your printer and wax paper. What? You
guessed it. I found an image of a skep I
liked from The Graphics Fairy, tweeked
it adding my campers name, year she
would be completed and city I lived in. I
printed it and rubbed it on to the painted
table base! AND BAM! Plan B worked!
Each day I worked on her, I would remove
the plastic sheeting and tarp cover and
then would replace the plastic sheet
and tarp at the end of the day. My poor
The Hive is mostly
decorated with love.
Filled with family
photos, momentos,
sayings, crocheted items
by my daughter, a bread
dough brooch made by
my mother, she is like a
warm hug.
neighbors had to look at this “hot mess”
every day and even a few (including my
husband) were skeptical that it would
really get done. They just knew she was
destined for the dump! I did the majority
of the work by myself, but I also had
the occasional assistance of my son
when I didn’t have the hand strenght,
or needed lessons in packing wheel
bearings, getting new tires and teaching
me to weld! Finally, after getting her
professional paint job, she is indeed a
shadow of her former self!
After arriving at her name, the color
scheme for the interior was also predestined.
I had received from my mother,
an appliqued quilt top (circa 1930) that
had been made by my Great Aunt Joyce.
It was lovely shades of yellow, salmon,
green and brown, an all over sunflower
pattern designed by turn of the century
quilt artist Marie D. Webster. It was a
perfect fit with the original appliances
in the trailer being brown. Brown, my
favorite color green, and yellow is just
so darn cheerful. I taught myself to quilt,
and it is the centerpiece, the star of The
Hive. I knew I wanted the interior to
be primarily white as I was not doing a
restoral, but as I call it, a restore-a-model.
Part restoration and part remodel. I want/
needed a “Happy Place”. I know there are
probably some traditionalists who would
have restored her, because all her original
items were there and she had never been
touched inside, but I wanted something
that was unique and “Me”. That first time I
swathed on the first coat of primer, meant
there was no turning back!
Since I now had a name for her and a
color scheme, and plenty of time on
layovers to scour eBay, I began looking
for “Skep” shaped honey pots. Any and all
I could find . . .it was skep madness! Even
today, I still look for skeps everywhere.
The Hive is mostly decorated with love.
Filled with family photos, momentos,
sayings, crocheted items by my daughter,
10 | vintagetrailermagazine