Happy Camper

Hi All~

I spent this past weekend camping in the mountains with my niece Ana, my mom, and her husband Johnny. It was such a relaxing weekend and provided me a desperately needed recharge. I've been feeling a little too tightly wound for the last several weeks and this camping trip was exactly what I needed to feel more like myself.

The mountains are unbelievably beautiful right now, so I thought I'd share some pictures. In case anyone is interested, this is Pi Pi Campground (Site #33) in the El Dorado National Forest, Northern California. Get yourself a nice glass of iced tea, I took a lot of pictures! I couldn't help myself, it's so pretty.

We camped near this meadow in full bloom.

A walk way built along the border between the river and the meadow and forest, goes on for miles...

Miss Hollywood ~ My niece Ava was there for one afternoon too, she loves nature walks.


I don't know what type of flowers these are, Lupine perhaps? But they are enormous and there are thousands of them in the meadow.


This hole is very old, it's an Indian Grinding Rock

 Gigantic dandelion wishes. I wished along with her...

This is a shot of our campsite from the meadow directly behind my tent. Reminds me that we are indeed very small.

After our walk it was time for a snack. Ava is trying to share her yogurt with me in this picture, I can tell you that 2 year olds with full spoons don't aim very well. I'm not sure how, I only looked away for a split second, but that entire spoonful ended up in my hair. It gave us both quite a giggle, who could resist that face?

These are the talents of the other women in my family. My sister-in-law Apryl made these tye-dyes, aren't they amazing? My mom made the ribbon rings which hang high in the trees. These two represent water and fire, eventually she'll make two more representing the other two elements of earth and wind. They're so pretty and the ribbons make a nice rustling in the trees. She was inspired to make these after seeing them hanging in the trees at the Renaissance Faire.

 

Fire

Water

What's that? You've never seen a decorated camp site? Well then, you've never camped with my mom.

Here is the bunting I made for her birthday last year, along with a new yo-yo bunting (one of several) hung in and around our camp, or rather our "encampment" as we came to call it. Also - this is my new tent! Isn't it awesome? Oh, it's so nice to have a tent with a functional door instead of a broken zipper!

Large tapestries add color and pretty to our site and give a lot of privacy in a completely packed campground, we felt like we had the place to ourselves.

Here's how our encampment looked from the campground road

The trail leading into the meadow at dusk

Sun down and hazy, soft light filtering through the trees, lovely...

After dinner and dishes it was quiet talks and cozy moments near the fire.

It was a productive weekend for me too, I got a great deal of stitching done on these lazy afternoons while the others napped or read.

This is a small tablecloth I'm making for myself to put on my little table inside my tent. I'm a night owl, even when camping, and the new tent is big enough for a small table and chair where I can sit and read or stitch after the others doze off.

Ha! My mom just posted this picture on Facebook, she caught me stitching! Can you see me, sitting next to my tent? Lol...

The night before we left, I quickly I drew a simple the design out on some sturdy forest green cotton that I already had (pre-washed even!). What's funny is that I chose the colors before I left, and took only those colors with me. Little did I know that they were almost exactly the colors that would be blooming around me all weekend. This little table cloth will always remind me of this camping trip. I finished all of the stitching by the way, all in that one weekend too! I love it... I'm going to simply fray the edges and maybe add a contrasting running stitch near the bottom. I'll try to get a better picture to share tomorrow, I'm really happy with the way the embroidery turned out.

Anyway, this was my weekend, I can hardly wait until I get another one just like it. I love camping, it feeds my soul.

If you've made it to the end, congratulations! I know this was a long, picture heavy post. Tell me, do you enjoy camping? What's your favorite thing?

oxo,

Lisa