Somehow, the month of February whizzed by my head without fully whacking me unconscious, so here we are. In March. Four weeks closer to Spring Break. Another paycheck closer to Summer Break. And no paychecks. Love summer for that. Such a challenge. Every year. That said, it’s getting Spring-like, and that’s nice…new growth on plants, flowers popping up, weeds taking over the yard. All the things!
Well the biggest news, besides my sewing machine being in the shop because it wasn’t dropping the free-motion foot (it dropped feet when straight stitching, but not zigzag; talk about fussy), is that I got my first vaccine. I am a teacher, in case you didn’t know that, and the school I teach for (not AT at the moment, because I can’t go back without these shots) is in a high-infection area (which means that, yes, I live in a high-infection area), so we were first on the list. Got my email on Friday while my science kids were finishing their work; got an appointment for Saturday morning…with a few hundred other people. Seriously, this was the most people I’ve been around since before COVID. And in an enclosed space. Freaked me out.
Plus a shot. Finally getting closer to being safe. Hopefully. I forgot to take a picture when the doc injected me, and he forgot to give me a sticker. Ah well, my co-teacher came to the rescue and met me outside after they monitored me for 30 minutes due to my weirdo reactions to shots.
I’ve been fine, just a sore arm and maybe a headache and fatigue. Hard to say if those aren’t things that I would have felt anyway. Probably! On to the next shot in a few weeks. Exciting stuff.
Our weekly gaming with friends seems to have moved to Sunday night, but that leaves open a night to game in person at home with the two men…we had a new Settlers of Catan expansion, so we read all the instructions 17 times and played a couple rounds.
I almost won one without even noticing. I’m not that good at games. I like to play; I don’t need to win.
Saturday, we did a little hike after taking the sewing machine in.
It’s definitely Springlike.
But the weather is still cool and breezy, so hikes are nice.
We tried a new trail in a place we hike all the time. It had a little up in it.
But it was good. Only 3.5 miles though. No time for a longer hike…left too late.
Then because the sewing machine was being cranky, I did some hand-sewing for a while on Saturday night.
Just sewing things down.
There might be a time when I come back to these and add more stitching.
I enjoy it, but don’t usually make time for it.
I also started this drawing at dinner on Saturday night.
And then finished it last night. It’s small. This is actually a printout of it larger than it is in real life. I joke that now I have the nanites in me, so everything will be fine. Honestly, I’d be OK with the nanites. Fix me, you little machines. Fix me.
Otherwise, I’ve been buried in schoolwork. Posting things, redoing things, making videos of things, grading things, answering too many panicked emails and ignoring others. School is frustrating in the best of times. These are not the best of times. These guys don’t care. They just want pets.
So we pet them. Although Nova, the sweetheart on the right, caught my finger and ripped it open Saturday? Friday? when I was petting her and tried to stop. So it’s a little painful. Otherwise, they’re all good.
This plant finally flowered. I’ve never seen it flower.
I repotted it and it is obviously much happier. Interesting take on the world there. Maybe we all need repotting.
School all day, hopefully some exercise, hopefully some art. A lot of grading. Every day until I’m done.
Hi y’all. It’s a tired Monday. Thanks to all who marched/protested in the last week. Usually I’m right out there with you, but I’m admitting to being terrified of this virus. I’ll have to ease myself into not-terrified before August. I have a hair appointment in mid-July. Probably my gym will be opening next week. Have to think about that one. School stuff over the summer might be in person. Not quite ready for that yet. Not ready for large groups of people or even small ones. People who don’t social distance. Apparently some anti-protest groups showed up armed locally. Gotta Not Love East County. So I will support with money and reading and speech. Plus most of a protest/change drawing popped into my head last night while I was trying to fall asleep. I will be working on that, hopefully this week. There are four meetings today, though, so maybe not today. We’ll see. There are at least three major parts to it, so maybe I can work on each part and then figure out how to fit them together. Might involve going to the copy place…damn, more people. I will figure it out. I will mask and step back from humans and wash my hands and perhaps my entire body after interacting with the human race. I have 67 days before I have to be back at school with other humans, perhaps fewer. Hopefully I can get my head (and my anxiety) around that by then.
I did hike Saturday, and while hiking, which clears my brain and soothes my soul, which makes up for sitting on my ass in numerous Zoom meetings, which helps me process what this world and the people in it are doing…I felt guilty for not marching in a protest. Ah well, that is my brain and I will have a discussion with it about that. We do what we can. I hiked at the same place as the previous week, but I felt strong and healthy this Saturday.
Plus it was a lot cooler than last week. I’ve been having some major blood sugar issues though.
I’m hesitant to talk to my doctor because her first response is always a blood draw. And that’s not something I really want to do right now. But maybe I will have to.
This is the same time last year when the hot flashes got really bad and my blood sugar control went with them. They stopped the end of July, and that’s when the blood sugar got really good. All you annoying doctors who don’t want to figure this shit out for us peri- and menopausal women who want to know how all this stuff is connected…sigh.
It was a great walk. I really enjoyed it.
This week is supposed to be hot, so there won’t be any delightful walks like this.
I did just over 4 miles.
There were still crows, but not a crazy number like last week. There were two bikes, a runner, and some hikers.
Definitely worth the drive. It’s a pretty short drive though.
Sometimes I protest by myself. In my head doesn’t solve a lot of problems though, so I’m working on that. How to be a presence without being present.
Here’s a link to a post I made for my art group California Fibers of Masked Response, an online art show we did.
This bench is cool. I wish I knew how to make one of these.
I know how to do mosaic…it’s just the form of the lizard bench in the beginning.
I finished trimming all the tiny little pieces for the big quilt…just under 22 hours worth. I did some of it at my quilt guild meeting…
And then I stayed up late Saturday night to do more.
I keep the trash until the quilt is done, in case I need a tiny piece of something. I usually do.
The next step, last night, was to sort them all into boxes by the 100s.
1541 pieces or so took about an hour and a half to sort…
Now I’m ready to iron the damn thing together. I’m looking forward to this part.
Saturday’s dot was the fish…
It’s a pufferfish.
There’s a lot of stitching on that little bastard.
Last night? Last night, I barely started…
I’ve been pretty good about finishing them every night, but this is one of two that I just didn’t get to. It’s because it was late and I was tired. I did the sorting first, so the dot didn’t get done. I’ll try tonight. The one for today is pretty simple. We’ll see.
In other fabric news, here’s the next shipment of Anna Maria Horner fabrics for Applique Stories, which I’ve turned into “Use crazy fabrics to make a nude” stories. Looking forward to that later this week…but if that bottom middle fabric doesn’t look like nipples to you, I don’t know what’s wrong with you.
Yeah. I know. I see things weird. I also want to do the same with her color shipments…
But I haven’t started those at all. Maybe this summer? Who knows. Summer will be weird no matter what. Right, Luna?
Just shut up and pet me, woman.
I forgot last night’s dinner…yummy pizzas.
Sourdough crust. Gotta use up that starter. The last time, these were unsuccessful. I think the girlchild has officially figured it out.
OK, well, I got sidetracked multiple times on this, and it’s now time for meeting 3 of 4 today. Ugh. But I think I have some plans for after the meetings. All art, all the time? And some exercise. For sure.
There was this thing in my head last night that I was going to remember this morning to write about, but no. I was thinking, no, you’re not going to record it somewhere, because you are trying to fall asleep and you are exhausted, and it does not matter if you are exhausted, sleep will still be difficult, and I didn’t record it anywhere and now it is gone. I’m sure it was crucial to your day, to my day, to the development of the world. It probably has to do with people being stupid or making art or teaching, because that’s all I think about these days. But I got sidetracked by emails and plans and whatever my stomach is doing right now. I fed it good things last night and it liked them, but this morning it wants to talk about those things. I’m OK with it shutting up right now.
So even though no one but me was around for dinner last night, I wanted to get takeout, because I was tired and I’ve cooked a lot this week just for me and I’d like a night off, even if it’s by myself, so I picked a restaurant I’ve never been to in real life, mostly because I don’t think the man would eat there…maybe he would, minus all the green things, but that’s difficult. It’s the Garden Kitchen, which they claim is in Rolando, but that’s funny, because I used to live within a short walk of their location and it wasn’t Rolando then. The food was wonderful, even when I had to mess up the presentation by spatulaing it onto a plate (I don’t like eating out of the takeout containers) and it was still the right temperature and wonderful in taste and complicated combinations of stuff. And the old grocery store we went to was now a gym. Maybe it’s nicer to live there now, although the porn bookstore is still there, so maybe not.
The plus is that I have made stunningly awesome progress on cutting out Wonder Under, despite all the shit that’s in my brain. Although sometimes there are creatures who want to interrupt me.
She needs to pee. It’s OK. I took her out. She doesn’t ask anyone but me for some unknown reason. By the end of Friday night, which included a short gaming session to make characters and a movie, I had 5 yards of the 11 cut out.
Saturday included a quilt group meeting and some alone time at night, where I watched another movie, and I got 3 more yards cut out…
Two of them sitting here, which isn’t particularly comfortable, but works better for video meetings.
This is what 8 yards cut out looks like on the right…unless I’ve miscounted. Maybe I did 2 yards during the movie and 1 during the video meeting? I don’t know.
The trash pile is growing…
So if I’m right and there are only 3 yards left, I could do that in the next two nights, I think. I started cleaning the studio on Friday, did a little yesterday, and then gave up. I need to finish that and then sort all the Wonder Under, which will take an hour or so. By Wednesday, I’m hoping to be ironing onto fabric. Even though I won’t have background fabric until Saturday? I think I’ll be OK. At this stage, I only need the background to make sure that anything that will be showing on it will be enough of a contract to show up. This is the fun part! Although it will be long and hot, because ironing when it’s over 90 degrees is always sucky. Oh well. Making art is nice. And hopefully the kittens will stay out of here. This stage was exciting for them on the last quilt too.
I’m still stitching dots on time…Friday’s…
Is the pink dot with 4 leaflike things…
The one to the right of the pink spool. I was waiting for the right design for that shade of pink and finally got it. Generally, I just pick the next dot in the area, but sometimes color is an issue. Like with Saturday’s, the ladybug…on the far right at the bottom…
I wanted a color that contrasted with the red. So not a red dot…
The dark background is unfortunately a little TOO dark for the legs and head. Oh well. I’m not redoing anything.
Here’s the Anna Maria Horner fabrics I got for her color packages…the ones I think I will make into a different version of the naked lady Applique Stories.
We’ll see. It doesn’t have to happen right away, luckily.
Sleepy cats abound in the last two days…Nova when it’s hot…
Kitten follows me and then sleeps…during video meetings…
And movie-watching…
Sometimes they are into everything…like drawers in the coffee table. I thought she was too big for this now. Apparently not.
Sometimes they just want some love…
I will be ON you, even though you are doing something.
In food news, the girlchild is upping her cheese plate game…
And I excited the sourdough starter yesterday…
That IS exciting.
OK. It’s Sunday, which means putting a bra on for the grocery store. Oh yeah, and a mask. I’m OK with that. I’m more OK with the mask than the bra. Then a bunch of school stuff, and hopefully some exercise, because I’m feeling it, and a yard or two of cutting shit out. Plus sewing a dot. And gardening. And getting ready for another 5 days of what school looks like now. Ugh. It’s OK. We’ll make it, whatever it is. The sun is out, the flowers are growing, there’s a possibility of further-away hikes this week, and that is all good.
Ah yes. Teaching children. I remember having this conversation with my brother many years ago, although it wasn’t because he didn’t know the vocabulary.
Totally writing this at the wrong time of day for me. I meant to start it much much earlier and then the day ran away from me. Don’t you hate that? It just gets up off the couch and books it down the driveway, and then all of a sudden it’s 8 PM and I don’t know what happened.
Neither does he, if that makes anyone feel better.
So yesterday, I started this video of how I make a quilt from start to finish, using this small spacecat design that was in the last finished quilt. It’s been on my list for a while. I’m going to make a long version for my Patreon followers and a timelapse version for the rest of the world. I get asked a lot how I make stuff, and it’s all over the blog, but I’m going to attempt it in one go. I say that and I’m like 40 videos in and still not done, so WTF am I on about? ONE spliced disaster of a video. Because.
So there’s the drawing I did from the original drawing from some months ago, and there’s the pile of trimmed Wonder Under as well…
This is small, about 10″ square, with only 24 pieces in it. Here are the 13 fabrics I used in it…
And here’s the pile of trimmed pieces…
Oh wait. Those are not trimmed. Whoops. Missed a photo. Oh well. It’s in the video.
And here it is, ironed down to a background.
I stitched it down this morning and then sandwiched it and pinbasted it and all I need to do now is quilt it, trim it, and bind it. And then splice 3,000 videos together. Twice. Unless I can figure out how to timelapse it using the program I use to splice. We’ll see.
I finally started feeling well enough on Monday to exercise again…I started with cat yoga.
It’s not really cat yoga. It’s yoga where my cats stare at me and try to figure out WTF I’m doing. Same, cats…same. I also rode the stationary bike yesterday, and then graduated to a hike today. Exciting stuff.
I got two more days done on these…this is the star-shaped one.
And last night’s total pain in the bullion knot ass…
The lower one, not the upper one.
I haven’t done tonight’s yet. That’s next.
I also finished stitching everything down on this…
My official photographer will get this eventually.
For now, notice Simba in the left corner, and my daughter’s expert fingers, plus Calli in the lower right. It doesn’t have a name yet. I’m working on it.
My SIL sent me a bunch of fabric and I washed all of it and then had to re-iron a ton of it because the dryer folded it all up.
Ironing can be very meditative.
More fabric for the stash…
And then on a stitchy Zoom this afternoon, I was sewing all these pieces down…
And I actually finished…
So now I can embroider on it if I so wish. This is Applique Stories fabrics by Anna Maria Horner and her bimonthly challenge of sorts. Wherein I take some wacky fabrics and use them to make a nude. Like you do. (Most people make flower bouquets. I am somewhat strange in my fabric application.)
I also panicked all over the place about school and being an online teacher and just life in general. So there’s that. I have showered and changed my clothes though, so I feel like I’m doing OK for now.
What’s up next? I’m starting the next quilt. I’ve spent two days now procrastinating about Just Picking a Size of Paper to start drawing on, so there’s that. I can’t do a smaller drawing and enlarge it without going out into the world like I normally do. I did go into the world today. I delivered a mask to my dad so he won’t get arrested driving up to the mountains without one, and then I put gas in the car. That’s all I did. Well, we walked. There were a lot of people (and dogs) out there. I don’t blame them…it wasn’t raining and it was OK out and we all needed to get out. OUT. Yeah. Out.
Yeah. I skipped a day of writing. I don’t know what day it was though, so that’s OK. Been watching NYC weather this pandemic shit and it’s scary. Sending good thoughts to the whole city and everywhere else it looks like that. Certainly, many of us are questioning any sore throat or dry cough or now, digestive issue (dammit, stop eating beans then!), wondering Was that it? Is this the start of it? I think here in San Diego, we haven’t really gotten the full brunt of the virus yet. Give it two weeks. With that, I’m leaving in a few minutes to go distribute lunches to my kids. We’re down to only two people at a time, so we can socially distance.
Tuesday, we walked the dogs…we’re gonna do it again today. My parents are up to twice a day with theirs, which would be fine by me, but the old lady dog can’t do it. She wants to, but it’s too much for her.
We have places we can walk locally…this is just out the front door and sort of through a neighbor’s yard, although they’ve never complained…but now the house has sold, so who knows. We just go quickly and quietly.
There are no actual grapevines here any more.
But I still like the signs.
Mostly empty. We didn’t see any people.
And a lot of plant material. It’s pretty green this year…we’re over 13 inches of rain, which is a lot for us. There’s more coming tonight apparently. But then I think we might be done for a while. It’s cold and windy today…next week, we’re supposed to hit the high 80s. It will be harder to keep people inside.
I got an email today from an exhibit I usually enter, warning us that there are just a few more days to the deadline. It’s weird thinking about future art shows when it seems like the world is about to burn down in a plague. But I guess that’s hope for the future…hope that the venue will still be viable, hope that we will still be able to have art shows. Hope that we’ll all still be here to send work and hang work and see work.
Here was Tuesday’s drawing. I didn’t draw yesterday. I did other stuff.
Maybe I will draw today. So Tuesday night, the man went to bed early, because he’s working these awful long shifts that basically leave time to sleep and eat and little else, so I finished the lettuces on the last of the October Folk Tails blocks.
Although this was the 2015 block of the month, I didn’t start working on it until March of 2016…so I’ve officially been working on it (on and off) for four years. Yeah. You read that right. A lot of times, I just worked on it once a month at my stitching meeting, and then last year, because I was doing the embroidery patterns, I barely worked on it at all.
Anyway, as I finished that grasshopper block (well, it’s missing a road and flowers), I realized it was time to stitch all of it together. Holy moley. I had some larger bits sewn together, but pinned some more parts…
Sewed them until I had two long strips…
There’s still plenty to do…that hen has no feet, for example.
I feel like I’m going to have to go back through all the instructions to fill in everything I’m missing. Plus it needs ten tons of grass sewn everywhere…
And the road needs to be continued down through the bottom three rows…
I stopped there, because I realized I needed to sew over onto the other blocks and they weren’t sewn together yet. Plus apparently a hut is supposed to go there. Uh huh. Barely fits.
And there’s a spare monkey too.
So there’s still plenty to work on. It’ll be another year. Plus borders! But it was exciting to get it to this stage.
Girlchild is still cooking up a storm…and posting artistic photos.
The result of that photo was cheddar scallion English muffin bread. Very good.
So yesterday, I did quilt for a while…although the machine was being cranky…
As always…
Luna was being a pain…kept trying to hide in the quilt and climb everything in the studio while I was on a video call with stitchy friends…
Trying to get the light right, so the computer has to be in a specific place. Interesting commentary for how I’m going to do this when we start for school. There are a limited number of places that are lit right, have seating, and stay quiet even when people are here. And there are a few people here. Four adults take up room. I’m lucky to have a variety of spaces for people to hang out in.
And cats. Cats can hang out too.
While I was on that call, I cleaned up the huge pile of papers and crap on my desk. Well. I cleaned up most of it. I’m not sure what to do with the other part of it.
Wait for another day. Although the word from on high is that I need to start grading things. All right. I’ll do that.
Then last night, I wanted to start the second one of the Applique Stories blocks…Anna Maria Horner sends 8 fabrics and no instructions basically, and then you make a block out of them. Of course, most people make this flowery bouquet-type things, and I make naked women. But I like this…the one on the right is from January’s fabrics and then on the left, you can see what she sent for March.
I picked the backgrounds…which was hard in itself, let me tell you. Trying to find a color that won’t overwhelm the given fabrics, or clash with them either…it’s difficult. The blocks are about 19×20″, a totally random size that I can’t explain. They could be finished together, but it probably makes more sense to finish them separately. I’m not fusing anything…just cutting pieces and then stitching them in place…and then doing some embroidery. Slow work.
That one fabric just damn well set itself up to be breasts…seriously. How could I NOT?
These are a challenge. I would never put these together. I like a challenge.
I wouldn’t even BUY half these fabrics. That’s what I love about this. Really. It’s fun.
I probably did this for 2 or 3 hours last night…walked away, walked back…added a bird. No starting drawing.
No nothing. No more fabrics than those 8. Honestly, those 8 are the challenge.
She was off balance, so I added the hand…here they both are…oh wait, the hand is still missing.
Must have added that later. Oh well. I can keep adding if I want. Tonight I have a Zoom stitching meeting, and my plan is to stitch stuff down during the meeting. The actual stitch down is easier to do while it’s flat, rather than trying to hoop it. The pieces are really only held in place by a few pins.
Anyway. So that was the last two days. I’m coping. I’m not sick (yet?), but question every cough and sore throat tickle. I know people who are sick. I hope everyone is OK. I know the world will be a different place when this is done. I’m sad about that…like all of you. And sitting and waiting is not my superpower…I’m glad I have the art to keep my brain occupied. Maybe tomorrow I’ll show you the missing hand…but I’m thinking she needs fingernails first…
Hey. It’s Saturday, right? I’m currently watching a webinar on the SAQA virtual conference that was supposed to be in Toronto…the opportunity to hear and see the speakers is nice, although I missed a lot of yesterday. They were recorded though, so I can watch later. I’ve never been able to actually attend a real conference, so this is nice, plus maybe it helps SAQA cover some of their conference costs from canceling. It’s really important that we try to give back to some of these groups and companies that are hard hit by the community and state shutdowns. As much as we can, anyway. I’m lucky to still be paid under contract, but the future is making me a bit nervous for all of us, in terms of health and money.
Yesterday was a strange day, highs and lows…trying to ignore the lows because they don’t deserve my energy right now.
The boychild and I went for a 6 1/2-mile hike locally, at Sycamore Canyon/Goodan Ranch. It’s not as busy as some of the other locations in the area (just down the road from Iron Mountain), which is better for social distancing.
There were about 4 or 5 other groups we saw over the whole hike, but otherwise it was pretty isolated.
This is obviously a yucca pre-bloom, but it looks different than what I’m used to seeing…
The weather was perfect…not too warm, not too cold, no rain, although it was cloudy for much of it.
Trying to get enough exercise to sleep well and push some of the anxiety away has been difficult. My next step is to try and bookmark some of the videos from the gym and pilates studio and get my butt in gear.
We were really looking forward to our Spring Break trip of California National Parks, but with a cancellation of one of our Airbnbs and yesterday, the parks themselves are closing campgrounds, it seems that we are not going anywhere.
And we’re not sure when that will change, unfortunately. Let’s hope it’s sooner rather than later, but certainly watching the numbers on COVID-19 is not promising. Although California is supposed to be shut down, there are still lots of people going out and doing things…100 kids out in our mountains hanging out together yesterday…because kids think they are immortal, yeah? That’s what they think. Sigh.
For this hike, we go along a ridge and then down into that valley…then through that valley and back up and out. Like twice. It was a bunch of up and down, but nothing undoable.
My legs feel better today. Although this sign makes me laugh every time (it’s for bikes, not humans).
Pretty sure I never hit the 5 MPH mark. And I jogged a little bit (it’s easier to jog going downhill sometimes than walking, although my brain kept saying ‘Now is not the time to break your damn leg, woman!’).
A bunch of fungus among us…
These are fascinating…
This area burned in a wildfire 17 or so years ago…this is a burned log keeping a whole host of fungus alive.
There are signs all over, but this warns me that the next up is that piece…Cardiac Hill.
It’s actually not horrible. I stopped a few times. It’s up. Boychild often ditches me in these situations…
He waits for me at junctions. Lots of flowers around…
Spring is coming…and signs of deer!
Although we didn’t see one in person. Wrong time of day.
We got to the top and found we were victims of assholes…
Apparently this parking lot has an issue with break-ins. It’s pretty isolated. In all my years of hiking, this is the first time we’ve had this happen. There was nothing of value in the car…they just rifled through the glove box and the console. Unhappy with my about-to-expire National Park Pass, my sunscreen, and my umbrella. They got nothing. Stupid. Pain in my butt.
Oh well. I believe in karma.
Seriously. Even when we are locked down in a pandemic, people will be assholes. Hence the lack of toilet paper in our stores. Still. So today, a guy is coming to my driveway and installing a new window (apparently that is an essential business) and I will hand him a check and then disinfect the glass? This is so difficult. Could I live without a window? Sure…
Whatever.
We came home, we tested a Discord server for gaming next week, and the girlchild came home…
It looks like she’s reading to the dog, but she’s not. She was laid off by her company and we suspect trying to get a job is somewhat impossible right now. She’s trying. She’ll try applying for unemployment. And yeah, we flew her on a plane with like 8 other people (JetBlue is starting to ground flights soon, so that might have been one of the last flights that didn’t get canceled). We’re keeping her away from the older people in the family, but we still have two going to work between the two households (mine and my ex’s, and the kids go back and forth until someone gets sick), because they are also apparently essential. I’m lucky to not have any requirements right now beyond checking email, although that may change in the future. She’s not here forever. Just until we figure shit out. By WE I mean HER. Meanwhile, she gets doggy love.
My lemon tree has new leaves…
Nature has no idea. And that’s OK. This bird was bathing in the water in the tray under our Christmas tree, which lives outside on the deck for most of the year.
Now I need a birdbath.
These arrived yesterday, the newest shipment in the Anna Maria Horner Applique Stories. I’m going to make another woman block…and then embroider it.
The fabrics are a challenge. The solid peach is the easy skin color, so I won’t be using it for her flesh. I stared at the fabrics for at least a week last time before deciding what to do. I can use one as a background, although last time, I decided to use something very bland and calm from my stash (maybe that’s what the peach is for?), because the rest of it was so out there. Anyway…expect something to happen with these in the next few days. Because I can. I really like most of them…solids are not my favorites and the lavender roses are Eh, but that’s the best part of this…the olive fabric is such a stretch…I love it.
Maybe this virus lets me just make what I want. OK, I’m still having a hard time with that.
Although I stitched wool for a bit last night (sorry, forgot about a photo…try tomorrow)…I eventually got up off the couch with my post-hike tired self and came in here and started the stitch down…
So meditative. So relaxing. So hard to stop.
Hopefully I can finish today and then sandwich today or tomorrow. The floors need cleaning first. I vacuumed everything even though it’s not my month. I’m sure someone will cover me at some point when I am busy (cough cough).
So yeah, I stitch down all the pieces, because no fusible lasts forever. I’m not halfway done, but I got a good chunk done. I spent the first 20 minutes fighting with the machine to get it to stitch correctly.
Kitten action…
They play any way they can…
There was some play before this.
I was up early this morning because I thought I’d have to take my car in to get the window replaced, but then he called and said he’d be here later…probably safer for both of us than having me sit in a lobby of some repair place (I was going to bring a chair and sit outside).
Nature doesn’t see this morning as any different than any other morning.
Tonight there is a Netflix DVD here, plus we will be supporting some small food business, and hopefully there is stitching and maybe a hike/walk as well. Plus more webinars. And trying to finish my book before it gets returned electronically to the library. Hope you are all healthy and well, and if you are on the front lines in some way, we appreciate you and send you lots of love.
You know you’re tired when the alarm goes off and you’re deep into a weird-ass dream out in a swampy forest you’ve never been to, with a bunch of people who seem familiar but you can’t actually place in your real-world existence. Except like there’s that one guy from high school who you had absolutely no interest in and never talked to, and then one person from work who you don’t really like. Plus you’re wearing leather pants or a poncho or something that doesn’t even visit your closet.
That was this morning.
It’s the first 5-day week back to school, I guess. Maybe that’s why my brain is like WHYYYY does there have to be another day. Plus we made them finish something large, so then the kids panic and there’s all this drama, and I’m like, nah. Save it for your mama. I’m the teach. So all that. And desperately trying to plan a mostly new unit before my co-teacher flies away for a few days. It’ll be FINE. No really. It probably will. I’m not caught up. I never finished the last few bits of makeup work. The world did not end. Yet. Although one kid asked me about it…his makeup work, not the world ending. And this weekend is busy, so that’ll make it difficult to do. Ah well. Life goes on.
So it’s not surprising I’m tired and dreaming of leather. Or pleather, because it’s more environmentally friendly. Yesterday after school, I drove to Francis Parker School to see the San Diego Book Arts show there. Turns out I had three friends in the show, so that was cool. I was only expecting one. Did I take pictures? No I did not. I did take a picture of the sky, actually…
It was even more beautiful than this, of course. Anyway. No art photos because? I was tired, I think.
I drove home and then hung out with my now-in-Portland quilting friend, Susan…
I sorted Wonder Under while she knitted. We’ve been aiming for once a month, although in December, we did it in real life.
No idea what I was doing there. I think prepping to fix my work shirt…tiny holes that turn into larger ones, until you figure you have to fix it or toss it or make it into a rag. It’s funny, because this shirt is old, and we get a new one every year, but this one is the best color/fit of all of them, so I’ve worn it to death, while the others are still looking like new.
So I fixed it. With a pirate. Which might be my motto for 2020.
We’ll see if anyone (besides my co-teacher, who knew I would be doing this) notices. Usually students do notice shit like this, but this crew is remarkably NOT into noticing anything. Like due dates or the fact that I shaved part of my head too short, which the Man wants to fix…but I’m waiting for the one bit to get long enough to fake a number 2 shave and then I’ll shave all of it to match. I figure that’s next week…maybe the end of this week. Weird things I do because I’m tired.
OK, so what else? Kittens of course…
They were mostly asleep during all this, but then woke up and started rampaging around the house with Kitten, lots of wrestling and banging around in cardboard.
Ah yes, in the realm of What, Am I Crazy? I’m getting some fabrics from Anna Maria Horner every other month for her Applique Stories thing…which intrigued me…
These are not fabrics I would normally use, although a couple are close…I might actually buy them in a store…but of course, instead of the bouquet-like blocks most of her followers have been making, I’m thinking either decorated uteri or just women. We’ll see. They’re washed. That’s the first step. I’m really liking the thought of something different.
Anyway. Another meeting today. Did I tell you both of yesterday’s early morning meetings were no-shows? Bastards. OK, one was the boss and he has littles. But ugh. That’s not helping the tired. Today is a new unit, a lot of student panic, me being the Chill Queen (no really), and the man having a show later tonight, so dancing is in my future, if I have the energy. You never know!
Kathy Nida 