…camp covid 3.0…

In an ideal world, I would be sitting in a cafe with a coffee, and a breakfast made by someone who isn’t me. I would be chatting with my friends, not negotiating which umbrellas can be used to go play in the rain. I would be surrounded by projects, not chores. And yet, we don’t live in an ideal world. We live in 2022, and the Roaring Twenties have zero respect for plans and traditions. And so, for the third year running, there is no quilt camp at the beach. That’s not stopping me though, from celebrating the fourth weekend in October as camp weekend.

Quilt camp from home is a unique experience. There’s still kids and chores to manage. The drop off run gets in the way of the crafting. Conversations take place on messenger, not on the couch. Weirdest of all, I get to bed before midnight, a phenomenon unheard of at actual camp.

As different as camp at home is, one thing remains the same. well, two things, if you count the overloaded snacks box. But the one thing that doesn’t change, is how optimistic my list is for the weekend!

I have commandeered one of my new IKEA boxes to “pack” for camp. In it, I have two magazines + a homeschool magazine that came in the post. I also added my laptop & iPad to help keep my area organised over the weekend, plus my floss box that has been floating around. I kind of went all out with the snacksies, to help me eat my sad at not being at actual camp – chips for beer o’clock, pineapple freddos, smarties, blackcurrant pastilles, and a bag of retro party mix to serve as bribes for the family & keep them away from my goodies. It’s cold and rainy, so I was sure to grab a cozy + pretty quilt to snuggle under all weekend.

On my list for working on this weekend:
* finish my current gnome, currently at approx 30%
* finish the snowflakes on my shawl
* experiment with dyeing yarn – I bought a “desert” dye pack off Facebook and I want to have a crack at creating some landscape-inspired colourways
* finish my Portrait of a Pandemic
* finish an audiobook
* start and finish an actual book
* at least one double page project life spread
* play with gelli plate printing
* at least one page in my art journal
* a double page in my list journal
* work on a creative writing warm up exercise that needs expanding and polishing
* keep up with blogtober
* send my newsletter (sign up for that at the bottom of post – heading out around 4pm this arvo)

Then, of course, there’s also half hourly checks of the river gauges and weather radar, Friday clean ups, banking and budgeting, negotiating the territorial disputes that are part of a large family with cabin fever in an actual cabin. Touch shirts need picking up, the teen needs ferrying to and from work, the two bigs have drama, the three bigs have youth group. Thankfully, though, my family are very gracious, and they understand how much this weekend means to me, and how sad I am to not be going, and are planning on keeping out of my hair as much as possible.

Shoulda woulda coulda… I can dwell on what should have been, or I can lean into what is. Next year, hopefully, we will finally get to meet in person. For now, I’ll bring my best gif game to the chat, and craft as much as my children will allow. And so, I hereby declare quilt camp 2022 OPEN. Pass the playlist, it’s party time.

If you would like to subscribe to an email each time I post (daily for October, twice a week or so the other 11 months of the year), you can pop your email in over on the right. Alternately, I now offer a newsletter digest of recent posts. If that’s a better fit for you, you can subscribe to that below.

Over Blogtober, it will come out each week. After that, it will be each month. I’m planning on sharing recent favourite blog posts and podcast episodes, things I’ve found that are inspiring me, a peek at what I’m reading/watching/listening to, and a little almost-blog-post, sharing some thoughts that don’t make it to the blog.