“Camp is my new favorite place in the history of anything ever” – 2019 camper
Our first year of TWO weekends of Unglued Summer Camp is in the books and I’m proud to say that even our inflatable glitter swan island survived! Justin and I also left still saying “we could do this all year round” so YES you’ll find 2 freakin’ weekends next year, too. 2020 will continue the magic and I’m sending the contract in tomorrow so that can be a real statement.
If one thing could specifically describe camp this year it would easily be BALL PIT. Which you can thank the genius of Larissa Loden and her You’re a Gem Gallery for adding those balls to this camp for maybe ever now?
But if one was interested in knowing what ALL of Unglued Summer Camp is we’d probably add KICK ASS. Our past campers would, too:
“You kick ass. I came home knowing I could too. :)” – 2019 camper
#goalz right there, you guys.
Beyond that it’s pretty difficult to describe camp. If I’m trying to be quick I’ll say “it’s our craft camp”…but if I’m trying to actually tell someone who has never been to camp about camp to really connect them TO camp I’ll add things like…”a craft camp but like with cocktails & beer, a camp battle, the most amazing food you’ve ever enjoyed, a homewreckin’ speaker dance party, morning fitness & clubs, and just the most incredible people ever from the Midwest and beyond.” Or maybe we could borrow a line from our friends at Nerd Nite and say “it’s like your childhood summer camp but with cocktails” to keep it concise, but I never do that because #iloverunonsentencessorryjustin
But even then I’ll see their nose wrinkle a little and think “craft camp…oh I bet my mom would like that” – which YES she WOULD but YOU (man person) and YOU (professional career person) I betcha would also happen to like it.
“I’m a super high strung, young-ish professional that has a hard time letting loose or getting away for a weekend. Camp allowed me to relax and recharge. I even told my best friend that I haven’t laughed so hard or enjoyed myself as much as I did at camp!” – 2019 camper
So below you’ll find some of the magic of camp from 2019. Our 5th annual summer of camp but double the fun, unicorns, and BALL PIT. But let’s just preface this with you just need to come to camp some time.
Camp kicks off Friday evening with beach patio mingling – but like the kind even you as an introvert can handle complete with social bingo, DJ AP spinnin’ to make you suddenly realize you’ve just started dancing unintentionally, and Kevin and our Proof friends servin’ up delicious dranks and Drekker beer. Plus cotton candy. Sometimes even hot dog wrapped cotton candy.
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Then follows the legend of icecreamicorn (find out its origin inspiration on our instagram with our 2019 camp designer BRICK), honoring our 5 timers club (because we’ve been doing this FIVE YEARS. WHAT.), learning the camp dance, and then getting all orientated. Included: camp sing-a-long with our camp musician Gavin, campy games with The Morken Siblings, and the most spicy emcees ever. And lots of holographic shorty shorts worn by some of us who don’t even wear shorts in the summer. #becausecamp
Then CAMPFIRES. And you’ll spontaneously breaking into Wonderwall led by Richie.
Saturday morning kicks off with Gavin waking up you outta your tiny crampy child sized bunk bed to get the party started.
Then Naturally Randi Kay secretly dances while you are in savasana or you take a roaring lioness pose doing some kind of strength move with CrossFit Icehouse for boot camp…or maybe you jump in the lake for water aerobics with Jenni or shake dat ass with Jodi while you earn your fitness badge #1.
We keep the campy vibes goin’ hard with morning clubs – which if you were 1st weekend camp don’t look at this super calm waters the Canoe/Kayak Club got to enjoy their coffee on!! #somanywhitecaps first weekend. You may have also jumped in on Book Club or maybe Friendship Club OR maybe you got to keep being cranky from your lack of sleep or the 10 people snoring in your cabin in the official Cranky Coffee Club that was fully caffeinated and brought back to life thanks to Twenty Below Coffee.
As you keep waking up and you pack into the dining hall to be greeted by the deliciousness of what can only be described as the BEST CAMP FOOD YOU’LL EVER HAVE that starts to give you one big #nomorehangry hug. Which you can first thank our 4 time camp chef Molly Yeh for curating for you this year from her back pocket of favorite recipes.
What follows is what makes this an official merit-badge-earning CRAFT CAMP. The kind we proudly embrace the word CRAFT in regardless of if you still are picturing only quilts and scrapbooking. At this “CRAFT” camp you’ll find over 55 workshop options in 4 workshop sessions taught by the world’s most badass makers, crafters, artists, business owners, and master hobbyists.
Picture projects and skills to the tune of screenprinting, rosemaling, canoe 101 (with Brandon or Nature of the North), soldering a flashy name badge for the dance party, textile stamping, needlefelting, soy candlemaking, woodcarving, epoxy glitter tumblers, street art with Not_Hideuhs, MAKING A WOOD COMB FROM SCRATCH, mini pie baking, cheesemaking, 80’s cocktails with Proof, watercoloring, handlettering, self-care nature hike, fire roasted salsa, paper quilling, jewelry making, mossy wall art, and, well, a whole lot more.
One magical moment all of camp got to enjoy thanks to workshops was our Ukelele 101 class with Amped School of Music serenading pre-lunch time with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
Enter in the CAMP BATTLE TIME.
The moment a first timing camper kinda wants to avoid in fear of the camp unknown, but once it has commenced wishes happened every single weekend of their lives.
“This weekend was one of the best of my life. Best of all I got to share it with a bunch of f*cking awesome strangers that by the end of the weekend were my bunch of f*cking awesome camp friends.” – 2019 camper
From craft hunger games with a craft cornucopia to create a tribute out of to the traditional slip-n-slide flip-n-sip 7 teams battle out their chance to be the reigning champ of the most kick ass award that will lead them into happy hour and free time (and then more crafts).
“We traveled all the way from Alabama because this camp looked so awesome – and it was.” – 2019 camper
Saturday evening led into some pretty amazing musical inspiration thanks to Hot Lunch and The Meat Rabbits and then DINNER TIME BABY. Our first weekend chef Heather of Joy Full Food and second weekend chef Ben with their kick ass crews handcrafted up a whole Midwestern feast to prep for DANCE TIME.
Which, we are all seriously 100% no joking dancing so hard that we don’t take photos except for these babies. This year’s dance theme was magical – literally magical – and we have never had a year so epic with such incredible camper costumes.
“You offered a level of happiness and fun I did not know was a thing for adults, and have overall inspired me to say no to living a lame adult life.” – 2019 camper
But you’ll just have to trust us on that and our campfire karaoke that followed 😉
After the fullest day of YOUR LIFE you wake up to beautiful scenes like this. And take on SUPER cranky coffee club, sticker club, and some other fun that eventually lead you down the yellow brick road to…
A bagel wall sourced straight from Bernbaums.
After morning fitness, clubs, brunchy brunch, and one last workshop sesh (and realizing Kristina actually did sprain her arm last night), you hang for campfire commencement time to sing Good Riddance, get your merit badge winnings, and realize there’s a reason camp ends at 2pm Sunday so you and all your bruises full of memories, new badass skillz and hobbies, and camp friends head home until next year.
But until then you also realize how amazing some local business are that collaborate as sponsors to make this camp happen with us including:
And then keep the magic going and head to our Unglued Fall Retreat page to grab a ticket Oct 1, 2019 at 8pm for that unexpected fall funnnnn!
All of these incredible blow-your-mind photos are thanks to our camp photographer M. Schleif Photography that you must partner with for your next event to be documented in the best vibey way you can imagine.
“This was the most amazing weekend of my life and I cannot wait to return in 2020!” – 2019 camper