Still Buggy…

Am I awake? Sort of. I’ve been UP for 5 hours, showered, fed most of the animals, drove to a news station, and did a live session about an art demo I’ll be doing at the Oceanside Museum of Art on Friday evening. Here’s the TV thing…

I’ll be doing my demo from 6:30-7:30 PM…it’ll be the bugs! I have some I’ll be ironing together (LIVE) and some I’ll be embroidering (also LIVE). That stuff is way easier than standing in front of a camera. Then I came home, changed out of real clothes, ate breakfast, moved some more furniture (endless, right?), and wrote some stuff. My plan is to iron stuff together until I need a nap (all the others are already napping)…

Simba was napping until the kitten (still nameless) grabbed his butt.

OK, it was obviously a busy weekend. Quiltwise, I finished Why. Not. after quite a few months’ lag.

It’ll go to the photographer once I finish the other one.

Then Friday, I made some bugs…cut out some Wonder Under, ironed them to fabrics…

I left one as just Wonder Under to use in the demo. I also made two of each, one more realistically colored and one colored for San Diego Pride Weekend…

I’m saving some to iron down at the demo on Friday, but I did iron 5 of them…

Yes, that’s 4…I think I hadn’t finished the outlining on the 5th one yet. This was Friday’s finish. Saturday morning, I outlined the 5th one and then quilted all 5.

The rest of their legs will get embroidered on at the demo (or after…depends on timing).

Then I finished one all the way with a binding and a sleeve…

Note to self…easier to embroider legs before the sleeve is on. And last night, I embroidered this one’s legs…

They seem like they would be really easy to make (they are), but they are still time-consuming. That sweet little bug took 2 hours and 19 minutes to make. So yeah. Not sure they’re saleable…but they’ll go on Etsy eventually. I’ll post all of them when they’re done. If you’re local and want one, don’t wait for it to go on Etsy. Just a heads up.

Here’s all the fabrics that got used on the bugs…

ANYWAY. So that was bugs. Not on the Bingo card for Summer 2024; neither is the microwave dying, and that’s also definitely happening.

I finally started ironing the Crones quilt together on Saturday…my goal is to have it done this week…which I have now lost Friday, so Imma do it quick.

The bottom was full of some fussy tiny pieces, which look awesome when done but are a fucking pain in the ass to iron.

Gaza war on the right side…

Loss of reproductive rights on the left. I have about 4 hours in and I’ve done about 250 pieces. I’m planning to do a bunch over the next 4 days. And also move furniture, do yardwork, paint things, possibly sleep, read my book, and maybe eat. I’ll be ironing as soon as I finish writing this thing.

I did do clay on Sunday…picked up the four finished clay pots for the Man’s bog garden. These two were pretty basic, although the glazes didn’t do what I thought they would (they never do).

These two were a test of a satin glaze, which turned out much better than the first test run.

So I’ll probably do this on the big sgraffito piece that’s on my shelf at the studio right now.

Meanwhile, I finished underglazing the bottom half of the next sculptural piece…

The colors will change a bit in the firing.

Flesh colors are always fun.

This is drying out right now, getting ready for the bisque fire. That sea monster is hysterical.

Here’s video of the whole thing…

Hopefully I’ll be underglazing the top this week. And working on that other sgraffito piece. Gotta schedule clay time into the ironing time.

We also hiked Saturday…it’s been warm, but not AS warm…and that’s the first deer I’ve seen at Sweetwater.

I’ve seen their prints in the dirt, but never the actual animal. So that was cool.

This California horned lizard was not AS cool…because it was unfortunately dead…but a good-sized one.

Oh yeah, Imma need more caffeine today. Lots more.

The older ladies are still unsure of the little beast.

There was some play yesterday and today, with a lot of consternation involved.

Not from him. He does not give a shit that they are all bigger than him. He is a sweetie, very loving, very people-oriented. But also a scratchy hyper demon. No name still. We have until tomorrow (self-imposed deadline).

I gave my SIL such a card for her birthday.

I hope she’s better at it than I usually am.

Also, need to go to this national monument. Put it on the list.

OK. Drink LOTS of tea today. Also maybe nap. Iron a lot. Maybe go to Home Depot…I was gonna go Friday night and then just didn’t (it’s open until 10 PM…avoid the contractors and go late). Contemplate the state of the union. And 20-year-old boys with automatic rifles. And crazy-town conspiracy theories. Consider the future of my country (that’s a big one…a scary one). But mostly iron. Looking forward to communing with some fabric.

Getting Through…

Oh my. So today is carpet installation day 1. It is also the Man’s birthday (unfortunate that he had to get up early and the next two days are pretty stressful for the animals). Also we were hoping the boychild would be home from work to take the dog away for two days to his dad’s house. Nope. Haven’t seen him since the 28th of June, and now he’s at the Lake Fire in Santa Barbara County, so we probably won’t see him for a week. It’s OK. I’m in the office with the dog, who is stressed but has finally stopped barking. He got pets from the owner of the installation company, so that seemed to calm him down. He’s now listening to them pull up all the carpet stripping nail things, which I’m sure have an official name, but I don’t have the brain power right now to figure that out. I got up early to strip beds and pull servers (of course) and I have only half a cup of tea in me and my head hurts. Also we saw one cat take off down the hallway and we’re not sure where she is (she might be in the office with me for all I know). ANYWAY. And after all this, when I have new carpet FINALLY, it will be lovely. This carpet was put in by the previous owners and needed replacing when we moved in, but we figured waiting until the kids were older made sense (ha ha ha!!!), so it’s probably 30 years old? Maybe more? I’m guessing 1980s. It’s gross…but the work involved to move all the furniture and crap out of three bedrooms and three closets was why I never did it. That and not being able to afford it, although I think my parents were willing to pay for it. I just couldn’t visualize how to do it. And honestly, I’m not sure how I’m going to move all this shit back by myself…although the Man can lift up to 10 pounds, so drawers :-). And bedding. Sigh. As long as there’s a bed at the end of the day today, we’ll be fine. We do have air mattresses galore. And a tent. So we really will be fine. Probably not the nicest way to spend your birthday though. Although he could be teaching in a middle-school classroom…that’s how I usually spend mine.

So there’s been a lot of moving shit going on and prepping. A lot of doors to sand. I didn’t finish all of them. Didn’t even get close. Oh well. There were a lot of things I wanted done before the carpet went in, but I prioritized art over 8 hours a day of sanding and painting. As always.

After writing on Saturday, I made it to my quilt guild meeting. I was pretty out of it, but I did manage to stitch some hair.

I’m not sleeping well…it’s warm, I have a million itchy mosquito bites, and the puppy is fussy at night…mostly animal sounds and stuff. Raccoons, skunks, coyotes. The Man comes to bed late (he’s stressed about his back and lack of work)…so then I wake up and can’t go back to sleep. It’s fun. Really. Saturday was mostly a lost day…there were things I was going to do that just didn’t happen. I was really efficient Friday and then Sunday, I got more done in the morning before pilates than I did all day Saturday. Ah well. It is summer break, so I can get away with that. I read my book! That’s progress.

I did finish quilting the second piece on Saturday…and trimmed it for binding.

I had to clean the floor first, because…sanding. Dust everywhere. I trimmed the other one as well.

One of the plans for today involves getting the binding sewn on these two so I can handsew at night. I also packed up an older quilt that my SIL (and brother, whether he likes it or not) is going to hang in her dining room and hopefully sell…or if not, she can just stare at it until she’s sick of it and picks another one. So hopefully I’ll make it to UPS today. I needed to get that quilt and these other two out of the way so I could have room to start ironing the big one together. Hopefully tomorrow? We’ll see. I sense furniture moving in my future.

Claywise, I’ve been trying to go into the studio every couple of days. I tried fitting top to bottom…had to do some carving to get it to sit down.

The hands work OK though…that was the other worry. The upper hand is touching the torso, but helps it balance.

Then I got the heart attached…

I also built a hollow thing for a totem-type pole/garden stake series they’re doing at the studio…

I’m not sure the holes are big enough, but I can carve them larger if need be. I formed it over two bowls and filled it with newspaper…it was leather hard by the time I left. It’s been so hot. I underglazed one side for sgraffito. I figured that was the easiest/fastest thing I could make. I can carve fast if I need to…especially during the summer.

The dog is finally just lying on the floor, even though there’s banging going on outside the office door. Good boy.

I’ve also been working on the central panel for Homegrown…getting all those bits sewn down for embroidery.

I’m not looking forward to appliqueing all the velvet bits. Pain in the ass, velvet. Looks lovely afterwards though. But there’s like 25 circles in velvet. Ugh.

So we don’t know where Nova is hiding right now…but last night, she was in my drawers…luckily I thought to cover them with a towel. These drawers are at my head height. The cats sort of love our current hoarder household.

I can’t stand it. This is partly why I keep leaving for the studio! The Man lived in a tiny house for a while and his place was kind of like this…drove me crazy, but he tolerated it. I need more open space apparently. I did realize I need my work bag and keys tomorrow, and they’re on the fireplace hearth…about two feet into this chaos. So that’ll be fun to figure out tonight. I think I can reach it if I move about 8 bins and an old sewing machine. Hopefully. Should have thought of that before now, but oh well.

A friend posted this…

I kind of want to draw this. Somehow. My sketchbook is buried somewhere too. I need more tea but there is a guy banging stuff right outside this door…suspect the metal strip that is between the old carpet and the tile of the kitchen is challenging them. NEED TEA Y’ALL.

OK, today’s plan…binding on two quilts, finish packing the other quilt and ship it, take the Man out to his birthday dinner, write that other blogpost for the art group I’m in. Hopefully move some stuff back into the master bedroom. READ MY BOOK. If I’m ever allowed out of this room. Dog is chill…trying to keep him that way. Some days are just about getting through them to the quiet, organized, newly carpeted future.

Legit Bugs

Hey oh. I suspect everyone thought yesterday was some day besides Friday…I heard ‘Saturday’ and ‘Monday’. I knew it was Friday but somehow forgot to actually WRITE on Friday. I was busy. I got up and showered and went to the ceramics studio, came back for a stitching Zoom, then a trip to the local farmers market, and then a ton of sanding…more of that in my future. All good. I just forgot to write anything. Ah well.

I’ve been trying to finish the two smaller quilts, or at least get them to handsewing stage, before I start ironing the big one together. I got the first one quilted a few days ago…

And then started the other one yesterday…

This is what happens if you walk away from the machine and don’t fold everything up so Kitten can’t get to it…

I sorted the big quilt’s pieces…

That took a couple of hours. In clay, I did some final glazing on the winged woman…

I suspect she went in a glaze fire yesterday, but we’ll see. She has fabric in her future.

And then I started underglazing on the current piece. The base is ready for it…

I didn’t finish.

More clay tomorrow…I’m trying to go in every other day during the summer. Between the quilt stuff and the clay stuff, this summer is delightful. This is my solution to burnout.

I did…well, I didn’t volunteer, but when I was asked, I said yes…agree to do some demos at the Oceanside Museum of Art’s Street Level Volume 2 event in a couple of weeks. I never understand my brain when it says yes to this stuff. Although it gets my work and name out there, I guess. I don’t know. Anyway, I’ll be demoing bugs.

I ended up enlarging that little one on the bottom. Some are legit bugs. Not sure about the bottom one. I’ll have them in different stages and then demo some of the stages. We’ll see how that goes.

I bought this for the prep room at school for the next school year.

It’ll make 50 cups of tea…between me and my co-teacher, hopefully we won’t need all of those cups in one year, but who knows.

Butterflies everywhere…

I’m still watching that cocoon.

No hatching…hatching? Is that the right word? I don’t know.

It’s been warm. Not the heat wave you keep seeing on the news.

I mean, they keep giving us warnings, but I think we’re still pretty bearable. Cats may disagree.

My phone thinks my volume is too high.

Intriguing. I’ve been listening to a book while quilting and doing yardwork and housework. I have one earpod in. Apparently now it will decrease my volume whether I like it or not (I need to be able to hear over the sewing machine. Fascist phone. What if people are hard of hearing? Anyway, I’m sure if I Google it I can figure out how to turn it off. Technology. Took me 30 minutes yesterday on chat with a Zoom person to figure out how to send feedback about their new cost increases. Y’all, I am not a professional Zoom user. I do not use it for my business (well, sometimes I do, but my business is one person. Me.). Why don’t they have a level between the free Basic and Pro that does not cost so much? For what I use it for, I don’t need all the AI and phone stuff…I just wanna hang out with my faraway friends on Zoom a couple times a month. Sheesh. Stupid.

OK, quilt guild meeting today. Need to sand doors (ugh). Lots of doors. Need to finish quilting this small one and pack up one to ship to my SIL for her wall. Her job is to sell it off her wall. Or just enjoy it. Also fine. The yardwork needs to start, as we go into a warm week. Carpet starts Monday…so I moved a bunch of drawers, but still have some stuff to move at the last minute…that’ll be tomorrow. Hoping to hike today? But will need to wait until 6 PM I think for it to cool down enough. That interferes with the Man’s dinner plans, although he’s going out to lunch, so he’ll probably need a nap. Might be hiking alone. Plan.

Slipping Off Slowly

I just realized it’s July. I missed that. Hello July! It’s the only full month of break that I get. I have a ton of things to do still, but I’m doing a good job of feeling like I’m on break. I’m doing lots of art and reading books. These are good things. I’m feeling the burnout slipping off slowly. This is awesome. I need to do more of that. I need to focus on forcing that into the new school year. I can’t do this every year. I need my day job to be only a day job…not an every-moment-you’re-awake-and-even-when-you’re-trying-to-sleep job. The less my day job allows me time, the more I think about retirement from that job. This is also the month I don’t get a paycheck…somewhat stressful.

Am I also stressed about American politics and the Supreme Not Court and the possibility of 40 more years of Trump? FUCK YEAH. Will that show up in a future quilt (or 10)? Oh my, yes. Right now, the big quilt I’m working on has a ton of war, especially Gaza and those affected by that war, and reproductive rights, which have been a constant issue in my head for a looonnngggg time. And thanks to those who can’t stay in their lane and get out of other people’s uteri, that’s not stopping any time soon.

Meanwhile, I do a little bit of that big quilt a day…

I thought I might be done Monday night, but that didn’t happen…Tuesday night, it did.

Almost 22 hours of trimming pieces, and I didn’t do the smallest pieces. I don’t cut them out until the last minute so I don’t lose them. So up next? Sorting them. That’ll be a couple of hours. Gonna wait for that part of the house to cool down to do that. It’s the sunny side right now.

I also sandwiched and pinbasted the two smaller pieces that have been lying around.

This meant crawling around on the tile with my kneepads on, sweating my ass off.

Small quilts don’t take as long…

There’s the second one…

Both ready for quilting now. Won’t take long. Just need to get my act together to get them done. And my act is on summer break. So there’s that. I had a plan this morning and it already got exploded, but for a good phone call, so I’m OK with that. Real life often gets in the way of plans.

I wanted to get to the ceramics studio this morning. I got there yesterday and happily had the opportunity to put iron oxide on my piece…

And then I started to wipe off the excess iron oxide…

I have some more glaze that needs to go on…some satin clear in a few areas, and I’m going to update the cat’s white fur. I tried to avoid the iron oxide there, but that’s kind of impossible. Well, that’s not true. I’d need wax resist and I didn’t have any, and I really didn’t think of it until today.

This back picture is a better view of the color…

And it will brown out a little when it’s fired. So ideally I would go in today and finish that up so she can be glazed. The other pots are probably ready to go in the bisque fire, but I’m getting totally into the glaze being perfect, which is silly. Anyway. Maybe today.

I’ve also been working on the upper torso of the world figure. The plan with this one is to make a quilt that hangs behind it and comes down under it. The winged piece above will have feathered wings over the ceramic ones and some fabric coming out of the top smokestacks. That’s the goal anyway.

I added the second hand and did some carving on the face and the ‘hair’ and the shoulders…

This one will have mostly underglazes, I think. That’s the plan. It may change with time. I also picked up some more groggy free clay. Some Texas clay. I’m apparently a clay slut. I’ll use anything. I do know that what I’ve been using is not great for sculpture; it slumps a lot. So this will be good.

So what else? Reading. I’m so behind on gardening/yardwork and housework…the fixing part. I was waiting on the contractor to come in and finish the window, which he did yesterday. Now I need to sand some major areas before the carpet goes in next Monday. So that’s a deadline. We also have a heat wave coming in…they’re saying Friday and Saturday, but my weather app is showing Monday and Tuesday will be even hotter. Joy. Not.

I finished the Period book…fascinating stuff. New ideas, new science, about an ancient biological process.

“Require sterilization”…holy crap. That’s a thing? That’s so disturbing. I can’t even think of a reason why that makes sense biologically.

And this was the end of the book…kind of how I look at what I do in my quilts.

Lots of social media memes/graphics about our current political mess…

And this…

Our current Supreme Court is a joke.

I dissent.

In local news, it’s a good thing we moved all that furniture last Friday, because the boychild’s been working this fire for a few days now and will probably make it home for one day, maybe.

It’s east of here, and somewhat under control.

He’s still out there though. So Sunday night, I’ll have to empty dressers and move a few things, strip two beds Monday morning. Not too bad though.

Remembering this for the upcoming school year.

The last one seems relevant.

And lastly, Nova has found the roll of quilts that normally lives under the bed…now it’s 4 feet higher, but she’s still lying on it.

This is why they’re all covered in sheets.

OK. I’m watching the Stitchpunk Textile Talk, three artists whose work is in the show. I need to go to the ceramics studio. I need to get some greenery trashcans filled…although I just realized they won’t pick up until Friday because of the holiday. I need to buy a box to ship a quilt…the one box I have is buried way way back in the dining area…no chance of getting to it. And I need to ship the quilt that is currently on my worktable so I can start ironing the big quilt together in the next few days. I’ve got pilates, I’m almost done with my book (90%! So hard to not just read it right now), and I need more tea. Definitely slept better last night…the night before, there was a skunk or raccoon that set Simba off, and then two loose dogs around 2 AM that made us get up, our upper neighbors get up, Simba lost his mind, and it was just generally not sleep-conducive. The one dog got trapped in my yard and couldn’t figure out how to get out, so he just kept barking, and the other one was running around, all upset. He eventually got trapped in the upper neighbor’s yard, more barking. Scared dogs, so no persuading them toward us. We finally just opened all our gates and went back in, hopeful they would figure it out. And they did. Hoping also that they made it home, wherever that is. OK. Make a plan. Even if it’s reading and napping (sounds lovely, doesn’t it?).

Protective

In-between days. I finished the quilt last night. I’m in that weird space between quilts that I hate. I don’t like having the next one ready to go. It freaks me out. No down time! No worries; I have a bunch of drawings tagged; just need time later today to go make some copies and then make some decisions. It’s a pro to have so many pieces out at shows or sold, but it makes it hard to enter new shows. And the day job is really not conducive to my finding MORE time for artmaking at the moment…unfortunately. I’m debating one show, trying to finish something for it. Ugh. Still thinking. Hence the headache, probably.

I did most of the binding and sleeve stitching on Tuesday night…just binge-watched stuff.

Walked away for 5 minutes and Nova landed.

I’m waiting to hear back from the photographer. For this show, I could take a half-assed picture and enter it, luckily. So I might need to do that. We’ll see.

Maybe take a picture of the WHOLE quilt, not folded over. So that was the 5th quilt for the year. Sigh. The previous year, I only hit 6 because I did a super tiny one that only took 9 hours in the last few days of the year. Seriously, the last 3-plus years of school have really sucked time away from the artmaking. It’s so frustrating. I keep trying to pull time back, give me more time to make (and sleep and clean and honestly just function) and the job just pulls back. I already know January is bad. It makes me cry. I just finished an art fellowship application, and they asked about how the money would help, and this is it…I need to retire. Not this year. But soon. Because it’s not fair to Art Brain to be working less and less on art because this country is taking more and more teacher time. So yes, the brain is trying to figure out how to make the rest of the school year easier, how to protect ME time, and I don’t have a solution. Let’s hope I find one.

I’m still working on Mom’s Tinsel quilt…got most of the extra embroidery done, hopefully done today, then borders on, then circles on, then hand it back to her. Then get the other quilt done for Barbara. Plus figure out what I’m doing next. I seem to be ignoring school right now. I’m gonna have to stop ignoring it soon. Tomorrow is the day I get all the donations done and delivered. Then the Man and I have two days of no work, although art is allowed, reading is allowed, games and puzzles are allowed.

Dropped the girlchild at the airport yesterday. She went to Texas (friends) for New Year’s, then back home to San Francisco.

I told her I wanted to visit when her SO was there so I could meet him. So that’s in 2024. Death Valley might be in 2024. It’s hard to plan until the Man can get a job, but he got more treatment approved by his doctor today, so hopefully this will solve it and he can get back to work. So much stress around the holidays this year.

For me, the rest of today is three Zoom calls, one with a naturopath, which I’m looking forward to helping me with blood sugar etc; one with one set of stitching friends, where hopefully I’ll get those Mom and Barbara things further on the road to done; and the last with another set of stitching friends. Who knows what I’ll be doing by then. I think pilates is in the middle of all that. It’s a weirdly busy day in between pajama days. I think I need to trim all those tree bits the boychild cut down and get them into bins today too. Yikes. Deep breaths. I don’t see peace in 2024 yet. I see me as the Hulk, standing protectively in front of my art and my time, growling at anyone or anything that tries to mess with me. I guess that’s a thing. Sorta like this…

Yeah, I can see that. Don’t mess with me? I wish it were that easy. I saw this video of a young elementary school teacher ‘showing’ how we could reduce our work week to 43 hours. Yeah, she used her prep period…the one I rarely get. Sigh. Making more tea. Being protective.

We Do Our Best…

Well I’m off by a day again. Christmas seems a good excuse. I probably could have written this yesterday in between things, but I did other things instead. It’s all about choices, right? I’m the one who makes my rigid schedule, and there’s good reasons for it…it makes me write, but I’m also the one who can revise it at will. Besides, this is the floofy part of the year that has no purpose and no actual days of the week. Except for the one when the trash company picks up. You should know that one. And if you have to donate stuff by the end of the year, you should realize that is coming. And if you are trying to take advantage of some special sale deal thingie, they probably are up by now. Too late. So sad.

The holidays are days of chaos, no matter what your choices, I think. So Friday night, I picked up one friend and her kid from the airport and went out to dinner with them. I’ll see them next December probably. They live far away and I don’t get to travel much: money, time, all that. I kept quilting Friday afternoon and night…

And Saturday morning and evening…

Then Christmas Eve, I trimmed her…

Before we went to that party. I was wearing the outfit below, but with knee pads.

That was the Man’s holiday party. Then after Christmas night’s dinner, I put the binding on…

Hand sewing tonight and tomorrow…emailed photographer now. There’s a deadline on this one. So many have deadlines.

I managed to get all the applique pieces on this and started the embroidery at last night’s event.

We’re changing up the borders. I needed mom to cut a bunch of tiny circles. She has a machine and dies for that, which she brought to Christmas dinner…like you do.

It didn’t have the one size we needed, although the box said it did, which was just weird. So we cut some varying sizes. Figured we’d alternate between 1/8″ bigger and 1/8″ smaller. We’ll see. Certainly this is easier than cutting them out by hand. There aren’t dies though for most of what I do.

On Saturday, the Man and I went for a hike…

Apparently he was more excited about halfway than I was.

There’s been lots of dog activity. Or really, lack of activity…

Annie is still injured, so the cone is on most of the time. She licks her paw otherwise…occasionally she’s allowed out with supervision…Grandma is her favorite…

But she’ll settle for the Man…some sort of communal napping going on here.

Simba is always tortured by the girlchild’s costuming choices…

Poor little panda guy.

So I sucked at family pictures. Again. Here’s Christmas morning…

Chaos all around. Then dinner at the other house…

I didn’t even take pictures of the food. Spaced out. Ah well. We hope, as always, that we’ll have another year of it. Maybe I will remember photos in 2024. Luna hopes so.

But I have plenty of pictures of her. Here, she wants pets. More pets. This is after she hooked my finger with her claw. Bloody beast.

We also cleaned out the owl box.

We found the owlet I suspected had died in June.

Headless this time. Less of a haul this year. There were some rats too, but not all of them…heads missing. That might be their skulls. Hard to say. We’re leaving the box down for a few weeks. There’s 6 trees that will be trimmed in January, and the hope is that they will not destroy the owl box in the process. We might pull it off completely; we’ll see. Certainly I’m going to have to pull up some plants to protect them. Ah well. That’s January’s problem. And stress.

This week is not stress free. I have an arts application to complete, plus some stuff to ship out, plus donations to make before the end of the year. Lots to do. Grading still too. Hoping to get a good chunk done before the weekend, when we’ll take a couple nights of destressing. We hope. Then I’ll have to start planning the next unit and a half next week. Head down. There’s so much I can’t get done. I don’t feel very productive so far this break…or relaxed. I’m hoping to get there, but it’s been difficult. I know it’s supposed to be a mindset, but the weight of the to-do list is ever present. The only solution to that is to cross things off it and carve out some time for my sanity. Which is what the rest of this school year looks like. So not really thrilled with that. I did get some ceramics classes for Christmas…literally gonna carve those out of the schedule once I survive January. So that’s something to look forward to.

Hoping your holidays were what you needed them to be. I’m glad the official stuff is over and I can stop worrying about food and wearing stuff besides pajamas. Says the woman who needs to shower and go to the grocery store today. Yeah. Well. We do our best.

Gloom…

It’s dark and gloomy this morning. That California storm finally hit us last night, but not super hard. We’ve had over half an inch of rain and a tiny bit of thunder and lightning…nothing like up north. Enough that I don’t have to water for a few days though. Enough that I don’t feel a need to leave the house today. Wait. I need binding fabric for this quilt…I want to finish it before the 26th so I can contact the photographer and give him more time…and the fabric store I usually shop at has heinous hours these days. Which they say they aren’t changing. So it’s today or tomorrow, and tomorrow is more complicated. I did finish stitchdown on Wednesday…just sat down and did it all after writing the blog. That is one of the things I miss about teaching before COVID…coming home for the weekend and spending ALL DAY Saturday just doing art stuff. It’s hard to pull that off these days. I always have to do all the stuff I didn’t get done during the week. Stitchdown took a whopping 2 hours and 44 minutes, then I sandwiched and pinbasted that night, so I put in 3 or 4 hours.

Delightful. I still haven’t finished putting up Christmas stuff. Or wrapping it. Or putting it together.

But the tree made it into the house.

Yesterday, I was doing other stuff all day…it took 3 hours to put labels on two quilts, clean them up, iron them, and pack them up for shipping. They’ll both be traveling until 2027, I think. Hopefully I’ll see them in the traveling exhibition at some point. So far, they’ll be too far away. So I did that all morning.

Then in the afternoon, I had a couple of Zoom calls, one with stitching friends, so I started work on this thing…

So this is Sue Spargo’s Tinsel block of the month from 2022. I wasn’t going to do it, but mom likes Christmas stuff, so I signed up. I thought I’d just make it for her, but realistically, I wouldn’t finish until 2030, so I did all the applique, gave her three blocks last Christmas, three for her birthday in February (a little late because I got sick), and three for Mother’s Day. She did all the embroidery, which is the fun stuff anyway, right? Then she handed them back to me in September or October.

So yesterday, I trimmed them all.

One of the fun things about this is that the seam allowances sometimes get a little tiny. Luckily, I’ve done quite a few of these and know how to fix that. Sometimes you need to re-embroider something over the seam allowance…like that bottom tree branch on the right, and the bottom of the pot in the middle one…plus the blue bits at the top of that tree. No worries.

I pieced them on Zoom with my stitching friends.

Then there are some bits to be appliqued and embroidered after it’s all together.

Then put the borders on and applique some of the dots…I’m actually changing up the border embroidery. Mom likes it better too. I’ll give it back to her for the border embroidery, hopefully next week, and then she’ll give it back to me to be quilted and bound. Then it’s hers! It’s only taken a year plus. I’m the slow cog in the wheel, as always. I have another quilt here from a stitching friend who finished her part…so next week, I’ll put her borders on, quilt it, put a binding on it, and then hopefully hand it off before the end of break. That’s the plan anyway. We know how plans go.

Meanwhile, I did start quilting last night…did a little over an hour…

I’m going to continue with that this morning, with the plan of buying binding before the quilt store closes today. At 3. Too early, y’all. I probably won’t finish quilting all of it, but I can finish the outlining. I don’t want to be stuck without binding on Christmas Day. Yes. Ironic. There’s a break between morning and evening stuff, though, and a hike and some stitching is the best way to fill it. I know what I want for binding, and I don’t have enough of it in my stash. So shop.

I also finally framed and hung the last two Quilt National posters.

I had to email and pay for shipping to get them, because I couldn’t go to either opening…timing plus cost plus COVID. Annoying. Maybe I’ll get into another one to fill that space on the right, and I’ll make it to THAT opening. Sigh.

Simba’s eyelid seems to be fine. Hopefully the growth will not come back. He’s a good boy.

OK, so I’m outline quilting until it’s done, probably another hour or two. There’s thunder again. And more rain. Gloomy as shit this morning. Then to the quilt store. I have a friend and her son flying in tonight, so I am braving the drive to the airport this evening to get them and drop them at their hotel. Then quilting again tonight, hopefully, at some point. It’s movie night first. I think. Tomorrow is grocery shopping for Christmas, plus a hike, I hope. Finish quilting. Get a binding on probably Sunday? Not sure. Sunday is when family stuff starts for the Man, then mine on Monday. Y’all know how that goes.

Anyway, enjoy your holiday however you can/need to. I know for some it’s not enjoyable, so do your best. Read a book. Drink some spicy something-or-other. Cuddle up with a blanket if appropriate. Southern hemisphere, do what you need to do. Make some art if that’s a thing for you. I’m working on a fellowship application due January 4. Plus all the other things on the to-do list, including grading, unfortunately. It has to be done. But also doing some things that make it easier to get through the have-tos.

Aiming for Balance…

Well I was up at an ungodly hour this morning to take the dog to the vet…he had a growth on his eyelid that needed to be removed. He’s fine. Slightly sedated. About as tired as I am. I had some breakfast and graded while I was waiting for him. Then came home and graded some more while waiting for the tree guy. Six trees to be trimmed, one is huge, and another to be removed. Not cheap. If you wanna know what I’m spending my quilt money on. It needs to be done so nothing falls on the house. I think that’s one of the biggest expenses here…the trees. I love them…they give shade and coolness in the summer, which saves on A/C (which I don’t have), but they do require maintenance. Lots of maintenance.

Anyway, so I have been working on the quilt but not more than I would during the work week. I have been doing Xmas things and dealing with house stuff. Shopping. Shipping. Doctor. Vet. Blah. But I did finish ironing the whole quilt together…here’s Monday night…

And then I pieced the background and ironed it all down.

It’s not huge or complicated. Then last night, I started stitching down…

It’s not hard…just time-consuming.

I think honestly I’m going to do more of that this afternoon. I worked on school stuff, finished grading two things, input them, fixed the 7th-grade calendar, TOC, and draft class. I shouldn’t have to do more schoolwork today. I have tons on my to-do list. I made a phone call about the stained glass. I ordered meds and cat food and cat litter and all this stuff. I set up the tree trimming. I should make a dermatologist appointment. Then I can stitch down. Finish it. Get it pinbasted tonight. Start quilting tomorrow. I still have one big assignment to grade…it’s not hard, just time-consuming…and one small one. Then a ton of planning. It doesn’t help that I killed my screen yesterday…

That’s my work computer. Whoops. An errant headphone got stuck under the lid. I didn’t think I pushed hard on it; I didn’t close it all the way. Might be that a cat sat on it. Still my fault and IT is out until January 2. I’ve been projecting the screen to the monitor to the right to get stuff done. Glad I have that option anyway. I have this computer in here too. So not a loss, but I would like it fixed before school is back in session. What are the odds of that? LOW. Fuck. Let’s consider that a 2023 fuckup. So 2024 starts clean? Maybe. What are the odds.

I do occasionally toss stuff out and not grade it. Not these though. It’s the entire Unit 3 so far. Hefty. Not tossing it. Maybe grade one class a day for 5 days? Or try to get it over with sooner? Hard to say. I also need to deal with Xmas gifts and decorating and cleaning. Plus ship some stuff and/or get it ready for shipping. But for now? I’m gonna put that book on Audible (I’ve already read it, or I would be totally lost with this story) and do some stitchdown. Sounds good. There’s a balance…I’m aiming for it. Not quite there yet though.

Also still puppy sitting on and off…

She doesn’t like the cone. Or the sock. This is morose Annie. Hopefully she’ll get approved for cone/sock release today. She’s so sad otherwise. There’s no in between with her…sad or hyper as shit. OK. Stitching now.

Shopping and Shipping

Just listening to @underthedesknews about university admissions and the Supreme Court…legacy admissions could be out! I’m good with that. And that is how I am spending my Winter Break? Listening to social media news? Nah. It’s been a little chaotic so far. Let’s start with quilt progress, which has not been as much as I’d like, but whatever. I’ve been ironing…here’s Friday night’s progress…

Then Saturday night…

And Sunday night, when I stayed up way too late…

Because I was ALMOST done and then I felt like I was too tired for the last half hour so I didn’t actually finish. So yeah. I thought I’d be done ironing yesterday, but I forgot how much time having both kids around takes, and you wanna hang out with them, so there isn’t as much time for other stuff. So I suspect I’ll be done tonight. Hopefully. Stitchdown tomorrow. Quilting by Thursday? Maybe. IDK.

I’m still not done with shopping and shipping, and that will be an issue, so I need to get my act together on that front. Ah well. I did do some today…and passed by these weird things…

On the walk to the used bookstore.

Poor Santa in a cage…

So Saturday, we went on a friend’s birthday hike…

It was warm for December…high 70s. Warmer than you would like. But a winery solved that issue afterwards…

Sunday was family stuff…

I finished one book on Saturday…

Light fiction…I finished a harder one, nonfiction, on Sunday. Well on my way to finishing one a day? OK, probably not…

Sleepy cold kitties. We are also babysitting the puppy so that she doesn’t chew her foot off. She’s been pretty chill. Apparently she is depressed because of the cone and the wrap on her foot. She tore part of her claw off. Whoops. Silly girl.

Yeah, that’s been going on for a while. Needs to stop.

OK, I need to do some schoolwork and set up the tree so I can get the cats out of the needles and maybe clean some stuff. And figure out the rest of Christmas. Ugh. At least there’s no school in that. I can appreciate that.

Whatevering…

Five days. I can do that. Right? Sure. The fact that I was rewriting (only in my head, not in real life yet) the entire week’s lesson plans while trying to fall asleep last night is not a problem, right? Why do that? Because the lesson progression doesn’t make sense. I sort of saw that last week, but thought I could get away with it, because I wanted something that would keep them engaged through Friday, but the reality is that they can’t do that thing WELL without doing the other thing first, so I’m just going to have to figure out how to make it work. I haven’t entirely figured TODAY’s lesson out either. I need another brain. I start planning and then I lose sight of the big picture, and then my brain worries out all the details, but I need to go back to the big picture and not let the short-sightedness of some people stop me. Man, this year is just…it’s just like last year…but worse. I can’t get my head around this stuff. It’s better than last year (the planning/organization), but it’s not great yet. I remember it took my co-teacher and I a good 6 years to make the lessons good. I don’t have 6 years. I go back to 7th grade not next year but the year after. And while I appreciate all the lessons the new teacher has provided, I need the logical backstory. And I don’t quite have it yet. I keep asking and not getting a story. So then I have to try to make one by myself, and myself is not doing great. I’m not even halfway through the year and I feel done. Like dried-out Thanksgiving turkey done. So much as I am looking forward to Winter Break (and getting a break), I know I will need to hash out the next unit. By myself. And it doesn’t make sense to me yet.

All that aside, I survived the weekend. I even thought I was getting sick, but overdosing on Vitamin C and getting two decent nights of sleep helped. Still overdosing though.

I met with some of the SAQA So Cal/NV members at Visions on Saturday.

I’m looking thrilled. Really. We did get a tour through the exhibit, which was nice. I talked a little bit about my quilt…

Which is still there, if you haven’t seen it. They had some pop-up artists’ shops, which was cool. A friend I hadn’t seen for years was running one of them, so it was nice to catch up. We had lunch after…

It’s almost normal! Like going to see art and hanging out afterward. I was going to go to another fiber art thing afterward, but I had too much schoolwork to do…so I came home and worked for about 3 hours. Then the Man and I went to see the Dresden Dolls with Amanda Palmer…

I’d never seen the band before…

I enjoy me some Amanda though…

It was a good show. That said, we are old and standing for 3+ hours on concrete is not ideal. And yet, we keep doing it. We must like it, even if our feet and backs don’t.

We got home too late to make art! I was hoping to get some done before we went, but the assignments were more insistent.

Sunday, I graded a lot more. And that’s when the lesson plan issue came up. I’m hoping to have a prep period today and time after school to figure it out. I had 1 prep period last week that wasn’t meetings or subbing my prep, so it would be nice to have another this week. We’ll see.

Last night, I did stop grading/planning at about 9:15 and cut stuff out for a little over an hour…

It’s hard not to just stay up and finish, but that would have been at least another hour, I think. We’ll see, because I’ll be finishing tonight hopefully. That’s the plan anyway. Then sorting and ironing by midweek.

Meanwhile, I’m nursing a nasty scrape on my arm that wants to be infected, but I’m trying to persuade it not to be with lots of neosporin and care. I don’t have time for a trip to urgent care to get meds. It just needs to behave. It’s better today than it was Saturday, when it was swollen and hot and yuck. Swelling has gone down. It’s still itchy, but I think that’s healing itchies. It’s not hot anymore. Good times. Can’t have a holiday season without some bizarre reason why you SHOULD go to urgent care. Even if you don’t.

In other news…

Gonna add reading books to this list, but that probably wasn’t as much of a thing in the dark ages.

Here’s Kitten about to whack me for being in her space. You know, the space in front of the computer where I’m trying to type.

And Simba trying to cuddle…

It’s been cold at night.

I love random measurements.

OK. Today. Teaching some stuff, but I’m not exactly sure how, and I didn’t put all the materials out on Friday like I normally do, because I had to be at the sex-ed curriculum meeting right after school and duty at the light. So I really should get my ass to school to figure all that out. I’ll figure part of it out on the 12-minute drive over there. Then redo the lesson plan for the whole week, copy some stuff, rewrite the lesson plan for Wednesday’s half-day sub so I can do literacy planning with my team on the book I was supposed to start reading this weekend and DID NOT. Whoops. I have read it before. But I remember very little. Teach all day, whatever that looks like (wish I knew). Finish planning/copying/whatevering after school, come home, do things, very specific things I haven’t figured out yet (probably involving reading a book I’ve already read). I’m cooking dinner. I’m also going to finish cutting stuff out. Hopefully. It’s a very mentally chaotic day I think. Ugh. Hate those. May tomorrow be less so.