Art Things…

Hi ho hi ho, it’s off to work I go…except I can’t whistle. I really can’t. Never been able to. There are 19 days of school left. I had myself persuaded that because I was missing part of this week and next week is short because of the holiday, that I only had one 5-day week left. But no. My school board, which is barely sentient some days, decided to add some random 3-day weekends in the fall for unknown reasons that just mess up my students beyond belief, so we are not finishing on a Thursday, but the following Tuesday. Sigh. Don’t like it. So two 5-day weeks left. Yesterday was math state testing; today is science (no pressure, no stress!). I have 3 more classes of big science packets to grade, plus one more class of the last academic thing I should have graded two weeks ago (I’m rolling behind). I have one academic thing from this last Monday that I’ll be grading on the plane if the internet holds. Knock on wood. It would be great to take a long weekend in May and NOT grade shit, but that’s actually impossible. Grades are coming up and there’s no leeway on that end-of-year deadline. For some kids, it’s whether they promote or not. A little high stakes. Fun times. Last year, when we went to Maine for my niece’s graduation, I also graded on the plane. It’s a tradition!

Yeah well. So. Trying to keep my art self satisfied as I manage the end of the school year…so I finished ironing to fabric last night…

I’m surprised this took as long as it did; it’s super uncomplicated and relatively small for me.

OK, it only took a little over two hours…I was just doing a lot of other things at the same time; hence three nights to get it done.

I put a second coat of underglaze on this…

Definitely too much. It’s a good underlayer though. I guess. I had to fix a couple of things again. I seriously think people bump it as they’re pulling their stuff out. Next layer will be more neutral, I think, to match the base. but that’ll be next week. Then I need to do all the details, which will take a million years.

I find this amusing…Amazon misses me. I’ve significantly cut back on my Amazon shopping, either finding it locally or somewhere else that’s independently owned or just not buying it.

Same with Target, but their response was to discontinue my store card. Ah well! Also, not sure what that’s a picture of that I’m gonna like, but I’m not clicking on it. I did panic and buy some Wonder Under last week. It’s already gone up in price and it’s made in Spain. So. Yeah. I think I have a couple years’ worth now.

Sigh. Stupid world. Stupid country. Stupid government. Stupid white men. Watching The Handmaid’s Tale Season 6…dark and sometimes you wanna slap June, but there’s a lot of oh hey, we could do that.

One of the things I’m grading has these snowbaby drawings the kids made. These are both by boys…

But impressive. I told both of them they should take art in high school.

Because it’s such a lucrative job, right? Ha.

This is a little close to home. People give me tea; ironically, I mostly only drink one kind.

But I understand this. There’s always a cupboard.

The Man’s carnivorous plants are cute but deadly.

That bug is living dangerously.

OK. I started packing last night. And panicking. Oh wait, no, I’ve been doing that for days. It’s fine. I’ll get to the airport and be fine. I’ve mostly resigned myself to having some random center seat for both flights, but maybe I can wangle an aisle. I’m also resigned to being half asleep for days. Also was joking last night about what to wear to the slightly fancier artist reception and banquet…probably jeans and a t-shirt were out. The Man says, well black. With black. I said but fancy. He said Fancy Black. I said, oh hey, also cold. Fancy Warm Black. But sometimes it’s warmer inside and cold outside. Fancy Warm Black LAYERS. Yup. That’s me. Although I found one thing that’s not black. For once. PACKING. Plus that’s after school and prepping for a sub and grading all the things and pilates. So good luck to me. And then up at Fuck It in the morning and getting on a plane to art things. All good. Should do more of it, but it’s expensive and stressful. So there’s that. Balance! I suck at it.

Trying to Live a Full Life…

OK, so this week is just plain weird. State testing for two days, so 3+ hours with kids for two days, then they leave and I hopefully am super efficient and finish grading everything (ha! hahahahah.). Then I leave at some ungodly hour on Thursday for Quilt National, knock on wood, everything goes well. You never know. I certainly don’t. Looking forward to it though. Seeing the art. Talking to artists. Fun stuff, really. It’s one of the things I appreciate about the art quilt world. In fact, I was at a local SAQA meeting on Saturday, and it’s cool to see people present their work and talk about what they do. It makes me feel like I don’t do much, though…they’re all starting philanthropic groups and teaching classes and writing books…and I just make quilts. It’s OK…I don’t want to teach quilt classes and I don’t know what I’d write a quilt book about that would actually get published anywhere, so for now, I’ll just keep making the work. Which is, in fact, the part I like best.

So on Friday, I had to put two heads back on, and finally decided that the clay coathanger was not gonna work, so I made a new hand with a hole in it, and I’ll make a metal coathanger to go in there. That’s a better idea anyway. I got everything reattached and put the first super light layer of underglaze on…

It’s a bit too pinky. I’ll work on that. I’m gonna be underglazing for a while, no matter what. I’m hoping I don’t have to keep fixing things, but I’m sure I will. There’s a lot of things attached to this.

I finished tracing the last of the pieces for the new quilt, which is small (for me), on Friday night. And then I cut them all out.

It’s only got like 137 pieces, so it was fast. I was going to start ironing to fabrics on Saturday, but Kitten had some major pee/poop issues and it involved some fabric bins. She’s decided that’s where she lives now, and I had them covered by towels, but that’s not enough in this case. So I ended up washing two bins of fabric with the pee remover stuff and then sorting through about 8 bins of fabric, culling fat quarters for donation. I never made it through all of my fabric over a year ago when I last did this, so it was a good time to do that. I keep the stuff I use the most, and because I use super small pieces with most fabrics, those are the ones I cut in half, donating some to Social Justice Sewing Academy and some to the Navajo Quilt Project. It allows me to keep buying some fabric (I like a huge palette), but not be drowning in fabric. Here’s some of what I sorted through.

Grays and blues mostly. It’s also nice to reacquaint myself with fabrics I haven’t seen for a while. There’s some in those bins that will be hair in the new quilt, I think. The blues, not the grays, just in case you’re thinking I’m normal.

Last night, I finally started ironing the pieces of the new quilt down to fabric.

Not so exciting in the color ranges at the moment. This won’t take long. I might even finish tonight. We’ll see.

At the SAQA meeting on Saturday, I recognized this artist, Ellen Ann Eddy…

I’ve always loved her work; I took one of her classes early on in my art quilt development, but obviously, her method didn’t really stick. I do have a baby I made in her style way back in the day that I meant to make into something bigger. Maybe should pull that out.

That is how I feel some mornings, but I’m definitely not 29. My knees are not anywhere close to 29.

Anyway, art tonight, grading all day, kids complaining that they still have to work…all day, every day. Book club tonight! Yes, I finished the book, thank goodness. I actually really liked it, although I’m blanking on it right now. Not really awake. Lots of meetings today. Gotta write sub plans. All good. Trying to live a full life means I have bits of bougainvillea in my thumb right now, a quilt in progress, many shipping dates coming up, at least one thing I need to enter, cat laundry to do (yes, more, but not pee this time), and four thousand things to grade. Or throw away? It’s possible I will do that. Shhh. Don’t tell the kids. Must go to work now.

The Aargh Part of the Year…

Aargh. Yes. Officially the Aargh part of the year. Head up! Off the desk! Wake up! Yes, you have to do the work. Sheesh. Trust me, dude, I am also done (except I’m not unfortunately). So much grading. How did I get so behind? I tried to have a life (ha! Stop that.). It’s fine. I’ll get caught up. Also I keep reading my book when I get home as a reward, and then I read for too long and I should have graded some things. And some things take longer to grade…all the late and makeup work takes forever. So I got through about 9 of those last night…9 kids who turned in work late or redid something. I mean, I didn’t do NOTHING yesterday. I had to record a video (in three pieces) and try to make all the pieces go together. Minorly successful. The app I use was being weird and I didn’t have the time or patience to figure it out. Next time. Maybe. I also went to an author talk: Matt Dinniman of Dungeon Crawler Carl fame. I’m through book 4, all on audio book, which for once, I can keep track of the story (mostly) in my ears. The reader is good. Here he is, waiting for the next question…

He seems like he’d be fun at a party. A chill party. One where we dress as we like and eat pizza. I found my book club friends when I was there!

I haven’t seen these guys in person for a while; we zoom as a book club. One I had never met in person. So that was really cool. Plus I was sitting in a random one seat in front of them (my introvertedness meant I didn’t contact them before the event) and the guy next to me kept showing me cool things in his books, which was awesome. Weird community vibes, but good. The talk was supposed to be at Mysterious Galaxy, but there were over 500 people, so they moved it to the Air/Space Museum in Balboa Park…much better parking and actual seats! Totally cool. I enjoyed it, although I was glad the books were presigned, because I was number 192 (two friends were numbers 1 and 2 WTF) and I was too tired to wait in a line for two hours.

I did finally pick something new to start, art-quilt-wise. I have this drawing that doesn’t even have a date on it. I think I drew the bottom strip and numbered it in 2020, but it was drawn before that. And I like it. It’s simple but to the point…BOOM.

So I started tracing it. You can see the bottom drawn bit there, above, with the date upside down.

It’s only got 130-some pieces, but I’m not tracing super fast at the moment. I’ll finish tonight and start trimming. I still need to clean up my friend’s mom’s quilt…just haven’t had the energy at the end of the day. Maybe tomorrow? I have an in-person SAQA meeting tomorrow that’s an hour away though. I always think these things are a good idea and then the thought of driving that far throws me. It’ll be fine.

So this is my school district’s financial report…

Love that. Especially since they now want to implement a dress code for teachers, so we’ll have to buy new clothes with our -5%. Also no ‘unnatural’ hair colors. That was a fun discussion. I wish I were protesting tomorrow, but I already had the other thing RSVP’d. Planning on one in June, though.

Nova looking for geckos.

There weren’t any that night. She’s patient. She’ll find them.

This stuff is so bad. There’s some woman in Georgia who was declared braindead and has been kept on life support for three months so the fetus that was 9 weeks when she became braindead can be born, because of the anti-abortion laws there.

So expensive. The family hasn’t commented on what they want, except that the baby might not even be able to survive when born. And they have borne the costs of the hospitalization as well. Crazy shit. Maybe some rich person should donate money to that family to help them with that.

I know. That side isn’t seeing reason most of the time. It’s frustrating.

Much like school! Ah well, today is the last day I try to review any more science before next week’s state science test. Then we do an egg drop and then sex ed and then we’re out! Woo! I’m excited. Really. Trying to make summer plans that will help me refresh.

OK, gotta go to the day job, maybe fit in some down time to grade the unit packets covering my desk, plus find a copier that works to get ready for next week. Sounds awesome. Then clay, then home and grade and cook dinner and then trace some more. Oh, probably read a chapter somewhere. I’m allowed. I don’t work all these hours to NOT be allowed to read and make art (and sometimes sleep). Right?

Wherever There Is…

Oh my. I know it’s Wednesday. It’s the nonstop day. I have one of those a week, it seems. Might be two or three this week. Next week…next week will be crazypants. Going to Quilt National! Haven’t been since 2017. Looking forward to it. My quilts were there without me. Not this time…

Artwise, I’m not doing much. It’s not because I don’t want to…or I’m burnt out on art. I’m not. I just needed to finish a big quilt for a friend, and now it’s done. I need to dehair it, because cats, and I think there’s one seam I need to fix, for some definition of fix. And another one that needs something, some restitching. But otherwise, it’s done.

I got the handstitching done in two nights.

Cats love it when I’m sitting on the couch for hours. Me too sometimes. It’s relaxing. Meditative. I just watch some show and stitch. Ideal.

I did some clay on Monday night…

Gave the priest a head…

And a cross. But as I was putting it away, I felt something fall off. AGAIN. It’s fine. I’m glazing as of Friday; I hope. Glazing will be a challenge. There’s a lot going on. And I’ll probably have to fix some things. I’ve found that’s been a constant with this piece. I’ve been working on this piece since November…mindboggling. I might actually finish it this summer? Maybe? And hope it all goes together and doesn’t fall over. Ha! Need to get better at modular building. Or working smaller…oh that’s not gonna happen.

Anyway, tonight I’ll be thinking about the next art piece and probably sorting some fabric out for donations…to make room for new stuff too. It’s been a while since I’ve done that. Today is busy, so we’ll see how all that goes. The left eye is twitching now. Last week, it was the right eye. Yesterday, I had a blood sugar incident. I’m trying to follow doctor’s orders for more protein in the morning, and my body is just not happy with it. It’s also harder to make dietary changes when I’m teaching because of the fallout. Ah well. I’ll get there, wherever there is.

My quilt War Zone got into the International Fiber show at Sebastopol Center for the Arts.

It does cost money to get in. I was debating the opening, but I have another one the day before here in San Diego (assuming I get in) and if I go up to see my daughter, this is a long way on a Sunday for her. I don’t know. I’m waiting for all sorts of notifications to make decisions about things for the summer. So this is one of them.

And this is real.

With a pillow over my head to kill the light and the noise. I really don’t see sleep in my future. Maybe late June.

OK. More testing today, not state, but district. It’s what kicked my blood sugar butt yesterday. Trying to do it differently today. Then more state review (ugh). Then union meeting and pilates (fun times) and grading and counting supplies for egg drops. Wait, that’s earlier in the day. More tea, for sure. More chaos. More grading. READING A BOOK. Or three. Because that’s kinda where I’m at right now. Don’t ask how many I have checked out from the library right now. It’s bad. I have some plane rides next week though. I could finish a book or two. Maybe. Art. I’m gonna work on something new. That’s fun. Exciting. Deep breath in and deep breath outting. All good.

Review Time

Monday already? It’s mindboggling how quickly the weekend is over sometimes. I look at the two days and think, but what did you get done? I mean, I entered a show after photographing the pieces (they’ll go to my official photographer later; I didn’t have time for that). I went to dinner with my parents (forgot to take photos). I went to an art exhibit out in the boonies (also forgot to photograph any of it). So I’m low on photos. We were gonna hike but it was 95 degrees, so that didn’t happen. I had to go to the dentist. That was fun (not). So yeah. A weird weekend.

Oh yeah, the Man had a show Friday night…a little different since the band’s singer is either on hiatus or never coming back. So they all filled in and got some other band lead singers to come in and sing a bit. They did OK. The Man had 3 or 4 songs…he was definitely nervous.

Which is weird, because he sings all the time, sometimes up front. I guess it’s different when it’s just you and no one else. It was for a friend’s birthday party…and even his wife came up and sang. She was definitely nervous. No way in hell I’d do that. Sorry. My teacher voice means singing in public is a mistake. I can’t hit all the notes…voice gives out. Like this week, I think all we do is talk every day. Ugh. Hate that. Especially when they’re so checked out. Sex ed is like that too, all talking, but they’re not as checked out at least.

I finished quilting my friend’s mom’s quilt. The last border was in need of ironing…in fact, I might need to iron it again once the binding is done. I got permission to use black fabric for binding (another color would have been confusing there), and I had a big chunk in my stash from another friend who moved and decided she didn’t need all her fabric. So that was easy. I got it sewn on with the machine, and now I get to sit and watch TV for a few days to get it all stitched down.

It’s not the most beautiful quilting job in the world, but it should hold up. I’m rolling art ideas around in my head. I’ll get there. Not a lot of brain power right now for creativity. Mostly stressed out by the end of the year stuff.

This is my favorite picture in the baby album. It’s the most dresses I’ve had in my closet maybe ever.

I look pretty discombobulated by it all. Anyway, happy mom’s day to those who need it.

OK. Today. Ugh. I really hate reviewing for state tests. It’s torturous. This is my third attempt at it in three years. IDK if it’ll be better. Probably not. Ah well. It would help I guess if I thought state testing were important…but I don’t. It’s something we have to do, and the expectation that kids will remember three years’ worth of science content is nuts. Plus we’re doing some district testing Tuesday and Wednesday in our advisory classes on top of it. Double ugh. Not three hours of testing, but long enough. Then short classes after the kids are braindead. Recipe for disaster? We’ll see. Maybe it’ll be awesome. There’s a 2-hour staff meeting on the calendar, but the boss pulled the literacy component, so maybe it’ll be shorter? It has to be shorter. Then ceramics tonight, put a head on the priest and then start glazing. Come home and stitch a binding. I can handle that. Maybe I should grade things too. I’ll think about it.

In Between Time

Up early again…this week has been difficult for sleep, across the board. As I got more and more exhausted, I did a better job of falling asleep and staying asleep, until it gets light, which unfortunately is earlier and earlier. Ugh. Also state testing really messes with kid and teacher rhythms. We’re all off. It’s Friday! I’m not sure what day it feels like. Next Wednesday maybe? Unclear. Anyway, yesterday went OK except for the advisory class discussion on drop shipping as a current job choice. (No, they don’t know what tariffs are.) Like, dude, no one will hire you to sleep all day. Not happening. Anyway. There are 27 days of school left. Yesterday was also the pep talk of “you aren’t done yet.” Difficult for all of us. Today we start state test review for science…hard hard hard…all talking. Ugh. I may need some alternate stuff by the end of next week. Also, I thought I would be so efficient and get caught up on grading. Nah. Did not. Lame.

In art news, since I finished the banned-book piece, which I still need to photograph, I’m sort of in a stasis mode…by choice. I have a friend’s mom’s quilt I really need to finish, so that’s what I’m doing with my normal art time. It’s fine…it’s still quilting. I am doing a bit of embroidery (honestly, when I should be grading) on Sue Spargo’s Rooted blocks…this one is really nice.

Bowie wanted to smell this one in progress.

And I took it to my stitching meeting last night and kept working on it.

I think I have four blocks done of nine. We’ll be here for a while.

Then here’s the quilting…

I’m in the outer borders. There’s definitely something weird going on in the last border that I’ll deal with when I’m done playing thread chicken with the light blue thread.

I only had two small spools of it and finished one of them in the beginning of the third border, so unless I do a lot more squiggling stitching in the last two borders, I should be OK and not run out in the last two inches, but you never know. Then quilt around the corner blocks (fast) and the two outer borders just need outlining, and then I can trim it (it’s fucking huge…not sure how I’m doing that) and then putting binding on.

Meanwhile, here’s Kitten. She did not have a good day yesterday. It involved a ton of laundry and a bath. She’s looking pretty good considering all of that.

She was pretty mad at me at the end, but still loves me. So that’s OK then. It’s hard to know when it’s time. I keep thinking we must be close and then she rallies. Poor old lady. A lot of her current issues are because of the little boy cat, who doesn’t understand sick old ladies. Sigh.

OK. I’m waiting for solar to show up and turn off the electricity, probably soon. Then school, turn in huge packet (which I then have to grade), teach how to take a test (Step 1: stop freaking out. Seriously.). Then hopefully ceramics. Rescheduling telephone call with doc. The Man has a show tonight. I’m exhausted, but it’s a friend’s birthday party and I know the band is all freaked out because their lead singer may or may not have quit or taken a hiatus, so they’re all singing tonight. Well, not all of them. So I’ll go to that and see how much energy I have for it. Small confined space with lots of loud music and people and alcohol and whatever. Right now it sounds kinda hellacious, but sometimes it’s OK. Friday nights are rough though. Looking forward to going to sleep tonight and NOT having to get up at 6 AM tomorrow. For once this week. I did finish my book by the way. I know you were worried. I wasn’t.

I Could Be Reading…

So state testing has started. Some years, it’s easy, the kids are into it, it’s chill. Some years, it’s not. This year? Not. Fun times. Today will be worse…it’s the performance task. Some kids will just skate through it. Some will pretend and then hit submit after writing one sentence. Some kids will just repeatedly lose their minds that they’re being asked to test at all, to sit still, to be quiet, not disrupt those around them, not bang on the table or pile up all their snacks and drinks (that did really happen yesterday. All of it.). So by the time 12:15 comes around, all my patience for the day (and possibly three or four days afterwards) is gone. Not great, because we’re testing again today. And I still have to teach for days until the end of the year. One kid was already like, why do I still have to do work? Because they know they’re promoting (probably) or not and they think we’re done. We have 29 days left, dude. Don’t stop now. Sigh. My stress levels are high…my face is breaking out…my blood sugar is a mess. And today is my 500th pilates class! Not sure it matters. It’s not like I’m stopping now.

OK, artwise, I’m in a weird place. I did finish the book piece. I managed to construct it properly…

The first two pages are shoved into that envelope of the last two pages. There’s certainly a few things I would have done differently, but it’s done now.

I need official photographs so I can enter the show, but I’ll do those when I’m home in daylight.

Eventually, I’ll have my photographer take photos, but I don’t have time for the thing it’s being entered into, which has a tight deadline. If it gets in, it’ll be in the downtown library for 5 months. I’ll let you know.

So what next? Well, I don’t have my head around the next big quilt, although I know there will be one over the summer. I was thinking of doing something smaller just to keep me mentally going through the last weeks of the school year. I haven’t figured out what that is yet, though, because I’m trying to finish my friend’s mom’s quilt. I was diligently working on it in January and February and then a random deadline popped up and I got sidetracked. I mean, I did purposely put this one away to finish the other thing. So I’m finishing this…I’m almost done anyway. Well, for some definition of ‘almost’.

Her mom made the quilt and sandwiched it, but unfortunately was unable to quilt it before she died. So it’s here and I’m quilting it. I’m in the outer border at the moment, with the rest done. I think. Honestly can’t remember if I finished the center panel. I think I did.

I did. So I finished outlining the symbols in the blue border and will overall quilt that starting tonight. Then I need to outline the reddish brown and black borders. Some things have happened to this quilt over a long time (fabric replaced, not by me, possibly already partially quilted? I just don’t know). And then I’ll put the binding on. And hand it over. And then, like I keep saying, not offer to help ever again (which is really not in my nature…sometimes I say no and then go back and say yes; please don’t take advantage of that). So when I’m done with this, I’ll start something new. Or maybe in between. We’ll see.

Clay is going. I made most of a priest and 3 handmaidens on Monday…

I was thinking when I went in next, I could start underglazing, but no. I still need to give him a cross and a head. Most definitely a cross. Head? Hmmm.

We watched the first episode of Season 6 of The Handmaid’s Tale last night…made us both cry. Good times. So Friday, I’ll go in and try to make a head. And a cross. And THEN I can start underglazing.

The bees left yesterday. I figured they would. I came home and washed the composter lid and side, then sprayed it with citronella, hoping it will cut the bee pheromones. They keep coming back. Not sure what to do about that. I have a bee-friendly yard…maybe a bit TOO friendly. And no, I haven’t fixed the damn sprinklers. I think I need two solenoids now. I don’t know. Maybe I need a new controller.

I had two cats on my lap in rapid succession last night. Luckily the chonk here didn’t stay long.

He’s a year old now and solid. Sometimes sweet, sometimes not. Like all calicos. I have a hole in my right hand from his morning whack. He’s harassing the old lady, who basically needs to be carried into the litter tray and food multiple times a day. She can get there, but he attacks.

OK. Testing. Afternoon is science planning. I’ve managed to grade quite a bit so far, so that’s good. I had to get a loaner computer Monday after school because my screen just went black when I was at lunch. Fun times. So Monday was stressful. I guess the good news is the eye with the vitreous humor detachment is fine (as fine as anything with a big blob rolling around in it is), but she thinks the other one will detach too. Except the right one has always been worse, more nearsighted, with an astigmatism. The left isn’t as bad. So let’s hope it doesn’t. She does think the blog will wander south with time and only show up when I first get up in the morning. Sounds good. Somehow I found the energy to go to ceramics after all the running to the IT department (not at school) and getting a new computer. After school, I have a telehealth appointment with my doctor where she will tell me I need to get my numbers down and I will ask her how to do that and she won’t have an answer. So there’s that. Then my 500th pilates class and book club. And someone else is cooking dinner. I’m already exhausted because I didn’t sleep well, so I’ll be quilting after that and going to bed. Oh! Also trying to finish my book before the library sucks it back from me. I went to the gym last night to help me finish it, but I’m at 86%, less than 100 pages. I’m up early to go to the meeting my principal just canceled. I could be reading. I should be reading.

Physically Impossible.

I’m sitting here with two computers in front of me, deep breathing, trying to get two things done at once, which is, of course, physically impossible. But one computer is incredibly slow, so I type in between, in the wait times while it responds. I’m also waiting for the electric company to show up to remove something so I can get a solar battery installed. Unfortunately, there are bees in my composter (right next to the freakin’ meter, talk about bad timing, y’all). I think they’re chill enough right now that it won’t be an issue, and I’m hoping they leave by tomorrow, because otherwise, I’ll need to delay the battery install. Sigh. I have an eye doctor appointment this morning, so things are already wonky and I’m already stressed…plus it took FOREVER to fall asleep (probably related to all of the above and other shit), so I’m tired. I’m always tired. This may not be any different. Also there’s the issue of not posting the assignments for school too early, so kids will actually have them to do in class and not have them done and be acting out. Yes, there are scheduled posts, but they work about 50% of the time, so sometimes, you just post everything early and pray a little to the Goddess of Education, who is a little over-stretched herself at the moment.

The weekend. Sigh. I meant to do some things and then got in the wrong headspace and didn’t. Love that for myself. I did apply to an artists’ residency, hopefully something I can do this summer. Maybe not though, depending on timing and availability. I got the banned book piece to the next step. I finished stitchdown and pinbasted Friday night…

Ironically, I un-pinbasted them on Saturday and put a backing on them…I think it’ll be better that way. Then I quilted them Saturday night…

All together, they took a little over two hours…

Not long. Not hard.

Little quilts are easy.

But still not cheap. Time is money? My time is worth something.

Then last night, I started construction…this is the hard part. Not exactly sure what I’m doing. Scary to cut it and not sure it’ll be the right size, but doing it anyway.

So hopefully construction goes well over the next couple of nights. Certainly I’ve done it in my head about 3,000 times by now.

Oh, here’s the bees…

I went out yesterday evening to put the compost in, opened the lid, threw it, and ran. I went back when it was dark, when they were all chilled out.

I knocked off the honeycomb. This morning, there were three batches of bees…one still on the corner, one down on the ground under that (the biggest chunk), and a smaller chunk on the lid, which still smells like home, but is 20 feet away now.

They’re fascinating, but I need them to live somewhere else right now. Well, always. They love the composters unfortunately. I have an anti-bee spray I’ll use this time. I wash with hot water and soap, but it’s not enough I think. This composter has had bees at least three times.

The SDGE guy is out there…he wants me to check on him in 10 minutes in case he gets stung and has an allergic reaction. Chill guy.

I did not make it to ceramics Friday. Had a meeting after school and then had to set up for the sub this morning, and I was exhausted by the time I was done. No energy. Came home and graded instead.

Here’s my dinner drawings from the last four weeks.

I can’t explain them. I just draw. No purpose.

I find it relaxing. Yes, I can talk to the people I’m with while drawing.

It’s the only time I really get to draw these days. Which is frustrating.

Sometimes they bring the food really fast and I don’t get to finish. Or I’m drawing super slowly and I don’t finish.

I thought the Man’s plants looked like they were talking to each other.

Laughing plants.

This is way too real.

Except I do finish things. I finished one last week. This current book is really good so far. Hoping it stays good.

I’ve been working on this in bits and pieces at meetings and things.

OK. Sigh. Today is chaotic, but I’m hoping it will even out once I get through them dilating my eyes, my going to Costco with dilated eyes, then getting to school and hopefully having my eyes undilate (last time, it took over 4 hours, so I’m a little nervous). Plus I didn’t tell the kids I would be out…some of them are just jerks when you do, so I just decided to make it a surprise. The SDGE guy did not get stung by bees (they are so chill still)…good thing. I want to read my book, I need to grade things, I want to go to clay (it’s quiet on most Mondays), and I’m hoping the eye thing goes well. The doctor wasn’t particularly personable the last time. Didn’t tell me all the things, but wrote them up and I read them later. I guess that’s a thing…if you read. Hoping to come home to no bees hanging around and plenty of time to try to make that quilt thing go together. And the headspace to do so. Mondays. They just are.

My Oomph

Morning morning. Definitely Friday. No sleeping in this weekend. Ugh. I just never get to sleep enough. My fault most of the time. Last night, I stitched early, so I graded until 10:45 PM. Bad plan. Then the brain is ON. It’s fine…it gave up the ghost quickly, but man. Don’t do that again.

I got the fourth page ironed down on Wednesday night…

So there’s all four…

Now they need stitchdown and then quilting and then assembly. Not sure what that last step looks like. I stitched down one last night. I’m hoping to do the rest tonight. We’ll see. Then sandwich and start quilting tomorrow. I’ve got meetings I need to go to and I’d like to hike. But there’s yardwork too. Need to fix that solenoid! And weed whack. Fun times.

Plus there’s a shit ton of grading again. Although state testing starts next week and I can do some of it then. Meanwhile, it’s May now and all of my calendars are still on April. Fix that.

By the way, here’s the uncropped photo…

I needed a flat light-colored place that was low enough for me to get the camera semi-straight. I have at least 5 photos that I tried to do on the ironing board. Mistake. Bowie is happily watching.

Yesterday was principal’s day. We had shirts made with our principal dressed as Elvis (it’s a thing he does) and we all had Elvis glasses.

Some had sideburns. He was pleased. This time of year is a shitshow for everyone, so I’m glad he got some oomph to get him through the rest of the year.

My oomph is coming from exercise and books and art. There’s a few kids who just need to figure out their stuff, maybe realize they’re going to high school in August. There’s a lot of stress bumping around about promotion and those who might not promote, plus all the end-of-year stuff. I’m missing a half day on Monday for an eye-doctor appointment and I’m not even gonna tell the kids…they’re worse when they know. I totally changed what I’m teaching next week…couldn’t get enough understanding into them to get to the next point. Next year. We’ll fix it for next year. It took us 7 years to get 7th grade curriculum set up. This is only year 3 and I didn’t have help for 2 of those. It’ll be fine. Today, we’re doing a natural selection simulation that’s pretty good (until the bunnies take over the world). Next week, we’ll finish the unit and start state test review for science. That’s a big ugh for me and them, but it needs to be done. Meanwhile, I’m hoping all the adults involved figure out how to help and stop hindering. I have a meeting after school for a kid who will probably not promote because parents waited until MAY to figure out what was going on. Fun times. Then ceramics and fabric and I probably have to make dinner…I think. Although the Man is now eating fairly normal food…but his official dental appointment to release him from soft food is next Wednesday. From what I’ve seen, he’s already released himself? Who knows. And then, into the weekend…which seems to be getting shorter and shorter the closer we get to summer break.

Hopefully on Time…

OK. I lost a week in my head. I seriously thought I needed to be done with these banned book pieces by next week, but I have a whole ‘nother week. Whew. Although it’s still a rush, it’s not an insane, probably can’t do anything else rush. The Man’s show isn’t until next week. I have a weekend coming up with two back-to-back meetings (difficult, but OK), but the rest is pretty clear. I got two more pages ironed (basically I’m getting through one a night). Here’s page 2…

The embroidery did really well with the dark background…it hides the tails even better than I’d hoped. Here’s page 3…

There’s one more…it’s got some complicated hair in it, but I’m hoping to start a little earlier tonight.

Last night, I worked on the sculpture…I had to fix some things again…the damn fingers on the left hand keep breaking off…

But I’ve started to build a head…not sure if it’s too big though. Hard to do it this way, for sure. I also added a bomb and an atomic explosion…

I think that arm might be officially done. The other arm needs some stuff though.

I think I’ll be cutting into this for the mouth. It is a removable head, so I can work on it separately from the torso. The torso really needs to get fired, but I need to underglaze it first…and I obviously haven’t even started. And the base needs to do something. Besides take up most of my shelf at the moment. Hard to get my head around the 3D stuff, but that’s good for me. My brain needs the artistic workout.

Oh hey, I got into another show, Sebastopol Center for the Arts’ International Fiber Arts XII exhibition. War Zone will be traveling there in June. The show opens June 21 and runs through August 3. I’m debating going up for the opening. We’ll see. It is summer break by then.

It’s not a huge piece, for once.

This is too true.

OK, school today is still chaos. We had a lockdown that fucked up classes last week for a shooting in the neighborhood, then a sex trafficking assembly that fucked up classes Monday and a little bit yesterday, and I’m still trying to get everyone on the same page for instruction. Hopefully by Friday, at the rate I’m going. I’m about 15 minutes off at the moment. Interestingly, the classes that have had the most time are the furthest behind and those with the least are the furthest ahead. The best-laid plans…are not laid at all. Then the human sexual health curriculum parent meeting is after school…no one showed up last year, but you never know. I have fewer kids opting out this year than ever, so either parents aren’t paying attention or they’re more accepting? That seems unlikely. But whatever. After that, I’m coming home and cooking dinner and making art…and maybe replacing the solenoid so the sprinklers can run. I’m so tired when I get home that I don’t want to start in case I fuck something up. Sigh. It’s fine. I’ll do it. And then iron things so I can do stitchdown tomorrow. Getting there. Hopefully on time.