Totally…

This week has just been weird. A day off in the middle just feels wrong. The kids were off too, and today is Friday the 13th. And it rained last night, although I see blue skies now…that’s just one window. Not sure what it looks like to the east. I know it’s supposed to rain more later. File it under “Things that make kids lose their minds”. Some kids have disappeared for days; their parents just don’t think they need to go to school? Or they’re so sick they need to stay home for over a week? I mean, I know that’s possible, but it’s already happened twice this year with one of these kids and there’s no documented serious illness. How am I supposed to catch that kid up? I don’t even know. One of them already has like 36 absences. And they’re bright, but not bright enough to know what we did in class. I’m constantly telling kids to advocate for themselves. Tell parents they don’t want to be gone for that many days, that they don’t want to be late every day. It’s hard because it’s not always the kid’s fault…but the kid is who suffers when they’re not at school. I gave a test yesterday based on stuff we’d done over the previous three days…and there are multiple kids who’ve missed all those days. Are they going to go home and watch all the videos we made and finish all the notes? Probably not. Ah well. We all do the best we can. Maybe there are jobs where someone can just not show up for a week and no one minds? This one kid has a low GPA (and he’s bright) and tons of absences, and he’s like, but Miss, I was sick. OK. All the times, you were sick? You can’t go home and complete some of this missing work? There’s the kicker right there. And I don’t blame them…if there’s no one at home supporting them in getting their missed work done, because some of our kids DO go home and finish things…but without that home support, it’s hard to find a middle-schooler with that level of persistence.

My mom would’ve killed me if I didn’t do my work. I was aware of that. And she sent me to school with a wide range of illnesses, including chicken pox. So there’s that.

Knock on wood, I’m not sick. And this is Friday. And we’re doing a lab where I had to tape 20 yardsticks to desks a certain distance apart and then mark a foot (because they can’t measure to save their lives, in centimeters or feet or inches) so they can do collision labs today…which a ton of kids will miss because it rained last night and that’s a reason to stay home.

Artwise, I’m in slow but steady and occasional flail mode. Putting embroidery details on this piece…

Freckles…

Details…

Flowers? Who knows. Scribble doesn’t.

So last night, at my stitching meeting, I was talking about the tree and how I didn’t really like it, and my stitching friend Julie says well just put fabric on there, which duh, I’ve done on one of the other dye paintings, so I went and found a fabric I liked, but then how to make it the same shape and size? Need tracing paper…

I swear there’s tracing paper in this house, but I couldn’t find it, so I’ll buy more, and when I die, children, that is why there will be 17 pads of tracing paper in the house. So that’s on the list for after school today.

I also finished the top for Sue Spargo’s Rooted, a mini block of the month from 2021.

I like it. And these are easy to quilt. I should do that.

And I almost finished this block…I was working on the worm…

This is from Spargo’s Critters and Clover, but this is only the March block. They’re all appliqued down; I just need to do the embroidery, which is fun and relaxing and I rarely get time to work on it. The worm needs little hairs and antenna. Then the frog is next.

Here’s yesterday’s sky as I was leaving work. Very interesting.

And yes, it’s almost dark when I leave now if I have anything to do after school (like tape down 20 yardsticks). Not ideal.

Today, I’m teaching collisions. I almost wrote ‘we’, but my co-teachers are behind me and dealing with other issues of learning, inability to do labs, etc. I have one ‘buffer’ day next week, but honestly, it’s not a buffer day…it’s a ‘finish the test you didn’t finish yesterday’ day. I want the unit done before Fall Break because the next unit JUST fits between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Honestly, when they’re on task, they can get the things done. I give them extra time on stuff and they just find ways to waste it, so I’m not slowing down for that. I have all the honors kids and they ARE done and ready for the next thing, so we move on. I was trying to help some of the low students yesterday on the test, almost laying it out for them, and still…there’s some learning disabilities there that require more time and energy than I can spend on one kid in a class without leaving the rest doing nothing or doing busywork. It’s frustrating, especially when parents decide the student doesn’t need extra support. Hey mom, come sit with your kid as she struggles through a test where she can’t Google the answer. Then tell me she doesn’t need that support.

Sigh. After the test, I have duty. Then get the room ready for next week. Then go to ceramics hopefully? Oh wait, pick up sewing machine first. Then ceramics. Then home to grade stuff (I’m behind again) and wait, I need tracing paper. I had one more place to look. If it’s not there, then I have to go to Michaels on the way home from ceramics. OK, that’s a lot. I feel tired already. I was up at 4 AM with rain and thunder. Sleep is not my friend. But at SOME point, I’ll be working on that tree. I think. Yup. Totally.

Be at Peace for a Bit…

It’s 9:30 AM in the middle of the week and I have already showered and been to the chiropractor and I am not at work, because Veterans’ Day, random holiday in the middle of the week, thanks to the veterans, especially those in my family, although I’m distinctly not pro military or war or all that stuff, I realize they didn’t really always have a choice about their service. But certainly being under this presidency and watching the war people do stupid shit, it’s not OK that people are dying for that, on both sides. So maybe today is about that. I do appreciate the day off anyway, even though my to-do list is 8 miles long. It’s fine. At least I’m not trying to do all these things AROUND my day job for once.

I’m sans sewing machine for a couple of days…took it in for a cleaning and an adjustment and a ‘please figure out how to put this part back that fell out’ kinda thing. It’s OK, because I can sandwich the one smaller piece and I can trim the other one and find/cut binding for it, and honestly, I might be embroidering many hours on this one.

I do one thing and then it tells me to do another thing and then in the middle of the night, I think of yet another thing.

Yeah there’s no real plan. Just make it less flat.

The owl totally needed those eyes and beak. I may do the feet too. Who knows.

I like to do this stuff. I just don’t usually have time on a big quilt with a deadline.

These are little quilts with deadlines.

And they’re quite a ways out. So I’m good. Just looking at these pictures made me think of more things to embroider on it.

I made this pinch pot over a year ago with some leftover clay. I used some leftover glaze to put one layer on and started sgraffito and then it got set aside in a damp box forever. I rehydrated it in the last month, wiped most of the underglaze off with the wet paper towels I used to rehydrate it and the mold it was growing, reglazed, carved some things, and glazed some more.

I need to glaze a few more things and then clean up the lines and let it dry. Get it off my shelf! I love that you can bring clay back like that. So weird.

So my reminder to put the sewing machine in the car went a little wrong.

Luckily I figured it out.

I keep this in mind…although January and on will be the proof.

And this…still remembering this.

Start there and then go after the boss.

There’s been a lot of wildlife around these days. Here’s two mornings ago…

And then this morning…

I feel like the wolf urine I spread is not very effective at the moment. Also beautiful animal but stay away from my dog.

Obviously interrupted a conversation here. Been a while since I’ve seen these in the yard…heard them, but haven’t seen them. Right now, I’m listening to about 50 parrots yelling in my trees. It’s fun but loud.

OK. Today. Gotta deal with some stuff for the ex; the girlchild and boychild are both gone. He has plenty of food and becoming more mobile, hopefully a bunch more today, but we’ll see. I also have pilates and book club today, and about 60 tests left to grade, plus I need to order some stuff, buy some stuff, clean some stuff. And enter a show. And stand outside in the sun for a bit. Read my book. Be at peace for a bit. That would be cool.

Hanging in Midair…

That leaf from Friday? Hanging in midair? It’s still there. Some sort of commentary on life I think.

If you’re a sewing-machine person, maybe you know that part when you’re threading your machine, the skinny bar right above your needle that you put the thread behind so it will line up correctly with the needle? Mine fell off Saturday night. Granted, it was loose and I’d tried to figure out how to tighten it, then considered that the machine needed a cleaning and I would finish the stuff I needed to on this one and the next one and then take it in and all would be good. And then it fell off. Three parts actually. I did successfully continue quilting this…

Which makes you wonder if that little bar is truly necessary. I mean, I’ll call the shop today anyway (it needs a cleaning and the parts are now in a ziplock bag)…but if they can’t do it right away, will I try to sew without that part? I might.

OK, I finished the binding on this one…

Which looked a lot like this for a while…

And the owl angrily requested embroidery. So I started doing that…

Also needs eyes and a better beak.

I appliqued this onto the background…

It just needs sandwiching and quilting. Might embroider but probably not.

I also finally made it back to ceramics. The “fabric” she is holding bisque fired great. This one scares me because of the break. But I had fixed it before all the hospital/injury crap we were dealing with and then didn’t have time to go in. I fixed a bit more and then reglazed.

It looks OK, but IDK how to get it into the kiln.

So that’ll be in the next week or two.

I have a small piece I can work on until then, plus I have the neck started. If there’s room on the drying shelves, I could store that there. I’m scared to put this part on the shelves. One bump and I’m screwed.

I have two pieces at Quilts=Art=Quilts, but hadn’t seen photos of either of them until this one. That’s mine on the far right.

They might have sent some photos…I should look for that.

I was doing yardwork Saturday and found this china plate in my green recycling bin.

With half a croissant. Strange. I cleaned it up. Who throws away a plate? It’s not cracked or chipped or broken, and why my green bin? I suspect the pool person, but it’s still weird. Also the pool people do not understand the difference between trash and compost to save their lives. It’s mind-boggling. Or I’m just very demanding…don’t put trash in my compost!

Hiked with my brother, who’s visiting, on Saturday. Saw a single coyote.

There’s a lot of them in our yards at the moment. Kind of scary.

I got a cocktail on Saturday night. It was very pretty.

And my barn owl left me a gift Saturday night too.

And because it probably needs to be said…

Not entirely, of course. And things aren’t fixed. But they better be working on it day one.

OK, gotta call the sewing machine store. Hoping to go to ceramics today. The students are supposed to be finishing things today and doing one new thing. Some people were efficient on Friday and are ahead of the game. We had about 38 kids absent though…partially because FRIDAY and partially because of a shooting scare that diminished by Friday, but I guess parents were still nervous. Understandable, but also, bet more were out because FRIDAY and if it had been a Tuesday, probably not as many would have been out. Which reminds me, we have Wednesday out for Veterans’ Day…wanna take bets on how many kids will take a 5-day weekend on one side of it? Stupid timing. Oh well. Logistical issue for trying to finish a unit before Thanksgiving week off (excuse me, Fall Break) and giving two tests. I didn’t work enough this weekend, so I’m behind. Still. Again. All good. Will catch up. After school and staff meeting (oops, forgot about that) and ceramics, will grade some and embroider some or maybe attempt to find and put bindings on that other long piece? Or sandwich and quilt the little one? I could try. We’ll see.

New Achievement!

OK. Friday it is. I’m watching a leaf rotate in midair, probably 10 feet from any branch. Of course, there must be a spider web involved somehow, but it looks supermagical from here. I’ll take it. Yesterday…this week…it’s just been hard. Emailing admin at 9:45 at night to deal with something that happened hours earlier. Could it wait? Sure…but I’d probably forget about it. I do feel the relief that grades are done…not that I’m not grading stuff…just that I don’t have a deadline looming over me. This one kid, when I was reminding them that I really am still grading stuff, says, “hey so isn’t it Trimester 2?” Yes dear…and this assignment is part of that grade. Like they thought there would be a break between the two trimesters. Realistically, I have a unit they’re working on that spans the two trimesters…so the assignments will too. I just don’t want to be crazy behind. And I already sort of am. It’s reading the tests, reading their handwriting, that’s the problem. So much easier to read their typing. But then I fight AI. I have a longer test coming up that I think I have to convert to paper precisely for that reason. Unfortunately. Sigh. The conversions suck too…they take a lot of time to set up. Sometimes that is incredibly frustrating.

Pro: there’s a day off next week for Veterans’ Day. Con: it’s in the middle of the week. It’ll be fine. Really. Maybe. Not.

I’m grabbing time at night for art, in between other stuff. I managed to start the handsewing on this the other night…

With Simba and Scribble.

Those damn skinny bindings are just fussy as shit.

I always try to cut them so that they’ll easily fold over to the back and cover the stitching line, but I never cut them wide enough. So I’m fighting them, making tinier stitches, so more of them. I’m halfway, maybe a little more. I’m not sewing the sleeves down yet, because I want to do some hand embroidery and I don’t want to fuss with the sleeves if I do that. Like I did on the last one…pain in the butt because I forgot and just stitched them down. Silly goose.

I had a little extra time last night, because I was on a stitching Zoom, so I also pinned this to a backing…

It has kind of an irregular border, so I decided to applique it onto a backing and then do all the quilty things. It’s not very big.

Then I pinbasted this one for quilting.

That’ll be next up. I’m not sure this one needs embroidery? Maybe I’ll just like quilt all the hair? We’ll see. Sometimes they just seem more simplistic because it’s missing the details of commercial fabrics? We’ll see how I feel once it’s quilted. I also need a better local store for thread.

I haven’t been back to ceramics for a while; hoping to go after school today to try to fix the arm enough to get fired. Girlchild leaves today, boychild is back. I’m on partial dog-peeing duty. Maybe more than that next week, but we’ll see. Everyone seems to be healing up well, although slowly for some. Not surprisingly. Age slows everyone down. But I’m hoping to actually get out on a hike tomorrow afternoon. Might text my brother and invite him. I miss the hikes. The weather’s been so wonky, it’s been hard to fit it in, plus school’s demands on my time. But things are a little more chill at the moment, so I want to take advantage of that. I’ll be handstitching and/or quilting tonight at some point though. Maybe later. And grading more tests. Ugh. Just hoping the school day is chill…yesterday was not. Also hoping my new earbuds arrive or this other set I have works. I dropped my old ones into my tea. Yes, exhaustion. Impressive, even for me. New achievement! Klutz level 10 attained. Moving on. Bless the arrival of the weekend.

Get a Handle on It…

OK. There is hope…although my school board does not make me hopeful at all. I guess my last years of teaching will be about watching ignorant people try to contain children and their teachers in a negative way. So as we see positive change in the larger world, change those in government should absolutely use for positive results…my local world becomes smaller and more restrictive. There are stories like that all over the US. I’m glad for the House and the Senate and the big races that flipped some of that…the increased diversity of gender and people of color and indigenous folks. The people who should have been in positions of power all along. That is all good. Now go out there and fix shit, y’all. I can’t afford this world we’re in…not mentally and not in my wallet. Get rid of the damn swamp wherever you can. Meanwhile, my school board members will continue to claim that we teachers are evil communists who turn kids trans.

Speaking of those kids, I’m just trying to get them to understand Newton’s 2nd Law. Which is the easy one. I’m just trying to finish a unit before we go on Thanksgiving break, because after a week plus, my kids can’t remember anything. Sad but true.

Artwise, I spent time yesterday driving downtown (where apparently signals mean nothing) to pick up my piece from the library show. I have to decide whether to leave it as a book or pull it apart (my original plan) and make it into a quilt on the wall. Later. Decide later. I have limited decisionmaking energy at the moment.

I did finally finish my grades yesterday during my prep period. I think. I should go check them again. Just in case I forgot something. I had a really hard time this trimester getting it done. It had a lot to do with all the hospital stuff. I’d like to avoid that in the future. Not like you can plan for it.

I did manage to do a final trim on the current dye painting (it was a little crooked) and then went through my stash for a binding fabric. I thought for sure it would be green, but it was too much. So I found this light batik with a little blue and a little purple in it, and it worked really well with the piece…

That owl is screeching out for embroidery. Soon I will oblige.

And last night, I put the bindings and sleeves on…

They’re pinned and ready to sew by hand. I made a really narrow binding for this one. Scribble was entirely unhelpful. At some point, I had Bowie on my lap, then Scribble. If you don’t pet her enough, she reaches out with her paw and pats your hand. Hey lady. Pet me. Anyway, I’ll be handstitching tonight OR I’ll be sandwiching the other one. Depends on how I feel. Today is long. Meeting in the morning that I think everyone forgot about, teaching more force and motion all day, then pilates (need that) and dinner with the girlchild and my brother, who’s visiting my parents. Should be interesting. My introvert self just wants to finish the library book that’s being sucked back today, but since I have 5 hours left, that’s not happening. I’m already on the hold list, but it’s a good book and I don’t want to put it down. Ah well…such is being an adult and having to do the things and pay the bills and all that crap. It’ll be good to hang out with family at dinner, good to exercise, good to just sit and stitch afterwards. I took a break from grades last night (although I was typing things into the meeting agenda for this morning, so still work) and probably will tonight as well. Then I’ll need to get back into it. Ugh. Only 1/3 through the year…and I’m exhausted. Hopefully I’ll get a handle on it soon.

Under Control

OK. This week. Has to be more under control. Really. In terms of school planning, artmaking, all the things. I’m already behind of course. Grades aren’t done (due tomorrow), didn’t do half the things I needed to this weekend. I did pick up two quilts, one from the photographer (see below) and one from a show that closed. She said my piece was very popular, which is cool. It’s nice for the work to get noticed. I didn’t even finish my weekly bullet calendar, the thing that organizes my brain. I’ve bene to the airport twice in the last two days and will go again tonight. It’s OK…it is support flying in and out. Always good. Well, the flying out isn’t helpful, but people have to go to work and stuff.

Here’s the quilt that went to the photographer, Let It Rot…

55 ½” w x 64 ½” h, $5080. Yes, it’s for a show, but you’re never guaranteed to get in. So it might not. Which is always OK…the ones that don’t get in to the show I made them for invariably get into a good show somewhere. Lots of focus on the supportive, communicative mycelial network here…one I think we could all use.

I quilted the small skinny owl piece…

Thursday night…

Nothing Friday, but then Saturday night…

I got all the outlining done. Last night, I quilted the background…with a spare dog.

I also trimmed it, but I feel like I need to try that again, and then hope I have something that will work for the binding. Then it needs some embroidery…I think. I have two more ready to go here. So I can bounce between them.

Saturday dinner’s drawing…continued from one a few weeks back.

Sometimes they bring the food so fast, I can’t finish. Definitely Halloween on the mind.

Friday night, we had tickets to the B-52s, who were pretty good. Kate Pierson I think was great (she’s only 78).

Cindy Wilson was definitely having a harder time of it, but impressive attempt in her 70s as well.

DEVO was great. Love watching them run around and wearing kneepads so they could get down on the ground for the lower keyboards instead of just making a new setup. Lots of energy and fun.

The shows were short…that’s what happens when the audience AND the musicians are old, I guess, although there were a lot of younger people in the audience. Good fun.

So. I need to finish grading today. No matter what. All the injured people are home from hospitals and care facilities and hopefully healing appropriately. I’m still knee deep in Newton’s Laws this week. I need to set up a lab this week. Should have done it Friday, but I was exhausted. Still am, but I have no choice now. Staff meeting, which the boss promises will be short. Grades grades grades and then maybe putting a binding on that little quilt. Or starting the next one, if I don’t have enough of something appropriate. It happens. The art at the end of the day is helping…it always does.

Four Months’ of Leaves

Whoa Nelly, I took yesterday off, forgot to write, got some work done, but not nearly enough, and am now stressed about all the things. I’d like to thank my overactive brain for coming to that party.

Two nights ago, I labeled, cleaned up, and ironed my quilt for Quilt National so I could ship it yesterday. Then I did yet another round of shading on this last night…

It’s still wet in that photo, but I think I’ve finally beat the yellow and the orange. I’m hoping to like it enough tonight to iron it and then try to wash out the plasticky stuff. We’ll see how that goes. I’m hoping well.

I started quilting the other long, skinny piece last night, after sandwiching it.

I’m thinking embroidery on this one? But I haven’t decided. I’ll see what it looks like at the end. I was going to do a no-binding finish, but I forgot until it was already pinbasted and then decided I didn’t have the energy for thinking that out right now. Reality check there. Trying to be innovative with my own processes, which I know backward and forward, when there is no available brainpower is problematic.

Tuesday night was also an opening at the Hyde Gallery at Grossmont College. I have two pieces in the show, Desert Mother…

And Immediate Action Required…the face is because I hate having my picture taken and have to reset it occasionally.

Also it was the end of the school day and I was exhausted.

Not many people showed up, unfortunately. Even with free food. College students these days…

It is a nice show, though, and you should go see it.

And then I went over to the other house to pee the dog and wait for the girlchild and her dad to get home in case they needed help.

I think Annie needs help. Mostly the hugging/petting kind, which I tried to give her.

This is true for me.

I like tea a lot and I spill it frequently. I may also look a little like that at the moment.

This is what we’re teaching right now…well the Isaac part anyway. Colors isn’t until January.

I love the guy in the background…”OMG! WTF! GET SOMEONE TO HELP!” It’s refraction dude. You’re fine.

So yeah, speaking of fine. Sigh. It’s fine. Really. Glad to have everyone home (soon) and hopefully on the mend. The next week or so will be a little nuts, but we’ll figure it out. Did I mention grades are due? I did. I don’t have anything (but work and a benefits call and more work) tonight. Tomorrow night, we have tickets to a concert with friends, so I will need to go to that. The weekend looks crazy…too many things to do. I did manage to sweep four months’ of leaves off the front steps so no one will slip and die coming up or down them anymore. That was one of yesterday’s true achievements. Today, I am giving a test AND doing test corrections for the last test. Or the test before that. I just can’t remember. Can’t get caught up either. I’m doing this one digitally but hopefully locking their asses down to the two tabs I open up. We’ll see if it works. Then grading until I give up and quilt some more. Or iron. Or something. I need to get back into the artmaking…I’ve been procrastinating with cleanup, which was useful, but not productive. I need the productive part for my sanity. And I know that. So here we are, making things.

Staring into the Fire Void…

Well the weekend was nice but also a challenge…good to sit in a chair and read my book or embroider, without thinking about school, but it rained and we forgot the pump for the air mattress, so my hips are sore from sleeping on the ground. The bed last night felt delightful. We did remember the popup though, so that was helpful for the rain. AND we got the tent up before it started pouring. Another plus.

Friday was Tattoo a Teacher Day…we didn’t get as many as last year.

My arm one is still there. The face one did not last all weekend, but most of it. It was a dinosaur.

We got out of here by 6 PM (we hadn’t really packed and it was a bit of a crazy shitshow after school). We managed a small fire with the rain and the popup…

Short drawing time too. We were tired. I think we ate dinner at 9 PM. It was fine.

The next day dawned glorious. We went on a short hike…

Saw some giant footprints…

Took a few breaks…

Saw a few sights…

Made it to the top…

The Man’s back has been bugging him; I’m sure sleeping on the ground didn’t help. We came back and he rested…

He’s the lump in the tent. I read for a while and stitched for a while…

I’m almost done with this bird I’ve been working on for months. I obviously don’t work on it much.

We then made the insane decision to go into town for dinner…forgetting that it is October, apple season, and the tourists are in full swing. Insane swing.

All the restaurants are tiny and had long lines, quoting 90 minutes plus for dinner. We went to one off the beaten path, somewhere we’ve been before, volunteered to sit outside in the chill, and only had to wait 30 minutes. All good.

Back to a blazing fire, a longer drawing…

Some staring into the fire void. Sleep. Up in the morning feeling somewhat refreshed (I was kinda done with the sleeping on the ground thing, honestly). Packed up with no issues except wet things, came home, made a grocery list, and then had to deal with a second family member in the hospital in the last week. Here’s me grading outside the emergency room.

It’s OK…everyone is going to be fine. Everyone will be home soon enough. I’m just not done grading (shocking) and a little (a lot) behind on everything else. I’ll get there.

Extra dog.

And this is NOT a dog…

That is my front yard early Saturday morning. Ah well. We knew they were out there.

So I am mostly unprepared for this week. I’m taking lots of ashwaganda, so maybe that is helping. My lunches aren’t made, my grading isn’t done. I think I have warmup posts for the week, but I’m not sure. Grades are due in a week. I think I know what I’m teaching today…I’m pretty sure Friday self set all that up. Good job! And I’ll figure the rest out when I get there.

Losing Control of the Workload…

Whoa, losing control of the workload. Fun stuff. I had this plan for getting all the tests graded before next week (didn’t happen). All the digital stuff was going to be graded by today (nope. haha). All the packets were going to be graded on Wednesday (I have two more classes to grade). There are reasons (there are always reasons). Life sits up and says nah bruh. You gotta pivot. The plan is still to go camping this weekend (knock on wood). I’ll get the grading done. Somehow. I might have to grade a bit in the campground. I was going to try to grade in the car, but I think it’s gonna be dark. It’s fine. I’ll figure it out. But the art time is suffering at the moment. Also because my head can’t get around a few things until I get some other things done for once. I’m cleaning the office/studio still. Actually, what I’m doing is going through a bin and a bag of scraps and getting rid of those that are too small and sorting the rest. Plus trying to find an applique piece.

There’s one of the applique pieces in the bottom right…I have about 6 of them, maybe more, but there’s one in particular I’m looking for and it wasn’t in this pile. But really, this is about corralling these pieces into something so they stop wandering around the room.

Last night, that’s all I had the energy for. I got home, started dinner…finished the Zoom call I’d been on in the car, actually did some embroidery during the last bit of that, then ate, cleaned up, packed for camping, ordered tea, and sorted a few things. Not the most productive, but there were good reasons for it.

The night before, I did the eyebrows of the purple woman and yet another brown layer on the other.

Might need to go back with a light blue layer to bring the orange down. So complicated. Then wash it out and start making it into a quilt. Thing. Whatever.

I have an opening on Tuesday for this show…

I have two pieces in the show; stop by if you want to see them…or me. Here’s Desert Mother…she’s pretty fun up close.

Then this one…

Immediate Action Required…I had to look it up. Some piece’s titles take a while to sit in my head. This is a dye painting plus applique plus hand embroidery. Fun stuff. Gonna be doing more of that soon. Next week hopefully. If I can get my act together.

Today. Today includes two parent meetings in the morning, including one demanded by parents because we called their son a bully (hmmm…think about that). Then I’m giving a test. And finishing grading those packets hopefully. And maybe the other tests I haven’t finished. It’s Tattoo a Teacher Day at lunch. Gotta make sure I have something that will take those things off. Then home to pack and go camping, assuming the other stuff is OK. Hopefully spend some time sitting by a campfire or in a camp chair, relaxing, stitching, reading my book, (grading papers), hiking. Then home Sunday to do a ton of catchup. Not necessarily restful, but hopefully a reset of sorts. The run from now until Christmas is rough. Next week is Red Ribbon Week, plus a full moon, plus Halloween. Pray for your teacher friends. It’s a lot.

Hopefully It Will Hold…

My oatmeal revolted this morning. I’m not sure why. I don’t know what I did differently, but it was like a hard cake of oatmeal instead of like a mushy cereal. I don’t know what I did to deserve that. Probably didn’t put enough milk in? But I remember measuring it. Cooked it too long? That is possible. I don’t remember setting it, wait, I did…I did the right time. Am I eating it? Of course I am. Not wasting food. Don’t really care about it that much. Not the tastiest. Could be worse though. Giant blobs of hard oats. Weird.

Also weird, what I’m doing artistically at the moment, which is mostly cleaning honestly. The studio rarely gets a good clean, and it’s not getting one now either…but I had a bag and a bin full of little tiny pieces of fabric that came from IDK where and I can’t deal with them taking up real estate any more. Some are precut binding pieces, and narrower than anything I would ever use, so they’re getting recycled. The rest are getting cleaned off (dust bunnies), ironed if necessary, and stacked up by color, along with some other monthly shipments I got for a while and I thought I had sorted into my bins, but hadn’t. So now I am.

My internet is being cranky this morning; hopefully I’ll be able to add photos by the time I’m done writing. Anyway, those are the piles so far; I’m about 1/3 of the way through the bin. I got all the way through the bag. I also need to pack a quilt and ship it. So that’s on my to-do list. Plus grades are due soon, so I’m trying to get through one class of tests a night, but really, I need to do two one night because camping this weekend. I think last night was the night I was going to try to do more, but it was errands, talking to dad (or trying to), because it was his birthday (86!), and then talking to my bro, his lovely wife, and his delightful daughter. All good things. Just can’t grade when life is happening. Sigh.

Top right of that picture has some fabric applique pieces I’ve made but not finished over the years. I was looking for a specific one and it wasn’t there. Sigh. I do have them on my list to try to finish, but I need to find all of them.

So I’ve been adding Inktense pencil layers to these two dye paintings. The small one needed a background color and the larger one, the two bottom heads needed stuff.

So I’ve been adding layers and then fabric medium and more layers. Last night, I ironed the smaller one, so I’ll wash it out probably tonight, see what holds. The larger one, I thought I was done, and then in the photo, noticed I’d forgotten the eyebrows.

And they’re totally obvious and bug me. So I’ll do that tonight. So it’s not an hour’s worth of truly art stuff, but the cleaning needs to happen. I’ll get there. The heads piece and another long skinny one need to be finished next.

I finally made it to ceramics and made some decisions. I was able to remove the ‘cloth’ piece from the arms and I’m putting it in the bisque fire.

Hopefully it won’t change shape much. I’ll try to glaze fire it in place. I just needed it out of the way so I could try to do a better fix on the arm. We’re at bone dry though and it’s problematic. It is a clean break though, so if I can fire it next to the main piece after I fix it, I’ll be able to make it all work I think.

I’d say I need to do something smaller next, but this was supposed to be smaller and maybe I just can’t do small? I also can’t finish things quickly. I do think the arm is more stable now, so that should help.

Speaking of help, here’s Scribble helping to grade tests.

She is ever so helpful.

I drove past this during errands yesterday. I like to let the GPS tell me which way to go, so I end up on random streets I’ve never been on.

Their reviews are average, but it’s worth a try to drag some kid there, yeah? Maybe just for coffee.

This is legit.

That man is so incapable of doing his job as it is.

OK. Today should be a chill day. Kids have an independent assignment to complete before a lab tomorrow. I have a million packets to grade and I really need to finish if possible. Or get close. Then I have pilates after school and need to set up a flood barrier for the rain that is coming over the next few days. I have an outside drain that isn’t working and needs to be cleared out, but I don’t have the time or the equipment. It’s on my list for Thanksgiving. The new gutter drains in an inconvenient location. Then I’m going to grade more than one class worth of tests, fix those eyebrows, and finish cleaning up in here. Maybe put a label on that quilt I need to ship (probably not; let’s be honest. There are only so many hours in a day). It’s all good though. At least I have a plan…hopefully it will hold.