camping at Barren River Lake with three dogs

This past weekend Casey and I went camping and it was a total last minute decision. We had to buy a tent, some tie outs for the dogs (because yes, they all three went with us) and find an open campsite. It just so happened that this weekend (Monday) was the Solar Eclipse, and since this area was in the path of totality, campsites have been booked for months. We were able to find a spot that was a little out of the path on Barren River Lake, so we booked it, packed up and headed out.

I'm not sure if you've ever looked for a place to camp, but it isn't that easy. I mean there are always places where you can just drive up and see if they have a space, and there are always the places you already know about that are probably pretty close. But we don't have places that we always go to yet, and campsite websites are terrible. For the most part, you'll only see their availability (if that) and you can forget about seeing any pictures of the area. We knew that we wanted to be in the trees and I was interested in being on a lake. We definitely didn't want to be in a parking lot type campsite and we didn't want to be hiking far to a campsite on our first trip with three dogs. Enter in Bailey's Point!

We were delighted to find out that our campsite was right next to an entrance to the lake. We were basically on the water, just higher up on the hill. The whole campground is right on the lake, so there were three specific areas you could go to swim. We were in the F loop and it's lake area was the best for us. It was secluded and a couple of moments we were the only people down there. But even with other people at the lake, we were able to spread out and it was calm and relaxing.

We brought our $5 Walmart floats and floated while watching the sunset.

We also brought loads of our favorite Topo Chico.

Man oh man did we have an experience with cooking over a fire! Neither of us have ever done this before and we really learned a lot because we cooked three meals. The first meal we cooked was our first night's dinner, and it got so dark while we were in the middle of cooking. We were very close to having our food all cooked and the fire went out almost completely. We ended up just wrapping everything up in foil and tossing it on the hot coals to finish the cooking process. I have since watched many videos on how to do this better. Our breakfast and lunch cooking went smoothly.

Casey even made coffee, with a paper towel as her filter!

The dogs all hung in the lake for a little bit because it was pretty warm out in the sun. The white one usually hates water, so it was fun to see them all enjoy it for a minute.

These are the dogs- Daisy on the left, Hazel in the middle, and Whitt on the right.

Hazel was the only dog that actually swam.

And this was our last picnic before we left! The dogs love to stare at your food in hopes that you'll drop some or just willingly give them some.

Our camping faves from this trip:

- Dog tie outs (these were a life saver)

- Cast iron skillet

- 4-person tent

- Air mattresses

- Wool blanket (for our picnic)

- Topo Chico

- A good tube float

- Tevas

Well, it was a great 24 hour trip and we are planning to take another trip in two weeks for Labor Day. And I'm sure many more after that. Where should we go? We would love to hear your favorite places to camp, it doesn't even have to be near Nashville!

If you liked this post and would like to see more like it, please pin the image below!

xo, Savannah

**This post contains affiliate links.

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Color Changing Magic Lemonade!

I've seen color changing drinks floating around the internet and thought it was pretty cool, but not something I would ever spend the time doing. But then I realized that our Eclipse party would be a great time to serve something magical to our guests! So I decided to create a recipe for something very simple, that still had that ooh ahh factor. So here it is- Magic Lemonade.

You might also like:

- A Refreshing Lavender Lemonade

- A Fruit Cocktail Cocktail

- A Refreshing Twisted Lemonade

The concept is simple. Create two different liquids, one purple and one yellow, and pour together when serving. The purple liquid gets it's color from purple cabbage. And I know what you are thinking, cabbage lemonade gross! But you can't taste the cabbage AT ALL. It's weird and crazy, but it's true.

For our eclipse party, I wanted to name the liquids something fitting, so I settled on Moon Beams and Sunshine. The Moon Beams part is basically a purple simple syrup and the Sunshine is lemon water. Mix the two together and you get a very fun ombre situation like the picture above. Stir it up and it's all turns bright pink!

Magic Lemonade Recipe

Ingredients:
For the Moon Beams
- 2 cups water
- 1/4 purple cabbage, cut in large slivers
- 1 cup sugar

For the Sunshine
- 1 cup cold water
- The juice of 6 lemons (or around 1 cup)

Directions:
1. Bring the 2 cups of water and cabbage to a boil. Let boil for up to 3 minutes until desired color is reached. 2 minutes is plenty of time and 3 minutes will start to make the water taste like cabbage.
2. Strain the cabbage out of the water. Remember to use a bowl to catch the purple water.
3. Put the purple water back into the pot and add the sugar. Warm until the sugar is dissolved.
4. Juice the lemons and mix with cold water.
5. When ready to serve, let guests pour equal parts of each liquid into their glass over ice, and watch the magic happen!

Let us know if you serve this at your party! And we would love it if you would share this post with your friends because sharing is caring!

xo, Savannah

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DIY: Boho Outdoor Space

We are very excited to share this project with you, and even more excited to have finished it! Our backyard has been an ongoing project since last summer. We had a huge wave of inspiration after being in Tulum earlier this summer. We decided that we wanted to recreate a lot of the great things we saw in Tulum in our own backyard.

The deck in our backyard is very large, so we have a few different spaces that we are able to decorate. It has been interesting to figure out how to utilize the space properly. After Tulum, the first thing we knew we wanted to do was add white. Our stained deck is a LOT of wood (which we love) but as we add more wood things, like the stock tank pool bench, we knew we'd want to paint them white.

Anyway, let's get started.

You will need:
- Bamboo
- White outdoor paint
- Paint roller
- Staples
- Staple Gun
- Variety of decorations
- Scotch Guard

This project was really so simple. You don't even have to add decorations. A white bamboo fence and some globe lights would really add something to a space. I will say that some sort of macrame piece hanging in the tree really took it up a notch. It's definitely something worth looking into, just make sure you scotch guard it really well!

Thanks so much for checking out our project! If you like this sort of thing, make sure you subscribe to our channel on YouTube and follow us on Instagram for real time stories. See you next time!

xo, Savannah 

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DIY: Two Color Ombre Dye with Rit

Hey friend! If you've followed Hey Wanderer for a while now, you know that we dye a lot of fabric. It's kind of our thing. So we knew we had to jump on this branded project with rit dye. We are so excited to be working with them to show you how we create a two color ombre dye.

We love how our piece turned out and it's actually a pretty simple process, as long as you have the right tools. As you can see, our colors have some texture and depth to them and if you want to recreate something very similar, follow our steps below. The only thing you'll need to decide is what article of clothing you have that needs new life and what colors you want to use to spruce it up. (We are using the dye for natural fabrics, but if you have something that you want to dye that is polyester, check out Rit DyeMore for Synthetics.) Let's get started!

Here's what you will need:
- A pre-washed garment, preferably in white and of natural fabric. Think cotton, wool, linen, silk or rayon (which is what our piece is made of.)
- Rit All-Purpose Dye in the colors of your choosing (We used Hyacinth, Pearl Gray, Rose Quartz and Camel.)
- Rit ColorStay Dye Fixative
- 2 tall buckets
- Gloves
- Hot water

Step 1. Fill two deep buckets with hot, hot water. We used 2 quarts of water in each bucket.

Step 2. Add your rit dye to the hot water. For one of our colors we put 3 caps full of Rose Quartz and 1 cap full of Camel in a bucket. In the other we put 1 cap full of Pearl Gray and 1 cap full of Hyacinth. If you want to do another color or you need color inspiration, check out rit's 500 color recipes. It's pretty fun to see all the colors you can create with 30 base colors.

Pro Tip: Use small pieces of paper towel to dip in your dye bath to make sure it's going to be the color you are wanting to achieve.

Step 3. Fold your garment accordion style from top to bottom.

Step 4. Wet your garment.

Step 5. Put one end of your garment in one color.

And put the other end in the other color. You'll want to make sure your buckets are right next to each other.

Push down your garment into the dye bath enough to cover the white areas.

Step 6. Rinse your garment with cold water until the water runs clear. Then either lay your garment flat to dry or throw it in the dryer if it is safe for the fabric.

*If you are using the dye fixative, use it before rinsing. Follow the instructions on your bottle.

Your newly dyed garment will be perfect to wear to your next music festival or just with friends hanging in the summer.

xo, Savannah

**This post is sponsored, but all opinions are our own!

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