Well I promised I would update you on how they had got on with Charlie.......drum roll please......
I really love this little caravan, but I knew from the last time I looked around her....it was a huge job, huge! I knew they could do it, but I also knew that this wasn't going to be the *dream* caravan....
She was a proper, proper mess.
*Enter Sprite Major stage left....*
Just when they had got into the swing of getting this caravan from rotten mess to is there something here we can save....a long came their dream caravan. A 1968 Sprite Major. Click here to read all about her and see a tour.
So what about Charlie? Not being a rare model, James and Natasha made the hard choice of selling her. Knowing she is going to be broken up to help save at least three other models. One of them is very rate and an important model to save. Anyone with a love of retro/vintage caravan is going to be heartbroken to hear of one, being chopped up for parts. But and its a BIG but, not all can make it and some will go towards saving others.
The beauitful shelf's which James worked so hard to resort will live on in a new van. So, as much as am sure you are all sad, as am I, we understand that you cant save them all :(
A beauitful (in need of some love) Sprite Major from 1968 Meet Maranda.
They have been away in her for New Years but she needs a fair amount of work to get her ready for the season ahead! Having said that, she is perfectly usable now.
James and Natasha have been looking for a Major for some time. They are well and truly now a member of Team Sprite as this is their second. They have a beauitful little 1970's 400. Click here to see Betty's tour.
James had been working on another van, a Cheltenham Sable who was in a pretty bad state! Then word came that the perfect Major had come onto the market and that meant he downed tools on the Sable. There is a huge amount of work which goes into saving these old vans (all doable in most cases) and if your heart is not in it, well......You will have to wait for my next video to find out what happened! (Cliff hanger!)
The fab thing about filming a caravan tour in your friends van is he makes you coffee too! Keep in mind I have done this tour not at a show all ready for public viewing but unpacked for winter. I will be checking back in with them when they have finished all the planed works!
With coffee in hand we chatted about the plans they have for the van and all the little sprite quirks!
Over coffee we went through all the paperwork which had been loving kept with the van. Even the original bill of sale!
I love seeing the brochures and all the fab photos of them being used!
The layout is very clever, giving lots of light and a feeling of space. I love how the areas do feel separate, giving a very homely vibe. I know you would be happy in here for an extend holiday.
Her paint work may need some love and a repaint (both inside and out) but I really fell in love with this van. They are lucky am waiting on fitting my tow bar to the new car or I may have tried to leave with her ;)
Am very much looking forward to seeing her at a show soon, finished and set for the occasion!
Vegan?? So my husband and I, where both born into meat eating families. Been brought up as that being a very normal way of living. We watched a documentary and it changed how we see the food on our plates. (If you have been following my blog for a while you would have read all about it!) We started with our food, our diet, removing animal products. Then I looked to our shampoo and shower gel. Then the next thing to look at was my make-up.
Being a mummy, and a little over my ideal weight, the last thing I have been thinking about is my makeup. I had already made up my mind that I would wait until things needed replacing before swooping with Vegan products. I love dying my hair, its been every colour you can think of! But in the last few years I haven't really messed with it too much or just dip dyed it, as I love I don't have any grey hair yet!
My hair has such a well hidden red tint, that when ever I try and dye my hair anything from its mousy boring brown it pulls out the red...So its going to take a few goes to get it to the colour I would like but it is fun seeing what its going to do!
I have been using Bblonde for years and its great to know its Vegan and Cruelty Free! Yay!
My nail colour had been red but going for purple to suit me more, Barry M is perfect, am loving these new Coconut shades!
Yes my hair is real, I get asked alot if its extensions. Its crazy long and mostly up in a 'i don't have time or care' bun!!
Shampoo? Yes, some shampoos have animal ingredients or have been tested on animals! Am now converted to using shampoo bars, not only better for you but also hugely reduces your plastic waste. Click here to check out my review.
Am just taking a few more photos of my make - up to add to here, so bookmark. (I've loaded this early as been asked about it tonight, more on this coming very soon!!)
I had some Christmas vouchers, it came down to a socket set or a dash cam.....can you tell I own a caravan!
Lets face it, we should all be thinking about getting a dash cam!
Prices anywhere from a few pounds to hundreds.....what one should you go for?
We went for the middle of the road Nextbase 112, things to note, you will need to buy up too a 32gb miro sd card (a larger card will not work.)
If you fancy a laugh, you can see what happens when I try to film an intro when the toddler was up till 1am the night before.....
Scroll down for full video...
First impressions are really good, easy to work, small but still a good size screen. Which allows you to play back straight away, very helpful if you need to show this to the police on the side of the road. It also takes photos, so if you dont have your phone on you, or like mine its full.....You can take photos of any damage straight away!
For my amazing mothers birthday we took a trip to the theater. We first had dinner in The Minerva Brasserie, then we watched the laugh out loud stage show - The Play That Went Wrong. Its so funny! I highly recommend it. The meal was yummy! Starter was off their normal main menu. Roasted Celeriac & Quince Soup - topped with toasted seeds & local rape seed Oil
Roasted Butternut & Mushroom Salsify Puree - with buttered chard, cauliflower & hazelnut pesto (This is listed as vegetarian, not vegan on their menu. They removed something to make this dish vegan for me.)
Sorbet - mango and vanilla
I was impressed by how accommodating they where, they sent through a list of options for me to pick from (my step father asked ahead of time.)
It was a lovely meal, in a very relaxed restaurant. I would love to go again! I do recommend booking a table for dinner before heading in to watch a play. It really makes the evening an event!
She looks so much better after just one quick wash!
She was re-sprayed at some point to this light blue.
Am not sure if the blue will stay as she will need to be re-painted at some point. (I know a few of my followers are loving the blue, so you have a while to convince me!)
This little adorable caravan, is very, very damp, puddles of water, the smell of damp and rot is quite overwhelming. She amazingly has her gas lights, with glass, mattresses and loads and loads of stuff in her! I think in a way its more scary than when we brought home Daisy (click here to read all about our 1969 Bluebird, Daisy) I know what am getting my self into this time, that's both empowering and scary!
Am also very excited. Even though she is smaller than Daisy, I really like the lay out and feel of her.
I will keep you posted on how I get on!
Thank you so much to the lovely gentleman who passed on this little gem to us!
We drove through driving rain, hail, sleet and snow. Three kids in the back, blankets, food and spent from 10am till 6-7pm in the car (with a brake to hitch up and play in the show!!) We had no idea when we left the house what weather laid in wait for us the higher north we drove.
Our youngest Dot, has never seen the snow before and just stood in shock while the boys set about making snow balls! I am so proud of our little people doing so well and not needing to watch anything till at least 5pm - by that point we had all had enough.
I stopped counting at around 10 smashed up cars on the side of the road....It got to a point where my husband Tim said we should think about turning back but we where almost there. In such bad conditions we still saw so many people driving so badly. Speeding, changing lanes without warning, and with far too much speed. Using fog lights in driving rain - I hate that!!
Slow down people, be careful!!
Turning off the main road was where the real fun began, not salted!!
So why where we doing this?!?!? At last we where going to pick up something very exciting! We needed all this....
My bargain tool box from a boot fair, a lighting board, two wheels, a jack, and lots of tools!
What could we have been going to get......
A 1960's Sprite Alpine!
She was sat looking a little unloved but moved with no problems even though she had been sat for over 20 years!! She towed home perfectly!
She or he, is our *new* 1965 (possibly 1966, or 1964, no one is sure!) Sprite Alpine! We haven't thought of a name and may run a little comp to find the right one so watch this space!
Our Touran is now up for sale, so this may be our last towing adventure with her. We felt a little sad about that :(
Am very over the moon about this little Alpine as so much of her original self is still inside!! Lots and lots of work to do but will be worth it.
It was so lovely to chat with her old owner about her adventures and will keep in touch through her restoration. We feel very lucky!
The mini people where so amazing and so proud of my husband driving us all back ok in terrible weather.
I will be updating the blog with a video of our little crazy snow adventure soon, so check back soon.
Here is a little sneak peek of our new Sprite, on our little adventure to get her!
If you know me well you will know I have a big thing for chili sauce.....Like a big thing.
I had a little experiment, as I had managed to get a heck of a lot of tomatoes in the reduced section - yay! I have made sweet chili sauce before but this time I wanted something closer to ketchup.
Before we get into how I have made this, I want to just say this - It takes like 2-3 days to make.....You will need a slow cooker and blender, I use a hand blender :) Ingredients: 400g Tomatoes (I just used salad tomatoes, am sure it was more but looked at the pack afterwards. Am going to make again to be sure - Fill your slow cooker)
1 red onion 3 Bok Choy 2x cups of sugar Chili powder, black pepper, paprika
First chop up all the tomatoes, and throw them into the slow cooker.
Then chop up the onion.
Don't worry about chopping them up to small.
Chop up the Bok Choy, I used about 90% of the green part.
Once you have popped it all in your slow cooker (set to high) add the sugar and a tea spoon of the chili and paprika. A good helping of black pepper. You can add more later if needed.
I cooked on high till the sugar had almost gone.
Then left it over night on low with the lid on.
in the morning, I took off the lid and gave it a good stir. There will be a lot of liquid at this point.
I then left the lid off and cooked on high, this is the sort of dish you need to be around for and stir every hour I would say. Also taste it and see, is it too sweet or does it need more kick? You can add in more chili if needed but wait till closer to the end ;)
The smell is amazing!! The colour will really start to change.
After about 8hrs on high with the lid off, I blended it down with my hand blender.
I really, really wanted to LOVE this product.....I was very disappointed :( The first biggest problem I had was the packaging. When you first pick it up, it looks like a paper bag but oh no its plastic lined and has a huge plastic pull out tray.
Most people who have are Vegan are doing it for one or more of three main reasons -
Animal Welfair
Environmental
Health
The order of those is different for everyone but they are the three main things. Like most of the people out there, we are all thinking a little bit more about plastic....thank you Blue Planet.
So a Vegan product really needs to be thinking also about the environment. Someone really dropped the ball on this one, when coming up with the design for the packaging.
Not all of my Facebook followers are Vegan, but interested in what I share. You don't have to be 100% Vegan to be making a huge difference (keep an eye out for my reducing waste blog coming soon.) I think its wonderful more and more people are thinking about their impact to the Planet and what is on their plate. All I will ever say is make informed choices. Know whats on your plate and where it comes from. Interest in Vegan meals, is on the up! Its a very good thing, and I want to be able to support new products coming onto the market. Many of my Facebook followers asked if I would review this new range, and some raised that the packaging had really put them off buying it.
I see why now, the plastic tray was the same size as my face!!
I must add I have only tried one item from the range, and will keep trying more in the hope they get better...
What did it taste like, I hear you ask - A plain boring soggy carrot full mess!
That's what it tasted like :( I was so disappointed. Where was the mushroom??? There was so much carrot, way to much, made me wonder if this was to feed bunnies not me. Soggy and wet. All that plastic did nothing to keep it fresh and ready to eat, there was no crunch or deep flavor.
I almost put the whole lot in the bin, it was like eating something which had been sat in a puddle. Like I said, so disappointed. The Tesco own Vegan wrap is so good, and for the same money you get the wrap, a drink and crisps/or fruit. By the end of my meal, I felt like I had been taken for a soggy ride :( I wouldn't buy this wrap again and think it would put people off turning to a Vegan diet.
It was so very disappointing and I wanted so much to like it.
Please, please support new Vegan items coming on sale. Maybe give this wrap a miss though...Make sure you give feedback and I am sure they are better than this soggy disappointment.
I will keep trying more of the range and let me know how I get on, if you have tried any and yours was ok let me know!!
Alice, ever hopeful for a rethink on this product :)
