It’s Still OK (or Is It?)…

Signs of recovering delirium…the number of blog titles in a row that have the word ‘ok’ in them. The fact that I don’t know what day it is. Or the date. It’s still February, right? At one point, I duplicated a week in February for our science planning calendar. There was a good reason for it at the time, but I’m wondering if it’s still duplicated and now I will have to repeat a week in February because of that. I had to take a nap after the grocery shopping yesterday. Granted, I had already driven to Encinitas or Carlsbad or somewhere up north to pick up two quilts from a show, so I was already physically doing way more than I had in days, so the nap doesn’t seem so bad, right? Except today I have to go to school, and physically and mentally, that’s a lot more than the grocery shopping.

It’s OK. Really. I have a rolling chair. I can sit in it and maneuver all over the room. I’m sure it will be fine. I might need a nap at lunch. Also fine.

I really was better yesterday, despite the nap.

Saturday night, I finally got all these stitched down…

Now I can start doing random embroidery everywhere on it.

Really, it’s just a plan to use up all the thread in the house. Which will never happen of course. There’s just too much of it. But you can’t say I don’t have a plan.

Yesterday, I even ironed, although that was problematic at some point and I had to sit down.

Somehow in all that, I managed to record an hourlong video of who-knows-what. Don’t worry, Patreon followers…I know how to edit. I’m in the 400s at this point. Not halfway yet, because I got dizzy…and gave up…and went to bed early…but close to halfway. Progress anyway.

I finished the artist book and submitted it.

Can’t say this is my thing.

However, one of the reasons I’m in this group is because they make me do things that aren’t my thing. It’s called Ominous Nature. We’ll see if she thinks it’s too disturbing for the library. Since I have I think THREE more possible library exhibits in the future? It would be good to know what she thinks is disturbing. Sigh. Or I should just become a nature artist. Funny, I think of myself as a nature artist a lot of the time.

Oh yeah. All the fabrics I’ve used on the quilt so far. My brain is still on bouncy mode.

Wish me luck today. Wish my students luck too. And someone save me from a 2-hour staff meeting.

She’s cute, but this is after an hour of early morning rampaging, being kicked out of the bedroom, then let back in an hour later due to crying baby noises, then this is my laundry basket…

before she knocked it over. Uh huh. Evil. And yet, when asleep, adorable.

One of them was on my feet last night. Not sure which one. I can tell them apart by feel…their fur is different.

This one. This one got a water bottle sprayed in his face about four times last night for petulant barking.

Barking at coyotes is understood. It does not need to continue for 20 minutes past the coyote incursion into our sound space. He still likes me this morning apparently…

It’s questionable on my end.

OK, well seems like systems are mostly back to normal. I’ll need naps, I’m still in recovery mode, but there is progress toward normal function. Which means progress toward more art function.

For now? Progress to school. Where that rolling chair is. OK? OK. No more titles with OK.

My Brain Needed Somewhere Else to Land…

Happy V Day to all! I want to say, well, except the assholes, but maybe they need a Happy V Day and that’s why they’re assholes. Now you see how I can teach middle school, although I already know (a) I didn’t get enough sleep because I got sidetracked by making things and (b) I’m missing one SECA today. So it’ll be a challenge, but I think I can do it. It’s not like I have a choice. But here are two examples of my day job. First, it’s the only place I can think of where the words “Then don’t smell the scissors” might come out of my mouth. Followed by this…

SIGH. I only have one period left of these to sit through. And there were some very good ones that restored my faith in humanity. And learning. And schools. And children. This was not one of them. This is what happens when you copy a bunch of shit off the internet that you don’t really understand and then you try to read it and instead of figuring out how to pronounce all the words you copied, you start each word nice and loud and then you are whispering at the end because you don’t have a clue how to say it. WIScon(si…).

I will hopefully be done with these tonight, and that will just leave a bunch of smaller things to grade and a pile of makeups, which will be even bigger by next Friday. Oh. Also an assessment they’re doing today. Shit. OK. Well. Hmmm. This weekend is a clusterfuck already. I guess it will be more of one.

This is why I stayed up way too late last night. My brain needed somewhere else to land or it would never fall asleep.

I did hang out with my stitching group last night, including one member who rarely shows up and another who had moved away for 13 years and came back. THIRTEEN YEARS. Wow. And we’re still meeting. That’s cool. I think I’ve been in this group since I was pregnant with the girlchild, and she’s 22 1/2 now. So that’s a thing. I got to work on Folk Tails, my Sue Spargo Block-of-the-Month from 2015 that might never ever get done…

The cheetah is almost done…but there’s some wiggy flowers that go in the block next. Then I might sew this to the larger bit? Or do I have to finish the other two October blocks to do that? I might. It’s not a fast quilt when you only work on it one night a month and then you didn’t do even that for most of 2019. It might travel to the National Parks with me in April…or it might be too big for that. Hmmm. Hard to say. We’ll see.

Then I came home and graded stuff, one more class of the projects. It was after 11 when I finished. But no way was I going to bed without something. The really lucky bit of going to my stitching meeting was my knowledgeable bookmaking friend, who gave me multiple solutions for how to connect the two pieces I’ve been working on. She was very helpful. So now I have to decide how to do it. Easy? Medium hard? Really hard? Sorta hard but kinda creative? We’ll see. I didn’t do that last night, though. More brain power than I had. Instead I meditatively stitched shit down…

Still working on just getting it all attached so I can take it off the cutting matt and do some more decorative stuff…although I guess I did a little on those leaves. Most of it is stitched down now, which is good, because something good should come of staying up too late. I just kept stitching, thinking “just one more” and then I looked at the time and went “oh shit, no more” and went to bed.

It’ll be fine. It’s Friday. It’s Valentine’s Day (makes middle-school kids crazy). It’s the day before another 3-day weekend. And we’re giving them an assessment that’s HARD. Well, unless you’ve been listening, in which case, it’s pretty damn easy. Gonna go buy a donut reward for the class that earned them, so at least one group of kids won’t totally hate me. Wait. The line at the donut store today might be hellacious. Sigh. We’ll see. I’ll do a driveby.

Getting Loud in Here…

I have a lot of things in my head this morning. Too many things, probably. As usual. I’m having that issue artistically as well…too many projects going on at once. I do much better with just one at a time. Drawings are fine. They’re short and don’t usually require a ton of brain power outside of the actual drawing time. Right now, I have a bunch of projects talking to me and it’s getting loud in here.

So last night, I worked on two of them. It meant I didn’t grade anything. I input grades. I tutored earlier. I graded stuff in class. I just didn’t work on the projects at home. I wanted to art instead. It was late anyway…after tutoring, I had chiropractor and pilates, so by the time I was done with dinner, it was late.

So I did some of the stitch down on this…

Then I’ll do embellishment…

This is just for fun. For something different. I like the idea of it.

I wanted to make sure I did some of the other art stuff as well…and there was no way I was finishing all the stitch down last night, so I timed it off the show I was watching. When it was done, I moved into the other room to work on the current art quilt. I’ll come back to this tonight.

This is moving pretty slowly. It doesn’t help to be gone for three nights. This coming weekend isn’t any better. But it works to iron for an hour or so each night. I think last night I managed 38 minutes before midnight…but it’s 38 minutes of progress.

I ironed an asteroid and some missiles and a volcano. That’s it. Not much. More tonight. So many yellows!

I finished the 200s and did some of the 300s. Only 600 to go! No worries. I also have an artist book I’m working on, but my brain exploded over that last night, so I’ll wait to post on it later, after I’ve made some more decisions.

I resized a bunch of pictures of art we saw in Joshua Tree, but I don’t have time to post them this morning, because I have to find the artists’ names and possible links, and that takes more time than I have. I will get to them…but I did draw while I was there…this was after hiking…the rocks inspired the woman…

This was the night we got there…full moon coming, bunnies in the yard…

None of those cactus anywhere to be seen…and this one the following night…

Inspiration comes from many places.

OK, school, then union meeting, then make Patreon video, and grade stuff? And then artmaking. Full day. As always. Looking forward to the artmaking stuff, that’s for sure.

Tired and Dreaming of Leather

You know you’re tired when the alarm goes off and you’re deep into a weird-ass dream out in a swampy forest you’ve never been to, with a bunch of people who seem familiar but you can’t actually place in your real-world existence. Except like there’s that one guy from high school who you had absolutely no interest in and never talked to, and then one person from work who you don’t really like. Plus you’re wearing leather pants or a poncho or something that doesn’t even visit your closet.

That was this morning.

It’s the first 5-day week back to school, I guess. Maybe that’s why my brain is like WHYYYY does there have to be another day. Plus we made them finish something large, so then the kids panic and there’s all this drama, and I’m like, nah. Save it for your mama. I’m the teach. So all that. And desperately trying to plan a mostly new unit before my co-teacher flies away for a few days. It’ll be FINE. No really. It probably will. I’m not caught up. I never finished the last few bits of makeup work. The world did not end. Yet. Although one kid asked me about it…his makeup work, not the world ending. And this weekend is busy, so that’ll make it difficult to do. Ah well. Life goes on.

So it’s not surprising I’m tired and dreaming of leather. Or pleather, because it’s more environmentally friendly. Yesterday after school, I drove to Francis Parker School to see the San Diego Book Arts show there. Turns out I had three friends in the show, so that was cool. I was only expecting one. Did I take pictures? No I did not. I did take a picture of the sky, actually…

It was even more beautiful than this, of course. Anyway. No art photos because? I was tired, I think.

I drove home and then hung out with my now-in-Portland quilting friend, Susan…

I sorted Wonder Under while she knitted. We’ve been aiming for once a month, although in December, we did it in real life.

No idea what I was doing there. I think prepping to fix my work shirt…tiny holes that turn into larger ones, until you figure you have to fix it or toss it or make it into a rag. It’s funny, because this shirt is old, and we get a new one every year, but this one is the best color/fit of all of them, so I’ve worn it to death, while the others are still looking like new.

So I fixed it. With a pirate. Which might be my motto for 2020.

We’ll see if anyone (besides my co-teacher, who knew I would be doing this) notices. Usually students do notice shit like this, but this crew is remarkably NOT into noticing anything. Like due dates or the fact that I shaved part of my head too short, which the Man wants to fix…but I’m waiting for the one bit to get long enough to fake a number 2 shave and then I’ll shave all of it to match. I figure that’s next week…maybe the end of this week. Weird things I do because I’m tired.

OK, so what else? Kittens of course…

They were mostly asleep during all this, but then woke up and started rampaging around the house with Kitten, lots of wrestling and banging around in cardboard.

Ah yes, in the realm of What, Am I Crazy? I’m getting some fabrics from Anna Maria Horner every other month for her Applique Stories thing…which intrigued me…

These are not fabrics I would normally use, although a couple are close…I might actually buy them in a store…but of course, instead of the bouquet-like blocks most of her followers have been making, I’m thinking either decorated uteri or just women. We’ll see. They’re washed. That’s the first step. I’m really liking the thought of something different.

Anyway. Another meeting today. Did I tell you both of yesterday’s early morning meetings were no-shows? Bastards. OK, one was the boss and he has littles. But ugh. That’s not helping the tired. Today is a new unit, a lot of student panic, me being the Chill Queen (no really), and the man having a show later tonight, so dancing is in my future, if I have the energy. You never know!

Things You Shouldn’t Do When You’re Tired…

Email anyone of importance
Use a knife
Shave your head
Drive

I only did one of those this morning with any issues. I did one with no issues, but it was just butter. You’ll have to guess which one was the problem.

We finally gamed on a Friday, after about an 18-month hiatus. This is how I get my embroidery done, stitching to stay awake on a Friday after a long week. We are playing some Star Trek game…I don’t know if it’s a fancier name than that, but somehow I ended up with two characters.

This is easier, because we can play a story in a night and then if someone can’t come next time, it doesn’t really matter. Last time, our schedules were so complicated that we couldn’t meet sometimes for a few months, and some people had issues with that. So this will work, hopefully.

I’ve been working on this Sue Spargo quilt for about 4 years now, I think. There’s a lot of embroidery. I enjoy it, but I only do it when I’m waiting or a passenger in a car or on a plane or gaming, so it takes a long time to finish.

The cheetah is part of the October blocks (it was a block-of-the-month thing), so I think after I embroider this and the other two blocks for this month, I put the whole thing together and start doing borders. Finally. There’s a bunch of filler embroidery that needs to go one before I can do that though…a road and a ton of grass. It’ll be a while.

There are so many mistakes in those cast-on stitches, it’s not even funny. I should add that to the list above…don’t do complicated embroidery stitches when tired. But it looks fun! I could add more embroidery to this easily…

Then it would take even longer.

OK, I have a busy weekend, an art meeting, a pilates class (a new one, trying new things), grading, artmaking, groceries, all sort of compressed for some reason. Last night’s sleep was hindered by barking puppy (coyotes!)…he’s gonna need a long walk this afternoon or we might kill him tonight.

Also, I joined the Modern Quilt Guild. My quilts aren’t modern at all, and I really have no desire to MAKE modern quilts (all that piecing and straight lines! WTF!), but they meet regularly and do stitch-ins, so maybe I’ll find a group that works for me. I’m planning on going to one of their stitch-ins in February, just to check it out. It could suck; it could be cool. It’s hard to find places where I fit sometimes, but I keep looking.

No worries about my SAQA group…I think maybe having us meet quarterly or every other month is going to work out better…I’ll bring it up at the next meeting and figure it out. I fell into my other two monthly groups when I was young and pregnant with the sweet monsters, so this is just the evolution of that need, to get out with like minds and make stuff regularly. It’s all a work in progress.

See Where That Goes…

Hey y’all. Two days of silence. Well, only here. The rest of my existence has been loud. I just didn’t have time to write in the last two days. But today, I am back to school, and this is part of my morning wakeup routine. I’m really not awake until after 9 AM, which is difficult, because I usually have students at 9. And they require interaction…energy I usually don’t have at 9 AM. Hence writing, which gets the word part of my brain in gear, plus also makes me reflect on the day and what I might need or want to get done.

Needs and wants are often very different, of course. I want to go back to sleep, because oh hells that was a shitty night’s sleep and I’m mostly braindead…but no, I get to sit through a few hours (or more) of meetings and professional development, which is pretty much the bane of my existence. I mean, I guess another colonoscopy would be worse, but I don’t need another one of those for like 10 years, so that’s a plus. These damn things come every week (although not the all-day version, which has its own special level of suckage). It is what it is. My day job pays the bills and is generally not boring and I even enjoy the teaching/kid parts (well, mostly), although not when I realize two of my top students were copying off each other. I’m disappointed in that.

I’m also sort of reeling still about finding out Saturday that my cousin Jennifer died. She was a sweet and quietly sarcastic woman and although she had been sick for a while, we all had hope that things would turn around. I did see her in October, but had plans to do that again…too late. So I’m sort of walking around in a daze with that one…trying to put something that makes sense in that hole in my head where she resided.

Saturday I was in Palm Springs for a class taught by Svetlana Shigroff…who I follow on Instagram. I’m not sure how I found her…Instagram has its algorithms…”you like this so your friends like that”. I had seen her work and then a video of her making the work, and I was fascinated by the process and the product. I feel like I should follow those urges to learn new things, so when I saw she had a class coming up (I actually missed the first one in November, couldn’t go then), I signed up. Yes, it’s a 2-hour drive. Each way. It was Winter Break. I felt like I could handle that.

And I could…the class was tufting, which is kind of like rug hooking…here’s the setup…

You can see the weird tool we used on the frame.

You work from the back…

It took me a while to get the loops regular and consistent…

This is still from the back. You can use a variety of fabrics, but I stuck to jersey because for me, it was more about the image than the texture.

There were about 13 people in class. I’m pretty sure I knew one of them from somewhere (odds of that)?

Still from the back. Definitely some new muscles using this beast.

I got as much done as I could…

Here’s the whole class with their pieces…

I’m famous! Nah. But if you want to follow the artist on Instagram, you can…

You can see I didn’t sit for this…

And she had a better picture of the group than I did.

I made it home by 5:30 and settled down for some cheery Chernobyl and brainless stitching.

The next day, I had an opening up at the beach…so you need to see the water…yeah?

I have two pieces in this show with Allied Craftsmen at the Front Porch Gallery in Carlsbad, California. This is my work, Desert Daughter, in front of Arline Fisch’s cool metalwork.

And my snarky self with Some Like It Hot…which meant I got to explain menopause to two college students.

Home to kitten activity…and getting ready for school.

Sometimes they stop moving. On me.

Finally started drawing again…this thing will be done soon, with or without Luna’s help…

It’s coming. All good. Meanwhile, school is back in the schedule. I can be irritated by the lack of work I got done over break, but there’s no need or purpose for that. I am trying to process Jennifer’s absence. I have a lot of grading that’s still not done. I can’t fix all that. I can just start now and see where it all goes.

2020…May It Be Full of Art…

It was a good New Year’s Day…I never got out of my pajamas…the only thing better would have been a hike, and we have that planned for tomorrow.

Today is the boychild’s birthday…

Wow. That hair. He’s much taller now, hair is longer. Pretty sure he started those bangs the girlchild has…after some revisions by mom. He makes better decisions now. Or at least asks first. He’ll spend some time with dogs and maybe kittens, relaxing. May 2020 be awesome for him, whatever that means.

We hiked with the dogs on Tuesday (yes, I am losing track of days). Simba needed a carry assist at some point…we thought he might have something in his paw, but it might have just been a pulled muscle.

We took them out 4 miles to try to tire the boy out…the boy dog, that is. He’s been in bark mode. Plus we think he misses the girlchild. It was a gorgeous day for a hike…

I love the outside. Plus there was lots of water to look at and stomp through…

Check out that tongue. We definitely tired her out…almost enough to ignore the fireworks on NYE.

I quilted a little bit every day…like one person’s worth…

It was a goal I could handle. Finish one person. Then you get a break.

It stayed that way, one a day, until yesterday…

Yesterday, I finished the requisite person and then had the background staring at me…

I stopped for dinner and then finished quilting the whole thing…

It only took 3 1/2 hours…

So Kitten/kitten play has been happening…a little…

Mostly around corners and under quilts…

There was no hissing here…just play bopping. And this was after Nova went after Kitten’s tail, which was swishing around quite temptingly.

I did my daily drawings…this one from NYE was a little strange…

Here’s the first drawing of 2020…

I always feel like this is such a good practice, drawing every day, but the reality of my days during school are less conducive to this. Unfortunately. I’ve tried instituting a drawing a week, like Friday night, but time is so limited when I’m teaching that I sacrifice the drawing time to actual artmaking instead.

Nova on my sketchbooks…

Not the best footing.

OK, I have two quilts to deliver, a binding fabric to buy (no, I don’t have enough of anything to use for binding), and pilates class…plus grading. I did one period of the UGH assignments (it’s really two assignments put together) yesterday. It took about 2 1/2 hours, but I wasn’t really paying attention well and I will get faster. Or not. I don’t know. Four more periods of those to go…really need to do one a day. Plus decide what art I’m making next. Oh yeah, recap of 2019…only 6 quilts, but 1 was huge…

All of them have been or are going to be in shows, which is cool. Two are traveling for at least a year. One won an award. All good. I feel like making work from my head is a good place right now. Although 4 of these were made for specific themes. My favorite, Swallow Me Whole, was not though. It was a thing in my head that needed to get out. So start 2020 with one of those, one I choose, no theme, just Nida.

Plus I did these last year…

These were a new thing…not sure how successful it was, but it was an interesting experience. I would stitch more of my drawings, but they take so much time, it’s hard to make it a profitable thing. Not that I make art for that…but maybe I’ll design a few for traveling/camping. They were good for that. You can find patterns and kits for these at Global Artisans…

2020…may it be full of art and time for that shit.

That One Is for Me…

Ugh. OK. Pros! No 12-year-olds to be seen for miles around. I’m still in my pajamas! The sun is shining on me (but the storm is coming, so enjoy the fuck out of that, because you won’t see it again until maybe Saturday). There are kittens in the house and they are fun to hang out with. There’s a turkey brining in the fridge JUST FOR ME. Yes, I make myself a turkey every year so I can eat turkey sandwiches for three weeks straight in December. It’s weird, I know, but I like it. I earned $50 yesterday doing some research thing for WordPress. Also weird, I know, but they caught me at a weak moment and I’m pretty good at that stuff.

Not-so-pros or -cons: I should go to the gym. I have time and I have a book to read that is probably going to be sucked back to the library tonight, so I really should just go to the gym and read the whole book. I could. I don’t feel like going to the gym though. I need to figure out when to actually COOK this turkey…because I’m supposed to cook dinner too, and I can’t do that in the middle of turkey cooking. But that means looking up times and I think I already threw out the weight thing on the turkey, that was stupid, and I’m feeling tired and not motivated to do anything. My phone is ringing and I don’t recognize the number. I’m tired. Wait, that’s a con I think.

Cons: I only got halfway through grading the kid videos last night. There are 66 of them. I did 34 of them. And you know what? They’re kinda boring and sometimes just plain irritating because we even did a video telling them what to do and they still ignored half of what we said and just did what they wanted. And I suspect they’ve been doing that for a long time, because every assignment is like that. I had two videos where one kid is whispering what to say to the other kid(s) and I’m like, um, so that won’t work in your day job. I love that you want to help, but that kid is flaking and maybe you need to kick them out of the group or have a talk with them outside of the video about what they need to say. Because that kid doesn’t deserve the points. And I remember last year when the kids are like, why did my partner get a higher score than I did and it’s because of that. In the video, you got some extra points because one kid was awesome, but on paper, not so much.

So I have 32 videos to watch today. Ugh. This is how I did it yesterday. Headphones on (until I had to move to the desktop because the internet was being cranky), stitching going…

It’s easy to do this and watch because it keeps my brain occupied. I guess I could have been cutting pieces out for the quilt as well. I forgot about that until later. This was about an hour and a half…but I finished the lion…

Just the bird left and then I’m done with September. It really has not been a good year for working on this quilt…I was reading my blog from a year ago and I was on the August blocks. Plus sewing down the wool for October, which I still haven’t started. I wish at family gatherings that I could sit and stitch, but it seems rude. My co-attender tells me it’s rude. He’s more sociable than I am. I can still talk. It relaxes me. Family gatherings don’t.

Anyway. I need to watch those videos and start grading the packets themselves. They need to be done before we go back to school. I need to grade the CER essay too, but that just hurts my brain. We’re supposed to go to Arrowhead on Friday, but the weather might keep us home. We’ll see. Driving in snow makes me nervous. Reading through past years of November blogposts…I am always doing this: making lasagne (I did that Monday and froze three meals for December), making a turkey, going to family stuff, grading a ton of crap, and somewhere in the process of making a quilt. There’s usually a hike in there (we did that Monday because we knew weather was coming). There’s often a last-minute trip to the grocery store (I went yesterday, but I’m out of one thing I need, dammit, no desire to go there today ffs). My eyelids are often twitching (last year, it was the left one…this year, it is the right one). It’s not my favorite week. Shocking.

So pet more kittens…

Go to the gym because it will make you feel better.

Ouch. Those claws are sharp.

Figure out the turkey stuff…timing and all. I found the tag in the trash, so I know how much it weighs now.

Awww. Sleepy kittens.

They slept a lot yesterday. Like 5 hours straight. Like they’re babies. They were pretty active the day before.

And then cut this thing out. Because you can. Although IDK what I’m going to binge watch now…I finished The Crown…

Whatever. It probably doesn’t matter. OK. I have a plan. Turkey. Gym. Videos (from hell). Cutting stuff out while watching and after. Stern talking to with eyelid. Knock it off! This is what it is, this week. It could be better, but I probably should have started earlier on a relaxation plan. Two pilates classes, a hike, and a trip to the gym will help…so will being done with grading. And ironing the quilt together. Still on my to-do list.

Hope all your holiday making plans are going well. I want apple pie this year. I might make my own. May there be lots of artmaking as well. That one is for me.

The Good Meditative Stuff.

It’s my first day of nine days off of school. There’s about 40 hours of grading in there, but let’s ignore that for now, eh? Honestly, all I really want to do at the moment is avoid human interactions. People. Anything needy. Well, except for kittens. Kittens are needy but fun, so I’ll deal with them. And I can deal with a few people. OK, maybe one. At a time. But not before 9 AM. So far today, I’ve done a pilates class (actually talked to three different humans. Maybe four. No, five. But most of it was short and sweet. Take my package. I had knee surgery. My name is Kathy.). I need to go sign all my paperwork for the loan to put solar in. That’s exciting. I will probably need to speak to one person for that. I need to buy milk. No need for speech, y’all. There should be an introvert line at the grocery store. No Need to Ask Me If I Found Everything OK. Seriously. Don’t speak. Yes, there’s self-service in some of the stores, but I’m aware of that taking away people’s jobs, so although I personally prefer the self checkout, sigh. Please just don’t make them talk to me.

After signing papers, I have hours of alone time with my grading and my ironing. Gonna do both. Might have to talk to people tonight. Or not. Maybe not. I just don’t know. I’m OK with not.

So I finished Figure 2 last night…and all the bits in and around her. I’m ready for Figure 3 this afternoon.

Then Figure 4 on Sunday, start cutting out. Be done by Tuesday? Night? Then start ironing together. I’d really like it all ironed together by the time I go to Lake Arrowhead on Friday. Sigh. Then I can draw the next one while I’m in Arrowhead. Get it ready. Because time…it flies. Erratically, yes, but flies.

My right eyelid is still twitching from last week. And people. People are making it twitch.

Sometimes I’m OK with people. I worked on this on Thursday night at my stitching meeting…started the lion…

And finished the tree…

This is Sue Spargo’s Folk Tails 2015 Block of the Month. Yeah. I’m slow. This is September’s blocks. I’m getting closer to done. There were three people there. They were fine.

You’re always getting closer to done if you keep working.

I spent some time with kittens and my book this morning…my toes are fascinating.

Then again, everything is fascinating when you are a kitten.

They love to play…

It’s hard to get good pictures because they are always moving. We are still mulling over names. This is hard.

How do we climb the curtains?

Devious little beasties.

They met Simba. There was fear and confusion all around. A little bit of hissing…

Hopefully they will all get along.

OK, off to the bank. Then back here to grade and iron. It sounds nice, doesn’t it? Well, minus the grading, but let’s just understand that it has to happen. I’ll fit in the good meditative stuff around it. Make that eye twitch go away.

We’ll Survive, but There Might Be Tears…

My heart is still racing, my stomach is in knots, I’m running on an adrenaline rush…why? Because today was the day to try to reserve campsites in Yosemite for Spring Break. Oh yeah. Well. That was a clusterfuck, but we got three nights. In a row. In the same site. We’re old. We don’t wanna move. We could. Well, actually, we probably couldn’t. In 12 minutes, almost everything was gone except for a night here and a night there. TWELVE FUCKING MINUTES. OK. So it’ll be crowded and annoying because people, but YOSEMITE. So we’ll be fine. And we’ll book lonely far-out places for the rest of our trip. Or whatever. The man will tell you I was yelling, “What number! Give me a number!” as he kept asking “Why isn’t it giving a reason?” I’m like, seriously? Because it’s booked. Apparently he wanted like a message saying which nights were gone, and the computer took a while to refresh the availability and other people have bots or alien technology or better internet than I do. Whatever. WE HAVE A SITE. I’m good. Let the other people get eaten by bears because they got a better site. We’re going to hike all the time anyway.

Plus it might snow that early in the year, so there’s that. WE’LL BE FINE.

So that was my start to a Friday morning. It’s stress stress stress for the next week. We’ll survive, but there might be tears. Pilates last night helped. So did art stuff. But I spent a good long time doing work stuff yesterday. Emergency meetings. Managing groups for today. We set up for the lab but still need to do materials. And we have duty.

At least we have a campsite for April.

So when I load photos for this blog, I usually do a quick run through the photos from previous years (I really need to organize photos at some point…some months are totally organized. Apparently November is a chaotic month in every year.)…and it’s interesting that I was in exactly this same stage on a quilt on November 15 in 2016 AND 2017. I don’t know which quilts…I’d have to search more than I have time for right now to figure that out.

So I sorted…

It was late…but it was also fast…

A whopping 35 minutes. Did I clean the office? Fuck no. That will be tonight. Hopefully.

Slightly blurry due to psychotic movement.

Anyway. Crazy day. I need to go. But this first! I’m excited…my piece is here in San Diego! OK, it’s been in San Diego all this time, but now it’s officially finally part of the Tiny Pricks Project AND hanging in San Diego…

Even better, the infamous Diana Weymar staring at it and smiling…

Tres awesome.

OK. Off to the slaughterhouse. Oh wait. No. School. Yeah. School (no commentary on school shootings here. Today anyway.).