camping tips

I wouldn't call myself a seasoned camper. But with our purchase earlier in the year of a camper trailer we have been on a record (for us) three trips this year, and I'm anticipating a few more before the end of summer.

We debated back and forth and waited for a long time before taking the plunge to buy our camper trailer. Though quite a substantial amount for us, we felt it justified by it's ease of use and easy towing. No more being restricted to expensive hotels and motels. Our camper can go virtually anywhere the 4wd can.  For us it feels like our home away from home.

I thought I would also share a few tips on camping/caravanning. These work for us and perhaps some may work for you.

• Don't pack too many clothes. Bring easy mix and match comfortable outfits for everyone. I  lived last week in two pairs of leggings, two tops and a cardi.
• Bring a jar filled with some washing powder for if you need to do laundry. I secretly enjoy doing my laundry while away. Depending on where you are you may need pegs and hanging line (we have a mini clothes line). Caravan parks have a laundry and most towns have a laundromat.

• We have fitted out our camper with op shop finds. Enamel ware plates, cups, vintage cutlery and basic utensils. Colourful old tablecloths, teatowels and towels. Vintage wool blankets and sheets. We keep them packed away in the camper ready for the next trip.
• For cooking you can't go past cast iron. They are amazing to cook on. We purchased our big frypan at a camping store and a few pots at the op shop. I also use one big stainless steel pot for boiling water for pasta, rice etc. Next on the list will be a Dutch oven. And a whistling kettle.

• I keep an old picnic basket fully equipped for picnic lunches on the go. Cutlery, plates, cups, napkins and a thermos. Fill small glass jars with coffee, tea and sugar. I like to pack jam and pickles from home if possible, some bread, butter and cheese. Sometimes leftovers. 

• We use a three burner gas cooker and can fit two pots at the same time so we've recently enjoyed pastas with sauce, polenta and rice. You don't need to forgo delicious food while camping. In fact it seems to taste better cooked outdoors.

• If possible try and seek out some local food while away. Look out for markets, farms and specialty shops. You only need a few quality ingredients to make a delicious meal. We discovered a sourdough bakery, local olives, eggs, honey and a huge wholefoods store while away. A meal of fish and chips is always on our list when by the ocean.

• Keep a supply of pantry basics. With olive oil, tinned tomatoes and pasta you can whip up the quickest meal. Toast with those old camping basics of baked beans and creamed corn are handy too.

• I like to bring a few books and some knitting.

• We had a lot of fun watching the colourful birds that visited our camping site. Next time a bird watching book would be quite handy.

• For those using cloth nappies on holidays (I do), you will likely need about 2 or 3 days worth of nappies. I bring the nappy bucket and wash about every 3 days.

And above all - relax and have fun!

blanket into nappy covers

I have been spending quite a lot of time this week in my sewing room. Sewing of the necessity sort. You see, I realized recently that we were getting quite low on cloth nappy covers. Over the past eight months I have experimented with many kinds. I started off with a mixture of new and second hand PUL covers, a stash of plastic pilchers that were given to me and some lovely hand knitted woolen soakers.

With this growing baby of mine, most of the PUL and wool covers are now too small. The huge stash of plastic pilchers are almost all completely worn and thrown out. I could have bought more, but I thought this was a good opportunity to be thrifty, and to use what I had. Besides, I didn't really want to buy any more plastic.

So after seeing this idea here, I thought I might try my own version. I had a woolen blanket that had already felted, so I had none of my usual cutting-up-woolen-blanket-guilt.

I used the Chloe toes side snapping cover template, available as a free printable multi-sized pattern. I used the medium size for Violet and found it quite generous.

Definitely not my finest sewing hour. It was more sewing of the experimental, practical kind. Some of them I zig zagged and hemmed, while others had polar fleeced binding attached (cut off one of Daniel's old vests. Hoping he doesn't notice it's absence!)

An extra layer was also added to the inside. Though they would ideally be fitted with snap press studs, I  didn't have any, so velcro was used instead.

And I must say that the trial run over the past few days has been most successful. Still dry on the outside of the cover in the morning. They have really surprised me with their performance.

I do love using breathable natural fibres far more than synthetic ones. Being felted already they are also machine washable. I will lanolize them in the future, but for now they are working remarkably well.

I usually lanolize nappy soakers weekly, by adding special lanoline wool soap or a teaspoon of lanoline to a warm sink of water. I usually soak them for about ten minutes before gently squeezing excess water with a towel. The lanoline helps to repel wetness. I am looking forward to trying the spray on lanoline, which should save quite a bit of time.

Violet in her Sustainable hemp products nappy cover - sadly too small now

Here is an informative article on the benefits and care of wool soakers.

Sustainable Hemp Products is an excellent resource for wool soakers. You can purchase hand knitted ones as well as wool washing products and lanoline spray.

The Byron Life also has a great tutorial for making pull on soakers from a wool jumper.