It’s All Rainbows?

I’m working on some new pieces that are supposed to be for a show in a conservative part of Southern California. I figured these dye paintings would be quicker than trying to draw and make a whole new quilt that fits their ‘no nudity’ rules, plus it gets me to finally start thinking about these pieces and what I can do with them. I’m in the brainless, just-quilt-it phase, which is probably a good thing, because my brain keeps trying to figure out how to make these more political…I mean, we’re in a stupid war, spending crazy stupid money, probably illegally, and I’m trying to make art that won’t offend anyone…I don’t really set out to offend people, but I don’t usually regulate what I do either, so it’s a challenge. I’ve made a few pieces for places that didn’t allow nudity before…it just seems harder to control the need to put the word ‘fuck’ all over everything at the moment.

So yes, I’m quilting rainbow batiks at the moment…

I had to pack a quilt Monday night, so I had limited quilting time. I have another I have to pack sometime soon…same deal. But I finished quilting. I think. I might do more in the background? Or maybe just hand stitch. I don’t know yet.

Definitely doing something all up in her hair, and maybe her skin. Not sure.

I didn’t have actual rainbow thread. I have limited thread sources locally. Well, I was going to go to one place and they aren’t apparently open on Sundays, so I didn’t. But I had a thread from quilting a friend’s baby quilt that was light green through blue and purple and that was close enough.

Although maybe rainbow thread is something I will keep an eye out for, in my vast thread-shopping trips (ha. not happening).

So then I moved on to the next one…

I mostly only did the black outline around the head…need to figure out what I’m doing in the face area. Odds of my having pink thread anywhere is pretty low. I’m heavy on the dark blues. But more of that tonight. At some point, I’ll have to make real decisions on these pieces, but low-key is where I’m at right now. I’m panicking about grades being due Monday or Tuesday and not wanting to grade all weekend and also shipping stuff out and getting taxes done and school is overwhelming and adults are annoying and sometimes kids are too, but at least they have an excuse of still growing and developing.

I did some clay on Monday…adding the second arm and tried to make it fit where I wanted it.

Learning from my mistakes on the last one hopefully. I’m going to cut a big hole in the chest soon. But I want to add a bunch of stuff too. So that’s my brain for you. My brain that last night got totally sidetracked by a long email chain that a parent kept going and I kept having to answer and all I’m really thinking about is how much work I have to do and burying my brain in this…

It’s like they’re doing everything they can to distract from how crazy all the rest of their decisions are. Wars are good for the economy, right? Isn’t that what they say? I feel like this one is gonna tank the economy. Gas prices sky high? Children dying? And this…

That’s why my brain keeps leaning toward making stuff political. Because it is.

This was the weekend.

That thing is still continuing though.

Gemma’s got my anxiety mapped out. Oh yeah, and dental surgery tomorrow. Fun times. Sub plans PLUS possibly yanking a tooth (hopefully not).

I do like this concept though.

The whole caterpillar to butterfly thing is so weird and fascinating.

I actually get frustrated even with kids’ books these days, but I do agree.

That’s why I read fantasy and science fiction probably. And murder mysteries to satisfy my need to stab people.

This is absolutely true. That and Dr. Suess. The world is a disappointment against those two exemplars.

Monday, I drove the ex’s dog to doggy daycare.

She was really confused. So was I, because I had to drive past work to do it. And then drive back. She was a good girl.

OK. Whoa. Today. Meeting this morning (ugh). Then fire drill, and we’re not sure where we’re evacuating to, because last time, they moved our room numbers and then left my coteacher’s room number off and we’re not sure why they moved the numbers and why they didn’t even TELL us, so we’re wandering around the quad with our kids trying to find the numbers and I’m thinking, this is what this school year is like…wandering aimlessly because no one in charge thought it through or told us anything. My coteacher is gonna go find our numbers before school because I’m in a meeting, and then I’m teaching genetic traits, which is kinda fun…the kids get into it. Then pilates and book club (haven’t finished the book) and grading and quilting. SLEEP. Maybe. That’s an issue some days. GRADING. And setting up Friday’s activity, which required 250 pages of laminating and then cutting them all apart. So Much Work and I’m still not done. The two boys who helped yesterday were way more efficient than our TA, who is getting fired…second one this year we’ve gotten rid of. Never done that before. So weird. But art at the end. Be thankful for that.

Weird Week…

This week is messy. Mentally. Not really. I had a training thing on Monday, which lasted 12 minutes and then we spent the rest of the day planning the next three weeks before Spring Break, so we wouldn’t lose our minds (good plan) and starting a plan for after break. Then I gave a test Tuesday. Then I took today off to deal with my knee evaluation for physical therapy (we have a plan! Finally!) and to do an art group Zoom. I also graded half the day, which catches me up somewhat for the end of trimester, which is coming fast. It is ironic that I have to take time off work in order to get caught up with work. Is that ironic or just stupid? Hard to say. Anyway, all that to say that I am totally off on writing today. It’s nighttime. I write in the morning. But I had to be at school this morning for a meeting (and then race back home for the Zoom).

Sigh. Anyway. I’m still working on the dye paintings, trying to get them all bordered and then sandwiched to start. I finished the second one…but I had been trying to get the wrinkles out and cut the borders but then decided to rewash it and see if the wrinkles would come out (they did). Oh wait, first I sandwiched and pinbasted this one.

Then I cut borders…

Then the next night, I sewed them on…

And pinbasted it…

That’s three so far, one to go (tonight). It’s the smallest.

I also made it to ceramics on Monday…spent two hours finishing the upper torso and doing one shoulder and one arm.

I’m going to cut a hole in the chest once everything is a little dryer and more solid.

Not entirely sure how I’m handling the rest of the arms. I’ll figure that out as I go. It’s already almost too tall for my shelf, but all the bigger shelves are full, so IDK what my plan is. Head separate? Owl definitely separate. Although both will have issues for standing up in the kiln then. Sigh. I meant for this to be smaller. Apparently I don’t do small.

I have two pieces in this show and will be at the opening on March 15.

Come check it out. Looks to be a fun show.

I love these quotes…

There really is a feeling of oh well, this is what I have, although trying to make all the parts work better is definitely always a goal. But not what it looks like. Just how it works. Here’s another side to that.

I guess I never really conformed. And I don’t really consider beauty something to aim for…but being comfortable with oneself is a nice place to be. And when I’m not comfortable, being self aware enough to do something about it, whether it’s physical or mental.

But the world we live in now doesn’t really want us to think that…especially if we are young and could have babies.

It is exhausting. I suspect this would help.

But hey, gas is cheap and so is food? Wait, no it’s not. And we’re not going to have durable medical equipment suppliers? WTF. I’m just so done with the inability of others to make sense. Across the board.

This is what stared at me from the bed this morning when I was trying to find the landscape fabric (don’t you keep yours in the bedroom? I do. Long story.).

And if I rotated left…

Obviously I interrupted their daily meeting. Whoops. Sorry. Leaving now.

I did take some time today to read a little (good book), plus move some stuff on the deck (plants) and to where the veggie planter is going, plus move the tarp that was covering the septic pumpouts when it rained like crazy. Put that tarp away. Recycled some papers from Christmas and threw away two pens that didn’t work. That felt like a lot. It wasn’t.

Every few days, I see these two, together, in exactly this place. If I go out the door to get a better picture, they leave.

So this is through the screen in the kitchen. It’s such a weird place to regularly hang out. They must be friends, right? Do geckos have mates they stay with? I don’t even know. Also, do Podocarpus trees have males and females? And if so, which one has more of the seed pods? I know, I could Google those things, but I need to put another dye-painted quilt together so I can start quilting them and then handsewing stuff on them. Soon.

Tomorrow is more eyeball stuff and Friday we dissect eyeballs. Fun times. It’s supposed to be like 90 degrees on Friday; meanwhile, I’m trying to figure out what I’m going to wear in Virginia if it’s still in the 20s at night when I go. Freaky stuff.

Light Waves…

I know, I forgot to write on Monday. It was a holiday, the septic tank guy showed up early, I graded almost all day, there was no realization of what I normally do on Mondays. So I did all this stuff Friday and Saturday that isn’t going to get on here today. Maybe later. Ha! If I remember.

So the quilt is almost done though. I quilted Saturday…

I finished quilting on Sunday…broke a foot.

This is a cheap, badly designed foot. I tried to get an official spring bouncy open toe foot like that for the machine, but it was not available, so I don’t think these are really designed for this machine, even though they say they are. They are also cheap. So that arm eventually gives way. I buy like four at a time. They last about 8 months, depending on how much I’m sewing…and honestly, how fast.

This was almost 10 hours of quilting.

I trimmed on Monday…had to move the boychild’s fire equipment and four pairs of boots out of the way. He went back to work this week.

There is a Scribble kitten in this photo. She’s playing with boot laces, but also spent some time sitting in the middle of the quilt, staring at me. I got the binding sewn on too…

And Monday night, started the handsewing.

Last night, Scribble kept flicking her tail into what I was sewing.

Almost sewed her tail into the binding about 5 times. She took off for a while and then came back…

Not the easiest sewing angle, but we made it work. Seconds before, she was reaching out to the needle with her paw. No sense of safety. I’ve made it around 2 1/2 sides. Got 1 1/2 to go, plus two sleeves. Photographer is getting it Saturday. Ready to ship to Massachusetts in March, then to Birmingham, England, then Houston.

I also made it to ceramics on Monday, in between rain bursts. Definitely heard those on the metal roof. I did some shaping on these…

And then added to them.

I was trying to make something that would fit on my shelf. Ha! Not happening. I am going to need to consider how to attach the owl, when I get to that point. I also put the bowl in for bisque fire. Finally! Can’t remember when I started it. Ah well. That’s what apps are for. I started the bowl December 8 and it has 10 hours of work in it. TEN HOURS. Can’t sell that for the time it took. And it will still need glaze after this. I haven’t decided what glaze yet. Something smooth on the inside. Hope there’s no cracks. I’m finding it hard to get to ceramics…the timing sucks right now. I’d normally go this Friday, but have to do a union thing. If it’s quick and I’m not exhausted, I’ll go over there, but I don’t think it’ll be quick, based on the last one.

I did walk on Saturday. I was going to hike, but the ex came over to help find the second lid on the septic (I didn’t realize/remember a second lid, but found the original drawing). So I had limited time before sunset. I drove down my hill, so I wouldn’t have to walk the scary busy road with no sidewalk in the dark, and took off from there, neighborhood hike.

I did this daily during COVID, and was always fascinated by all the different plants my neighbors had.

Valentine’s Day kitties…Luna and Scribble. Not quite curled up together.

I saw this. And then started Googling. And this is what everyone needs to do these days. Because if he said it, it’s not documented anywhere.

Also, the comment amuses me. Yeah, I’m not sure the bodycam footage would show you what you want to see…and I don’t really see the purpose unless it’s to show the parents of THOSE children what their sweethearts are really like in the classroom. Fun times. Research, people. Don’t assume the stuff is correct.

That said, that damn SAVE Act is totally fucked up.

Poll tax anyone? But only for married women. And trans folx. And a few others? People who changed their names to escape abuse? Yeah, it seems fair. WTF it does not. Seriously. What assholes in the House voted for this? ID? Sure. Fine. Make them free and easy to get. Or we’re back to where this country was in the early days, when only rich white guys could vote. I guess that’s what they want? Fucking assholes. The Man says the Senate won’t pass it. Sigh. It never should have been considered at all. So prejudiced. So misogynist. So unAmerican.

OK. Sigh. Where we at today? Ah yes, the effects of light waves on materials. Lab and simulation that takes two days to get through with my full-on support. Then pilates. Then handsewing binding. I can look forward to that for sure.

At Least It’s Friday…

Today is the shutdown. I’m with you in spirit, but as a public middle-school teacher in a Title I school, I’m going to be at school with my students. Also, Friday subs are the hardest to get for anyone, and we’re doing a lab, so I would have had to make up some filler assignment, because you don’t leave a lab with a sub unless you want no materials at the end of the day. And a friend is performing tonight, opening night, and we’re not blowing that off either. Need to support teachers in their life-affirming activities, like dance and art. But do we need to hit them where it hurts? Yes. Absolutely. Target sent me yet another “we’ll cancel your Target card” letter (the third so far, each with a 2-month deadline, which I ignore). I’m just avoiding them, Amazon as much as I can, anything else that seems dodgy or billionairy. Not a word, I know. But there are small, independently owned businesses going under right now due to tariffs and people just not having as much money (um, the grocery bill is still bad, y’all…it’s not great here), and it’s not OK that the tariffs are singling them out. Just trying to get art quilts to shows here from out of the country or vice versa has gotten so much more complicated.

Sigh. Things aren’t changing in the right direction fast enough.

In quilt news, the ironing is going well…

Well, as long as you don’t mind a kitten climbing on it (I do)…

She also tried to run off with the safety pins, so those are closed up again. I keep this door closed most of the time right now, because I don’t really trust her in here. It’s chaos and thread and pins and tiny pieces and not very cat friendly.

So that was Wednesday’s progress…looks slower because it’s a lot of smaller pieces.

And here’s last night’s progress…

I’m in the low 300s at this point…the body parts are next and that’s complicated. I have a thing tonight so odds are I won’t be ironing until tomorrow, but I’m hoping to spend a few hours tomorrow. The deadline looms.

I also went to ceramics last night and put the last two colors on the bowl, underglaze anyway.

I also did the fingernails and filled in the mouth areas.

That looks better.

Right now, it’s drying so I can put it in the bisque fire. I’ll clear glaze the outside and then find some shiny glaze for the inside. Realistically, I can never make anything in clay to sell…this already has over 10 hours in and it’s not done. It’s a good thing I’m not doing it for the money.

There’s competition some nights for my lap.

Simba was hesitant, but submitted that belly rubs made it OK. Scribble is unsure…

Really unsure.

The crazy shit that comes out of the government’s mouth is sometimes mind-boggling.

That and Kyle Rittenhouse and that crazy fucking couple with the guns. Like it’s a different story every time. And some people are excusing it every time. I’m hoping the reps start to stand up and yell more, prosecute, fire people, refuse to pass bills, demand for change, quite honestly, get that dumbass tested publicly, transparently, because no way he’s competent to be president right now. That said, neither is Couch Vance. I’d love to hear some of the conversations he and his wife of color have about some of the shit he says.

I read this and went, huh. Yeah. Ugh.

And then I read this one.

OMG yes. I guess that’s too much to ask? Certainly it doesn’t make as much money for the already rich.

Sigh. All I do is sigh and try to hide in books these days. Can’t hide unfortunately. My co-teacher and I had a short discussion of what to do if ICE shows up at school if we’re on duty (grab all the kids and throw them behind the gates). We can’t call our local police; they’ve been told by the mayor to support ICE, to help them. Fuck that. You’re not dragging middle-school kids out of here. Or their parents. Not OK. We are not OK.

Today. We’re doing a lab about light, mostly UV to start, just an exploration. Then duty (no ICE hopefully) and going to watch a friend dance with a bunch of people, then probably home to sleep honestly. It’ll be late. Then art tomorrow, and a hike, to try to get this blood sugar under control. It’s still whack and I still don’t know why. Sigh. SIGH. At least it’s Friday and more art time is near. I can do that.

That Matters…

Yes, I’m writing late today. I took the morning off to attend an art-related Zoom that is usually difficult for me to go to, due to that lovely day job, but the kids are walking to the high school today in the morning anyway, so I’m not missing a lot of instructional time; I’ll be back to give a test to my afternoon kids, which totally thrills them, let me tell you. So I slept in (a little bit, because let’s be honest, my body thinks I should be up at 6:30 all the time and so it just wakes up and I don’t fall back to sleep easily). I’ll shower in a bit. I might put a second coat of paint on the deck wall (I was working on the deck and plants last night in the dusk light and it was not easy, but it needs to get done and it’s always dark when I get home these days). I’m definitely inputting grades…yes, taking time off from work and still working is what teachers do; why do you ask? And hopefully I can start grading that other academic assignment…I’ll be coming home from work and doing that for sure. Unfortunately.

Luckily, there is progress on the quilt front. It took 11 1/2 hours to trim all the pieces…

And then I sorted them the same night…

Scribble was not particularly helpful in this process. As you might imagine…although she eventually chilled out and just watched.

Nova was chilling on the couch.

Then last night, I started ironing the whole thing together.

I did almost 100 pieces in an hour. Pretty soon, it will all be small pieces and progress will look much slower. I’m not expecting to be done quickly, but I’m hoping to get some big chunks of weekend time in the next few weeks. I need it all ironed together and to a background by February 15, then finished ASAP. Ha! OK. Doing it.

I also made it in to work on the bowl…mostly underglazing at this point.

I think I have two more colors I want to put on there, but also, I wish I had painted inside the mouth. I might just do a tongue and not worry about the background, but it looks weird now, so not the best decision I’ve made this week.

Also probably not the worst, y’all. And it’s only Wednesday; there’s still time for worse decisions. I am liking the bowl though. It’s fun.

I’m finishing up teaching digital and analog signals this week, and found this mix tape in the box of cassettes I brought to school.

Yup, my brother made that.

Trying to explain to these digital kids that you made a tape to share your music with your friends or a relative and it was like a gift, and how you thought about them when you made it, and then when you listened to it, you thought about the person who made it for you. They don’t get it. Sad. But things have changed. They share TikTok videos and memes. Maybe it’s the same?

Yesterday, I left school quickly and came home to work on the deck in daylight. I have part of the house wall that really needs paint, and I wanted to do that before I started pushing plants back up against the wall. So I did a little sanding and one coat of paint last night, as the sky turned into this.

My eucalyptus tress still look sad. Hopefully they’ll be fluffier by summer. I have too much of a view of my back and lower neighbors’ yards at the moment. I could do without that. But the sky was nice. I moved three plant shelves back toward the railing, but also realized I don’t remember where everything goes. I’m sure it will be fine (she says). I’ve moved a few anyway that needed room or to dangle. Some things need some major pruning or replanting, so that’s a different issue.

I’m thinking about using this when we teach natural selection…but then the kids will think it’s a choice.

Honestly, I don’t know how much natural selection we’re going to get to this year, thanks to the school board fucking up our schedule. So frustrated with this year. I can’t even look at the calendar for April without stressing. My blood sugar has been super reactive this week. Not sure what changed except everyone around me is sick and I’ve definitely been fighting something off since Saturday, but I’m not sick…and my blood sugar is an asshole. Things that normally don’t shoot my blood sugar high…well, they are. So it’s just gonna be high this week I guess. Sigh. I have pilates today; hopefully that will help. I don’t feel more stressed than last week, so who knows what else it could be. Random shit…brought to you by my body.

Discombobulated is one of my favorite words.

I never considered what bobulated would be.

I try to do this every day.

It helps.

This thought also helps; but it’s also depressing.

Economic shutdown Friday. I can’t skip school; it’s not fair to the kids. There aren’t enough subs. I already have plans for Friday night to support a friend; the money was already spent, though. We are going out after, but I’m pretty sure it’s an independent place. Not a Cohn-owned monstrosity. I’ve got my eyes open for what’s happening Saturday. One rep emailed back. I don’t actually need to hear from them. I need to see them vote and start yelling. Get Noem out. Get out of Minnesota. Get out of everywhere. No ICE.

This is boggling.

So unsustainable. Then again, our need for money and power always is unsustainable.

This is an issue.

And frustrating, because they think we don’t think too. SCIENCE! I didn’t even post the measles graph for 2025. Measles cases went from like 238 in 2024 to over 2000 cases in 2025. Thanks RFK for being an ignorant dickhead.

Imma leave you with a sleepy kitten.

She’s a good baby.

OK, I need to shower, set up some stuff for school, get on a Zoom, maybe paint a wall, grade some stuff, input some grades, then go to school and give a test, go to Pilates, come home, grade some more after reading some of my book, and then iron. Busy day. Even “taking time off” (whatever that means). But art is in there and that matters.

No Peace…

Hey. Weird week again. I don’t know what day it is. I think that starts in mid-December and continues until my first full week…which technically is next week. Maybe then I’ll feel less discombobulated. Or not. It’s not like this year has started out stable and balanced. I just had another art deadline moved up last night, by a month. I have nothing for that show at the moment, due to some subject restrictions. I might not enter. I might not be able to. I have a couple of ideas that could happen relatively quickly, but I need to finish this one first.

I’ll be trimming all week…here’s Monday’s progress…

And here’s what I had to deal with…

Every stage is new for her, so she has to explore it.

Which is sometimes problematic.

Last night’s progress started like this…

And eventually turned into this…

Which meant I could do this…

I see progress, but it’s slow. I was grading stuff last night and in an art zoom, on top of all of it, so trimming was only an hour. I also worked on this last night…

I’m going to add a bunch more colors around the spirals (or as spirals?). The black is like a base for it. Yes, this bowl already has 7 1/2 hours in it. Seriously unaffordable. I mean, I love working on it, so it’s OK, but seriously never making money at ceramics. It was nice to be there though, just glazing and carving. And I bought more clay for the next artsy piece, which has been in my head for a month now.

OK. Today. Teaching geese and canaries (sound waves). Bunch of kids will be in and out for high school meetings. Yesterday, there were probably 15 phone calls pulling kids in the last three periods of the day. While I’m trying to teach. Fucking irritating. They gave up on calling me at some point (I couldn’t hear the phone through the oscillators and piano keyboards) and sent a kid with a note. WAY BETTER Y’ALL. So many interruptions to the job. I finished my grades (mostly) last night, a week early, because the principals decided to change the dates and no one told the teachers. Fuckers. It’s fine. I can’t do them this weekend anyway. I have three art meetings. It was four, but I wasn’t going to that one anyway. Too far. Too much other stuff I need to do right now. I do have pilates after school though and then this is the one night this week when I don’t have something on Zoom or in person (thank goodness). So I will sit quietly, read my book (that goes back to the library on Saturday), consider Greenland as its own free country, send good strong independent thoughts to Minnesota, and hope for world peace. I’ve been watching Homeland lately and it’s really not the best for a sense of peace. I do realize it…but am also sort of OK with living in that discomfort at the moment. Because a huge chunk of our country is living in similar discomfort. Sigh. Why do we treat people like this? It’s all money and feeling safe and power, but there’s no empathy in it. And I can’t live in a world without empathy.

Drippy Icicle Lights…

I know, I know, it’s late. I had stuff to do this morning. I made wontons. I took a shower. Really that’s it. Oh, I talked to the girlchild. That was nice. So no, I didn’t blog this morning. Honestly, I love a 3-day weekend, but I’m not sure what the hell I do with the extra time. The bathrooms and floors still aren’t clean, I didn’t finish grading stuff, I didn’t finish inputting grades, I certainly didn’t finish putting everything back on the deck. My to-do list is still a shitshow. My green pants still aren’t wearable. This is crucial. I hope to fix this tonight. And the grades inputting. Maybe…no, I’m not doing a floor…c’mon, it’s almost 5 PM and I have a 6:30 Zoom? OK, maybe a floor or a shower. We’ll see.

Meanwhile. MLK. I watched a couple of excerpts of his speeches…man that man could talk…so beautifully. Made me tear up…especially in light of Minnesota…and Greenland…and Norway…and Venezuela…and another ICE killing. So did I do right by MLK today? Probably not. But I did talk to the plants I was moving about how the new pot would support them better than the old one. More about that later.

In the quilt realm, I did OK though. Friday night, I managed over 2 hours of ironing (I stayed up late).

I got the fleshy bits ironed down. Scribble was still not helpful.

She’s a sweetheart actually. After ironing the fleshy bits, here’s all the stuff that goes ON the fleshy bits…eyes and hearts and veins and lungs and trees.

OK, trees is weird, I know, but there was also ivy and a snake.

Saturday was my deck/ironing day (no school!), so I ironed for over 4 hours and got most of it done…all of it except the sun and the owl.

Sunday, it took another hour and a half to finish the ironing…156 different fabrics.

All in a bin…

So I can spend the next few days (few???) cutting all the pieces out. Usually that’s faster than picking fabrics…less brain power, less thinking. So now I’m hoping to be done with the cutting out by Saturday? That might be ambitious. The Man has a show Friday night that I’ll be at, and I have a meeting Saturday afternoon, and two meetings Sunday. But maybe if I hope to be ironing it all together by next week…because I need an ironed-together quilt top by February 15, but if I could get closer to done before that, it would be awesome. I will not be done by February 15, just to be clear, but I will definitely be ironed together by then. Total ironing to fabric time? 15 hours and 17 minutes. Longer than normal. Lots of little decisions to make.

I also did some underglazing on the bowl on Friday after school.

Clay is SLOW. I mean, I guess my version of quiltmaking is too. So there’s that.

I hiked Saturday afternoon…3 miles.

It was delightful.

The weather has been strangely warm. But nice. Spring is in the air…yes, it’s January, but it’s also Southern California, so the weeds are proliferating and the yard is a jungle and I could do yardwork every day for 8 hours and never catch up.

Speaking of yardwork, so the boychild and I replaced the deck railings, which were disintegrating. We replaced one of the railing posts too. So I had to move all the plants away from the railings. It’s been on my list for over a year to go through all the plants and repot things that were falling over or out of control, and to just generally clean up the space. But as I do that, I find more things to do. That space under the window…there used to be a planter that hung from the wall, and I don’t remember if we installed it or if it was here when we moved, and I don’t know why two of the slats are missing. I do know it all needs painting. So I pulled everything away and washed it down, and tomorrow, when it’s dry, I’m going to paint it.

Before I move the plants up against it. If I were really good, I’d replace those slats, but IDK what wood that is and it sounds more like hard work, considering the planter is going right up in front of it. So that’s a delay.

Here’s the long view toward that area…

All those planters were up against the railing before, but a lot of them need help. That plant in the front is leggy as hell. I’ve trimmed it before and it does well, so I’m going to do that again.

So basically, in two days. all I got done and set up was this small section of the deck…

Which is all the Man and the dog care about, so that’s fine. I’ll do the rest as I can. Or I’ll get tired of it and move it all back without cleaning it all up. We’ll see which Kathy wins out. I do like plants, but I run out of time.

This was funny…this is Instagram.

Almost 12 years, y’all…I didn’t know Insta had been around that long, but I guess it makes sense. They suggested I add a reel a week. A reel of what? Me talking to my plants? Scribble biting my hand? Yeah. Maybe.

Now for the screenshots that talked to me in the last three days…this one, for sure.

Although maybe I am a very hungry caterpillar. Hard to say.

W.T.F. I am boggled. Fuck the EPA.

Sigh. Why do people think this is OK? How do you live in this world and be OK with this? I guess it’s OK when it’s not you and your family being affected by it? Except they all are. Now we all are.

I could totally get behind this (I am actually part Danish)…

But this thing worries me…

I just looked up my insulin and it’s from Malaysia/India…which explains the emails when I had an issue with one of the pens. But I don’t wish death on the other insulin users, and I don’t want to worry about shortages for insulin users. Plus didn’t that orange fuckup tell us the meds would be 150% cheaper? Waiting on that too.

More people need to think about how this works…

Ecosystems include humans, even when we’re stupid and think science doesn’t matter.

I love this too…

I hope it goes away before it destroys the environment…although it may already be too late.

OK, well I go back to school tomorrow…teaching geese and canaries (sound waves and wave energy), then digital and analog signals. Spent some time with that today. Wrote a rubric that I remembered about at 2 AM. Thank you, school brain. Spent some time today finding a bunch of analog and digital things to show students (records, old video cameras, old cameras, cassette tapes in big wooden boxes). Fun times. Tonight, my local guild has a Zoom with Jane Sassaman, which sounds lovely. My book is due to the library Saturday and it’s for book club on Monday (a week from now). I’ll finish it; it’s good too. I have three Zooms this week (it’s a lot) and who-knows-what-else for school that hasn’t come to the light of day yet. Deep breaths. My neighbor above me still has their drippy icicle Christmas lights up and I’m not mad about it. It’s very relaxing to watch.

Fabric at the End of It…

I’ve officially survived one day with kids; it was notionally a chill day but felt like a lot, which isn’t surprising. I had to put back a lot of things I put away so the Winter Academy could be in our classrooms (I’m not done with that yet), plus deal with a lot of kid stuff (they were pretty chilled out except for that one…there’s always that one). It’s just a lot…going full on for the whole day, so much stimulation, so much talking, so much ON. It’s exhausting. We have a 3-day weekend coming up, which is nice, but grades are also due, so double-edged sword there. I came home after running errands and graded and had an art Zoom meeting and graded some more. So this ALL ON thing doesn’t stop when I get in the car and go home. I realize it COULD? But then I’d have to be at school even longer, and I had to really force myself to stay the extra 10 minutes last night to finish one class of late turn-ins. I have three more classes of those to go; it’s not a lot…it’s just details. I should be able to finish them today. And yes, I came home and read my book with a kitten for a while because I needed that.

Monday, after 17 thousand meeting things (I got nothing done that I needed to get done on Monday…seriously, I left after 4 PM with a half-assed table of contents copied and not much else accomplished), I went to ceramics for the first time since before Christmas. I always think, oh, it’s a break, Imma get SO MUCH clay done. And then I don’t. It’s frustrating. And with this quilt deadline hanging over me, I’m hard-pressed to spend a huge chunk of time there at the moment anyway. I did pick up my frames…

I like them, although one of the greens burned out a lot on both frames…and it looks like they shrunk a lot more than I thought they would. A 4×6 photo fits in the top one if you trim the corners…you’d have to trim it a lot for the bottom frame. I should be better about measuring things. But I’m not. The final satin glaze was definitely more successful than the last few I’ve done. I’d consider reglazing some if I didn’t think it would be an exorbitant cost. But now I know.

And then I worked on the bowl some more…luckily it’s been pretty humid and wet, so it didn’t dry out too much.

I know I had some specific plans at some point, but I don’t remember what they were.

It’s not perfectly round; it’s definitely handbuilt…and even though I used a mold, it’s still not really even symmetrical.

I’m OK with that. I think I’m just going to start underglazing it. I have an idea for the next big art piece and I want to start it.

The quilt is progressing slowly.

I mean, I’m getting lots ironed at night, but it doesn’t look like much because it’s all tiny things mostly. Except for the ground and the water. So it doesn’t feel like much progress. I am trying to iron more than an hour a day. My goal is to be done ironing to fabric this weekend.

Scribble follows me at night (when she wakes up), so she’s in the studio now, checking out progress.

This is after last night’s 90-minute session. I did iron a tiny Scribble-like cat, but then looked at her more closely. Her coloring is complicated. I need a bigger cat to iron to get her facial details to work. A 1″ drawing is not a good place to start with her.

I finished the first 300 pieces plus a few out of the 300 box. So not halfway, but I probably will be tonight. Lots of fussy details in the next 100 pieces too though, so maybe not. Lots of buildings and logos. Sure enough, our school district is pushing teachers using AI in planning, and I’m pushing back. I do use it occasionally, but it’s not as useful as they’d like it to be.

Scribble sometimes comes to bed with me…

But she’s not always ready for actual bedtime. Unlike me. She’s a pretty gentle kitten though. She looks evil and vicious, but is not even breaking the skin. Just gently holding my hand in her mouth and paws. Sweet baby.

I appreciate the cuddles.

This is my medieval animal, apparently.

Seems appropriate.

OK, meeting this morning (ugh), then teaching about waves (ocean first, then sound…sort of? Not entirely sure what I’m doing today…will figure it out as I go). Hopefully my voice holds up…it was shaky yesterday. I’m still holding mucus from the flu…can’t shake it completely, so that doesn’t help. Lots of tea and throat-clearing. I may give in and take cold meds. Then pilates after school (I’m already tired) and I’m cooking dinner tonight (leftover lasagne I was smart enough to cook and freeze over break). Plus grading and then ironing. LONG day. This is what being back to work is though. LONG days. Fabric at the end of it. Good thing.

A Giant Experiment

There are three days of school before we go on break. There’s been some crazy shit (there always is), some crazier than usual. My blood sugar responds to stress, and yes, it is responding to stress. And cake. That was my fault. To my credit, I ate it in two shifts. On Monday, after the holiday party, which was really just a confession and food (is that the definition of a party?), I had to get on the stationary bike for an hour. It’s OK…I finished my book. Although my knees did not appreciate it the next day. They rarely do though. It’s weird…we usually have spirit week before break and dress up most of the days, at least wearing Santa hats and pajamas, and that’s not even happening. I think everyone is just trying to survive. That may be true of everyone honestly. Christmas is coming up and it’s crazy. I still don’t have a box for the stuff I need to ship. I keep forgetting. I have a to-do list but it keeps getting impacted by school. We have three days to get at least the first week of lessons done and we don’t have enough time to teach everything before the state test because the school board did a stupid thing and got sued and now we have to teach stuff that’s not on the test before the test and I can’t even tell you how frustrating that is after we spent hours this summer backwards planning from the end of the year to make sure there was enough time. And now we’re fucked. No one paid me for those summer hours and no one will pay me for the hours it will take to rearrange stuff to fit the school board’s fuckup. Summer self did that work because she knew that May/June self would really appreciate it. And now both of them are pissed off. “It’s fine,” the District says, “It’s only one year and then you can go back to whatever you normally do.” Great. You gonna pay me for the extra planning this year? Nah? I didn’t think so. Plus I have to do more training even though I helped write the damn curriculum. I guess all that is January/February/March’s problem. She’s already irritable about it though. December self just wants the first week or two planned and maybe to have a table of contents for the unit that doesn’t have to be totally rewritten halfway through. Big dreams.

Meanwhile, this is the third morning in a row I’ve had to show up early to school for something…luckily, I think it’s the last one in 2025! Maybe. Knock on wood.

I did finish all the stitchdown on Monday night…stayed up late to do it, which pairs well with getting up early.

Stitchdown is generally pretty fast…this was 4 1/2 hours. Last night, I cut the batting, washed the batting, dried the batting, washed the floor (it was gross), and cut and sewed and ironed the backing. Then it was 10:15 PM and I knew it would take an hour to pinbaste this thing, so I didn’t do it. Did I go to bed earlier? Nope. Totally not. That would make too much sense. I just didn’t want to crawl around on my kneepads for an hour…I’ll do that tonight after yet another early morning and a long day. It’ll be fine. Quilting by tomorrow. Done by? I don’t know. I need a binding fabric…I know I don’t have enough of anything for that.

Cat integration is going really well. These two play during the day (and the night).

Not touching yet, not curled up together…but I know Scribble wants that. Bowie is kind of an asshole (that phrase is said so many times in this house), but he is still kittenish and appreciates the racing around. Scribble bites gently, plays gently (with us), doesn’t hook us with claws, purrs a lot, loves a lot, squawks, and is a sweetheart.

Ceramics! I got this one out of the bisque fire yesterday…

Then glazed both with a clear glaze…hopefully the colors will hold. We’ll see. They do darken in the glaze fire, but I’m hopeful. They are both frames for the wall. I haven’t figured out construction for frames for just standing up. And I forgot to check how much they shrank. Oh well. It’s all a giant experiment anyway.

When I left the studio, Bartholomew had just showed up for dinner.

He’s definitely got more than his share of nine lives.

OK then there’s this…

This might help. Sigh. We don’t solve problems well as a species, but especially here in the US. Dumpster fire has taken over.

OK today. It’s a catchup day. The kids will hopefully get everything done, we’ll do a lab tomorrow, a quick test question Friday, turn their packets in, and go away for three weeks. I need to finish grading last week’s homework and start grading the academic assignment they just finished. Whatever I get done this week I don’t have to do during break. That would be a plus. Pilates after school, then I have to cook (normally I would have done that last night)…oh wait, I did do it last night, but just for me. Then pinbaste, kneepads on. Maybe setup or start quilting. We’ll see. Looking forward to it. Looking forward to some time off too.

Too Many Things…

Oy. Two weeks left in December to teach. On the one hand, thank goodness. On the other hand, holy crap, how do I get through it all? A bit of a challenge on multiple fronts. Trying to deal with Christmas shopping and shipping, but also school and just maybe a bit of sanity. We spent the weekend doing the local ceramics tour, which was really cool, but also time-consuming. I did manage to deal with three Christmas presents, which wasn’t bad. So I feel good about that. I also got to see a lot of cool ceramics and be inspired a bit, which is also nice. Did I get a lot of other stuff done? Hell no. How would I?

I did iron…Saturday night…

Finished the first bathtub, which has a body bag in it. Then started the rug under the second bathtub…

Finished that and started the second bathtub, barely. More on that tonight. Much as I love having the girlchild around, she had projects this time and I ended up not doing art stuff for that…which is still a good thing. Hopefully in the future, she’ll know how to frame stuff herself. This one, she cut the matt and then we covered it in fabric.

I did the complicated one…

But I made her cut the backing pieces. So she drove home with four completed pieces. All the frames came from thrift shops or the grandparents’ house (which is a different kind of thrift shop). She did buy three pieces of matt board and 3/4s of a yard of fabric. All good. I had a stash of hangers and archival tape and all the stuff I used to use to frame my prints, way back in the day. Way way back. Useful skill, though.

She left Saturday morning, but she’ll be back in two weeks-ish.

Scribble likes her. Scribble pretty much likes everyone though, so that’s nice. She inspected the two plant pots I bought on the tour.

I fits!

More politics…

I guess Cloud Walker was the best choice. Sigh.

I spent Friday trying to find all the lab materials I needed for today; missing a handful of magnetic rocks that may have disappeared. They’ll live without them, but it’s annoying. Because we had them before. I’ll go in this morning and check another location and recheck the original location. Teaching magnets today, then a staff meeting, then ceramics. Hoping to finish the second frame today. Not entirely sure what I’m doing next. I did get the tree for the top of the head out of the kiln. Now I need to make the little quilt that goes in the belly, but I can’t do that until I finish this quilt; it has a deadline and it’s coming up. So maybe I’ll make some bowls. I need some new bowls for the house. Then home to iron some more. Probably grading stuff too. I’m not entirely caught up, but I’m doing OK. The redoes are hard to do unless I’m not tired. I should have done some last night, but I did late work instead, because I hadn’t looked at that in almost a month. Too many things…not enough time. Always.