web-goddess

How to make soap from bacon fat. (PDF) Seriously. Just flip to page 18. I am strangely intrigued by this idea.

There’s a nasty new Windows virus making the rounds and one of you may have it. I’ve been getting flooded with bounced e-mails that have spoofed my address as the sender. So if you get anything suspicious from me, don’t click on it! (I don’t have the virus; I have a Mac.) If you’re on Windows, you should probably check out that link and make sure you haven’t been infected. I’m guessing one of you has, as it would’ve picked up my domain from your address book or cache.

Oh my God… Jem and the Holograms is being released on DVD! Sadly, I would purchase this in a heartbeat. I watched way too many episodes of that as a kid. (Thanks to Bill for the heads-up.)

My photos from Camp Creative are up! You can see some of the stuff other folks did in the different classes. There are also pictures from our trip to Dorrigo and my much-anticipated visit to the Big Banana. And yes, that’s the Snook and I eating chocolate-coated frozen bananas on sticks. They look obscene but they sure taste yummy!

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.