Category: camping

More Glamping

stitchesoftime2 Comments

Hello there

You may remember last year I did a couple of posts on the art of glamorous camping or glamping – well we have been adding to our stock of glamping gear and have just spent a lovely weekend at the Tribfest Music Festival  in North Yorkshire where we had a very sunny and enjoyable weekend listening to lots of different tribute bands. My absolute faves were the Take That tribute band ‘Back for Good’  on Saturday night, I have never seen the real group but these were excellent and I very much enjoyed myself.

We had very good facilities again including the most glamping portaloos ever – of course they still got smelly but this is what they looked like. Sinks and mirrors and pretty pictures on the wall! And inside were real flushing toilets with wooden seats and everything!

Glamping 1

My sister bought me some new glamping accessories for my birthday – some wine glass holders that you can use in a  field. You just push it into the ground and it provides a very stable holder for your tipple! You may remember that I have previously posted on the little accessories we have for our drinking round the campfire and these are very lovely for when I do not have my little wine glass table. She bought them while on holiday earlier on in the summer, sorry I do not know where from. Here is Ellie modelling them for me while pouring me a little pre-mixed G and T on Friday night while getting ready to have a BBQ.

Glamping 3

As befits a sophisticated festival there were lots of lovely outfits and some wonderful fancy dress – one of my faves was the Alice Cooper lookalike on Friday night – you can just see him in the middle of this pic, complete with plastic snake!

Glamping 2

I am just about to buy a new tent for next year on the grounds that they are all reduced at the moment, the one we have had for the last 3 years, a Vango Tamor 500, has been great but is starting to show signs of wear and there are a couple of split poles that we have had to patch so we are going to keep that as a reserve, festival tent that kids can use (as in I don’t mind if it comes back even worse for wear) and get another Vango, this time the Icarus 500 which is an updated version. These are great tents for us as they are light weight for taking on the train, sleep 5 so plenty of room for us and all our kit and also have really good bedroom heights so that we can hang our re-enactment clothes up and get dressed in comfort.

I managed to get a good pic of the Seasonal exchange I got when I came back from Spain which was this lovely flower pillow from Lynn. I have put some ribbon on it so that I can hang it with the others in the dining room.

spring ornie from Lynn

Have not got any other finishes to show – things have been very slow around here what with all the being away and we are away again this weekend at Bolsover Castle  for our last re-enactment show of the year.

Hope you all have a lovely week and I will be back again next week with hopefully more pics of sunny camping!

Thanks for visiting.

Glamping Part 2 – The Festival Edition!

stitchesoftimeLeave a comment

Well we have just got back from a very fab and very hot weekend at Tribfest – well hot until the middle of last night when it decided to pour down so we had a wet pack up to acclimatise ourselves for the return home, where it is also wet so the tent is in hanging up to dry in the garage! It was a great event where we saw tributes to lots of bands including Madness, Bon Jovi, Green Day and Lady Ga Ga. We really enjoyed it and are buying tickets for next year asap. 

We bought VIP tickets on the advice of my sister who went last year as you get lots of extras for not much more money such as camping near the arena – so you can mellow out back at the tent (or knit in my case!) and still listen to the bands, a VIP tent with bar,  indoor and outdoor seating and extra bands and best of all jacuzzis! 

This is us on Friday afternoon – 

Glamping - jacuzzi
Sadly they only sold champagne by the bottle or I would have been sipping some as well

The kids had a great time – my niece Sarah and my sister Jacky dressed up for the occasion – this is Sarah on Friday night. 

Tribfest - Sarah
There were lots of people in fancy dress - tutus were very in this year!

Ellie had her festival wellies on (as did most of the girls – I must get some pretty ones for next year -mine are a boring blue). 

Tribfest - kids
Ellie, Jake, Sam and Sarah

Some people were even more dressed up – this is the festival mascot – 

Tribfest Cow
I bet he was a bit warm!

We had a very nice VIP beer tent to sit in – 

Glamping - Tribfest tent
Look flowers on the tables!

And a great view of the stage from the outside seating area – 

Tribfest - stage
A little bit of summer festival sun

Jacky’s friend Chris was also with us – another glamping camper with a selection of mini wines – 

Chris's wine
Mini rose and glass
Glamping - Chris's glass
This is one Chris bought at a previous festival - it came full with a peel off lid - how convenient!

My finger is mending well – thanks for the good wishes – and I was able to finish off knitting the wristwarmers, finally made a second matching one that I happy with – here they are in the field outside the tent where I finished them yesterday – while having a little mellow and a glass of red!

 

Wristwarmers 1
Not identical but good enough!
Wristwarmers 2
Waffle Stitch Wristwarmers - a freebie from Ravelry

I have just got to stitch them up the side now – I knitted these at Xmas for Jake and they are a very quick knit and look very effective. The waffle stitch pattern is a simple four row repeat which uses knit two, purl two for two rows and then two rows of plain knit. 

Talking of wristwarmers (or fingerless gloves)  my friend Barbara from knitting group has just finished the most gorgeous pair for her daughter. I hope that she won’t mind me sharing this pic from her blog with you – 

Barbara's mitts
They look even more gorgeous in real life - knitted in a silky sublime 4 ply

I would love to have a go at these – pattern details are on Barbara’s blog – it is from Ravelry but uses double-pointed needles which I have not tried yet. Barbara is a much cleverer knitter than me and does all sorts of gorgeous patterns using fine needles. 

My new Xmas cross -stitch patterns from JBW have arrived today so I have got lots to amuse myself with – next weekend is the last camping of the season where we shall be back at Bolsover for our final show of the year, then it will be candles lit and on the sofa for another winter season! 

Thanks for visiting.

The art of glamping

stitchesoftime1 Comment

Well here I am back from a lovely 10 days in various fields – the weather was very kind to us (extremely hot at Berkeley thankfully so lots of visitors).

I have read a couple of articles in the newspapers recently about the art of glamping – glamorous camping – and as this is something we strive to do all the time thought I would share my tips with you.

Location of course is very important and we get to camp at all the best historic sites at the UK which makes for some fab picture opportunities – here is one of the tents at beautiful Ashby Castle. 

Glamping 1 - Ashby tent
How about that for a campsite?

 

Facilities at our campsites are usually a bit limited (portaloos and ‘glasgow showers’ aka baby wipes) but the sight of the sun setting over some of most gorgeous castles in the world make up for that. 

But we do not stint on the other little luxuries in life – in particular a little tipple or two for round the campfire. As I am travelling by train I need to pack light so have found the perfect mini drinks to go. 

Glamping 2 - small wine bottle
Mini wine with added glass which is actually the lid - unscrews and can be refilled!

 

That only holds about two glasses but is perfect for the train and as back up how about the weekend sized wine box – modelled here by me at our campsite in the Forest of Dean last week. 

Glamping 5 - wine box
2 bottles worth of lovely red - available from my local Co-op!

 

Of course while sitting round the campfire suitable furniture is need to make sure spillage is avoided and my lovely friend Keith has just made all of the girls in the group some little wine tables. He is a builder and gets lots of wood from various sources to burn and turned up in July with boxes and boxes of little legs – some of which we burnt but others got turned into these – we have asked for footstools next! 

Glamping 3 - wine table
The table in action at Ashby Castle

 

When I met up with my sister in the Forest of Dean she showed me a very dinky little travel case that she had been given as a present so we had a little G and T to christen it. 

Glamping 6 - shots case
Collapsible cups, miniature bottles, ice tongs and stirrers!

 

I was catching up on blog reading last night and came across a post by the lovely Hen of Hen House  about her recent holiday  (July 29th 2010 post) in one of the glamping locations I was going to share with you. She stayed in an Airstream caravan on the Isle of Wight run by a company called Vintage Vacations. Check out these lovely pics! 

Glamping 6 - overlander-main
The Airstream Overlander - all pics from Vintage Vacations site

 

Glamping 7 - overlandertable
Inside showing the seating and eating area

 

Glamping 8 - Overlander-single-beds
Single beds with knitted patchwork covers

 

They look fab if you want to re-enact the 1950s rather than the 1350s as we do and are very reasonable prices – I will store that up as a future holiday idea. 

No more trips for a little while now so I will be spending the time gardening and doing various house sorting activities until our next weekend away. In between the lovely Yorkshire rain of course! Brief dry spell now so am off to do some pruning! 

Thanks for visiting – see you soon.