Thursday 22 December 2011

A merry little xmas


Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Let your heart be light
From now on
Our troubles will be out of sight


Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the Yule-tide gay
From now on
Our troubles will be far away


Here we are as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more


Through the years
We all will be together
If the fates allow

So hang a shining star upon the highest bough ....


And have yourself

A Merry Little Christmas now



I wish you joy, peace, laughter and good health
This Xmas and always
Nx


Friday 16 December 2011

Rain on the caravan roof - Part 2

So, can a caravan really be an object of desire? 

As if Byron Bay wasn't cool enough - why not stay in one of these at the Atlantic?

It can if it's an Airstream!  This is the caravan that I have on my wishlist and one day I'll roam the countryside or park myself somewhere in the Sunshine Coast hinterland in one of these beauties.



Originating in 1930s California, the Airstream was developed from original designs by a guy called Bowlus,
who also happened to be the head designer of Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St Louis

So called for their aerodynamic shape, the Airstream is a thing of utter beauty to me.  Since my caravanning holidays as a little girl, I have always been fascinated by the interior design of the mini home-away-from-home.


(found on Google images - sorry, lost the thread!)


It's the ultimate design challenge - how do you fit everything you need for weeks or months on the road into such a tiny space?

Really smart thinking is how.  And stacks of ingenuity.  Nothing in such a compact space can have only one purpose, so your table has to fold away to become the base of your bed, and everything you sit on must also serve as storage. 


(lost the thread of these ones too ... oops)

I just love the cleverness of it.  Then add the styling, detailing and retro cool of the Airstream exterior ....


Um .... I am dying of coolness overload here, or as a lovely blogger bud of mine would say - hooley dooley!
Who the heck knew Fritz Hansen had designed an Airstream - and a Mini to tow it?  Check them out here


.... and you have another deserving winner of the coveted William Morris award:


                                                          BEAUTIFUL and USEFUL.


Til next time, Nx

Wednesday 14 December 2011

Wednesday 7 December 2011

Rain on the caravan roof - Part 1

Over the past week, a lot of people in my part of the world (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia that is) have been heard to say, "I wish it would just b****y well rain!"  Two things I've learnt about Queenslanders since moving here last year that are summed up in this sentence: 1. they don't mince their words and 2. they take a very keen interest in the weather.  If you live here and don't know what the BOM is, well, you'd just better go and find out before you're sent back to New South Wales or wherever it is you came from.  (It's the Bureau of Meteorology website, by the way.  It's first with storm warnings, so kinda important round these parts).

So now we have what we wished for - it's pouring!  And has been all day.  Just in time for a 4-hour drive up to Fraser Island tomorrow for a very welcome break.  I was feeling a little uninspired to blog today, what with it being so grey and wet outside, and a wee bit cool (I really need to toughen up).  Until, that is, I started listening to the rain on the tin (deck) roof.  How I love that sound ....

Visit Wallpaper Decor for the OAS (Oasis) Collection

And why do I love that sound so much?  Simply because, when I was a littlie, every year our family packed up the car and the trusty Thompson Traveller - our caravan - and headed south for our very own European vacation.  I was a happy and a very lucky little camper to have spent holidays in France, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Italy and Andorra (it's a tiny country between France and Spain), and all before I was even a teen.

via Talking to Unicorns

On these holidays, my brothers and I made friends and played with kids without being able to speak each other's language. 

via Blondie and Co

We learnt how to pack light, because somehow you had to squeeze 3 weeks' worth of clothes into a cubby hole about the size of a shoe box. 

 A travelling Brisbane shop - otherwise known as the Best Little Vintage Van in Vegas

We got to swim in the sea, get a suntan (and burn), wear nothing but flip flops and swimsuits for 3 whole weeks, and of course we got to sample exotic 'foreign food' - I still have a vivid memory of eating my first pizza!

But one of the strongest sensory memories I have is lying in bed listening to the pitter-patter of summer rain on the roof of our home-away-from-home.  Mum and Dad would still be up, talking in hushed voices (we were only separated by a curtain, after all) and maybe playing cards on the table that would later be folded away to form the base of their bed (design genius!).

Check out this little wagon somewhere in a forest in Denmark at Boboho

I loved caravanning as a child, it holds many happy memories for me, so much so that I now have a dream of one day having a very special type of caravan to call my own ....

But you'll just have to wait until next week to find out what that is, if you haven't guessed already!


Til then, Nx