Yay Retro

I was just skimming through facebook, looking for some new pages to follow when I spotted a comment by Yay Retro.  I loved their name so thought I'd give their page a look, and very nice it was too.

I then noticed they run a Camper Classic feature on their blog.  They show peoples campers and match them up with a suitable tea set...what a cool idea.  I didn't hesitate to get in touch and our very own Delia has now been featured.

It could be your turn next, so if you've got a campervan get in touch with Yay Retro and say hello, they'd love to hear from you.

Yay Retro sell a range of genuine vintage china, so whatever era you love you'll sure to find something lovely.  This Twintone Breakfast Set caught my eye...

All the items they sell, have full information giving approximate dates, manufacturer, and also condition, so you know exactly what your getting.  It's not just tea sets, they also sell other kitchen items and glassware, how about this fruity jug..

or these 70's coffee pots would look great in a campervan.

Haven't got your own bus, then you need campervan hire and if your in Essex then Custard Campers are rather good if I do say so myself ;)

Kerry x

Bug Jam 26

After another manic & wet week, the weekend dawned bright and sunny.  Perfect for a wedding.....

Delia & myself  were booked for the lovely Leanne's wedding, in Hornchurch.  The venue was the very popular Langtons House..

After collecting Leanne, her chief bridesmaid and her two gorgeous daughters, we made our way from her home to Langtons.  We arrived a little early, so we decided to drive around a little, however with the high street right next door everywhere was very busy, so after nearly getting blocked in on one of narrow side roads we decided to head back round and wait by the venue.  Delia pulled up alongside a vintage Rolls Royce and Daimler but I'm happy to say she still got admiring glances and some lovely comments.

Sunday was a day off and as we were child free, the custard creams being at their Grandad's for a holiday we thought we'd make the most of the sunshine and head off for a day trip to Bug Jam.  

We parked up in the day visitors car park and caught the mini bus up to the entrance.  The road up to the drag strip goes right through the middle of the camping fields, which by the Sunday were completely water logged and also an unbelievable amount of rubbish....nice.

We had quick mooch round the auto jumble area but this was quite small, then on to the vehicles for sale.       Although we're definitely not in the market for another camper, it's always good to see whats available and more importantly how much it would cost you.

We then took in a bit of the drag racing, starting with the incredible jet rocket car, very fast and very loud.  I never seen any drag racing before but really enjoyed it.  It was then time for a look around the trade stands, but again nothing too amazing but we did manage to buy some bolts & a new front badge for the splitty and a klaxon horn for Delia.  Although we'd left it a little late in the day we had a wander round the club displays and saw some cool things

There was some lovely campers in the show and shine but again it was smaller than expected and right next to the main stage.  At the time we got there, it was very hot and the band weren't really my thing so we didn't take too long looking.  How old did that last sentence make me sound?

Dan's feeling the crew cab love at the moment and this one was pretty cool but this shiny red splitscreen was our favourite.  Not usually that keen on red campers but this one was lovely.

Time for some more drag racing, and soaking up the sun before starting the long hike back to the car park.   We saw quite a few people with their heads stuck in their engine bays on the camping fields...oh dear.  Dan felt it would be quicker to walk then wait for the mini bus but I'd like to point out both buses passed us 3 times on our long long walk.  

At least there were plenty of dubs to look at as most people were heading off from the weekend.   We saw one poor camper that didn't  even make it out the grounds before they had to make the call of shame and get the AA out.  Not great when hundreds of other dubbers are driving right past you....we felt your pain!  Here's just a few of the campers that we saw, I'm going to add a few more pictures to our facebook page so make sure you go and check it out custardcampers

Kerry x

A day in the life of....

It's been a funny day at Custard HQ, lots of running about so thought I'd do a quick blog post to show just whats involved in running a campervan hire business...


7am ish Up & dressed, packed lunches to make, breakfast to make, quick update on our twitter &           facebook pages.

9am  Drop kids at school, it was raining & Delia was back from her hire so we opted to school run in her today.

9.30am Zumba Class at the gym.
11am Back home, answered a couple of emails, spoke to Dan about booking Ramsey in to Type 2 Detectives to get some more work done on his front beam, to improve his handling.  Booking duly made for next week, then the phone rings 'Do we have a campervan for next week?'  after quick evaluation of whether to cancel work booked & take booking, decided to stick to the original plan & turn down the holiday hire.
12noon  Finds us outside in the pouring rain washing Delia's awning groundsheet as it's needed to go with Ramsey for tomorrows hire.  Rest of awning thankfully clean, just a little damp so due to the lack of sunshine it's draped over the landing & stairs banisters.
1.30pm  Ramsey is back from his weekend at Latitude, thankfully not too muddy.  Happy campers & just a small issue with the gear stick that needs sorting for next hire.
2pm  Washing & drying Ramsey ready for tomorrow, always great when it's raining.
3pm  Back in Delia for another school run.
4pm  Polishing the inside of Ramsey's windows & sorting out his hamper.
4.30pm  Deliver Ramsey round to our mechanic's to get some plumbing done on his sink and to have a new gear stick shifter fitted.
5pm  Wash picnic hamper for tomorrow.
5.30pm  Cook tea for little custards & make extra for us later
6pm  A very interesting enquiry for a possible hire of Ramsey this weekend, can't say too much about this yet as it might not happen but if it does it could be massive publicity for the custards!
6.30pm  Cup of tea & blog

Just to clarify the 'we' referred to in this post is myself & my daughter Saff who has finished college for the summer & is currently skint so have made her work for me today!  


Still got to collect Ramsey later, wash Delia, clean up, pack up awning and then start some sewing work...Living The Dream haha


Kerry x

What's Happening With Our Splitscreen

Time for a recap on progress for our splitscreen camper.   We purchased her back in April after being persuaded she was the right camper for us...catch up on what happened here  


This is how she looked then

We then cleaned out her inside ready for it to be removed.  It was still the original Westfalia interior & it did seem a shame to take it out but I just couldn't imagine anyone being blown away by it's mustard and dark wood look.  I now need to sell this interior so if your interested give me a shout!

She was then taken to the bodyshop to start her transformation...

Slowly her paint has been removed, thankfully underneath was all pretty good, just some minor repairs to the bottom of her cargo doors and tidying everything up

I've obviously understated how much work goes into bare metaling a campervan despite this one being very straight and not hiding anything nasty under that brown paint.

Then it was on to the primer stage

Meanwhile back at Custard HQ heated debates were going on, between me & Dan to try and decide on the colours to paint her, find out more on this here.  In the end we narrowed it down to getting samples of the following four colours, as we knew it was going to be a white on top...

LL6F Lint Green

 

L478 Beryl Green

L346 Mango Green

L397 Lavendar 

Do you see a bit of a green theme going on?  Apparently everyone has a blue/white split so that ruled out all the blues, I suggested some nice pastel colours like lemon, lilac, peppermint if it had to be green but was told that they were all too wishy washy.  Once every colour had been ruled out we were left with the greens none of which I liked so I found this lovely lavendar on one of the VW forums and put it in the mix.

Unfortunately when we went to pick up the colour samples the paintshop had been unable to get that colour, you can imagine how pleased I was at that revelation.  So green it was, Dan wanted the mango which I hated, out of the three I'd have gone for the Lint but this reminded Dan of his Dad's old mark 5 Cortina?? The only colour left was Beryl Green which is not really my taste.  There was much stamping of my feet but just couldn't budge Dan on this and I had to go with it.  Not very gracefully I might add, I had the major hump over it.

At least we now had a decision so paint could be ordered and work could press on.  With the paint decision being Dan's I have full choice of interior fit out.  I've decided to stick to a similar layout to what the split had originally but will lose the wardrobe as can't really see the point and it also blocked one of windows making the inside feel quite dark.  After gathering quotes we have booked the split in with Vanmotions in Cambridgeshire .  We will be visiting them next week to confirm plans and choose our trim colours.

In the meantime I have been looking at curtain fabric and currently I'm in love with this courtesy of the ever helpful Sarah over at The Cosy Campervan Company.

So that's where we're up to, I will update this blog with some new pictures once the paint is on and we've seen Dunk at Vanmotions and confirmed our interior wood etc.

As always comments always welcome.

Kerry x

What I Do When I'm Not Messing With Campers

After another tough (did someone say stressful?) week trying to get our campers to behave and ready for their hires I was more than ready for some down time.

As it was my friend Louise's birthday tomorrow we (me & my lovely friends Vicky & Katie) had secretly been planning a treat for her, our original plan had been a trip to Frinton in a campervan but it turned out all our campers were going to be out on hire so plans were remade.

We only had the afternoon due to Louise's work so we planned a surprise picnic in the park but after the damp weather of late we again had to change our plans....so a posh tea party it was.

Katie made very dainty sandwiches with the crusts cut off and yes some of them were cucumber!  Vicky baked a Muppets birthday cake, and some scones & flapjacks and so what did I bake...nothing as I'm a rubbish baker and hate anything that involves the kitchen.  My contribution was some props like the picnic basket, table cloths, bunting, flowers etc etc.

Due to running late on getting Ramsey back here, I was still busy washing and polishing him when I should of been helping get the surprise ready but thankfully Vicky & Katie are more than use to me being a bit hopeless and unreliable and got everything sorted in my absence.

I waved Ramsey's hirers off at 12.30 then did the quickest wash & change in to my gladrags I've ever managed and ran (yes ran) round to Vicky's arriving just as Katie pulled up with birthday girl Louise.  We had great fun basically stuffing as much food in as we could while still managing to breathe in our boned dresses....no easy task.

If only we had lunch like this everyday it put's my normal cheese sandwich to shame...

Happy Birthday Louise 

Meanwhile back at Custard HQ we off to visit our splittie tomorrow so hopefully I can get a few new pictures to share with you.

Kerry x

Glamping - What To Take Part 1

‘Glamping’ noun
[mass noun] British informal
a form of camping involving accommodation and facilities more luxurious than those associated with traditional camping (oxforddictionaries.com)

Gertrude Bell in 1907

I think the first person to really embrace glamping would have to be Gertrude Bell; an intrepid adventurer of the Middle East from 1892 until her death in 1926, she gained respect from the local Bedouins by travelling through the desert with her tents, evening gowns and silver tableware.  These luxurious items elevated her to the status of queen in the local’s eyes, which meant she was welcomed and not treated with the hostility that most foreigners were greeted with at that time.

Fast forward 100 years and Glamping is an idea we all love but how to achieve it?  Well the simplest way is to book a campervan of course! and then take along some very lovely glamping products.....

This amazing hand painted tableware set from Yours Sustainably, would look fantastic in one of our campers (and incidentally is how I found  Yours Sustainably)

How about a hand painted camper set? it comes in a choice of green or blue, this will set you out as the most stylish camper round the fire...

Need something to keep your food hot before you dish up? they've got this cute tiffin 

or if you prefer to keep your food chilled, there this stylish lunch tote

or if you just want to keep your sandwiches fresh, I love this colourful reusable sandwich wrap

What else could you possibly need? lashings of ginger beer of course, all kept chilled for up to 24hrs in this light weight flask 

The above products (and short history lesson!) courtesy of Yours Sustainable, they've got loads more gorgeous items and it's all sourced to be environmentally sensitive & ethical.  While putting this blog post together I've just spotted a gorgeous vintage map bound note book that would be perfect for Delia's entertainment hamper, a glamping visitors book.  

So many more glamping ideas so think I'll leave this here and come back with part 2 next week.  Please do go have a look at Yours Sustainably and many thanks to Jessica for her time suggesting the products that would work well for this post.

Kerry x