Art Things…

Hi ho hi ho, it’s off to work I go…except I can’t whistle. I really can’t. Never been able to. There are 19 days of school left. I had myself persuaded that because I was missing part of this week and next week is short because of the holiday, that I only had one 5-day week left. But no. My school board, which is barely sentient some days, decided to add some random 3-day weekends in the fall for unknown reasons that just mess up my students beyond belief, so we are not finishing on a Thursday, but the following Tuesday. Sigh. Don’t like it. So two 5-day weeks left. Yesterday was math state testing; today is science (no pressure, no stress!). I have 3 more classes of big science packets to grade, plus one more class of the last academic thing I should have graded two weeks ago (I’m rolling behind). I have one academic thing from this last Monday that I’ll be grading on the plane if the internet holds. Knock on wood. It would be great to take a long weekend in May and NOT grade shit, but that’s actually impossible. Grades are coming up and there’s no leeway on that end-of-year deadline. For some kids, it’s whether they promote or not. A little high stakes. Fun times. Last year, when we went to Maine for my niece’s graduation, I also graded on the plane. It’s a tradition!

Yeah well. So. Trying to keep my art self satisfied as I manage the end of the school year…so I finished ironing to fabric last night…

I’m surprised this took as long as it did; it’s super uncomplicated and relatively small for me.

OK, it only took a little over two hours…I was just doing a lot of other things at the same time; hence three nights to get it done.

I put a second coat of underglaze on this…

Definitely too much. It’s a good underlayer though. I guess. I had to fix a couple of things again. I seriously think people bump it as they’re pulling their stuff out. Next layer will be more neutral, I think, to match the base. but that’ll be next week. Then I need to do all the details, which will take a million years.

I find this amusing…Amazon misses me. I’ve significantly cut back on my Amazon shopping, either finding it locally or somewhere else that’s independently owned or just not buying it.

Same with Target, but their response was to discontinue my store card. Ah well! Also, not sure what that’s a picture of that I’m gonna like, but I’m not clicking on it. I did panic and buy some Wonder Under last week. It’s already gone up in price and it’s made in Spain. So. Yeah. I think I have a couple years’ worth now.

Sigh. Stupid world. Stupid country. Stupid government. Stupid white men. Watching The Handmaid’s Tale Season 6…dark and sometimes you wanna slap June, but there’s a lot of oh hey, we could do that.

One of the things I’m grading has these snowbaby drawings the kids made. These are both by boys…

But impressive. I told both of them they should take art in high school.

Because it’s such a lucrative job, right? Ha.

This is a little close to home. People give me tea; ironically, I mostly only drink one kind.

But I understand this. There’s always a cupboard.

The Man’s carnivorous plants are cute but deadly.

That bug is living dangerously.

OK. I started packing last night. And panicking. Oh wait, no, I’ve been doing that for days. It’s fine. I’ll get to the airport and be fine. I’ve mostly resigned myself to having some random center seat for both flights, but maybe I can wangle an aisle. I’m also resigned to being half asleep for days. Also was joking last night about what to wear to the slightly fancier artist reception and banquet…probably jeans and a t-shirt were out. The Man says, well black. With black. I said but fancy. He said Fancy Black. I said, oh hey, also cold. Fancy Warm Black. But sometimes it’s warmer inside and cold outside. Fancy Warm Black LAYERS. Yup. That’s me. Although I found one thing that’s not black. For once. PACKING. Plus that’s after school and prepping for a sub and grading all the things and pilates. So good luck to me. And then up at Fuck It in the morning and getting on a plane to art things. All good. Should do more of it, but it’s expensive and stressful. So there’s that. Balance! I suck at it.

Trying to Live a Full Life…

OK, so this week is just plain weird. State testing for two days, so 3+ hours with kids for two days, then they leave and I hopefully am super efficient and finish grading everything (ha! hahahahah.). Then I leave at some ungodly hour on Thursday for Quilt National, knock on wood, everything goes well. You never know. I certainly don’t. Looking forward to it though. Seeing the art. Talking to artists. Fun stuff, really. It’s one of the things I appreciate about the art quilt world. In fact, I was at a local SAQA meeting on Saturday, and it’s cool to see people present their work and talk about what they do. It makes me feel like I don’t do much, though…they’re all starting philanthropic groups and teaching classes and writing books…and I just make quilts. It’s OK…I don’t want to teach quilt classes and I don’t know what I’d write a quilt book about that would actually get published anywhere, so for now, I’ll just keep making the work. Which is, in fact, the part I like best.

So on Friday, I had to put two heads back on, and finally decided that the clay coathanger was not gonna work, so I made a new hand with a hole in it, and I’ll make a metal coathanger to go in there. That’s a better idea anyway. I got everything reattached and put the first super light layer of underglaze on…

It’s a bit too pinky. I’ll work on that. I’m gonna be underglazing for a while, no matter what. I’m hoping I don’t have to keep fixing things, but I’m sure I will. There’s a lot of things attached to this.

I finished tracing the last of the pieces for the new quilt, which is small (for me), on Friday night. And then I cut them all out.

It’s only got like 137 pieces, so it was fast. I was going to start ironing to fabrics on Saturday, but Kitten had some major pee/poop issues and it involved some fabric bins. She’s decided that’s where she lives now, and I had them covered by towels, but that’s not enough in this case. So I ended up washing two bins of fabric with the pee remover stuff and then sorting through about 8 bins of fabric, culling fat quarters for donation. I never made it through all of my fabric over a year ago when I last did this, so it was a good time to do that. I keep the stuff I use the most, and because I use super small pieces with most fabrics, those are the ones I cut in half, donating some to Social Justice Sewing Academy and some to the Navajo Quilt Project. It allows me to keep buying some fabric (I like a huge palette), but not be drowning in fabric. Here’s some of what I sorted through.

Grays and blues mostly. It’s also nice to reacquaint myself with fabrics I haven’t seen for a while. There’s some in those bins that will be hair in the new quilt, I think. The blues, not the grays, just in case you’re thinking I’m normal.

Last night, I finally started ironing the pieces of the new quilt down to fabric.

Not so exciting in the color ranges at the moment. This won’t take long. I might even finish tonight. We’ll see.

At the SAQA meeting on Saturday, I recognized this artist, Ellen Ann Eddy…

I’ve always loved her work; I took one of her classes early on in my art quilt development, but obviously, her method didn’t really stick. I do have a baby I made in her style way back in the day that I meant to make into something bigger. Maybe should pull that out.

That is how I feel some mornings, but I’m definitely not 29. My knees are not anywhere close to 29.

Anyway, art tonight, grading all day, kids complaining that they still have to work…all day, every day. Book club tonight! Yes, I finished the book, thank goodness. I actually really liked it, although I’m blanking on it right now. Not really awake. Lots of meetings today. Gotta write sub plans. All good. Trying to live a full life means I have bits of bougainvillea in my thumb right now, a quilt in progress, many shipping dates coming up, at least one thing I need to enter, cat laundry to do (yes, more, but not pee this time), and four thousand things to grade. Or throw away? It’s possible I will do that. Shhh. Don’t tell the kids. Must go to work now.

Wherever There Is…

Oh my. I know it’s Wednesday. It’s the nonstop day. I have one of those a week, it seems. Might be two or three this week. Next week…next week will be crazypants. Going to Quilt National! Haven’t been since 2017. Looking forward to it. My quilts were there without me. Not this time…

Artwise, I’m not doing much. It’s not because I don’t want to…or I’m burnt out on art. I’m not. I just needed to finish a big quilt for a friend, and now it’s done. I need to dehair it, because cats, and I think there’s one seam I need to fix, for some definition of fix. And another one that needs something, some restitching. But otherwise, it’s done.

I got the handstitching done in two nights.

Cats love it when I’m sitting on the couch for hours. Me too sometimes. It’s relaxing. Meditative. I just watch some show and stitch. Ideal.

I did some clay on Monday night…

Gave the priest a head…

And a cross. But as I was putting it away, I felt something fall off. AGAIN. It’s fine. I’m glazing as of Friday; I hope. Glazing will be a challenge. There’s a lot going on. And I’ll probably have to fix some things. I’ve found that’s been a constant with this piece. I’ve been working on this piece since November…mindboggling. I might actually finish it this summer? Maybe? And hope it all goes together and doesn’t fall over. Ha! Need to get better at modular building. Or working smaller…oh that’s not gonna happen.

Anyway, tonight I’ll be thinking about the next art piece and probably sorting some fabric out for donations…to make room for new stuff too. It’s been a while since I’ve done that. Today is busy, so we’ll see how all that goes. The left eye is twitching now. Last week, it was the right eye. Yesterday, I had a blood sugar incident. I’m trying to follow doctor’s orders for more protein in the morning, and my body is just not happy with it. It’s also harder to make dietary changes when I’m teaching because of the fallout. Ah well. I’ll get there, wherever there is.

My quilt War Zone got into the International Fiber show at Sebastopol Center for the Arts.

It does cost money to get in. I was debating the opening, but I have another one the day before here in San Diego (assuming I get in) and if I go up to see my daughter, this is a long way on a Sunday for her. I don’t know. I’m waiting for all sorts of notifications to make decisions about things for the summer. So this is one of them.

And this is real.

With a pillow over my head to kill the light and the noise. I really don’t see sleep in my future. Maybe late June.

OK. More testing today, not state, but district. It’s what kicked my blood sugar butt yesterday. Trying to do it differently today. Then more state review (ugh). Then union meeting and pilates (fun times) and grading and counting supplies for egg drops. Wait, that’s earlier in the day. More tea, for sure. More chaos. More grading. READING A BOOK. Or three. Because that’s kinda where I’m at right now. Don’t ask how many I have checked out from the library right now. It’s bad. I have some plane rides next week though. I could finish a book or two. Maybe. Art. I’m gonna work on something new. That’s fun. Exciting. Deep breath in and deep breath outting. All good.

I Could Be Reading…

So state testing has started. Some years, it’s easy, the kids are into it, it’s chill. Some years, it’s not. This year? Not. Fun times. Today will be worse…it’s the performance task. Some kids will just skate through it. Some will pretend and then hit submit after writing one sentence. Some kids will just repeatedly lose their minds that they’re being asked to test at all, to sit still, to be quiet, not disrupt those around them, not bang on the table or pile up all their snacks and drinks (that did really happen yesterday. All of it.). So by the time 12:15 comes around, all my patience for the day (and possibly three or four days afterwards) is gone. Not great, because we’re testing again today. And I still have to teach for days until the end of the year. One kid was already like, why do I still have to do work? Because they know they’re promoting (probably) or not and they think we’re done. We have 29 days left, dude. Don’t stop now. Sigh. My stress levels are high…my face is breaking out…my blood sugar is a mess. And today is my 500th pilates class! Not sure it matters. It’s not like I’m stopping now.

OK, artwise, I’m in a weird place. I did finish the book piece. I managed to construct it properly…

The first two pages are shoved into that envelope of the last two pages. There’s certainly a few things I would have done differently, but it’s done now.

I need official photographs so I can enter the show, but I’ll do those when I’m home in daylight.

Eventually, I’ll have my photographer take photos, but I don’t have time for the thing it’s being entered into, which has a tight deadline. If it gets in, it’ll be in the downtown library for 5 months. I’ll let you know.

So what next? Well, I don’t have my head around the next big quilt, although I know there will be one over the summer. I was thinking of doing something smaller just to keep me mentally going through the last weeks of the school year. I haven’t figured out what that is yet, though, because I’m trying to finish my friend’s mom’s quilt. I was diligently working on it in January and February and then a random deadline popped up and I got sidetracked. I mean, I did purposely put this one away to finish the other thing. So I’m finishing this…I’m almost done anyway. Well, for some definition of ‘almost’.

Her mom made the quilt and sandwiched it, but unfortunately was unable to quilt it before she died. So it’s here and I’m quilting it. I’m in the outer border at the moment, with the rest done. I think. Honestly can’t remember if I finished the center panel. I think I did.

I did. So I finished outlining the symbols in the blue border and will overall quilt that starting tonight. Then I need to outline the reddish brown and black borders. Some things have happened to this quilt over a long time (fabric replaced, not by me, possibly already partially quilted? I just don’t know). And then I’ll put the binding on. And hand it over. And then, like I keep saying, not offer to help ever again (which is really not in my nature…sometimes I say no and then go back and say yes; please don’t take advantage of that). So when I’m done with this, I’ll start something new. Or maybe in between. We’ll see.

Clay is going. I made most of a priest and 3 handmaidens on Monday…

I was thinking when I went in next, I could start underglazing, but no. I still need to give him a cross and a head. Most definitely a cross. Head? Hmmm.

We watched the first episode of Season 6 of The Handmaid’s Tale last night…made us both cry. Good times. So Friday, I’ll go in and try to make a head. And a cross. And THEN I can start underglazing.

The bees left yesterday. I figured they would. I came home and washed the composter lid and side, then sprayed it with citronella, hoping it will cut the bee pheromones. They keep coming back. Not sure what to do about that. I have a bee-friendly yard…maybe a bit TOO friendly. And no, I haven’t fixed the damn sprinklers. I think I need two solenoids now. I don’t know. Maybe I need a new controller.

I had two cats on my lap in rapid succession last night. Luckily the chonk here didn’t stay long.

He’s a year old now and solid. Sometimes sweet, sometimes not. Like all calicos. I have a hole in my right hand from his morning whack. He’s harassing the old lady, who basically needs to be carried into the litter tray and food multiple times a day. She can get there, but he attacks.

OK. Testing. Afternoon is science planning. I’ve managed to grade quite a bit so far, so that’s good. I had to get a loaner computer Monday after school because my screen just went black when I was at lunch. Fun times. So Monday was stressful. I guess the good news is the eye with the vitreous humor detachment is fine (as fine as anything with a big blob rolling around in it is), but she thinks the other one will detach too. Except the right one has always been worse, more nearsighted, with an astigmatism. The left isn’t as bad. So let’s hope it doesn’t. She does think the blog will wander south with time and only show up when I first get up in the morning. Sounds good. Somehow I found the energy to go to ceramics after all the running to the IT department (not at school) and getting a new computer. After school, I have a telehealth appointment with my doctor where she will tell me I need to get my numbers down and I will ask her how to do that and she won’t have an answer. So there’s that. Then my 500th pilates class and book club. And someone else is cooking dinner. I’m already exhausted because I didn’t sleep well, so I’ll be quilting after that and going to bed. Oh! Also trying to finish my book before the library sucks it back from me. I went to the gym last night to help me finish it, but I’m at 86%, less than 100 pages. I’m up early to go to the meeting my principal just canceled. I could be reading. I should be reading.

Hopefully on Time…

OK. I lost a week in my head. I seriously thought I needed to be done with these banned book pieces by next week, but I have a whole ‘nother week. Whew. Although it’s still a rush, it’s not an insane, probably can’t do anything else rush. The Man’s show isn’t until next week. I have a weekend coming up with two back-to-back meetings (difficult, but OK), but the rest is pretty clear. I got two more pages ironed (basically I’m getting through one a night). Here’s page 2…

The embroidery did really well with the dark background…it hides the tails even better than I’d hoped. Here’s page 3…

There’s one more…it’s got some complicated hair in it, but I’m hoping to start a little earlier tonight.

Last night, I worked on the sculpture…I had to fix some things again…the damn fingers on the left hand keep breaking off…

But I’ve started to build a head…not sure if it’s too big though. Hard to do it this way, for sure. I also added a bomb and an atomic explosion…

I think that arm might be officially done. The other arm needs some stuff though.

I think I’ll be cutting into this for the mouth. It is a removable head, so I can work on it separately from the torso. The torso really needs to get fired, but I need to underglaze it first…and I obviously haven’t even started. And the base needs to do something. Besides take up most of my shelf at the moment. Hard to get my head around the 3D stuff, but that’s good for me. My brain needs the artistic workout.

Oh hey, I got into another show, Sebastopol Center for the Arts’ International Fiber Arts XII exhibition. War Zone will be traveling there in June. The show opens June 21 and runs through August 3. I’m debating going up for the opening. We’ll see. It is summer break by then.

It’s not a huge piece, for once.

This is too true.

OK, school today is still chaos. We had a lockdown that fucked up classes last week for a shooting in the neighborhood, then a sex trafficking assembly that fucked up classes Monday and a little bit yesterday, and I’m still trying to get everyone on the same page for instruction. Hopefully by Friday, at the rate I’m going. I’m about 15 minutes off at the moment. Interestingly, the classes that have had the most time are the furthest behind and those with the least are the furthest ahead. The best-laid plans…are not laid at all. Then the human sexual health curriculum parent meeting is after school…no one showed up last year, but you never know. I have fewer kids opting out this year than ever, so either parents aren’t paying attention or they’re more accepting? That seems unlikely. But whatever. After that, I’m coming home and cooking dinner and making art…and maybe replacing the solenoid so the sprinklers can run. I’m so tired when I get home that I don’t want to start in case I fuck something up. Sigh. It’s fine. I’ll do it. And then iron things so I can do stitchdown tomorrow. Getting there. Hopefully on time.

Will They Want Mine…

It’s kind of amazing how much I think and dream and talk about sleep when you consider how bad I am at it. 1 AM, 2 AM, and 4:44 AM. All good. 4:44 was something scrabbling on the roof though…so that was a dog response and that woke me up. Not sure what the others were but I don’t appreciate them; don’t appreciate starting the work week on low energy. Not that I slept much this weekend either. It was a busy weekend; I need another day to just relax. And finish my book club book. Ha! That’s gonna be a miracle if it happens. Miracles do happen though.

So Friday, I went and spent over an hour putting shit back together that slipped/broke/fell on Tuesday when I was putting it back on the shelf. I felt some things go but I needed to get out of there.

I added another burnt out building and part of the head. Not sure what’s gonna happen with that. Just know that the head can’t bump into stuff on the shoulders, so I’m trying to figure out what that looks like. The base came out of the kiln. There’s a crack in the bottom that will be hidden. I’m trying to decide what to do next. The gray is stronger than I thought it would be…so I might do another layer? And oxide it? That’s not a verb.

Need to think about it.

I managed to cut out all the page pieces…with a little doggie help.

It didn’t take long to finish the last two pages.

There were a lot of things I should have done over the weekend. I did pick up a quilt from the photographer. Haven’t dealt with that yet. Plus went to one of two meetings I was supposed to go to (too late for the second one), but it was also SD Book Crawl, so Saturday afternoon, I went to four bookstores and Sunday, I went to one. Here’s the baby haul…

I say baby haul because my coteacher did this as well, but made it to all 14 stores and has a real haul. I tried to pick books I hadn’t heard of, although the bottom one is the second in the 3-body problem series and I have read the first. It was fun, but it does take a chunk of time to drive around and park and wait in lines. I thought it was well-managed though. I’d do it again…that said, it’s always this 4th weekend in April, when I have two other meetings. Ah well.

Last night, I ironed the cover page together…

And then ironed it onto a background.

Seems relevant. They did say politics was OK, but IDK if they’ll want mine. We’ll see. I’ll turn it into a comic strip if it doesn’t get into the show. Like four panels in a row. In my spare time. Yeah. Right now, I’m kind of at a push to get this done. Wish me luck. Maybe I’ll blow off grading for a week and a half.

I’m hoping to get a page done a night, maybe more. This one took an hour. The others are more complicated. Although the next one has fewer pieces, so maybe it’s not more complicated. Hard to say. Then stitchdown Thursday, all of it, sandwich and quilt Friday…oh wait, the Man has a show Friday night. Fuck. Um. So Saturday/Sunday? Yikes. Deadline looms. I got this. Here’s the ex’s dog, complicating the couch…

Today though…today, I teach three classes…they’re finishing one thing and starting another. Hopefully. Then the other two classes are a mini-assembly about sex trafficking. Fun times. Then two staff meetings. More fun. Come home, finish reading book club book. Yup. Then iron. Maybe sleep. Big maybe on that one. The last 7 weeks of school are always a challenge. Nothing new this year.

A Bag of Rocks.

Well hey. I’ve taught two whole days and already feel like a semi truck has driven through me. I’ve got new shoes arriving Saturday. Kept thinking I would have the time (and mental space) to drive up to the shoe place and just buy them, but you know what? I didn’t. Let’s talk about my reality of time…there’s never enough. That’s it really.

So I got my titers tested for the measles vaccine, because I’m in the timeframe of ‘possibly not protected’, and sure enough, I’m probably not. We’ll see if that turns into needing a new vaccine. I’ll wait until school is out to do it, just because these days, about half of the vaccines cause me issues. Don’t need to deal with that during school, for sure.

In clay news, I finally (FINALLY!!!) got the base in the bisque kiln. It was a logistical thing, lifting her down in there. Certainly makes me wonder about the next layer, how it will sit in there. How the fuck I’ll get it IN there.

They’re just incredibly fragile at the greenware stage. As I realized AGAIN last night. I did more work on the upper torso…had to reattach the hand again because I think someone bumped it.

She doesn’t fit on my shelf, so she’s on the shared shelves, and covered, so people can’t see what they’re bumping. So I reattached the hand, but some stuff was slipping too…so I tried to fix everything I could, and then broke the damn coathanger for the 17th time, plus the two classes that come in Tuesday night were showing up, so I needed to get out of the way. I put some burnt out buildings on the left arm. Then went to move it to the shelf, and I don’t think I bumped anything, but I felt the guy with the gun fall off. Fuck me. I didn’t have time (or the mental space) to reattach at that point, so I’ll try to go in tomorrow and do that. This part is also at that incredibly fragile stage. Everything just breaks so easily. This is clay though. This is what it does. I did also start a neck…you can see it there. The plan is to have that piece harden slightly in place…the torso is hardened (mostly), so it’s done some of the shrinking it’s supposed to, but if I start the head there and let that piece harden up a bit, and then make it a support, I can build the head separately once this part is done. I think. I’m a little concerned about how the piece is going to balance. The bottom is super light because it’s empty. I might need to put a bag of rocks in it. Seriously. Problems for summer, I think. This piece is taking forever.

In quilt news, I finished ironing down page 2 (or page 1, depending on whether the cover is page 1 or not numbered).

I trimmed and ironed the first of the embroidery pieces. I tried to be super neat with the stitching, using very few carryovers, trimming all the knots, but there’s still stitching showing through. I’m OK with that. Really, I’d have to be because I don’t have time to start over. Black thread on white fabric was always going to be problematic.

Last night, I got a goodly chunk of page 4 done. Why did I skip page 3? Because I forgot to number that page consecutively, so it’s in a separate box, and half of page 4 was already laid out because when I realized I fucked up with page 3, I started page 4 from page 2. Got it? Hope so. Well, really, doesn’t matter if you do, because I do. As I’m ironing, I’m separating each page into its own box anyway at this point. It’s just easier.

I ironed everything except the hair, which is complicated as all hell. I’ll do that tonight and start page 3. Hopefully, I’ll finish ironing down tomorrow night and start trimming, which won’t take long. I’m hoping to be ironing this together over the weekend…although that’s busy too. AND grades are due. Fun times. I shouldn’t have to do progress report or report card grades over the weekend…and I always end up doing it…which sucks.

If I were teaching 7th-grade science next year, I’d totally use this in class…

I mean, the boys always ask if they can eat things in class (chemistry), and I always pick up the phone and say “Hang on, let me dial 911” and then give them a scary smile.

OK, today the kids are doing a mostly independent assignment. I can’t direct teach another day; my voice won’t handle it. I’m trying to plan out the rest of the unit, but people keep adding things, and there’s literally no time left. We have like next week. And then we go into state testing, which means shortened days, shortened classes, tired and cranky kids (well that’s nothing new). And then sex ed. And then they graduate and get out of here and we start over with the next group. At least we know we’re doing 8th grade; my brain is already planning next year, trying to find 5 weeks to teach the shit we missed. Ha! We’ll be meeting over the summer for sure. I really have no plans for the summer, pros and cons. I might do a self-created residency. Maybe. We’ll see. Money might be an issue. It often is. OK. School. Mutations. Looking forward to kids’ reports on that.

Ready or Not

Well there’s nothing like the shitty Sunday sleep that comes after two weeks off of work. I’ve got a few thousand things to do rattling around in my head for today, and sleep was not my friend last night. I mean, sleep is never really my friend, but sometimes it comes along for the ride. There are 41 days of school left. It feels doable until you consider the details. Grades are due next Tuesday. I was really good and didn’t grade until last Friday. I didn’t finish, but that’s OK. This is a progress report so I don’t have to be done. The texts are rolling in about how we have new projectors, but they’re not set up and our rooms are messed up. Fun times. School starts in less than 90 minutes and now we have to set up beforehand. Ah well. I’m not rushing to get there. I’m boggled the district doesn’t send an email out about having to set shit back up and how. I know they assume we all come in over break, but I stayed away and it was a good thing. I needed a serious reset.

I forgot to post on Friday…it was a busy day. I had to pick up art in the morning, long drive, then doctor appointment, then I graded all afternoon and did some yardwork, then we went to see Regency Girls at the Old Globe.

It was fun, a good women’s-rights-friendly musical. So no art happened on Friday though. Saturday, I made it to ceramics. I was supposed to load the base of this piece into the kiln, but it was too warm. I’m going back tomorrow. I did add some bullets and money to the upper torso…

I had to fix the flag and some fingers first.

Sculpting is definitely a skill that needs developing.

This thing is a little crazy at the moment.

I also worked on the new quilt, after delivering the last one to the photographer and picking up the one before it. This is Portrait of One Self.

She’s big. She took four months to finish. Crazy really. Thought I’d hit a deadline; didn’t even come close. Ah well.

Started ironing with the Statue of Liberty…

Second Statue of Liberty in one of my pieces.

Yesterday, I washed all the embroideries, then realized I’d missed a bit. I’ll fix that tonight hopefully. Then I started ironing page 2…or is it page 1? Because the statue is the cover page.

Easier for me to think of it as four pages. I didn’t finish. This one is more complicated. So hopefully by the end of the week, all the page pieces will be ironed to fabric and I can start trimming. There’s a super tight deadline on these guys.

This is a thing.

Real people helping real people. Seriously, if you think she’s a caricature, you should listen to Dolly Parton’s America, the podcast. She’s not who you think she is. And she’s better than those dingbats who went to space.

Simba agrees.

Wishful viewing of the bunnies in the front yard.

OK. School. Apparently need to put my room back together before kids get there. Nothing is set up, I think. Or did I do it before I left? I don’t think I did, because they were gonna do our floors. Deep breath. It’s fine. Today’s teaching is easy. Then a 2-hour staff meeting (ugh). Then errands, dinner, art. The Man is having dental surgery today and is on liquids and soft food for about a week…so my dinners are my own problem. Pros and cons to that. I’m expecting some exhaustion this week. Going back to school always does that, more so as I get older. But also, I’m reading two books, making some art, dealing with yard stuff. Nothing new. Grades. Damn. Grades already. OK. Well, that’s happening whether I’m ready for it or not.

If I Had Time…

Definitely feeling the knee and the hip this morning. Cold. Worked out last night. Apparently walked a lot in class yesterday. All the things. That torn meniscus that refuses to heal and my insurance says will just heal (really? when?) is a bitch some days. Fun times. I’m rolling on exhausted. I try to go to bed early, but then dogs bark and people come to bed late and then at some point, a kitten whacked me in the face with a claw (no damage for once). So I put the blanket over my head and now my eyes are all swollen. I need to sleep for like a week. Still. It’s like I never catch up. I started this year trying to improve my sleep, and I feel like I’ve done my part, but adding a kitten to the mix didn’t help. Ah well. He is a sweetheart when he’s not whacking me in the face.

I can’t get the old lady Kitten to come out and take her meds in the morning. Too cold. Doesn’t want to come out of her cave of batting. Not sure I blame her. I talk to her and she slow blinks at me and I slow blink back and we can do that for 20 minutes…she still won’t come out. I can leave some of her meds in the cave and she’ll eat them, but the big pill isn’t going down her throat without help.

OK. I’m behind on shopping for Christmas, I need to pack and ship a quilt, I need to ship gifts north, I need time to deal with all this, plus do grades and exercise and maybe read my book, which will be returned to the library in three days. Hmmm. Prioritize all that. Book first, of course. Well. Maybe grading first.

I’m still ironing.

Lots of colors still happening. This was barbed wire and a fire around her head.

Last night, I started the visual disturbance section, which I am sort of psychotically trying to make accurate…something only I see…so like who would know?

I spent too much time trying to get my ethernet to work last night, so I didn’t get much done. I have about half of the 1000s done. It’s all visual disturbance. And I really need to pack that quilt tonight before I iron, so maybe I’m not grading tonight. Unfortunately. I’m on a roll and want to get it done. The kids are being remarkably clueless about what they need to complete to not have an F. Totally braindead. Fun times.

I did ceramics on Monday…

Getting close to having this base done and needing to figure out how to go up. Minor issue.

Normally, I’d go in on Friday, but they’re doing a potluck and really I just want to sit in the quiet and sculpt things, so I might have to do that Saturday instead, around a dental appointment. I’m sure it’s fine to go to the dentist covered in clay.

When I left ceramics, some footprints that weren’t there before appeared…

The footprints of a cat who hangs out in a ceramics studio, I think. I’ve never seen him on top of a car though.

This is how my knee is feeling.

I’m not sure if I’m the jackass or if the Man is. I feel like my pit crew should be more than just me? But maybe not.

And this…I don’t know why this is a problem.

I would be totally content in this room. OK, I’d probably straighten up a little. If I had time.

Gratuitous picture of Simba…

More magnet labs today; almost done, hallelujah. It’s been on on on for days. I need a break. I need them to just be working for once. Not a lot of that happening at the moment. Friday…but I have to sit through a training first. And I have two teacher groups I’m supposed to work with? At the same time? About different things? Yeah. That feels about right. I need a nap already. I have a meeting after school and I’m cooking dinner. Too many things. Pro! The bank figured out that I was inappropriately charged for someone else’s gym membership and actually refunded me the money. How did they figure that out? I told them. And then they told me I had to contact the vendor, so I spent too much time talking to bros in gyms. Even the boss was a bro. But it’s solved now and I don’t have to call the bros’ money launderers. Um. Whatever they are. That was a positive bit of mail yesterday. Yay! Kitten still hasn’t come out for her meds. Sigh. Maybe this is her next step of the decline. Double sigh. Heading off for school. Gonna pour a bunch of tea down my gullet and see if that helps.

Freedoms…

‘Tis Veterans Day. Thanks to those who protected our freedoms. Hopefully you’ll keep doing that, even against homegrown incursions. It’s ironic. But not funny. It’s a day off for teachers, also appreciated. I needed an extra day to decompress…aka read another book, do some gardening, get to the ceramics studio. Hopefully get healthy. I think the cough is wandering (very slowly) off and the sinus crap might not be far behind. Although still not well well, better.

Friday night, all I had in me was reading. So I did that. With Nova…

And then Simba…

I was cold, I felt like crap, I was tired. It worked. The Man was still on soft food, so I ate leftovers. And then I sewed a handheld tornado together.

Like you do. I spent a lot of time looking at memes and cat videos. Also like you do when you are trying to get over all the things. Friday…was a lot of things…I had to sub my prep (Math! Anathema) and then stay after school with my co-teacher because we hadn’t figured next week out, and I needed to get my head around it.

I copied stuff for Tuesday and then was too tired to go to ceramics…in the dark.

So I did that Saturday afternoon instead. In the morning, I lounged, I entered two art shows, I did some accounting-type shit.

It’s good I didn’t go earlier, because they had a class in the morning and it would have been crowded. I’m loving this new clay, B-mix…it holds up much better than half and half. I built up…

And it held! This was fun.

We’ll see how much it held up when I go in today, yeah? It seemed pretty stable. I only have an inch or two before it’s taller than my shelf space though. Again. There is going to be a top half. But now I need to decide how I’m handling the rest of it. She needs legs. And for me to decide if the inside is going to be fabric. I think it is.

Saturday also included a dinner drawing (the Man ate solid food!)…

Plus I sewed some clouds…

My machine kept pausing to tell me there was too much fabric under the needle and I just kept telling it to forget about it, keep sewing, it’ll all be OK.

I also built a tiny house out of balsa wood. I need at least two more of these.

They are a rancid pain. I sewed cars on a cloud too…trying to decide if they need painting. I think they do. But they are already sewn on. Ah well.

That Fuentes idiot and everyone who follows him…

I’m loving hearing about the 4B movement in South Korea by the way. Reminds me of the play Lysistrata and the movie Chiraq, both inspiration for the We Got the Power exhibit I’m in that’s currently showing in Florida. The timing of all this.

I’m honestly confused by the majority of married white women. Is it really easier to give up your power? I don’t get it.

I get that too.

Sunday…went by too fast. All of a sudden, it was late in the afternoon. In an attempt to save (remove from house) a large gecko, I had moved a bunch of stuff off a bookcase…two days later, I actually found the gecko and rehomed him outside. But I had to clean off all these books and tins and find homes for them, and I found this.

There was no disk inside. I kept the tin because, remember when you could cover them and then put a magnetic thing inside and it would be a needleholder? Yeah that. That was what I’d saved it for. It’s OK…I’m sure my mom has 10 of them. I tossed it. I also got rid of some books. And threw out a file folder filled with recipes I’d cut from magazines that I will never ever look at again. It was good.

I’m actually fairly reality-bound, unfortunately.

The other good thing was that the Wonder Under I’d ordered a week ago showed up. It’s still not the same as the old stuff, but it’s not as heavy as the stuff I had in my stash. I was still worried about the heaviness of the paper and the plasticky feel of the fusible, so I decided to test it out on something small before I committed to using it on the quilt I’d already started tracing with the old stuff. I was so freaked out about the change…they’ve changed the formulation before, but not so drastically.

Good news…it actually seems easier to use. The fusible is less bumpy, so it’s easier to trace over. The heavier paper probably helps with that too.

And it peeled right off…usually I have to wait at least 24 hours to peel, but this was immediate and worked well.

Done. Only issue is that the bolts are half the size they used to be and I can’t find them locally, so I have to ship. I also have two full bolts of the thicker stuff…don’t know what I’ll do with those. I bought them quite a while ago. Not sure why they’re so different, but they have a slightly different code on them.

But it means I can start tracing again. Ahhhh. Such a relief. Video of Annie greeting me when I went to pick up Simba…

This dog is a freak. A loving freak, but a freak nonetheless.

OK. Today. More yardwork (watering mostly…it’s been very dry, warm too)…maybe some digging and removing plant matter if I have the energy. Totally going back to ceramics today. Also grading more stuff. I’m almost done with the Unit 2 packets and I need to input some grades at some point. I’m trying to get caught up so Thanksgiving Break is not all grades. I did some lesson planning last night and got stuff made for every day but Friday. Friday is started at least. I need to copy stuff tomorrow. I need to build a couple more balsawood houses and paint them and the cars. I need to figure out what I’m doing with the wings and test drill some ceramics so I can get some stuff attached. I need to read my book. I need to write a blogpost for one of my art groups. I sat down to do this one and it’s taken forever. Not sure why. And then I’m going to trace Wonder Under. Happily. Short week of school, brother will be in town, hopefully continuing to get over this sinus infection and bronchitis. Trying to come to terms with half the country. I’m not sure why voting for someone who only has rich people in his sights ever makes sense if you want things to be cheaper. But it’s what we have. No shortage of artmaking ideas for the next four years…I guess that’s the plus. Retirement plans? Aaugh. Try not to think too hard about that. I’d like to hike, but I’m not sure I have it in me. We’ll see.