Once while camping at the beach with my daughters, we had a pelican hold us hostage in our tent for an hour. He was not going to let us out unless we fed him. Funny thing, we had no food to feed him and he was not going to back down. I am a tent camper and I enjoy it. It started back when my children were small. I wanted to teach them how to appreciate nature.
My very first campout with the kids was with 17 kids in our Camp Fire group. I became the leader of my daughters group, and we went to a Camp Fire Campground. Whew! I am surprised I ever wanted to go camping again. I did not own a tent. I had to borrow one from one of the girls parents, which I found out when I put it up that it could only hold all the girls. I had to sleep in my van. Grumpy much at this point? I did not have a camp stove, so I made a cook stove out of a coffee can and home make fire source with tuna cans and cardboard and wax. Not to bad so far right? Not! It gets worse. Some of the parents donated food. 5 pounds of hamburger, which I was happy to receive. But, it was a long tube and completely frozen. I could not use it until it was almost time to leave. The kids kept sneaking into the ice chest and the box of food we brought and were non stop eating. Once dinner was done it was time to get the girls ready for bed. Now it took forever to get the girls to settled. The kept playing musical bed switch for hours. When they finally fell asleep around 10pm. Around 2am, one of the girls wakes up screaming. She is hysterically sobbing that someone moved her in the middle of the night. Took me forever to calm her down. My friend I had brought with me as another adult to help me, well she took a sleeping pill so she could sleep through the night. Great! She slept through the night all through the screaming and lights going on all over the campgrounds and people coming over to the tent to find out what all the noise was. I was so exhausted by the end of the campout I was saying “Never again”. Never say never.
But, I did go camping again and again and again. I did so much research on how to camp. I researched camping gear, menus, cooking utensils and about ice chests and so on. I wanted to be super prepared for the next campout. Our campouts became classrooms. I brought books on trees and animals and bugs. We did scavenger hunts, games and crafts. Our rule was to leave the campsite cleaner than when we arrived. No late nights, no screaming and good food. Since the girls left home I had not done a lot of camping, just a few times with my partner. Now many years later I am venturing into something called “Glamping”.
I bring this up because my first campout this year is an all women’s campout. They are all in campers, teardrop campers to be exact. I am a tent camper. Maybe some day I will buy a camper but not yet. So I decided to up my game this year. Hence I am going glamping. Glamping is defined as a way where nature meets luxury. Where we can be at one with nature and not sacrifice comforts of home. This is really a simplified definition but it is exact. Having explained it briefly I wanted to share with you some of what I am doing for comfort while tent camping. My first project was to create glamping lists for camping. You will be able to download them for free here on my blog.
The next project is … covering my camping chair with floral fabric and making it look really feminine. Great idea but not an easy project. I had to had sew it to the chair which is very heavy nylon. It was also difficult around the parts that were bolted to the frame of the chair. Definately had to use a thimble and I would suggest a curved needle that is used for upholstry. The end result was well worth the effort I think. I also made pillows for the chairs with an nature themed machine embroidery on them.
Keeping with the luxury theme. I made a cloth table cloth and napkins. I also made the weights to hold the table cloth on to the table if it got windy. Made placemats as well. My thoughts on this was I wanted to feel as much at home as I would in a camper. For inside the tent I bought rubber interlocking mats for the floor. It is a two room tent so I had to buy several packages of them. So many more projects that will be in my next article. Tutorials will be available. Till next time…