Is This a Matter of Worse or of Better*

So on 4 hours of sleep, maybe, I power through today. Seriously. Ugh. Girlchild and friends had an early flight up north (road trip…remember how we used to drive for those?) and I volunteered to be the one up bloody early to drive. Came back and tried to sleep. Yeah. Not so successful. Part of the not sleeping was a panic attack about all the deadlines and school have-tos in the next 3 or 4 months. The other part was a throbbing ankle, which I twisted apparently worse than I thought yesterday. It’s OK…at this point in the day, I’m on the third cup of tea, I have food in me, I’ve showered, the ankle is feeling much better than it was at 4 AM, and I’ve calendared some shit. Written some shit off, because you have to do that. Started meditating regularly again yesterday (well, it’s not regular until I can keep it going)…it’s funny, because I feel like I don’t have the 20 minutes a day to do it, but I think it’s better for me long term if I do it, despite the time crunch. So we’ll see if I can keep that going.

Back to the hike…

So first of all, we were planning on a waterfall hike, Sill Hill, off Middle Peak in Cuyamaca. We got up there and the road was closed to all but residents from mid-December for an unknown time for replanting. OK. Well. So then we looked at our handy-dandy map and picked a trail across the road, one I’d been on part of way back when on a hike of all three peaks (Middle, Cuyamaca, and Stonewall, which you can see in the picture below)…but when we started on the trail, this is what we found. I’m not sure if that’s an over-enthusiastic stream or the trail. But it was wet. And bloody freezing. So we regrouped…

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Maps help for that. We picked something a little further south, not really a trail, but a loop anyway, out Cold Springs or Stream (there are both) Trail and then picking up a few fire roads until we met up with another trail that dropped us back on Cold S-word Trail.

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Cuyamaca will have burn evidence for years to come.

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It was not warm…42 degrees at the start. It threatened rain, but never did. All those layers that we needed at the outset came off and were shoved in packs.

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It was pretty out…

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Even picking up some manzanita and cactus on parts of the trail…

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As well as interesting rock outcroppings…

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There was fungus everywhere, which is wild, because it probably snowed here over Christmas weekend.

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We started analyzing tracks at some point…after we saw the first deer (well, girlchild saw it…most of us just saw deerbutt).

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Crossed one stream…

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Down the fire road next to the stream.

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More deer! Yeah, we didn’t get too close. They moved away.

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And then we started out that fire road across Green Valley towards the road.

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Trees that escaped the burn.

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Trees that didn’t…actually, this one might just be old instead of burned.

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Then somewhere between that last photo and the next one, we heard a noise. A loud noise. And we know now that it was mountain lion. Like close. So the girlchild and I were like, um, let’s get in a group and hike away from it…loudly…and the guys are like, um, no, let’s investigate, so even though it was pretty damn close, they both sort of wandered up to the bushes where the loud roaring growl came from. So now I know they’re insane. We eventually got them to come with us, thus avoiding the 14th California injury due to a mountain lion, or worse, the 7th fatality.

The kids had to wait for us old people quite a few times…I don’t apologize for that…I have old body parts.

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More fungus…

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Beautiful stuff. That’s the first time I’ve heard a mountain lion in the wild. I came home and Googled mountain lion sounds, because they were like, no, that wasn’t a lion, and I was like, um, yeah it was, and I was right. So that was scary.

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Girlchild likes to explore, even when it means walking on a tree branch…over water…

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There was a nice pool in there…

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Burnt-out trees have a similar fascination…

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Way up in the distance is the boychild…I guess he’d decided the mountain lion was no longer tracking us at this point. We were within range of the road by then, so he was probably right.

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It was about 5 1/2 miles, mostly level, about 550 feet of gain. I’m feeling it today, though the ankle is feeling better finally, so that’s good.

I ironed in the afternoon, still trying to get all the flesh ironed down…

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Then we had birthday dinner etc…here’s Simba and his mohawk…

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It’s not very obvious in this photo, but he’s growing additional fluffy bits that make a nice dinohawk.

There was cake, although we decided against 21 candles, for fear of burning the cake down…

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Puppies like cake apparently.

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Here’s my 2nd day of stitching on A Year in Stitches. I just cut a length of some leftover thread from a Sue Spargo bag of bits and pieces (from the last quilt I think?)…and I stitch randomly until it’s done.

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I picked a smaller hoop because the big one was hurting my hands to hold. I have spring hoops somewhere. At some point, I’ll find them…they’re easier to use, I think.

So after last night’s panic attack, I’m trying to get everything done today! No really. I can’t possibly do that. But certainly having a plan helps me. I know Thursday and Friday are pretty trashed this week due to school and some other stuff, so that leaves today and tomorrow! Yeah! OK, so that’s how I start panicking. But getting the ironing done today would be a plus. So that’s the only plan I’ve really made. It helped that I went through some of the deadlines and figured shit out earlier today. There’s only so much I can do…

I should keep that in mind.

*Amanda Palmer, The Bed Song

I Need Noise*

Late start again, not because I was sleeping in, because that’s still not a thing here. It’s the boychild’s birthday…he’s 21 today…and we hiked. Photos from that tomorrow…I don’t have the time or patience to resize those today, but we went up into the Cuyamacas, looking for a reasonable hike (we are all different levels of ability)…our first choice, the road was closed for replanting…indefinitely. So we picked one across the highway, which was notionally closed for a stream running through it (ah rain). The third was a keeper.

Anyway, I have since eaten, showered, and ironed a bit before I wanted to take a break. The skeleton had quite a few pieces…

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And then I finally got to the flesh. I started ironing them down even though I hadn’t picked the head fabrics yet…it just gets to be too many pieces sometimes.

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So I have most of the 900s ironed down and some portion of the 1000s as well. And maybe a few 1100s. I haven’t done her bones…waiting on the pelvic girdle, which is in the 1300s (misnumbering issue). I’m getting close to the end though. I’d like to say I’ll finish tonight, but we still have dinner and presents and cake, all those normal birthday things. I’m lucky at the moment that both kids’ birthdays are when they’re home for vacations. That won’t happen much longer.

Here’s the pile of fabrics I’ve been using. I didn’t iron down all of the flesh pieces last night…it was 1 AM and I knew I had to be up relatively early to hike, so I stopped.

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So what I’m doing now is ironing all those down. The bin is getting very full…

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I have two more days of no school with no other major responsibilities. That’s it. Plus I have a major assignment I haven’t even touched. And maybe I won’t. Sigh. I mean, I will eventually, but it seems important that I get all this ironed down ASAP and then start cutting pieces out. Realistically? Could happen. I’m hoping to finish this one this month…and start another one. Yikes. Sounds possible. We’ll see.

I’m also doing the 1 Year of Stitches thing. I think. I mean, I started it. We’ll see.

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I have no plan. Unlike everything else. That’s sort of nice, actually. One thing in life without a plan.

*K. Flay, Blood in the Cut

Another Nail for My Heart*

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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See? Colors. Still a lot of greys though.

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

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

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

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

*Squeeze, Another Nail in My Heart

I Can’t Sleep ‘Cause My Bed’s on Fire*

It’s cold and wet again today, like most of your winters…last year, at this time, we were looking at 3+ inches of rain coming in just one storm…so this little piddly pissing of water is nothing really. We need more. We’re just over 4″ for the year (July to July), so although that’s more than some years, it’s still drought level. So although it’s gloomy and cold here, I’m trying to consider the benefit to my landscaping and my water bill. Plus it helps me appreciate the warm days.

Until then, it’s a sweatshirt and flannel and even the damn socks aren’t keeping my feet warm. And now my knees are wet, because I finally went out and unclogged all the pool equipment…3000 leaves and pine needles. I think the pool guy is on vacation this week.

So I spent a good chunk of yesterday trying to deal with college financial aid…it’s earlier this year, but the plus is it uses the previous year’s tax info, so I didn’t have to do all that first. This year, I can relax a bit (well not really, because that’s how I pay for the next batch of college payments…with the tax refund). And I did run a few errands…but then ironed a bit here and a bit there, getting another 3 hours done. It didn’t feel like much, though, because I’m still in the 300s (although some of the 400s and 500s are already done). I did pick out the flesh fabric run, though…7 different fabrics? Maybe 8. Can’t remember. I used them for two smaller hands, but I haven’t gotten to the full body yet…that’s later today.

It’s funny though when I realize I bought the same fabric twice…I liked it that much…

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I always have my eye on fleshy fabrics.

Kitten was happy to curl up and sleep…for hours…

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This is the start of something…maybe. I’m debating it. Will let you know if it sticks.

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That’s the thing with New-Year stuff…lots of it doesn’t stick. I have two things I’d like to implement, but mostly it’s not new stuff…just being better about the old stuff.

The bin is filling up with pieces…

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And the colors are starting to show up…

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That pile is not very organized. Much like my brain.

See, it was a sleepy day…

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OK, well, I think the wet knees on my pajamas are going to force me to clean up, and my belly talking to me is going to force me to eat up. And then I can iron. For hours. Until tonight…much as I’d love to sit curled up on the couch in front of the fire and watch a movie or something, that’s not how my world works. But that’s hours away.

Hope your New Year’s Eve is exactly what you want it to be…

*Talking Heads, Psycho Killer

There in Your Car Where I Said Those Things*

Hello rainy morning. I feel like I haven’t talked to humans in hours (it’s true, I haven’t). I didn’t leave the house yesterday, I think. Nope. I didn’t. I’m OK with that. I will need to leave today a few times. Maybe. I finished grading the second-to-last assignment (the last one is big and ugly) and I input about 12 assignments that weren’t in there yet. Probably a shocker for some kids. My copyediting project has been delayed yet again…I guess that’s a good thing, because I wasn’t really ready to drop this project and start on that. Although as the delays continue, it will start to interfere greatly with the artmaking deadlines that are approaching. Oh well. We’ll see. Maybe I’ll say no (can’t really afford to do that unfortunately).

I did spend a good chunk of yesterday doing art stuff. I didn’t even get out of my pajamas for the first part…sorting the Wonder Under, one bin for each 100 pieces…

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It took about an hour and a half to do all of them. Honestly, this piece is not as complicated as it could be considering its size.

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Then came the fun task of cleaning the office so I could start the next part. That meant putting all the fabric away from the last quilt…plus anything else I’d bought (I buy stuff every time I buy a background or binding…which are the only two reasons I really go to the fabric store). The last quilt had a ton of grays and browns. Interesting that.

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Plus this is what a drawer of fabric looks like after I’ve pulled for a quilt…it’s a disaster. So I have to clean all that up as well. I don’t have only one drawer for any color, by the way. Gray has two drawers…pink/flesh has about five.

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So I did all that. Here’s the two background fabrics I picked…still don’t know which to use. Yeah, sticking to the dark blue. I did look at other colors…they didn’t visualize well.

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I had to go way up to get this drawing to hang without touching the ground…Kitten has dislodged it once already (I added more clothespins for stability). It’s not small. I hang it up so I can see where each of the pieces are. I actually had the bottom of the drawing attached to the ironing board for a while so I could see the piece numbers on the bottom more easily.

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And then I started ironing stove parts. I’m not done with the stove even after almost 4 hours of ironing…everything but what’s on it at this point though. It was a lot of variations on white and gray…

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And a different tone of gray for the death angel in the stove window.

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Here’s everything that’s ironed down so far, almost to 200, but including a bunch of 200s, 300s, 400s, and 500s.

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At some point, I realized my feet were hurting from standing so much. I’m on a concrete slab and the floor is ancient linoleum. I always forget…this is why I have Crocs…they’re padded, so it’s like having a springy floor when I wear them. Although the puppy likes to chew on them, whether my feet are in them or not. Don’t diss the Crocs. They’re useful.

See, not a lot of color yet…mostly grays and whites. Don’t worry…

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There’s definitely color coming. No question about it.

So I need to go buy one thing today and maybe pick up my other sewing machine…and there’s gaming tonight…but otherwise, if I blew off grading (it’s oh so tempting), I could just iron things all day. I actually figured out that between today and tomorrow, I could probably iron this whole thing down on fabric (except my brain gets tired too)…but I would have to blow off everything else, I think. And that’s probably not very responsible of me. I should grade at least one period’s worth of the science unit that’s glaring balefully up at me from the table. Urrrghhh. Look away! Look away! Sigh. We’ll see. Gonna eat and clean up (ie, get out of pajamas) and run that errand…and then we’ll see where my brain is.

That means getting off this chair. New office chair. Surprisingly comfortable. Glad I accepted it into the house. Kitten likes it too.

*Iron and Wine, Promising Light

Don’t Let the Days Go By*

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Dogs when cold will cuddle. Briefly.

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

*Bush, Glycerine

Only Idiots Ignore the Truth*

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*Adam and the Ants, Dog Eat Dog

I Better Go It Alone*

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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We did eventually get the dogs tired out for once…

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

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

*Beck, Go It Alone

Do You Believe in What You Feel*

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Girlchild took over the kitchen…

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She cooked everything but the meat…

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

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

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

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

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

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

*Zero 7, In the Waiting Line

Hang Some Hope on 2017

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

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

These were my companions as I traced…

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

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

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

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

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

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Eventually the little guy tired himself out.

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How to make Grandma happy? Give her Beats.

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

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Who was happy to sample his own gifts…

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

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

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

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

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