Remember those awards from high school – ridiculous things like most likely to succeed or best dressed? Well, grab a seat and take a deep breath (get your therapist on speed dial if this brings up traumatic memories:), cause we’re bringing the awards back – road trip style.

Most Likely to Cause Instant Joy
This part of the trip was pretty exciting for me. I love (LOVE!) the ocean and beaches, so I knew that getting to the coast would give me an instant joy injection. But I had no idea how beautiful the Gulf coast is, did you?

Most Likely to Make You Wear a Life Preserver
This tiny ferry from Dauphin Island is absolutely adorable, if a bit unreliable. We arrived hoping to take an afternoon ferry and were told that it wasn’t running because of wind earlier in the day. Luckily the nearby campground had space, so we were able to enjoy a night on the island. Beautiful beaches, lots of shells, and pretty dog-friendly – score!

Least Likely to Ever Tire of Looking At
The beautiful blue, green water! Seriously amazing.

Most Likely to Disappoint
Manatee Springs State Park, was probably only disappointing to me because I thought it would be so amazing. Manatees, a fresh water spring, camping, my mind was really building this place up. And then reality hit.

Best Nightmare Fodder
As you can see in the picture above, the Manatee Spring has lovely, clear water. But have you read this sign!?! It does not make me want to jump in for a swim. Seeing this sign was the final straw in my decision that Manatee Springs disappoints. It started with walking into the truly disgusting bathrooms. Now I don’t mind rustic and I’ve happily fed quarters into a machine for a hot shower, but I draw the line at stinky and filthy. After a trip to the restroom, I saw a sign that warned of the high prevalence of ticks on all the hiking trails and how important it is to carefully check your pets for ticks. So I thought we’d avoid that and instead head to the water. A quarter-mile walk later we discovered that the spring is actually quite small. Then I saw a sign with snakes on it, better read that. Turns out there are numerous species of snakes there, some venomous, and many that swim! Add the alligator warning and I was a paranoid mess. If we didn’t attract a bundle of ticks, we were surely going to get bit by snake, and if we avoided that an alligator would chomp us up. And if we wanted to escape with a relaxing shower, we had to venture into the filthy restroom – aaahhhh! Oh, and there were no manatees.

Most Likely to Bore Baylor
My obsession with taking pictures in front of crazy things! Panama City, Florida is a mecca for tripod photo-ops. Filled with mini-golf courses, arcades, go-cart race tracks, and all sorts of stores, the giant statue love abounds. Add lots of beautiful coastline and gorgeous weather and you can see why people vacation here. And if you want a killer fish taco, stop by this food truck.

We’re enjoying the trip immensely and excited for all the upcoming adventures. As I look ahead, I know I’ll be in Asheville, NC for a bit and then probably over to the northeast coast (Brooklyn perhaps?). If you have any tips about places to visit, I’d love to hear them. Thanks!

Are you as in love with hooping as I am? I took a class a few months ago in San Diego and was hooked immediately. Of course, I then decided I needed to combine hooping and slacklining, which meant the need for more and hoops in different sizes. There are great places online to buy hoops (including this one), but if you want to make your own this is the post for you.

Supplies:

1. 3/4 inch plastic tubing – 100 psi or 160 psi depending on how heavy you want your hoop. This tubing is used for irrigation and can usually be found at stores like Lowe’s
2. A ratcheting pipe cutter. You could use a saw, but this only costs about $12 bucks and cuts like buttah
3. 3/4 inch male-to-male connectors
4. Tape

*A note on tape*
There are many types of tape out there and you’ll find they have various benefits and drawbacks. Here’s what I’ve found so far:
Electrical tape: It’s pretty cheap, easy to find, and comes in an array of colors. It’s stretchy, which makes it easily conform to the hoop, but it also makes it a bit harder to maintain an even wrap.
Duck tape: Again, cheap and easy to find. And now you can find duck tape in all sorts of colors and patterns, which is great. Some people don’t like duck tape because it leaves a sticky residue when you pull it off. This isn’t really a concern of mine because I figure I’ll always keep the hoop taped and can always use a product like googone to get off the sticky if it becomes a problem. I used duck tape and just split it in half to make it thinner – it went on nicely and was pretty easy to work with.
Sparkle tape: These just make the hoop shiny and pretty – yay!
Gaffer tape: This tape peels off cleanly, provides grippiness, and comes in a bunch of colors. The drawback is that it isn’t easily found in stores (you can easily order it online, though). I actually haven’t wrapped with this yet, but have used hoops made with gaffer tape and the grippiness definitely makes it a bit easier to hoop with.

Decide how big you want your hoop. You actually want a bigger hoop if you’re a beginner because the weight and size will make it easier to hoop with. Most beginners start with a diameter of about 42 inches, which means a circumference of about 132 inches. Did I lose you with the flashback to high school math? Hoops are sized by diameter, but you need to know the circumference to know how long to cut your pipe. Or you can skip the math (I did!) and just hold it up to yourself. If you’re a beginner, you want the hoop to reach to your navel when it’s standing on the ground. If you want more info on hoop sizing read this.

Insert your connector. Depending on your type of connector, you might need to use a hair dryer to warm the end of the tube in order to insert the connector.

Slide the other end on the connector, thereby creating a circle.

I like to place tape over the connector joint for extra security.

Now it’s time for the decorating fun! The initial placement of your tape is very important. You need to place the tape at an angle so that it swirls around nicely. Pay attention as you go around that you don’t have any wrinkles or gaps, because this will affect your spacing. It will get easier as you go and you’ll start to get more even spacing.

Time for the second color. I used duck tape as the first tape and electrical second (but, of course, there are endless tape combos possible).

Ooh it’s so shiny! Sparkle tape is very important, in my opinion, in making the hoop look awesome and complete. A little trick if you’re new to taping evenly – take it in the opposite direction. I sparkle taped in the opposite direction, which means I didn’t have to worry about perfectly aligning the sparkly tape with the other tapes. You can use as many different tapes as you want, but remember that tape will start to add weight to your hoop.

And now you’re ready to hoop to your heart’s content. Or you can jump on a slackline and spin hoops on your arms! As you can see in the picture below, Baylor is quite unimpressed:)

If you have any questions, just let me know and happy hooping.

Remember how we hit the road? Well, it’s time for an update my friends. We’re having so much fun exploring and traveling, that time just flies by without my realizing it. Enough of that, though, we’re starting to get a rhythm, which means you can look forward to more regular van crafts and road updates – hooray!

We started in Colorado and wanted to quickly travel south to escape the cold weather. Let’s just say that central heat and air is not the van’s strong suit and that there were a couple days in the beginning where travel clothes included a hat, gloves, boots and a blanket on my lap:)

It quickly got warmer, though, and we discovered a beautiful state park in Oklahoma – Great Plains State Park. We also discovered one of the joys of traveling during a spring, weekday – an almost entirely vacant campground!

One of my favorite parts about traveling in the van is avoiding interstates and instead traveling along old highways and even (my new fave!) farm to market roads, which let’s you find all sorts of oddities like an Eiffel tower with a cowboy hat in Paris, TX . Check out this awesome book if you’re looking for a reference all about road tripping on America’s two lane highways – I’m loving it.

In Baton Rouge, we made a stop by the state capitol, which Baylor apparently thought was the worst thing ever.

A couple of the must-see stops in Baton Rouge include Honeymoon Bungalow, an adorable vintage shop and the eclectic antique and art store, Circa 1857.

In New Orleans, we made all the recommended stops including wandering about the French Quarter and getting a beignet at Cafe du Monde. Maybe there was just too much build up, but I have to admit I wasn’t overly impressed with the beignet. It kinda tasted like a marginal funnel cake. Anyone else have beignet experience? Is that what they’re like or did I get a dud?

As you can see, Baylor found the street performers and art of Jackson Square much more fun than the state capitol:)

We’ll end there for now and next week you can look forward to the start of the beautiful Gulf Coast beaches! If you have any specific questions or types of updates from the road you’re most interested in, do let me know either in the comments or through email at mallory@mallorypaige.com. And for even more pictures and road-travelin’ fun, follow the journey on instagram.

Wishing you a fantastically springy weekend!

I’m always just throwing my phone in my purse and inevitably it gets all beat up by all the other things in my purse. So I decided to show it some love with this felt phone case. Now it will be a little more protected – and a lot more cute! This project takes minimal hand-sewing and can really be customized any way you please.

Cut a piece of felt a half inch larger than your phone (or tablet). I made mine about 13 inches long (because we’ll fold it in half) and about 3 inches wide.

Place half of the felt on your foam block and begin needle felting a design. I decided to go with a flowery design.

Simply lay out your felt and just poke, poke, poke until it is secure. Take care when needle felting because the needles are extremely sharp.

To add a flower, twist together two pieces of roving and then swirl them into a circle. Poke until secure.

Now place the other half on the foam block. I went with a swirly, vine design for this side. Just keep laying out your roving and poking.

Once the design is completed on both sides, it’s time to sew up the edges. A tapestry needle and embroidery floss are perfect for this.

Fold the felt in half and stitch up the sides. You can see that my stitches aren’t perfectly spaced or even – that’s okay, just get it done:)

Don’t stitch the top together, but stitch around each side for a more finished look.

So cute!

I love the happy flower and the three-dimensionality that you can get with needle felting.

I’m so excited to announce my next adventure! I’m now the proud owner of a 1973 VW van!

As you can see, I had to make it my own with new curtains and upholstery. It is now officially my creative, happy caravan and I’m ready to start my long-dreamed-of epic road trip.

I’ll get more pictures in the coming weeks so you can see exactly how Baylor and I live in this little space, but I just love it’s cheery, bright vibe.

We’ve already made it to Louisiana and seen some great sites (like Paris, Texas). I’ll be giving an update each week with pictures and reviews of some of our favorite places and I’d love to hear about your favorites, too.

And you’ll still be getting creative tutorials, too! I have an entire suitcase dedicated to craft supplies and am super excited to create on the road. If I can make it in the van, then you can make it at home:) So stay tuned for more dispatches from the road and oodles of fun, simple DIY projects. And if you have any recommendations of must see places in Louisiana let me know in the comments.

Sometimes life is not at all what we expect it to be. We’re certain that it will follow this straight, clean, predictable path, when suddenly it veers, zigs, zags, and circles about. It’s not tidy, it’s not planned, but it is reality. It’s not easy, or always fun, but it is what is. You can choose to be a victim or dig through the wreckage for lessons and come out the other side a better person. It’s all about choices.

All this to say, that I choose to focus on the bright possibilities out there for all of us. On the good, the beautiful, the magical. And I hope you’ll join me.

This March wallpaper is late, but it makes me happy (and hopefully you, too!). I’m currently a bit obsessed with this color scheme and all things chevron, as you’ll see next week when I reveal the details of an exciting new adventure.

Here’s how to use it: Download the image (click on the size you need, then right click, and choose “save as”) and then save it as your background under your system’s preferences.

Computer: Click Here or Here (for even larger screens)
iPad: Click Here
iPhone: Click Here

If you have any questions just let me know:)