Day Two: I finished my first project today: an “amulet bag”. No, I didn’t pick that out. We all had to do it. I actually went out of my way to try to make it into something I might actually wear. (I don’t know yet if I succeeded.) The original pattern version had some heinous sea-anemone-lookin’ “branched fringe” on the bottom that I declined in favor of a more simple graduated fringe. I got a lot of compliments on it though and I was the first one in the class to finish. In the afternoon we started on a hideous three-dimensional peyote stitch brooch in the shape of a flower. I’m doing mine in deep sparkly green beeds with a silver accent. I figure there’s no way of rescuing this one, so I might as well make it as gaudy as possible. (Note to self: Don’t bother making any more Georgia O’Keefe jokes tomorrow. Nobody here gets them.)

While Ma Snook and I slaved over our crafts in Bellingen, Snookums and his Dad headed out on the Nambucca River in the tinny. (That’s an aluminum boat for you Yanks.) They were fishing for bass but didn’t get much luck. Snookums managed to catch a bream though which they brought home, gutted, and ate for lunch. How very manly of them, don’t you think? Here’s the Snook and I modelling the fruits of our stereotyped labors: