Tilly Tour: The Bathroom

If you follow me on Instagram, or if you're my friend on Facebook, you know that we've had some mechanical issues with Tilly and are staying in Austin, TX, until further notice. While we're here, we are doing a bit of deep cleaning to get Tilly in tip top shape.
It occurred to me recently that aside from the people who have seen Tilly in person, nobody knows what she looks like on the inside. I figured now would be a perfect time to share her insides with the world so everyone can see how we live. Since the bathroom is the smallest room (seriously, so so small), I decided to start there.
Before I go into what the bathroom looks like now, here are a couple of pictures of what it looked like before the renovation:

We didn't change all that much during the reno, but what we did made a big difference. We chose a pretty green-blue to paint over the fuggo wallpaper, painted the cabinets white, ripped out the hideous window treatment and replaced it with some simple white curtains, installed a fan in the roof vent, and put in a ruffled shower curtain to add some texture and interest to the room.



Counter with my cosmetics, which get packed away when we're driving. Also a good view of the toothbrush holder I "installed" (aka stuck to the wall using sticky tape. It's crooked).



Shower curtain.





Cabinets, and the fan we (Josh) put in.

We keep most of our everyday toiletries in these two cabinets above the window for easy access.The right hand cabinet has mostly my stuff: shampoo, conditioner, face wash, moisturizer, dry shampoo, etc., plus some of Josh's vitamins. These items are secured inside the cabinet with a tension rod so they don't move while we're driving, and fly out at us when we try to open the door.

The left hand cabinet is mostly Josh's stuff- shaving cream (or "beard lube" as this particular brand calls it), hair gel, beard trimmer, etc., plus toothpaste and first aid stuff. We keep these items in a set of 3 stackable acrylic bins we got at the Container Store for $10 each.

The whole left wall is a giant mirror, which makes it ideal for bathroom mirror selfies.

Nothing too notable about the shower, so I chose not to include it. All you need to know is that it's very, very tiny. Josh and I are both fairly large people- I'm 5'7" and he's 6'3"- so a larger shower is definitely on the wish list for our next home, mobile or otherwise.

DIY: Painted Coconut

I wanted to share with you all a fun DIY project I did during our time in Key West awhile back. Painting and mailing coconuts is the cool thing to do down there (at least for tourists), and I really wanted to send a special gift to my former coworkers up in Boston. Since commissioning an artist to hand-paint a custom coconut is quite expensive, I decided to grab some watercolors, and paint my own design on a coco I had found near the resort where we stayed. Here's a step-by-step of what I did:

Step 1: Choose a coconut, The coco must be able to stand on its own (unless you want to provide a stand as well). It should be dry and drained of milk.

Step 2: Sand the coconut. This will give the paint a rough surface to adhere to. It also removes many of the little fuzzy hairs that will get in the way of your brush.

Step 3: Paint the coconut. I used watercolors, but you can use whatever you want. Some artists will prime the coconut first, but I didn't, because ain't nobody got time for that.

Applying the background

Painting on the first palm tree.

Done with the first tree; on to the second.

Both trees done. After I took this picture, I went over the background colors again to blend them better, and added a message on the top right corner that said "love from Key West" as well, but I forgot to get a photo before I sent it off. I also painted the company logo on the other side.

Step 4: Seal with several coats of spray polyurethane. You can find this at any hardware store for a couple bucks. 

Step 5: Mail it off. The post office where I mailed it didn't have any Key West-themed stamps, so I just used the most colorful ones they had. I also put clear tape over the stamps so they wouldn't fall off. Mailing my coco cost about $11, since it was large and I couldn't get all of the milk out, but would obviously be less for a smaller, empty one.

Pensacola

It was tough to leave Grayton Beach, but we eventually tore ourselves away to continue our trip. Our next stop was in the Pensacola area to visit my former nanny, Claudia. We got to her house at around 5pm, and after saying our hellos, she and her boyfriend Frank whisked us away to Bands on the Beach. Bands on the Beach is an outdoor music event that's held every Tuesday night at Pensacola Beach. They have a different band playing every week, and hundreds of people show up toting lawn chairs and coolers full of tasty snacks and drinks. They also have a bar that serves Bushwackers, a Pensacola drink that's made with vanilla ice cream, half and half, Bacardi 151, Kahlua, creme de cacao, and coconut cream. You can order it with an extra shot of rum (which we obviously did), and barely even taste the liquor. It just tastes like a slightly alcoholic vanilla milkshake.

Claudia and me with our Bushwackers

Definitely not a low-calorie beverage.

The next day, Claudia and I spent the afternoon visiting various antique shops, and finding some interesting treasures...

Looking  at you, Gomez.

That night, we all watched the movie "RV" with Robin Williams. Have any of you seen it? It's a comedy about a dad who takes his family on an RV road trip and everything goes wrong for them. It's kind of cheesy, but also pretty funny, and Josh and I could relate to a lot of things that happened to the main character.
Before we left, Claudia snapped a cute family photo of me, Josh, and Gomez in front of Ol' Tilly.

4th of July in Seaside

Yesterday, I posted about our stay at Grayton Beach State Park, and briefly mentioned the neighboring town of Seaside, Florida. I'd like to go into a little more detail about Seaside today if that's cool with errbody.
Let's start with a little history. Seaside is a planned community, meaning it was designed and built all at the same time, instead of developing organically, as most cities and towns do. It was built around the principles of "New Urbanism" a civil design concept that originated in the 1980s, which "promotes walkable neighborhoods containing a range of housing and job types" (wiki). Seaside is so perfect-looking, it was used as the set for the movie The Truman Show. It also doesn't hurt that it's right in the Florida panhandle, which is home to some of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen (and I've been places). Also, the main square is lined with food trailers that are built into the sidewalk. Urban planning at its finest!

Guy in the blue has HAD IT.

As you know, Seaside is where Team Tilly spent July 4th. After an afternoon at the beach, we headed into town to partake in the city-wide celebration that included a performance by the Pensacola Symphony. And also this golf cart:

#florida

But seriously, it was beautifully decorated, and really felt like small-town America. Josh mentioned that it reminded him of Main Street USA at Disney World, and he was totally right.

After giggling at the golf cart and standing in a way-too-long line for snow cones, we headed back to the beach for fireworks just as the sun was setting.

We watched the fireworks back at our campground, Grayton Beach State Park. We were right smack in the middle of the panhandle, and every city and town from Panama City Beach (to the East) to Fort Walton Beach (to the West), a stretch of about 60 miles, was setting off elaborate fireworks displays at the same time. Everywhere I looked, there were shimmery explosions in the sky. It was a totally surreal experience, and one that my 2-year-old iphone couldn't possibly capture accurately. So you'll just have to see it for yourself one day.

To hear about what's going on with our trip right when it happens instead of 3 weeks later, you should follow us on Instagram @tillyandlovebug, where I post 1-3 pictures per day of our shenanigans.

Grayton Beach State Park

It was 4th of July eve and Josh and I were stressed. Part of the appeal of this trip was being able to go wherever we wanted, whenever we wanted, and stay for however long we wanted. Because of this, we never book activities or campsites more than 1 day in advance. In fact, we book pretty much everything same-day, about an hour or two before we get there. What we gain in freedom, we lose in stability, and there we were, the night before the biggest summer holiday in the US, with nowhere to spend the night.
After calling around, Josh found a random state park along our route with 1 campsite available for a single night. Not wanting to risk having to sleep on the side of the road, we decided to take the spot. So began our stay at the most wonderful beach campground that has ever existed.
Grayton Beach State Park looks like this:

Literally paradise. After our first night, by some miracle, we were able to book two more nights. Great! We had a place to stay for the whole long weekend. 4th of July came and went (more on that tomorrow), and we decided to book another night. Then another. Then another. Altogether, we stayed 6 nights at this incredible park. We did have to change spots a couple times, but it wasn't that much of a hassle. The 6 days we spent there consisted of morning walks on the beach, afternoon snorkeling, dinner cookouts back at the campsite, evening beach lounging, and nighttime s'mores by the fire, peppered with trips to the neighboring town of Seaside for coffee and shopping.

Beach bummin'

I don't think we could have possibly had a better time here, and it has definitely been one of our favorite stops on the trip so far.

For more timely updates on what we're up to, follow us on Instagram @tillyandlovebug. I post 1-3 pictures a day of our trip.

Panama City Beach

Panama City Beach is a gorgeous beach town that's an extremely popular spring break destination for Southern college students. In fact, it's nicknamed the "Spring Break Capital of the World". The boys and I didn't participate in too many raucous activities, though shit did get real when we found Gomez's mini-me at the restaurant where we stopped for lunch:

Gomez and Smaller Gomez.

For dinner, we went to Schooner's, a local beachfront restaurant, and then took a romantic sunset stroll on the beach. My phone died so I didn't get any pictures of the romantic stroll, but here's Josh enjoying a drink with dinner.

Overall, Panama City Beach was OK, but definitely not interesting enough to warrant staying a second night.

Suwannee River

Our next stop after Gainesville was the Suwannee River Hideaway Campground, where we stayed for one glorious night. This is a campground that mostly caters to snowbirds, so it unfortunately closes for most of the Summer. Our timing was perfect, however, and we snagged a spot a few days before it closed its gates.
Right behind our campsite there was an elevated boardwalk that led over a swamp to the Suwannee River. It looked like a magical pathway to Fairyland, so we followed it to the end.

Once we got to the river, Josh decided to take Gomez for a swim. The little guy is a Bichon Frise/Cocker Spaniel mix, both of which are supposed to be water-loving dogs. Gomez, however, was terrified of the river, and didn't enjoy the swimming lesson one bit.

So Gomez isn't a water dog. At least he makes a great dash-puppy.