Meanwhile, I thought I’d share some pictures from the night before our work at the Toshiba Golf Classic.  The requirements were to wear all black including black ties, and since we didn’t have any, why not make them?

We got a $2 skirt from the Goodwill & went to town!

Mind you this is around midnight & we have to be at work at 8:00 AM…

Good thing Rock knows what she’s doing with one of these…

Using a little YouTube knowledge, Rock set to work!

Looks like we may have the next Project Runway contestant on our hands!

Not too shabby for a first time tie maker!

Now that’s what I call enthusiasm!  (Or lack of sleep and a little anxiety…) But, we’re gonna go with ENTHUSIASM!

In case you missed the video, you can check it out here.  And excuse my shrill voice, I was quite… enthused as well  Keep checking back for updates, we hope to share our California excursion with you soon!

XO

We just couldn’t wait any longer on Vinny to start this thing, so we packed up the car and headed out this morning; making California our first stop on the Fifty Nifty tour.  Yep, we’re headed all the way up to the Redwoods, and so far we’ve made it to San Jose.

It’s been a gorgeous journey so far, and with some pretty interesting sights.  Like the 17-piece Mexican pop band.  Or the “2012 Lemon RV” we came across:

We’ll be sure to explain everything, but for now- the good stuff: the awesome views that surround us up here in this enchanted land they call Northern California

Rock took this just outside of Los Angeles, when we finally made it out of traffic:

The AH-SO-PRETTY mountains I-5 takes you through:

A whole lotta nothing.  But really, really pretty nothing

I took Rock to the Winchester Mansion for her birthday That was NOT what we expected.  But still cool:

And now we’re in beautiful San Jose- a very cute & quaint city!

We’ll try to keep you posted via Facebook & Twitter, and we’ll be sure to give you the full account once we return  Now off to the redwoods we go!  We’ve got a sasquatch to catch.

Our good friend Maggie sent us this the other day:

She lives just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, and she’s rocking the Small Towns tee! We think it looks great on her!  Thanks Maggie!

Please, if you order any suh-weet Fifty Nifty gear, share your picture with us!  We’d love to see where the goods end up

If you haven’t checked out our new video yet, please do!  We were lucky enough to score an awesome track from A House For Lions and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Check it out!

Let Back

Let us know what you think!

We brought out almost every cleaner we could find to tackle the remnants of whatever residue was left behind, and to make sure every surface was sanitized!  Be gone germs!

The bathroom door has been primed, patched & sanded and is ready for a fresh coat of paint  We chose Pearly White, a nice off-white color we think will really open it up.

Here Rock & my hubs (Josh) are putting new carpet on the wheel hump.

A little spray adhesive + kitchen scissors can go a long way!

The wood veneer was primed, filled, sanded and ready for that coat of Pearly White!

The last of the shag was scraped out, but we left a small patch of it under the stove to remind us of what Vinnie once was.

Wood Filler + Sandpaper + Elbow Grease = Smooth

Yes, he did.  My wonderful husband bought us an AAOOGAH horn!

Rock’s hobo feet

Finally!  The wood floors are being put in!The newly covered wheel hump looks a gazillion times better!  Yes, a gazillion!

The floor remodel went a little late into the night…

The new curtains are up in the back and they’re oh-so-cute!  We still definitely need to do something about those scary back doors…

Ahh! Nothing like new floors!  Each new piece that went down made my heart flutter a little.

The bathroom floor got primed & ready for a new floor too!

And WHA-LA!  It’s amazing what a little cheap linoleum will do!

And there you have it- the Pearly White in action!  Sure did brighten the place up, huh?

Now just making this look a little prettier.  And less deadly.

Keep checking back daily to see the progress & be sure to subscribe to receive notifications of new posts

XO- Cookie

Hi Y’all!

We’re still working hard every day to make this happen and though we’ve hit a few road bumps, we’re adapting and staying open to new courses in our plan.  In the mean time, we’d like to take a moment to thank everyone who’s helped us get to where we are now, because without all of you, our progress would be significantly smaller and we’d be without our beloved Vinnie!

Without further adieu, THANK YOU to:

-Regenia McCall   -Kym & Eddie Burgamy   -Jeff Merrit   -Stephanie Merrit   -Donna Burgard   -Sarah Parks   -Samantha Reyna   -Rob & Kathy Rankin   -Briana Catapano   -First State Bank   -Ocean Gardens   -Marathon Marina   -The Caribbean Resort   -Tina Riddle   -Roger & Rannah Marshall   -Dianne Yost   -Matt Lindi   -Edgar Hoya   -Logan Howard   -Kelly Rankin   -Regina Reams   -Melanie Evans   -Samara Keller   -The Clouse’s   -Amber Russ   -Nate Grice   -Ronnie Freeman   -Jesse Burgamy   -Sharron & Doug Mann   -Tricia Grierson   -Ashleigh Yost   -Diane & Rick Strauss   -Kelly Ripley   -Eric Keilman   -Shondre Shonson   -Josh Covell   -Lara Libbey   -Jim & Heather Nickerson   -Brooke Wade   -Neighbor Gary   -Josh Cuthbert   -Neighbor Vinnie   -Nichelle & Kurtis Wade   -And Anonymous Yard Sale Women

* If there’s anyone we forgot, we’re sorry!  We love you too and don’t hesitate to point it out in our comments box!  Thanks also to EVERYONE who supports us and this project and is ready to see collective positivity take over!

We can’t stop listening to New Kingdom‘s great sound and we figured we’d share it with you!  Enjoy!

City In Water

But it’s not because we don’t care.  It’s because we’ve been so DARN busy working on VAN-Gough, learning about html codes, trying to build our online platforms, creating new merchandise, working on a new promo video AND scouring our noggins for fundraising ideas.  (We’re still about $9,000 shy of hitting the road).

We’ve made some SIGNIFICANT progress on our ride and we can’t wait to reveal the new and improved Vinnie!  In the mean-time, I thought I’d share some more pictures of the makeover process:

The disgusting (and yes, I really do mean dis-gusting) carpet has been ripped out, including the fowl-smelling shag that surrounded the toilet.  Tut decided to get in on the action – though I’m not sure his choice of backdrop is the best for a portrait.

Speaking of the toilet, it took about two hours to remove it completely, which entailed scraping the old wax ring from the base.  To better explain:

And that looks a trillion times better than it did.  Here, let’s have an even closer look:

Yum.  Needless to say, I scrubbed my hands nearly raw after messing with this thing.

The floor was in good condition under all that carpet-mess.

Bits of shag remnants remained, but were nothing a pair of kitchen scissors and an old exacto couldn’t fix.

The mini-fridge cleaned up really nice, making it almost hard to believe it’s 41 years old!

The leather-ette side pockets for the insides of the doors cleaned up pretty nice as well!  And would you look at that – gold interior!  Fancy!

I removed the old upholstery from the bed cushions and lucky for us the foam is still in really good condition! Score!  (Not sure if you’ve been foam-shopping lately, but that stuff costs crazy money!)

The freshly scraped, ready-to-be-disinfected toilet base.  Bleh.

Another productive day of work!  Keep checking back to see more of the progress!

It’s a ’71 Chevy with a loud exhaust and a full kitchen.  And we can’t wait to live in it.

Without going into a long, boring spiegl… we believe positive energy is the answer to a lot of the world’s problems.  For starters, our own country could use a heavy dose of it.  The media has become so obsessed with fear-inducing people that it’s sickening.  The news is filled to the brim with murderers and thieves and heathens.  We’re constantly reminded of how far in debt our country is, even though most of us are powerless to change that on our own.  We read about how poor and crummy our economy is, then catch the latest car accident, cop chase or murder scene on the 10 ‘o clock broadcast.  What the hell is wrong with us?

Energy flows where attention goes.  And maybe we can’t change the world, but we can try to change something.  And that’s exactly what we’re going to do.  In a ’71 Chevy-Apocolypse-Ready-Sportvan.

We’re going to road-trip around the country, seeking out positivity, in a vehicle that’s ready for some Dawn of the Dead shit.  The guy who had it before us might’ve done a little too much partying in his day, because he set this thing up for a full-on battle.  There are custom steel plates for all of the windows, interior slide locks, a barrel key entry, and steel rivets galore.  But for two chicks, it makes us feel more confident we won’t end up in The Hills Have Eyes Four.

And now, without further adieu…

Vinny Van-Gough:

There’s more than meets the eye with this beast.  From the outside, he just looks like a simple, old, beat-up ice cream truck… but this Uncle Rico classic checked off a lot of things on our vehicle wish list.  We know it’s going to take a lot of LOVE to make it cross country worthy, but we’re ready to roll up our sleeves & make it happen!

For starters, it’s got this awesome center console thingy that fits a coffee/tea mug PURRFECTLY.  And since we foresee a LOT of coffee and tea drinking… bonus!

As I said before, the guy we bought this from prepped it for the Zombie Apocalypse… those are steel bars on the boarded-up back window.  (insert Twilight Zone theme here)

The curtains have seen better days after 41 years, which is understandable.  Most likely we’ll be tossing them & making new ones

Why yes, that IS orange shag peeking through!

Looks cozy enough…

Our adorable and original mini-fridge… that works!

There’s even space for fresh eggs!  Score!

We found a box of these awesome retro lights behind the driver’s seat.  Reading lights?  Check.

Check out the awesome storage we’ve got above our bed area.  My neighbor Gary came by to check things out and to offer up some tools!

A super-rad sliding storage thingy.

A picture I found while cleaning out the drawers.  It’s signed, Steph.

Wood veneer + olive green + retro yellow = definitely made in the ’70′s.

The “Holiday” stove by Coleman.  Also original and awesome.

A peek into the “head”.

No shower, but the “sink” does drain conveniently into the toilet!

Keeping it classy with the gold accents!

He could use a good wash and a wax… any takers?

 The couch in the back slides out to make a full bed when we’re ready to hunker down.

Now maybe just some new upholstery to get rid of that funny smell…

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