The Wind Through the Leaves…

Hmmm. Yesterday was the perfect summer day for me. Some reading, some clay, some fabric stuff. It was warm but not too bad. The day before was pretty good too…more reading, more fabric stuff, a long hike, some drawing with dinner, more fabric stuff. I’m hoping to project this level of enjoyment/relaxation into the new school year (yes, I know some people don’t consider it relaxing to work on stuff like I do). Sunday afternoons at the ceramics studio? Why not? Because school. I need to shorten up the Sunday crazy and figure out how to get more of it done during the school day. I will have help this year; that will be nice. Also more literacy stuff and more sex-ed curriculum stuff. I never filled out the feedback form, dammit. Ah well. Put that on the list.

I guess Saturday and Sunday made up for Friday, when the boychild and I moved almost everything out of three bedrooms into the living room. We left beds, desks, and big dressers. At some point before the carpeting starts (next week; we now have a date), we will have to empty dressers and strip beds (not sure why I say ‘we’…it’s ‘me’), but for now, the living room is a hoarder warren of crazy shit that makes everyone claustrophobic…

Except Luna…who sits on that highest shelf, surveying her domain.

We moved everything early because the boychild might end up on a fire, and then I wouldn’t have been able to get all this moved. The Man can’t lift more than 10 lbs (injury) and I can’t lift most of this by myself. We have a cart, but again, by myself would have been a challenge. And at some point, we might have been doing carpet today instead of next week. So this was the solution. Sunday night/Monday morning will be a lifting event for me (all the drawers), but that’s a lot easier than all this. The real problem is where will we PUT all the drawers…and where will we sleep the first night (it’s gonna take two days). We’ll figure it out…couches and air mattresses.

The stained glass window got replaced on Saturday finally…it looks great!

The window was made by the previous owner. The wood around it was decaying and some of the cross supports had come loose, so the window was in danger of bowing out and/or breaking. I finally found someone who specializes in fixing these (took me like 6 months). They stabilized the window between two tempered glass pieces, my contractor guy replaced all the wood, and then we’re just waiting on the final bits of sealing the wood and window for it all to be done. Although then I need to paint that whole wall…and the other walls, if I want to be consistent. We’ll see how far I get. The wall opposite has a textured wallpaper the cats thought was a scratching post back in the day, so it needs to be removed. That’s a bigger challenge. Maybe not a 2024 challenge. I still need to paint the hallway…which includes 5 doors. Ugh. I have a bunch of sanding on my list for this week as prep for that, priming too if I can get to it.

I stitched down another quilt I had ironed together while waiting for my sewing machine to come back, and for my Art Brain to have enough power to draw a new big one.

It took a couple of days because it was in between all that moving shit and hiking around.

This is from some smaller drawing I did either on a plane or while camping or something. Oh wait, I found the drawing…from 12/20/18…so probably one of those Drawing a Day over Winter Break things I did. Hence the Christmas lights. So a 6-year-old drawing. Last December, I picked about 12 smaller drawings and enlarged them to work on in between things. I had just finished the Supreme Court quilt and another couple of smaller quilts, and my brain (due to school) was foggy as shit. So I started some of these.

I cleaned the entryway floor earlier today, so my next step is to sandwich and pinbaste the two smaller quilts for finishing.

I’ve been cutting things out on the big quilt for a little over 17 hours now…Friday night…

Saturday night…

And Sunday night…

The box on the bottom left is all that’s left…somewhere between 300 and 400 pieces left. I feel like I might get close to finishing that today. Maybe. Then a few hours of sorting, made almost impossible by the piling of shit in the living room. I mean, I could do it, but I would have to unpile and then repile some of that shit. I don’t want to wait a week for the next step though, so I’ll do it. Sometime in the next couple of days.

In clay news, I’m slowly working on the world figure’s upper torso. I have a base it sits into as I build, but I did check it again to make sure it’s going to shrink appropriately. It’s like a 12% shrink.

I’m OK with an imperfect fit, as long as it actually fits. I got one hand put on…holding that up, because the forearm and elbow haven’t hardened enough to fully hold it. The right arm, I got the elbow and forearm put on. At the moment, the whole upper torso is sitting on a separate base I built just to support this.

The support is under the plastic. There’s a sponge holding that hand up as it dries. The right arm is on the base until the hand goes on. I attached a partial version of hair (fire) to the head and then persuaded the head to attach to the torso. That back sponge is holding it up until it hardens. This clay is not great for sculpture, but it’s what I picked (what I used in class). I’ll pick one with more grog next. Maybe a little more? I don’t know. I like the smoother texture of this, which is half porcelain and half stoneware.

I made a heart.

I think I know how/where to attach it, but I need things to stiffen up first. There will be carving on the fire hair and the heart, and the plan is to add more ‘hair’ in the form of smoke from the fire. Yeah. Crazy.

The other piece made it out of the kiln!

Just a few cracks…iron oxide with a little bit of clear next, I think. Only clear on the underglazed bits. Then fabric wings hanging from the arms. And fabric coming out of the things on her head.

I numbered this sweet little thing. It only has 390 pieces.

Can’t trace it until the carpet is done. That’s OK. I have plenty to work on and this has a later deadline.

I also pieced this thing together.

I finished the embroidery on the center panel, and then thought I’d be sewing all the little houses together, whee!, but no. There’s a border around the central panel with 5 flowers on it. It’s fine. I won’t be sewing houses together until 2025.

We hiked in the Lagunas on Saturday…we were hoping for cooler weather, but no.

We started hiking around 4:30 PM and it was still 85 degrees.

It cooled down around 6 PM, which is when I would have preferred to start, but we were going to eat dinner up there and the restaurants all close by 8 PM.

It was beautiful, though, even though it was warm. There weren’t a ton of people, which was nice.

I love hiking around the little lakes and meadows up there. Well…unless there’s cows.

We had to walk right through a group of them, lots of calves, so potentially nervous moms. They were standing on the trail for a goodly portion of it, so we did some nervous (but calm) movements of our own to get across the field without pissing anyone off.

A tiny adrenaline rush. This hawk had a snake and was being chased by a smaller bird.

And here’s one of our three friendly crows here at home. I took the dog out in the morning and it was up there squawking at me because the Man hadn’t put out the trays of nuts for the birds yet.

And I am still reading about the period. Good book. I’m reading two books, actually, one fiction and one nonfiction…

This is too real for all the crazy shit going on these days. Like how do you show your Supreme Court is corrupt without saying they’re corrupt? Just look at what they allow and disallow. Sigh. I don’t know that I have another Supreme Court quilt in me. Certainly the bullshit is all still there.

OK, it’s a Monday, but it feels like a Saturday. I have some stuff I have to do today, but first, I am going to pinbaste these two quilts, because that’s sweaty business and I want a shower. Work for it! Also hopefully going to get close to finishing the cutting-it-out phase of the big quilt. I’m sure there’s more on my to-do list that I haven’t remembered, like watering, for sure (it’s been hot and dry) and filling up greenery trash cans (never stops)…but also some reading…and appreciating how quiet it is today with all the kids inside or at camp or I don’t even care WHERE they are, it’s blissfully quiet except for the birds and the bugs. No tree trimming, no sawing, no yardwork, no screaming, no yelling. Just the wind through the leaves. And the Man watching some loud thing (it just got loud…).

Sweat…

OK, it’s officially the first week after the first week after school gets out. That first week goes through like a blur on a good year; add surgery into the mix and I’m surprised (or not) that I made it through 5 books and 11 interviews and not much else. Ugh. Not recommended. This week starts to feel a bit more like reality, a bit more like the summer I knew I was in for…the one where I want to punch people when they ask me what I’m doing this summer. I’m repairing my house post January flood. I had guys come in and fix the outside wood and the inside drywall, plus install gutters, which should make it never happen again, but I still need the carpet installed and paint in the hallway and potentially other places, and please let’s get the stained glass reinstalled…it’s been out since April, I think. Last night, I sanded old trim (oil paint previously…I never painted in the entryway, so it’s at least 26 years old), washed it, and put on a primer coat. The contract guys strangely painted the inside trim brown (outside color) without really consulting me, so I’m covering that with white. I had to pick a white for that whole room, since it had never been painted. I don’t mind painting, except when it’s hot and a lot of prep work needs doing, like here. I hate sanding. I can’t even reach the top part of the wall with the stool. I’m gonna have to get the ladder. So it’s a lot of that kind of work all summer. I need to get another coat of primer on today and then hopefully one coat of actual paint, so when the glass guy comes back on Wednesday, it’s ready to go. I also need to wash the hallway (on my hands and knees, love you Callie dog, but jesus, what did you do to the walls in there) and see if I can find the spackle. I know it’s here. I bought it last summer to do this and then just flailed. I can’t flail this time. It needs to get done. I need to move stuff out of the bedrooms too. And it’s hot, y’all. So that doesn’t help. It is going to happen though.

I haven’t posted since Thursday because of all those interviews plus just plain tiredness. I took a lot of naps last week. That’s normal for the week after school gets out. I’m feeling a little more with it now.

So what have I been doing quiltwise? I managed to iron at night (and maybe during the afternoon).

Thursday night…

Friday night…

Kitten guards the chair quite well. This was the last picture, must have been Saturday night I finished. ALL the fabrics…

24 hours and 5 minutes of choosing and ironing. 202 fabrics. An awful lot of browns and grays.

I started cutting out last night…

This is also going to take forever. That’s OK. It’s relaxing. I enjoy it.

I did get my sewing machine back on Friday, finally. Three months! It was a distribution issue mostly…but frustrating. And free. So there’s that. I haven’t had time to use it yet…hopefully today. I’d like to get these two smaller pieces done. They won’t take long.

I also finally made it back to ceramics. I did one day last week, but the rest of the week was hellacious. I started this piece back in April…

Last week, I added the spiny bits to the serpent and the ribs inside the torso…

This section is pretty leather hard…so I had decided to make the top of the torso a separate piece…

It won’t fit on my shelf otherwise. So there’s that.

Lumpy bumpy body. So yesterday, I started building the top part of the torso. Hard to do with this clay…it’s not very supportive. But I’m using it up!

The top of the torso slots into the bottom, which means adjusting for shrinkage (12%) plus trying to support things until they are able to support themselves. So it’s wrapped up and I’ll either go by this afternoon for an hour for the next bit, or tomorrow. We’ll see.

I’d like to build something like this next…

This is my piece, The Way Out, with its owner, Sara Vance Waddell, in the Dayton Art Institute exhibit Riveting, which runs through September 8 and includes some great feminist art. The exhibit is all work collected by Sara and Michelle Vance Waddell. It’s intriguing. Wish I were closer.

But I’d also like to make a ceramic version of this. Again, it’s probably not gonna fit on my ceramics shelf. Ah well.

Friday night, the Man’s band had a show at the Belly Up.

It was short, but high energy.

Unlike me. I napped before it (after 7 AP interviews) and went home without watching the second band. I was exhausted. I had a seat, though, thanks to the lead singer and his wife. Appreciated that. I don’t think I could have stood for 2 hours.

We dogsat Annie this weekend. She and Simba sometimes need to be way too close.

It’s hot and y’all are furry. Annie’s gone now…

Saturday night we went out to a place that has pretty good food, but some time ago (years y’all), the Man was pissed off about a rude bartender/staff person, so we just didn’t go back. Until now.

Not much room to draw, but it worked with this sketchbook.

Gutters got installed at some point and they had to cut some branches. I said I’d do cleanup on that (don’t trust them), and I’m glad I did because I saw a caterpillar clinging in that distinctive J shape that looks like it’ll cocoon, and sure enough, it did.

This branch will sit here for a while as whatever it is remakes itself. Not a swallowtail…it was a fuzzy black caterpillar. Should have taken a picture before, but I was hot and cutting things up. I have two trashcans full, and the next one requires gloves and a lot of up and down stairs.

Another picture of our ballsy rat friend and its stash of nuts down there.

Fat. I’m not feeding it. It’s the Man, and it’s only because he’s feeding the crows.

SpaceX again last night…we missed it but the owl cam got it.

Funny.

Still reading the Period book…you know, I didn’t know this about preeclampsia. Fascinating.

Science!

I’m not sad. It’s OK. I am slightly unfocused this morning. Hopefully I’ll find some focus after breakfast and another cup of tea. Plus reading. Maybe a shower. Painting first, because that’s sweaty. Enclosed room with no window. Oh wait, I said washing walls too. All that before shower. I mean, what’s the point in showering if I’m just working all day? And it’s hot? I’ll do it at some point…but not right now. Artwise, definitely cutting more things out, maybe ceramics studio for an hour, and I’d really like to do another big drawing for fun. Plus stitch down those poor quilt tops. That’s a lot right there. Moving furniture. Pre-shower. Definitely. Ugh. Eat, do sweaty things, shower, do less sweaty things. That’s really it.

I Might Say It Every Year…

OK. Two days. Two weird days. No teaching. Finally. No coming home and grading or lesson planning. That was nice. I stayed late on Monday and finished up the last of the grades, the sex-ed opt-out kid packets. Three kids didn’t turn them in, haven’t turned most of it in. Their attitude? They’re walking across the stage anyway…why do the work? Great attitudes. It’s OK. They’re not mine anymore. They’re going to high school. I get new problems. I already know about one of them, so that’s fun. But we get new ones every year…this will be the first year in a while that we don’t know anything about the kids coming up to us. I’ve had some of this year’s kids for three years…6th-grade art, then 7th-grade and 8th-grade science. Pros and cons to that. Realistically, if we request a kid NOT come to us next year, they’ll be going to our friends on the other team, so that seems shitty. Anyway. This kid, we’ve got no choice. I’ll worry about it later. Right now, I gotta get through the next few days, which are a little nuts. Too much shoved into the next 6 days.

I went to the ceramics studio on Monday. I had some leftover reclaimed clay from the sgraffito piece and the Man had requested some pots for his bog plants, so I used up almost all of what I had…

I am going to make the coil pot a little taller…I needed it to solidify a little. I’m probably going to do a little carving on them when I get to go in next…not entirely sure when that is. Not today…hopefully Friday? But maybe not. I don’t know. Saturday? They’re notoriously busy on Saturday. I don’t want to deal with a bunch of people. We’ll see. One of the tiles made it out of the glaze firing, but the other one is still on the rack.

Fabric choosing is still happening, super slowly.

Everything is just super complicated imagery that requires a lot of thought for just 10 or 20 pieces. Takes forever.

I’m in the 300s still. Got two figures done in the flesh; one still needs her clothing done. Kitten is my stalwart companion. Oh no, wait…I am in the 400s. More than halfway through them. Geez. I think the big figures will go faster…it takes the same amount of time to pick 5 or 6 fleshtones, but the pieces are bigger and there are more of them. So less choosing per number of pieces. That’s my theory anyway.

I am exhausted. I had to stop taking all my supplements, including the ones that help me sleep. Good week for that. Be real, though…the last week of school and two weeks after, it’s all recovery, sleep, etc. I remember last year that the Man was irritated by having to go to work in the morning as I went back to sleep. But the tables are turned now! I know he wants to go back to work and hopefully they’ll figure his back out or release the work restrictions so he can go back. But he doesn’t get to complain about my sleeping in.

Ah sigh. I wish that were true. This summer is chock full of shit I need to do. Starting with today. Keep cleaning my classroom. I got some done yesterday. I have a bunch of paper that needs recycling. I got my yardsticks back from the other science teacher, who is leaving. So we get to interview again. Fun times. We will be practicing promotion for at least two hours this morning. Then we get kids for maybe one period. I’m putting on a video. Then out to the carnival in the afternoon. We might actually have clouds all morning today and tomorrow. A girl can dream. Still need sunscreen and a hat, but it’s not as bad as the sun beating down on you. Pilates after school. Tomorrow, there’s a staff party but hardly anyone is going. My team is not. Sigh. Then I have a stitching meeting. Friday, we check out, but I have to have this radio transmitter thing injected into my boob for Monday’s surgery, so I’ll be late to school. Hopefully it won’t be too uncomfortable. We’re almost done. That’s a relief. It’s been a rough year. I probably said the same thing last year. I might say it every year.

Very Fine…

Hey. It’s the last Monday of this school year. We’ve got four days. Four days of utter chaos and mayhem, but four days nonetheless. I can do four days. I think. Actually, I do have to be there on Friday, but usually not for long. Weirdness is happening this year on Friday. Complicated.

ANYWAY. Today I teach STI prevention, although 1st period might be trickling in one kid at a time due to bad scheduling. Not mine. Tomorrow I teach goal setting, although again, 1st period might get screwed. Whatever. I wonder sometimes what non-teachers think we do after state testing. Because we have to do something or we have anarchy, and not in a good way. Wednesday is all promotion practice and carnival (hat and sunscreen), and Thursday is promotion (also hat and sunscreen). My grades are mostly done; I have 23 kids who are supposed to turn in two papers each today. We’ll see if they do. So I might just have to tweak their grades…but probably not. And I need to clean my classroom. Not entirely sure when that is happening. Normally it would be during my prep or while the kids were watching a movie, but with 8th grade, there’s less of both. I’ll probably get prep today, but maybe not Wednesday. Who knows.

So artwise, it might feel like I’m gearing up for summer enjoyment, and I am hoping to (a) get my sewing machine back this week and (b) to actually have more time to make art, but I also have a ton of house stuff to do…painting mostly. Moving stuff so we can install carpet. That’s overwhelming in itself. Claywise, I finally figured out which clear glaze I was gonna try on the tiles…

They’re going in the next glaze kiln…the second one, a kid had me sign their yearbook with a fingerprint drawing, and I had washed it off but only sort of, so when I went to rinse the tile, some of it came off in the background, so I ended up putting a wash over it. It needed the contrast anyway.

So we’ll see how they turn out. Then I did more underglazing on the winged woman…

Broke the damn snake head off again. I have a plan for fixing it…I think I just need to fire this thing and then move on.

Nice kitty.

The quilt in process (well, the third in process) is still being ironed to fabric…slowly. Friday night…

Still down in the grassy knoll. Then Saturday…

Got most of that done, and Sunday, I moved up the left side…

Didn’t quite finish ironing men’s white shirts (see Kitten asleep in the top left?). But I’ve made it into the 300s. I don’t think I’ll be done this week, but I might. We’ll see. It would be nice to be done before surgery so I could just sit on the couch, bingewatching something and cutting things out.

We hiked…

It’s still all about the flowers…

Ah cudweed…you make everything smell like maple syrup.

This is what grading looks like…

Thanks Nova. So much help.

This is what I think when all the rumors at the end of the school year are whirling around.

It’s not all about classroom management. There are some definite social and parental issues here. Sigh.

Probably not cannibalism. I’ll leave that to the rest of you.

I’m still working on Sue Spargo’s Homegrown…finally to the center square.

It’s coming along. There’s a lot of stitching on it. Well, supposed to be. Not so much at the moment. It felt weird yesterday actually having time to stitch and mop the kitchen floor (which was disgusting). I didn’t have to lesson plan or post a bunch of assignments. Kids don’t have computers after today unless they buy them (so again, wtf are we supposed to be doing with them?), so I can’t put any assignments on there. A relief really. No more of that for two months. Woohoo! Anyway. Close. Not there yet.

Had my brain scan on Saturday. Results sometime this week. That’s a bit stressful. What’s worse…they find something that explains the visual disturbances? Or they don’t find anything? Sigh. Probably the finding something is worse…so that’s a waiting game. Also I’m full of gadolinium now. I’m waiting for my super power to surface. I forgot drawing with dinner…

OK. School. Teach the things. Leave school and go play with clay. Come back, finish grades. Or finish grades, then clay? IDK. We’ll see. Then iron. No more grades after today. That’s fine. Very fine.

To Get Me Through

Oh hello. Friday is here. I have very little of my voice…unfortunate, because the new sex ed curriculum is EVEN MORE talking than the old one. I’m depending on tea today, and hopefully I can find (and make work) my mic system. It’s fussy as shit, so I’m not confident it will work.

We have officially reached the time of the school year when you just do 10-hour days every day (10? Let’s see…left at 7:45 yesterday after sending three emails from home, probably started at 7 AM, and came home at 4:30 and then worked mostly until 9:30…yup) until you collapse and hopefully that’s graduation day. I’m not fully planned for next week. I need to grade three thousand things (that’s after grading a ton the last two nights). My house is a disaster. Fun times. I am going to the ceramics studio after school today. I went Tuesday, but just to make sure stuff wasn’t drying out. Tonight I’m going to do some underglazing on the sgraffito piece. Meditation. Before I come home and grade another three thousand things. Fun times. I keep saying that. I hate the end of the year. I really have not enjoyed this school year. I have a cart full of supplies from the other grade level who just dumped everything off, apparently for me to clean up and put away? I put away all the egg drop stuff yesterday. That was a fun thing though. We dropped 47 eggs and 7 survived.

Bethany did NOT survive.

I. Am. Overwhelmed. And the contractor and the stained-glass guy are both trying to schedule with me, and I’m like, y’all need to schedule with EACH OTHER. Leave me out. I can’t even answer the phone for 7 hours a day. Y’all are grown men. Figure it the fuck out.

Hopefully that works.

I’m ironing. It’s brainless at this point. That’s good, because so am I. Wednesday night…

Thursday night…

With Kitten hiding under the ironing board. IDK who the fuck numbered this thing (it was me), but the arm is on top and should be numbered after the torso (it’s not). So fussy. Who drew this thing (also me)??? I actually like it. It’s OK. I almost gave up when I got to the leaves though, and some of them need to overlap the heart, and it’s numbered higher, which it shouldn’t be. So I was obviously tired/out of it when I numbered it. Blame my school self for that. Suspect there’s another three nights of this…It’s actually pretty small. Still no sewing machine. I’m calling today. I know the part shipped. Insane.

The Man is still enticing crows.

And apparently other birds. OK. Teaching body image and decisionmaking today (ha! that last one.). Yesterday, we changed seats for sex ed. I let them pick one friend to sit with to help them feel comfortable, but these two boys (at two different tables) both were mouthing off about what SIDE of the table they needed to sit on, and I finally blew up, explained that they are constantly trying to interact with people across the room, so I made them face the other way so it would be incredibly uncomfortable for them to do so and obvious to me that they were doing it. I explained (rather loudly) that it was incredibly lame that I was having to babysit the behavior of kids going to high school in two months at that level, and if they kept arguing with me, they would be out. They shut up.

My patience is low, bottom of the barrel…with adults and children. Sorry. I’m doing my best. All the emails about how to redo things? Go look in your email. Stop asking me how to do it…it’s the same way we’ve been doing it all year. Follow the instructions I’ve said all year. In fact, if you were here last year, all three 7th-grade teachers, one of whom was me, also used the exact same instructions. Sigh. Double sigh. Fucking sigh.

OK. I’m walking dogs tomorrow at some point. I’m hopefully taking a break to go to my quilt guild meeting. I’m doing ceramics tonight. I’m ironing every night. I’m drinking chai tea because it makes me happy. I bought a piece of monkey bread from our student coffee store, to be delivered today during first period. A treat. To get me through.

Recovering Dammit…

OK. Made it home. It was questionable for a while, but it all happened. The girlchild is sick so I’m taking all my meds, hoping my middle-school-trained immune system is strong enough to counteract hanging in a car with her for hours plus all the other exposures, because surely, she got it from the same people we were all with all weekend. My first day back at school, I wrote 5 referrals for the kids who couldn’t figure out how to deal with a sub…kicked them out for the egg drop. Got pictures taken and labeled during class of the egg drop materials. Got kids through their assignments (it helps that I overthink every day…the pro of an anxious brain is that I plan a class period in my head about 700 times before I actually teach it. This is also a con.), got packets done for the sex-ed opt-out kids. Need to set up materials this morning for the egg drop; I have one set for each table, but need to be ready to swap out stuff if necessary. I had to sub my prep period yesterday, but luckily, it was mostly a good class and I was able to post the things I needed to and start the seating charts for sex ed. I let them pick one friend to sit with, but then, you know, not everyone picks each other and some kids don’t pick at all, and there’s always too many boys in my classes. I had to kamikaze to the dentist after school while calling pre-anesthesia to make an appointment for the REAL pre-anesthesia appointment, which is before the REAL anesthesia. Gotta make a list of all my meds and supplements. IDK why my surgeon doesn’t have access to the same list I have to review with my doc, but they don’t. It’s annoying. Then I went to the ceramics studio to make sure my stuff hadn’t dried out, picked up my glazed pot that I forgot to photograph and isn’t that exciting anyway, and then went to Costco for the eggs for today. Dropped those back at school in the fridge so I wouldn’t have to do that this morning. Realized as I got back into the car at 5:30 Pacific Coast Time that I was hella exhausted. Like bone-tired. Ah yes. Because it’s 8:30 PM East Coast Time and my body isn’t really sure which time it’s on. Came home, napped, laid around half-dead for a bit, got up, made dinner, made seating charts. It took a massive amount of willpower to not just go to bed, but to come in here and iron for 24 minutes.

Got the other side of Christmas lights done. From a week ago. It’s a start.

I stitched on the plane once I finished my book and my bullet journal for the week. I finished the last house block for Sue Spargo’s Homegrown…

While watching Barbie. It had its pros and cons.

And I started the centerpiece…

While watching the first half of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes or whatever that title actually is. I didn’t draw at all this weekend. Didn’t have the energy or the brainpower. I constantly have to explain why I stitch other people’s patterns when I’m sitting somewhere or traveling. Mine isn’t very travel-happy. I couldn’t have ironed anything on this trip. I have taken stuff to cut out before, but only when it’s at a very controllable stage. I won’t do it on a plane. Too much possibility of losing pieces. Everything I have going is at the ironing or stitchdown stage, so not portable. Plus I don’t have to think about this pattern at all. Someone else already thought it all out for me.

Kitten was glad to see me…

She didn’t eat much and wouldn’t take her meds while I was gone. She doesn’t do well at the moment when I leave. But she’s bouncing back.

This is one of Luna’s most commonly seen facial expressions…

Not sure what she saw (but I suspect it’s usually a demon behind me, based on how she looks).

The ex found a duckling…

It’s OK; he has since found the owner. Apparently another one is wandering around somewhere (not good…we have coyotes). Crazy times. My yard has had all the normal wild animals, plus a chicken, an elderly deaf and blind pug, an injured crow (my neighbor dealt with that), random dogs and cats, but no ducks. Yet.

OK. Well. Today I do 50 egg drops…well, just under that. Plus pilates, which my creaky post-travel body really needs, although after the 500 squat lunges I did a day going up and down the steps in that rental house, my knees are still complaining, but the muscles are fine. I still haven’t watered, so I need to do that tonight, plus take the trash out. And then start grading all the late work. With only 12 days of school left, everything gets rather panicky. Must do it all NOW. Hoping the sleep evens out soon, and the stress too. Too many health issues on top of all that. The next person who asks, “so what are doing this summer?” might get punched. RECOVERING DAMMIT…from a really tough year. Plus doing all the things I haven’t been doing. The floors are disgusting, there’s drawers and cupboards and parts of the house that need a ton of work. I need to paint at least one room and the hallway, plus all the carpet. I don’t want to think about the rest of it. We go back to school so early this year, it just sucks. Anyway. So I’m gonna think about that later, and make sure there’s plenty of hikes and ceramics and quilting and whatever else makes me feel better. And be hopeful about the medical stuff because it’s really stressful to think otherwise. Plus read a ton of books. Sound like a plan? And go see the girlchild in San Francisco. All good.

Maybe in That Order

OK. This week. Is gonna be a bit nuts. I worked all Saturday morning/afternoon trying to get the alternative assignment done for sex ed. Successful at that. Can’t use the same one they use in 7th grade. That’s silly. But now it actually exists. I have a ton of stuff to get done in the next three days. I spaced out on packing up a quilt this weekend, so that’s after school. So is clay. So is book club. It’s all good. I’ll get through it all. I might even sleep at night. Maybe.

So clay stuff. I finished carving the sgraffito piece and started adding underglaze colors.

It’s going to take a while…

Someone was like, then stop! Don’t do it! It’s fine the way it is!

Maybe. But I want to try what’s in my head. I can always do this again without all the colors. I know how now.

Getting the space to experiment as an established artist is hard. Also people are always telling me what they think I should do.

I really don’t do critiques. I have a voice, I know what I’m doing most of the time. It’s in my head. My SAQA local group met on Zoom yesterday and now they’re setting up critiques, and I’m like, ugh, no. Don’t wanna. It’s fine. I know some people want other people to give them suggestions. I don’t. Thanks.

The tiles got bisque-fired…

They need a clear glaze on top.

Friday night’s dinner drawing.

We had a family dinner Saturday night, so no drawing then.

And then lots of Wonder Under being trimmed…Friday night…

Saturday night…

And I finished Sunday night, just over 10 hours…

I started sorting, but then was reminded that we had to make the bed, and then it was bedtime. So I didn’t finish. Tonight there’s a lot going on, but I’m hoping to finish sorting and get the office organized and cleaned up for ironing to fabrics. I do still have another quilt that is ready to be ironed together. I may start that first. We’ll see. It’s all starting to pile up in here. I have a quilt top that is half stitched down, still waiting for my sewing machine to come home. I know the necessary part was shipped a little over a week ago. Frustrating.

This silly boy apparently had fleas.

Like WTF, that’s why you’re on flea meds. So he got a bath. I didn’t do it.

I spent a little time cleaning up plants on the deck and found this swallowtail cocoon.

It was empty, but it was cool to find, hidden away like that.

OK. I’m very much in survival mode at the moment. Getting stuff done, a little bit at a time. Panicking when I realize something isn’t done. Lots of not sleeping and trying to remember shit. I write a lot of things down and then forget to look at the lists, plus I have phone reminders, but then I ignore them. Good brain. Silly staff meeting today. Hopefully better than the last ones about literacy (unlikely). Then clay. Then pack up quilt. Book club. Sort Wonder Under. Clean office. Maybe in that order.

Mghmghmgh…

MMMMMmmmmm. Imagine an irritable, tired growl with a guttural scratchy losing-my-voice catch to it. Not even sure what letters of the alphabet go with that. Mghmghmghmgh? Something like that. I’m not one of those gratitude people, but I try to think of positive things each day when it’s really hard (code: it’s really hard right now). The kids are…um…challenging. Doing state test review sucks. Trying to come up with stuff for the kids to do after testing but while I’m gone and before sex ed is stressful (although I had a minor breakthrough last night after working from 8 AM to 8 PM…you should try it sometime. Not.). Trying to manage departmental things without my co-chair…fuck me. I might crawl into a hole next year. Certainly this year I say no no no a lot and it doesn’t seem to help. So yeah. Behind on grading still too. And exhausted. Not sleeping. Just my brain…the same brain that is still seeing that swirling cabbage, that gets to call radiology today because it’s been two weeks and they haven’t called me yet to set up a brain MRI. I’ve never put my head in an MRI. I do have some claustrophobic issues. I also meditate well. I think I need blood tests before that test and blood tests before the surgery, but within certain time constraints. Ugh. My head hurts. Ironically. I’m supposed to be keeping a migraine diary but I don’t have migraines…I just have stress headaches and overwork headaches and body needs a massage headaches.

So that’s me this Wednesday. The first two days of the week seem to kick my ass. I wrote more referrals this week in those two days than I’ve written in the last two months. I’ve had two middle-school boy apologies, one stoned-out mumbling complaint and then acknowledgement, and one tantrum on Instagram (he was, not me) that concluded with my telling him to put his head down as I walked away with his computer. Let’s be clear…these kids are going to high school in three months. And they’re acting like 5-year-olds. I get it. Testing is hard. Growing up is hard. But so is dealing with their shit. 21 days. 21 days of my trying to feed my sanity with art and books and apparently yardwork. Yesterday, it was weed whacking, which is surprisingly restorative. So is watering and seeing monarch caterpillars…or protea blooming…or the new bushes I planted thriving. All good.

So. Art. The planter finally got to leather hard a week after the class (note to self for future reference…make it earlier). And I got the tool I needed in the mail, so Monday, I continued carving. I started in class, just did the basic outline of the face and arms. I haven’t finished carving out the background, so there’s still stuff that needs to happen.

But I’m really enjoying this. It’s really just drawing on clay.

You can draw in pencil first, because it will burn off in the kiln, but I didn’t. I just drew with the carving tool.

I see today that there are more details I could add before the next step, which would be adding color in. But realistically, this isn’t something I could sell easily. That’s over three hours so far in making the pot and carving, and I’m nowhere near done.

Carving vertically is a challenge. I did hold it a few times to get a part done, but it’s heavy. Definitely logistics for clay are very different than for fabric.

Definitely enjoying the process though. My brain has to work everything out inside it before I do it, so I’ll be driving to work, mentally working out how to paint this thing. I guess the pro is that I won’t get dementia because I’m overthinking everything under the sun. I don’t think my brain ever stops. Hence lack of sleep, right?

I did finally start cutting out the big quilt. She has a deadline now. Not that it changes how I’ve been working…an hour a night, sometimes more.

Thanks, Simba, for the assist. I set a little goal every week, every night. I want it all cut out and sorted before I leave for Maine next week. I figure an hour to cut out each yard (sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less) and there were 7 yards, so 7 nights? Plus a couple hours of sorting. Should be cut out by Monday, should be sorted by Wednesday. Easy peasy.

Thanks, Nova, for keeping that hip warm. You know, I worked until 9:30 PM last night…not 8. I even worked while I was cooking dinner…this after teaching a lesson on the negative impacts of multitasking in advisory yesterday. Whatever. Reality sometimes means doing more than one thing at a time. I can record videos while the food is cooking, before the next step. It’s true I forgot to empty the dishes out of the sink, but I did it later, after complaining happened.

Whatever. OK. Today. More tea. Definitely. I saw 12:49 AM last night. I must have fallen asleep eventually, but then I saw 4:45 AM too. So we’re thriving!!! Hmmm. Mghmghmgh. Maybe it’s Grhmgrhmgrhm. I don’t know.

Finish planning egg drop stuff. Make a table of contents for this stupid last packet of stuff I don’t even want to grade (and might not…don’t tell the kids). Probably meet and fix a bunch of things that sit on me until I shove them off. Play Blooket with the kids (although I need to edit that before school starts…ha! Maybe not). Call for a brain MRI. Not scary at all. Go to pilates. Good for the body. Good for the brain. Work some more (ugh). Not my night to cook, so do the dishes. We need a palate cleanser after watching Baby Reindeer…train wreck that. Ugh. Something funny but not stupid funny would be good. Or heartwarming. What a concept. Then cut some more pieces out. Read my book somewhere in there. Gotta finish it by Wednesday…maybe sooner. I think the library loan is up sooner. Double ugh. It’s a slow start so far. Someone was murdered 20 years ago. Not sure when she’ll get to the point.

Owls! No babies. But parents. And lots of threat noises last night.

It makes me sad that there are no babies…that’s at least two that have died. But they haven’t given up…

Dirty Windows

My windows are dirty. This is not a euphemism for something. My actual house windows are dirty. I see them every day and it’s on my to-do list to clean them, but then I do 5 things and the day is gone and I still haven’t finished everything, I’m still eating dinner at 8:30 because I didn’t start cooking early enough because I was grading things and making videos (I made 11 videos for school yesterday). I think I read my book yesterday. Maybe. A chapter. I know I didn’t shave the Man’s head…I remembered this morning that I was supposed to help with that. Oh well. He’ll do it himself. If only the windows would do themselves.

Busy weekend, but they all are. I actually slept in on Saturday until 9 AM. I mean, minus the dog barking and the Man opening and closing things. It was delightful. But apparently not enough, because here I am on Monday morning feeling like a truck hit me and maybe I need another three cups of tea before I’ll be functional again.

Let’s start with clay. I have this mug that was too big so it became a planter that I was making, just for fun, not art, and it was finally dry enough to either fire or decide what I wanted to do about glazing. Glaze is hard, but I wanted to try these glazes that are shiny after the bisque fire. So I remembered to bring the glazes to the studio on Friday (not enough room to store them there) and painted it…

Painting glazes is a pain in the ass…you need at least two coats, maybe three. We’ll see how this turns out.

Pro: it’s done. Con: I realized when I was done that it had taken me 2 hours. Another late dinner. Ah well.

I also traced…in fact, I finished tracing the Wonder Under last night…15 nights…

19 hours and 13 minutes…

7 yards and a bit…

I think I stayed up too late for all of those 15 nights trying to get an hour in, or last night, just trying to finish. It’ll be at least 7 hours to cut it all out, probably more. Lots of little pieces in there.

Saturday, I went to Visions with my quilt guild folks to see the new Latine exhibit there. There’s a design thing going on because San Diego and Mexico, so the museum had some new and different artists showing, which was nice.

Mely Barragàn…

Her piece Shallow Water Emerges Til Dawn…

Very much asks you to touch it. The chains were especially nice, dangling off the ends.

Chain fabric even.

Marisa Raygoza…

Emotional Support Rock…I’m feeling this one especially.

Tumble Dry

Some embroideries from her movie The Path of a Tear…

And some soft sculpture, although there’s nothing soft about a gun.

She Used Her Head As a Revolver

There were art dresses, which somehow I didn’t photograph, and weavings as well…

The most intriguing part of this piece, by Olivia Arreguin, Womb in a Dress, was the DNA she knotted into the womb.

Cool exhibit…check it out.

Also walked the dogs…was puppy sitting Annie…

We all needed a walk.

The path was really overgrown with flowers…

The two old guys were a little…um…panty.

Got my 3 miles in though.

Check out the glare on that cat…

Nova seemed very offended by Simba’s presence.

OK, well, I’m still reviewing science for the state test. The kids are rebelling against it, but whatever. They’d rebel against anything but naps and candy right now. Makes my life fun. Friday was annoying. Thank goodness for clay at the end of the day. Today will be different…I changed it up. Constantly trying to find different ways to get info in their heads…takes a ton of time and energy. I’m running low on both. Then staff meeting. Then clay again…not sure which piece I’m going to work on. Then cutting things out. Probably need to grade things in there too. Ugh. Or planning. That’s definitely a thing. This week is survival. Maybe all of them are. Well, I start teaching sex ed at some point, so that’s at least an attention-getter…but they’re all convinced they don’t need to do anything else for the rest of the year. Fun times.

Did I Say Ugh?

Chaos weekend. Grades are done though. Last progress report of the school year. Hallelujah. Today is the day all the kids panic because they realize what their grades are and that they didn’t do anything in time to bring them up. Ah well. Learning experience. I can say it every day and it falls on mostly deaf ears. Moving on.

Today and tomorrow are lab days; not preferred to have them run right next to each other, and there’s a fire drill or something today I think that wasn’t on my list of things to avoid, so we’re gonna figure that out, but with a doc appointment Wednesday and some portrait thing for all of 8th grade on Thursday, there was really no way around it. Ah well. We survive.

I did do some art stuff this weekend. Friday afternoon, I did some clay stuff, getting the figure up on the world and making it look more worldlike, although the continents are a little wiggy.

I draw them wiggy too, so I’m OK with it.

The butt sticks out too much. Hopefully I can fix that. It looks good from the back, but the side view is a bit much. I also glazed this…

I was overthinking it. It’s not precious. I can always make another one with the 17 million ideas rambling around my head. I could make hundreds of them if I wanted. Or not.

I started tracing the big crones quilt. Nova was watching…perturbed by the big paper coming over the couch.

She’s scared by the weirdest things.

When she was little, she’d do everything she could to go under. I’d have to wait for them both to be sleeping to be able to trace anything.

I graded a good chunk of Saturday. It wasn’t fun. I don’t recommend it. I’m not really planned for this week yet either. Saturday’s dinner drawing.

It was also trivia night, but we sucked at that. Mostly. We weren’t planning on trivia night. It just happened while we were there.

Ah, grading middle-school boy work.

Nice udders.

Need more milkweed…

Tried to get some a week ago but it was hella expensive.

My haul from the neighbor kids throwing fruit into my yard.

There was another tangerine, but it was deep in a bush, so I left it.

I had an art meeting yesterday and they had this cool flower…

Fascinating things, plants. Finished stitching this during the meeting.

One more house to go.

OK. I need to get out of here. Construction people are here to tear up the outside of the house where it leaked. Fun times. Teaching gravitational pull today, plus apparently another lockdown drill? Ugh. I’m really done with school. I finished making all my test review docs yesterday. Just need to check them and then get them printed, do sub plans, post all the crap for this week, decide what the sub can actually do, then write an academic question. Plus clay and book club. I think. Ugh. Did I say ugh? I did.