We’re back! There’s nothing like a week away to make you appreciate being in your own house with your own things. Our tomatoes have finally started turning red so we’re going to start eating them tomorrow. I made a cursory attempt at catching up on my surfing and it was like total information overload. People have new designs and side projects and Dean lost in Iowa and Bennifer are through and another Mars rover landed… and I just can’t get a grasp on it at the moment. I’ve got lots of photographs to upload but I just don’t have the energy. All I want to do right now is crawl into bed. I’ll get busy with all that other stuff tomorrow. (Thank God we have a holiday.) It’s good to be home.

And did I mention how awesome Dorrigo was yesterday? Here’s the Snook and I standing behind Crystal Showers Waterfall in the rainforest. It was amazing.

It’s our last day in the country so we’re heading up to Dorrigo, which is apparently this area up on a plateau in the mountains with lots of temperate rainforests and waterfalls. I’ve never seen a real waterfall! Should be fun…

Camp Creative is finished. To tell you the truth, I was feeling pretty burnt out by the fifth day. We were supposed to be doing these “wiber” (wire + fiber) necklaces that basically consisted of wool wrapped around with wire to make a big round dorky ring. I declined. Instead I started experimenting with peyote stitching my tiny beads and ended up making three small pretty rings. They look good! Another item for my eventual craft stall. After lunch we had a big Student Exhibition where everybody put their stuff out for perusal. Ma Snook was even persuaded to put out the two groovy dolls she made. I took several pictures that I’ll post next weekend when I get home. So now we’re just relaxing for a couple more days. We’ll be back in Sydney in time for a big Australia Day piss-up on Monday.

Today we moved on to wire work. Our teacher handed out these silver cuff frames that we were supposed to decorate by stringing chunks of crystals and beads across them. My classmates happily began plonking down money for freshwater pearls and ugly metal spacers while my spirit revolted. After three days of making ugly tat, I decided a line must be drawn. I was actually going to make something that I liked. I decided that it would be fun to use a lot of my pretty small beads to make a pattern, the more anarchic the better. So I quickly sketched a little skull design with a pretty pink bow that I’d seen once on Amy’s site. I spent the next two hours translating it into beadwork. It didn’t take long for the other folks to figure out what I was up to. The younger girls especially loved it. It looked sooo much better than the purple/silvery/amethyst crap most of them had churned out. I even got a compliment from the teacher! Afterwards I did another one with butterflies on it to use up some more beads. I’ll probably sell that one at the markets, but I’m definitely keeping the skull. It was my most inspired accomplishment in four days at Camp “Creative”.

Day Three: I finished my flower brooch along with two rather pretty bracelets (in my humble opinion). I’ve gained a reputation for being the class speed demon. Personally, I think a lot of those women would get more done if they’d stop whining about how much they suck and just get on with it. I never realized before how annoying it is to have twenty self-deprecating women all together in one room. No one wants to admit to being good at anything. My back is killing me from sitting hunched over my beads though. Luckily the rain came through last night so the humidity broke and the world is livable once more.

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:

Day 1: I learned to do the peyote stitch and practiced my spiral cord technique (which I learned months ago). I also made some of the ugliest old lady jewelry you’ve ever seen. It’s stinkin’ hot up here but thankfully my class is in one of the few air-conditioned classrooms. It’s been fun so far though. There are hippies everywhere.

Posting may be a bit sporadic for the next week as the Snook and I are heading off today to his parents’ house in Eungai. And tomorrow… Camp Creative starts!

Man, Robert Redford has really gone downhill. I had to do a double-take to make sure that the photo accompanying this Sundance article was him and not Anne Robinson (host of The Weakest Link). *shudder*

Great. I’m fairly certain I’ve got grade two calf strains in both legs.