Talking Foxes…

You know, you think you’ve got a handle on everything, including the water that fucked up the hallway, and you even came home yesterday and pulled all the carpet and underlay, and then leaned over and scraped up glue and swept 40 years of dirt up (yeah, the carpet was OLD), and the boychild (who is not a boy) says he’ll pull up all the tack strip today and do some drywall sawing. Because the restoration company wants two grand plus testing which is another 1200 and that’s not even fixing the water issue and the carpet. And you mentally figured out how to fix outside, looked at the weather reports, and figured you had two weekends to do it, cool, almost doable (this weekend is a clusterfuck btw), and then you got up this morning. Couldn’t sleep last night (fan noise is doing me in, y’all, plus my overactive brain). Looked at the weather again and the next storm with more than an inch is Thursday. So digging needs to happen this weekend. Around 3 Zoom calls, pilates, groceries, GRADING, finishing a quilt, and delivering it to the photographer. And the Man has a show. OK. All right. I can figure that out. I have a plan. And then the doc messages you, because last weekend’s routine mammogram showed something distortion-y (love that word…new quilt?) and now you get to have more tests more poking more squishing more shit. Fuck me. I’ve done this before and everything turned out fine, which is what this morning’s brain is trying to tell me, but also I almost lost my mind last night because the Man and I had started planning our Spring Break trip and now we’re canceling because of all the hallway crap. And money. And time.

So I’m not happy at the moment. I’m doing a really high-maintenance lab at school today, which is actually good, because I won’t be thinking about my boob. Damn.

I did finish quilting yesterday. After pulling up all that crap and a Zoom call with friends…I quilted for about an hour and finished. Here’s Wednesday night…

And then I cleaned the floor that we had just tracked 40 years of carpet dust across, because who else is mopping their floors at 10 PM on a school night, and I trimmed it.

And things aren’t all bad, because it’s actually prettier in person, despite all the war and crap going on in the bottom of it, and the SDA online conference is tomorrow and I’m going to get the bindings on. And grade. And dig. And finish all the things. And then somehow try to figure out when the next set of squishings will happen. They’re gonna call me. Yeah well, I’m gonna have to call back, because I can’t answer the phone at school, especially not during a high-maintenance lab. Fun times, y’all. Fun times. But I will be taking this to the photographer on Sunday. I started this when? December 30. Fast finish. I copied like 12 drawings…I might just keep going. Well, I have a couple of things I need to do first.

Probably gonna have to sweep again after the boychild pulls all the tack strips.

Maybe I’ll even kill a mophead on this.

Next book I’m reading…

“Talking foxes are a sign of fever…”. I think this paragraph is why I read so much. Other worlds. Easier to live in. This one is challenging my patience at the moment.

OK. School. Do a DNA extraction lab. Grade things. Plan things. Duty after school. Go buy binding, because you went through the stash and didn’t have enough of the right thing. Dig. Put a binding on. All that. READ. I get to read. It’s allowed. Grade things. I said that already. Fuck.

Problematic…

OK back to normal 5-day work weeks. Pros and cons to those. They feel more normal. There’s less time off. There you are. It’s pouring today, so probably 30% of our kids won’t come to school. Not sure I blame them. I have a good book. I could stay here and be perfectly happy. Except grades are due tomorrow, and no, I’m not done. Fuck me. I tried. But then all the other stuff, mostly art stuff, which is good…but time-consuming, got in the way. So I’m still not done with grades. I might need to just admit that one assignment isn’t going to get done. I have three more classes of this one assignment, and kids didn’t do very well on it, but I’ve already input two classes, so there’s that. Ugh.

This kid. He’s a little strange, as I’m sure you can guess. He’s not the best student, more from a lack of understanding I think, but he’s funny sometimes.

So quiltwise, good progress was made. I finished ironing all the tiny leaves down on Thursday night, after a million hours at school.

And then I started the stitchdown.

I did most of it Friday night…

But I had to be up earlyish Saturday for the annual boob-squeeze (ouch. It really hurt this time.), so I went to bed at a semi-reasonable time. Then got up Saturday and finished the stitchdown…

Cut a backing, washed the batting, went to an art meeting, which was short, but added on by having a cookie with art friends. My theory is that you should get a cookie for each time they squish your boob like that (which would mean I should have had four, but I settled for one really big and tasty one). Then home, and sandwiched and pinbasted.

Then after dinner out, came home and started quilting.

I did a small amount of school stuff on Saturday. I didn’t completely blow it off. I just didn’t spend more time than I had to on it. I saved the crazy panic for Sunday, which included pilates, grocery shopping, making breakfasts for the next two weeks, handing a quilt over to a guy who’s going to put it in a gallery in Japan (cool), putting up the owl box (with help), and doing schoolwork. I graded a bunch of stuff Friday night too, which I try to avoid, but still not done. Rumor is that the staff meeting will be shorter, so I’ll just come home, torture myself with this last assignment, and get it all done. Right? I even cooked dinner last night (and lunches for the next 7 days). I’m tired though. Still.

I did quilt last night too…

I just have the head left to do…

For the outlining. Then the whole background. It’s probably 1-2 hours left. So I’ll finish tomorrow night? Hopefully. Then trim and bind. Done by this weekend? Ahead of the deadline? I need to do a drawing for another art thing I’m doing. Sometime this week. After grades are done.

Tomorrow is also eyeball dissection, which will be a long day. Starting a new unit. DNA extraction on Friday. Another long day. But no long-ass meetings after work this week, hallelujah. That’ll be next week. Ugh. At least I have one week off from that. And the sex-ed curriculum meetings should be done after next week. Knock on wood. Well, not true…I have one mid-February, but it’s just teachers. Anything without the parents. Sigh. OK, I need more tea. I might need galoshes. I don’t have galoshes. Problematic.

It Will All Happen…

Oh my. I knew this week would be rough, but I didn’t know the universe was like, oh hey, here’s some more…but it’s mostly GOOD stuff, it’s just good stuff that takes time to do and you don’t have any of that, so GO!

Anyway, I’m carving out art time on this quilt each night for an hour (or almost an hour, let’s be honest, or I stayed up too late like last night because I got to a spot and I didn’t want to stop.). I’m ahead of my schedule, barely, which is cool. And also good. So Tuesday night, I got her all ironed together except for her face and a few things…

I really was excited about her hair…it turned out so much better than I imagined.

Then last night, after a really long day (union meeting and pilates), I did her face and the earth.

And because I was in the mood and hadn’t done an hour yet, even though it was past my going-to-bedtime, because I’d had to process and upload EM Spectrum lab videos for school, I ironed it onto a background, because it was pretty easy to do.

That said, I’m not done with that…there are about 65 tiny leaves that go in the trees on her head (see where the cat is? Around there).

I wasn’t kidding about them being tiny. And a lot of them. That’s tonight. And then start stitchdown. Of course, that’s tonight after teaching all day (yesterday was HAARD. Y’all need to use your BRAINS…) AND a 2-hour sex-ed curriculum meeting. Ugh. The third afterschool meeting this week. Y’all I am done. And yet grades are due, I had two parents (of the same child) messaging me last night back and forth (do y’all talk to each other? Yes, they live in the same house…did you read last week’s email about how yesterday was the last day I’d take late work?)…this sweet cat was sitting on the things I was grading the other night…

Not helpful at all. Of course, these assignments are crap. My fault. I took them from another teacher, and I think they are workable, but my kids are Google junkies, they don’t process the info, they just copy it, and the rubric is awful. Completely useless. So I’ll fix that for next year. Hopefully. Not like I have time to do anything but write a note on the calendar about that, which is problematic, because the teacher I got them from will eventually see that. O. M. G.

The tree guy is on his way here so I can show him the two branches that still need to come off…

Apparently the highlighted picture was not enough. Also he wants his check. More importantly.

Here’s the soap that’s currently hanging out in one of the teacher’s bathrooms at school.

That’s about right.

OK, shoes, more tea, my brain, go to school. Tree guy first. Torture kids with an academic assignment today, but maybe I’ll get time to grade. I’m definitely rethinking tomorrow…they can do it on their own. I’m not walking them through it. Eye dissection next week, new unit, fuck me, I need seating charts. OK. Deep breaths. It will all happen.

Bring It…

I did not fall off the face of the Earth…I just had a ton of stuff to do. And if you’re my school district, trying to figure out where I went this weekend, the answer is NOWHERE. I didn’t travel anywhere. I really didn’t. I did take a necessary day off though, and they don’t like that, especially before a 3-day weekend. I had a sub though, which is a plus.

There was a lot of art this weekend, which was good and necessary to the processing of my brain. There was also a lot of schoolwork this weekend, which was unfortunately also necessary to my surviving the next month or so. This week, definitely, because I am entering the hell of 2-hour meetings for the next three days, all school-related. Sigh. Not looking forward to that bit. And some medical stuff, which is what it is, and can’t all happen after school hours, much as they’d like it to.

So the quilt in progress went from all ironed to fabric Wednesday night? I think…

98 fabrics…in just under 9 hours of ironing.

Then Thursday night, I started cutting them out…

Finished Friday night? Again, maybe that was Saturday night…yeah, I think I’m off by a night on all of this…

That took a little under 7 hours…I was on a roll. And then Sunday afternoon, I sorted them…

Sunday night, started ironing together…

And this is last night’s progress…

With all those 2-hour meetings, it’s gonna be a fight to get an hour in each night, but that’s my goal. More than an hour, actually. I have about 200 pieces left, so I’m figuring I’ll be done Wednesday, iron to the background Thursday, start stitchdown by Friday. Tight deadline, but I’m going for it. Have I mentioned grades are due next week on top of all those meetings? Yeah. And Saturday is shot to hell by a mammogram and an art meeting. There is no down time.

Ooh wait, here’s the cutting-out I did on Thursday night. Hmmm. Maybe I finished ironing fast and then cut stuff out?

I’ll ask Nova. She might know.

Setup for a class I took this weekend…

Loads of fun. Totally recommend taking classes that aren’t related to what you’re doing at the moment.

I also went to an opening and an artist talk, and I have photos from that, but no time to process right now. Because I need to get to work, need to beat the tree trimmers out of here.

Friday night’s dinner drawing…

Cute sister cats…

This current quilt is small enough to ALMOST fit under one teflon ironing sheet.

IDK when I’ll have the brain power to do something bigger this year. I’m supposed to be doing a drawing this week as well. Deep breaths. Might have to wait until Friday to have the mental space for it.

My succulents are making cute little flowers…

I hadn’t been paying attention to the plants with all the other crap going on.

I hate that.

Also finished mom’s snowflakes, so this went back to her for embellishment…

Then it’ll come back to me for sandwiching and stuff. Not sure what stuff entails at the moment. Haven’t touched the other quilt I’m doing for a friend…it’s been a rough week. It’s still a rough week.

OK, work today, something to do with light and UV damage (I feel like I should know what the something is), then a 2-hour sex-ed curriculum meeting, then I get to cook tonight (woo!), then more ironing. Full-on survival mode this week. Bring it.

Saving the World from Nothing*…

I used to listen to music every morning, and whatever song I was listening to at the end of writing this blog, I’d go find some part of the lyrics that spoke to me and that would be the blog title. Certainly probably better than most of the blog titles I come up with now. Don’t get me wrong; I love writing the blog. I certainly do it more for me than you, and my future self appreciates me documenting shit so I remember what I did last year or the year before, or how January going back to school really felt (it’s always hard; I’m always tired). For documenting the art process, it’s also good for me to remember where I was at on a certain piece. I’m not sure when I stopped listening to the music…I have a guess, but it’s been a while, and maybe I should bring it back…if just for the title inspiration.

So I’ve now survived one work day with kids and one without. Both were fine. Although the one boy who told me I should smile more probably wasn’t ready for my impassioned sexism speech. I’m OK with that. I started with a lab, which seemed to shock the kids…not sure why. I also have been trying to do more of what we did with 7th grade, when I had a partner to plan and we tweaked things for years to make them easier on us and more varied for the kids. I’m hoping I can keep it up. It takes a chunk of creativity on my part, and I don’t always have the extra energy for that for the day job AND art. Although yesterday’s prep period was a crazy headgame of trying to get 7th-grade teachers all their stuff (I found the damn paint swatches, hidden under another lab in a weird tube of periodic tables we never use and my co-teacher on leave says I should toss. Fuck. I will do that when I get to school today. Really. I will. If no other emergencies pop up.). I was watching a video yesterday of a teacher at our school who posts on TikTok etc, and she’s showing her typed plan of how to use her before- and after-school time and her PLAN (ha! Really? She has a plan period she can actually USE? WTF) so she’s uber efficient with getting things done, and I almost cried. I mean, I guess having 7th- and 8th-grade meet on the same day each week is part of that, but it doesn’t leave much time with all the other crap I need to do. Not everything fits into a cute TikTok video I guess. She’s selling her rainbow template on TeacherPayTeachers, so all the more power to her.

So artwise, I’m really pushing the ironing. I have been coming home and trying to start the ironing before dinner time so I can do more than an hour a night. So I managed almost 2 hours both nights, which is good…I’m thinking I might be able to finish tonight. Maybe.

Monday night, I got up into the torso and finished all the things that were green, which is all the fleshy bits…

Here’s all the skin in the upper torso laid out…

And here’s all the things that are attached to or on her flesh that AREN’T green, like her heart etc.

The piles are logical. I start out with everything in number order, in piles of 10, but when I’m pulling the flesh out and piling it on the fabric, I’m sorting the others into what they are, so I can just pick up one pile and iron it all at the same time.

Here’s a video of the setup…I stand between the table and the ironing board and turn from one to the other…one of the benefits of a room that is relatively small, I guess.

Then last night, I started in on all those little piles…

I made a rainbow snake. I was looking at the drawing and thinking, well, I often make green snakes, but the main figure is already green, so that won’t work. And any snake with black in it won’t show up against the really dark background, and brown was just out…the legs are all brown. So rainbow it was. Rainbows make my brain happy. I also realized there is very little pink in this quilt. Usually the figures run in the pink to brown range, but this one is reminiscent of the Supreme Court goddess, all earth colors, because I wanted to explore that a little more. Maybe the Supreme Court quilt had way too many normal-colored people, because I’m rolling in purple and earth stuff, maybe a rainbow person is next. Although the next one is a collaboration, so who knows what that will look like.

Meanwhile, I guess I really do need that template from that teacher (not)…because I spent 45 minutes after school processing videos and pictures of the lab we did for all the absent kids (lenses and refraction). And that was NOT on my to-do list until I realized it needed to be. The slides exist now, so future self will be happy, but fuck me, this year is full of this crap.

I came home and meant to (a) go to the gym (too exhausted after trying to find my insulin at any pharmacy, and getting dog food) and/or (b) read my book, but I opened my computer and processed planning shit for about an hour before reading one chapter of my book, then getting my exhausted ass off the couch and ironing before dinner, which luckily I didn’t have to cook.

Today? Today the kids are going to do an independent assignment so I can do some planning. I’ll roll my chair around with my computer and check in at tables while working for a while at each table. Tomorrow too. Tonight is pilates and IRONING. I do have to cook tonight, but it’s easy. So IRONING. Finishing. Hopefully. Also hopefully finding insulin.

*Long Way Down, Robert DeLong

Never Gonna Dance Again

Woke up to Careless Whisper by Wham!. Not sure what to think about that, on the first day back to work in 2024. Can’t get it out of my damn head though. So there’s that. Hey you know there’s 74 days until Spring Break! You know the worst part about coming back is when you don’t feel rested and refreshed, and everybody is all asking you if you feel rested and refreshed and please share one relaxing thing you did over break, and I’m like I READ 78 BOOKS BECKY precisely because that was my escape from not feeling rested and refreshed. Also I’m just a cranky old lady sometimes, and today is one of those times. Not enough sleep. Not enough shit got done. As always.

Speaking of not enough time, I really am trying to up the ante with this quilt, getting it done in an insanely small amount of time. How? Grabbing minutes when I’d normally do something else. I had 45 minutes yesterday afternoon before driving out to an art meeting, so I ironed instead of lesson planning. I had 30 minutes waiting for the Man to get dinner ready…same deal. I got the room cleaned Saturday in the hour before going to see his show, and when he sent me an updated start time (later), I sat down and got half a really complicated exhibition entry done. It’s good, but it feels like I can’t ever just sit down and relax. Hence my post-break feeling of no, not rested, not relaxed. My fault, but semi-necessary at the moment. I’m not letting another year of school fuck up my ability to make art. I’m gonna figure it out.

So I had everything laid out and ready to go on Saturday…wait. Stop. I need to be chronological about all this.

First of all, on Friday, I ran a million errands. I even wrote the blog late because of it. I spent about an hour staring at this asshole…

Which is the slow annoying one, because our faster one has been broken down most of the fucking school year, so we’re stuck sharing this with the front office, who keeps telling us we’re not allowed to use it. Uh huh.

Fast forward to Friday night (I did other stuff, very little of it art related)…I drew at dinner.

I was in a pretty positive mindframe at that point. Except she is holding her head. Legit position. Then we went out to see a friend’s band play…

Sonic Moonshine…ironically, we’d be back here on Saturday night for the Man’s band, Radio Thieves. But some drinking and dancing happened, probably too much of both.

Saturday dawned early, as it always does. I had a quilt guild meeting, so I worked a little on her face.

Slow stitching forever! Might finish in 2030.

Then came home and focused on cleaning up the art space, putting fabric away, even cleaned the floor because there was something on it that made it very slippery in one area (don’t wanna know what) and I was afraid I’d fall and break something. Like my leg. That would make life fun right now, right? Oh wait! Before I cleaned up in there, I had to deal with this. So we have this older friend who isn’t a quilter, but she had these blocks she cross stitched, and then I sandwiched them for her and she quilted them (the white threads are all my basting threads)…

And then I couldn’t deal with the sashing on a quilt-as-you-go, so we mailed it to a friend who used to live down here (she’s retired) and she put it together, mailed it back to me, and then I took it BACK to our friend and she hand-stitched all the sashing sides down (I taught her ladder stitch…she’s really NOT a sewer). Then it came back to me and I put the borders on and shoved some batting in there on Friday and Saturday, and then I removed all that fucking basting thread I put in last summer or whenever it was (2022? this has been going on for a while).

See pile of threads in the top right? So that happened before and after the quilt guild meeting. I needed this to get off the ironing board so I could use it for ironing.

Then I quilted one of the white squares on Saturday…

And one on Sunday. Yes, I could just do it all in one go, but it would take a few hours and then I would feel like I got nothing of my OWN done, and I cannot abide that at the moment. Nope. So my goal is 1-2 white squares a day and then the damn sashing and borders. I’ll get there. It just won’t be quick.

Then on Saturday, I laid out the first 100 pieces (after cleaning the whole room, floor, etc).

It’s not a big quilt.

Then I went to see the Man’s band play (more dancing, a little drinking, learned a lesson there I guess).

Home again. Spent Sunday getting ready for school, but also carving out time for ironing. I’m in the mid-100s, I think…something like that.

I got almost 3 hours in yesterday. Good times. You’d think I’d have more ironed, but there were a lot of little things going on and they took some thinking.

I also went to an art meeting and sewed down (during dinner) 9 of the 48 circles I need to stitch down for my mom’s thing.

See, I AM doing all the things. I’m just cranky about most of it. Except the ironing for my quilt. That is joyous and not cranky at all.

I’m sure everyone has seen some cool art or fabric in a TV show and screen shot it…this is the wall art from an episode of Suits.

Fascinating. I had some stuff burst into my head from this. Too bad I have to go back to school today instead of nurturing my Art Brain with some drawing time. Luckily there are no kids today…just adults and the bullshit the district wants us to do. Am I still burnt out? Oh yeah. I am. Do I have some plans for keeping myself from fully burning out? Uh huh. I do. Watch this space. Still got that damn song in my head.

Doing It Better…

Well hello 2024. Nice to see you, and all those folks in the back kicking 2023 to the curb and welcoming you with open arms. Not sure where I am on that yet. 2023 wasn’t fun, but I’m not seeing the light in 2024 yet. I’ll let you know. No matter what, it’s some sort of a mental reset, although for teachers, I think Winter Break is a reset even if you don’t give us a new year in the middle of it. For me, I will hopefully get caught up and even ahead of the game. That’s the plan anyway. Although, what I planned to do today didn’t happen. I cleaned up my office space instead, the area around the computer and the sewing machine. It needed it. It was a disaster. It will be again, but I can start clean and semi-organized. Just don’t look at the rest of the house.

So the Man and I planned a weekend away to start the New Year. It’s been rough for both of us in the last month or so, and this was a better gift than anything else we could think of. We didn’t have much of a plan, but getting out of here is always a start. We started with a winery gift card I got in 2022 for Christmas and kept forgetting to use…we drove out to Julian…

Had a tasting and got a bottle of wine out of the gift as well…

Nice gift. This is Menghini Winery. We made the mistake of missing the turnoff through Wynola (we came through Ramona, probably because Interstate 8 is still down to one lane eastbound), so we had to endure the crazy Julian traffic.

The bathroom at this winery is stellar…

That is a living ivy plant both outside and in. I’ve been looking at bathrooms for ideas; I’ve got at least one bathroom remodel coming up in 2024 probably. A living plant taking over one wall wasn’t on my list…until now.

From there, we drove out to our Airbnb…it was OK. Not the most comfortable for a cold night. A fireplace would have been nice, but we left things too late and decided a real kitchen was more important than a fireplace.

There were horses on the next property over…

And turkeys wandering around both properties…

There was a lake with kayaks, but we weren’t in the mood…

Although it was a pretty lake.

We went for a hike on Sunday…

The Secret Canyon Trail from the north end…it’s pretty flat for apparently the first 7 miles. We did not do 7 miles…

Nowhere close in fact. There were two water crossings that weren’t bad at all, and then we got to an iffy one, but realistically, the Man’s back was bugging him…

So we did a little over 3 1/2 miles…not much…

But it was nice. No one else on the trail…that’s always a plus.

Then we spent most of the afternoon and evening reading, playing a game we both won…

I did some drawing…

(small table)…I was drawing on the bottom of the drawing I’d chosen, which was from two locations and dates in 2022.

I added more after this.

Then I numbered it…

And then some crazy drawing I did late at night…

I can’t explain this, but I’m glad to have the mindset and the down time to have done it. To more of that in 2024. However I can figure that out.

I do notice that the harder stuff is, the more I dive into reading. I went well above and beyond my Goodreads goal…

Not sure what this year brings for reading, but hopefully it’s a lot. I realized today that I hadn’t read the book I need to read for school…I’ve read it before, but it’s been long enough that I don’t remember what happens at all. I should work on that. Or not? Hard to say.

Anyway, we drove back from the mountains today, and I started by cleaning up this workspace, at least some of it. And then the boychild disconnected all the cable TV boxes to return tomorrow; that’s been on my to-do list for months, so I appreciate his help. I packed up a box for the girlchild, who hopefully flew home tonight. I have a long to-do list for this week, catching up a lot of loose ends, but also a lot of school stuff. And tracing that new quilt. Tomorrow, hopefully I will be writing a blogpost about the Supreme Court quilt and how it came to be and what all the things mean (well, most of them anyway). Then it will ship off to its new owner. The purple quilt is at the photographer. I only made 5 quilts this year, which is down from previous years. I’m not happy about that. Usually I make a little photo thing for them all, but I’m not in the mood tonight. Maybe tomorrow. I’m sad that I didn’t have time to make more. So that would be something I’d like to change in 2024, but also something that will take a lot more than my just saying it in order to happen. I just updated the whiteboard calendar on my fridge, and January is hellish for school. I’m not happy about that. I also can’t do much about it. My teacher morale is low at the moment.

For now, though, I’m going to start tracing this new piece and consider grading the easy assignment tonight, or part of it at least. Tomorrow, I’ll get some errands done and trace some more. Plus read some more. Plus clean some more. I can’t really hit rest and relaxation with so many things that need doing, but tracing is meditative and that will help. May 2024 be better or as good as or whatever you need it to be. I’m going to focus on surviving the next 6 months and then doing it better after that.

May Art Sustain Us…

Weird frame of mind. I don’t have a clear idea of what art I’m working on next, which is hard for me. So I’m trying to get that taken care of in the next day or so. Plus I’m realizing I have to go back to school…I ignored school for almost a week and then I couldn’t any more. I graded the last of the big unit yesterday, so I just have one really short and easy assignment to do next week. The bigger deal next week is planning for the rest of this unit and as much of the next one as I can get through. I keep waking up in the middle of the night and my brain is trying to plan things that give me some down time in class. Please give me more time. I’ve been just slotting assignments in without thinking about how demanding they are on ME…and I need to try to fix that. Best I can. So that’s next week.

Artwise, I took all my smaller sketchbooks (not the super smalls, but the 9x12s) to the copy store after skimming through and tagging some I thought would work. I copied 11 drawings at 250%…

I started at 200%, but the pieces were too small. Then I started cutting and taping them together, numbering them as I went.

Takes about 12-22 minutes a drawing, depending on how fussy the pieces are.

Then I stared at them and tried to decide what to do. These are all just random drawings, mostly while camping or traveling, some during the Winter Break Draw-a-Day things I like to do (no time this year). So they don’t have a purpose or a theme to them, which is fine. I think of them as practice for the real stuff, but although I feel like I just finished some really complicated stuff (still recovering from the Supreme Court quilt), I can’t just do a light, easy quilt right now. And most of these roll in that realm. Not really light, but not really purposeful. So I picked this top one (of the 11) and added paper to the bottom…which is where I’ll add some purpose. Whatever that is. I have some ideas, just not fully formed.

That said, we’re taking this weekend off in the mountains, not camping (it’s raining and cold), but a little Airbnb with some hiking and nature. A reset. Of sorts. Might need one a month to get through the rest of the school year, but that’s not an option financially. Ah well. This should be nice. Hoping. I am taking the drawing (and two more sketchbooks) with me. And books. And stitching.

I got all the embroidery done on this (mom did the majority…I just did the little in-between bits).

When we get back, I’ll put borders on it and sew the little snowflake circles (we’re not doing all of them), then hand it back to her for embroidery.

This year has been difficult. There hasn’t been enough time to make art, and I hate that. I managed to stop thinking about work for a few days, which was good, but yesterday’s run through town to donate fabric, books, and clothes seemed to let the work back in my brain. Not good. I’m trying to make some positive changes in the next half of the school year, though, and hoping the next school year is better, but I’m counting on nothing at this point. I remember drawing every week. I remember making art almost every weekend. I just need more of that. An hour a night isn’t enough. Keeping that in mind…

Here’s my tree, which is already undecorated and back outside, so it can (1) enjoy the rain and (2) not be eaten by Kitten, who keeps throwing up the needles. Sigh.

It’ll be the New Year when I’m back…so happy new year to all, if that’s how you roll. If not, happy weekend. May art sustain us, however we take it in or push it out.

Protective

In-between days. I finished the quilt last night. I’m in that weird space between quilts that I hate. I don’t like having the next one ready to go. It freaks me out. No down time! No worries; I have a bunch of drawings tagged; just need time later today to go make some copies and then make some decisions. It’s a pro to have so many pieces out at shows or sold, but it makes it hard to enter new shows. And the day job is really not conducive to my finding MORE time for artmaking at the moment…unfortunately. I’m debating one show, trying to finish something for it. Ugh. Still thinking. Hence the headache, probably.

I did most of the binding and sleeve stitching on Tuesday night…just binge-watched stuff.

Walked away for 5 minutes and Nova landed.

I’m waiting to hear back from the photographer. For this show, I could take a half-assed picture and enter it, luckily. So I might need to do that. We’ll see.

Maybe take a picture of the WHOLE quilt, not folded over. So that was the 5th quilt for the year. Sigh. The previous year, I only hit 6 because I did a super tiny one that only took 9 hours in the last few days of the year. Seriously, the last 3-plus years of school have really sucked time away from the artmaking. It’s so frustrating. I keep trying to pull time back, give me more time to make (and sleep and clean and honestly just function) and the job just pulls back. I already know January is bad. It makes me cry. I just finished an art fellowship application, and they asked about how the money would help, and this is it…I need to retire. Not this year. But soon. Because it’s not fair to Art Brain to be working less and less on art because this country is taking more and more teacher time. So yes, the brain is trying to figure out how to make the rest of the school year easier, how to protect ME time, and I don’t have a solution. Let’s hope I find one.

I’m still working on Mom’s Tinsel quilt…got most of the extra embroidery done, hopefully done today, then borders on, then circles on, then hand it back to her. Then get the other quilt done for Barbara. Plus figure out what I’m doing next. I seem to be ignoring school right now. I’m gonna have to stop ignoring it soon. Tomorrow is the day I get all the donations done and delivered. Then the Man and I have two days of no work, although art is allowed, reading is allowed, games and puzzles are allowed.

Dropped the girlchild at the airport yesterday. She went to Texas (friends) for New Year’s, then back home to San Francisco.

I told her I wanted to visit when her SO was there so I could meet him. So that’s in 2024. Death Valley might be in 2024. It’s hard to plan until the Man can get a job, but he got more treatment approved by his doctor today, so hopefully this will solve it and he can get back to work. So much stress around the holidays this year.

For me, the rest of today is three Zoom calls, one with a naturopath, which I’m looking forward to helping me with blood sugar etc; one with one set of stitching friends, where hopefully I’ll get those Mom and Barbara things further on the road to done; and the last with another set of stitching friends. Who knows what I’ll be doing by then. I think pilates is in the middle of all that. It’s a weirdly busy day in between pajama days. I think I need to trim all those tree bits the boychild cut down and get them into bins today too. Yikes. Deep breaths. I don’t see peace in 2024 yet. I see me as the Hulk, standing protectively in front of my art and my time, growling at anyone or anything that tries to mess with me. I guess that’s a thing. Sorta like this…

Yeah, I can see that. Don’t mess with me? I wish it were that easy. I saw this video of a young elementary school teacher ‘showing’ how we could reduce our work week to 43 hours. Yeah, she used her prep period…the one I rarely get. Sigh. Making more tea. Being protective.

We Do Our Best…

Well I’m off by a day again. Christmas seems a good excuse. I probably could have written this yesterday in between things, but I did other things instead. It’s all about choices, right? I’m the one who makes my rigid schedule, and there’s good reasons for it…it makes me write, but I’m also the one who can revise it at will. Besides, this is the floofy part of the year that has no purpose and no actual days of the week. Except for the one when the trash company picks up. You should know that one. And if you have to donate stuff by the end of the year, you should realize that is coming. And if you are trying to take advantage of some special sale deal thingie, they probably are up by now. Too late. So sad.

The holidays are days of chaos, no matter what your choices, I think. So Friday night, I picked up one friend and her kid from the airport and went out to dinner with them. I’ll see them next December probably. They live far away and I don’t get to travel much: money, time, all that. I kept quilting Friday afternoon and night…

And Saturday morning and evening…

Then Christmas Eve, I trimmed her…

Before we went to that party. I was wearing the outfit below, but with knee pads.

That was the Man’s holiday party. Then after Christmas night’s dinner, I put the binding on…

Hand sewing tonight and tomorrow…emailed photographer now. There’s a deadline on this one. So many have deadlines.

I managed to get all the applique pieces on this and started the embroidery at last night’s event.

We’re changing up the borders. I needed mom to cut a bunch of tiny circles. She has a machine and dies for that, which she brought to Christmas dinner…like you do.

It didn’t have the one size we needed, although the box said it did, which was just weird. So we cut some varying sizes. Figured we’d alternate between 1/8″ bigger and 1/8″ smaller. We’ll see. Certainly this is easier than cutting them out by hand. There aren’t dies though for most of what I do.

On Saturday, the Man and I went for a hike…

Apparently he was more excited about halfway than I was.

There’s been lots of dog activity. Or really, lack of activity…

Annie is still injured, so the cone is on most of the time. She licks her paw otherwise…occasionally she’s allowed out with supervision…Grandma is her favorite…

But she’ll settle for the Man…some sort of communal napping going on here.

Simba is always tortured by the girlchild’s costuming choices…

Poor little panda guy.

So I sucked at family pictures. Again. Here’s Christmas morning…

Chaos all around. Then dinner at the other house…

I didn’t even take pictures of the food. Spaced out. Ah well. We hope, as always, that we’ll have another year of it. Maybe I will remember photos in 2024. Luna hopes so.

But I have plenty of pictures of her. Here, she wants pets. More pets. This is after she hooked my finger with her claw. Bloody beast.

We also cleaned out the owl box.

We found the owlet I suspected had died in June.

Headless this time. Less of a haul this year. There were some rats too, but not all of them…heads missing. That might be their skulls. Hard to say. We’re leaving the box down for a few weeks. There’s 6 trees that will be trimmed in January, and the hope is that they will not destroy the owl box in the process. We might pull it off completely; we’ll see. Certainly I’m going to have to pull up some plants to protect them. Ah well. That’s January’s problem. And stress.

This week is not stress free. I have an arts application to complete, plus some stuff to ship out, plus donations to make before the end of the year. Lots to do. Grading still too. Hoping to get a good chunk done before the weekend, when we’ll take a couple nights of destressing. We hope. Then I’ll have to start planning the next unit and a half next week. Head down. There’s so much I can’t get done. I don’t feel very productive so far this break…or relaxed. I’m hoping to get there, but it’s been difficult. I know it’s supposed to be a mindset, but the weight of the to-do list is ever present. The only solution to that is to cross things off it and carve out some time for my sanity. Which is what the rest of this school year looks like. So not really thrilled with that. I did get some ceramics classes for Christmas…literally gonna carve those out of the schedule once I survive January. So that’s something to look forward to.

Hoping your holidays were what you needed them to be. I’m glad the official stuff is over and I can stop worrying about food and wearing stuff besides pajamas. Says the woman who needs to shower and go to the grocery store today. Yeah. Well. We do our best.