Owie.

Yup. Days still off. I don’t usually write on Saturday. Today is crazy nuts too. Like work is making me hyperventilate and Christmas is giving me hives. Somehow I scraped my arm (IDK even where or when) and I think it’s infected. I just smeared neosporin all over it because my other option is going to urgent care and I don’t have any time in my schedule for that unless I forego sleeping. Which I’m already doing at some stupid level. Sure, I could stop making art for an hour every night, but WHAT THE FUCK NO WAY. So yeah. It’s that time of year. Pro: there’s only 5 days of school left. Con: I have to survive them.

I came home from work yesterday (11 hours straight y’all) and I had almost no voice left. And I felt like a truck had hit me. I feel better this morning, but I haven’t talked to anyone but furry beasts, one of whom is glaring at me right now because I moved her away from the keyboard. And after 11 hours AT work, I then spent another hour plus…working. I’m so behind in everything: planning, grading, etc. I can’t think straight. I lost 4 prep periods this week to meetings and having to sub my prep (7th-grade math) so I got very little done. Meetings before and after school…three befores and two afters. I thought we’d be done with the sex-ed curriculum meetings, but no…they added four more in January, which now looks like hell. Can’t worry about that now though. It’s only December and I’m not allowed to worry about the future, so I’m just thinking about today (so not true, but I’m trying, really really hard).

I did carve out (literally had to make myself stop working) time to make art on Thursday night…

These piles look cool if you compare them. Because then here’s last night, when I cut stuff out for two hours, because I quit working at 9 instead of 9:30, and then I stayed up past 11.

I suspect I have two more nights of cutting, and tonight is complicated by a concert we’re going to, so probably not cutting tonight. Let’s say I’m done Monday, sort Tuesday, ironing together by Wednesday? That’s the plan anyway. Like my lesson planning for school at the moment, just assume everything will take twice as long as you think it will. Because it will.

It’s OK…I’m at the stage of the quilt where I don’t have to think very hard, which is good, because I’m constantly thinking about curriculum instead. Thinking I might just make a 45-minute edpuzzle assignment for Friday so I don’t have to deal with kids. Sounds good. Ugh. I have a literacy thing this week too that will put me out of HALF my classes for a day, which completely fucks up my planning. I hate this shit.

It’ll be fine. It’ll be.

I wish more people who knew me realized this about my brain.

They don’t. Or maybe they do.

So here’s the rough drawing of what my school holiday door will look like.

They got a solid start on it Friday, but we only really have Tuesday and Wednesday to finish it. Not feeling it. Me that is. But they’re all into it so I don’t fucking care. I’ve already done all the social/emotional learning lessons I’m supposed to be doing this month. IDK how I got so far ahead, but I’m rewarding myself with just having them draw and color for four days. Maybe five.

The Man is still job-hunting, complicated by a work-related injury. So he walked Simba yesterday…

Which was good for both of them. I enjoy those walks when I can…probably not today though. Plus then Simba was super tired.

Which is also good.

OK. It is Saturday, so no school, all good. Well, I need to grade and plan. But for today, I have a SAQA meeting at Visions, then there was a thing I was going to go to (art-related) that I think I will have to miss, just for my own sanity. Then we have a concert tonight, which I am actually looking forward to…the Dresden Dolls. I also need to finish grading this one hellish assignment and grade a ton of late work and redoes so kids stop freaking out so much (it’s been a week since I did the last batch). Then really get my head around next week’s plan, because I’ve switched it about 17 times. I think I’m just going to have to make video instructions for the three afternoon classes and then pray to the Teacher Goddess that they actually do something. Two of the classes will. One will be problematic. It was delightful yesterday because that ONE KID was absent. Y’all know how that works. Another of those ONE KIDs was suspended all week and that was also delightful. Although that class is still problematic. Honestly the biggest issue is all the kids who are absent constantly, at least one day a week, or all last week, or whatever, and then I just hand them the papers and say, you’ll need to figure it out. It’s on Google Classroom. Literally there’s no time to help them when I’m dealing with that day’s assignments. This year’s kids don’t go home and make work up. They just assume it was a free day. Or week, for some of them. I didn’t schedule much teacher down time last week and that was part of the problem. Note to planning self: GIVE YOURSELF A FUCKING BREAK. Yeah. OK. I hear you. I’m trying.

OK. Shower. Breakfast. More neosporin on the owie. Cut stuff out at some point. Because even if I’m going to two things that are NOT work related, I should be able to sit and relax for an hour with the scissors and the fabric.

Let It Percolate…

Deep intake of breath. It’s only Wednesday. (laughs hysterically) OK. Well. The pro is that because I finished grading stuff last week, I have come home from school the last two days and done NOTHING school-related. The con is that yesterday was probably the last day I could do that. TWO DAYS Y’ALL. I made it two days. Better than I’ve done all school year, actually…well, when we went camping…nope…I didn’t make it two full days then, did I. Sigh. Last week, which I had OFF, didn’t make it two days. I did also read yesterday, though. I’m reading a really good book, at least it is so far, and I’d rather do that than a lot of things. I’m looking at today, with a two-hour sex-ed curriculum meeting after school, and thinking…when the fuck am I going to be able to read my book? Important question. Maybe lunch. That could work. I’m feeling antisocial.

Artwise, not having to work at night has meant a little more art time. Although yesterday was a cluster, because I had pilates, then had to pick up cat meds (again, my fault, picked up the wrong ones on Monday), then came home and packed up the dogs because the males are back from the UK and all dogs go to the other house on Tuesday! Yes, I slept dog free last night. It was delightful. Although cats can be just as annoying. Also, I’ve been having really vivid, very strange SCHOOL dreams, not about being a teacher, but about being a student. Ugh brain. Why.

Anyway, rejoice in the ironing! Even if it is slow. Because my brain is sluggy mush. Monday night, I finished cleaning up all the fabrics in the studio and started ironing…first, I lay out 100 pieces. And there’s often an animal in there with me. Annie did the typical ‘lie in the middle of the floor so Kathy has to walk over her a million times’ thing.

Good dog. I didn’t get very far on Monday…

Lots of color, but tiny little pieces mostly.

Last night, I did a little better…

I went all out on the water…

Sometimes I pick fabrics because (a) they bring me joy to see and (b) they’ve never been used before. (b) is not true for that hand-dyed fabric, or for the ones on the top right or top left, but the other two were untouched. That’s one issue with having a LOT of fabric is that you tend to reuse the same ones over and over again, and then buried in the back of some bin is some glorious thing that you’ve forgotten you owned. I’ve been culling fabric to donate and have found some very interesting stuff. That’s a good thing. No, I’ll never use it all up. That’s not the point. The point is having all the choices.

I swear, someday I’ll go on an artist retreat and I’ll only be able to bring one suitcase full of fabric, and it will kill me to create that way. OK, not really…it just feels that way.

Anyway, after all that, I don’t even have the first 100 pieces ironed. I’m slow this week. On many things. Although my crowning achievement this week is finally successfully using the new reimbursement system our district has implemented…despite the instructions having no basis in reality. I’m feeling good about that. Finally getting reimbursed for stuff I bought in August. September is next! Don’t laugh. I might cry.

More ironing tonight…I’ll finish the island and then move on to the main figure…I haven’t decided what color to make her yet. I have some crazy ideas. Not feeling the flesh tones at the moment. Too many of those in the last quilt…although the goddess made out of the earth tones was fun. Won’t necessarily work for this one. We’ll see. Let it percolate all day. See how much energy I have at 6:30 when I get home.

This is what the dogs do when I am not home…

Smart really. Not today, though…it’s all cloudy and cold. OK, need to finish breakfast, make lunch, get out of here to copy a bunch of stuff for next week. Then talk about electricity all day, something I barely understand. Good stuff. Well at least I am learning new stuff, yeah? Lab tomorrow, hopefully. Although also another 2 hours of sex-ed curriculum meetings. Ugh. Almost done with those. They say. Not sure I believe it. Then read some of my good book and iron some stuff. Yeah, I know I said I would work after today’s meeting, but I suspect I’ll be in one of those ‘damn school already took up too much of my time today’ moods. Yeah. Wouldn’t surprise me.

And the Next Day…

I’m trying very hard to eat my breakfast, type this, and babysit a rambunctious puppy before I go to school today. I’m not ready for school…mentally. Physically, I can do today. And then I’ll think about the next day. And the next day. Which makes it hard when your boss wants a lesson plan for some Thursday and he probably wants it earlier than the morning of. Or the night before. Which is where I’m at right now. I have stuff planned out in order, but no clue how long most of it will take, so who the fuck knows what I’ll be teaching on the day he wants to observe. I mean, I’ll know on the day. I hate not being planned better, but it’s physically impossible right now to get there. Again. For the fourth year in a row. So completely done, y’all. PRO! I finished grading things, so I have a few days of leeway before I have to get back on that. I really wanted to be fully planned out for the next three weeks, but it didn’t happen. I have a rough plan for two of them…some decisions need to be made, and otherwise, I just need to let it play out to get the timing right. Absolutely no help on that from anywhere. Sigh.

Moving on. So I finished tracing the quilt on Friday night…

It’s been really fast compared to the last one. Then Saturday night, I cut all the pieces out.

Luckily Annie slept through all that, although she did just about knock an entire box over when she woke up to Simba’s barking.

Yeah. All of them. It was about 4 1/2 hours. Delightful. Last night, I sorted them all…

It took a whopping 18 minutes. So funny. The last one was over 2 hours. I do love a big complicated quilt, but sometimes this is a relief, to do a smaller, less complicated one.

Then I started trying to clean up the studio, putting fabric away so I can start ironing to fabric tonight. I’m not done cleaning, but I’m not cooking tonight and I have no grading (just planning) to do, so hopefully I can spend a little more time in here tonight and actually start ironing to fabric. We’ll see.

Friday was also our Thanksgiving dinner, with my family…just the parents and the Man. The kids are still in the UK…actually, I think the girlchild is back now.

Mom is not fazed by dogs…even very in-your-face dogs.

She’s ripping borders off a quilt duvet she made so she can turn it into a king-sized duvet instead of a queen. Pain in the ass…

Dad also had a dog…

They were very patient with my turkey issues…it turned out fine, but took an hour longer than I had planned. As usual.

Kept it pretty simple. Yes, the dressing turned out great. Second time.

Small group. Lots of cooking and cleanup, but nice to see them otherwise.

This is a first…Nova and Simba on the bed together.

It didn’t last long. It’s like the bed is neutral territory and anyone (but Annie) can be up there together. Weird.

Also weird that we still have caterpillars on milkweed that is still blooming.

We’ll see if any of it survives to next year.

OK. Three weeks of school until the next break. That’s 15 days. Fifteen days with 1 assembly, 1 observation, 1 literacy meeting, possibly 4 sex ed curriculum meetings, 3 staff meetings, 1 union/principal meeting, at least 3 parent-teacher meetings, at least 4 labs, and who knows what else that I just don’t know about yet. I think I can do that. Maybe. Also a quilt to finish, hopefully sooner rather than later. We’ll see how that goes.

No Cap…

‘Tis morning. There will be no sleeping in with a puppy. In case you were wondering. She thinks it’s time to get up way earlier than I do. Unfortunately. Ah well. Here’s Simba and Anwen (aka Annie)…

As you can see, she’s grown from the last time she visited…and Simba is not really a fan. She is a sweetheart but hyper and into stuff and sometimes doesn’t know her own strength. Plus she turns a year old next month but doesn’t act like it. And she’s an early riser. Ugh. It’s a good thing she’s cute and a sweet baby. Cuz she’s currently in my studio here trying to eat all the things.

Although she does slow down eventually.

Not a bad way to spend a little time.

A few people have commented how I went right into making the next quilt. Well a couple of things are going on there. First of all, I have a tight deadline coming up. So there’s that. I really didn’t expect the Supreme Court quilt to take quite that long. I was thinking it’d be done mid-October; I had a show I was thinking of, but then school was a bastard again and took up way too many weekend hours, and there was no way I was making any deadline of October. Plus it sold anyway, so there’s that. No deadline there.

Anyway, the second part is that I actually LOVE making art. I love it more than my day job (which has morphed into my every-night job and my all-weekend job as well). So if I take a break from art, then really I come home after doing the day job, do more of the day job, and don’t really have anything that feels fulfilling at the end of the day. It sucks. I’ve done it for short times before, and I’m sure people are like, hey lady, just RELAX and hang out with friends and family, but I do that anyway, and I find making art the BEST KIND of relaxation. I mean I love hiking and reading and traveling, but artmaking is what I need the most. I’m not even really a fan of social interactions…don’t get me wrong, I like hanging out with friends and talking etc, but if you said, hey Kathy, you can EITHER make art every day OR hang out with your friends every day, my artistic introverted self would choose the art. Every Time. So there’s that.

Anyway, I finished drawing the new piece (which is much smaller and less complicated) on Monday night…

And I numbered it too…

Only 464 pieces. I had another piece this year on a deadline…only 5 weeks to finish it, so I had a guideline of how many pieces to aim for. Although while I’m drawing, I have no clue how many pieces it will be. I just limited my desire to add more details to everything.

Simple. For me.

My second goal with this is to spend more than an hour a night working on it. I have way too much to do this week. I’m trying to get caught up on grading, because I know what the next three weeks look like and it’s hellacious. I also need to lesson plan; I have the first week planned out (mostly) and the next two weeks are still hellacious and I can’t guarantee I’ll have time to lesson plan. So I’m panicking a bit. I do have a goodly chunk of the grading done so far…need to do some more today and then start planning. The yard is a mess; I did some things yesterday, but there’s lots more. AND that whole Thanksgiving thing…I’ll be cooking Friday for that. I’m also trying to get some stuff fixed around the house; yesterday I replaced all the batteries in the rain gauge (found two spiders living in it, one quite large…I’m hoping that’s why it didn’t seem to be working), plus fixed a toilet. I need to do some plant shopping; not sure when that’s happening. I went to the gym yesterday; that was on my list, as was dealing with Simba’s eye (weird growth). I’m still hoping this stained-glass guy can come over and repair my window. Not sure when that is happening. So crazy busy for a week off (it always is).

BUT, I did manage more than an hour on the quilt each day…last night, I spent two hours tracing Wonder Under…

Tonight will hopefully be more of the same. I’d like it all traced by Friday. Seriously. I’m not kidding. I’m not sure if I have a background fabric, so I might need to get that on Friday (in between turkey cooking and whatever). I need to use the free (FREE…ha!) time I have to get ahead. On everything. Otherwise everything is rushed and frantic, and this time of year is kinda like that anyway. I’ve barely done any Xmas shopping. The girlchild comes home before break starts for me, so her room needs to be cleared by then. I’ve been packing up fabric to donate; I’d like to ship those out Friday or Saturday to get them out of here. It’s all good things…there’s just too many of them.

By the way, I’ve got this down.

Hopefully I’ll have time to cull some of that before I actually die, but hey, if not, the boychild will probably burn it all anyway.

The three of them (boychild, girlchild, and ex) are now all together in the Londonish area…but girlchild sent me this cool photo.

I hope they’re having fun.

OK, today unfortunately includes a trip to the dentist to deal with a failing filling, but then pilates. And artmaking. But I need to finish grading this one assignment and a bunch of redoes on another. Plus brine the turkey. I’m debating doing that tomorrow morning, since we aren’t doing turkey day until Friday. Can’t decide. I feel like this afternoon is just going to be way too busy. As usual. Well eat first. Then grade stuff. Or shower, then grade stuff. It’s nice to have some choices. Plus being able to pee when I need to. And to drink lots of tea and not worry about being able to pee when I need to. Plus it’s mostly quiet here. No kids calling me bruh and telling me no cap. That’s a plus.