Camping in the wilds of Norfolk, and some extreme make do and mend...

Hello lovelies,

Every now and again, it is nice to escape the big smoky city and spend some time taking in the fresh country air!

Last month, I took a rather impromptu trip home to join my mum, little sister and step-dad on a camping trip in the Norfolk countryside for the May bank holiday weekend. 

And guess what we stayed in.....

.....a tipi!

Not like a proper proper one, all canvas and wood, cowboys and indians stylee, but a lovely big tipi tent!

We put fairy lights and bunting up in it and everything! It was right cosy.

When we arrived, the camp was already set up, with the fire pit, 'wee shields' for those too lazy too walk up to the loo block (not me!), and a grub tent for doing cooking in! All we had to do was set up the tent, and then we could join the rest of the camp (a load of my mum and step dad's friends, and their young kids).

Easy, right?

WRONG!

The moment we got the tent up there was a very large gust of wind, followed by a large rrrrriiiippp.

Darn it.

So we spent our first hour and a half, sat on our bums in practically gale force winds, hand sewing the tent back together at the rips! 

Now that is what I call extreme make do and mend!

In the top left you can see me and my step-dad sewing the tent!

Over the weekend, the children ran around in amongst the trees and played on the rope swing and the mud slide (which is literally just a very steep dirt hill....which the children all managed to manouvre with ease, but I fell backwards, bumped my head and proceeded to slide uncontrollably down on my bum- much to the amusement of my little sister!).
The men did manly things like chop wood, stoke the fire etc etc.
The dog lounged around, got a lot of attention, and ate soooo much food.
And me and my mumma made things! Me and mum made these handsewn owls, and mum helped me battle with my "3 hour sweater" attempts, generally unpicking my mistakes and re-knitting....over, and over, and over. The gin didn't help with these attempts!

We made candles with the kids too, melting wax beads and old candles down in little tins on the fire, and then layering into paper coffee cups with a wick in...I was probably as excited as the children to unwrap my candle  when it was set! And you can see it in the little photo above, accompanied by a bit of my knitting.

I wore my Freddies dungarees the whole weekend...I'm so glad I invested in them. Until recently I never, ever wore trousers, but I invested in these after falling madly in love with the 40's factory girl look. And in the sale, they were only £25...so I thought I'd give them a try. They are great for times like this, when it is just not suitable to run around in a pretty, delicate floaty dress. Can you imagine if I'd have fallen down that dirt hill wearing one of my fave 40's frocks? I'd had a fit! They are also great for work, when I have lots of lifting to do and don't fancy ripping yet another pair of tights or snagging another dress! Or even just those days, where you just don't feel like wearing a pretty dress...I'm not the only one to have those, right?

Japanese cotton headscarf: carboot.

50's sunglasses: vintage fair.

Cotton shirt: carboot.

40's repro dungarees: Freddies of Pinewood.

I'll leave you of this photo of me, all tied up by the dog on her lead!

What do you vintage ladies wear for camping? Or do you loathe camping altogether? 

Me, I think I'm a country gal at heart!

Pip pip xx