One Way or Another

Still trying to find a balance. It’s way too easy to fall into the habits of previous years, where work follows you home. I did work last night…and the night before…and the day before that. I’m not getting enough done at school; we’re setting up labs during prep and trying to figure out what we’re teaching next. There’s adjustments…plus not everyone has computers, so we still need stuff on paper, and then our building’s copier is broken (again), so we have to compete for a copier. And I’m trying to grade one academic thing because I know there’s another one coming today. It’s not hard; it’s all just time-consuming. Plus we had to meet yesterday to explain (justify?) the way we grade in science. And the teacher making the complaint didn’t even show up to the meeting. Love that. Well it’s done. And realistically, we never really hit a balance until the end of September. It’s not even the end of August. Yikes!

Art is slow too. Just getting the time and energy at the end of the day is hard. I’m almost done with this one…Monday night…ironed the main figure…

Last night, ironed a bunch of bits and pieces…

The two side heads, the eyeballs, etc. This is all I have left to do…

Some buildings, a bird, some hair, lips. I’ll be done tonight finally. Then cutting them out.

I did make it to clay yesterday…checked the boot…

I could underglaze it Friday…if I remember to bring the underglazes. I didn’t yesterday. The bag is also drying…but it will have glaze after bisque. Need to buy that glaze.

I worked on the mug…

Apparently I’m trying to make it as lumpy/bumpy and bulky as possible.

Seems that way…

It keeps me occupied at least.

Today. At least I don’t have to be at school early. Although it is unknown if the other teacher expects us to have prepped all her labs for today (I didn’t finish yesterday…we don’t start until tomorrow). I need to go fight for the copier because of the kids with no computers. I have one loaner and an iPad that I can’t figure out how to make it connect to the kids’ accounts. And more than one kid without a computer in more than one class. I have pilates after school. And I’m cooking dinner. So there are three more classes of that academic thing that need grading, and I’m not going to get to it at school today probably. Which is unfortunate. Not gonna think about that right now. Right now, I’m going to finish this cup of tea, wash my dishes, make more tea, take my meds, and head for school. The rest will figure itself out, one way or another.

There’s Always More…

OK, we’re back to feeling like nothing got done over the weekend. I remember this feeling. It’s frustrating. I crossed off some things, but more magically appeared. Or I made more just by existing. This morning, in the shower, I remembered things for school that I should have done Friday. Oops. Oh well. It’s either happening this morning once I get there or it’s possibly not happening.

I did do some art this weekend. That’s the plus, I guess, is that I push and shove to make time for that. I ironed all three nights, although not more than an hour each night, really. Friday night (with exhaustion)…

I had labeled the original pencil drawing with the flag colors and country names, and then photographed it, because I erased all of it to do the final drawing. I printed those photos Friday night to help me remember what I’d drawn in June.

Here’s ironing all the flesh of the minor characters…the warring factions.

Russia and the Ukraine, the US (embarrassed), Palestine, Israel, and Hamas. I’d like my country to stop providing weapons to wars…it’s complicated, though, because the Ukraine needed it to protect their country from Russia taking over. It made sense to help them. But Israel? Not so much. But not Hamas either. That whole conflagration…we should just be providing medicine and food and persuasion to knock it off and be peaceful. Not helping Israel kick Palestinians out of their homes…and killing innocent people. It’s a fine line, maybe. Anyway. This piece is about war…and how to stop it. Read Lysistrata.

What I finished Saturday night…

More than an hour. It was nice. Last night? Not even an hour…but a lot of little things got ironed down…

And I picked the fabrics for the central main figure…I just didn’t iron them down. I’ve done all the 0-100s and the 300s and some of the rest. I don’t think I have a lot left. On a small piece like this, it’s easy to bounce around and do all the missiles and bombs, then all the fires, etc. I suspect I’ll be done tonight or tomorrow night.

I wanted to do ceramics Friday after school, but I staying 90 minutes to set up for today and also to do seating charts. And then I was way too tired, so I went to the studio on Saturday instead.

I cleaned up the girlchild’s boot vase and forgot to take a picture of it again. It’s basically drying slowly. I then cleaned up the not-paper bag…

It had a cracking issue in the base, so I fixed that, but it’s also probably ready to dry. Then I worked on my mug…

I’m going to do a combination of relief and sgraffito, I think. We’ll see.

Normally I’d go in today to work in there, but there’s a 2-hour staff meeting and then book club at 7, so I don’t have time. No worries; I’ll go tomorrow. Maybe I’ll remember the glazes too.

I also got this one out of the bisque fire…

The top part is still drying. Color is pretty true to vision at the moment.

I haven’t decided how I’m going to handle this…whether I’m going to leave it bisque? I think so.

This one got glaze fired…some interesting things happened with the skin color.

Needed another coat? I don’t dislike it, but it wasn’t expected.

The back seems to have been glazed, even though I didn’t glaze it. It stuck a little to the ceramic cookie. Doesn’t really matter…this is meant to go on a garden stake. Interesting to try anyway.

We hiked 3 miles Saturday. It was cooler and nice.

We really have flailed on hiking this summer. Too much to do, too hot. Working on remedying that. Although the Man has so many music shows, it might just be me doing this.

This one…still up way too early in the morning, claws out.

Ugh. Sweet but psychotic. OK, I need to go to school, make more ice, figure the rest of Friday out, copy stuff, figure the rest of grading out, grade a thing, input grades, sit through that 2-hour meeting. I’m teaching energy today, ironically on a Monday when I don’t really have any. It’s OK…it’s not that kind of energy. And maybe the tea will kick in. Got some work done yesterday…finally caved and spent a few hours so this week won’t totally suck. Really trying to limit it though. Walked away with more to do. There’s always more to do though.

NOW It’s Friday…

OK. NOW it’s Friday. Yesterday was NOT Friday, despite my brain repeatedly trying to make it so. It’s fine. I’m tired. We’re all tired. We’re all already behind on school stuff. Very little that is supposed to be done by today is actually done. I stayed an hour at work yesterday to finally type my rosters up. Sure, I could use the school ones, but they drive me bonkers, and I add stuff like nicknames and tutorial teachers for the special ed kids so I know who to bug about missing work. Makes MY life easier. Once it’s done. I have to start grading things today. Fun times. I also need to find the demo stuff for today when I get to school, plus lock everything up because the district is doing this mock Williams Act thing where they inspect our classrooms and make sure every kid is assigned a book, except science doesn’t have books, so we have to show them digitally, but not every kid had a computer until yesterday afternoon (and some STILL don’t), so there was no point in going through the process until everyone had one. So they come today and we are explaining today. PLUS, we get a school board member touring today…stay the fuck out of my classroom. Yay!

Anyway, we’ll get to a routine. The kids are starting to test the boundaries with gum, food, games, phones, airpods, and dress code…fun times. Oh yeah, and throwing things. I might need to stay after school more than an hour today to get seating charts done.

So I’ve been short on art time most nights. I cooked late Wednesday because of pilates and getting all the trash ready for pickup and IDK what else I did. So I finished cleaning up the studio finally and picked the fabric for the background of this one, and laid out the first 100 pieces.

Not much…cleaning took a long time…a few hours. I swept the floor even…didn’t mop though.

Last night, I started late because I ate late because I had my stitching Zoom…but I got a few pieces ironed.

Honestly this piece isn’t very big…hopefully it’ll be done sometime in the next few days.

At my stitching Zoom (during the Zoom? At the couch?), I worked on embellishing the flowers around the edges.

Not quick. But I finished one…that I started during dinner TV hour sometime this week…

They’re not hard, unless you’re tired, and then reading instructions is hard. Stitching is not hard. Progress.

Nova has taken to hiding in the hammock because the kitten can’t reach her.

His neutering is maybe scheduled. He was sleeping with me last night, and then he wasn’t (he bit my knee at some point), and then he was again, and then he wasn’t. I get it, Nova. I’d sleep in a hammock too if I could.

Bowie trying to figure out how to attack Luna from below. Luna contemplating landing on Bowie.

I don’t think I fell asleep until 1 AM because of the cats and dog moving around and making noise (barking at whatever was on the roof…nice, Simba). Not a lot of sleep all week.

Apparently the Man’s car resembles enough of a naturescape that this praying mantis was hanging out.

OK. Go to school, lock up all the cabinets so they think we don’t have chemicals in a science classroom, then find the demo stuff. Wait. Find the demo stuff, THEN lock everything up. Teach kids how to access a digital curriculum we never wanted and will probably never use, then teach about energy…while we have none…ironically. Get through the whole day, work some more after school, and then go to ceramics and try to figure out what I’m doing next. All good. It’s Friday.

Stashes of Snaps

Hmmm. So not much art happening at the moment. Mostly cleaning up after art. Which is a thing. It’s a thing many people do when they’re procrastinating about making art. Me? Not so much. I hate the cleaning up, but realize it’s necessary. It’s part of my process. I put things away so that there’s a fresh palette for the new quilt. The last quilt was BIG and had lots of fabric, so I had a lot to put away. Plus I had the bug fabrics and the needlebook fabrics (you haven’t seen that yet unless you follow me on Instagram)…and some stuff I bought. So it was chaos in here. Hadn’t been truly cleaned out all summer due to moving everything around for carpet and then the girlchild was here. So now would be a good time to try to straighten shit up. Except it’s hot and I’m tired and cleaning is not my superpower. So Monday night, I dragged myself in here and started stacking up fabrics by color. I got about halfway through, also sorting out big pieces for backgrounds and backings, and then left it for last night to finish.

That’s the top of the ironing board. The one the kitten would topple the next day.

Ugh. I have to tell you, as someone who doesn’t really like cleaning and organizing, having to do it again the next day, organize the SAME things you just organized? Extreme will power in play. I want to be ironing, not cleaning. But I did it. I did more, I put a bunch away (all the pinks and some of the browns and whites and all the oranges…those two cupboards are way too full). I unfortunately have more to put away tonight…I also have the trash to deal with, the food waste, cooking dinner, and pilates. Not a light night. It’ll be fine; I just don’t have a lot of hope for getting to the actual ironing tonight. SOON. Maybe.

I did go to ceramics yesterday. I worked on the girlchild’s boot she made on Saturday. She mentioned decorating it with stars. I looked up cowboy boots stars and got some ideas.

It still needs a little work? So Friday. And then I’ll let it dry etc etc. She also left that not-paper bag for me to work on, and I totally forgot to check on it and my mug. It was hot. I was hot. I wanted to get out of there before the classes showed up, so I rushed. Ah well. Everything can rehydrate if necessary.

I also finished (well, almost) the needlebook my quilt guild did…

I should probably be able to tell you whose pattern this is. Dammit. Hang on. Rosie Taylor…she’s on Etsy here. It was relatively easy. I mean, it still took me forever because I was doing it in bits and pieces, but it turned out well. It’s not done because I decided to put a snap on it and I didn’t have any. They arrived yesterday, so that’ll go on soon and then I’ll lose all the other snaps for any future projects for which I might need them. When I die, my children will find stashes of snaps (and many other things) all over the place and they’ll wonder what the fuck I was thinking. Fair enough.

OK. So as you can see, I’m not getting much done. I think I finished the needlebook Sunday night because I didn’t want to clean the studio instead. So much needs doing. I don’t know how normal people do it. I guess they don’t work? I don’t know. Or they have help. My local SAQA group is moving their Zoom meetings in 2025 to a day and/or time I can’t go to…ever. It’s frustrating. Some of us work full time, y’all. And then they’re doing an artist’s day out to a show I’m actually in, on a weekday in the middle of the day. I guess I’m not interacting with that group much any more. Sadly. Another group I’m in keeps setting up meetings with less than 10 days’ notice. Well I’m usually already booked by then. So I’ve missed a bunch of their meetings. I missed ALL the meetings in July I think. All my quarterly groups met on the same weekend, the one when I was in San Francisco. It’s fine. When I am retired (if I ever get there), I can go to ALL the meetings and advocate for those of us who work during the weekdays and can’t do the things. It does make one feel a bit isolated though. Luckily I have the ceramics studio and my stitching group.

OK, I must go to school and do the things. Finishing up safety today with an academic assessment. Still getting new kids every day. Have a couple kids I’ve only seen once. Some I’ve never seen, but that’s normal at the beginning…usually they’ve moved. Lots of crazy stuff needed left and right. I tried not working at home, but last night, had to cave. I needed an hour with no distractions to figure out a plan and the order…did that. I still need rosters. Like today. Ha! I’ll get those done eventually. Maybe.

Teeth Chaos…

Hey. Monday. Too early. Too much. Bright sun, blue skies. Still pretty chill…morning air…but we know what you’re gonna do for the next three days…be hot. Not a huge fan of the hot. Don’t really feel ready to teach today, but what’s new? I tried not working all weekend, until I remembered there were a few things I actually needed to do. It’s a balance…I spent an hour typing kids’ names and printing their pictures. I sent a parent email. In three languages. It’s OK. Friday self wasn’t prepared to get the classroom set up for Monday, so I need to do some things this morning. I’m not quite into the routine yet…after two full days with kids. This week? It’s the first full week of teaching. It’s gonna be tiring. But it’s not hard teaching. Reminds me: I need to find my apron for tomorrow.

OK, so artwise, I wasn’t super productive because the girlchild was here and there was stuff. Plus I needed an oil change…and to finish a book. Very important. And recover from school.

So I finished cutting out all the Wonder Under for the newest quilt, which is pretty small. This was Friday night’s progress…

After taking a nap on the couch and trying to figure out what dinner looked like because everyone left.

Saturday night, I was more awake…

Finished it up and then sorted it…

There’s less than 400 pieces, so it was fast. Next step is cleaning the studio, putting all the fabric away from the last quilt, so I can start ironing for this one. I did not do that last night.

Saturday, the girlchild and I went to ceramics. I finished up the basic shape of my mug…

Very lumpy bumpy. Gotta work on that, but it was getting too wobbly for that. Girlchild made two things…a bag…

And then a cowboy boot…on the left…

Both need a little work, firing, and glazing, so those will end up on my to-do list. Fun to hang out with her and clay though. I realized I have like no pictures of her from this weekend except that. And we took no family photos last night at dinner. Totally out of it. I keep meaning to do those things and forgetting. I do have Bowie helping to hold my book up.

Not really. He does like to lean on an iPad though.

I said no to one of said roles last week.

Life/work balance y’all. And J.D. Vance? You’re a dick.

Although I guess technically you could argue I take care of kids, if by ‘take care’ you mean ‘educate for the future’. I’m with the princess. Where do men come up with this shit? I hope his wife has read Lysistrata and is withholding until he stops being such a dick.

Here’s my brain.

I just realized I could see all my brain pictures on the app, so I’m totally using one in a drawing in the future. This one is nice. Teeth chaos in the front.

And this is from the book I’m reading. I can’t decide if she’s being serious or making fun.

I’ll keep reading…maybe it will become obvious.

OK. Teaching safety today. Some other general sciencey stuff too. Two staff meetings, ugh. Then driving the girlchild to the airport. Fun times. I’m tired, it’s true. I often am. Hoping to figure out the sleep thing soon…doesn’t help that there’s a kitten who sleeps like a 1-year-old…or worse…actually, maybe like a 4-month-old. Not up every two hours…he gets a solid five. But that’s it. Neutering is in his future. Should help.

A Lot of Hope

Hey. Yo. It’s Friday. I’m tired. I have survived the first day of actual school with kids. It was fine. Too much talking. I have a new prep period; kind of adjusting to that. It’s earlier but not by much. Definitely had a pulled muscle yesterday, but I think it was from pilates on Wednesday. After school, I did a 1-hour round trip (rush-hour traffic with accidents as a side) to drop another quilt with my photographer. That’s three. It’s cool. I feel like I finished some stuff this year finally.

I traced the last two nights…

Either Bowie is slightly better at listening, or I’m better at picking kitten sleepy times to trace. I had to move him off the light table to be in zoom with stitching friends and trace, but he was so tired, he just curled up again and went back to sleep.

And I managed to finish tracing…

Small quilt, small pieces, not very many of them. Compared to the bigger ones. And then I started cutting them out. This is where small is not so fun.

I started. I will continue. Probably tonight, but who knows? I’m missing the Man’s show tonight…

The girlchild is here, I’m exhausted, the boychild is home from fires. I just wanna hang out. Watch, they’ll both just disappear and I’ll be home on the couch with all the furry beasts. That also might be OK. The Man has a ton of weddings coming up in the next 6 weeks…wants to sneak me in. I don’t mind crashing like birthday parties and stuff, but weddings are dress-up things. Not doing it. So lots of Saturday nights coming up where I will just have to sit around and make art? Hmmm. Pros and cons.

Ceramics-wise, I know two of my things came out of the bisque fire fine…the base of the world figure is there on the right.

The top part is still drying. And the sgraffito thing I made for the garden stake thing they’re doing…it’s there in the middle bottom.

The clay is really light for the background. Wondering about getting some black clay for a sgraffito thing. I just don’t need 25 pounds of it. Hmmm. Anyway, I haven’t been able to get to the studio yet…maybe tomorrow. I also need to fill a tire with air, possibly get new tires, put oil in my car, and also washer fluid. All that popped up in the last week or so. Sigh. Couldn’t do that over the summer when I had plenty of time? Nah.

School! Here’s the 8th-grade team (minus the combo team). We’re back together after…um…2 years?

Yes, we have matching shirts, but science went for a darker gray. I would have gone even darker if there’d been an option. They like their super light colors. I do not.

Here’s my specific team, again.

IDK how many years we’ve been a team, but it’s been a long while. The principal thought about breaking us up because there were so many new teachers, to spread us out. I’m glad he didn’t.

Sometimes they drive me nuts, but that’s true of all teams. And no, I don’t get to be on the same floor as them. So they talk about stuff up there and think I know what they’re talking about. I don’t.

My district passed that stupid parent info thing that violates state law. And some states do this stupid shit.

There’s a local election in November. If it goes a certain way and the dumbasses are in charge, the next 5 years are gonna be shit for teachers in our district. Please vote intelligently. Research the stories you post and make sure they are the truth and not made-up-shit, because I see so much of that. And it’s exhausting. And if you’re trying to friend me on Facebook and we don’t have a personal connection, and you have a picture of Trump and his fist in the air with his tiny ear scratch as your main photo? Don’t friend me. I’ve been unfriending a lot. I keep some because of that personal connection, but I do sometimes question their sanity. Kids first. Your adult agendas need to consider that if your child tells their teacher their pronoun/name preference and NOT YOU, it is because YOU ARE NOT THE SAFE SPACE. You do WANT teachers to be a safe space, right? Well then don’t fuck with our ability to be that. And figure your own parenting shit out on your own time.

Welcome to my TedTalk. Oh, yeah, today is a chill day in science…some vocab, some cover pages, some coloring. I’m in for it. Plus trying to learn kids’ names (hard!) and get ahead of next week for once. Sundays free! Hopefully. I have a lot of hope for life-work balance this year.

Because I Do…

OK. Midweek. No kids yet…they start tomorrow. I’ve sat through a ton of meetings, including a really stupid school board meeting that is gonna cost thousands to fix (why are we passing things that are against state law?). Plus I had an EEG with sleep deprivation…26 electrodes stuck onto my scalp, then got to go back to work after that. Yesterday was LOOOONG. I was up at 4:15, per instructions, at work by 6:15 (I worked here first because the alarms at school were on…and maybe I set them off yesterday, because now they’re telling us a later time. Whoops! I searched through my email and found an earlier time, so who the fuck knows what happened there.), worked until 11:30, when I went for the EEG, came back, worked some more, went home and showered gel and crap out of my hair, then to the school board meeting. Home. Cooked. Ugh. I remember how hard it is to get up off the couch after all that and DO something. But I did. Because I do. I packed up the big quilt to deliver to the photographer tomorrow. Had to iron it and dehair it and wrap it up. THEN it was 10:10 PM and I still wanted to do real art, like something besides paperwork and gruntwork.

So on the art front, I’m going to have a piece in an upcoming show about women’s rights, called We Got the Power, based on the story of Lysistrata. The CAMP Gallery in Miami, Florida, has been doing an annual show of art related to literature, called Women Pulling at the Threads of Social Discourse and this is this year’s version. I did a drawing back in June/July and was accepted based on that. But now I need to make the actual piece. It’s small. It’ll be easy. Well, but it’s complicated, because…me. It’s got about 390 pieces in it I started tracing Monday night…

I forgot what it was like to do this with a kitten in the house. Luckily, it’s small. And Bowie mostly listens to ‘no’. With Luna, I just had to wait for her to be asleep to trace.

The pieces are small too, so it’s going pretty fast, although most of this was Monday night. Last night, I got about 30 minutes after getting that quilt ready to go.

Much easier when he’s asleep.

I’m somewhere in the 200s. Not very far in. Tonight I need to pick up the girlchild from the airport, plus I’m fucking exhausted from yesterday, and kids start at school tomorrow, so I have to be awake, alert, and not cranky. First day. Yikes. All that to say, I don’t think I’m getting this fully traced tonight…it’ll probably be done tomorrow night.

Monday, I went to ceramics and put two things on the drying rack, after finishing this up last week. There will be some glaze added after the bisque firing.

And some iron oxide. I also started a mug. Like a real mug. To drink tea out of. Both my mugs (the ones I like to use) have cracks in them. In fact, there might be three with cracks, now that I think about it. So I am preemptively making a new mug. We’ll see how that goes. I have a few non-artsy things to make and this seemed like a good time to do that…finish up the little bits of clay I have before I pick a new type to try. Not sure when I will next be able to go to clay…maybe tomorrow after school? If I’m alive? Oh wait, no, I’m delivering a quilt. Ha! Well. Maybe Friday or Saturday.

There was a fire near where we often hike…

They stopped it, but there’s only one way in and out to the area that I know of, so they were having people shelter in place. Scary. I don’t think it burned the actual part of the reserve we hike, but we might need to go up and hike it. Once it’s safe.

This amuses the crap out of me.

Seriously. I wear all black all the time. When I’m depressed or not. It’s just easier than colors. I know, ironic when you look at my quilts, but black always goes with black. Although there are different shades of black, but they all go together! OK, I know some fashionistas would argue with me, but whatever.

OK. Today currently has three meetings, plus I really do need to get all the school stuff done. Well or do I? Because then what would I do on my prep tomorrow? I know all my preps will be buried eventually, but not yet. I am tired. Really tired. The beginning of the school year is always like this…tiring, sort of anxiety-making, too many meetings, lots of discombobulated rushing around and trying to remember to do things. Plus coming home and realizing you have no free time anymore. I hate that part. But I gotta pay the bills, so that’s how it rolls. OK. More tea. That’s a given.

What Good Are Notebooks?

Yo Ho Yo Ho, a pirate’s life for me. I wake up in the morning sometimes and wonder what my brain has been doing while I slept. Apparently piratey things, because that’s the song I’m hearing in my head. There was a quick rehash of some stupidity from last year (I know what triggered that). Love that. Thanks brain. Also, it’s hard to sleep well on Sunday nights during school…my brain is figuring the whole week out (and often worrying about it). I really pushed this weekend to NOT open the school computer. I did make a list for today (and the next three days). I cleaned out my notebook…I love that my notebooks last for years now instead of dying after one (heavy duty notebooks…what good are notebooks? OK, there’s the Talking Heads…that’s a better song than the pirate one). I didn’t have to buy folders this summer…there was extra money last year and I spent it on that. Hopefully I got enough…I should figure that out quickly, because I think they need them Friday.

So I finished the big quilt last night…I spent the last three nights (or more?) sewing binding and sleeves. Friday night…

Saturday night…I actually sewed for almost three hours (Saturday was very braindead)…got all the binding done and part of one sleeve.

And Sunday night…

Bowie assist…

We’re trying to get him to sleep at night instead of only during the day, so after this, I woke him up and played with him for a while. Didn’t work. He was up and down all night. Like me!

I stitched some on this on Friday at the back-to-school event. They had us go to the local mall and fed us breakfast (it was SO loud…so loud), then put us in the movie theaters by school and we watched videos and played games. It was shorter than usual, so that was a plus. It was also dark a lot.

Made it harder to stitch. Pros and cons. Then we went back to our schools and did the district-mandated meetings where we write on big poster paper and then never see this stuff again.

There’s my science team! Yes, we are dorks. Well, most of us anyway. You probably don’t wanna know why the science department is pointing at a math rubric. We had to send this to the principal who will send it to the district. Sigh. Anyway, at some point, the district will make something of all this and push it back to us in some format. Proving something. Yes, I’m cynical about all that.

Today, we have four hours of all-staff meetings, then about 30 minutes with our partner team-in-crime (which is finally wholly back with us), then who-knows-how-long with the core team. Then making a list of what to copy tomorrow AM, because I have to be up at 4 AM to make sure I am tired enough for the EEG at noon. Don’t ask. I’m not looking forward to it.

In between all this, I’m halfheartedly trying to finish painting the hallway.

It’s hot, I’m tired, my wrist starts to hurt after a while. All of the cutting in is done with one coat, about a third has two coats. Obviously need to roll two coats as well. I’m not highly motivated, but maybe I will be this week. It would be nice if it were done.

I also finally got everything appliqued down to this. I finally watched the video about the hexie papers and how to make that damn flower in the bottom left…

And then I made it Saturday and sewed it down, and sewed down the last velvet circle (those things are a pain in the ass) last night. So now I can do embellishment.

Little man plays with his tail a lot.

OK. School. Need to leave in about 5 minutes with more tea and my meds in me. Pack a lunch! Fuck. I forgot how to do all this. I’ll be exhausted later. It might not even be that long from now. Then hopefully starting something new.

A Little Luck…

Hey, officially summer is over for me…school starts this morning, 30 minutes earlier than usual, because they hate us or something…or because we’re an elementary district and those littles don’t mind getting up early. I need to leave in 22 minutes with a fresh cup of tea, all my meds in me (ugh, too early), the official school shirt on, my computer in my bag, my stitching in hand (speechifying…need to stay alert), my water, and some realization that I need to get my brain in gear. It’s OK…it started yesterday when I finished one of the six documents I was gonna edit this summer. I feel like I did the summer right…art every day, ceramics every other day, 27 books read. My goal for the new year? No 5-hour work sessions on Sundays. No working on Saturdays at all. It might take a miracle, but I’m going for it.

I did trim up the big quilt on Wednesday night and cut all the binding…

And last night, after my stitching meeting, I got all the bindings and sleeves sewed on by machine…

That is some bright green…and now there’s some handstitching to do. I also mended the pants I’m wearing today. The second mend on these, but they’re really comfy and I won’t give them up yet.

Yesterday, I got my second tattoo, which I’d been thinking about for a long time, by the artist Gloria Muriel. It’s not quite a barn owl because of the ears, but that’s OK.

I wanted the barn owl face in there…I need this year to go well, so here’s to manifesting that.

I had my stitching meeting last night…I’ve been working a little bit on Sue Spargo’s Rooted block of the month while I try to get everything appliqued on the Homegrown central panel.

These are easy enough, but relaxing. I like relaxing. I’m taking this with me today to the speechifying.

This is really my thing for this school year.

That might be my mantra across the board.

Cool mural in North Park on the way to tattooing. Not Tattooine. Probably spelled that wrong. Ah yes, no double tt’s. Tatooine.

These two have been coming to bed with me the last couple of nights…

The baby is ‘sleeping through the night’…midnight to 5:18 AM this morning. Woohoo!

OK. Go find my stuff, take my morning meds, make more tea. Sit through speeches and rah rah, then professional development of some type, interrupted (thank goodness) by a taco truck lunch, then more of the stuff. Then ceramics, because the studio’s closed all weekend for a class. Then probably a fucking nap. If I haven’t already taken one by then. Wish us all luck. It’s a new school year, my 22nd…and we’re all gonna need a little luck to get through it.

Cynical Mullet

I exercised this morning instead of writing this. And then I ran errands. And now the day is half gone. I still need to fill two yardwaste trashcans and continue painting the hallway. The binding for the big quilt is purchased, though, and in the washer. So that can hopefully happen today as well…I need to trim the quilt first, and it’s big and that means washing the entryway floor again. Lots of physical stuff needs to happen…it’s been really warm, but today is somewhat cooler…a weather front is tossing up clouds and sprinkles, so that’s a nice change. Oh wait, we’re back to sunny and hot. Anyway, I’ll paint for a while (my wrist hurts if I do it for too long), cut gardeny shit up for a while, and get this giant-ass quilt bound (or at least start the binding process, because we’re gonna be here for a while.). I also need to iron and clean up two quilts for delivery to the photographer tomorrow. The next two days are a little overly busy…because we’re going back. To school.

Anyway, Monday night, I managed to ALMOST get all the background quilted…

Just the part where the pins are was not done, but I had to be an adult and get up early in the morning for a dental appointment, so I went to bed. Ugh. And then finished quilting last night…

Just under 14 hours of quilting. I bought binding this morning, so that’s up next.

I already have the next quilt drawn…it’s small (but still complicated, because I am me)…and there’s a deadline for it, so I’ll be working on it as soon as this one is completely stitched.

I went in to ceramics yesterday and did more on the base…

Honestly, I think that’s it…

It just needs to dry slowly and then I need to figure out how I’m going to glaze it. The rest of this piece is done, except for the fabric bits. I put the base of the world figure and the sgraffito piece on the bisque fire shelf. It’ll go in the kiln in the next few days. The top needs to keep drying slowly. And then I need to figure out what I’m doing next. I have lots of ideas from art stuff to needing a new mug because they all have cracks in them. We’ll see.

I found the needlebook instructions from the guild…and cut out all my little pieces…

Now that the quilt is out of the sewing machine, I could sew these together or sew the pieces for that Spargo tree block that needed to be pieced…it’s been sitting around since March. I’ve got a couple other low-priority things that I want to finish up too. And inevitably, I’m going to need to do some school stuff in the next few days. I’ll be at school tomorrow afternoon. Then officially back on Friday with all-day meetings.

Back to barn owls…the sweetheart in the tree from the last post? She leaves me pellets under there with lots of bones…

I leave them out and let them decompose all the fur and goop away until I just have a pile of bones. It’s like she knows what I really want. Best friend.

Oh yeah, I got interviewed earlier this summer. You can read it here…

OK. I took the migraine meds to see if it makes the hallucinations go away (which would make it a migraine)…just a test. It might make me tired…wait, I’m already tired. I’ve been staying up too late and still having to get up. Ah well. I might go read for a while before doing something physical. I had my COVID shot again yesterday in preparation for school…so I’ll be protected for a little bit…maybe. So my left arm hurts. That also might be why I’m tired. I’m accidentally reading a romance novel…I thought my book club was reading it, and it is, but the romance subset, which I don’t go to (one can only be in so many book clubs…and for me, that’s two). But I already had started the book when I realized. So now I have to finish it. It’s the rules. Sigh. Anyway, wish me luck…the school stuff is giving me the heebie jeebies…my team met yesterday and it was already too much. It’ll get better, I know, but I said that last year and it never did. So. I’m eternally positive in the front and a cynical mullet in the back.