Sandy Camp was first held in Imperial Beach, CA in 1999 and so named for the sandy beach and the nickname Sandy Eggo. Moving to Old Towne San Diego the following year and then to Warner Springs Ranch, it has stayed put for the last four years. It is an all-volunteer effort of the San Diego, CA Polymer Clay Guild.

Last summer with the EoPC conference being scheduled in San Diego, Sandy Camp was not scheduled. When EoPC was cancelled Sandy Camp was back in business. It was moved from its usual September date to November for 2004. This year Sandy Camp returns to September, the 7th thru the 11th.

Rubbing elbows with Judith Skinner, Donna Kato, Lisa Pavelka, Dotty McMillan, Marie Segal, syndee holt, and Carolyn Potter, is truly a grand experience. Having a 40x60 foot hot tub just adds to the fun.

Just recently I found out that this retreat was good for my health, also. Who knew? Laughter has been proven beneficial in reducing the risk of heart disease. And since
fitness is directly related to your quality of life, it makes sense that a happy person receives positive health benefits. Trust me. I’m a nurse…I’m
not sure how all this fits in with the junk food we consumed.

And so we laughed. With Sunni Bergeron trying to finish a scarf for Lisa on some
newfangled (actually old fangled) knitting knobby. With Kim Kennedy working hard on a
project, looking at her watch and saying “Oh, no. It’s time to open the store again.” And
we laughed with Christi Friesen as she explained the “I meant to do that” look. She gave
a whole new meaning to the term “it’s a design element.”

Donna Kato

We learned a whole new vocabulary, too. Donna Kato kept using
the term ginormous. I think she stole it from the movie “Elf”. Some
of the other terms are self-explanatory like wad, niblets, thingy and
moush. Doogies are the things left behind. Not sure about snurl,
twiddler and twizzler (and neither is my grammar check!) Then
there were scoodges, doink and Dianne McGuire’s “I just undood
it.”

The setting, in northeastern San Diego County, was rustic and beautiful. Lodging was in cottages with fireplace and refrigerator.  It got pretty nippy in the evenings. That is when you could head out to the hot pool that hovered around 103 degrees. Our workspaces were inside a very large tent (on a tennis court) with four large patio type heaters. Very cozy.      

Food was plentiful. Everyone brought munchies for the community table that bent under the weight of chips, cookies, cheese, crackers, a little fruit and a lot of calories. There was no cooking in our cottages so we brought yogurt and other portable breakfast foods, ate “lunch” at the snack table and had dinner in the lodge restaurant.