Road Trip: Vilano Beach, FL

We left Virginia Thursday morning and, after two days on the road, we're finally in  St. Augustine, Florida!

St. Augustine is a beautiful old city with cobblestone streets, Spanish architecture, tall palms and huge live oaks covered with hanging moss. Founded in 1565 by the Spanish conquistador Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied settlement of European origin in the United States. To read more about the history of St. Augustine, click here.

Our campground is on Rt. 1A at Vilano/North Beach in St. Augustine. To get there, you cross a causeway from the city of St. Augustine to the beaches. I took this photo from the car as we crossed the causeway yesterday afternoon.

When you leave the causeway, you're in Vilano Beach. This is a view of Vilano Beach looking back toward the causeway and the city of St. Augustine.

Vilano is a little ArtDeco-inspired village that still shows remnants of its history as a tourist destination in the 1940's and 50's.

I love this hand-painted fence at the base of the causeway in Vilano.

Just North of Vilano on Rt. 1A is North Beach. This is our fifth year staying at North Beach Campground to visit our friends Fred and Anita.  Fred and Anita retired in 2014, sold their home in Maine, and began to live their dream of being full-time RVers.  

Sadly, our dear Fiber College/camping friend Anita passed away in 2016.  We've continued to come here each year to spend time with Fred. 

Anita and Fred at Searsport Shores, ME 2014

The beach is right across the street, a short walk from our campground.

I took this picture of the beach yesterday afternoon while Hank was checking into the campground.

We're on site #52 . . . 

Where the Casita is nestled into the palms.

In the site next to ours is one of the neatest vintage campers I've ever seen.

. . . A 1940 Zimmer!

These used to be nicknamed "breadloaf trailers" and were manufactured throughout the 1940's.  I've never seen one on the road, until now. And it's turquoise; I love it!

By suppertime, we were all set up, just in time for a sunset pot luck on the river side of  the campground at the Matanzas Inlet. The sun rises on the beach side here and sets on the river side so we get to enjoy both.

We had a great time catching up with Fred and his friend, Anne, who is from Rockland, Maine.

What's better than drinking wine with friends . . . 

                     While the sun goes down over the water.

I'm writing this on Saturday morning. DH, aka Hank, was up early combing the beach for shells (no luck yet) while I slept in. Hank, who usually shies away from cameras, was so excited to finally be having breakfast outside that he asked me to take his picture!

The sun just came out and it's getting warm. 

Today we're planning on a day of rest after all the driving.

Sunshine and a good book sounds perfect!

This post is linked to:

Happiness Is Homemade Link Party 262 at Bluesky at Home 

Fat Quarter Projects

Being in a quilt group, has encouraged me to organize my fat quarters and fabric remnants and think about what I might create with them.

Most of us who sew end up with a "stash" of beautiful fabrics we bought just because we loved them, with no particular project in mind. I'm definitely guilty!

 

Our Cobblestone Quilters group just had the reveal of our Brown Bag projects. The challenge was to make something wonderful for another quilter with only five fat quarters. I made this bag. 

 

 

DIY Vintage Camper Ornaments

Need a last minute gift or unique package tie-on? If you've got some felt scraps in your stash, you're all set! 

The inspiration for my ornaments came from...

 

 

our first camper, a little orange "Tab".

  

My sister and her husband have a Tab, too. Theirs is red and decorated with New England Patriot logos. I knew I'd have to make an ornament in their colors too!

 

I made my pattern on Mylar. I found lots of vintage camper photos to help me along in one of my favorite "eye-candy" books, Sisters On the Fly. This little book is loaded with stories and photos of women who restore, decorate, and travel together through the west in vintage campers.

I aspire to join them someday.



The book also includes recipes, but I was looking for simple camper graphics, like this one.

 

 

 

Sometimes I just use objects from around the house to inspire a project of pattern...like these camper lights from the garage.

 

 

Once you're sufficiently inspired, sketch your pattern onto oak tag, cardboard, or, in this case, Mylar. If you're like me, you'll want to have an art eraser handy!

 

 

 

 Next, cut out and label your pattern pieces.

 

 

Pin pattern pieces to a layer of iron-on Pellon to add stiffness. Some crafters use a layer of cardboard instead...your choice.

 

I ironed Heat 'n Bond onto the felt I planned to use for the smaller trim pieces so that I could iron them onto the camper body, holding them in place until I added the decorative embroidery. If you plan to use this, it's easier to iron the Heat 'n Bond to the whole felt square before cutting out the pieces.

Next, pin the pattern pieces to the felt, in the colors you have chosen for the body and trim.  

Remember to place the pattern pieces upside down for the back if you are making a two-sided ornament.

 

 

I outlined the trim pieces of my ornaments with embroidery using a simple running stitch or, on some, a blanket stitch. This is optional if you have already adhered your trim pieces with Heat 'n Bond but I like the finished look the embroidery adds..

 

My ornaments are about 4 inches long; you can design your pattern to be any size you like. Don't worry if you draw the pattern too big or too small the first time, just use your printer to shrink or enlarge it. Easy-peasy!

 

My neice, Katy, and her friend, Kelly, came over one snowy day to make ornaments with me. They are both twenty-somethings on a tight budget and worked all day making ornaments for Christmas gifts. Instead of campers, they made adorable cocktail ornaments from Pinterest at this link...




and fortune cookies from a blog called Just Call Me Mommy. The fortune cookies were originally designed for Valentine's Day but Katy and Kelly made them in Christmas colors and wrote Christmas greetings inside. They were easy (just little folded circles of felt) and came out great!

They even left a fortune cookie for me!

 

 

 I found these little charms in the jewelry-making section of Michael's Craft Store and sewed onto each ornament to personalize the gift. Each charm says, "Made with Love". The ornaments are hung with loops of red and white Baker's twine.

 

 

And there you have it...a whole RV Park full of vintage campers for the tree!

 

Here are ours...

Adding memories of camping trips gone-by to our tree.

 

Now I think I'm almost done...???

 

Merry Christmas!