new photos, new art!

ok, tons of photos that i've taken that i haven't had time to write about or post!


beautiful skies from the art shop balcony.




late night in the lodge. (note the mosquito bite)










stuff from the kiln... including leroy the red whale, and dinomouse!







thats too cute to be an ugly doll! buttons and pink fur don't know how to be ugly. i couldnt believe how many kids wanted to make these. sometimes i dont even know whats going to be a hit. glad i brought extra fabric!






king of the art shop. cute orange stripey king of the art shop. how wonderful it is to have meaty follow you around camp.








coolest coffeemug ever. (i take teeny tiny partial credit, i helped with the design)






we had the most amazing rainbows a few weeks ago. i meant to do a whole post about it, with tons of pictures. but heres one at least. :)

meaty, triathalons, harry potter, and other stuff i've been too busy to write about.

today i let meaty out on his own. he was totally adorable. i decided he needed some freedom and fresh air. he ran around a little, was slightly scared by large noisy groups of kids, but for the most part was out and about having fun. when i went down to the art shop to be there for a few hours i brought him down there with me. he moseyed around the art shop, chased a small squirrel which escaped up a tree, he checked out people's projects, and laid around in the sun. i expect that every time i let him out he will be more and more bold. when i was ready to head back to upper camp from the art shop, i only had to call his name and he followed me up the trails back to our cabin. super cutey orange striped man. i think if i eep letting him out he will not come back so easily. we shall see.

as for harry potter, i have yet to read a single page!!! craziness. yesterday we had a hogwarts banquet in honor of the book release. we had banners for each of the houses, and a professors table up on the stage. people dressed up, and the kitchen made us butter beer, fudge and pumpkin cookies. 9 copies of the book arrived at camp... before campfire they played an audio recording of j.k. rowling reading the first chapter, and they let all the kids sleep over in the lodge. i stopped in after setting up some projects in the art shop late that night, and at 2am there were still kids reading their books by flashlight. a few counsellors have copies, so i'll start reading soon!

i cant believe how fast the days seem to be flying by. i had been meaning to write about excursion from last week. that was wednesday, and i haven't had a spare moment to write.

so.. wednesday i got to go on a teeny tiny triathlon. we set out in kayaks from camp, kayaked across the lake and upriver to just before the small rapids. we pulled out the kayaks and hiked through the woods three miles to moshier falls (incidentally in herkimer county!). moshier falls has a beautiful stone swimming basin, and the falls are lovely. there's areas to climb and hike and swim. on the way back i took a mountian bike one of the counselors had ridden in on the access road, and got to ride it back to the van they were using to bring in some of the campers (who were skipping the kayak portion). i was exhausted, but it was a lot of fun!!! it was a completely beautiful day.

lovely lovely adirondacks!

meaty and i are currently sitting outside enjoying YET ANOTHER beautiful day in the adirondacks. the weather here is truly fantastic. meaty is pondering the pros and cons of the tether. he likes to be out to try to track the chipmunks, however, whenever he is outside a large group of teen girls swarm down to pet him and coo over how darling he is. meaty is not really that type of cat. he's more the quiet one person at a time sort of man. so far he hasnt bit anyone. we'll see if he can keep that record.

camp is flying by. the weeks seem to blend together. the current session is Channing I (there is also Channing II). campers during this session are junior high and early high school. the first day they arrived was very intimidating. they were very, very, very too cool for everything. some of the girls are a little clique-y. we do the best we can to bust up cliques. now that they've been here they seem to be relaxing more, and letting their ultra-hip coolness gaurd down a little. this makes them so much more human. they're old enough to have some interesting insights on the world, and also old enough to clean up their art supplies, and not run when the kiln is on. i'm very very happy about that.

at mealtime i find myself drawn to siting with the ones i would have been friends with. we have a few artists, and odd nerdy types. a few gender benders. theyre cool kids all around, but i have my favorites.

the projects in artshop are getting some pretty interesting results as well. they're coming up with neat silk screen designs, and sculpting clever things in clay. i have a workshop on friday to make ugly dolls and monsters. when my day off started yesterday afternoon i went and got some fabric and things in town. i'll post the results. :)

busy, busy barton

my second week of campers is winding down to a close. as you may have noticed due to my lack of posts, barton was a busy week. but lots of fun!! yesterday i took two groups on excursions to eagle falls (without my camera because im a damn fool!). next time, pictures for sure. the art shop has been a wild and crazy flurry of late night kiln firings, glaze and paint and costumes and silkscreening, and candle making and beading and BOONDOGGLE (also known as: gimp, lanyard, and "hey i want to make one of those things with the plastic strings, but i don't know how to start it will you start it for me?"). if anyone needs a plastic keychain, by all means let me know.

i have a few shining art stars who make pottery i want to keep for myself, and do nice self portraits and beading. they rock. as always.. pictures will come later.

meaty has learned to open the cabin door, and has thus escaped twice. now that hes been out and about on his own, he is very determined to be out again. if hes out on his own (as in, off the leash) he has a sweet young chipmunk in his mouth in about two minutes flat. im incredibly torn. i would love to let him have his freedom and run around, but he would endanger the other cute and stripey population here at camp. oh.. what to do.

my cabin

i had promised to post some more pics, and i had taken some of my cabin last week, but didn't have a spare moment to post them. one of my next door neighbor campers told me this evening that my cabin looked like a hotel room. i think that's a gross overstatement, but it was very cute. and it reminded me that i had planned to put these pics up.

so my cabin is small, but great. it has one main room, with a closet and a small bathroom attached. it has a large window overlooking the lake, and a cute little covered front porch. it has wood trim and a small bookshelf next to the bed. the upper half of the walls are painted a soft yellow. the floor is wood, and somewhat patchy. i like it.

meaty seems to like it well enough as well. he gets lots of attention. the kids come by and call to him through the window, and ooh and ahh over how cute he is. he has a nice view of the lake, the trees, campers and chipmunks running by all day.

the window is big enough that you can see my quilt from outside, and that really brightens things up. the whole place is cozy and happy. we like it. the first day i was here cleaning the art shop, i found a little wooden fish on the floor that someone had started to paint and given up on. i repainted him and made him into a light pull for the light over my bed. i am slowly but surely adding little bits of color to the room. :) i also snagged a bunk bed ladder that was being thrown away to use as a shelf for extra blankets. cozy indeed.

wildness and the germs that go with it

as it turns out, they are also full of germs. this age group isnt big on handwashing. so, i've gotten a cold already. but thats ok. my classes are a lot of fun. we've been playing with clay, and painting. i have a friendship bracelet and beading workshop that im giving tomorrow night.

the campers downstairs (lower lodge) just broke into a huge tambourine/acoustic guitar/bongo drum rendition of wild thing.
highly appropriate.

... and so much fun. ;)

it just got louder in here....

campers arrived yesterday. there are only 35 of them, but they sound like 135. they are 8-11 years old, full of energy, and mostly totally adorable.