Vintage Dutch Girl: Did I Do That?

Showing posts with label Did I Do That?. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 14, 2023

In which we reevaluate Donkeys...and decide they need sweaters!

OK, I have lived most of my life unaware of how sweet and adorable donkeys are. Um, how did I not know this?! Following a few farmy Instagram accounts has caused me to reevaluate my opinions of these sweet creatures. They apparently are incredibly sweet and cuddly. Also can be quite territorial. Did you know that?? See? All sorts of new things we did not know! (If, in fact, you DID already know that, you get a gold star for the day.)

Also, raise your hand if you've ever heard the song by Lou Monte 'Dominick the Italian Christmas Donkey'. It's the hilarious cousin to 'I wanna hippopotamus for Christmas', Both obscure animals with their own festive holiday song. Go listen a moment, then pop on back.

I decided we need a sweatshirt featuring a cutie pie Christmas donkey wearing a festive knit sweater and hat. It's an ugly sweater type Christmas sweater....except it isn't ugly. It's adorable:

Adorable Christmas Donkey Crew Neck Sweatshirt.

Comes in white, black, red, green, navy, light gray, and dark gray.

And then, because I just can't help myself, I decided we needed just regular cutie pie Christmas Donkey tshirts too. Both in Unisex fit, and Women's fit:

Unisex fit Festive Donkey Christmas T Shirt

And the Women's fit:

Women's fit Festive Christmas Donkey on VintageDutchGirl Etsy.

And of course there might be adorable Festive Donkey shirts and sweatshirts for the kiddos too. I'll pop back around soon to show you those soon. Now, the only problem that remains is naming this cutie. Any ideas?

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Travel Trailer Makeover, Part 8: Master Bedroom and Privacy Curtains...

We have, er HAD, two ceiling to floor plain dark beige curtains instead of doors to separate and give privacy to the queen bed area from the main part of the trailer:

Just like the shower curtain project, they are attached at the top with glide tracks and glide tape sewn to the top edge of the fabric.

Glide tape is flexible plastic strips with little clips every 6 inches or so:

So, I pulled out the fabric and got to work. The curtains were simple to design, just rectangles with hemmed edges. I just copied the original beige curtain measurements. Actually, I added in more yardage width wise so it hung nicer and not so stretched flat.

For attaching the glide tape: Using a zipper foot on your sewing machine, set your (hefty upholstery size) needle to a side position:

and sew along the top and bottom of the plastic glide tape strip directly onto the top inside of your fabric:

Aaaaaaand.....Done!

I just snapped the holders into place along the glide strips. See how the extra yardage made those pretty ruffles? (Please don't tell my hubby I said "pretty" and "ruffles" to describe Lumi our trailer in any way shape or form.)

In order for the curtains to hang nicely I pulled a 'use what you have' trick and put fishing weighs in the corners of the curtains and safety pinned them into place:

The previous velcro tie backs were fixed to the wall with a special screw so I just replaced the blah fabric with chocolate brown, the same fabric that I used to recover the valances. (See valance project HERE.)

Add to that a new mattress (yeah, um, the trailer came with a 4 inch thick "mattress" to sleep on. Nope. Nada. Not happening. We spend A LOT of time camping.) and new bedding and the master bedroom area is looking very nice! Ahhh, it felt good to see nice fun colors and have the trailer looking more like us!

And if "by us" that means a wild and crazy mix that happens to blend, then YES, it looks more like us :)

Reminder of what this space looked like: Bedroom and side curtains BEFORE:

And now: Bedroom and side curtains after!

Next will be the last post in this series: the Bunk Beds! Oooh my FAVE part of this project!

Amanda - Vintage Dutch Girl

Check out all the posts from this Travel Trailer Makeover Series!

Part 1: A sassified Shower Curtain

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Black White Coral Aqua Dress Up

Black White Coral Aqua Dress Up by VintageDutchGirl

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Travel Trailer Makeover, Part 7: Chevron Slipcovered Couch

Hoo boy. Oh yes, that couch. This was the biggest challenge in my Travel Trailer Makeover project.

Which is why it took me, oh, about 8 months (*ahem* 11 months) to get back to my blogging series. It was THAT traumatic. (NOT because I got lazy and distracted with other things...)

Here is the reminder Before pic, complete with diamond upholstery on the couch cushion back, front kick flap, curtain cornice thingy, dinette cushions as well as the lovely wallpaper border:

And yes, ALL off that diamond pattern fabric is sayonara (Good riddance) :)

This couch project took a lot of fabric up because I needed to match up both the chevron zig zag pattern AND the color. OY. AND I miscut and had a piece upside down (the wrong color pattern). I had to change it, I knew it would bug me forEVAH.

I made the bottom kick pleat flap thingy first. It's quite simple, just serged on the top, hemmed on the bottom and screwed into place on top of the couch base board :

I had to piece two LONG fabric widths together to match up the entire zig zag and to make the kick pleat which YES I wanted to do. It just made the whole thing look way more "finished".

Held open (ignore my not quite perfect lining up on the inside):

Lying flat:

Making/designing the couch slip cover took a LOT of measuring, remeasuring and then measuring again for good measure.

I sketched out a rough pattern based on the couch fabric pieces and measured like crazy.

This is what the couch slipcover ended up looking like pre-sewing assembly:

Each piece was labeled with where on the couch is went and which was was UP. Also displayed in this pic a pile of toys. Because recovering a travel trailer couch takes time and I got super lazy with housework. Just keeping it real :)

After plotting the entire thing out, it was stitch time. I systematically pieced the entire thing together using a tight stitch on my serger. I wanted it super strong!

Next up, take the slip cover out to the trailer and fit it over the original fabric on the couch:

It was at this point that I realized you cannot staple into METAL. Yes, I though the back of the couch was wood and that I would be able to simple staple gun the fabric to the wood couch frame. Nope. Nada. It's metal.

SO. I have yet to do so, but I am planning on hand stitching/tacking the back of the couch slipcover to the original couch fabric with super strong upholstery thread. Not ideal, but better than nothing! It stays pretty well as it is a tight fitting slipcover.

So, there you go, before and after travel trailer couch makeover!

Amanda - Vintage Dutch Girl

Check out all the posts from this Travel Trailer Makeover Series!

Part 1: A sassified Shower Curtain

Friday, June 8, 2012

Travel Trailer Makover, Part 4: Wallpaper Removal, a Dismantled Trailer and New Side Curtains...

Oh yes. the diamond wallpaper border. I was extremely nervous about this but had decided that if I was going to eliminate all of the other diamond/check gray/green/beige fabric I should also try to remove the wallpaper border:

I had tried to find out online if anyone knew what kind of wallpaper this was and how to best remove it. I found only one lady on an RV forum who said her new trailer had the peel n stick kind of wallpaper boarder and to just peel it off slowly. So, after the hubby's enthusiastic approval ("Sure, whatever you want Hon") I tried to peel back a small part of the border in a hidden spot to see if it would work.

AND IT DID! I sent this crazy face text to him:

Hee hee :) I was kinda excited. The pink arrow is pointing to the place where I had just removed the wallpaper! I found that as long as I peeled back sssuuuuuupppppeeerrrr slowly it did not leave much gunk behind.

However....

There IS a significant amount of sticky glue gunk left behind.

I tried MULTIPLE methods at removing this gunk. The very best method to remove the leftover peel and stick wallpaper gunk is spraying Goo Gone on it and leaving it set for a few hours. Then, come back with a plastic putty scraper (I wouldn't recommend a metal one - it might damage your wall!) and scrape like crazy.

Lather Rinse Repeat. Took about three sessions of spay, soak and scrape on each section. LOTS of elbow grease.

But hey, by the end you end up with a pile of yucky wallpaper and smooth, unsticky walls:

And apparently a daughter who is proficient at angry birds.

Next I took all the curtains, window valance thingys, queen headboard, venetian blinds and cell shades down. Fully dismantled and ready to be sassified:

The original, straight from the manufacturer look to the dismantled, oh-boy-what-have-I-gotten-myself-into look:

And you might notice on the taken apart photo, I had already begun to sew the new side curtain panels:

First I laid all the original panels on the new fabric to get measurements....and to take before/after photos :) Then I serged and finished the edges. On the bottom I left a pocket so they could slide over the wall mounted curtain end holders:

The tops had to be gathered and then velcro sewn on. Yup, these hang from the cornice thingys by industrial strength VELCRO. I love it! It means whenever my kiddos pull on them (because you know they will) and rip them down, nothing is damaged. It's just velcro. No problem!

Hoo boy, this post is getting too long! Next up: recovering the window cornice thingys.

Amanda - Vintage Dutch Girl

Check out all the posts from this Travel Trailer Makeover Series!

Part 1: A sassified Shower Curtain

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Travel Trailer Makeover, Part 1: Shower Curtain...

First of all, I apologize for the travel trailer sassification posting delay. See, we were busy actually USING our new trailer (Lumi) for the first time. You know, the main point of having a trailer. Not for shredding it to pieces and revamping it; for CAMPING. Err....glamping :)

OK, here goes.

It aaaaaalllll started with a shower curtain.

I'm in the middle of Fred Meyer with a list a MILE long of stuff I'm looking for to outfit our new travel trailer. Cooking hardware, organizational stuff, utensils, storage bins, etc....

The kiddos are being less than helpful. I have them side by side in that weird car cart at Freddy's that had the kiddos high and up front "steering" the cart.

After breaking up eleventry hundred fights, reminding them eleventry hundred times to stop shrieking in the store, picking up my clipboard eleventry hundred times after they knocked it to the floor (Yes, I shop with a clipboard. Yes, I am a nerd. Hey, at least its not a fanny pack. ) I decided to go for it and let them stay in the Fred Meyer kid play area.

I'm one of those nervous types of Mama. Kinda wary regarding these kinds of child care centers. However, after having heard positive things about it from other Mama's that I trust, I decided to check it out. Yup, loved the system and the safety features and went for it. Bubbalu was pounding on the locked entrance door chanting, "let me in, let me in!" A pretty good sign.

Was a SMART Mama and took the kiddos to the potty first.

Yup.

So, I was now blissfully child-free and finally able to tackle my list.

Fast forward 10 minutes. I'm pushing my (now empty of children) ginormous child car cart through the store, knocking items off my list. I find this gorgeous light aqua blue modern print shower curtain...and Ka-ChoW! Light bulb moment.

I say to myself, oh yes, I am GOING to find a way to switch out the current blah trailer shower curtain to this sassy one.

I'm holding the shower curtain in my hand when I hear this crackly overhead page,

"AMANDA ------- --------, WOULD YOU PLEASE RETURN TO THE CHILD CARE CENTER"

Oh. CRAP.

At this point I'm guessing Bubbalu has jumped off a table or something and broke his arm. And please remember: It's been approximately ELEVEN minutes since I checked them in the child care center.

For real.

I get there and Lil Chick is bawling! Turns out she has had an accident. A HUGE accident. A poo in the pants accident.

Oh. CRAP.

Literally.

Thankfully, I had thrown the sassy shower curtain into my cart. And by golly, I am NOT leaving the store without my sassy shower curtain. And all the other random stuff in my now full cart.

Picture this: A now flustered Mama pushing a full-of-products-yet-still-childless child car cart around to the checkout line with one hand while the other hand is holding Lil Chick's hand. (There is NO way I'm going to carry her. Poo squishing down the side of my shirt and pants?! No thanks. Been there done that.)

Another SMART Mama move: I choose the Family Friendly checkout lane.

Because only a compassionate fellow parent can even possibly begin to understand my plight when my child is SCREAMING at the top of her little yet mighty lungs:

"I HAVE POOP! IN! MY! UNDERWEAR!"

Broken record? Yes. Screamed this delightful little phrase from the time I first arrived at the child care center to pick her up, through the entire checking out process, aaaaalll the way to Lola (our Tahoe) in the back of the lot, and about halfway home....at which point Mama remembers that she has a random Dora DVD in the car and by golly, that "we use the car TV only for LONG car trips" rule is going to be broken.

Stopped crying about three notes into the Dora theme song.

ANYWHO. Yes, a poo accident in a store. Just another lovely entry in my parenting diary.

Back to the main point. I found a sassy shower curtain to replace the blah one that came with the trailer. I first seam ripped the handing hardware off the original shower curtain. Then I cut and hemmed the new shower curtain to size since a trailer shower is much smaller than a regular shower. Instead of a traditional shower bar and rings we have glide tracks in our trailer bathroom with glide tape sewn to the very top edge of the shower curtain.

Glide tape is flexible plastic strips with little clips every 6 inches or so:

Using a zipper foot on your sewing machine, set your (hefty upholstery size) needle to a side position:

and sew along the top and bottom of the plastic glide tape strip directly onto the top inside of your fabric:

Trim off the excess and you are done! Snap that sassy curtain up onto the slide tape and take some photos:

SO much better. More projects to come! Next time I'll be able to do full before/after photos as I wizened up and started snapping pics before I took things apart.

Off I go to clean my (ignored-for-a-month-because-I-was-sassifying-our-trailer) house...

Amanda - Vintage Dutch Girl

Check out all the posts from this Travel Trailer Makeover Series!

Part 1: A sassified Shower Curtain

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Mojo. Heritage. RV Upholstery. Yup, hold on to your socks...

Schneikees, I've been neglecting this blog. Again.

I've thought about taking a permanent break on this blogging thingymajig because you can't really predict if you've got the bloggy mojo or not.

And that mojo has been sparse this year. Sparse, I tell ya.

It tends to show up when I'm adequately rested, fed, exercised, and all is right in my parenting world.

Um, yeah. That's not often.

However, I like this thing. I like just blurting out whatever I want to blurt out.

I can talk about my kids. Or shopping. Or parenting failures. Or parenting successes. Or crafting and sewing (LOVE). Or DIY. Or decorating. Or Pinterest. Or cooking.

It's just my slice of life. And in the end? I'm blogging for my family. I hope my kiddos can look back on what I wrote and (aside from immense guilt at the potty training torture they put me through) feel like they really get me. Like they really know me.

And in the end that's all that matters. Not fortune or fame or any worldly possession or accolade. It's all about the heritage of our family.

Whoa. Didn't mean to get so deep there. Quick, let's change the subject before I bawl all over the keyboard.

So, what's new with you? Are all three of you still here?

Our latest news: We finally bought a travel trailer, YAY! We are a family seriously in love with camping. Er....I mean GLAMping. Heh. My hotel on wheels isn't exactly "roughing it". I don't care if you are sleeping on the ground in your shirt or are in a huge deluxe RV, it is an awesome way to build family memories and have some fun. Once again, our family heritage had a huge influence on our love of camping...{sniff!}...We both grew up in camping families and have multiple camping trips planned this summer. Often with the grandparents....er, often with BOTH sets of the grandparents! Oh its just SO lovely when your parents and in-laws are friends :)

Anywho, back to the travel trailer:

Guess what? I tore the entire thing apart and sassified it.

Yep, it was a brand new trailer.

Yep, I tore it apart.

What can I say, my hubby loves me (and deeply trusts me too, I guess!). And he gets me. He knows this kind of creative project breathes joy and life into my soul.

So, I'm a thinking I should show you my huge six week project of sassifying our new travel trailer. Yes? Yes.

See you soon. I think. Maybe. We'll see...

Amanda - VintageDutchGirl

Check out all the posts from this Travel Trailer Makeover Series!

Part 1: A sassified Shower Curtain

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Setting Diapers on Fire…

My husband and I set a diaper on fire last night.

It all started with a baby shower game. You know, the game where you melt different chocolate candy bars in numbered diapers and have the participants try to guess what candy bars are in each diaper. I call it the 'Sniff A Poo!" game. Baby shower awesomeness!

I was also planning on making cupcakes for this baby shower but found I was out of sprinkles, frosting, and cupcake liners. Pretty much everything except a cake mix. Off to the grocery store I went. I found oodles of sprinkles in bulk and had a mighty fun time choosing a huge variety of colors. You know, for all my future sprinkle needs. One can never have too many sprinkle options. And can I just say? Bulk is the way to go in the purchasing of candy sprinkles. I think I spent a total of $3.00 and have 7 new sprinkles.

WOW, I sure have a lot to say about sprinkles. I'm sure all three of you who are reading this are sitting in shock and amazement at the level of entertainment this post has achieved.

While shopping, some other bulk candies jumped into my cart as well. Don't really know how THAT happened. Not that I'm complaining. I was nice and let them stay. I'm in the car driving home (happily munching on some of those jumpy chocolate covered peanuts) when I realize that I forgot a KEY component in the cupcake making process.

The cupcake liners.

Back to the grocery store I go. However, I went to a different grocery store to avoid the shame and embarrassment of having to return to the sprinkle grocery store. Yes, I will call it the Sprinkle Grocery Store from now on. It has a nice ring to it, dontcha think!?

Fast forward three hours: Cupcakes are made and cooling and I'm in our office designing a 'Sniff A Poo?' guessing game sheet. My hubby is melting chocolate candy bars in diapers in the microwave. You know, for the game. Soon, he yells to me that he set something on fire. Um, what?

Turns out, there was a chocolo-diaper hot spot and it burned a huge hole in the middle of the diaper. Whoops. Turns out diapers can catch on fire. Good to know! I for one have never seen a warning on a diaper box: Do NOT Microwave Diapers, risk of fire.

Our house STUNK despite opening windows to air it out. This morning? Same yucky smell. I'm hesitant to use the microwave. If I reheat my coffee will it taste like a burnt diaper? Probably.

I'll let you know how the game goes. For your future baby shower hosting needs, here is a free printable of the Baby Shower melted candy bar 'Sniff a Poo!" game sheet:

Print off as many as you like.

Speaking of things being burnt, the Burnt Umber Blossom Infinity Scarf Giveaway ends this Saturday the 31st of March:

Get your entries in! Up to seven possible entries! See post HERE.

Off to clean my house...

Amanda - VintageDutchGirl

Friday, March 16, 2012

Keepin' it Real - Office Revamp...

Heyya there!

I am up to my earlobes with reorganizing/purging/cleaning/revamping our home.

We have a LOT of stuff that really does not enhance our lives. So, it's getting tossed out. Or rather, donated to our school thrift store.

Evidence of our madness:

I firmly believe in the ministry of mediocrity.

Aka: KEEPIN' IT REAL, GIRLFRIEND.

First up, home office.

My hubby does part of his office management from home and needed some more storage, filing cabinets, ya know....STUFF.

So that meant:

New furniture! YAY!

Shopped forevah and finally settled on Ballard Designs Tuscan Furniture Collection.
It FINALLY arrived, was set up, and I am slowly getting this office fully functional.

(Functional roughly translated: To have the ability to surf Pinterest at all times.)

Nah, not really (yes, really).

I've been looking (Pinterest, of course) and came up with a bunch of office organization ideas.

Our office is technically coded as a bedroom and has a nice large closet in it. Since our house has a shamefully low amount of storage we are going to maximize that closet.

One half of the closet will be for game storage. Yes....games.

Because we are nerds who have an insane amount of games that need to be stored. Carcassonne? Settlers? Dominion? With every single expansion you've ever heard of?! Yep, nerds like that.

Keepin' it real submission #2:

I tell ya, every time I try to ease a game or puzzle out of the pile three more smack me in the face. OUCH.

The other half of our office closet is for supplies and will hopefully look something like this:

Source: bhg.com via Amanda on Pinterest

Everything in its rightful place. Ah, the dream closet.

The reality:

I'll have you know I took this photo while standing on top of my large upright piano. Yep, risking my life to display my messy office. Keepin' it real.

And in closing, keepin' it real submission #4:

I'll have you know I took this photo well over a week ago...and that little orange snack bowl?

It's still there.

Like I said, keepin it REAL.

Off to sort through piles and pick up a little orange snack bowl...

Amanda- VintageDutchGirl

VintageDutchGirl is on Facebook...I chit chat over there when I'm not doing crafting to avoid my housework. C'mon over and say hi :)

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Sbux and Costco KNOW me...

Ya know, is it odd that when walking into a Florida Starbucks I feel the need to stand on one of the cushy chairs and exclaim,

"I'm from WASHINGTON STATE!!!!"

and expect special treatment?

I think not.

It's like I feel I have just a bit of ownership of Starbucks from being a Washingtonian.

Add Costco to that list as well.

Yes, while we are stuck here in Orlando waiting for our flight (8 hours from now) I think I'll find a Costco to run into and exclaim,

"I'm from WASHINGTON STATE!!!"

And when I order my iced mocha I'm going to be watching the food service peeps and reading into their every move:

I think she gave me extra chocolate because I'm from WASHINGTON STATE.

I think she smiled longer at me because I'm from WASHINGTON STATE.

I think he put that clear plastic lid on extra carefully because I'm from WASHINGTON STATE.

Yup. It's gonna happen...

Amanda - Vintage Dutch Girl

Hey, didja know VintageDutchGirl is on Facebook!? I chit chat over there when I'm not doing crafting to avoid my housework. C'mon say hi :)

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