Welcome to Thimbleberry Toys' blog, where we'll tell stories about our adventures in nomadic toymaking, including the conversion of a 1999 International Genesis school bus into our home, wood shop, and quilting studio. The topics we cover here will be widely disparate, but we'll try to keep things organized enough that you can see what you're interested in, and skip the other stuff. In chronological order, the posts will tell many parts of a story that is sure to be weird and wonderful (and perhaps terrifying at times).

Thimbleberry Toys is Jess Lila and Ben Lyman, along with our honorary chairdog, Kobi, a 14+ year old Australian Cattle Dog (Heeler)/Corgi mix who will be directing rest stops and walks as we traverse the continent.

We're leaving Ben's home town of Juneau, AK, in less than one week, on August 23, 2015. Packing has commenced, and boxes are in the mail to Iola, WI and Jess' mom's house, where we'll be converting the bus. We've done heaps of research into buses, registration, conversion to RV, generators, refrigeration systems, wood working tools, dust management and air filtration, and more; much of this research (and that we haven't done yet) will become blog posts here.

We'll also be blogging about our travel adventures, and are aiming to find and connect with local communities, strengthening ties between regions as we learn and share along the way. Oh yeah, and making toys, quilts, teddy bears, and similarly fun stuff from materials we find along the way. We hope that you join us when we're in your neighborhood, and invite you to help us find our way across the continent. If there's an event or fair, a festival or even just a great place for us to park the bus while we explore the area and make more toys, please let us know!

We're at facebook.com/thimbleberrytoys and on Google+ as Thimbleberry Toys. Our email address is - believe it or not - thimbleberrytoys@gmail.com.

See you on the road!

- Ben