Fullgive and Commodores

this VIDEO is an awesome video of Scott Rawlings the mastermind behind Fullgive leather. He was our houseguest back in Janurary who was awesome enough to try some fun aussie foods with us (our first tasting of vegemite) and also introduce us to his world of leathercraft. He came to Australia to do a bit of side work finding some car parts and enjoy some of our bushland and aussie lifestyle. We happened to be lucky enough to host him and form a new friendship and have some fun. He stayed with us for a week while he got his ducks in a row for the rest of his adventure and we all decided to go into together to buy an older car that would benefit him for his trip and then temporarily give us a second car that we planned to sell a couple months later. More on the car later.

Lindsay and I were lucky recipients of Scott's Fullgive tour and received belts and me, a leather cuff. We loved it, his style has a cool edge.

 Above I was showing off my belt and the bag I ordered from him. It has a shoulder strap that I didnt have on that day. We were headed to the movies as a family and it stashed all my personal belongings, a full size water bottle and lollies for the whole family for the movie with plenty of  room to spare! I had Scott make a specialized pocket for my kindle and our house keys/swipe card on the inside and a phone pocket on the outside. Scott is open to all custom work so it was great to chat with him about the bag, I got to pick colors, dimensions, etc.

Here is a link to Scott's Etsy shop. He is based out of Utah but will ship internationally and is a great guy!

Lindsay ordered the quicksilver bag but had it stained dark brown and he loves it, and I must say I think it makes him look more like a stud than he is. He uses it for work and slings over his shoulder with his flight suit (that reminds me I really need to get a picture of that). Make me drool thnking about it!

This is the beauty (cough, cough) of the car we bought together. It was actually the car we borrowed from one of Lindsay's co-workers when we first arrived in Brisbane until we bought our own. It worked great then and although old and loud, was great. A classic Australian car-the Holden Commodore.

 This car took Scott down the Eastern coast of this beautiful continent and then Lindsay picked it up on a business trip and brought it home. This car has quite the story to tell now..I wont bore you with every detail but I will give you the quick rundown. Scott ran into a trouble /miracle one day when he was driving-the car overheated and he just so happened to be at an exit where right off the exit was a repair shop. And what do you know, the shop didnt have what was needed to fix the car but the part just so happened to be in the boot of the car (trunk). Time and money saved and he was traveling back safely on the road. That was one of many miracles experienced while here and it was quite inspiring to hear all of those stories. SO while Scott has a relatively amazing good fortune at every bad turn we took over and it has been nothing but hell on wheels for me. Lindsay doesnt get stirred up real easy, so for him it hasnt been to bad. For me I like to think of this car as the SMOBI as in stress mobile (well actually there is another word I would like to enter but its probably not appropriate).


At our place we only have one car spot in the parking garage so the old smobi has to be parked on the street, but like I posted recently most streets have crazy parking hours unless you are in a complete residential neighborhood. So I spend time walking to the parked car, loading Erik and I up and then driving around to find a spot until the next day or hours later when it all has to be done again.

Lindsay was out of town and couldn't help with this task and after he had come home he went out to go to work one morning in the smobi when in the spot was the exact same car, only it wasnt ours. Say what? Our car was gone and ironically in its spot was another of its kind. So I spent half the day making appropriate phone calls to report a stolen car and make claims, and all the other stuff that happens. Lindsay left out of town the next day and I was left to handle it all again on my own. Now i know being a military wife I will get left on own a lot and deal with a lot independantly, but it doesnt mean I enjoy it, or that its easy.

We were kind of hoping the police would not find it and that we would just get a pay out from the insurance. But the police did find it due to a good citizen doing their part and reporting a mysterious car parked in front of their house.Above is a pic of some of the damage done to get the car to drive away. Dash pulled out, ignition not working, only turns on with a screwdriver. We actually used bobby pins to drive it home from the impound lot.

(yes things are on the paper for a reason, to protect our private information)

The signs taped to wind screen (windshield) coming out of the impound. It also had a coat of ash colored dust from the fingerprinting they did on it. To cut this long story short, this car is called the smobi by me for many reasons. It has since broken down while I was running errands with ERik and is now in the shop to be fixed. I am hoping that as soon as it comes out of the shop we will be able to sell it fast and get it off our hands. We loved having Scott here, we loved helping him out, we even loved having a second car for a while, but now it is time to go back to one car with no added money or stress for all that the smobi entails and get things back to normal.

Dont want to end on a bad note, so go feast your eyes on Fullgive leather and enjoy!