Another Nail for My Heart*

Hello 2017…you came in half-assed and with a scary hug from a stranger in a sparkly bodysuit (weirder things have happened to me, honestly)…there are some things to look forward to this year, and some things that terrify me. I don’t have any resolutions that are new, just bolstering old ones. I didn’t pick a word for the year, but if I did, it would be loud and protesting and feminist and activist (not those words in particular, but some one word that incorporated all of that). I turn 50 this year, full-on cronedom here I am, ready and willing to kick ass. My doc brought it up for my next checkup, and I was like, yeah, yup, bring it, I’m here. I can do this. No fear. Stress? Sure. No fear.

Looking back at art in 2016, I made 11 things I consider art…10 quilts (although one is still not wall-ready) and 1 nightstand. There’s definitely some things they have in common: lots of dark blue, lots of staring-you-in-the-face…which makes sense. One commissioned piece, another already sold, although it’s touring for another two years. Five of them have been in shows already and one is committed to another show in Sweden. Not bad.

I had more quilts last year, but a lot of them were small. May 2017 bring more work! More sales would be nice too, but honestly, it’s not why I make it. I make it because I have to…because to stop listening to the artbrain would make me ill. And I want to be as healthy as I can be.

I ironed yesterday…I kept thinking I was close, real close, to ironing the body parts, but no. I’m not. I spent about 4 hours ironing and then got to the skeleton. Looked at the clock. Nope. No time to do all that in one go. Not before I had to be somewhere. So I stopped. Here’s some stove parts…not the rings themselves, but the silvery bits around them.

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I was ironing while watching the second season of The Man in the High Castle…too close for comfort, I think. Hard to watch.

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Here was the layout just for one of the two cats in the piece…

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I pick one thing and then choose all the fabrics for that one thing at a time. So next is the skeleton…which has quite a few parts…seen mostly below…

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With the box of already-ironed parts. I have almost 11 hours into the ironing so far. I wish I were further along. But I’m not.

I had a monster of a pile going, fabrics that I’d used so far. I keep them all together until the quilt is done…

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While I’m ironing, so I can reuse certain colors and patterns throughout the quilt, and after, in case I lose a piece, so I don’t have to go searching through my entire stash looking for that one grey I used in a tiny piece. I have learned some lessons over the years.

I did organize them before I left…not by color, but at least in boxes.

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See? Colors. Still a lot of greys though.

Then it was out for NYE. I’m with the band. I wasn’t really in the mood to be out with a bunch of strangers though, so mostly I watched…tapped my toes a bit. Sang along a little.

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And drew. This one…there’s a more complicated version in my head, but harking back to the nuclear bomb drills of the 80s. That shit is still in my head.

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And then a pre-drawing for the next piece in my solo show…not quite what I want, but it’s getting somewhere.

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And somewhere is all it has to go right now. I have some drawing I have to do in the next few days…I do have one week left before school, but it’s a crazy week. Lots to do in very little time. So panic sets in. As always. Nothing new there.

*Squeeze, Another Nail in My Heart

Don’t Let the Days Go By*

So I seriously overestimated how long it might take to trim the Wonder Under, which is cool, because now I get to start ironing to fabric today. And I didn’t even think I’d get that far yesterday. Around 8 PM, when I was still grading chemical reactions quizzes, I was sure I’d be cutting Wonder Under into today. OK, well, I guess technically I DID cut into today, but I did it in the middle of the night. Until 1:30 AM. Yeah. And then dogs were up early today, so I’m on less sleep than I’d like, but honestly, it’s more sleep than I get on an average school night.

For some reason, I thought grading the quizzes yesterday was a good idea. I think I just wanted to get them out of the way. Now I only have two assignments left…one quick and easy one (that’s today’s) and one bitch of a fucker. Yup. That one is waiting in the wings. I walk by it and shake my head. I’ll do it…but I won’t like it.

Someone asked me yesterday why all their teacher friends were posting at the beginning of break that they were done with their grading…and I’m still grading. For one thing, my co-teacher and I have basically given up almost all of our prep periods to planning this year, since everything is new and we have zero curriculum from the state or district. So that’s time-consuming as all hell. We also don’t use a lot of multiple-choice stuff, because honestly (at least for me), I don’t think it really shows an ability to think critically. We would have done it with the last quiz, with a short answer or two, but the school takes the kids’ Chromebooks before break, so we had to do it on paper. Dammit. Yeah. Timing. Sometimes it sucks. There’s also a bunch of online questions we do as short-term assessments…honestly, if we don’t give them something to focus on as a goal (answer this question), they often won’t finish anything we give them…it’s frustrating. And those take time to grade. It’s not that they’re lazy…they often don’t have parents who value school or education, or they have parents who are illiterate or close enough to it. If you don’t see education as a way out of wherever you are, then you certainly aren’t going to teach your kids to value it either. You’re going to buy them that new technology for Christmas even though they’re failing every class. When they tell you math is hard, you’re going to agree with them, instead of encouraging them to keep trying.

But I keep teaching, even as we face an incoming administration who thinks the 10% of kids in private schools whose parents can afford to send them there have more rights than the 90% of those who we have to take, who we can’t kick out when they don’t achieve or when they behave badly. I don’t know how many kids I’ve taken into my classroom and managed over the years who were kicked out of charters because they didn’t fit what the charter wanted…good grades, hard worker, well-behaved. Yeah. I get the ones who need more help than that. And I teach them. Every day. Please make my job harder with your ignorance. I saw a Facebook acquaintance post about how deVos must be a good choice if all the teachers’ unions were up in arms over her…it was difficult not to respond to his ignorance…living in his rich white community…with no insight to what teaching is actually like, to how difficult some days are to just keep them all from catching on fire…let alone to get them to actually learn something, even if it’s just how to think. His kids have motivation to learn…from him. He is completely clueless as to what it looks like to teach in a low-income public school with limited funding. Why we let politicians be in charge of schools, I just don’t know.

So with that in mind, I’m just gonna finish grading…because for whatever multitude of reasons that I’m not done, it’s gotta get done. Next year will be easier because of all the work we’ve done this year. And that’s something to look forward to in 2017.

That said, I still have quilts to make before that happens. It took a total of about 8 1/2 hours to trim all the Wonder Under…otherwise known as about 12 episodes of Supernatural (OK, I watched some other stuff in there…).

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You get to see my socks and pajamas in that photo…1400 cut pieces in the bin on the right…trash on the left. This morning, I’ll sort them (that will probably take over an hour, maybe close to two)…I’m waiting for the girlchild to leave, so I can watch something besides cooking shows while I’m doing it. Then I’ll grade the short and easy assignment, and then do college financial aid crap. I bought two background fabrics yesterday (couldn’t decide), so I’m ready to start picking fabrics…except the studio is a disaster area at the moment, so I’ll need to do some straightening up. I haven’t even put away the fabrics from the last quilt I finished. OK, so that was only two weeks ago, but still.

We went out to dinner last night…good stuff. Italian. Crazy girlchild face.

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Dogs when cold will cuddle. Briefly.

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But first I need to eat. Did I draw yesterday? Nope. No time. Grading took forever. I’m good at doing the have-to stuff first before the art stuff…unfortunately sometimes. I do need to try to draw too today. OK. The to-do list is made…let’s see where that goes.

*Bush, Glycerine

Only Idiots Ignore the Truth*

Today I am officially halfway through my Winter Break. My chiropractor yesterday mentioned how I must find it difficult to relax, as he tried to fix whatever I’d done to myself in the last two weeks. He’s right, of course. Too much to do. And as teachers, we put off a lot of stuff during the school year because we just don’t have time, so it all gets shoved into our breaks and weekends, meaning much of it never gets done. I’m thinking with the solo show coming up that it’s just that I know what I want to make for it and I don’t know if I have the time…so that’s making more stress for me. It’s good stress, of course, artmaking stress, but it’s not leaving a lot of space for relaxation.

Today is supposed to be nice and warm out (eventually…hasn’t gotten there yet), so I’m hoping to sit out on the deck and bask in some of that warmth this afternoon with my sketchbook, ignoring all the other stuff that’s yelling at me. Hopefully the neighbor who has been building their house down the street from me for almost a year now will have stopped using the tile saw by then. Because that thing is loud. When you’re used to a quiet neighborhood, a year of construction is a lot of noise.

I started cutting out Wonder Under yesterday…probably the most boring task to watch me do…although for me, it’s semi-relaxing. I sit on the couch and watch TV for hours. My hand isn’t even hurting too much this morning, despite 5 hours of cutting yesterday. That’s a good thing. An amazing thing. There were about 8 yards of Wonder Under when I started…and now there’s just a little over 3 yards left. So I did more than half.

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I should be able to finish today, which means I need a background. I was going to do that yesterday and spaced out on it…or thought I would never get that far…I was wrong. The bin on the left is all the cut-out pieces…it’s a lot. The one on the right is the trash, plus the stuff I didn’t finish last night when I decided it was time to go to bed.

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I graded stuff too, one of the more time-consuming assignments. Five down, three to go. One of those three is a quiz and one is Unit 3, which is going to take more than a day to grade. Unfortunately. I’m not looking forward to that thing. Hence my pushing it to the end of the grading. I want to start in January with everything graded though, so I have a week and a half. I’m also ahead of my prediction on the quilt (well, right now I am…give it a day or two)…hopefully I’ll be ironing on fabric as of tomorrow. That would be awesome. Especially since that copyediting job from November is rumored to finally be showing up in January (I’ll believe it when I see it, honestly).

But if I draw today, maybe I can get the next two pieces on paper, at least started, well earlier than I need them. That might help my brain with the stress…

I brought home another office chair…it’s better than some of the ones I have…plus Kitten likes it. So that’s how we decide whether chairs stay here or not, right? I didn’t even get it into the room. It’s in the entryway. With a cat on it.

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OK, the kids showed up with the dogs, muddy feet and all. I have to drag one to the vet, and then I can do the two errands earmarked for today. Then some grading and/or time in the sun. Then Wonder Under cutting and sorting. Easy day, right? Dinner in there somewhere. Yeah. Got this. Still on vacation (whatever that means…well, it means no students, no bells, can pee when I like)…

*Adam and the Ants, Dog Eat Dog

I Better Go It Alone*

The good news is that after almost 20 hours, I finished tracing the Wonder Under on the newest quilt. Last night. At like 1 AM. But it’s done! Anyone who thinks I get lots of sleep on breaks is crazy nutso. I should. It would be good if I did. But I don’t. I’m in full art mode. Plus grading stuff. So I got myself back on the one-assignment-graded-per-day schedule yesterday…four down, four to go…with two of those four being awful brainsuckers. I’m going to do another one today. Probably not a brainsucker today. I’m doing OK on the grading. Not great.

The Wonder Under took over 5 hours yesterday…tracing some intestines here… img_1256-small

The hair was just Wonder-Under-wasteful. I managed to put some small pieces in between hair strands, but they wouldn’t fit together very well.

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There’s 8 yards plus in there to cut out. I’m hoping to be on fabric by Friday or Saturday. I do have NYE plans, but not until late, so I’d like to spend most of the 31st with fabric if possible. We’ll see.

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We did a spontaneous hike yesterday with the dogs…it was hard, but not deadly. Being cold helps me…

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Top of Cowles Mountain…up the back way and down the service road. A gorgeous day for it…

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Girlchild’s photo of Calli and us further down the service road, waiting…we missed the sunset mostly.

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And this was in the driveway when we got back. Frozen like that until I started inching closer to them. Obviously plotting world destruction.

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If you leave a quilt top anywhere flat, then you should expect cats to lie on it…

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Apparently the same is true of college kids. This is why they love having the kids home…they lie still long enough to be lain upon. Or laid upon. Or something.

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Girlchild loaned me this for a chuckle…yes, it’s a cookbook, but a very snarky one.

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We did eventually get the dogs tired out for once…

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Today is grading and cutting shit out, plus I made it to the doc and the chiropractor. I’m done with the have-to’s for the day (well, except for the grading, dammit).

This quilt is not small. It’s gonna take me a while to get it done. I should remember that when I design the two for either side of it…or accept that there will only be one on one side of it. Or something. Ack. Thinking that far ahead hurts my head. Plus the 24″ piece I need to do before April. OK. I got this.

*Beck, Go It Alone

Do You Believe in What You Feel*

Today is all sunny and bright, well, it was, but now it’s getting a little cloudy, and I’m realizing it’s not as warm as I thought it was. Still winter, eh?

Christmas is over, lots of good food done in (well, there’s a goodly amount of it in my fridge still) and gifting over. Today is a recovery day, a reflective day, trying to figure out how to spend the rest of this week. The art is calling very loudly, but I’m realizing I didn’t grade anything for two days (oh ’twas blissful) and I can’t keep blowing that off. I’ll try. I will. But even louder is the Wonder Under, because I’m almost done with the tracing and it’s oh so very hard to even stop to eat lunch, finish a book that’s due at the library later today, sit down to write this post, even shower. That voice. So loud. So pissed off. Drawings keep dropping in, waiting to make it out on paper. Some more patiently waiting than others.

So the best part of yesterday was the 4 1/2 hours of tracing. OK, family was good too, but I finally felt like I was on the better side of getting the tracing done. Even as I realized I’d missed numbering an entire pelvic girdle and uterus. Whoops.

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So I numbered that and got to 1353, but I already had about 20 pieces that were misnumbered or unnumbered…and today, I found a bunch more.

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So I think we’re even if we just say this beast has almost 1400 pieces in it. Still not as scary as those that go over 2000 pieces. For some reason. It’s still a lot…

Fire in the fireplace, TV on until family showed up (at this point, the cheese plate is being created, so I’m waiting on that before ending the TV background noise)…kept tracing.

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Eventually I joined the crowd…two dogs on the couch, by the way. Always an issue in our house…

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Table extended for extra people, mismatched chairs and placemats. Found 6 napkins that matched and ironed them. Made a centerpiece from things around the house. Still too much crap on that shelf in front of the window, but at least three of the boxes are supposed to go to school with materials we ordered just before break.

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Girlchild took over the kitchen…

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She cooked everything but the meat…

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That was my job. Even the plates mismatched and somewhat too large for the space. Those mashed potatoes? To die for…seriously.

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And all the broccoli got eaten. We didn’t even make the Brussels sprouts…we’ll do those for tonight with leftovers. Good stuff…even for the vegetarians…

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Two desserts as well. All good. Tired and full. Puppy…well, he had a lot of things to run around and attend to, so he conked out.

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And then barked most of the night at the local coyotes…Ugh. My brain is feeling that this morning. Not enough sleep.

So the plan? Finish tracing today…start cutting out pieces. That will take a while. Tomorrow has some stuff I’ve gotta do. I also need to grade something today before I even go back in to the tracing. I spent an hour on it this morning, maybe more. I’m in the 1100s, so maybe 200 to go? So close. Cut them out, start ironing down to fabric. I also need to fit in some other stuff this week. But art, mostly art. I wanna make art. Draw too. It’s supposed to get warmer and warmer this week…so some time sat in the sun on the deck? Drawing? Hoping for that.

But right now, right now I’m going to grade something. Actually, first, I’m going to put socks on, because I’m cold. And then grade. And then trace. Trying not to think about yardwork. Ugh. Don’t wanna. Later. See how artbrain wins? It’s so easy…

*Zero 7, In the Waiting Line

Hang Some Hope on 2017

Someone in the kitchen is singing “When I’m drunk in the morning”…and it’s not me. I’m also not cooking anything…yet…I’m the designated carnivore cooker for later. I made an English muffin with cheese and tomato on it earlier, just for sustenance. That might be the only time I’m allowed in the kitchen (this is OK by me). Happy holidays to all those who celebrate something. We’re pretty pagan here, and not even officially, so all are welcome.

Yesterday, in between holiday events and cleaning house for tonight’s official holiday dinner, I did manage to get some tracing done. I’m going back to do more as soon as I finish writing this.

These were my companions as I traced…

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It was raining on and off, pretty cold, a little bit of hail. One kept watch so I knew when the last Christmas present arrived. The other just slept. I didn’t get much sleep the night before, so I kinda wish I was a dog.

Simba was trying to figure out why I spend so much time hunched over this thing…862 pieces in, some 9 1/2 hours.

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I swore a lot at the skeleton yesterday, as I traced all the overlapping bones. Who designed this? Some asshole? Oh yeah. Me.

The cats don’t care about the laser pointer…Simba is fascinated with it. Although here, he is clearly debating the excitement of chasing the light versus the danger of the big dog. Eventually excitement won out…but his little brain seemed overwhelmed with the decision.

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Then this morning was Christmas with all the opening of gifts and consuming of food…with only two of the three dogs present. Grandpa has two hands…that’s plenty.

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Eventually the little guy tired himself out.

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How to make Grandma happy? Give her Beats.

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Girlchild took a break from donut-hole making to cuddle puppy.

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Who was happy to sample his own gifts…

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While Calli collected all of the rest of them…these are MINE.

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Eventually Simba conked out…it’s like having a toddler in the house…

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I came back to my place, quiet, tree barely decorated (it has lights and some ornaments…I’m fine with that). Kitten had obviously had fun while I was gone. All the Wonder Under and the pencil were on the floor, along with a lone card of embroidery floss. I have no idea where she found it, but it was just sitting there, in the middle of the living room floor. And she had this look on her face.

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Yeah. I think I need to give her some attention today. But first? First I go back to the tracing…need to get a chunk of time in before people arrive for dinner, and I’ve mostly finished my chores. Floors are clean (ish…my vacuum sucks…badly…at the moment), the table is ready (ish). I need a break. Tracing helps.

Hope your day(s) are good, family is a plus (or not), and y’all take some time to relax, and then make art. Or look at art. Or read a book. Or listen to or make some music. Enjoy the weather, whatever it is. Pet a dog or a cat or hold a baby. Whatever floats your boat. Reflect on 2016…but only briefly, because holy crap. And then hang some hope on 2017. It needs it.

Curves the Words, Spins the Verbs*

I’d like to say I’m ready for the Christmas event, but I’m not. I’ve put a few more ornaments on the tree, but no way am I doing all of it. The grocery shopping was mostly done yesterday, but a bunch of stuff is now on the other parent’s plate. Presents are mostly done (there’s a lot of MOSTLY going on at the moment), but few are wrapped. I am just now printing the Xmas letter, but I have no stamps to send them. I should deal with that today. The house is mostly clean. I don’t even know if dinner is here or not. I can’t get a decision on that. I’m keeping up with my goal of grading one thing a day. Except I haven’t done that yet today. It’s not a broken goal until midnight. I’m trying to make art too…although it’s not as easy to fit it in as it is during the school year, ironically. During school, I come home and do stuff like walk dogs, go to the gym, cook dinner, grade an assignment, and then I stop doing all that to make art. That’s not working right now. I feel like I should be able to do 6 or 7 hours of art a day, to replace the hours (more than that) spent at work. But no. It’s not happening yet. It will…but not yet.

I did a pre-drawing for something I need to have done in a week or so. It’s OK…

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It’s a start. I’ll try again. It’s hard to draw what I need to though when thoughts of nuclear bombs are in my head. I was seriously traumatized by the bomb drills we had in the 80s in school, like hiding under the damn desks was going to protect us from a nuclear explosion. I guess those will end up (again) in my quilts. I guess they never left (look two quilts back). I’m boggled sometimes by what people think makes sense in terms of dealing with other people. I want peace; I want that worldwide. I want people to have somewhere warm to stay, to have food in their bellies. I want torture and war and bombing to stop. I guess that is something some people do not want. I spend so much time shaking my head right now, wondering what kind of crazy is in our genetic makeup.

I try to block some of that thinking sometimes, just to get through the day.

And I wonder if I should just get a tree for inside the house, because the cats really really like sitting under it. Like they’re hiding from prey. Except they eat the pine needles and gack them up. That’s not good.

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So yeah, I traced…for a few hours…

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The one on the left is mostly smaller pieces…the one on the right is all big pieces of the stove. Those take longer to trace.

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I’m up in the 400s somewhere. I wanted to be further. Oh well. It is what it is. More today. When I get my act together.

Sleepy cats…

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It rained all day yesterday…it would have been nicer to sit and commune with the animals, but I was not that organized. It’s not happening today either. If I have any time, I’m tracing stuff. But first, finish some Christmas stuff, buy some stamps, maybe find my brain. Yardwork I think…there’s a few branches that need to be cut up, and I’d rather do it today than Christmas Day (which is a possibility). Those are all on the list.

Anyway, if you’re waiting for the annual card/letter, it’s coming. Really. But you already know everything from hanging out here. Peace to all of you…let’s hope what’s his face shuts up for a few days, acts presidential, stops trying to kill us all or send us back to wherever we came from…that would be a plus.

*Chet Faker, No Diggity

Never Want to Come Down*

Ok. So apparently having a lot of “free” time (it’s not really free, is it? I have a ton to do in said free time) means I can’t blog because my schedule is less routine and more chaos and I just plain old forget about it. And another day is gone. I’m not even sure where it went.

It’s all good. So right now, it’s raining raining raining, and I know we need the water, but the people driving and traveling around in it are kind of lame. I’d like to just hunker down here and stay put, but that doesn’t seem to be possible. I would also like for all the tasks that must be done to just be done, so I don’t have to think about them either. Not happening. Today is a clusterfuck of errands, plus I have this goal of grading one assignment a day, trying to get them out of my hair early. I was successful yesterday. Today, I haven’t even started. I’m getting there.

And the art…yes, it’s happening. I’m doing it. I need more hours, but I’m doing it.

Tuesday night, I managed to number the whole drawing…it was difficult, until I persuaded Kitten to move…

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“I would like to lie on all the things please.” Except cats never say please.

So I numbered it for over 2 hours…I was on the phone with my SIL for a goodly portion of it, which does slow me down, and there were a few mistakes…actually, I keep finding more mistakes, so yes, I counted 1323 pieces (which was well under what I thought it would be, hallelujah), but there are more than that, because of the double use of some numbers. My brain is like a number sieve sometimes. So there’s some a’s and b’s in there.

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Yesterday, we walked the dogs in between stormy bits…it started pouring as soon as we got home, basically. Good timing.

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Boychild doesn’t like his photo taken. So he uses animals to block photos. There’s three in that photo.

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See? Proof of rain…it may never stop…

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So then I started tracing pieces last night, after grading one assignment. I got through about 260 pieces…not bad. Made sure the drawing was upside down for correct orientation like 700 times. Don’t wanna make the mistake that was the last quilt.

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So only 1000-plus pieces to go! Well, so I need to grade something today, and there are still some errands left on the list, but I should get some tracing in today as well. That’s the plus to rainy weather…makes you want to stay home. Same with the crowds. It never fails that I NEED to make a Costco trip this week. That’s crazy talk. And the line at the doctor this morning was not for labs…it was for X-rays, which I didn’t need, so that was good. Anyway, odds are I’m not going to be done tracing by the weekend…but I’m going to try anyway. I figure it’s about 14 hours total tracing time, maybe a little more…and I have three in…so I could do 11 hours today and tomorrow, but my hand might give out.

We’ll see. Holiday plans…making art. Seriously, look back through the years…either Christmas Eve or Day, I’m always working on something.

*Depeche Mode, Never Let Me Down Again

Seamstress for the Band*

I’m running late this morning…been running late since some time yesterday. No art made…was basically home for less than an hour after a long day at school when we realized the puppy wasn’t acting well. No jumping up, just sitting there shaking, looking sad. He had an issue over the weekend as well, but he’d been to the vet and seemed better.

We’re still not positive what it is, but he seems to have strained his back in some way (he is kind of a kamikaze beast) and then maybe made it worse yesterday or Monday some time. He’s pretty subdued at the moment…no running around. Very snappy about being picked up if he doesn’t want it, but wanting love as well.

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See? Pitiful.

So I was at the vet until after 10:30 at night…I did grade there while he slept…

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Because that’s what teachers do. Waiting for blood tests to rule out all the other stuff it could be. He’s a sad pup at the moment.

I could have drawn when we got home, but I have one kid coming home today and one tomorrow, and the gifts were all still unwrapped, sitting out, waiting for me. So I did a bunch of that, trying to get it all organized. And then it was past midnight. Ugh.

No art. And kind of a long stressful day. We’re getting closer to break, though, and if I don’t think about the incredibly messy lab we’re doing today, or having to get my classroom straightened up before break, or the pile of grading to do, I might just make it through all of it. Certainly it will be nice to have the kids home (well, after the girlchild finishes and turns in her essays…until then, it will be tiptoe-on-eggshells time…I think)…maybe someone else can cook and deal with animals for a bit. Plus I kinda like those two.

*Elton John, Tiny Dancer

I’m Wishing My Days Away*

I’m realizing that the holidays are just around the corner, about to slam into me headlong. One sign? Both kids coming home in the next two days. Am I ready? Well, sort of. One kid’s room is vacuumed. Bedding is washed but not on the bed. Christmas presents are still laid out and not wrapped. Yikes. That might be an issue. Did I think about that last night? Yes. But I also vacuumed and took apart the vacuum because of that burning smell (I’ve never found a vacuum that can actually handle lots of dog hair). Then vacuumed some more. And the table is finally cleared off. That’s impressive. And some of the Christmas stuff is up. So did I grade anything? Fuck no. Yeah. I worked many hours yesterday. I will work even more today and tomorrow. I won’t feel like grading stuff when I get home. That’s kind of one of the problems this year…so much of my prep spent on planning that I can’t get any grading done at school, so it’s eating up a ton of at-home time. I could potentially be going home on Friday with 8 assignments to grade…last year it was 7 and I didn’t finish. So that’s motivation to get some of it done this week. Somehow. Yeah.

That said, this drawing is populating my brain and I’m letting it. All day at school, the empty spaces percolate in my head, so I can come home and fill them on the paper. That said, I had a big space present itself last night and it didn’t take long to fill itself in my head. I had finished drawing the uterus and pelvic girdle, and there was an unusually large area between that and the ribs (it happens). So I stared at for a little while and thought about how this quilt is about breaking out of gender roles, about getting out of what’s expected of you…and these women popped into my head. So I drew them.

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There’s a lot going on in here. I still need to have a focus for the head and decide if I’m doing the whole stove or stopping with the top. And if there will be stuff on the sides. I’m leaning against that. The arms still need details too. But it’s coming.

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I don’t keep track of drawing time in the small version usually, just when I go full size. I’ve spent three hours so far on the full-size drawing. I will mull on the face today.

When I sat down for a little while, Midnight came for love and attention…yes, I wear mismatched flannel at home…the cats don’t care.

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And I did get the tree lights on. I really like the lights part of Christmas. There’s Christmas lights in a few of my quilts, including this one. I should add more of those in there, I think.

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Puppy still doesn’t feel 100%. He’s been quiet. Tummy issues.

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Well, if you wouldn’t eat everything in the world without thinking about it, that probably wouldn’t be an issue.

Puppies don’t listen.

I’m hoping to be tracing onto Wonder Under by the weekend. And next week is off! Although family is in town in the beginning. And Christmas shopping is not done. And there’s yardwork to do. I need some good rainy days so I can’t do anything but stay home and make art (unlikely here in the desert of Southern California). First need to survive school. The kids are seriously pushing all our buttons. I will need to meditate in between classes…maybe. We have a lab tomorrow, so hopefully that will help. The mess? Not so much…but at least they’ll be engaged in doing something.

And I get to come home and draw…

*Police, Walking on the Moon