Glamping (glamorous camping) seems like it must be something just for girls at first. You get a picture of mirrors, make up and lights all set up in tents. Or, that was the picture that came to my mind. However, glamping has a range from lightly rustic to full out luxury.

Looking at the directories for glamping sites around the world I found several based on farms, working farms and hobby farms. Some are located on beaches and some in mountains, forests too. Some feature tents and some have cabins - which would be more year round I'd think.

The idea of glamping seems to have started in Africa, with the luxury safari camps for hunters and tourists. I can remember seeing old movies like Tarzan where they had camps with big canvas tents, king size beds, bedding, carpets, towels, furniture, a feast of food including wine. It looked great on film no wonder people began to copy the idea. It sure sounds better than sleeping on the ground, enduring a leaky tent, fighting off insects and doing without indoor plumbing.

International Glamping Federation

There is something about buttons. People create all kinds of interesting things with buttons. I knew there would be a lot of button flower ideas. What a great way to make yourself a colourful, simple and cheap bouquet!

Look for buttons at thrift stores. Otherwise your button buying can get expensive. At craft stores and craft aisle in department stores, you can sometimes buy a bag full of buttons. (You can't pick through them for the ones you want, but you get a lot of buttons that way).

I found a lot of colourful flowers and flower bouquets made with buttons.

Most of them seem to glue the buttons together in daisy sort of pattern. Or, they use them as the centre for a fabric flower.

From my Experience

I've been there, as the person writing and the person getting the condolences. From my experience it was best to be kind, keep it short and be honest rather than trying to be nice, polite or neutral.

From my experience, after my Dad died I found many people did not know how to express sympathy or condolences. It's actually not as complicated as they were making it. The best condolences were honest and simple words. One person, in particular, said just the right thing and gave me a new perspective on my own feelings. But, that's not going to happen in most cases.

The friend who had the right words was a good, longtime friend who knew a lot about myself, my life and we had been long time confidants through my divorce too. That kind of friend has a far better chance of knowing the right words.

Here are some ideas, help, and tips to get you through picking the right words to offer your support, sympathy, and encouragement.

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart,
and you shall see that in truth you are weeping
for that which has been your delight.
-Kahil Gibran

Tips for Writing a Sympathy/ Condolence Card

• Mention the loss in some way. Don't send a note that could sound generic. Mention a name if you know it.
• Avoid clichés. They make you seem a little uncaring and less than sincere.
• Keep it short. Unless you are a very close personal friend, stick to just a few words or a couple of sentences.
• Keep it light, think easy reading. Big, dictionary words will just make you sound smug and superior.
• Avoid negativity. Don't complain, claim anything owed or air grievances of your own.
• Be sincere. Don't write anything you don't mean.
• Offer sympathy or condolences but don't say you're sorry. Unless you are somehow responsible for the death.
• Keep religion out of it, unless you know they are religious and which traditions they follow.
• Don't say nothing at all. Even just a simple "thinking of you" is good if you really feel too intimidated, upset or angry.Button Lovers and Collectors

• British Button Society
• The Victorian Button Collectors Club
• National Button Society
• Button Floozies

Ideas and Photos of Button Flowers

• Button Flowers - Pinterest Boards

• Flickr: Button: Wreaths, Trees, Balls and Flowers

My Grandmother's Buttons

My Grandmother kept a canister full of buttons. When clothes became worn out and ready to cut down for rags, she removed the buttons and added them to her button canister. There were all sorts of colours, sizes, shapes and patterns of buttons. Some were very old. My Mother kept the buttons and the canister when my Grandmother died. Now and then we use some of my Grandmother's buttons. But, not for just anything.

Grandmother's buttons are used when we make something special. I used a few for making Christmas decorations and ornaments for the tree. I used one set of her buttons when a favourite sweater lost a button and I wanted all the buttons to match again. There were just enough, all the same type, among the buttons in the canister.

We still have a lot of buttons in the canister. There aren't a lot of things in the regular mending sort of sewing which are special enough for Grandma's buttons. These button flowers would be very nice. I think I would use a lot of the white shirt buttons as the outer petals and then pick a colourful or patterned button for the centre.

Have you ever made a hand drawn map, simply a way to show someone how to get from here to there? There's something special about a real hand drawn map. It's the closest we get to feeling like an old fashioned, early explorer - before GPS.

I like to explore, mostly old places. I don't mind getting lost, usually you find the most interesting places when you turn down the wrong road. What activity has more freedom, creativity and ingenuity than being an explorer? If you're athletic, that's nice, but not essential to getting out there, finding new places, things and people. You can even be an armchair explorer, to some extent but it loses some of the adventure if you really don't leave your known world and set sail for the unknown, the mysterious and the possibly risky world out there.

My Experience as a Map Maker

Drawing or making maps requires some science, and patience. Luckily, you don't have to be an exceptional artist in order to create a map. Use rules for straight lines if you want. But you can just as well draw them by hand. A hand drawn map feels more authentic and personal.

As an explorer I have drawn maps for other explorers. Maps have always been an important part of exploring. Making a map is like blazing a trail so other people can see where you have been and how you got there. Then, they can follow and choose other paths along the way.

From Here to There: A Curious Collection from the Hand Drawn Map Association A book from the Hand Drawn Map Association. Will you find inspiration for your own map making adventures? Or just wonder why, or who, made that strange map?

How to Make a Hand Drawn Map

Write the location or destination at the top of your page.

Orient your page to due north and draw the N for north with an arrow pointing up. You can go all out and draw a compass rose with all four directions and those in between.

Draw lines for the connecting streets from where currently are to where you are planning to go.

Sketch in landmarks at street corners or along the route. Try to find landmarks at any place you will need to change direction or turn down a different street.

• The Hand Drawn Map Association

My Adventures as a Map Collector

I don't have a big map collection myself. The maps I keep are functional for my exploring of the local area. I've got footnotes and margin notes and I've circled areas where I found something or want to go back and get a better look. Sometimes you find a place you really want to see but you spent the day searching and now it's too dark to really see what you found. So I mark the place on my map.

I used to keep my maps more pristine. But, I couldn't remember what all the tiny circles were for. As there got to be more and more of them I lost track of what each of them had started out being. So, it's better to make notes on the map - even though my first instinct as a book lover is to never harm the book, or the map. But, when you're an explorer you have to change some of your standards and theories in favour of the adventure.

• MapHist Discussion Group
• CartoTalk
• Fantasy Mapmaking
• Community Walk

Pressing Plants, Flowers or Leaves the Easy Way

Get a big, thick, heavy book, a dictionary is kind of traditional, but not essential. There are other hefty books you can use to squish your flowers.

You also need wax paper or tissue paper to protect the pages of your book and to keep the flowers from breaking apart and sticking to the pages as they become pressed, dried and flattened in between the pages of your book.

Some people don't put the flowers in the pages of the book, they just put the book on top of the flowers. This is fine of course, but it loses some of the history of the project I think. My Grandmother would press flowers in the pages of her diary. She would have to put something heavy on her diary (it wasn't heavy enough on it's own) but I've always liked the custom and the history to pressing flowers in this traditional, sort of romantic way.

My Grandmother pressed the flowers she was given in the pages of her diary. I've always been fond of vintage romantic notions like this. So, I have to be careful when picking up my own old diaries/ journals lest the old pressed blooms slip out from the hand-written pages.

Why press flowers?

Pressed flowers can't keep all their fresh, original colour. I always feel this is the downside of having pressed flowers versus just taking a photograph. But, if you take the time to arrange all those flowers, leaves and so on for a photograph - why not take the extra step of pressing and preserving the originals.

Of course, this means you have to find room to keep them. You can create them as a framed picture and hang it up on a wall. A smaller project could be a in a frame which you could add a photograph to and give as a gift. You might even add other souvenirs from the day or event and turn the pressed flower project into a scrapbooking sort of arts and craft.

So, why press or dry flowers and keep them?

They are a sort of living art. If you use some plants which smell nice you can also keep that scent around in the display. A nice added bonus.

Most of all, I think flowers and plants in general have a short life, it's nice to preserve a few of them - give them added years rather than becoming compost at the end of each garden season.

My Mother likes it because she spends so much of her time in the garden, working. Then at the end of the season she really just has photos and her own memories left. When we take the time to preserve some of her best blooms she can keep them much longer, the very flower she grew in her own garden.

Some gardeners enter flowers in contests. I wonder if they press them and display them in a frame or just add the winning blossoms to the compost pile, mere worm food.

Drying Plants, Flowers or Leaves the Easy Way

The simplest way to dry flowers is to gather them in a bunch, tie the stem ends together tightly and hang them upside down somewhere for at least a few days. They should be dry right through before you store them.

You can tie the bundle to a wire hanger and easier hang the whole bunch over a door knob or something else do-able. Keep them away from steam and water - hanging them in the bathroom is not the best idea. I put newspaper down under them in case petals or leaves fall off as they dry.

Store dried flowers in a sealed container until you're ready to use them. Some dried flowers can be used to make teas as well as just looking pretty.