makeover is coming. Pinky swear.
So, instead of a super cool paint job on my sweet little canned ham, I thought I'd share some other ideas for backyard camper getaways.
I love this little porch and pergola. If you wanted to protect the camper more, you could build it taller and wider so that you could pull the camper under it.
I'll end with this little gem. What a gorgeous garden! I don't think I'd ever go inside if this was my backyard.
I would love to hear about your own camper adventures! And if you're looking for more great ideas on vintage campers, renovating tips and more backyard getaways, be sure to follow my camper Pinterest board!
Last week was the CMA awards and I watched it for the first time in a long while. One of the acts got a lot of media attention, but this was the one that stood out to me. Seven Spanish Angels is one of my all-time favorite songs and Dwight Yoakum, Chris and Morgane Stapleton killed it. Enjoy!
It's Trailer Talk-Day! I plan to have these up on Tuesdays, but life gets in the way sometimes. Last week there wasn't much to report on Jolene, our 1967 PlayMor camper that we are renovating--just more goo-removal. This week we're 99% done and ready to do some final clean up and paint. To take a break from the monotony, I thought I would do one of the little interior projects and do a refresh on the dinette tabletop.
This is what we started with:
The formica was stained and scratched and the hinges were a little worse for wear, too. We unscrewed it from the wall of the camper and removed the hinges. They got a couple of coats of my favorite spray paint:
Then I got busy painting the table top. I taped it off and applied several light layers of Sherwin Williams 6783-Amalfi. This color is one I'm planning on using as an accent color on the exterior of the camper.
After the paint had dried and cured for a couple of days, I brought the table into the garage and started the fun part.
The Adventure print is a free printable I found at explorationamerica.com
Mister and I chose our top 12 bucket list national parks that we want to visit and I arranged those cards around the adventure printable.
After I had them placed and tacked down with a little bit of glue, I got to work mixing up what will make this table top functional: bar-top resin.
This is the part where I tell you how to not make the same mistakes I did.
Plan for more resin than you think you will need. I thought two boxes would be enough. It wasn't.
I thought the gloves were fine for the mixing part. WEAR THEM THE WHOLE TIME. Resin is crazy hard to get off your hands. Trust me on this.
Find a level place to do the pouring. Don't trust your eyes--use a level before you start pouring. It will make your project SO much easier if you do these three things.
If you want a great tutorial on mixing the resin and pouring it, this happy little gal has a good one:
After mixing the resin in my handy Rudy's BBQ cups and stirring them for the required time, I poured the resin over the cards and smoothed it out. I turned the heat gun on low and passed it over the table top to make sure any bubbles popped.
All looked great until I realized that my garage floor is not level--it slopes just a little. Because the postcards weren't completely glued to the table, they started to float--swimming, as it were, in a pool of resin. I used a popsicle stick to move them back into position, several times, and waited for the resin to set up enough so they wouldn't move anymore. The cute gal in the video actually leveled her trailer and then poured her tabletop in place. That sounds like a good idea, but resin can run off the edges, so, you have to be ready for that, too.
Anyway, I thought all was good and ran over to watch little sis cheer at a football game. When I came back two rogue cards had turned almost 90 degrees and were fairly stuck in place by that time. I was able to move them, but it left a couple of low spots in the resin from where I had to scoot them back as close as I could to their original position, without tearing them.
I love the glossiness of the table and I think one more coat to fill in the low spots will fix those problems. The cards on the right side aren't in perfect alignment, but not much on Jolene is in perfect alignment, so, I'm okay with that. While I was working on this tabletop, I was listening to the Cool Tools podcast and they were interviewing Adam Savage, host of Mythbusters.
At some point in the discussion, Adam brought up the Japanese concept of Wabi-sabi, which sees beauty as "imperfect, impermanent and incomplete." How freeing that would be to so many people, (including me) if we could see the beauty in what was already there. Our goal should be to just try to make it as good as it can be and perfection gets in the way of all that.
This little tabletop is a prime example of that. I've never used resin before but have always been curious about it. I did a lot of research about it, but nothing I ever read said anything about paper floating in resin. Live and learn! I love trying new crafts and using new gadgets and this renovation of Jolene is tailor made for that. The new tabletop brings in color that will tie in to the exterior paint job and also provides a place to display art. There isn't much wall space in a little camper and I love that these beautiful postcards and Adventure printable are a part of the camper now.
Renovating Jolene is an adventure--hope you're finding adventure in your world, too!
I'll leave you with this awesome youtube video. Someone took Dolly's original recording of Jolene and slowed it down to 33 rpm. It gives me chillbumps and even Dolly said it made her smile.
*Some affiliate links are used in this post at no extra cost to you.
Hello! It's Trailer Talk Tuesday again, where I share our progress on Jolene, our 1967 Play-Mor 140 camper. I am proud to say (cue drumroll), that we have finally removed all the paint from her exterior and are almost done removing all the silicone, tar and various sticky stuff the previous owners used to prevent leaks. The final process we came up with to get the tape and tar residue off is:
Cuss a little
Use the heat gun to heat up the vinyl and pull it off
Cuss a little more when you see how much sticky stuff there is.
Use the heat gun again to heat the residue and scrape off what you can.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Heat it up one more time and use a shop rag to wipe off the final bit.
It really feels like it takes about 30 minutes per foot, so, it's been a slow go since we have limited time to work on it. But we're in the final stages of this process and we've been checking out what to do about the trim. Some of it looks a little rough, but we can't decide whether removing it will bring more trouble than it's worth.
Here's where the community comes in. There are so many cool vintage camper groups on Facebook. They freely share photos, tips, ideas, and advice for newbies like me.
This group is very specific to PlayMor campers like Jolene. It's been a great source for pictures of PlayMors, since there aren't that many of them out there on the internet. I've had lots of questions answered and they've pointed me to different sources for vintage camper parts and trim.
This group is for people who own the 2015 Shasta Airflyte Reissues, like our Sundance. There were some warranty issues with these when they first came out and this group was absolutely the reason those problems have been dealt with by the manufacturer. They are a fun group and share camping photos and tips, as well as different ways they've tricked out their darling Shastas.
Vintage Camper Trailers is a great source of information about rallies and vintage campers for sale. I like these posts because a lot of the for sale photos show before and after shots. Lots of good ideas!
Instagram is also a fun source of vintage camper eye candy! Some of my favorite feeds are:
