The Wind Through the Leaves…

Hmmm. Yesterday was the perfect summer day for me. Some reading, some clay, some fabric stuff. It was warm but not too bad. The day before was pretty good too…more reading, more fabric stuff, a long hike, some drawing with dinner, more fabric stuff. I’m hoping to project this level of enjoyment/relaxation into the new school year (yes, I know some people don’t consider it relaxing to work on stuff like I do). Sunday afternoons at the ceramics studio? Why not? Because school. I need to shorten up the Sunday crazy and figure out how to get more of it done during the school day. I will have help this year; that will be nice. Also more literacy stuff and more sex-ed curriculum stuff. I never filled out the feedback form, dammit. Ah well. Put that on the list.

I guess Saturday and Sunday made up for Friday, when the boychild and I moved almost everything out of three bedrooms into the living room. We left beds, desks, and big dressers. At some point before the carpeting starts (next week; we now have a date), we will have to empty dressers and strip beds (not sure why I say ‘we’…it’s ‘me’), but for now, the living room is a hoarder warren of crazy shit that makes everyone claustrophobic…

Except Luna…who sits on that highest shelf, surveying her domain.

We moved everything early because the boychild might end up on a fire, and then I wouldn’t have been able to get all this moved. The Man can’t lift more than 10 lbs (injury) and I can’t lift most of this by myself. We have a cart, but again, by myself would have been a challenge. And at some point, we might have been doing carpet today instead of next week. So this was the solution. Sunday night/Monday morning will be a lifting event for me (all the drawers), but that’s a lot easier than all this. The real problem is where will we PUT all the drawers…and where will we sleep the first night (it’s gonna take two days). We’ll figure it out…couches and air mattresses.

The stained glass window got replaced on Saturday finally…it looks great!

The window was made by the previous owner. The wood around it was decaying and some of the cross supports had come loose, so the window was in danger of bowing out and/or breaking. I finally found someone who specializes in fixing these (took me like 6 months). They stabilized the window between two tempered glass pieces, my contractor guy replaced all the wood, and then we’re just waiting on the final bits of sealing the wood and window for it all to be done. Although then I need to paint that whole wall…and the other walls, if I want to be consistent. We’ll see how far I get. The wall opposite has a textured wallpaper the cats thought was a scratching post back in the day, so it needs to be removed. That’s a bigger challenge. Maybe not a 2024 challenge. I still need to paint the hallway…which includes 5 doors. Ugh. I have a bunch of sanding on my list for this week as prep for that, priming too if I can get to it.

I stitched down another quilt I had ironed together while waiting for my sewing machine to come back, and for my Art Brain to have enough power to draw a new big one.

It took a couple of days because it was in between all that moving shit and hiking around.

This is from some smaller drawing I did either on a plane or while camping or something. Oh wait, I found the drawing…from 12/20/18…so probably one of those Drawing a Day over Winter Break things I did. Hence the Christmas lights. So a 6-year-old drawing. Last December, I picked about 12 smaller drawings and enlarged them to work on in between things. I had just finished the Supreme Court quilt and another couple of smaller quilts, and my brain (due to school) was foggy as shit. So I started some of these.

I cleaned the entryway floor earlier today, so my next step is to sandwich and pinbaste the two smaller quilts for finishing.

I’ve been cutting things out on the big quilt for a little over 17 hours now…Friday night…

Saturday night…

And Sunday night…

The box on the bottom left is all that’s left…somewhere between 300 and 400 pieces left. I feel like I might get close to finishing that today. Maybe. Then a few hours of sorting, made almost impossible by the piling of shit in the living room. I mean, I could do it, but I would have to unpile and then repile some of that shit. I don’t want to wait a week for the next step though, so I’ll do it. Sometime in the next couple of days.

In clay news, I’m slowly working on the world figure’s upper torso. I have a base it sits into as I build, but I did check it again to make sure it’s going to shrink appropriately. It’s like a 12% shrink.

I’m OK with an imperfect fit, as long as it actually fits. I got one hand put on…holding that up, because the forearm and elbow haven’t hardened enough to fully hold it. The right arm, I got the elbow and forearm put on. At the moment, the whole upper torso is sitting on a separate base I built just to support this.

The support is under the plastic. There’s a sponge holding that hand up as it dries. The right arm is on the base until the hand goes on. I attached a partial version of hair (fire) to the head and then persuaded the head to attach to the torso. That back sponge is holding it up until it hardens. This clay is not great for sculpture, but it’s what I picked (what I used in class). I’ll pick one with more grog next. Maybe a little more? I don’t know. I like the smoother texture of this, which is half porcelain and half stoneware.

I made a heart.

I think I know how/where to attach it, but I need things to stiffen up first. There will be carving on the fire hair and the heart, and the plan is to add more ‘hair’ in the form of smoke from the fire. Yeah. Crazy.

The other piece made it out of the kiln!

Just a few cracks…iron oxide with a little bit of clear next, I think. Only clear on the underglazed bits. Then fabric wings hanging from the arms. And fabric coming out of the things on her head.

I numbered this sweet little thing. It only has 390 pieces.

Can’t trace it until the carpet is done. That’s OK. I have plenty to work on and this has a later deadline.

I also pieced this thing together.

I finished the embroidery on the center panel, and then thought I’d be sewing all the little houses together, whee!, but no. There’s a border around the central panel with 5 flowers on it. It’s fine. I won’t be sewing houses together until 2025.

We hiked in the Lagunas on Saturday…we were hoping for cooler weather, but no.

We started hiking around 4:30 PM and it was still 85 degrees.

It cooled down around 6 PM, which is when I would have preferred to start, but we were going to eat dinner up there and the restaurants all close by 8 PM.

It was beautiful, though, even though it was warm. There weren’t a ton of people, which was nice.

I love hiking around the little lakes and meadows up there. Well…unless there’s cows.

We had to walk right through a group of them, lots of calves, so potentially nervous moms. They were standing on the trail for a goodly portion of it, so we did some nervous (but calm) movements of our own to get across the field without pissing anyone off.

A tiny adrenaline rush. This hawk had a snake and was being chased by a smaller bird.

And here’s one of our three friendly crows here at home. I took the dog out in the morning and it was up there squawking at me because the Man hadn’t put out the trays of nuts for the birds yet.

And I am still reading about the period. Good book. I’m reading two books, actually, one fiction and one nonfiction…

This is too real for all the crazy shit going on these days. Like how do you show your Supreme Court is corrupt without saying they’re corrupt? Just look at what they allow and disallow. Sigh. I don’t know that I have another Supreme Court quilt in me. Certainly the bullshit is all still there.

OK, it’s a Monday, but it feels like a Saturday. I have some stuff I have to do today, but first, I am going to pinbaste these two quilts, because that’s sweaty business and I want a shower. Work for it! Also hopefully going to get close to finishing the cutting-it-out phase of the big quilt. I’m sure there’s more on my to-do list that I haven’t remembered, like watering, for sure (it’s been hot and dry) and filling up greenery trash cans (never stops)…but also some reading…and appreciating how quiet it is today with all the kids inside or at camp or I don’t even care WHERE they are, it’s blissfully quiet except for the birds and the bugs. No tree trimming, no sawing, no yardwork, no screaming, no yelling. Just the wind through the leaves. And the Man watching some loud thing (it just got loud…).

Hard to Sit Still…

OK, I’m off on my writing days. It’s OK. I probably don’t actually know what day it is most of summer. It’s better that way. We’re so hyperfocused on days and dates when we’re teaching that it’s nice to take some time off from that. As long as I don’t miss any appointments.

Yesterday was surgery. It went well. I’m not in a lot of pain. Got rid of the heavy duty pain meds already. I feel better without them anyway, and now that I can take ibuprofen again, it’s effective enough. I get results next week. Meanwhile I’m mentally designing tattoos for the scar. It’ll be a while before I can do that, but I can still dream it. Everyone wants me to rest, but my body likes to move more than rest. I did OK yesterday…did a lot of stitching and watching videos. One was this Textile Talk by Dr. Teri Walker, who interviewed me at some point for an article she’s writing. Three of my quilts are in the talk, which was cool…

Shout out to all my political activist quilt friends also in this talk.

My surgeon had to sign the side he was operating on.

That sharpie is not coming off anytime soon. I have dissolvable stitches with a waterproof coating that will slowly deteriorate (I’m supposed to gently wash it with soap)…the plus is that I could shower today! There’s some adhesive that caused a mark and some other adhesive that will apparently take a few days to get the fuck off (not on the wound), so that’s fun. But I am no longer orange. I am signed though. WEIRD.

Stitching I did yesterday…

That freaking drizzle stitch tail took forever…

Finished the wings, put the eyes on, and started around the leaves…

I also finished one book and started two more. Wait, I think I finished two books. Hmm. I’m reading one on the Kindle app (nonfiction) and one in actual book shape (fantasy) so I don’t lose my saved up days/weeks on the Kindle. Yes, I guess that’s a thing.

I did ceramics on Saturday afternoon. This is one of the pots for the Man’s carnivorous plants.

It was fun to do, much faster than the last one.

I did a couple of coil pots too…

Just to use up the clay. I’d like to go in today, but everyone keeps yelling “REST” at me. You know, part of my resting is sitting on a stool at the ceramics studio and playing with clay. I could do that for 2-3 hours with no complaint.

From one of the books I’m reading…the last phrase especially.

Yes it’s a book about a bookstore. Once Upon a Tome. It’s amusing, but I’m not sure what the plot is. Or if there is one.

We hiked Saturday.

I’m allowed to take short walks today.

Hiking by Saturday? Maybe sooner. Except I’m doing all these school-related interviews Thursday and Friday. My fault for saying yes. My fault for giving a shit about who is foisted on me next year.

Saturday night’s drawing. New place for dinner. We liked it.

Nice space.

Saturday night’s ironing…I finished the tree in the 1400s.

It was easier than saving those fabrics aside until I got there.

Then Sunday night, I ironed all the fleshy bits on the first woman.

And last night (yes, last night I felt well enough to stand for an hour to iron), I did all the non-fleshy bits on the same woman.

Tried to add a lot of color. This quilt is heavy on the browns and grays at the moment.

Tonight (or this afternoon), I’ll start on the second figure. New flesh tones.

Legit.

OK, one of the things that sucks the most post surgery is that I have to wear a bra for 48 hours straight. I’m already done with it. I was done with it last night. I took it off to shower and it was hell to put it back on.

Not because it hurts…I just hate bras. It’s summer. It’s anathema to wear a bra.

This is the hood of my car…it is covered with bunny fur bits that were pulled out, probably by the hawk that was eating it…

In the tree above my car. It was sad. Although I’m glad only fur landed on my car. Ugh.

More random shit from the internet.

Also legit. And the last one…I swear…before I go REST again (I am tired of resting…yes, it has been 24 hours. Might be my max.).

Oh yes. Well, I will go read for a while and maybe stitch, or maybe come back in here and STAND. I was not put in this world to rest. Some people are very good at it. I fail. I get an F. Don’t lecture me about my body needing the time to recover. I think my body needs what makes me feel better right now. I know better than to lift furniture or dig holes (both are on my to-do list), but if I have to sit on the couch for another 8 hours, Imma kill something. Not a baby bunny though. I’m definitely watering things today. I’ll hold off on planting the other things, because I would have to use a big shovel, and I’d get shit for doing that. It’s a beautiful day out there though. Hard to sit still when there’s so much to do. Please don’t email me and tell me why I need to rest. I KNOW. I still don’t like it.

Very Fine…

Hey. It’s the last Monday of this school year. We’ve got four days. Four days of utter chaos and mayhem, but four days nonetheless. I can do four days. I think. Actually, I do have to be there on Friday, but usually not for long. Weirdness is happening this year on Friday. Complicated.

ANYWAY. Today I teach STI prevention, although 1st period might be trickling in one kid at a time due to bad scheduling. Not mine. Tomorrow I teach goal setting, although again, 1st period might get screwed. Whatever. I wonder sometimes what non-teachers think we do after state testing. Because we have to do something or we have anarchy, and not in a good way. Wednesday is all promotion practice and carnival (hat and sunscreen), and Thursday is promotion (also hat and sunscreen). My grades are mostly done; I have 23 kids who are supposed to turn in two papers each today. We’ll see if they do. So I might just have to tweak their grades…but probably not. And I need to clean my classroom. Not entirely sure when that is happening. Normally it would be during my prep or while the kids were watching a movie, but with 8th grade, there’s less of both. I’ll probably get prep today, but maybe not Wednesday. Who knows.

So artwise, it might feel like I’m gearing up for summer enjoyment, and I am hoping to (a) get my sewing machine back this week and (b) to actually have more time to make art, but I also have a ton of house stuff to do…painting mostly. Moving stuff so we can install carpet. That’s overwhelming in itself. Claywise, I finally figured out which clear glaze I was gonna try on the tiles…

They’re going in the next glaze kiln…the second one, a kid had me sign their yearbook with a fingerprint drawing, and I had washed it off but only sort of, so when I went to rinse the tile, some of it came off in the background, so I ended up putting a wash over it. It needed the contrast anyway.

So we’ll see how they turn out. Then I did more underglazing on the winged woman…

Broke the damn snake head off again. I have a plan for fixing it…I think I just need to fire this thing and then move on.

Nice kitty.

The quilt in process (well, the third in process) is still being ironed to fabric…slowly. Friday night…

Still down in the grassy knoll. Then Saturday…

Got most of that done, and Sunday, I moved up the left side…

Didn’t quite finish ironing men’s white shirts (see Kitten asleep in the top left?). But I’ve made it into the 300s. I don’t think I’ll be done this week, but I might. We’ll see. It would be nice to be done before surgery so I could just sit on the couch, bingewatching something and cutting things out.

We hiked…

It’s still all about the flowers…

Ah cudweed…you make everything smell like maple syrup.

This is what grading looks like…

Thanks Nova. So much help.

This is what I think when all the rumors at the end of the school year are whirling around.

It’s not all about classroom management. There are some definite social and parental issues here. Sigh.

Probably not cannibalism. I’ll leave that to the rest of you.

I’m still working on Sue Spargo’s Homegrown…finally to the center square.

It’s coming along. There’s a lot of stitching on it. Well, supposed to be. Not so much at the moment. It felt weird yesterday actually having time to stitch and mop the kitchen floor (which was disgusting). I didn’t have to lesson plan or post a bunch of assignments. Kids don’t have computers after today unless they buy them (so again, wtf are we supposed to be doing with them?), so I can’t put any assignments on there. A relief really. No more of that for two months. Woohoo! Anyway. Close. Not there yet.

Had my brain scan on Saturday. Results sometime this week. That’s a bit stressful. What’s worse…they find something that explains the visual disturbances? Or they don’t find anything? Sigh. Probably the finding something is worse…so that’s a waiting game. Also I’m full of gadolinium now. I’m waiting for my super power to surface. I forgot drawing with dinner…

OK. School. Teach the things. Leave school and go play with clay. Come back, finish grades. Or finish grades, then clay? IDK. We’ll see. Then iron. No more grades after today. That’s fine. Very fine.

Let’s Be Real…

Hey. Two more Mondays. Nine days. Panicking a bit about finishing grades on time, but with all the grading I did all weekend, I’m hoping I’m OK. I’m not taking any more late work, so that should help. One hopes. I still need sub plans for Wednesday morning, another literacy meeting that was incredibly poorly timed. Can’t have the swing sub teach sex ed, but I don’t have spare days, so I’m just gonna have to come up with magical things. The sex ed packets are too long for a normal period, and we have short classes today, so I’m gonna have to figure that out because they can’t do Wednesday’s thing without me if I can’t get through the two packets today and tomorrow. FUUCKKK. Not thinking about that. I’ll figure it out. By myself. Like all fucking year. We have a field trip Friday, and then we’re back for two periods…where I’ll be showing a video and hoping I don’t have another drug overdose in class because of the field trip. What are the odds? I mean, that would be USEFUL professional development. How to deal with overdoses, what to look for, what to do. Let’s be real here. I’m beyond cynical right now. One of the things we do with sex ed is a question box, and the first question I got in there, I had to call Child Protective Services. I was on hold from when I got to the ceramics studio on Friday, through 90 minutes of underglazing, the drive home, and 15 minutes at home with my book until they finally answered. Finished the report at 7 PM. And will anything happen? Well mine isn’t the first report, so there’s that. Disheartening. Extremely.

Ah well. Let’s start with the glazing…I’m almost done…

I did the reds, all the arteries, the heart, tongue, etc.

I also did the darker skin tones. I have a lot of clean up to do in the lines.

Fingernails…

And I started the hair. I got tired after about 90 minutes. I think I only have three colors left to do tonight. I knew CPS would pick up and I’d have to go outside and have this conversation, and I didn’t want to be that tired and still have to clean up after the conversation. So I didn’t finish Friday.

I graded Friday night, most of Saturday, and for about 5 hours on Sunday. Still not done! It’s all the fiddly last-minute redoes and late work that take for-freaking-ever to go through. The Man says I shouldn’t allow that, but I’m pro-growth-mindset. Learn from your mistakes. Figure out the right answers. I love the persistent kids. Well, some of them. Some of them don’t listen and keep submitting, even though they still haven’t read the comments or changed what they’re doing. And some use AI to help and it’s so freaking obvious…I mean, there’s not a lot of 8th graders at my school using the phrase “chronological constant”. I ran one through an AI detector just for fun. I mean, all I had to do was compare the first answer, which wasn’t bad, but was more kid-real language, to the second one, which read like a Wiki article. Sigh. I wrote both of them notes about the future. I doubt they’ll read them. Or listen. YES, I am in defeatist mode. Survival mode.

I also ironed things all weekend. Friday night, got to here.

Saturday night, all but the head…

Sunday night, did the head and ironed it to a background…

Hoping to see my sewing machine soon. We know a part arrived, but there was a medical emergency and we’re not sure if it got installed before that happened. It’s OK…I’m just going to start ironing the big quilt to fabric. I was ready to do that when I realized I had this one piled up too and it was easy enough to iron it together. Feels like a success. Progress. Looks nice. All that.

I had my quilt guild meeting Saturday…worked on her hair.

Slowest stitch ever. I also got a place to stay in Phoenix for QuiltCon 2025. Fun drive.

We hiked…

Babysat the ex’s dog again…

She’s constantly on the hunt. For animals.

It’s always nice to get outside in nature. I miss it. Want to do it more. Although apparently we discriminate against giraffes.

Doesn’t say if they must be leashed.

It’s not exactly a playdate because Simba is annoyed by her, but at least she gets some exercise and attention.

Saturday night, we tried some local breweries/wineries.

Just for something different. Felt bad for the band…there were only four people listening. Ouch.

And here’s where we’re at…

Although I definitely wasn’t smiling even that much.

OK, clay today, plus grading (you knew that was coming), plus starting to iron the next quilt to fabric. I’m tired. I’m done. Today I’m teaching pregnancy. The boys are notoriously stupid about this until I start talking about the financial responsibility of spilling sperm. Fun times.

Dirty Windows

My windows are dirty. This is not a euphemism for something. My actual house windows are dirty. I see them every day and it’s on my to-do list to clean them, but then I do 5 things and the day is gone and I still haven’t finished everything, I’m still eating dinner at 8:30 because I didn’t start cooking early enough because I was grading things and making videos (I made 11 videos for school yesterday). I think I read my book yesterday. Maybe. A chapter. I know I didn’t shave the Man’s head…I remembered this morning that I was supposed to help with that. Oh well. He’ll do it himself. If only the windows would do themselves.

Busy weekend, but they all are. I actually slept in on Saturday until 9 AM. I mean, minus the dog barking and the Man opening and closing things. It was delightful. But apparently not enough, because here I am on Monday morning feeling like a truck hit me and maybe I need another three cups of tea before I’ll be functional again.

Let’s start with clay. I have this mug that was too big so it became a planter that I was making, just for fun, not art, and it was finally dry enough to either fire or decide what I wanted to do about glazing. Glaze is hard, but I wanted to try these glazes that are shiny after the bisque fire. So I remembered to bring the glazes to the studio on Friday (not enough room to store them there) and painted it…

Painting glazes is a pain in the ass…you need at least two coats, maybe three. We’ll see how this turns out.

Pro: it’s done. Con: I realized when I was done that it had taken me 2 hours. Another late dinner. Ah well.

I also traced…in fact, I finished tracing the Wonder Under last night…15 nights…

19 hours and 13 minutes…

7 yards and a bit…

I think I stayed up too late for all of those 15 nights trying to get an hour in, or last night, just trying to finish. It’ll be at least 7 hours to cut it all out, probably more. Lots of little pieces in there.

Saturday, I went to Visions with my quilt guild folks to see the new Latine exhibit there. There’s a design thing going on because San Diego and Mexico, so the museum had some new and different artists showing, which was nice.

Mely Barragàn…

Her piece Shallow Water Emerges Til Dawn…

Very much asks you to touch it. The chains were especially nice, dangling off the ends.

Chain fabric even.

Marisa Raygoza…

Emotional Support Rock…I’m feeling this one especially.

Tumble Dry

Some embroideries from her movie The Path of a Tear…

And some soft sculpture, although there’s nothing soft about a gun.

She Used Her Head As a Revolver

There were art dresses, which somehow I didn’t photograph, and weavings as well…

The most intriguing part of this piece, by Olivia Arreguin, Womb in a Dress, was the DNA she knotted into the womb.

Cool exhibit…check it out.

Also walked the dogs…was puppy sitting Annie…

We all needed a walk.

The path was really overgrown with flowers…

The two old guys were a little…um…panty.

Got my 3 miles in though.

Check out the glare on that cat…

Nova seemed very offended by Simba’s presence.

OK, well, I’m still reviewing science for the state test. The kids are rebelling against it, but whatever. They’d rebel against anything but naps and candy right now. Makes my life fun. Friday was annoying. Thank goodness for clay at the end of the day. Today will be different…I changed it up. Constantly trying to find different ways to get info in their heads…takes a ton of time and energy. I’m running low on both. Then staff meeting. Then clay again…not sure which piece I’m going to work on. Then cutting things out. Probably need to grade things in there too. Ugh. Or planning. That’s definitely a thing. This week is survival. Maybe all of them are. Well, I start teaching sex ed at some point, so that’s at least an attention-getter…but they’re all convinced they don’t need to do anything else for the rest of the year. Fun times.

It Might Be Easy Next Time…

Hey Monday. Be nice.

So I was productive this weekend; always feels better than when I’m not. I got all three of the big plants I bought planted, although the first one was such a challenge that I thought the next two would be horrendous too, but they were easy peasy. Nice that. Don’t give up! It might be easy the next time. Am I done planting and weeding and trimming? Never. I met this guy…I left his weed standing so he could continue to shelter sort of under it.

It’s OK. There’s lots of weeds out there. I left a bunch. My protea is gonna bloom nicely this spring…

I have two volunteer tomatoes…one is inside (it’ll have to move) and one is tiny…

They’re both compost tomatoes. Best kind. I let the mice eat them really, they’re so tiny. Must have been cherry tomatoes.

So artwise, I got this one out of the kiln and now have to decide on glaze…

She’s from February and is meant to have a tiny quilt hanging inside her.

Then I got this one together and onto a shelf.

Hopefully she holds up. I changed her a little, moved the mug. Now I get to start something new…although I should figure out glaze first on that other one. Two drying, one bisqued.

Then I worked on the big crone drawing…

Added a barn owl and some bombers…and a cat.

Then sketched out what’s next down below…

Hopefully I’ll draw that tonight. And I did more up top…

Oh, I forgot, I framed this for a FIG show that will open next Friday at Liberty Station at the Dance Place hallway gallery.

My co-artist used this for a digital piece she made that I haven’t seen finished yet, and then I made that smaller quilt from another digital collage she did. So we’ll have four pieces hanging together in the show.

We also went on a hike Saturday…lots of flowers…

And one big coyote that kept traveling toward us until it found its way up the hill.

So one of the thing that has needed to be fixed for about 6 months is my stained-glass side window in the entryway. The supports had come loose and it would wiggle and make noise if the door was closed too hard. It’s been there since before we moved in, so probably from the 80s. The previous owner made it. The wood around it has been an issue too, so with the repairs related to the January flooding, I had asked for the wood to be replaced. It took a while to find a glass expert…

But he had a plan for it…enclosing the art glass in layers of tempered glass to protect it and weatherproof it and stabilize it. Sounds good.

So they leveraged it out of there on plywood…and now we have this lovely view for 4-6 weeks.

It has a tiny gecko door in the bottom left. The cats are excited. The entryway is also very dark now.

Saturday night’s dinner drawing…

They forgot about us so I got more of the drawing done. It’s been hard to finish one lately (and this one isn’t finished); they bring the food out so fast.

OK. So drawing tonight, clay this afternoon, staff meeting with homework (ugh). Teaching today is an assessment of what we did for most of last week. We’ll see how that goes. The previous assessment was eh. So many kids didn’t turn it in that it made it easier to grade. I did that this weekend, all but one class. So hopefully I can get through that class today as they’re doing the next assessment. Getting closer to the end…one more short unit, then test review, egg drop, sex ed, and I’m out! OK. That’s a lot. This week is a lot. Getting there.

Morning

Good morning. Or morning, as I prefer. I mean, maybe if I looked out my window and saw endless forest vistas and no humans, maybe that would count as a good morning, especially if I could roll over and go back to sleep, but that’s not really a common occurrence for me. Unfortunately. There are 43 days of school left. I did not accomplish much of anything this weekend except spending time with visiting family, which is a good thing…so there’s that. But I have no lunches prepared for school for this week (yet), I forgot to defrost my breakfasts so I’m eating cereal (at least I have that), I graded one assignment and posted one assignment, no two (it’s fine; I can do it during class), and I planned nothing for next week. That worries me a bit, but I’ll just have to work more during the week to get there. I also lost my mat cutter somewhere in the house, and I need to cut two mats. I don’t want to buy another new one. I know how to cut mats without it, but it’s a pain. So there’s that.

So WTF did I do? The Man’s band (Radio Thieves) had a show on Friday night…they opened, so I was home by 11 (good thing really…I was exhausted)…

I did not go to bed right away, though, because that would make too much sense. I taped more of the drawing together and added paper to the top and bottom for more drawing.

Went to bed way too late, then got up way too early (for my weekend brain) for the online SAQA conference. I did the morning coffee meetups, then took a shower, drove to the ceramics studio, and listened to all the webinars…well, in between people trying to talk to me. I did put a neck on the head and forgot to photograph it (I’m really bad at remembering to photograph things there)…then added grass to the bottom of the planter.

This was going to be a mug until I realized how big it would be.

All my home mugs have cracks in them right now. I’m waiting for them to leak. So far, so good. But I wanted to make a mug of my own. And since I don’t throw on the wheel, handbuilt is how it’s gonna be. I’ll get there. But this is a planter.

After ceramics, I putzed around the house a bit, trying to get my brain to function, then headed over to my parents’ because my brother, my SIL, and one of my nephews were in town to visit colleges, and we were gonna hang out. Which is what we did…both Saturday night, and then Sunday night, with a hike on Sunday afternoon as well. Lots of family fun and arguments about nipples. Don’t even ask.

Saturday night, after we came back, I finished the binding and sleeves on this…

It just needs a label and hanging slats and it’s ready for delivery on Saturday…but I need to frame the drawing; hence the need to cut the mat, so that’s a thing to figure out this week.

Here’s one hike picture…

And one nephew picture, with Simba…

Last night, we got home later and there was no art happening. There wasn’t much of anything happening except folding my laundry. So there’s a hefty to-do list this week, but it was worth it. Not sure how Kitten feels about it.

Yeah. I feel that way this morning too. Fill up the teacup a little more.

This sucks. I’m glad I was able to see some of her work in person in Los Angeles last year.

Her work was some of the first quilt work I saw that wasn’t traditionally pieced and seemed to tell a story. She was an amazing storyteller. The world will miss her insights.

Leaving you with this…

Am I the only one who wants to know what’s under that black rectangle? There are a lot of pictures of emotional support sharks on the internet. Who knew?

OK. School…kids are finishing up an assignment from last week that does not require a lot of my input, except for all the kids who were absent half of last week for Eid and other excuses, so yeah, that’s fun. I can hopefully plan some space stuff for next week (if the other teacher answers me) and post things for the rest of this week, plus write sub plans to be out half a day for literacy on Friday. Fun times. Then a staff meeting about state testing and hopefully ceramics studio time, plus yardwork, making lunches for the rest of the week (it would be nice to have something besides random food I found in the freezer), starting to iron that one quilt together or drawing the next big one. The sewing machine is awaiting parts with no estimate of when they will arrive. Frustrating, but I will survive. No, I don’t want to borrow other people’s machines. I hate trying to sew on other people’s machines. I will just do other things until I get mine back. Thank you. I’m so tired, y’all…I guess this is how we do the next 43 school days.

55% Eclipse

OK. School. 48 days of it. With an eclipse today and Eid tomorrow. I think half our kids will be out for the first 2-3 days for one of those or some weird combination. We only get 55% of the sun covered today, so I’ll pull out the class that starts right after the peak…I’m not sure about the class before, because my prep period is the first 40 minutes or so…I don’t know that my 2nd period will be able to see anything. We’ll see. Also they are ‘fun’, so I’m not sure I want to deal with them outside.

East Coast gets an earthquake…we had a 7.something a week or so ago that I didn’t even feel. Californians. Seriously.

I did buy some weird plants last week…so we’re fucked.

Anyway, should be an interesting day…mostly an exhausted day…ending with a 2-hour staff meeting about literacy. Ugh. What are the odds that the woman in charge of literacy will have any interesting things to say today? I’m so not in the mood. Don’t know if you can tell. Pro? I slept last night. I don’t usually sleep well the Sunday before we go back.

OK, let’s do the art stuff. I cut stuff out Friday night but forgot to take a picture. Actually, I thought I had taken a picture, but it was not on my phone, so did it ever really happen? Here’s Saturday night’s progress.

And last night…I’m almost done.

I’m hoping to get my sewing machine back today or tomorrow so I can quilt that piece that has to be delivered in less than two weeks. If not, I’m probably going to Mom’s. I should probably tell Mom that.

I also finally remembered to take clay pictures. This was at the beginning of yesterday’s session…

The sponge was supporting the arm after I attached it. The wings are for support only. I have holes in the arms to support fabric wings I’d like to make. I wasn’t sure how big to make the supports in the beginning, so I erred on the side of way too small, so yesterday, I added more…

They’ll be hidden from the front by the fabric versions, which I obviously haven’t made yet. Let’s see if this thing survives the kiln first. And we’re weeks away from that happening.

Here’s the chest…

And the back…

I started a head/face, but I’m not sure about it.

It definitely needs a lot of work. And more head stuff. This clay is pretty soft and so I left it to harden up a bit. I’m hoping to go back today to work on it some more.

I also had started to make a mug and realized very quickly that it was way too big to be a mug, so now it’s a planter. I feel like that’s how clay works sometimes. That sculpture also started as a mug. So there we are.

It’s currently upside down so the lip on the top will dry mostly flat. Otherwise it starts sagging.

Those are clouds. The next clay I buy will have more grog in it. I already know that. Although I like how smooth this is. So there’s always trade-offs. The real trade-off at the moment is how much time I can do ceramics each week and still have time for everything else. Augh.

I found this while doing yardwork the other day…

Happy owl pellet.

We had Annie for 24 hours…

Yes, that’s a quilt she’s cuddling with.

A sighting of one of my sold quilts on social media…

Always cool.

And a Saturday evening hike…

Lots of water, lots of flowers…

An alligator lizard…

And some dumbass version of an alligator…

Why do we have to spray paint nature y’all?

Baby bunny not quite smart enough to realize we can still see it.

Does not bode well for its survival.

Well, we’re back. Mostly to crazy rat-race tendencies. Not enough time to do anything. Ugh. Gonna go take my meds, pack up my lunch, find a sweatshirt, make more tea, and gird my loins for the sleeping and whining and phones out and hopefully a cool eclipse experience and a chill staff meeting (ha…that last one). Then time with clay and fabric, and maybe sewing. Hopefully. Yeah.

A Day Late…

A day late. That’s OK. I was in the mountains. I forgot it was Friday. Today is Saturday. If I keep telling you what the days are, maybe I will remember them myself. I have doctors’ appointments next week; I have to remember to go to them.

We were up on Palomar Mountain for a couple of days…one full day really. It was nice. It was cold. There was still snow up there. We had a discount to stay in a really nice yurt and it was cool.

These are nice yurts (Baileys on Palomar)…take advantage of discounts if you can. We had a mid-week discount. I’m pretty sure it’s snowing up there right now though, so I’m glad we came home yesterday.

Inside was warm, sometimes too warm. But nice.

My drawing brain was mostly out of it. This one isn’t going anywhere.

And this one might. Maybe.

We couldn’t get a fire started the first night…pretty sure the wood was wet from the previous storm. The second night, after 5 firestarters and some weird juju of frustration (the Man’s, not mine…or the fire’s, for that matter), the fire started and kept going…me drawing by the fire…

The Man telling me about something circular…

It was cold out. I think this was still firestarter fire, not real fire.

Eventually we got cold and came back inside and got violent and slappy with this game.

I won.

That was after hiking to Palomar Observatory, which I’d never been to. The hike wasn’t hard or long…well, it was 5.3 miles with 800 feet of elevation. So not too bad. Certainly my legs were feeling it yesterday.

Those are some really big acorns…

My app says Canyon Live Oak. Acorns and their caps fascinate me. I brought caps home. Dunno what I’m going to do with them.

It’s funny, I only saw the observatory once from the hike until we were on our way back.

It was cool. San Jacinto in the distance…definitely snow up there too.

It was a nice day to hike…mostly not hot, mostly not too cold.

Definitely at elevation snow. Not a lot by the time we got there.

I stitched a little too…finished this block.

I remembered a chalk pencil for the bike. Started another block while I was there.

Forgot the proof of life picture. Yes! We were in the same place together.

It happens.

We came back, cleaned up, I peed some dogs. The one on the right is hunting bees. Or bunnies. Hard to say which.

Stood in line for 3 hours at a quilt store that’s closing so I could use up my gift card and my mom’s too, because she showed up halfway through and handed me more. Then held my place in line so I could find more stuff to buy. She’s a good mom. I’m supposed to be at the ceramics studio right now but there was a full on flood-level band of rain that came through and dropped like half an inch of rain, so I didn’t drive in it. I will now, because I think that band is done and I can wait out the next one. There’s an art opening at Oceanside Museum of Art tonight, though, and that’s gonna be a slog if it’s still raining this hard. Ah well.

Last night, I suffered cats. Lots of them.

They missed us. And then I finished trimming this one…

Time to sort and then to iron. Meanwhile the girlchild and friend camped in the Northern California band of this storm last night. They were not washed away.

There is a tent under there. There is also a rain fly. The tarp is just extra. I wonder if there is a tarp underneath as well? Hmmm. Did we train her well? Maybe not.

OK. Art opening tonight. Ceramics studio for now: gonna see what came out of the kiln plus do another level on what I’m building…maybe start something new? I need to be back here by 3 PM I think. Ugh. I’m sure it made sense to sign up for things weeks ago, but today’s brain is not up for it. Typical.

NOT Being a Teacher…

(groans) What is this early morning hell? How much tea can I get into me before I start to teach? I didn’t even finish posting things for class yesterday. Why? Because I tried to spend a chunk of my weekend NOT being a teacher. Mis. Take. Well, not. But sheesh, this job. Last week. Deep breaths. I think I can get through the next two weeks. I’m gonna hafta.

Friday night, the Man had a show at the Music Box. Before that, I had made it home and was slumped on the couch, trying to decide what dinner might look like. Glad to say the boychild is a good cook, because he fed me…

Also luckily, the singer in the band, his wife had a table and let me sit at it, which is good, because I was exhausted. And they were the openers, so they only played for an hour. Much nicer than the four-hour show that’s coming up this Saturday.

Saturday morning, I crazily got up kind of early and took an online class from Nicholas Ball, who was in Wales…

At some point, he said, OK hold up your fish, and I had been diligently taking notes, NOT sewing. So I only did two and one has its fins in totally the wrong place (oops) and some people made like ten and I feel like a fish loser, but I will survive. Then I drove to Oceanside to drop off my piece for this show…

I’ll be at the opening on March 30. Hoping it’ll be a cool show.

Came back and persuaded the Man to go for a short birthday hike…

Three miles. But it was beautiful out. Spring has sprung.

And I love being able to make it outside like this.

Then boychild had the suggestion of San Diego Restaurant Week for dinner, so we picked a restaurant and navigated shitty parking…

That was in the bathroom. The food was good, different, which was nice. I drew a little, but the food came out too fast to finish.

Then we came back and I trimmed fabric pieces.

Sunday was full of all the normal get-ready-for-school-week things, but we ended the day going out to dinner with my parents…

And then I finished trimming everything.

On to the next step. I also shipped a quilt off to this show, opening March 24.

The Man is delivering another today for a local show. I have that announcement somewhere too. Sigh. I’m discombobulated. And buried. Two weeks until Spring Break…

I will have to speak to people unfortunately. Need to get the house fixed. And this will be the next two weeks…

Maybe not die…just internally die. I have books to read, though, and art to make. I should commit to making a fabric fish a night, and then I’d have 10. Except I can’t commit to that this week…3 out of the 5 worknights are going to be late and doubled up. Whoops. Oh well. No plans. Just wish teachers luck today. You know how tired YOU are? Imagine a bunch of 13-year-olds. Yup. It’s gonna be crap.