Little Pink Studio

A vintage 18th birthday...

Over the weekend my baby girl turned 18 years old. That seems so surreal to me. It doesn't seem that long ago that she was just a baby, sitting on my lap and giggling over funny faces. She's an unusual 18 year old girl. One of the sweetest people I have ever met, but she also has an incredibly kind heart. She's always giving, always helping. She simply makes me want to be a better person. So the past few weeks I have been crazy planning a very special surprise for my girl. 

Since she was a little girl she has wanted a vintage camper of her own, and has quite an obsession with vintage trucks. So with the help of her Grandparents, we were able to come up with this surprise for her.

We went in together and purchased her a little 13', 1971 Fan camper. Her favorite colors are aqua and red, and we went with those colors for the custom paint job and the interior decor. 

 

The whole family gathered at our favorite campground, and we told her just to pack a bag of casual clothes for the weekend. We surprised her with her sweet little camper.

 I had a lot of fun gathering both vintage and new treasures for her. Love this sweet vintage serving set, don't you?

I even found her some vintage camp chairs at an estate sale for only $2 each. So cute. 

Unfortunately, most of my photos of the inside didn't turn out, but I'll take photos when she brings her camper home next week. (She's camping for her fall break later this week) But here are a couple just to give you an idea of what we did. 

I stuck with her colors, and purchased her lots of oil cloth so that she can cover her table with it, line her drawers, etc. 

I made the little bunting from fabric found at Joann's, and almost all of the cute storage containers came from the Dollar Tree! The red/aqua containers on the shelf above are large, plastic pop corn containers that we painted with aqua chalkboard paint. That way she can easily label all of her containers. I love that, and the fact that they were only a $1 was even better! 

Her camper needs a little bit of work, and she may paint her wall/cabinets white, but overall, it's a great little camper. I think she will have many, many wonderful memories in it. I promise to take more inside photos as soon as she brings it home. 

Now, I'm thinking I need one too....:)

xo, Cerri

The view from the lake

This was our view from the lake as we were packing up to go home yesterday. So beautiful after a crazy storm that popped up out of nowhere and sent boaters and campers scurrying for cover. What you don't see here is the tons of boats, jetskis, and tubes that were having fun in this water all weekend long. Such a happy place.

Here's another view of the lake a little earlier in the weekend. Mom and I spent some time plucking apart old hats for some great flowers.

I already have a plan in the works using these black and white spotted petals..

And while I did not get to take as many photos of other pretty camping things this weekend, I did want to point out the tablecloth you see here under the flowers. I'm always searching for pretty outdoor tablecloths as well as pretty indoor ones, and whenever I find them I scoop them up. However, I haven't really loved what has been available this year, so I was very happy when I found this store online. You can purchase modern oilcloth (which is a little different than vintage oilcloth) and vinyl fabric by the yard! Perfect for making your own outdoor tablecloths! Love it. I purchased the pale pink polkadot print as well as one of the designs that look like the vintage tablecloths we all love. They arrive more muted and pretty than the photos show, and all you need to do is trim your fabric with some pinking shears and you have ready made tablecloths to match any outdoor decor or event. The clean up like a dream!  The average picnic table requires approximately 2 yards of fabric.

And while I didn't get to all of the projects I took with me to work on, we had a fun and restful weekend. Here's a photo of my Mom being silly with a vintage lace table cloth we were sharing. (she'll probably kill me for this...lol)

 

And both my niece and my husband wearing the remains of the plucked hats. :)

Hope your weekend was lovely!

Camping doesn't have to be ugly....

Hello my friends, sorry to be mia lately! I've been working on a few things and just taking care of family stuff lately and it's kept me away from my blog a bit. This past weekend we moved our camper to the lake and will keep it there until it's too cold to camp anymore, spending as many weekends and as much time as we can there. Usually we spend quite a bit of time during the summer at the lake as well, but this summer we just weren't able to get away as much as we like. The photo above is actually from another summer,and our spot is even better this year. We have an average size camper, with a "bunk room" in back that is basically a tiny bedroom with 4 bunk beds. This is where the girls and their friends sleep. Then on the other end we have a separate area for our "bedroom", plus a tiny living and dining area, a small kitchen and bathroom. It's cozy, but sweet. I like to make the camper and our surroundings as pretty and comfortable  as home, and I'm always on the search for pretty camping gear. I thought I might show you a few ways I do that, and continue to do some over the next couple of weeks.

I use lots of vintage quilts in the camper. They adorn most of the beds, and I also use them on the swing, and have an extra one or two to snuggle under when we have chilly nights. Whenever I find a pretty quilts for a great price I pick them up for the camper. I don't mind if they're not in perfect shape.

My collection of pretty vintage pillow cases always make their way to the camper. The ones above are some of my most recent finds, freshly laundered and ready to put on the beds out there.

I have a pretty decent collection of vintage rag rugs and while most of them are in the studio, a few of them have made their way to the camper. I just have to make sure they're sturdy as they get dirty a lot faster than the ones in the studio.

Our camping dishes comprise of a mixture of vintage and new melamine, and even a little vintage tupperware. (the larger bowls here came from Target and the smaller bowls are vintage) I'll show you some of my other melamine next time and let you know where you can find some!

Vintage tablecloths for dining in the camper. This is one of my most recent finds. Found this beauty when we were in Asheville earlier this summer. Next week I'll show you what we use to cover the picnic tables.

Stacks of pretty vintage napkins.

And I just decided to take my collection of vintage potholders to the camper as well. I think they'll be cute hanging on the wall in the kitchen part of the camper. I love these old crocheted potholders, the love ladies put into making something as lowly as a something to grab a pot with just blows me away.

I wonder if they ever really used the dress shaped ones or were they always meant for adorning the kitchen walls? I do know they're definitely my favorite!

Hanging things on camper walls can be a little tricky, but I'll let you know how it turns out.

Hope you're off to a beautiful week! Cerri xo