…camp covid gifts…

For a decade, the lead up to camp is a marathon of frenetic energy, generally ending somewhere after midnight the night before I’m due to leave. Gifts are generally my sticking point, and no matter how often I swear I will do better the following year, I continue to leave it to the last minute. This year was no exception.

Like last year, I wanted to create a “care package” style gift, to include the things that stand out as must-haves for camp. It took a bit of brainstorming, but in the end I managed to come up with a combo that I think works well. The easy part was the consumables – coffee sticks & sleepy tea. Our coffee walks are one of my favourite parts of camp, so that had to be included. And sleepy tea, well, when you are six mums, with 11 kids between us, having a once-a-year escape, sleep isn’t high on the agenda. Not meeting in person helps with that this year (aside from when yours truly makes poor life choices like crocheting until midnight like last night). Our late nights are pretty notorious, though, and this was a simple and fun way to reference that.

Next up was the actual goodies. I decided on a mug quite early on. My Cricut is one of my favourite toys, plus there’s generally at least one mug in our gift bag hauls, and we drink many many cups of coffee & tea, so it felt like a good option. I lettered the design in Procreate, and then cut from permanent glitter vinyl. To say I am thrilled with how they turned out would be an understatement. Mine has been sitting in the cupboard patiently waiting until I could pull it out last night for my bedtime cuppa on what should have been the first night in our beach house.

Another fun inclusion was a playlist. We love our singalongs, and even just having music on in the background. And really, what’s a girls weekend without a boogie? I jumped on Spotify and made up a playlist, full of long distance themed songs. Particularly inspired choices include “Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again?”, “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”, and “We Are Never Getting Back Together”. It’s the little things, in times like this; you’ve got to take your amusements where you can find them. Like my graduation in a box care package, I made up a card with a QR code so the girls could find it easily and boogie along together, in a manner of speaking.

I considered adding choccies – it’s a standard part of the weekend that multiple packs of sugary treats litter the coffee table. I had those in last years baggies though, then on a walk a couple of weeks back I was hit with a brilliant idea. I ended up ordering a set of 6 custom cookies from a baker friend of mine. I went with a hex shape in honour of one of our longer running jokes, and got them stamped with “camp covid 2021”, and finished with gold flecks. They turned out so cool (and so delicious – its been a long week waiting to be able to crack mine open today!).

The final piece of the puzzle was the last one decided, and true to form, I was madly sewing right up until an hour before mail cut off. Being, ostensibly, a quilting group, what else could I add but a quilted mug rug? I foundation paper pieced six small format pieces, inspired by the view from our regular beach house deck. They were then free motion quilted and a quick machine bind, and they were done. They all turned out slightly different sizes, depending how the fabrics came together as some pieces were being salvaged from my scrap buckets.

Today, I’ve got my mug filled with coffee on the mug rug on the arm of my couch, playlist pumping, as I sink into the laziness of a camp-at-home day. I’ve zoomed with Car to record next week’s podcast. I’ve had a yummy breakfast. Done the bare minimum chores I can get away with. First on my actual craft list is to start cutting some fabric for a tank top and hopefully getting it sewn up this afternoon so I can test it as potential for a tankini I want to sew tomorrow. Maybe though, another coffee first, and possibly a Freddy frog? it’s camp, you know? Can’t rush into doing anything too productive.