Sewing Braids…

State testing starts this week. Wacky schedules, gotta cover my walls, deal with the same 30 kids for 3+ hours, 2 days running. Always weird. We used to do all the testing in one week and kids would lose their minds…OK, they lose their minds even when we only do two days. It’s a rough week, but we are rewarded with some time without kids and the chance to go out and get lunch (things teachers don’t get to do). At this time of year, that is a reward. So my kids are starting a poster today that they’ll finish after testing, and I am climbing on the counters and covering my walls. They tell us not to climb on the counters for safety reasons, but I’m not sure how they expect the things to happen if we don’t do some climbing. If I finish my walls early, I can leave school early, because my staff meeting time is for covering walls. I have thought this through.

I also didn’t grade much this weekend, because I have to do something while they’re testing and in the 3 hours after they leave when I’m required to still be here on campus. Plan ahead y’all.

So I finished all the bugs. I’m emailing someone who was interested in two of them…

This is Tiger Beetle 3.

Ladybug 3 (which I believe is sold).

Queen Beetle 3.

Staghorn 3 (also believe it’s sold).

And Beetle 3. The three unsold will go up on Etsy unless someone tells me ahead of time that they want them. They’re $100 plus shipping. They hang easily on the wall with a nail or two. There are others on Etsy already and three at Visions Museum.

Saturday night, I braided a lot of hair. I had bought some yarn locally, not exactly what I wanted, but I only have so much time and patience for yarn purchasing (I know, crazy, right?).

Scribble and Nova were very excited about the braiding process.

Possibly too excited. Here, I had just plopped them on top to see if I had enough. I guess I decided I didn’t, because I braided more last night…

And then sewed the tops down to the quilt. Bowie flat out didn’t care about braiding or sewing.

Apparently tired and wanted to be near me.

Also on Saturday, when he was lying on the books I needed to figure out what materials I needed to order for the summer residency. Cats are so helpful.

I’d rather think about the residency than school. We got this week planned, but none of the other weeks. So we need to do that this week too. Please. And thank you.

Meanwhile, the government are still assholes.

Their lack of understanding of all the things medications can be used for besides the one that gets their panties in a wad. Also, get out of my body.

And Viagra is still out there. Don’t need that, right? Not if it’s just about procreation, y’all. It will take so long to fix all the fuckery they have performed. I guess that’s part of the point, eh? Sigh.

OK. Making kids do posters about homologous structures. And stapling up paper to cover other paper. Testing is a fire hazard. Then ceramics, working on the heart (which I forgot to photograph). Also hoping there’s shelf space so I can start on the head. What are the odds of that? Low. Seriously. Then home and sewing more braids down in an artfully messy way. Without cat assistance. I’m almost done with this one, which is good, because the quilt to-do list just got seriously crazy. I need to get these three photographed and then start a big one that can be finished in 10 weeks? Ish? Crazy time. Maybe NOT the one I wanted to do in January. It might need to wait some more. Sigh. I don’t know why a show that doesn’t open until May needs to be juried in January. I was hoping for a few more months, but no. Not. Uh uh. That’s what I get for joining groups that do shows, right? I know. My choices. Good ones to get my work out there. Not necessarily for having work available for other stuff though. Working on it.

Making a Heart…

Hey. It’s Friday. It’s also May. Not sure where April went, but it’s gone. Whoosh. May is state testing month. Kinda crazy. Already! My brain is trying to focus on what the hell I’m teaching right now and until the end of the year, but it’s really checked out and planning excitedly for my residency. And everything that needs to get done BEFORE my residency. All the doc appointments and house tasks and planning. The brain is going a bit overboard with the planning. I know if I start writing stuff down, it’s going to be better, it’ll calm down a bit. I can’t take everything with me. I won’t have time to do everything. I need to stay focused. Ha! Who am I again? Yeah. My foci are endless. And maybe not in a good way all the time.

I have finished four out of the five new bugs…

Just sewing them down to the canvas. Someone asked me what I use to glue them, and I was trained so early in archival stuff that I don’t glue.

One more to go. That’s tonight. Then back to the hair on the green face. I bought yarn yesterday. It’s hard to find what I want, but I think this’ll work. More importantly, I need to figure out what’s in the space to the left of her face. So letting my brain percolate on that. I don’t have a lot of brain power at the moment though. Hopefully it’ll pop up soon.

Simba helping last night.

Both Simba and Scribble help me all the time.

For some definition of help. I do like the love. I was resting here…the cough is not horrible but it occasionally make me stop and try to breathe. I think I’ve kicked it. Not whooping cough. The kids at school have been getting strep throat and I’m like no uh uh stay away don’t breathe on me. I can’t do that right now. I keep cleaning tables and washing my hands and walking away from the kids who are the sickest. Mostly they stay home. They stay home in droves sometimes.

This amuses me.

Agreed. Thanks to the king for reminding us.

So. Today. I’m teaching something…homologous structures? I think. Yes. I finished (?) a checklist for next week’s poster yesterday during prep. My co-teacher says she’s starting today? I don’t know how, but whatever. I’m checked out. This year sucks. The kids don’t. The kids are fine. Well, except for whale penis boy yesterday, who had to be put in a time away…without his computer. The honors kids are losing it. I might be a little too. Whiny little boys some of them. I don’t have the patience for it. Then ceramics after school. Making a heart today I think. Or bugs. Whichever. Or trees? Not sure. Then home to finish the last bug. And work on some hair. Or something. And a weekend! Woohoo! I need one. Totally. Like ASAP. OK, in 8 hours or so.

Crafty People…

Well I’m still trying to kick this cold, but that’s all it is. It makes me tired, but so do lots of things. Coughing up an occasional lung is fun. I have two. It’ll be fine. I did go out and do a few things this weekend and then came back and slept on Saturday. Not Sunday. I really am better…just not healthy yet.

Quiltwise, I finished the pink head embroidery Friday night…

And Saturday night, I sewed the sleeves down and did 4 out of 5 sets of bug legs…

Last night, I did the last set of bug legs…

Now I need to prep the canvases I sew them to and get that done.

And I started embroidering a third dye painting.

I’m not sure I can finish this one in time to get it photographed for the show I’m entering, but I figured I’d try.

It was the SD Book Crawl this weekend. Saturday, I got up and made it to two stores that were close to each other, walking distance actually. Then came home and did the only SAQA conference Zoom I could do (the others were during the work day). Then went to two more stores…came home and slept. Then we went out to dinner next to a 5th store. Then Sunday, after pilates and grocery shopping, I went to the 6th so I could get the patch. That was all I could deal with. Most of these were already on my TBR list, so that’s cool.

In fact, one of them is a book club book I need to finish in the next few weeks, which I couldn’t get from the library in time, so I was glad to find that at the last store. Especially because I had already looked for it and NOT found it, wandered around the store and tried again, and it was magically there, just one copy. Woohoo!

Do I need more books? Yes. Yes I do. Shit week last week. I get to sit through a meeting today because girl drama (not a kid and not MY drama). I love listening to people tell me how hard they work and totally ignore any work I have to do. It’s great. Really my core response to all the drama is…go get therapy. This job will not get easier with that level of shit. I mean, this job never gets easier, but I am definitely in my FUCK OFF era at the moment. There’s tons of things I will do for kids to get them through, but enabling parents and enabling teachers drive me nuts. Both need to do their jobs.

So there’s that. I didn’t finish grading things (when do I ever? Oh, in June I do.). So there’s more of that.

I totally skipped that thing in my 20s. I was already doing my own thing and have only cared less and less about people’s opinions since then? Yeah well. If I’d cared, I wouldn’t have kept making art.

OK. Today. Stupid contentious meeting that I have to be calm for. Right now, I’m calm. Boss hasn’t actually sent a meeting invite yet…wonder if he knows how? Not my problem. I have work to do; real work. Whatever. We’re done teaching sex ed! It was hellish this year. I hate the new curriculum. All I do is read. And doing it two months early sucks. Now we have to grab all these kids back into doing academic stuff because state testing starts next week. Ugh. 37 days left. Back to natural selection and evolution though…fun, but not a lot of hands-on activities we can do. Not enough time. Just gonna do our best (not to go nuts). Staff meeting after school and then hopefully I have the energy for ceramics. I don’t right now, but who knows. Book club meeting tonight too, but on Zoom, so I don’t have to be particularly functional. Then more work on the green face. I need to find a local yarn store too…might Google that later, like during the staff meeting. I think there’s one locally near my ceramics studio. I need something specific looking. Of course I do. I do have yarn. I just don’t have the RIGHT yarn. That’s how it is with us crafty people…we’re either setting spells on you or trying to knit a hoodie for our dog (I really think he’d like one, but I don’t knit that well).

Art Will Be at the End of It…

It seems to be Monday again. Some cruel joke. We start sex ed today, a full 6 weeks early, and I am so not ready. I have 32 kids opted out (I think…something like that)…I have one class that only has 6 girls left (girls opt out more than boys). I clustered them in a little pod, like wagons circled together for protection. Occasionally a girl wants to sit with a boy. Some make total sense, and one this year is a couple…I don’t think they realize how awkward it will get when we start talking about how pregnancy happens and STIs present. I don’t usually let the couples sit together, but we’ll see how this works. Big class. Not a lot of places to put him.

So there’s that. I’m totally behind in grading because I did not have any time this weekend for it (or motivation; let’s be real). I’ll need to be a little more on top of it this week. Somehow. Ugh. I’m too tired for all this shit.

So what did I do this weekend? I picked up quilts and went to an art group meeting and went to dinner at my parents because my brother is here visiting and that’s really it. I was out of it for most of Saturday, even though I did things. Stitching-wise, I worked on everything. I finished the edges of the 5 bugs…

Now they all need legs…well, except the ladybug. She’s got them already.

Pink or green legs? I’m thinking lime green.

This one looks really weird without the rest of its leg parts.

Some of them also need antennae. Maybe that’s tonight’s project.

Then Saturday, at the artist meeting, where I saw an artist’s studio that would be lovely, yes thank you, I would like that much room…I worked on this…

I took an improv quilt class last January? Or the year before? Finished the top and went, eh, I’m not really an improv quilter, what am I going to do with this? So I started stitching on it last summer, put it down after that residency, but picked it up for this meeting and did some more stitching. Because my brain is all over the map at the moment. Proof of that: last night, I was working on the pink head again…

Scribble is not so helpful. But I did pull out all the beads and found the sequins. I’m still doing thread stuff right now though. It takes forever.

The ceramic piece got more stuff on the front…

As I watched this…

Which was awesome and awe-inspiring and all that good stuff. Unlike the rest of everything.

Ok. I am really tired still. Blood sugar has been crashing at night, so I’m reducing my insulin to see if that helps. It’s exhausting to deal with. I didn’t get any yard work done this weekend, so hopefully I will later this week. I’ve got some ceramics time built in. I’m going to need to grade stuff. I need legs for the bugs and more embroidery all over the place. This week is less busy than last week…well, at least at the moment, so that should help. Today is just the intro to sex ed, so it’s mostly my telling them how all the things work and how not to piss me off while I’m teaching it (fun times, y’all…some of the boys lose their freakin’ minds). There are a couple of kids I won’t mind not seeing for two weeks, honestly, so that’s a plus. Anyway…art will be at the end of it and that’s always a good thing, even if I’m jumping all over the place with projects. There’s a reason for the jumping and I’ll get all these little projects done eventually and get onto a big quilt…hopefully by June. Which is a long way away unfortunately. Sigh.

Juggling

So we’ve been back at school for two whole days. It hasn’t been particularly difficult (well, staff meetings hurt my brain…)…actually, here’s a legit commentary on staff meetings.

I’m still obsessing over the word ‘justify’ and what it really means and how it doesn’t mean what people say it means and this is why when you tell a word person that they have to use a particular word, said person will obsess over that word for the next 48 hours and then refuse to use it. It’s OK…it’s mostly an inner conversation that makes me just refuse to do a lot of things (or care sometimes, which is really hard). We start sex ed next week and we’re not ready and maybe it will all just magically get organized, but I find that rarely happens. I’m bringing home piles of work every night, trying to get caught up with all the assignments kids didn’t turn in before break because they left early for Eid or just because their parents don’t think two weeks is enough time to have off…they need two weeks and two days. More work for us, of course, or we could just not teach anything two days before any break, which seems stupid. Anyway, my frustrations with the system aside, hoping the next few weeks of teaching are fairly low-key. We should probably plan the stuff for after sex ed though, and I’m not sure what that looks like.

I made it to ceramics on Monday and did some things on the front of the torso…

It wasn’t what I was originally planning on doing, but it’s what happened. Which is pretty much how ceramics works for me.

I also quilting bugs over two nights…stitch down, pinbasting, and outlining the first night, then quilting the backgrounds last night.

Tonight will be legs…or trimming and then legs? Not sure. Might be easier if I trim first.

One of my students drew me.

Side part not captured. Nice though. She’s super quiet and never asks questions, but draws really well, so I put little comments on her drawings.

Last night after dinner, while watching weird German time travel…

Scribble kept reaching out toward Nova with her paw, suspect not in a gentle, loving way, but it a ‘get off my mom’ way.

This is one of the hardest parts of going back to school…wearing a bra all day again.

I don’t want to be buried as a body anyway, but don’t cremate me with a bra on either. I don’t want that shit anywhere near me.

OK. Today is long. Meeting this morning. I actually have a mental bet on whether admin actually shows up. Hope they surprise me. Then teaching natural selection all day, not bad, I enjoy it. Peppered moths today, maybe giraffes. Yesterday was dogs and pigeons (had to explain what a pigeon was to a large portion of the classes). Then I have pilates and book club. Don’t think I’ll get much grading done unfortunately. Ah well. I do my best. Then I’ll have to decide whether to trim the quilts and maybe put the edge on them before legs? I think it will be easier to see the available leg space if I do it that way. Also have to see if I have the canvases I put these on. Enough of them. I feel like I won’t have enough and will have to solve that problem. Plus pay property taxes. Gotta remember to do that. I finished my taxes last weekend, but not early enough to pay the property taxes, so I’m waiting for some money to move. Fun stuff. Juggling money, time, to-do list items…it’s what I do.

Need More Leg Parts…

Back to school today. No time has passed. The yard and house are still disasters. It’s all good. It happens every year…mostly because I like to travel over break (it makes it a real break from what I’ve been doing). The cleaning and yardwork are constants. They don’t go anywhere. Even when you clean, you will just have to do it again. So it doesn’t matter if you did it over break or on a Monday after school. I did clean almost all the floors over break, so that’s OK. The rest will happen or wait. Whichever works.

Did I finish grading things? Almost. But no. Grades are due in another two weeks, I think. Fun times. Sex ed starts in a week, early this year, thanks to the school board and the state, working against each other, but also against the teachers and the kids. Also fun times. Two-hour staff meeting today about stuff that can’t be done right now. Also fun times. In other news, I’m reading a good book and I’ll be going to ceramics today. Plus my bro is coming to visit. Not me, the parentals, but I’ll probably get to see him.

Artwise, I’m all over the map. It’s OK; I’ve been here for a while now. I’m working on embellishing this dye painting with Scribble’s help.

Nope. She’s really not helpful. At all.

So far, I’ve only done some of the blue-green color.

I’ll do some pink and purple and whatever that combo color is. And add some beads and sequins. Oh yeah, some black.

It’s time-consuming. Then I also started dealing with the bugs I ironed while I was in Virginia.

I’ve stitched two down and picked backings and found batting for all of them. Tonight, I’ll finish the stitchdown and start quilting. Some need more leg parts, but those are hand-embroidered after the quilting. Some of these from the previous make are on Etsy and some are at Visions Museum. Two of these are spoken for and the other three will eventually be on Etsy. Small brainless things right now…good plan. Although I need two more dye paintings done and photographed by June 1. Should be fine.

This is honestly when many afternoons look like…competition for my lap.

Usually this is when I read, but that’s my book on the table, so IDK what I was doing. Doomscrolling. Zoning out. Considering my options. The other option for Simba is to keep one of my feet warm.

Just one. Whether I need it or not. Nights are still chilly, so I’m good.

Bowie takes advantage of my open office window to sample Spring.

He likes it. Also he’s a klutz and knocks my tea over. Tries to be all sneaky to get up there and then is a disaster about it. He is a boy…

Well. There are times that this is totally true. And it’s not ‘drawn to’…it’s ‘appreciative of’. Mostly the men here are OK. They just have their moments. I’m sure I do too. Being a post-menopausal woman. Although young women also get it…

I spent some time yesterday deconstructing two big branches I pulled off a tree (they were dangling; they’d already broken off). The weeds are out of control. But my sinuses are OK (not great; just OK). IDK what it was in Virginia, but I was allergic to something there near where we were staying.

Let’s end on a positive note, because the world is a shitshow.

I am still trying. On all the fronts. Today, I’m teaching…well, I’m introducing a new unit that will be bisected by sex ed because my school board are idiots and the state doesn’t listen…or care, honestly, I think. Certainly, I couldn’t find anyone who had a brain in their head. Did I spell bisected right? It looks wrong. Shouldn’t it be like dissected? No. It shouldn’t. Glad we had that moment together.

Then staff meeting, then ceramics! yay! Where I have to decide what to do next. Minor issue. Don’t have a plan. Nothing new there. Then come back, eat dinner, read book, not in that order, and sew bugs. Repeat. Slight differences each day, but repeat.

Buggy…

I finally updated my website to include all the bugs I made. You can see them here. At least for now. They might move. One has sold (that I know of)…it’s OK, it was the mutant first one I did before I figured out how to more easily (and quickly) finish them. Four of them are at VMOTA for now. The rest are here with me. They don’t have to be.

There’s one of them.

It’s the time of year when I’m scrambling and ducking and weaving and running. I could do with some down time, y’all. I did have a meeting canceled last night, and though I was looking forward to some stitching time with friends, I also enjoyed sitting on the couch with a variety of animals and reading my book for once. Well, I did a bunch of that last weekend too. Still sick, so balancing that with doing way too much. There is no balance. WTF am I talking about.

I’ve been doing about an hour of tracing a night, if I’m lucky…just short of an hour really. So I’m not getting far.

And it looks pretty much the same from one day to the next. I did start another yard of Wonder Under…

I’m in the mid to high 600s. Not even halfway. Ah well. Progress is slow. I did want to be ironing next week. Hopefully I will be at some point.

Must be cold. Dog in couch.

This is feeling real.

And I always appreciate this quote.

Creation is my sanity.

From the book I’m reading…The Dictionary of Lost Words…

Good book. I’d like to read it more.

OK. Ugh. I’m tired. Have not been sleeping well. Mostly in the AM. Still teaching waves…today is transverse and longitudinal. Only sort of know what I’m doing ahead of time, which is a bit nerve-wracking, but whatever. Nothing new there. Hopefully no stressful student crap today. Or adult crap for that matter. Hopefully some ceramics time. Then to the parents for dinner with the bro. Home to trace. Busy. Trying not to think about the idiocy that is my government in process. Dismantling the education department just hurts people. So many people are going to have their lives uprooted by all this…including those who voted for the idiot. Or who didn’t vote at all. You get what you deserve, but you dragged us all down with you. Stressed about all that. Ah well. Carry on. Draw some more. Contain the anger in a pile of fabric pieces…well, it’s not really contained, is it. Off to the mines it is…

Under Control…

OK. So my butt is wet. The cat did something on my chair. This is not a nice way to start Monday. Actually, I started with randomly low blood sugar. Always fun. The cat is old. I’m hoping it’s not…fuck…I’m pretty sure it’s pee. Sigh. She’s looking pretty irritated right now. Maybe because I’m accusing her of peeing herself. I guess I need to call the vet. Sigh. She’s old, it’s true, but that doesn’t mean I’m ready for her to be gone. She has been getting worse…unfortunately.

So artwise, I finished all the bugs. Except I need to repaint one for like the fourth time. I delivered 4 to Visions Museum on Saturday. The rest will hold for a bit (maybe?) and go on Etsy (maybe?). I took official photos of them; I’ll put them on the website later too. Here’s the last one though…

With the one that needs repainting in the background.

I finally started drawing the next big one…it’s been in my head for well over a month.

Not that you can see much, and the boobs might need redrawing based on this. I just get the general shapes with the pencil on something this big. I don’t usually use pencil on the smaller drawings. Here’s a pre-drawing for it…done in two restaurants before dinner came…

Not quite all there. But a vague idea of it. I drew this too, with no purpose…

On Friday, I did some underglazing…

This stuff takes forever…

But it’s relaxing…

Apparently two of my pieces came out of the glaze fire, but I couldn’t find them on Friday. Ugh. Maybe today.

I also finished the center panel of Homegrown…

So now I can piece all the houses around it and spend another year making the borders. It’s also relaxing, but in a different way.

My piece Stop the Murder Madness made it to Miami for the opening…

A fellow artist took a picture of it for me…

Her name is Eden Quispe and you should go look at her work because it’s amazing. And I appreciate her recommending this show to me in the first place and sending me photos as well.

I managed NOT to work most of the weekend (on school stuff), which I think is pretty healthy. We walked the dog on Saturday.

I also blew leaves off half the roof, terrified of being up there, trimmed a bunch of stuff, dumped plant matter in greenery trashcans, finally rehung the art in the hallway…

Drove to a sketch location and bought a recliner for my kid, who may or may not actually want it because he was in Pinnacles with no cell service. Long weekend. I finished a book! That was good. Wait, I actually finished two. So even better.

For some reason, all the animals were giving me judgy looks this weekend. Here’s Nova.

Bowie…

You already saw Kitten up at the top…and Simba…

Luna avoided me mostly, so I guess I didn’t wrong her too badly.

I’ll finish up with two new skull finds…

The one on the right is a new type…I don’t think I’ve seen it before? I’ll wait for nature to clean it up a bit. We get a lot of rats and mice…this is not the right shape for that. Wait and see.

OK, today is teaching speed and velocity…pretty easy stuff. Then a 2-hour staff meeting about literacy. I’ve been prewarned that the scientific content is factually incorrect (oh good), so I’m prepared to be irritated. Then to clay, to hopefully underglaze some more and find my two glazed pieces. Then back here to pack up three quilts for shipping. Fun times. And more drawing, hopefully…get those boobs under control. On the drawing. Those are the only ones I can control.

In Space…

Up early again. Legit reason today. Emergency kid meeting. I’ll volunteer for those, if it’s my student. Not a fan of getting up early if I don’t have to. That was yesterday. Lack of communication. There’s a lot of that. Yesterday was also a pre-fight…apparently I walked right into the middle of it without knowing who was about to fight. I still don’t know…I told the APs to go check the cameras. Hint to kidlets: don’t try to start a fight right in front of the damn cameras. Thank goodness we have them and they work. Thank goodness one of the APs answers when I call.

Today will be fine. Yesterday I worked with this one kid who fell off a second-story roof when he was 7 and was in a coma and shockingly now at 13 has learning issues. We’re trying to get him help. Dad says his brain is weak, but it’s not…it’s traumatized. And that might be the theme for my whole school sometimes. I saw him sitting yesterday, trying to do the independent practice, and just shivering at the table, so I sat with him and talked him through it…which meant the rest of the class kinda went to hell. Sigh. They’ll be better today. Or else? I can’t solve all these kids’ problems, but I sometimes can help. I have no help in that class and he’s not actually on an IEP to get help (YET)…I wish I could move some of these kids around so they were in a more supportive space without all the official paperwork. Sometimes we can…

ANYWAY. In amazeballs news, I’m still not done with the bugs. I painted more canvases on Wednesday night…after I sewed these two, there were two that needed touching up…

The wrist brace is a thumb thing…from too much tech…mouse plus holding phone and ipad plus IDK what. The embroidery doesn’t seem to bug it…I sewed these down with the brace on.

Last night, I did one with the brace on and two without.

And then repainted one that didn’t seem to be the right color. So there’s one left. That’s tonight, plus making labels for them. Then I’m delivering some to the Visions Museum of Textile Art, and IDK what with the rest. Etsy? Maybe.

The opening of We Got the Power is tonight…I finally found the invites everyone was posting…

I still haven’t seen it in the gallery…they’ve been posting pictures but not of the whole thing.

I’m just glad it made it there.

So I’m about to start something new! And big. This little stuff drives me nuts. The Man was trying to figure out how many bugs I’d have to make a week to make up for my salary…and it’s not how many I’d have to MAKE…I’d have to sell like 300 of them a week. And that’s so not happening. Every time I make a little batch of quilts like this (I’ve done birds and cats before), I realize about halfway through that I don’t like doing it. I like to make big things. I like to make things that matter. It’s not that they aren’t cute or cool (they are cute…for bugs)…it’s just not why I make art. And when I retire from teaching, I don’t want to spend more time doing that…making little things that might sell but take up all the time. I want to experiment, explore, make different things, like I’m trying to do with the clay. AND make the big beautiful quilts I really enjoy making. All that.

Anyway.

It’s gonna be a while. And I don’t like chocolate.

Today. Today I will finish the last bug. I will watch that kid I helped yesterday completely fail the quiz because no matter how much I tried to help him, his brain doesn’t get it, and that’s not his fault. And I hope we can get him more help. Same with the emergency meeting this morning. I just want them to get help, and I can’t always do that for them. Which sucks. I’m also going to ceramics (hopefully the hand will play along and be OK with that). And I’m going to read my book, maybe finish it. And label the bugs. And finish designing the academic assignment in space. The assignment is set in space…I don’t have to be in space (unfortunately) to do it. That might be fun too. It is Friday. That’s a thing.

Check for Zombies

Well hey. I wish I had slept more last night, but the little dog made me get up once to check for zombies and there were definitely other barky moments when I was like, “it wasn’t zombies LAST time, so no, I’m not getting out of bed”. He’s definitely in need of something these days. A long walk…a cuddle with his boy (who still has 10 days of training to go). He is a grumpy old man (the dog, to clarify…although there are other grumpy old men in my vicinity, for sure). What it means is that my brain is a little fuzzy (when is it not?) and my eyes a little crusty, and maybe I’m drinking this whole cup of tea quickly so I can get another one down? Ugh. When my doctor tells me to improve my sleep, for health reasons, I want to explain to her that I’ve always been a bad sleeper and that has not improved with age and there are many factors affecting my sleep, most of which (zombies) are out of my control. Oh well. Doing my best. Mostly. Nah, I could do better. If I had more sleep. Maybe.

So I’m still slogging along on bugs. I stitched the edges of the last two on Monday night…

And last night, I painted all five canvases…

Last time, some of them needed a second coat, but hopefully there’ll be a couple ready to stitch down tonight. I also need to make labels for the back.

I did some carving on Monday as well…

Just for fun planter…

In video…

I’m just gonna work on this here for a while. I need to buy more clay for the next batch of projects. Not there yet.

After dinner, I’ve been working on the centerpiece for Homegrown.

I think I just have that last flower on top to do and then I can piece the whole quilt together and start the borders. I’m ahead of schedule! I thought I wouldn’t finish the center until next year. I figured 5 flowers, 5 months? But I’ve been faster than that for once. Mostly because I’m trying to get work done before I leave school and then leave it there. Much as I can. I did last night, anyway.

This is the face of a cat spying a gecko on the window.

I was reading a book the other day and they used the term ‘sanguivore’ for vampires, and turns out, it’s a real word (I love learning new words) for things like vampire bats and mosquitos (bloodsuckers), so my co-teacher and I thought it would be cool to add this word learning to our 7th-grade curriculum when we do trophic levels (carnivores, herbivores, etc), adding this one to the mix and then having kids make some up…I came up with ‘cerebrevore’ for zombies…

Makes sense? Right? We are supposed to be teaching literacy.

This is relevant as I get closer to the Quilt Visions opening, where I will have to explain my work in front of people…

Sometimes it’s a challenge. This quilt is actually easy to explain and way too relevant these days.

This is another word I like.

Unfortunately, I think if I do that today, kids aren’t going to try to learn…they’re just going to copy each other and then Friday’s test will be painful. So I will have to interact with them. And I have a union meeting after school, so that’s more people and talking. When I just want to read my book in silence. Not happening. Tonight, I’ll be sewing little bug quilts on canvases and/or repainting some of them. All good. I will read my book at some point though. It’s required.