Hanging in Midair…

That leaf from Friday? Hanging in midair? It’s still there. Some sort of commentary on life I think.

If you’re a sewing-machine person, maybe you know that part when you’re threading your machine, the skinny bar right above your needle that you put the thread behind so it will line up correctly with the needle? Mine fell off Saturday night. Granted, it was loose and I’d tried to figure out how to tighten it, then considered that the machine needed a cleaning and I would finish the stuff I needed to on this one and the next one and then take it in and all would be good. And then it fell off. Three parts actually. I did successfully continue quilting this…

Which makes you wonder if that little bar is truly necessary. I mean, I’ll call the shop today anyway (it needs a cleaning and the parts are now in a ziplock bag)…but if they can’t do it right away, will I try to sew without that part? I might.

OK, I finished the binding on this one…

Which looked a lot like this for a while…

And the owl angrily requested embroidery. So I started doing that…

Also needs eyes and a better beak.

I appliqued this onto the background…

It just needs sandwiching and quilting. Might embroider but probably not.

I also finally made it back to ceramics. The “fabric” she is holding bisque fired great. This one scares me because of the break. But I had fixed it before all the hospital/injury crap we were dealing with and then didn’t have time to go in. I fixed a bit more and then reglazed.

It looks OK, but IDK how to get it into the kiln.

So that’ll be in the next week or two.

I have a small piece I can work on until then, plus I have the neck started. If there’s room on the drying shelves, I could store that there. I’m scared to put this part on the shelves. One bump and I’m screwed.

I have two pieces at Quilts=Art=Quilts, but hadn’t seen photos of either of them until this one. That’s mine on the far right.

They might have sent some photos…I should look for that.

I was doing yardwork Saturday and found this china plate in my green recycling bin.

With half a croissant. Strange. I cleaned it up. Who throws away a plate? It’s not cracked or chipped or broken, and why my green bin? I suspect the pool person, but it’s still weird. Also the pool people do not understand the difference between trash and compost to save their lives. It’s mind-boggling. Or I’m just very demanding…don’t put trash in my compost!

Hiked with my brother, who’s visiting, on Saturday. Saw a single coyote.

There’s a lot of them in our yards at the moment. Kind of scary.

I got a cocktail on Saturday night. It was very pretty.

And my barn owl left me a gift Saturday night too.

And because it probably needs to be said…

Not entirely, of course. And things aren’t fixed. But they better be working on it day one.

OK, gotta call the sewing machine store. Hoping to go to ceramics today. The students are supposed to be finishing things today and doing one new thing. Some people were efficient on Friday and are ahead of the game. We had about 38 kids absent though…partially because FRIDAY and partially because of a shooting scare that diminished by Friday, but I guess parents were still nervous. Understandable, but also, bet more were out because FRIDAY and if it had been a Tuesday, probably not as many would have been out. Which reminds me, we have Wednesday out for Veterans’ Day…wanna take bets on how many kids will take a 5-day weekend on one side of it? Stupid timing. Oh well. Logistical issue for trying to finish a unit before Thanksgiving week off (excuse me, Fall Break) and giving two tests. I didn’t work enough this weekend, so I’m behind. Still. Again. All good. Will catch up. After school and staff meeting (oops, forgot about that) and ceramics, will grade some and embroider some or maybe attempt to find and put bindings on that other long piece? Or sandwich and quilt the little one? I could try. We’ll see.

New Achievement!

OK. Friday it is. I’m watching a leaf rotate in midair, probably 10 feet from any branch. Of course, there must be a spider web involved somehow, but it looks supermagical from here. I’ll take it. Yesterday…this week…it’s just been hard. Emailing admin at 9:45 at night to deal with something that happened hours earlier. Could it wait? Sure…but I’d probably forget about it. I do feel the relief that grades are done…not that I’m not grading stuff…just that I don’t have a deadline looming over me. This one kid, when I was reminding them that I really am still grading stuff, says, “hey so isn’t it Trimester 2?” Yes dear…and this assignment is part of that grade. Like they thought there would be a break between the two trimesters. Realistically, I have a unit they’re working on that spans the two trimesters…so the assignments will too. I just don’t want to be crazy behind. And I already sort of am. It’s reading the tests, reading their handwriting, that’s the problem. So much easier to read their typing. But then I fight AI. I have a longer test coming up that I think I have to convert to paper precisely for that reason. Unfortunately. Sigh. The conversions suck too…they take a lot of time to set up. Sometimes that is incredibly frustrating.

Pro: there’s a day off next week for Veterans’ Day. Con: it’s in the middle of the week. It’ll be fine. Really. Maybe. Not.

I’m grabbing time at night for art, in between other stuff. I managed to start the handsewing on this the other night…

With Simba and Scribble.

Those damn skinny bindings are just fussy as shit.

I always try to cut them so that they’ll easily fold over to the back and cover the stitching line, but I never cut them wide enough. So I’m fighting them, making tinier stitches, so more of them. I’m halfway, maybe a little more. I’m not sewing the sleeves down yet, because I want to do some hand embroidery and I don’t want to fuss with the sleeves if I do that. Like I did on the last one…pain in the butt because I forgot and just stitched them down. Silly goose.

I had a little extra time last night, because I was on a stitching Zoom, so I also pinned this to a backing…

It has kind of an irregular border, so I decided to applique it onto a backing and then do all the quilty things. It’s not very big.

Then I pinbasted this one for quilting.

That’ll be next up. I’m not sure this one needs embroidery? Maybe I’ll just like quilt all the hair? We’ll see. Sometimes they just seem more simplistic because it’s missing the details of commercial fabrics? We’ll see how I feel once it’s quilted. I also need a better local store for thread.

I haven’t been back to ceramics for a while; hoping to go after school today to try to fix the arm enough to get fired. Girlchild leaves today, boychild is back. I’m on partial dog-peeing duty. Maybe more than that next week, but we’ll see. Everyone seems to be healing up well, although slowly for some. Not surprisingly. Age slows everyone down. But I’m hoping to actually get out on a hike tomorrow afternoon. Might text my brother and invite him. I miss the hikes. The weather’s been so wonky, it’s been hard to fit it in, plus school’s demands on my time. But things are a little more chill at the moment, so I want to take advantage of that. I’ll be handstitching and/or quilting tonight at some point though. Maybe later. And grading more tests. Ugh. Just hoping the school day is chill…yesterday was not. Also hoping my new earbuds arrive or this other set I have works. I dropped my old ones into my tea. Yes, exhaustion. Impressive, even for me. New achievement! Klutz level 10 attained. Moving on. Bless the arrival of the weekend.

Get a Handle on It…

OK. There is hope…although my school board does not make me hopeful at all. I guess my last years of teaching will be about watching ignorant people try to contain children and their teachers in a negative way. So as we see positive change in the larger world, change those in government should absolutely use for positive results…my local world becomes smaller and more restrictive. There are stories like that all over the US. I’m glad for the House and the Senate and the big races that flipped some of that…the increased diversity of gender and people of color and indigenous folks. The people who should have been in positions of power all along. That is all good. Now go out there and fix shit, y’all. I can’t afford this world we’re in…not mentally and not in my wallet. Get rid of the damn swamp wherever you can. Meanwhile, my school board members will continue to claim that we teachers are evil communists who turn kids trans.

Speaking of those kids, I’m just trying to get them to understand Newton’s 2nd Law. Which is the easy one. I’m just trying to finish a unit before we go on Thanksgiving break, because after a week plus, my kids can’t remember anything. Sad but true.

Artwise, I spent time yesterday driving downtown (where apparently signals mean nothing) to pick up my piece from the library show. I have to decide whether to leave it as a book or pull it apart (my original plan) and make it into a quilt on the wall. Later. Decide later. I have limited decisionmaking energy at the moment.

I did finally finish my grades yesterday during my prep period. I think. I should go check them again. Just in case I forgot something. I had a really hard time this trimester getting it done. It had a lot to do with all the hospital stuff. I’d like to avoid that in the future. Not like you can plan for it.

I did manage to do a final trim on the current dye painting (it was a little crooked) and then went through my stash for a binding fabric. I thought for sure it would be green, but it was too much. So I found this light batik with a little blue and a little purple in it, and it worked really well with the piece…

That owl is screeching out for embroidery. Soon I will oblige.

And last night, I put the bindings and sleeves on…

They’re pinned and ready to sew by hand. I made a really narrow binding for this one. Scribble was entirely unhelpful. At some point, I had Bowie on my lap, then Scribble. If you don’t pet her enough, she reaches out with her paw and pats your hand. Hey lady. Pet me. Anyway, I’ll be handstitching tonight OR I’ll be sandwiching the other one. Depends on how I feel. Today is long. Meeting in the morning that I think everyone forgot about, teaching more force and motion all day, then pilates (need that) and dinner with the girlchild and my brother, who’s visiting my parents. Should be interesting. My introvert self just wants to finish the library book that’s being sucked back today, but since I have 5 hours left, that’s not happening. I’m already on the hold list, but it’s a good book and I don’t want to put it down. Ah well…such is being an adult and having to do the things and pay the bills and all that crap. It’ll be good to hang out with family at dinner, good to exercise, good to just sit and stitch afterwards. I took a break from grades last night (although I was typing things into the meeting agenda for this morning, so still work) and probably will tonight as well. Then I’ll need to get back into it. Ugh. Only 1/3 through the year…and I’m exhausted. Hopefully I’ll get a handle on it soon.

Hopefully It Will Hold…

My oatmeal revolted this morning. I’m not sure why. I don’t know what I did differently, but it was like a hard cake of oatmeal instead of like a mushy cereal. I don’t know what I did to deserve that. Probably didn’t put enough milk in? But I remember measuring it. Cooked it too long? That is possible. I don’t remember setting it, wait, I did…I did the right time. Am I eating it? Of course I am. Not wasting food. Don’t really care about it that much. Not the tastiest. Could be worse though. Giant blobs of hard oats. Weird.

Also weird, what I’m doing artistically at the moment, which is mostly cleaning honestly. The studio rarely gets a good clean, and it’s not getting one now either…but I had a bag and a bin full of little tiny pieces of fabric that came from IDK where and I can’t deal with them taking up real estate any more. Some are precut binding pieces, and narrower than anything I would ever use, so they’re getting recycled. The rest are getting cleaned off (dust bunnies), ironed if necessary, and stacked up by color, along with some other monthly shipments I got for a while and I thought I had sorted into my bins, but hadn’t. So now I am.

My internet is being cranky this morning; hopefully I’ll be able to add photos by the time I’m done writing. Anyway, those are the piles so far; I’m about 1/3 of the way through the bin. I got all the way through the bag. I also need to pack a quilt and ship it. So that’s on my to-do list. Plus grades are due soon, so I’m trying to get through one class of tests a night, but really, I need to do two one night because camping this weekend. I think last night was the night I was going to try to do more, but it was errands, talking to dad (or trying to), because it was his birthday (86!), and then talking to my bro, his lovely wife, and his delightful daughter. All good things. Just can’t grade when life is happening. Sigh.

Top right of that picture has some fabric applique pieces I’ve made but not finished over the years. I was looking for a specific one and it wasn’t there. Sigh. I do have them on my list to try to finish, but I need to find all of them.

So I’ve been adding Inktense pencil layers to these two dye paintings. The small one needed a background color and the larger one, the two bottom heads needed stuff.

So I’ve been adding layers and then fabric medium and more layers. Last night, I ironed the smaller one, so I’ll wash it out probably tonight, see what holds. The larger one, I thought I was done, and then in the photo, noticed I’d forgotten the eyebrows.

And they’re totally obvious and bug me. So I’ll do that tonight. So it’s not an hour’s worth of truly art stuff, but the cleaning needs to happen. I’ll get there. The heads piece and another long skinny one need to be finished next.

I finally made it to ceramics and made some decisions. I was able to remove the ‘cloth’ piece from the arms and I’m putting it in the bisque fire.

Hopefully it won’t change shape much. I’ll try to glaze fire it in place. I just needed it out of the way so I could try to do a better fix on the arm. We’re at bone dry though and it’s problematic. It is a clean break though, so if I can fire it next to the main piece after I fix it, I’ll be able to make it all work I think.

I’d say I need to do something smaller next, but this was supposed to be smaller and maybe I just can’t do small? I also can’t finish things quickly. I do think the arm is more stable now, so that should help.

Speaking of help, here’s Scribble helping to grade tests.

She is ever so helpful.

I drove past this during errands yesterday. I like to let the GPS tell me which way to go, so I end up on random streets I’ve never been on.

Their reviews are average, but it’s worth a try to drag some kid there, yeah? Maybe just for coffee.

This is legit.

That man is so incapable of doing his job as it is.

OK. Today should be a chill day. Kids have an independent assignment to complete before a lab tomorrow. I have a million packets to grade and I really need to finish if possible. Or get close. Then I have pilates after school and need to set up a flood barrier for the rain that is coming over the next few days. I have an outside drain that isn’t working and needs to be cleared out, but I don’t have the time or the equipment. It’s on my list for Thanksgiving. The new gutter drains in an inconvenient location. Then I’m going to grade more than one class worth of tests, fix those eyebrows, and finish cleaning up in here. Maybe put a label on that quilt I need to ship (probably not; let’s be honest. There are only so many hours in a day). It’s all good though. At least I have a plan…hopefully it will hold.

Losing My Body…

My blood sugar device alarm went off at 4:56 AM. Not because I was high or low but because the phone (under my pillow) couldn’t find the signal in the device (on my arm, next to my pillow). Usually that resolves pretty quickly, but no. Not last night. After about three alarms, my sleep self turns the alarm to silent, which means it vibrates instead of sending a loud tone. I put it on the floor, because I can’t sleep through the vibrations either, but I can still hear it vibrating on the floor. Because I was half asleep, I turned them off for an hour, and that usually solves it, but no. At 6:04 AM, the alarm was blaring again. My fucking god. Please stop. I haven’t slept well all week. I got up at 6:30 and the damn thing had found my sensor. On my arm. Where it had been all night. Technology good? Well, yes, it’s helped me bring my A1C down to prediabetic levels, so that’s great. The part where I want to throw my phone across the room at 5 AM? Not so much. Of course it’s fine now. Now I have to get up and go to work and be functional and not cranky (I’ve been cranky all week).

We’ve got Santa Ana winds again, so it’s also hot and dry and migrainey. It’s fine. Really. I’m going to sleep some day. When I’m dead.

Meanwhile, my quilt is due to the photographer tomorrow afternoon, so it has to be done, ironed, and clean. Wednesday, I sewed all the binding and sleeves together and onto the quilt and then pinned it all…

Cue artistic photo of a pile of pins ready to stab me.

Then last night, I started on the binding.

I did most of one long side, then all of a shorter side, then about 2/3s of the other long side. Tonight I need to do the rest and the two sleeves. Plus grade stuff. I did that last night too.

Still hot, still windy, still dry. Some big fire up in Camp Pendleton closed Interstate 5 last night for a bit. The boychild is at that fire today.

This is Simba tolerating Scribble.

He was there first, but he’s scared of her (she has whacked him when he is too inquisitive).

Bowie is still curling up next to me most nights…

I made him a little sleep spot. He seems to need it.

And Simba the other night, after I picked him up from the other house (with the other dog), was exhausted.

Mostly from barking at people, apparently.

Sigh. We’re camping next weekend, so hopefully the Santa Anas are done by then. I think they are. And no rain please. The Man is working again this weekend, so I’m going to finish my quilt and then pull camping gear. And then work on the next batch of quilts. I’m excited about working on them…dye paintings from the summer. Different stuff. Don’t get me wrong; I love a good big quilt in the way I normally make them, but doing different stuff is also fun. I have the next big quilt as a rough idea in my head. It’s a start.

School today…finishing experiments on force and motion. Then (possibly mistakenly) giving kids time to catch up on work. Depending on them, of course, and they are notoriously lazy about that. I make them check for what’s missing. I’m not doing it for them. I need to write a makeup test for the thing I gave them last week. The surprise thing. And I need to grade a bunch more stuff…grades are due in two weeks for the trimester. I’m powering through, but very slowly. Everyone in the house is cranky. Dogs, cats, people. I could do without that. Hoping camping will help. But for now, I’m pretty sure I can sleep in a bit tomorrow morning. A delight. Really. Maybe. Unless the alarm loses my body again. You’d think if we could design AI that can hack into major companies and have conversations, then we could design a sensor that doesn’t lose the body that is right next to it. Happy Friday y’all.

Intense Heat…

It is October, right? Usually it cools down by now, but no. We were the third hottest place in the world on Saturday, I think. It’s supposed to be hotter today? No climate warming though. This is not a sign of the end of the world…at all. Scientists didn’t predict all this crazy weather. It’s just random. Cough. Cough. Yeah right.

I did actually manage to iron in the heat. The studio was 95 degrees last night…went down to 90 at some point. But here was Friday night’s ironing…

Hanging over the edge…and a top view.

Saturday, I managed some ironing during the day…

Almost hitting the floor…and a top view…

Last night, I ironed the rest of that hand and a few floating things, and then realized the background I’d picked from my stash a month ago wasn’t big enough (whoops), so went through the stash again and found one that’s big enough that will hopefully work. We’ll see how that goes tonight. I forgot to photograph anything yesterday. It was hot. I was tired. I was trying to get the background worked out. I just need to piece it and I can iron things together. Start stitchdown. Of course, this week is a crazy shitshow so I don’t know how I will get things done, but I will. It stays hot through Thursday, although the worst of it appears to be today and tomorrow.

Saturday night, we went to an opening with my work in it, at the Covet Art Gallery in Oceanside. They published this photo before…which is good, because there were too many people to get a photo like this on Saturday.

We managed this…

And I took this one from outside as we left…

It had kind of cleared out by then. They had a nice big outside area in back where many people were hanging out. Good DJ. Funky lighted clothing. I think I want clothing with LEDs in them. Not a lot. Just a few.

This poor little ceramic piece caught my eye. It’s by Elizabeth Marshall.

People who leave their cups everywhere at art shows drive me bonkers. There are trash cans, y’all. Be a useful human.

I also liked this piece…by Cathy Carey.

There were a lot of pieces in a very small space.

Other things we saw in Oceanside included this comfortable skelly…

This beautiful palmed sky…

And dinner…

The Man said I was drawing a squashed fairy. Maybe I was. It was hot at the beach too. No relief there.

The animals are definitely looking for cool spaces…

Tile is nice.

Luna is just a weirdo.

Simba kept coming close to me…

Like, don’t touch me, you furry beast. Soon after this, I dunked him in the pool to cool him off. Seemed to help. But then I saw this guy…

These guys are ground squirrels…I wonder if it’s not cooler underground? Or if he got kicked out by his mom for being annoying. He was there for a while. Catching the breeze. The nonexistent breeze. Yeah, I enjoyed Home Depot on Saturday because it was air conditioned. So was pilates. I went in the pool with the dog. Briefly. I had too much work to do. I got a healthy chunk of it done, but it just multiplies. My car has oil, though the light is still on (fuck. Need to go back and make them fix that), I passed the smog check, I got my blood tested and my A1C is down to prediabetic levels (woohoo!), I went to the chiropractor, got stuff for the project this week, and managed to get most of the sprinklers working, for some definition of working. I’ve been watering things in the dark. It works.

This crap.

The vengeful part of me wants each of them to experience rape and then still say this, but I’m not an evil person (don’t talk to my students about that). And men can’t get pregnant, because that’s the second part of this. The Cornell 7 doesn’t make me feel better about the male half of the population…and the vast numbers of people and part of the government that protects them. We need politicians to pass a test on the main subjects we teach in school. Don’t pass? Can’t govern. You don’t have the brains for it. Jodie in Texas…honey, your state is one of the worst for helping women with reproductive health. Shut up.

Anyway. Sigh. Full week this week…full of a project that might test my sanity. But also might give me time to grade. It better, because I’m behind and I can’t bring it home with me. Too many other things going on. I have something after school every day this week. But today, they get minimal materials and they will test out the shapes. We’ll see how that goes. Then a two-hour staff meeting on something we already do. Fun times. I might make it to ceramics; we’ll see. It’s not air-conditioned usually. Then home to water things and iron things. Might have to do some union stuff in there too. Vote y’all. Vote well. And may the heat fuck off too. With the rapey people. They deserve some more intense heat.

Slower and Sweatier

I was looking forward to this weekend. It’s three days for us (random school board decision), and I knew I’d have a ton of grading and other stuff to do (car needs oil change AND smog), but with three days, I had a chance of getting a lot done AND having time to relax and make art (those are two separate things by the way). But now it’s supposed to be hot as hell and I don’t have A/C and it sounds like ugh. Plus I’m at the ironing stage of this quilt, so doing hot things during hot weather is honestly not particularly fun. Quilts are hot. Hot on your lap. Irons are hot. They put off heat. I can’t have a fan pointed at my head because all the tiny pieces will fly off. So it’s even hotter. Three-day weekend doesn’t sound so lovely any more. Oh well. I’m still going to have to do the things; I’ll just be much slower and sweatier about it.

So I started to sort on Monday night…

Scribble kept trying to stand in the boxes. I spent an hour plus before this packing two quilts to be shipped, so I didn’t have a full hour to sort. At 11 PM, I remembered I had to be up early for a parent meeting, so I stopped…

And finished last night…

It never looks like much here. Just tiny pieces. I started ironing last night, but I didn’t get far.

I also entered a show. And laid out the first 100 pieces, most of which are much smaller than this. I’m not sure I’ll be finishing this piece in time for the deadline. I’d like to, but there’s a lot left to do and the day job is a time suck. All my grading time at school gets sucked up by other things. I have a kid who will be out for an unknown amount of time and we’re doing a hands-on group project. The curriculum has nothing relevant she can do, so I’m not sure what to give her. I will have to spend my prep period figuring that out. For one kid. Of 140+. It’s frustrating.

So interesting question…why do so many words associated with extreme heat start with the letter ‘s’? I don’t think I would have noticed if my weather app wasn’t overusing them.

And the next day…

Does sizzling feel different than scorching? I mean, I’m sure it does…dropping below 100 degrees after 104 (now going to be 106) will be noticeable. Sizzling has a sound factor that scorching does not. They both have smells associated with them. Yes, overthinking the weather. It’s not fall. It’s hell. I think I’ll take a break every 30 minutes and step into the pool? Maybe? Dripping chlorinated water and ironing might be a bad combo.

A German woman contacted me about writing an article for an online German textile publication. Here’s the article. I have another interview to do for one in Los Angeles. It’s been a heavy art BUSINESS couple of weeks: deliveries, pickups, packing, shipping (expensive!), writing stuff, etc. I have one more blogpost I need to do for another art group, but haven’t been able to find the time. Oh wait, I think there’s two I need to do. Ugh. Add that to the list.

Today though. Today is Wednesday and it is still a reasonable temperature. Hell starts tomorrow or Friday I think. I swear, every time I look at the app, the predicted temperatures have gone up. Now Saturday is 109. So today and tomorrow are still bearable. Good to know. I have to meet with a teacher this morning about a union issue; I need to talk to another teacher too, but IDK when that will happen. I’m finishing up a simulation today and then trying to reteach how to write the reasoning part of a CER. Double ugh. Then pilates and a Zoom meeting. The Man took over cooking tonight, which is a good plan. Apparently he doesn’t like eating at 8:30 PM (IDK why…I’m totally OK with it). Somehow I need to grade stuff in there, plus fix a sprinkler that looks beyond my capabilities, and iron some more. Same old.

Probably Not Enough Times…

Well that was a busy weekend. I’m still tired from it. I may have been semi-productive around all the things I had to do. I dropped a quilt at a gallery for a show that opens Saturday. I went to another exhibition closing reception and then pulled all 6 of my quilts down and packed them into the car to drive home. I was there for the artist panel, which I enjoyed, but I did work through it.

Writing and sending our team’s weekly email. And then grading warmups and test corrections. I was supposed to be on a Zoom from 3-4 and totally forgot. It’s fine. Hopefully they recorded it.

It was a nice panel. I’m always up for listening to fellow feminist artists.

I cut stuff out Friday night…that’s the moon. Ironically, after the shitshow of a day I had on Friday, I found out the full moon was Saturday.

Everything makes sense now.

Saturday night, after the Man’s dad’s birthday dinner (and 3 hours of canvassing for the local school board and another 3 hours of grading).

And then last night, I stayed up late to finish.

Almost 11 1/2 hours. Ready to iron together? Well, no…it’ll take an hour to sort all the pieces into 100s for easier ironing. So that’s tonight. Am I behind my schedule? Well, yes, I usually am. Can I catch up? We’ll see. I’m buried in grading; hence the grading at an art event and every afternoon/night this weekend. Never stops. But I’m closer.

Friday night, Bowie needed to be close.

And then, so did Simba. Well, he always needs to be close.

It’s hot again here, although we got a tiny bit of rain last night…leftovers from one of the hurricanes off the coast. There’s like four of them rotating around out there, throwing shit our way, but mostly hot and muggy shit instead of decent rain.

The Man’s dad turned 89 this month, so there was a dinner for him.

Not actually in Venice unfortunately.

This is too true.

I’d like to thank my brain for all the overthinking I do when I’m trying to fall asleep. I have a couple of potentially stressful conversations that need to happen today with other adults at school. One I think will be OK. The other one is defensive as shit and there’s no way it will go well. So that’s fun. Imma try anyway because I’m a mature adult who knows she has to work well with other people. Crazy, huh?

Otherwise, there’s like two hours of staff meetings, plus reviewing PE/KE for the roller coaster project, plus grading ten tons of stuff and buying a bunch of other stuff and trying to fix the sprinklers AGAIN and packing quilts to be shipped and/or delivered. Pro: got into four shows. Con: all the packup, dropoff, and pickup. Then grading and cooking and book club (timed dinnermaking wrong, didn’t I?) and then sorting fabric. Probably more grading. Did I mention grading? Yeah. Probably not enough times.

Participating in Art…

Rough weekend. Not as bad as next weekend. I think of a good weekend as some relaxation time with a book or some art, and a hike in the late afternoon (haven’t done that since I got back from Oregon…mostly due to heat, but lately due to life). Lots of time to wander the house, maybe water some stuff, clean up a little. Just not a lot of pressure to get things done. No deadlines looming. This was not one of those. Grades are due Tuesday (I finished those). It sucks to spend most of a weekend day on that. And that’s what happened. There’s no way to get all the planning, copying, designing, and grading done during the real work day. Or even in an hour after the kids leave. It’s frustrating. September is always a hard adjustment. We’re getting near the end of it though…so maybe I’ll adjust better in October. Ha!

My art goals this weekend included washing a few more dye paintings out and finishing the ironing to fabrics on the current quilt. I did achieve both of those things. I ironed Friday night…

This thing took forever, mostly because each little clump of mushrooms needed a new color range.

I ironed for a little bit on Saturday afternoon, after finishing grading the assignments I needed for the progress report.

The Man had a show Saturday night until midnight, so I knew I wouldn’t get time after that. And then last night, I stayed up a little late to finish all the ironing.

Almost 16 hours to iron 800+ pieces. Insane. Also, I need to organize the fabrics in color order. There’s lots of brown. Because mushrooms. Anyway, I’ll be cutting things out starting tonight. Hoping to be done by the weekend, but that may not be realistic. I do have 70 thousand Zooms this week I can trim through (slight exaggeration). This one has a deadline.

I also managed to wash out two dye paintings. No photo of that. I have two more to do and then another one that needs more dye painting. Not sure when that will happen. I have a Friday off next week (random 3-day weekend, thank you, school board). Maybe then.

Some book club friends of mine drove up to Oceanside to see the FIG exhibit there with 6 of my pieces in it. They sent me a photo…

I was in the middle of grading and it was so nice to see that. It’s one thing to tell people you make art, and another to have them just show up to see it. It was cool. By the way, the closing exhibition is this Sunday from 1-4. I’ll be there for the last bit, mostly to take stuff down.

The Man’s show Saturday night was interesting. I enjoyed the show…the venue was weird about glass on the dance floor, but they ran out of tables/seats and the bar was serving in glass?

The Man had hurt his back on the way over…but he powered through.

They do fewer shows now, so I try to go when I can. I was pretty tired though. Not so tired that I didn’t dance a bit. A lot. Maybe.

Scribble tore up a cat toy and then fell asleep on the innards.

She’s a cute baby.

I wish this were true…but it’s not.

AI is staying. It’s annoying except when it’s helpful. Like what is up with Muse wanting to help me. I don’t even know how to turn that off. I just keep Xing the box. I read a thread about AI and art and someone was saying that if we didn’t let them use AI, then they weren’t allowed to participate in making art. Um. Sigh. So many things wrong with that. Also, I could stop putting my images online, but the whole purpose of social media is to share, and I want to share my art…I just don’t want AI (or anyone really) using it to copy or make their own art. I’m not sure why that’s so hard to understand. It’s not the same as a human brain processing images it’s seen and interpreted with its life and background and turned into its own art. It’s just pulling bits and pieces and putting them together. There’s no life experience in that. And it shows.

Anyway. No AI here y’all. Shockingly. Work today though. Giving a test. Didn’t really tell them it was today. I’m OK with that though. Then a staff meeting and chiropractor. Trying to get my neck/shoulders to behave. Then hopefully cutting some stuff out. Probably need to do yardwork first…I did some of that yesterday. It finally cooled down enough and I had time during daylight (well, almost…I was stomping around in the dusky bits trying to figure sprinklers out. Was not successful). So more of that this week. Also have a fence falling down I need to deal with. I’m not sure HOW to deal with it, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out.

Mushroom Ironing

It’s finally cooler. Still summer for us, but not in the 100s. Still running all the fans and appreciating when it cools down at night…knock on wood, so it doesn’t go away. My studio still holds onto daytime warmth, which is great in winter and not so much now, so I’m ironing with a fan on my legs so it doesn’t blow the pieces away. I feel like I’ve been ironing for days (I have). Wait. Not a lot of days actually…well, I started slow. I’m not sure I’m not still slow. It feels incredibly slow.

OK, I’m 7 1/2 hours into the ironing and I’m still in the early 300s. That said, I did iron a bunch of the 800s already. It still feels like I should be further along. Here’s Friday night…

I got all the flesh laid out and ironed…

I feel like there’s some 400s and 500s in there too. Can’t remember.

Saturday night, I managed a couple of hours…

Ironed the heart and some other stuff. Then last night…

A couple of trees, some mushrooms, some of the bits and pieces of the body that weren’t flesh-colored. Like I said, low 300s. Over 800 pieces in this thing. I usually figure 100 pieces a night, although I’m not hitting anywhere near that at the moment. Each little clump of mushrooms is a different thought of what color, how many shades of that color. So notionally, I could be done ironing Friday? Ugh but this week is painful and grades are due next Tuesday. We’ll see how that goes. Too much on my plate again.

I made time on Saturday to set this up…this is the last dye painting I did at Playa, on the last day. The flesh color washed out completely.

I checked the dyes a few weeks ago and they were still holding. The stuff that washed out had been mixed with about a thousand other things at that point. So I made a new version of the flesh color.

It won’t be that dark…I added a bunch of print paste to lighten it. But it looks much better. Now I just need to make time to wash it out. Hopefully tonight.

Bowie and Scribble come in here to investigate. I think Bowie is still looking for Kitten. He was mean to her in the end, so I locked him out for a few weeks at the end.

He does like to come in and sniff around.

It’s baby lizard season. The leaf in the background shows how tiny this one is.

Luckily it’s outside. We keep finding them inside, and I think there’s still one in my car. I’m hoping it got out. I mean, it got in.

I saw something yesterday about how the current admin is gonna let power plants pollute with impunity.

The ignorance is mind-boggling. And devastating.

OK. It’s Monday. I’m tired. What’s new? I have a parent meeting with a translator this morning, the counselor called in sick, we need to call the translator, and our current conference room doesn’t have a phone. Because the main office removed it. Because we don’t need it? WTF. In case you’re wondering about the state of education these days. I have to use my personal phone to call a translator so we can do a parent meeting in Haitian Creole. Yup. I am still teaching energy transformations and transfers. Hopefully getting to a little independent work today, because I need to grade packets…and tests…and set up for a lab later this week…and realized that Back to School Night will be in the middle of a 2-day lab, so my room will be a mess. Fun times. Two-hour staff meeting after school teaching me how to do something I already know how to do AND already do. Regularly. Also fun. Then hopefully ceramics, because I didn’t get there all last week. Frustrating. I canvassed for the local school board on Saturday, because two of ours are ignorant. Annoying. But there will be mushroom ironing at the end of the day. Not often you get to say that.