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Wednesday 8 February 2012

Freezing Cold, Snow forecast tomorrow, must be time to go camping!

Well it seemed like a good idea a few months back to get a February camp so that I could accomplish a year of camping on every month.

Well the time has come and I am half packed (supposed to be fully packed but got lazy head on) and I am off to Banbury tomorrow morning. The snow is forecast tomorrow night so all a bit exciting

Obviously with such cold and rubbish forecast, I have stupidly opted for the one tent that has no SIG (sewn in groundsheet) is about a hundred years old and may well leak. So the Latitude is my igloo for the next 3 nights (shape is about right anyway)

I like to think of myself as a bit of a Scott of the Antarctic, complete with ehu, fan heater and electric blanket

So what have I been up to....well the kitchen is unrecognisable now. As I have done absolutely nothing and everything is buried all over the place. Homer seems to keep bringing toys in there, so it is now a bit of an army assault course.

The sewing machine has had a bashing as usual and I have created some more awesome rubbish

I started off with a notepad cover for my camping lists (this may well go into several volumes as they are filling up rapidly)

It's supposed to be resemble a campervan if you are struggling...


Next on the list was a 'Night Owl Bag' - an american tutorial for making a huge bag for young children to use on sleepovers. As no one ever invites my small child Homer for a sleep over, I made it for camping. And due to my wanton spending in the Catherine Kidston retail outlet I had a few miles of material to use up. So here is what is probably the hugest Cath Kidston bag in existence



Homer got a bit confused with the concept of a sleep over bag


Next I decided to make the stupidly shaped tent carpet I bought into a rectangular shape. I cut the 2 peaks off each side, reversed one to make a rectangular strip - then sewed the whole lot back on...exactly along the same line I had cut off (was chewing on the sewing machine when i ballsed that bit up)

And I miscalculated one corner so it is more of a jigsaw carpet now


After that resounding success another drawstring bag with zip (wanted to have a play, didnt really need a zip but liked this tutorial ) for the inflatable vango loungers i got


These are vango loungers - idea being if I can't take the trailor I can blow these up instead. They are a bit wobbly but they passed the Homer test. Will get round the wobble by putting them in a duvet cover



And yet more sewing....next was a storage holder as I lose everything. (Last trip losing the keys was a nightmare)


I even made some nice little credit card pockets, so any campsite thieves can hone straight in on them


Lastly I made a new lap top cover, as the old one was pretty scummy after I had put my coffee cup on it for months (another zip, I was getting obsessed)


And here is my hand. And everything will be lined in the check ikea duvet as they were cheap


So that is my splurge on handicrafts this week. I was debating what to do next, searching the internet for the next tutorial/idea and I came across this....


Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Lesson learnt. No more sewing. I have packed the machine away and burnt all the material and threads. It was a rocky road I was going down, but the harsh reality of me walking around in a patchwork dress has brought me to my senses

3 comments:

  1. Arghhhh now Val, I know you love your bell tents, but no way could I see you in that bell tent dress anymore than I could fly to the moon. I'm assuming you've NOT burnt all your fabrics etc. Let's just call it a moment of PSD. All your fabrics n bits will be needed for the next IMPORTANTLY IMPERATIVELY NEEDED PROJECT. Just delete that womans image from your blog and and get your brain back on track.
    Keep on carrying on, AA x

    PS ---Pre Senile Dementia !!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Can I ask what you use as your carpet in the 5m bell? I have been looking for AGES for an affordable carpet for mine- something in a neutral colour that I can cut to size perhaps?

    ReplyDelete
  3. All the carpets are usually tent types (outwells, royal, gelert etc) Usually buy a couple when they are on offers and cut and stitch them together (outwell are good as they dont fray) The only bespoke bell carpet I know you can buy is this one http://greenoutdoor.co.uk/products/tipi-tent-carpet but black fleece and 2 yellow labs is a no no for me unfortunately!

    ReplyDelete

CRAFTY POST - My revolting conservatory-camping-store-room, really needed a makeover....

Finished!  So I get asked, where do I store all my camping kit? The answer is everywhere...attic...shed...trailor....cam...