Cosmic Charlie!

A hoy-hoy and welcome back!! Cosmic Charlie, “How do you do?” Truckin’ in style along the avenue. Dum de dum de doodle do. Go on home your mama’s calling you. Does this at all help you to figure out what are going to be introducing in this post? Hmmm? No? Did you read the Pennants for Your Thoughts? post? I gave a clue there! It’s okay, don’t go looking, that is way too much work and I want you right here, reading this! Because I am about to introduce you to our new camper Cosmic Charlie!! (I’ll give you a second to calm down and collect your thoughts before we move on). Where the heck did we come up with that crazy name? LOL, well, we were originally trying to choose between Althea or Sugaree. Any Dead Heads out there? LOL, I wasn’t before I met The Husband, but now I do enjoy all the music of the Grateful Dead and can even tell the difference when Jerry is singing versus Bob! I know, I know, I am a hip, hip lady. Then, while driving to the Dunes one fine August morning, The Husband put on the song Cosmic Charlie and well, I fell in love. Also, it totally has Calliope’s name in it!! I KNOW!!! 

Cosmic Charlie is a Happier Camper HC1 model. They are a quickly growing company out of Los Angeles, California. Please check out their website here! How did we find out about them? Funny you should ask! Actually it is a funny story. For reasons unknown, I have never nor really wanted a Facebook page. So, I have never had one. However, about 5 years ago, I found out about the Instagram. Can I say how much I love my Instagram? I surround myself with positive, wonderful people and cute, fluffy animals that keep me in as positive a mood as I am going to be (I’m trying here)! LOL. Anyhoo, I follow several different categories, one being camping pages. I honestly thought that the Happier Camper that I started to follow was a page about people and their awesome, vintage looking campers, showcasing their travels and camping adventures around the US. Seriously. I guess I never read their stuff (yes, I know, ironic). Their cooler posts I would share with The Husband (sorry, I find referring to him as The Husband to be very comical and if you can’t make yourself laugh, well, who can you make laugh)? Anyhoo, again, so I was sharing this page with The Husband and finally a year or so later he says to me, “You do know this is a camper manufacturer’s page and they make these campers?” WHAAAAAA???? 

Well, crap, I had to go back and re-read their posts, the site itself, as well their website! And slap me and call me Brittany if they weren’t a camper manufacturer company!! Holy Cow!! Long story short, we decided to purchase a new camper through the Happier Camper company (don’t worry about the little A-Frame, she will be going to a good, new home). Why did we choose to go with the Happier Camper? We love how it harkens back to vintage campers of old! Happier Campers reminded us of canned hams, Bohlers, and Scamps. We have both always loved the look and style of vintage campers. We were originally looking at, and saving for an Airstream. But, it would take us until we are in our 60s before we could afford one (but, we still love them). We also liked that the HC1 was manufactured from fiberglass in two seamless shells that were put together, which creates an extremely light and watertight shell. We loved the idea that it was virtually waterproof.

Bridget? Yes, Reader? Is this post an ad for your new camper? I promise you, it is not! LOL. But I feel like I need to give some background and information. Here is the point (with another tiny story; like you don’t like them)! So, before and after deciding to purchase the new camper, I started researching how owners decorated their Happier Campers. What? Really? Don’t act shocked! Have you read my post, Glamping!? Check it out here! Cause, that’s what I love to do! Now we won’t be going that in depth, in fact, we aren’t changing anything in the new camper, but I wanted to get fun with the decor! 

So here’s the thing. I searched, scoured, and foraged throughout the whole of the internet to get an idea of how people decorated the insides of their Happier Campers. Welp, apparently I am the only person in the known universe interested in decorating their Happier Campers. So, yeah, there’s that. I couldn’t find a single post anywhere on how people decorated, not one! Am I the only person interested in decorating their Happier Camper?! Anyone?!!!

Theme

Okay! Theme of the camper! Bridget, what the hell is the theme? Have you lost your mind? No more than I already have, thank you! Yes, a theme. Just because I am saying that I am looking for a theme, doesn’t mean Disney or teddy bears, it could be a color theme, a pattern theme, whatever! For the A-Frame, I did a camping/outdoors theme. The curtains I sewed have trees on them, but minimalist trees, not like, “hey, here’s a damn big oak tree” or anything. LOL. I did make a camping/outdoors pennant that I always hung up when we went camping with outdoor lights. Colors were a muted sage, midnight blues, grays, and pinks. That’s right. Pink. I went to Target and saw a college comforter for $10. $10!!! I couldn’t pass it up! (Also, I wanted to be girly and I am never girly when I decorate). 

For Cosmic Charlie, let me explain a strange phenomenon that occurs in my life and household. Hopefully, this will help explain why I arrived at the theme that I chose. OKAY! As mentioned previously in my Glamping post, I talk about how I was searching through the black hole that is Pinterest. Well, The Husband and I do the same damn thing with YouTube. Sigh. Does anyone else do this? We began innocently enough by (of course) researching anything we could find about Happier Campers. Which led us to watching more videos on other campers that piqued our attention. We then moved onto people who are camping in the different campers; to people who camp and review a variety of camping gear to amuse and delight you; to people who hike, to people who camp while hiking. See? See where this madness descends?!! 

Anyhoo. There have been a lot of people who hike and camp in and around Arizona. And, of course, Joshua Tree. I have always wanted to visit Joshua Tree. Perhaps because I live in the Midwest and have a yearning for a different environment like the desert with its yellows, oranges, reds, browns and the spare splashes of green. Either way, a Bucket List item of mine is to visit Arizona and California and camp! In the end, watching all of these videos of people in and around desert settings helped to cement what theme I wanted for Cosmic Charlie: Boho Desert. No clue if that is a thing, but that’s what I am running with! Therefore, the colors I searched out where: oranges, yellows, pinks, browns, greens, and reds. Can I tell you a deep, not so dark secret? The Husband made the connection and I was astounded, yet in agreement with his theory and why I have always loved these colors and the idea of the desert? Star Wars. Mind. Blown. But, he’s right. I grew up with the Original Star Wars, (Han Solo, Luke, Millennium Falcon) and several of the movies feature the desert in them. Well, crap. So, I guess you can say, that deep down this is my Star Wars camper.

Textiles

Bridget, what are textiles? Fabrics. LOL. For example, the cushions are tan. The flooring is sleight gray. There aren’t really curtains and I don’t want to cramp the little camper with sewing some (I think it would create a claustrophobic feeling).

Bedding

We have gray sheets already purchased from the A-Frame and I sewed a comforter that is black and white. NOTE: While decorating, make sure to keep in mind the colors you want, but also the colors you already have! So far, we have black and white, tan, and gray. Neutral, base colors that will take and handle any other color you throw at it! I also have three extra blankets: two that I had sewn for the A-frame and an alpaca wool blanket that is supposed to be very warm (as we have been known to camp in November and one time in December). Of the two that I have sewn, one has dark blues and yellow (night scene) and the other one has orange and more blue (camp fire with s’mores). The Alpaca blanket has stripes of blues, pinks, purples, and creams. 

Now, I do have to say, that later down the road, The Husband and I will be playing around with ways to keep you warm with the use of heaters. We did not get a heater installed in Cosmic Charlie, which might sound crazy. But, we do have a small space heater that does not emit carbon monoxide. ALSO, we would like to start playing around with other ways to stay warm such as the Alpaca blanket and the use of electric blankets…. But more of that in another post!! Maybe!!  

Pillows

We have to talk pillows! No, not pillows you sleep on, pillows for decorating and making a space cozier, more comfortable! THOSE pillows! I know, I know, I’ll give you a few moments to collect yourselves after this excitement. Now, in search for the perfect pillows, I scoured the internet looking for pillows with the above mentioned colors the included fun shapes, patterns, and textures. Why didn’t you sew your own? Honestly, I saved a boat ton of money just buying pre-made pillows, especially because I got them on sale! Like, a super sale with free shipping and everything! Again, I didn’t want to overcrowd the tiny camper, so I went back into the internet and searched around to see how many pillows other people have added to their Happier Campers and compared to those to what I considered claustrophobic or not. I reigned myself to only purchasing six pillows. I didn’t think that was too shabby, if you ask me. LOL. I know, I know. But look at the colors! Love them so much between the muted pinks to the bright reds and yellows. `  

Walls

NOTE: I know, I know, I just got started on this section and I am already giving you a note. LOL. Sorry not sorry! But!! When looking to decorate the walls of your camper, please make sure to take into consideration how much wall real estate you have; measure and double check before you purchase anything. See? That wasn’t that bad. 

Again I am going to point out that I seem to be the only person on the planet that is interested in decorating the walls!! What the heck!? The first thing I looked into (and I honestly don’t know how I found them) but, I started looking into wall decals. Can’t and don’t really want to do wallpaper (that sounds atrocious) but wall decals are cute and easy to remove when we want a change in decoration. However, please make sure you look at not only the price, but also shipping. Cause wow, I fell in love with this one decal and then saw the shipping, which was three times more than the on-sale decal. Yeah, that was a big negative on that. However!! What I decided to do, was to get my other stuff I knew I wanted and then decided if the wall decals would be too much and/or too busy. In the end, with the pennants, plants and the pillows, I felt that we did not need the wall decals. Which, was kind of a bummer because I did want to see how to put those up and how they would hold up. Oh well. 

Why Bridget, what other stuff do you speak of? Well! I’m so glad you asked! I am not quite sure why, but maybe as I get older, I am becoming more nostalgic about life. One thing I am starting to really love (which I was opposed to before) was macrame. I felt it was for old ladies. NOW, though, now I really love it and it honestly reminds me of when I was a little girl and my mom’s macrame owl that she made. It just seems warm and cozy and a piece from my childhood. Cue my epic search for the perfect macrame wall hanging. I definitely had a lot to choose from. I always search Etsy first because I know that most people on there do this themselves. Then, if I can’t find anything, I will search elsewhere. Here is a sample of the wall hangings I was juggling around. Again, I will say that not only esthetics played a major role, but how big they were and if they would fit on the walls of the camper. 

Funny enough, with the endless research and pinning favorites, I decided on a pop up suggestion from Etsy that incorporated leaves with a regular piece. Also, on sale! OH! AND!!! I was able to pick my own colors!! Win, win! 

Next up: Plants!!! Oh Lord no, not the real ones. I kill those. All of them. We are talking plastic plants! Don’t roll your eyes or laugh at me! I’m serious. I kill poor, unsuspecting plants, even cacti. So, for their safety and my self-esteem, we will go with plastic plants. To get some color and “life” into the camper. I have seen people hang plants in their campers and I think I love the aesthetic it brings to the space; even if they are fake! Now, I didn’t want to go for a jungle theme or anything, but I wanted enough to make it homey. Again, I will stress that you look at your space and judge by the amount of space you have in order to see how many and how large items you can buy. I know I am going for desert, but the cacti plants were either way too big or too small. So, I went with a general fake hanging plant with dangling vines. And, of course, I went with macrame hangers. LOL. And yes, I did have to put the plants together, without instructions. However, I think The Husband and I did a decent job. 

Lastly, Pennants!! Did you read my Pennant for Your Thoughts, posts? No? Welp, here it is! I love pennants. I have made a lot because I think they add a festive feel and allows for the use of a variety of fabric patterns (that way, you don’t have to pick just one)! LOL!! Right?! My fellow sewers, am I right? So, with the new camper, I took the opportunity to make a new pennant, but I also love the old pennant I had sewn for the A-frame. So, I used them both! The first pennant has more of the “new theme” vibes while the original pennant uses camping patterns. However, I feel that the color palates are similar, or at least compliment each other. 

Putting it all together and first camping trip!  

I have to say, I am very happy with how everything came together! I think that it is cozy and colorful. The Husband can complain about the pillows all he wants, but when it is rainy or too cold to be outside, they are very comfy cushions for seats. I love the windows and all of the bright light they afford as well as the lights themselves (which can be dimmed)! We are very happy that we decided to get the mattress topper which adds another layer of comfort for sitting and sleeping. Note: I have to mention and tell you all how much I love linen sheets. I have never been so comfortable sleeping as I did sleeping on my linen sheets. They are torn and fixed but I love them (and they are expensive) so I decided to put them in the camper. So happy I did!! 

Our first camping trip was to The Indiana Dunes State Park and it was wonderful! The weather got pretty chilly (okay, it was downright cold) but we had purchased a small ceramic heater which kept Cosmic Charlie nice and warm! We also packed our electric blanket, which The Pibble and I took advantage of! LOL. Still trying to arrange our things for ease and easy access, but we will get there! In all, the maiden voyage of the Cosmic Charlie was a success! A happy, success!

Conclusion

And that, is that! I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed writing it! As we depart for the moment, I will leave you with one last verse from the Grateful Dead: Calliope, wail like a seaside zoo. The very last lately, inquired about you. It’s really very one or two. The first you wanted, the last I knew. XOXO