RV Christmas Ornaments

After I wrote this column, I found these delightful Christmas ornaments for RV enthusiasts.  I have decorated my blog with them. Wouldn't a tree full of these RV ornaments be oh so cute at a campground? 


I need to get my pictures organized to show you what I/we did.  In the interim, enjoy these whimsical RV Christmas ornaments.  


Recently my friend and I tackled various little RV projects together. Since he had a car, we were able to run about to  assorted stores, chasing down little parts for this and that for the wheel estate. 

The end result was I made new curtains for the guest loft. I also figured out a crafty way to hide two rust stains on the metal curtain rod. I simply covered it up with blank white labels. I keep labels around because of my past head trauma, I need to label lots of things to keep me more or less organized. It can get funny to visitors who have no idea why I have stuck little hand written labels on everything from the light switches to the zip lock contents.  All my electric cords are labeled if they can be removed from the object, such as phone charger cord, computer cord and so on.  Plus the computer doodads are labeled so I can remember what they are, what they do. It is rather comical I guess. 

There is a label on the dashboard telling me my tag number and the height of the motor home, in hopes I remember to check it before going under a low train trestle right after they added a new layer of asphalt on the road beneath it, which may make their signage off by a few inches for a few weeks or months or years. 

Once the curtains were made, they slid over the metal rod, hiding the labels. I don't have to worry about rust stains coming through to stain the new off white curtains. The old curtains above the cab area, in the guest loft, were a dark brown or burgundy.  It was hard to tell as they were so old, so faded and severely dry rotted. 

It was impossible to find curtains to fit, that I liked, so I made my own. 

I have this hilarious little sewing machine, about the size of a kid's old fashioned lunch box.   It sews one straight stitch with no reverse, no zigzag, nothing fancy.  However, it proved to be a rather sturdy machine.  It sews a beautiful stitch with a bobbin, not a chain stitch. I was able to rotate the fabric around each time I started a seam, to reverse the stitching then rotate it back to sew it up.  This keeps the seams from coming apart at the ends or at the start and finish. 

It had been ages since I sewed on this little machine. I had to sew yards and yards to make the curtains. Since they are heavy but sheer I wanted the hemming to look really neat. I was using a folding travel iron that came with the motorhome when I bought it. I was trying to iron and sew on the picnic table at Wickham Park. Because I wanted to keep my new curtain material nice and clean, I had cleverly covered the picnic table with a big vinyl table cloth. 

Well, I managed to melt the table cloth in a few places. Shame on me. Then goo was stuck to the iron. *SIGH*  Another fine mess I made. Through some sort of incredible miracle, at the end of a very long  day, I had completed the curtains with not even an inch to spare in material. I had bought to the exact inch of what  was needed. I was rather impressed that I had estimated grandly yet ended up so close, as to not have any material left over at all. 

The new curtains allow lots of daylight inside the motorhome where as the previous curtains, which could not be opened, due to the way they had been made, kept the daylight out. I am thrilled as I need all the daylight and sunshine I can get in the winter to avoid the blues. 

The little sewing machine performed so well, that I decided to tackle another project which was making pillows out of the old bedspread. I take recycling to a new art form!  When I bought the motorhome, it came with the original bedspread that matches the valances and coordinates with the other fabrics  in the RV. However, the prior owner showed the RV with pillows covering up the holes in the bedspread. When I bought the RV, naturally I found the rips and holes. 

Eventually I found a solid colored fluffy comforter for the bed that complimented the existing decor. I stored away the bedspread thinking I could use the good parts of it for jumbo pillows. The huge pillows would be nice on the rear bed, to convert it to a day bed or sofa, since I don't have a sofa at all. My living area has a dining booth with two club chairs across from it.  

I like lots of pillows. 

This entailed more shopping trips to round up velcro.  Since my little machine doesn't have a zipper foot and it's been decades since I remembered how to sew up a zipper, I opted for velcro closures on the pillow. 

Three miles of sewing later, I had two jumbo pillows, two different sizes. One jumbo pillow had been gifted to me slightly used from a dear friend who knows I am a fruitcake and need a padded cell to retreat to. The color was OK, but once I recovered it with the quilted bedspread remnants, it looked positively awesome.  Since there was more quilted bedspread leftover, I sewed up another big pillow. When I went to buy pillow stuffing, it was so frighteningly expensive that I worked on plan B.  It was actually cheaper to buy new sleep pillows, then unstuff my old sleep pillows, to restuff the big new pillow. So now I have a lounging couch or a sleeping bed. That old bedspread is looking rather grand on the pillows. 

Yes, I need to get you pictures. 

I kept going, splurging on a $6 table leg. 

The dining/desk table leg which was a hideous pitted rusty old fake chrome wobbly folding leg was replaced with a newly varnished wooden leg and a new bracket.  That ugly old leg has silently driven me crazy at times, it's so ugly.

But there was more to repair.   

The gouges in the ceiling from the tree intrusion in October were finally repaired. The roof had been repaired the morning after the tree branch tresspassed in my wheel estate, but the interior of the ceiling had not. I finally figured out a way to repair it in such a way, you can't even tell a tree branch was threatening to take the roof and ceiling out. 

The gazebo (my portable canopy)  was wired up with 50 feet of white lights.  Not for Christmas, but for year round use at night. We sat out there until nearly midnight a few nights, enjoying the warmer outdoor weather and marveling at the nice ambiant lighting the lights provide.  

Recently a devoted fan had mailed me a box of emergency chocolate. between the repairs, craft projects, curtains and pillows, I felt like Chrsimtas had come early for sure. 

Just for fun...   I lengthened the sewer hose to twice its size, so I could park the RV in a better spot where I workamp. This entailed the delightful chore of joining two used sewer hoses together with a special connector. Oh what fun!


I am so lucky, this workamping position where I live,  came with a generous camping space. It's all grassy, nice soft earth.  My favorite. 


But the sewer is not located in a convenient place, so now that I have extended the sewer hose hookup, I was able to relocate to a better spot rather than park right next to the sewer hookup, which didn't really suit me. 


Oh boy. 


I know I did some other projects, just can't think what they were. 


Pictures coming soon!


After I wrote this column, I found these delightful Christmas ornaments for RV enthusiasts.  You can choose from assorted RV ornaments at Amazon. Just click here.   If you do buy anything at Amazon through this link, Dear Miss Mermaid earns a tiny commission and thanks you grandly for your consideration. 

HAPPY HOLIDAZE and HOLIDAYS 

from

Dear Miss Mermaid