Hipcamp..coming soon

Peeps,

Have you heard of the campsite website Hipcamp? I found it a few months ago when I was trying to find reviews of particular campsites.


Their write-ups are both hilarious and informative.

You know that all seafood BBQ you’ve been itching to throw? Take it to Seal Rock Campground where you can get the freshest of the fresh! With sites sitting right on the banks of the Hood Canal you can cross “groceries” off your to-do list and kiss the pre-frozen foods goodbye. The canal hosts everything from oysters to clams, crabs and shrimp, and even salmon. Just follow all the rules and regs for shellfish and let the feasting begin! After your post-food snooze go for a swim or float down the canal in your canoe and take in all the views. -Seal Rock Campground, Olympic National Park

The feature, I’m REALLY excited about though, is their Land Sharing program, which is just starting up.

Because, let’s face it, sometimes public campgrounds feel like this:

Photo source here. 

When this is what you’re really after:

Photo source: Happier Camper

The land sharing deal is this: anyone that has lots of undeveloped land can essentially rent it out to individuals or groups of campers using Hipcamp as the broker. Like an Airbnb of campsites. Some, like this one, have permanent accommodations; others allow you to bring your own tent, tipi, or (yes!) truck camper(!!!).

I am so jazzed about this proposition. This is a brand new setup, and most of the sites are currently in California, but *fingers crossed* hopefully some fine Washingtonians will open up their lovely secluded properties in the near future.

Speaking of which: If you happen to own such a piece of land in WA, OR, ID, or BC, and are interested in renting it out to a fantastic, polite family (ahem. My family, specifically), please email me. Major bonus points if it’s on a lake or river and has hiking trails in close proximity.   :)

xo,

Sonja



Was this post sponsored? heck no. I’d be the first to tell you. 

Chronicles of family life

Let’s talk photos, yes? I am the kind of tourist that takes 5,000 pictures, puts them on the blog, and then never looks at them again.

Which is a bit of shame, really.

So we’re changing things up around here. Namely, I’ve decided to do a few 8x8 mini trip albums. These are getting added to our stack of baby books and the “Year in Review” series.

Thus far, I’ve done two: Peru and Iceland/Sweden. It’s a slow process though because I wait until Shutterfly has a free album coupon available. You still have to pay s&h so it typically works out to about $8/book. 

Here is the latest version:

8x8 isn’t much room to work with and I have a tendency to cram lots of photos onto a single page; it’s my inability to pick just one picture to showcase. 

But honestly, it’s the kids that are going to be looking at these albums the most and they like to see pictures of themselves. Even little Emma is obsessed with her own image. 

Consequently, I’m ok with a little visual clutter.

I’ve also started including maps in the albums. I paint them first with watercolors and then digitally add in the towns and trip route.

As you can see, I’m not exactly the next Picasso, but it’s a fun little project.

Someday I’d love to take a painting course. Or a sketching class. Wouldn’t that be fun to travel and sketch out town scenes or pyramids?

That won’t be happening anytime soon, but it’s still fun to dream.

xo,
Sonja

Benisms vol 283

Benjamin is watching me change Emma’s dirty diaper.

Ben: “This is DISGUSTING. I am NEVER NEVER NEVER having any kids. EVER. This is the grossest thing I’ve ever seen.”

Weirdly enough, he’s already seen it a million times but perhaps his vocabulary has finally caught up to his feelings.


I’m saving this in perpetuity so that I can whip it out when he’s struggling away, madly trying to wipe down his own wee babe that’s trying her best to perform a Houdini escape maneuver.

Because parenting is nothing if not a hefty dose of karma.

Autumn Fabric projects

Ordering fabric online can be a tricky thing and my track record thus far is spotty. 

It’s not the colors so much as the scale of the pattern. I have a hard time seeing the fabric online and then visualizing how that fabric will look in real life.

Recently I made some curtains for the camper. The bird pattern, which I thought was larger, turned out looking like the stars on the American flag. I’m a proud citizen of the good 'ole USA but I’m also not the kind of girl that needs to be screaming 'MURICA, hell yeah!! while cruising down the freeway (or on a dusty dirt road in Mexico). You know what I mean? So this wasn’t my best fabric choice. 

But this last week I definitely had a fabric win. It’s the sort of thing where you open up the UPS package and go: yes, this is it! It’s perfect.

I still haven’t found the time to make either of the kids a quilt but I did make them each a warm comforter for the coming winter. We used them this last weekend when we went camping on Lopez Island, which was nice as it was a moderately cold and rainy experience.  

Here is Ben’s quilt (Side #1):

I had two synthetic toddler comforters with duvet covers that have been languishing in the dresser for a few years.  I hate the idea of a duvet cover for a toddler comforter. It’s too much work. Like baby clothes that require dry cleaning. Not a good idea, World. Or at least in my house. 

So the goal was to have a pretty converter that could be thrown in the wash without having to remove any fancy covers. 

Side #2:

I started by discarding the duvet comforters. I wasn’t in love with them anyway.

Next, I essentially sewed an open-ended bag, stuffed the comforter inside, and then sewed the whole thing together like a quilt. There is an extra layer of fabric inside so it take a few minutes longer in the dryer but otherwise there isn’t a noticeable difference. They’re quite warm and fluffy, which especially suits my daughter as she’s a super snuggler.

Ben’s quilt is 2 yards each of Michael Miller Seedling Kimono Stripe Azure (dark blue stripes) and Spectrum Chevron Stripe Bali. The third blue fabric (used as a header above the chevron strip) is a scrap I had stashed in my fabric bin.

Emma loves playing in Ben’s room while he’s at preschool. This will definitely cause problems when they’re both older as she’s a regular Nosey Nancy.

All folded up. 

Thick!

Emma’s quilt required 1.5 yards each of Blend Snow Day Sweater Stripe Blue and Michael Miller Sea Buddies New Wave Peach. The peach fabric, in particular, is lovely. This should not be a surprise to anyone that knows me: coral and peaches are some of my very favorite color shades. 

I won’t lie: I especially love Emma’s version.  

You’ll notice that there are a few permanent wrinkles, mostly from the quilting process. It’s hard to work this much fabric under the needle without causing a few stress points. Also, I’m kind of ok with the overall look. We’re not going for military precision here. 

The front (Side #1):

The back view (Side #2):

xo,

Sonja

Norway

This was my favorite part of the trip.

For Chris it was Iceland and the wild wilderness. For Ben it was catching fish on a lake near Stockholm (more to come on that) and for Emma it was the hot tub at one of our (rental) vacation houses.

For me it was this island. My god, this place was magical.

Here was our tiny slice of heaven:

The house was built in the 1890’s. The red boathouse and dock are newer additions, as are the hot water and flushing toilet. Lovely historical buildings with modern day conveniences: definitely our preferred accommodation combo.

The true attraction was the sandy beach situated on a calm little cove. And the house came with a boat! The fishermen of the family were excited.

The island is perhaps a few miles long and has about 50 houses spread out along its length. A passenger ferry makes daily stops in the village but there are no shops or restaurants on the island. An aerial of the island can be found here. Look for the designation ‘Sandukta’ on the middle west side of the island after you zoom in. The red roof house was our abode.

Ben pretty much ate his weight in apples from the orchard every day. 

Our little fishing helper. Wants to do everything the big brother does.

We also had a nightly fire and ate dozens of smores. It’s what you do on vacation, right?!

There aren’t any cars on the island, just a dirt road and hiking trails. We spent a few days picking wild blue berries and exploring.

Have I mentioned that there were sheep on the island? Every summer a farmer brings his flock over from the mainland and the wee beasties spend their time grazing on the island’s interior pastures.

We saw zero people on the island during our stay. Zero. But we did see a LOT of sheep. Ben thought it was a hoot to give chase. They were not amused.

Occasionally you’d be walking down the road and get the weird feeling that you were being watched.  Sneaking, spying sheep.

There was a tiny little marina on the south end of the island. I would like to meet the person that named their boat “Placebo Gorilla”. Random, yes?

More apples. Now every time Ben wants an apple, he’ll say: “Mama can I please have one of the delicious pink lady ones?”

Sandukta is the name of the house on the island.

One of the original farms. 

Weirdly enough, sheep have much longer tails than I’d previously thought. I always thought of them as little nubbins.

We were doing our nightly fire when suddenly Ben yelled: “Mom, this is the giant-est frog I’ve ever seen!” I didn’t have to look far as it was practically sitting next to me. Furthermore, I wasn’t expecting a six inch toad to be hanging ‘round the family campfire but perhaps he needed a bit of company.

There is one slightly venomous snake that does live in Southern Norway (and on the island) and we were thankful not to have spotted one of those particular specimens.

We did a boat trip around the island. It rained a bit but we kept spirits up with copious quantities of treats and promises of warm showers upon our arrival back at the house. We’re hardy Pacific Northwesterners, right?!

 On our last day we had a little sheep adventure. The old one room brick schoolhouse in the middle of the island has been converted into a vacation home and is fenced to keep the sheep from coming into the garden and tasting all the delicious flowers that the owners have carefully cultivated. Unfortunately we noticed that an ewe and two lambs had managed to squirrel their way into the yard for dinner. Furthermore, we guessed that the the owners were off-island for the week.

Team J sheepherders to the rescue!!!

Let’s just say it took a while to work out the kinks in our sheepherding strategy. Those sheep are wily-er than previously thought. But also exceptionally dumb at the same time. If such a thing is possible. 

The pictures are fuzzy but you can see Chris chasing them out the gate to rejoin their posse in the field. 

Success!!! Our work here is done. 

If you’re interested, here is the Airbnb listing for the house.  The owners were an absolute dream to work with, and it has been my favorite home rental to date. 

xo, 

Sonja

--

Here are a few additional posts from our Scandinavian adventure with kids:

Sweden: Stockholm 

Sweden: The Lake House

Sweden: Gothenburg and the West Coast

Norway: Island Living on North Sandoy

Iceland: Southern Iceland (Part I)

Iceland: Hot pools and waterfalls (Part II)

Iceland: The Golden Circle (Part III)