Camp Crafts

A few years ago, before I came, Camp Rivercrest had a craft time. But because kids have lost interest in arts and crafts, it is no longer offered as an activity. However, that doesn't mean that there are no crafts being made at camp!

For several months now, I've been setting aside all my Rivercrest tees, saying that someday I'll do something with them. Finally, two weekends ago, I began my project. Here's what I have so far:

It's only 2 by 4 right now, but I'm hoping to find at least three more lost-and-found camp shirts this summer so I can add another row. For now, it's the perfect size to drape over my chair in the health office. Although it took a long time, this blanket was no-sew which made it somewhat easy for me to make, especially since I lack a sewing machine. 

First I collected all my camp t-shirts that I have duplicates of or were willing to part with. One at a time, I laid each one flat on the ground.

I measured each one out and, with a pencil, drew a square where I would cut. The Solid Rock shirt was tricky because the brown was too dark for the pencil to show up on it. 

After looking around for a few minutes, I discovered that Blixtex works great in this instance! 

After I had the squares cut out, I made a two-inch fringe on each square, and then proceeded to tie the fringe together. A lengthy process, but I think it was worth it! 

Although time to do artsy projects is limited, here are a few other creative things I've been up to:
-I made most of my own health room decorations. My favorite is a tea-stained and burnt-edges poster with 1 Peter 5:6-9 on it.
-I found some fabric markers in the laundry room from when there used to be crafts. My used-to-be-boring white shoes are now super colorful.
-I dyed my hair reddish on Wednesday. Not exactly an art project, but it did involve coloring stuff, right?

And a few other things I've been up to when I'm not curing headaches and bandaging wounds:
-Last Saturday, I got my oil changed. I had a coupon to try a new place (there are a TON of auto shops in Fremont!) so I got the oil change, tire rotation, inspection, and car wash for under $20! Of course, the very next day I was about to go to church, but when I went out to my car I discovered I had a completely flat tire. How does that happen the very next day? But the cool thing about working at a camp is that I just left my car there, which was magically transported to the shop and today I could drive it again because it magically got fixed over the week.
-After I got my oil changed, I went farm-hopping with a few friends. No, farm-hopping is not a typical Nebraskan activity. At least, I don't think it is. We started by going to a friend's house to ride her horse, and then we wanted to see her baby cow, but it was currently at another farm. When we got to that farm, we were informed that it was at yet another farm. When we got to that farm, we couldn't even see the baby cow because it was in tall grass behind an electric fence. But not all was a loss; we rescued a goat who got its head stuck in a fence!
-After those farm activities, we decided to hit the city. We went to Village Pointe in Omaha to watch Monsters University. Definitely a great movie! I'm also excited to see Despicable Me 2 this Wednesday with a few of my favorite people.
-I gave blood today. I tried giving it last week, but my heart rate was too high. I even had a high heart rate before giving today, but it fortunately went down by the second time they checked it.
-After giving blood, I stopped by Moller Field on the way home to do a bit of geocaching. It was tricky, but I found what I was looking for! My GPS was a little jumpy, so I first thought it was at the foot of a light pole. Then I realized it might be at a nearby shed. Just as I was about to give up, I backed away and saw a piece of PVC pipe underneath the shed. It was the cache!

Adventuring

After a night of little sleep due to the tornado warning, I got up and was determined to enjoy my Memorial Day. After a bit not-so-extreme couponing to score some free/cheap stuff, I decided to have a day of geocaching at a couple different parks and cemeteries.

I quickly learned that it's not a good idea to geocache in cemeteries on Memorial Day. Too many "muggles" as the regular cachers say. So at the first cemetery, all I found were these critters:

 I know that second picture was of a bunny, but was that first one a groundhog? I don't think I've seen one before!

I decided to go to a park. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find the cache there either. I think several of them must have been disturbed by the high winds. But it was right next to this train museum. Although the museum was closed, their trains were right out in the open.

I then went to Christensen Field, where I finally found some caches. Three, to be exact. (Unfortunately, there were still others that I could not find.) Christensen Field is part expo, part senior center, part RV park, part baseball diamonds, and part soccer fields. Since it was a pretty big park, there was a lot of ground to cover. 

Where was this cache found? 

Hmm... perhaps in the suspicious spigot?

Another cache in a tree.

This was my first cache with trading items! I got this plastic seaweed in exchange for the striped headband. 

The coolest part about geocaching is that it really slows you down and allows you to see things you wouldn't have noticed otherwise. I found these two baby birds on the ground underneath a tree.

 While there are many cool things about geocaching, I found one thing that wasn't a perk that day. While I was looking for a cache (that I never actually did find), a cop drove by. Apparently someone at the park thought I was acting suspiciously! Oh well. Below is a pic of my last cache before I left... can you see the cache?

Two days after this adventuring, staff training began. And what better way to start off the first evening than with my second-ever tornado warning? Instead of being all alone like in my first experience, this time I had about 20 people to hang out with.

I would say that, since the title of this is "adventuring", that staff training is the start of a new adventure. In a way, I guess it is. I think that's even what I said last year, especially since last year's theme was "The REAL Adventure". But since this year's theme is "Unbound", I wanted to admit that it sometimes feels more trapped than freeing. I could go on and explain the reasons that it's both an adventure and a trap, but that would probably take too long. But, whether it's the end of many adventures or the start of some new ones, that doesn't really matter. I want to make this summer count!