Glamper of the Week - Kathy & Miss Shasta Belle

It’s a story we hear all the time from the glamping nation – you can’t have just one glamper! Kathy Short is no exception, although her story is unique. Instead of having two glampers just for fun, she has one for work and for play!

“I have always loved old campers,” Kathy tells us, “As a kid, my parents had an old camper that my sister and I used as a playhouse. We loved it! To me Glamping means glamour plus camping. It's like playing house as a child. You fix it up and make do with what you have. It can be fancy or plain, it's up to your own personality. Old campers really take on the owner’s personality and become a unique way of expressing yourself. Vintage campers bring out our inner Diva or Gypsy or Cowgirl or whatever we want it to be!”

The decision to create her own “playhouse” as an adult, by having her own glamper, was really more of a surprise for her than a plan. Although she had wanted her own camper for a long time, she wasn’t actively looking for one when her 1961 Shasta Airflyte came into her life. Instead, it was a gift from her husband. “He knew I had been wanting one for a very long time. He found it out behind someone's house. He would pass by everyday going to work. One day he stopped and asked if they would be interested in selling the old camper. They asked him, 'Why would you want the piece of junk?' and he said ‘It's for my wife!’ He bought it and brought it home. I wasn't as sure about the camper as he was. I didn't know it was ‘the one’. The Shasta was in terrible shape and needed a lot of work. I didn't have a vision for her. But my husband promised he could work a miracle. And he did!”

Kathy’s Shasta was in pretty bad shape when they got it. There was rotted wood in the ceiling, a common problem in older trailers that end up with years’ worth of water damage due to neglect. Hers had missing windows, wasp and rat nests, and all sorts of trash inside it. They were lucky though that the original lamp fixtures were still intact, and the original drawer pulls were still there. Plus, the original stove and ice box were both there and in good shape. However, all the interior walls had to be replaced, even though the original cabinets were in good shape. The body itself wasn’t too bad, it had a few really bad dents that had to be fixed, and the whole thing needed to be repainted. It all added to Miss Shasta Belle’s charm, Kathy’s name for her little Shasta. “I love all the little dents and dings in her. She has a history, a life. There is one ding in her that was caused by someone hitting a golf ball into her. You can clearly see all the little pits of the golf ball imbedded into the skin. I love that! I wouldn't want to remove that. Those are her battle scars!”

It took Kathy and her husband almost a year of working on the trailer every weekend to finish the repairs, and transform one man’s trash into their treasure. Then it was time for the fun part, decorating it! “My Shasta is decorated with vintage items that go along with camping. I've decorated it to match the time period it is from. I love red, so of course there is a lot of red in my camper! My favorite thing about my Shasta is that everyone loves looking at her. She brings back good memories to people. I love hearing their stories about when they were young and their families camped in a similar camper. I like showing her off and telling about how we found her.”

One our favorite projects in Kathy’s camper is her door, “I painted the inside of the exterior door with chalkboard paint. I like to write little messages on it. Especially for the Holidays, we usually set up for photo ops at church, so I write the date or names on the door.”

Kathy’s second love is her 1970 Airstream, named My Gypsy Valentine, after her boutique she set up with it. She had a different vision for her Airstream, than her flashy Shasta. “My Airstream is more romantic and decorated all in white and Victorian. It matches with the theme of my shop, My Valentine Jewels. I wanted that to be pretty and girlie. My Airstream was all my idea and I found it on Craigslist. I KNEW it was the one. It was already completely gutted but still needed a lot of work. Again, my husband worked a miracle and got it all fixed up. We still have some work to do, but it is just about finished,” she says. Her boutique and jewelry business is a labor of love. “I've been a stay at home mom most of my married life. Now my kids are grown and gone, I've started my business, My Valentine Jewels. I make upcycled jewelry and gypsy style bags. I started out using my Shasta as a boutique but it wasn't big enough. Now we have the Airstream that we have fixed up to use as my boutique.”

Kathy’s vintage trailers have given her a place to play, and a place to work, but they also help her feel like she’s a part of something bigger too. “People love the old campers. They bring back good memories. I like being a part of that for them. So many people tell me about when they were a kid and went camping in ‘a trailer just like this!’ ”

Please visit Kathy’s Etsy store My Valentine Jewels at myvalentinejewels.etsy.com

Then stop by and like her Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/mygypsyvalentinejewels

so you can see what’s she’s creating next!

If you want to create your own chalkboard door- pick up a quart of this awesome chalkboard paint, and create your masterpiece! Click here to buy your own, or click the photo!