The last Monday of 2024. Weird that. Why do Mondays have such strange power over us? I suspect if I had a different job, Mondays would be less ugh. I am a little over 1/3 of the way through my Winter Break. I still have a few things left to grade…a small pile of redoes that I can’t quite bear to look at…yet. I’ll get there. I’m in that weird molasses part of the year (break) where I don’t seem to get anything done. Although the boychild and I cut down part of a tree that was growing haphazardly. That was a thing. And I’m sure I checked some things off the to-do list, but as I do them, more take their place. It’s annoying. So then I check out and pull out a book and don’t get anything done in a day that seems really short anyway. I think every Winter Break is like this. I have a pile of labels to make and print, an art application to fill out, which means revising my resume with everything from this year…which sounds just like a lot of work. Good work. Work that needs to happen. But work nonetheless. I need to go trim some shit. I should just go do that. I’m tired, though. Trying a new medication to see if the visual disturbance goes away. It’s supposed to make me tired. I can concur. I am tired.
Or that’s just where I am right now. I also need to prep 5 quilts for shipping/delivery. Maybe later. Sounds like work.
I did restart quilting this, from two years ago.
It doesn’t take long. It’s lame that I haven’t finished it yet.
It’s Sue Spargo’s block of the month Bird Dance, which I started a million years ago. It took me through a lot of soccer games. I have about 1 1/2 columns left to quilt and then the border and then I can put a binding on it and it’s done. Then I can toss the other big quilt up there and quilt it too. While ironing another quilt together. It’s all doable. I just need to do it. Sounds simple. And complicated.
Thinking too hard at the end of the year.
Friday night, I was still trimming, but there wasn’t much left…
Saturday night, I finished…
A total of 18 hours and 49 minute of trimming…after 24 hours of ironing. I never documented the fabric range for this…but it was 189 fabrics…
I cleaned them all up yesterday, so I could reclaim enough boxes to sort the pieces…
No, he wasn’t helping.
It took 2 hours to do that. But I’m ready to start ironing together today. I’m ready to do a lot of things today; if only I had the energy.
The girlchild and I went to ceramics on Saturday…
She’s very intent on a few things. I’m making some random little things…
And this has been sitting around forever, waiting to be carved.
We’ll be back today. I did work on the big piece, in that I found a place on the drying shelves for the big one and the top of it is back on my shelf, waiting for me to figure out how to make the arms.
Finally made it out for a hike on Saturday afternoon.
Another energy thing.
Nice to get outside and exercise though. Even though my knees are complaining like crazy today.
It’s cold, y’all, but apparently not quite cold enough to cuddle.
Weirdos.
OK, I have a chonky to-do list still and it makes me feel better to check things off of it. Sort of obsessive in that way. Need to sort out some plant material…probably easier to do that before a shower, so do that first. Then shower and lunch and somehow the entire day will disappear and I’ll be at ceramics again. Seems fair. Nice to have days that can dribble away for once and not cause too much havoc.
Yo. What day is it? Yeah. We’re solidly in Winter Break then. My goal of finishing grades on Christmas Eve? Fucked. Well, I didn’t grade much on Christmas Eve because I realized people were coming over on Christmas and I hadn’t cleaned anything. In months. Welcome to teacher life. And the tree was still outside. I never got lights up outside. I found them. They are on the floor in the entryway. I put one whole ornament on the tree.
That tree needs to be planted after I’m done enjoying the cats playing with it in the house. It’s outgrown its pot. It was a volunteer I found in the yard years ago and I just kept upsizing its pot until it was big enough to be the Christmas tree. Not sure what I’ll do next year. I have 5 volunteer trees in pots but they won’t be big enough by next year to do anything. I’ll worry about that next year.
So I graded a tiny bit on Christmas Eve and a tiny bit on Christmas night, and then yesterday was going to be the finish day! Then I spent 3 hours with the neuro ophthalmologist so she could tell me again that they don’t know if the visual disturbance is in my brain or my retinas (because it would be in both). Did all the tests. Everything looks happily normal. Unlike me in general. So they’re going to try another migraine med to see if that solves it. It’s only really irritating at night, especially when driving. And sometimes I freak out because I don’t know what’s causing it. Aliens probably. Even the doc nodded her head at that possibility. So it’s mostly benign and not changing. She’ll see me in a year. Woo hoo. She’s nice and I like her, so it’s all good. She’s also thorough as hell; hence the 3 hours. I did finish an entire book in between all the tests and waiting. I guess that’s a good thing. The point being, my grades still aren’t done. I finished the packets (yay) last night. I have three more classes of an academic question, a pile of homework papers that need grading, and the late work and redoes. It’s probably 4 hours. Will I finish today? Maybe. I have other things I need to do, including replacing a crown. Ugh. No fun there.
I’m still making time to cut stuff out at night…which is good, because it feels like it’s taking forever. Because it is. This is Christmas Eve after the Man’s family party…
Then Wednesday night after my family’s Christmas dinner, which the boychild cooked.
My sole Xmas photo of my mom and the ex’s dog…
Then last night’s cutting…
I’m getting there. I still don’t see the bottom of the box of pieces. So maybe two more nights? Maybe three? Not sure. Same pile with Devil cat guarding.
There was some cat action last night as I was getting ready for bed. Also side view shows there’s quite a bit more in the to-be-cut box. Sigh. I need some consolidated time and I’m not getting it.
I did spend time on Christmas day finding the broken sprinkler…
I was hoping it was the riser, because that’s an easy fix. It wasn’t. It’s down in the ground. I need to trim more crap around it so I can get in there and dig further down to try to figure out how to fix it. Meanwhile, the owl box has bees, so I have to deal with that issue too…we’re supposed to be dropping the box and cleaning it out. Bees make that more complicated.
Bowie is still the most energetic living thing in the house…
Not like that’s hard. We’re all kinda tired. I want to hike, but I apparently mentally need to get past grading to get there. It doesn’t help that it’s cold and cloudy. Although yesterday was sunny and I didn’t feel it then either. This is probably why…
Maybe if I had enough caffeine? Also protein and less sugar would probably help…the post-holiday food has been a little lacking in healthy habit.
I’ve been doing some retirement stuff…mostly downloading crap and then sending it to my brother so he can tell me how fucked I am.
Although getting rid of the Windfall Elimination thingamabobby will help. I’ll actually get the social security I earned before becoming a teacher. What a concept.
I set a goal for reading last year of 95 books and I’ve read 108…with 4 days left, I should get at least 1 more done.
I’ve had some years where I hardly read at all…school just fucked me over completely (2020, I’m talking to you). But the last two years, I just didn’t let it stop me. I read in so many more places now. It makes me happy. So yeah, what goal do I set for this year?
From the most recent book, The Twisted Ones, which I really enjoyed (you gotta like horror though)…
The main character is a copyeditor, although it’s not a main part of the story…
So that part amused me. But also there’s a dog…and one of my rules is that the dog needs to survive dammit…and this one does.
Simba thinks the same thing. Throw in the pool guy.
Anyway. I need to go do some grading now. I really really really want to be done, so I don’t have to even THINK about school. So I’ll be working on that today, then reading another book while they work on my tooth (there’s so much down time when they’re waiting). And cutting more stuff out tonight. It looks the same every night…pro: it’s totally relaxing to just sit and cut while bingewatching TV. I do need to work on two quilts though…probably before I start ironing things together. But not until grading is done. I have one Spargo quilt that I started quilting two Christmases ago and I just need to finish it. And then a friend’s quilt, which was supposed to get done over Thanksgiving and then I was sick the whole time. So those will get peppered in. Plus hikes, dammit. I need more exercise. I need the outdoors. Plus that damn sprinkler and the owl/bee box and a whole host of other household and yard things that need to happen. Plus email this person about one thing and that person about another thing. Or grab the book and go hermit on the couch…tempting. January self needs me to get some shit done now though. So I’m respecting that. And I want to be drawing some too, and that hasn’t happened at all.
OK, I’m a day off. I got up yesterday and just started going and then didn’t stop. This morning, there’s gonna be a lot of the same, but I decided to start here. Because I knew tomorrow would be crazy too. What have I been doing on the first three days of Winter Break? Grading and cleaning, basically. I want the grading done early so I can enjoy the rest of my time off. I’m doing pretty well, although my goal of being done by noon today is probably not quite reality. I have one short academic assignment left that will take a couple of hours, one homework assignment that will take an hour or so, 2 classes of unit packets, an hour plus each for those, and a pile of redoes and late work handed in. That’s more time consuming, but maybe an hour? So that’s about 6 hours at the least. And it’s almost 9, I have to drive the girlchild to her dad’s, eat, finish this, get ready for pilates, leave the house at 1:40, then come back and shower for tonight’s party, AND wrap everything, prep the house for Xmas breakfast here tomorrow…OK, it’s just not happening. But I’m close. I think I can have it done on the 26th. So that’ll do. Because some of my to-do list really does have to be done by 5:15 tonight and some has to be done by 9:30 tomorrow morning. So there’s that.
I did take time yesterday to go to the ceramics studio with the girlchild and then forgot to take pictures. That was my down time. Plus I read a little bit here and there, because I need a break. I walk out to the mailbox because I need a break. I’ve tried the grading thing a bunch of different ways: do it all at the beginning, do it all at the end (that one is HARD), and do a little bit every day (you never escape it). This is the best way. Of course, the real best way is to have nothing to grade over break, but realistically, that doesn’t happen. And our progress report grades are due the week we get back, essentially, so unless I want to lose that weekend to grading, I’m going to do it all now. This damn job…sometimes…I really wish I had a job where I could shut the computer at the end of the day and walk away from it, rather than wake up to a teacher:student conversation in my head that I need to have with my students on January 14. Sigh. But there are pros to this job…like this…
They are not wrong. And they amuse me.
So. Art stuff. I mentioned clay. I’ll try to photograph later this week when we go back. Nothing monumental though. Fabric, I’m just cutting things out forever…Friday night…
Lots of letters. All of the letters.
Saturday night…
Tree parts mostly.
Sunday night…a big background piece and some other stuff…lots of weird eyeball things.
Monday night…more eyeball things, barbed wire, head on fire…
I’m in the 700s, working backwards from the 1600s. So more than halfway. Nine hours in. Crazy really. I’ve been staying up to my natural bedtime, which is around midnight. During school, I try to start going to bed at 10:30. I don’t like it, but I need the sleep, so there we are. I’ll cut out tonight, if I have time (see to-do list for reality check), but definitely the next few nights. Hopefully I’ll be sorting by Friday/Saturday and then ironing. Like I said, this one isn’t getting done in 2024. It’s fine. I’m not in a rush. Not on a deadline. Don’t have a plan for this one. The next one has a deadline, but it’s a ways out and requires some engineering I’m still considering in my head.
I think they finally approved our teacher job description (in the district where I’ve worked for 16+ years)…they took out the ‘traditional values’ bullshit, but added this physical abilities section that cracks me up…
Have they met my knees? Are they going to use this to remove some teachers? Because I know teachers with vision problems who adapt, those with hearing problems who adapt. Not to mention the rotator-cuff surgeries. Like who do they think will take our positions if we leave? There’s not a whole host of young teachers lining up, that’s for sure. Have I run, kneeled, squatted, twisted at school? Yup. And sometimes it hurts. Because I’m old. But not old enough to retire, you assholes. I could argue some of my knee/hip/neck issues are work-related too…so maybe consider the implications of going after people for that. Anyway. Fun times. They still have a ton of money lying around and won’t give us enough of a raise to cover the health insurance bump that happens every year. Please. Pay us less. We deserve it. As we run, twist, kneel through our jobs.
Sigh.
Same with teachers. Our lives matter less than that of a CEO. Don’t make money? Don’t matter.
In the same realm, this is very true.
Hell cat is also acceptable. And some book I just put on my to-read list has a sentient spider plant. I’d take that too. Or a bat.
I feel like I’ve posted this one before.
This is my goal at some point for break. And life.
I have totally done this…
I talked to the paperclips in the electromagnet lab. My students may think I’m nuts, but they don’t usually tell me that. Dammit, now I’m mentally back to the conversation I need to have with them in January. Like if you won’t read feedback and adjust to it, then you’re right, your science grade isn’t going to change. Sigh.
Girlchild and Simba love.
OK. Gotta do the things. Need food first. Need to get out of the way of Kitten and the sun (I’m in her spot right now). Then probably clean a floor and start wrapping. Then grade, exercise, shower, grade some more, and go to a party. Not really in a party mood, but the holidays come whether you’re ready for them or not, right? OK. Here we go.
My photo editing app is updating right now. Not sure when it thinks it will be done. Much like all of my students will be today…unsure of doneness. Yikes. It’s fine. I think I really felt like yesterday could have been Friday and we all would have been fine with it. At least there’s no assembly today…I don’t have the energy for that level of teacher. Just the finish-it-all and hand-it-in level of teacher. Although by 6th period, I won’t be sane any more. It’s fine.
I started cutting out the pieces for the new quilt. I’m using the new Wonder Under and an awful lot of pieces are releasing the paper as I’m cutting them, which is problematic. So far, it’s mostly the tiny or skinny pieces, but it’s enough to be abnormal (compared to the old stuff). I haven’t had a ton of time at night to do things, due to holiday crap and stupid school board meetings, so the first night, I think this is 30 minutes worth of trimming…
Not much. Last night, I got more time in, over an hour. I had worked on school stuff from about 6-8:30 pm, so it was time to quit. Couldn’t deal with cleaning house or thinking about decorating (I have no Xmas stuff up this year).
Those letters are gonna take a while. I guess I know what I’ll be doing for the next week on this quilt. I wish I could cut for hours a day, but I want to get all my grades done before Christmas. I don’t know if I can pull that off, but I’m going to try. I’ll have one homework assignment, one large academic assignment that half the kids haven’t done, another short one, two things to record only, because some app already scored them, warmups, and a relatively short packet. It’s doable. Crazy, but doable.
Yesterday, we made electromagnets. Fun times.
It’s kind of cool actually…although the logistics of supplies is a pain. What to do with all the half-used-up batteries? Who knows.
We half-assed decorated a door. That’s my Max and a student’s ornament.
This was me on Wednesday night…
I had to cook, but I wasn’t ready. So cats helped.
I suck at both.
And this, I am very good at this…
This guy speaks to my soul sometimes.
And this…
I still think they gave way too many to the gas planets. OK, there’s a scientific reason for that. Jupiter is being nice.
OK. Today. They answer an academic question about electromagnets (easy!). They put their packets in order and hand them in. They finish all the other shit they haven’t finished. I clean my room because fucking Winter Academy will be in there in January. Assholes. Teachers steal shit. It’s annoying. I finish grading the last of last week’s homework assignments. I set up as much of January’s stuff as I can. We have the first 7 days done…just need to admit the next two days are what they are. It’s fine. REALLY. Come home, collapse, then stand up and do shit. Or sit and do shit. Because there’s a lot of shit to do before I can relax.
So where am I at in the Thanksgiving Break/recovery from school and a sinus infection? Ugh. On new meds…they’re working, but slowly. I occasionally breathe normally. But still sound like (what did my PT say?) Zooey Deschanel. I do not think this is true. I think I sound like someone whose head has been filled with snot for 5 weeks. Not pretty. I’m still sleeping a lot, napping, resting. I did pilates this morning for the first time in 10 days. I did OK. I napped this afternoon though in response. That seems fair. It does seem like a hike is not happening tomorrow morning, as is my Thanksgiving preference. Hmmm. We’ll see. I might feel more energetic tomorrow morning. Right now? Not so much. I have finished four books (to clarify, I had already started and was ensconced in three of them, so don’t freak out). Wait. Shit. I finished five books. OK. So there’s that. I finished cutting out Wonder Under, which wasn’t that hard, because it all happens sitting in front of a television…
It took 10 hours and 4 minutes to do that. Not bad. I started Friday and finished Monday night. No, I wasn’t feeling well for most of it. Good choice to be able to do that. Last night, I sorted all 1606 pieces (there’s more because I missed numbering some, but I didn’t count those…they’re all ‘a’s of other numbers))…
Sorting took an hour and 15 minutes. Now the next step is ironing to fabric, which requires me (a) to clean my office, which is a fucking disaster of partially done ceramics pieces and fabric that needs to be put away), and (b) to be able to stand for extended periods of time. Questionable today. We’ll see. I might have a run of energy later. Right now I’m in nap aftermath and it feels tiring. Tired. Headachy. There’s meds for that. I should take some. I am So Tired of taking meds.
I also started grading (finally!) last night. Not a lot. Just a little. Nothing hard. Ugh. I don’t want to not get the hard stuff done now, when there’s a lot of silence and time to space out…I don’t want to have to do it in December, when things are loud and rushed and overwhelming and stressful. I realize I might not have a choice.
I have this video of my two pieces in Glendora at Citrus College…
Thanks to Lydia for taking the video. Not sure I’ll be able to get up there when the college is open.
I managed to make it to ceramics on Tuesday morning, finally…9 days of not doing that. I picked this sweet pot up…
I also worked for a couple of hours on this thing…which is a beast.
It’s big and heavy and this is only the bottom half. Or third.
It’s time-consuming. And delightful because of that. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to go back…holiday season is complicated. Maybe Saturday? We’ll see.
Also I have another piece in a museum in Florida…
It’s on the far right behind the coat. This is Ft. Pierce, Florida. The other piece I have in Florida is there through December 20, I believe, in Miami. All good. More work than I’ve ever had in Florida at any one time, I think.
Requisite photo of girlchild and Simba…
He is very good at laps.
That’s my lap. Good dog.
I’m currently having a messaging argument with my cable company who offered a higher price service that would still be intermittent instead of giving me a solution to the problem. Give me a discount assholes. Tell me what the problem is and when it will be solved. Don’t offer me hotspots…I’m on a damn desktop. WTF. What if I were fucking disabled? What would you do then? Not everyone can take their device in the car to another location. Stupid companies. This is not getting better in the next four years. It’s not.
OK. It’s not worth the irritation. Make tea. Consider your views on climate change.
I love Greta. I don’t love Amy. I really don’t want to make another Supreme Court quilt y’all.
OK. Well. Make tea, try to clean office/studio enough so that I can start picking fabrics. Wait. I don’t have a background big enough. Or do I? I might. I’ll have to clean to find it. Maybe I should go read my 6th book instead. Or take another nap? Not sure. I should definitely post this before the internet disappears again. Tomorrow is the Man’s Fam’s Thanksgiving, where I just show up and try to be coherent (questionable right now). I do need to get my turkey into the brine soon. Our Thanksgiving will be Friday. I’m in charge of the turkey and the green beans. And not much else. Ugh. Take headache meds. Drink the tea. Fabric is calling.
Hokay. Wednesday. I’m a little tired, I must say. Not sure why. Rejiggering my lesson plan for today, I think. Some catchup, some kids finishing stuff up, instead of starting the next thing. I may do a piece of the next thing, but I have two classes that need to finish yesterday’s thing still. It’s OK. It’s fast. But I hate having classes on different things. It’s just easier when they’re all in the same range of stuff. It’s Back-to-School Night tonight…set for 5 PM, which makes more sense for parents, but it means I have 90 minutes after school where I’m just there. I have grading to do and will do it, so I don’t have to bring it home (the first batch of progress reports are due next week, which seems really early). I have a lot of work to get through. I really just want to finish my book though. And finish another one by Monday for book club. I had to finally buy that one, because it was still 5 weeks out at the library.
Artmaking is going slowly. I am not giving myself enough time because of grading, unfortunately. It sucks. I hate it. I guess I lose Sunday afternoons? I don’t know any other way to do this. I feel like I lose half the Saturdays too. UGH. So I traced the two little pieces onto Wonder Under, which took almost no time at all…
And last night, I cut them out…
Superfast. Hopefully I’ll have the energy tonight to iron them to fabric. I’m not holding out much hope, but some.
Monday, I worked on glazing the mug still…
Anybody who’s thinking, oh, Nida will make a bunch of these and sell them…HA! My god, they take so long. Which is fine. I’ve always been more about the process than having a product to sell…obviously.
This already has 10 hours into it.
Consider time, materials, firing fees…
Completely unaffordable. Sorry y’all. This is not going to be a second (third? fourth?) income generator for me. And I’m OK with that.
Enjoy the video in the round.
That long thin quilt is going to this show…
In Miami, Florida. As soon as it’s back from the photographer. It still needs a name, but I think I had one somewhere. I just need to figure out where.
OK. School. Ugh. Redo plan for the day. Get the kids working independently for at least half of class time. Grade things. Prep for next week. Try to figure out how to efficiently grade the thing the other teacher fucked up. Sigh. Spend more of my prep time not prepping. Yesterday started badly with a last-minute switch of two resource kids who need support into a class with no support, literally 2 minutes before they were supposed to show up to my class. They needed seats, they needed to be added to my Google Classroom, they needed to be told not to delete themselves out of the other classroom until I graded things. FUCK. And no support? So that put me over 20% resource kids in that class, so after my complaints and reminders of how shit should work, I have support in there today. But the long string of emails leading up to that last one? I could have been included. So I would’ve known. But no. Not important. So my mindset during prep was to put on loud music with lots of swear words and grade all the makeup work so it was off my plate. Pro? That last bit.
Anyway. Today will be better. I command it. And I don’t have to try to cook after pilates, like last night, cooking after 7:30 PM. Tonight the Man cooks and I collapse. With my book, hopefully.
I love a good day off. A three-day weekend. We’re only three weeks in, but it’s appreciated. And my crazy school board has added two more three-day weekends to the fall. Why? I don’t really know. The board claims parents requested it for travel with their kids…and yet, I have four independent study contracts in the works for September, three for parents who are traveling with their kids…possible a fifth one coming up. I think it’ll be a pain when we get to June and have to add those extra weekend days on, but I don’t think anyone asked the teachers. We also know that the week after a 3-day weekend, it takes twice as long to get kids back on task, and by the time we do, the week is almost over. But I…I still appreciate the extra day. It gives me time to not stress about school. Today I’m going to make some scones for breakfasts for the next couple of weeks, I’m going to go to the ceramics studio (I would have done that anyway on a Monday), I’m going to read my book, and I’m going to rip the tape off all of the painted hallway. Oh yeah, I also need more paint from Home Depot. Ah well. I knew that might happen. I did finish painting the hallway…mostly. There’s some texture stuff I still need to do in the new drywall area, but otherwise, we’re good. I should touch up the ceiling, and I definitely need to sand and paint all the doors, but that’s not happening right now. Right now, I’m putting the art back up. One step closer to putting away all the crap that got spread out by the summer carpet extravaganza. I rolled two coats yesterday and used up every drop of paint. It’s good.
I sort of realized I needed to have this little piece shipped to arrive by October 1, so I spent some time with it this weekend. Friday night, I was still cutting things out. It felt like a lot.
Saturday night, I finished it, so it must not have really been a lot…and then I sorted it all, because I knew it would only take like 20 minutes or so, but half the time, I was trying to keep Bowie (the kitten) from knocking all of them over…no picture, because of that. Cut…
and sorted…
Remember this piece is small…less than 400 pieces. All small pieces too…then last night, I started ironing them down.
Got it more than halfway done. That’s over 2 1/2 hours of ironing. Little pieces are not always easier to iron than big ones. My goal is to finish tonight? Maybe? Stitchdown this week…I don’t have a ton of nighttime stuff this week. Get the damn thing quilted by the following weekend? Then decide what I’m doing next. I have lots of thoughts.
Friday after school, I went to the ceramics studio for a couple of hours. I forgot my glazes, so I couldn’t work on the mug…but I am trying to use up the last bits of the 25-pound bag I bought and the part of a bag that was a freebie. So I made a random bowl that I will sgraffito, and I again tried to slab build a mug. And again, it was way too big. IDK why I keep doing this. I did want to try to round the bottom with darts, and that worked pretty well.
But I’m thinking it’s going to be another plant pot. Which is fine. Everything else is drying…seriously, I have four things drying? I’m going in today and will remember the underglazes. Hopefully. I still have a little bit left of the clay on the right…I was saving some for a handle…for the teacup. Tea tureen? It’s huge. It doesn’t need handles. It might need a lid. No. Maybe I will make a little picture frame. I don’t know. Sometimes with clay, I have a plan. Right now, I’m trying to finish the plans I have and make a decision about what clay to buy next, but I don’t actually have room for any clay in my cubby until everything is on the drying rack. So there’s that. I’ll be carving for a bit, I think.
I finished a drawing at dinner on Saturday…I’d barely started it the previous Saturday when they brought the food, uber fast.
This place was slower. Good? Bad? It was busier. Eh.
We have a new friend to make Simba bark like a maniac.
There is no shortage of wildlife in the yard. Which is a good thing. Speaking of wildlife…
Cats in weird positions for the win.
OK. It’s nice to summarize when I don’t have to go to work. I need to shower, make scones (maybe not in that order), prep the crockpot (not sure there’s room for that in the fridge…could be problematic), do a little bit of school stuff so I’m ready for tomorrow, fold my laundry, go to ceramics and play around, iron some more, check art entries, pull some tape, hang some art. See, it’s a day off and I’m still busy! But some of it is stuff I really want to do and most of the rest is stuff I’d have to do around work if I were going today…which is why I’m writing this at 10 AM and not 7. It’s all good. Also go for a hike today. That’s important. OK. Gotta go start the process. I think I really am more about being able to check things off a list than sitting by a pool all day. I will sit and read, don’t get me wrong, but relaxing for me is the making art part…so if I get to do that for a few hours during the day, it’s all good.
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?).
Hmmm. Yesterday was the perfect summer day for me. Some reading, some clay, some fabric stuff. It was warm but not too bad. The day before was pretty good too…more reading, more fabric stuff, a long hike, some drawing with dinner, more fabric stuff. I’m hoping to project this level of enjoyment/relaxation into the new school year (yes, I know some people don’t consider it relaxing to work on stuff like I do). Sunday afternoons at the ceramics studio? Why not? Because school. I need to shorten up the Sunday crazy and figure out how to get more of it done during the school day. I will have help this year; that will be nice. Also more literacy stuff and more sex-ed curriculum stuff. I never filled out the feedback form, dammit. Ah well. Put that on the list.
I guess Saturday and Sunday made up for Friday, when the boychild and I moved almost everything out of three bedrooms into the living room. We left beds, desks, and big dressers. At some point before the carpeting starts (next week; we now have a date), we will have to empty dressers and strip beds (not sure why I say ‘we’…it’s ‘me’), but for now, the living room is a hoarder warren of crazy shit that makes everyone claustrophobic…
Except Luna…who sits on that highest shelf, surveying her domain.
We moved everything early because the boychild might end up on a fire, and then I wouldn’t have been able to get all this moved. The Man can’t lift more than 10 lbs (injury) and I can’t lift most of this by myself. We have a cart, but again, by myself would have been a challenge. And at some point, we might have been doing carpet today instead of next week. So this was the solution. Sunday night/Monday morning will be a lifting event for me (all the drawers), but that’s a lot easier than all this. The real problem is where will we PUT all the drawers…and where will we sleep the first night (it’s gonna take two days). We’ll figure it out…couches and air mattresses.
The stained glass window got replaced on Saturday finally…it looks great!
The window was made by the previous owner. The wood around it was decaying and some of the cross supports had come loose, so the window was in danger of bowing out and/or breaking. I finally found someone who specializes in fixing these (took me like 6 months). They stabilized the window between two tempered glass pieces, my contractor guy replaced all the wood, and then we’re just waiting on the final bits of sealing the wood and window for it all to be done. Although then I need to paint that whole wall…and the other walls, if I want to be consistent. We’ll see how far I get. The wall opposite has a textured wallpaper the cats thought was a scratching post back in the day, so it needs to be removed. That’s a bigger challenge. Maybe not a 2024 challenge. I still need to paint the hallway…which includes 5 doors. Ugh. I have a bunch of sanding on my list for this week as prep for that, priming too if I can get to it.
I stitched down another quilt I had ironed together while waiting for my sewing machine to come back, and for my Art Brain to have enough power to draw a new big one.
It took a couple of days because it was in between all that moving shit and hiking around.
This is from some smaller drawing I did either on a plane or while camping or something. Oh wait, I found the drawing…from 12/20/18…so probably one of those Drawing a Day over Winter Break things I did. Hence the Christmas lights. So a 6-year-old drawing. Last December, I picked about 12 smaller drawings and enlarged them to work on in between things. I had just finished the Supreme Court quilt and another couple of smaller quilts, and my brain (due to school) was foggy as shit. So I started some of these.
I cleaned the entryway floor earlier today, so my next step is to sandwich and pinbaste the two smaller quilts for finishing.
I’ve been cutting things out on the big quilt for a little over 17 hours now…Friday night…
Saturday night…
And Sunday night…
The box on the bottom left is all that’s left…somewhere between 300 and 400 pieces left. I feel like I might get close to finishing that today. Maybe. Then a few hours of sorting, made almost impossible by the piling of shit in the living room. I mean, I could do it, but I would have to unpile and then repile some of that shit. I don’t want to wait a week for the next step though, so I’ll do it. Sometime in the next couple of days.
In clay news, I’m slowly working on the world figure’s upper torso. I have a base it sits into as I build, but I did check it again to make sure it’s going to shrink appropriately. It’s like a 12% shrink.
I’m OK with an imperfect fit, as long as it actually fits. I got one hand put on…holding that up, because the forearm and elbow haven’t hardened enough to fully hold it. The right arm, I got the elbow and forearm put on. At the moment, the whole upper torso is sitting on a separate base I built just to support this.
The support is under the plastic. There’s a sponge holding that hand up as it dries. The right arm is on the base until the hand goes on. I attached a partial version of hair (fire) to the head and then persuaded the head to attach to the torso. That back sponge is holding it up until it hardens. This clay is not great for sculpture, but it’s what I picked (what I used in class). I’ll pick one with more grog next. Maybe a little more? I don’t know. I like the smoother texture of this, which is half porcelain and half stoneware.
I made a heart.
I think I know how/where to attach it, but I need things to stiffen up first. There will be carving on the fire hair and the heart, and the plan is to add more ‘hair’ in the form of smoke from the fire. Yeah. Crazy.
The other piece made it out of the kiln!
Just a few cracks…iron oxide with a little bit of clear next, I think. Only clear on the underglazed bits. Then fabric wings hanging from the arms. And fabric coming out of the things on her head.
I numbered this sweet little thing. It only has 390 pieces.
Can’t trace it until the carpet is done. That’s OK. I have plenty to work on and this has a later deadline.
I also pieced this thing together.
I finished the embroidery on the center panel, and then thought I’d be sewing all the little houses together, whee!, but no. There’s a border around the central panel with 5 flowers on it. It’s fine. I won’t be sewing houses together until 2025.
We hiked in the Lagunas on Saturday…we were hoping for cooler weather, but no.
We started hiking around 4:30 PM and it was still 85 degrees.
It cooled down around 6 PM, which is when I would have preferred to start, but we were going to eat dinner up there and the restaurants all close by 8 PM.
It was beautiful, though, even though it was warm. There weren’t a ton of people, which was nice.
I love hiking around the little lakes and meadows up there. Well…unless there’s cows.
We had to walk right through a group of them, lots of calves, so potentially nervous moms. They were standing on the trail for a goodly portion of it, so we did some nervous (but calm) movements of our own to get across the field without pissing anyone off.
A tiny adrenaline rush. This hawk had a snake and was being chased by a smaller bird.
And here’s one of our three friendly crows here at home. I took the dog out in the morning and it was up there squawking at me because the Man hadn’t put out the trays of nuts for the birds yet.
And I am still reading about the period. Good book. I’m reading two books, actually, one fiction and one nonfiction…
This is too real for all the crazy shit going on these days. Like how do you show your Supreme Court is corrupt without saying they’re corrupt? Just look at what they allow and disallow. Sigh. I don’t know that I have another Supreme Court quilt in me. Certainly the bullshit is all still there.
OK, it’s a Monday, but it feels like a Saturday. I have some stuff I have to do today, but first, I am going to pinbaste these two quilts, because that’s sweaty business and I want a shower. Work for it! Also hopefully going to get close to finishing the cutting-it-out phase of the big quilt. I’m sure there’s more on my to-do list that I haven’t remembered, like watering, for sure (it’s been hot and dry) and filling up greenery trash cans (never stops)…but also some reading…and appreciating how quiet it is today with all the kids inside or at camp or I don’t even care WHERE they are, it’s blissfully quiet except for the birds and the bugs. No tree trimming, no sawing, no yardwork, no screaming, no yelling. Just the wind through the leaves. And the Man watching some loud thing (it just got loud…).
I have officially lost track of the days. Good job! Summer achievement unlocked. Well, except I still have to do things and some of them are on my calendar and sometimes I ignore my calendar, which isn’t very mature, I admit, but there are a lot of books to be read and that’s important.
House update: stained glass not installed (sigh). Tomorrow hopefully. Carpet ordered; hoping to get a start date today, although we are already moving shit in anticipation, because it might be Monday, which is some number of days in the future. I realized at some point that we might not have an actual bed to sleep in on the Man’s birthday. It’s OK. We have blow-up mattresses. We have tents. We’ll figure it out. I am jealous of every post I see of people in the mountains with pine trees right now. I love that stuff. Maybe later this summer.
So clay first. I finally FINALLY put this thing in the kiln.
I gave up on the snake head being attached. I’ll try again at bisque, and if that doesn’t work, there’s epoxy. I started her so long ago…I have a date of 4/19 on the greenware shelf to dry, but then I fixed some things and then underglazed at the beginning of June. I’m pretty sure I started her in March. She’s in now. Let’s hope she holds up. She’s supposed to get fabric wings and ‘hair’. So yeah. Iron oxide wash at the next firing. It’s going to be OK. Or it’s not. I realize I’m so so paranoid about the first kiln fire because of that one firing in college when everything exploded. I can remake anything though.
I have 5 pots on the greenware shelf, drying. I finally got to a point where I was happy with the underglaze on the sgraffito pot. The others are dryer but not dry enough. I’m super paranoid about drying speed too. But they’ll probably go in the kiln next week some time. And then the piece I’m working on, I started in April, the bottom part, then put it aside to work on the sgraffito piece. So I decided because of the height of my shelf and the dryness of the base to make the top separate, to have it slot into the bottom (might be a mistake). So I built a fake base and I’m building off that right now. I had it on the real base, but it’s getting too tall, and the arms need supports, so this is easier. I let it sit for a couple days in between each subsequent build to harden up a little, but not too much.
One arm is ready for a hand. The other one has an elbow and forearm that I’m trying to keep wet enough to attach, but might have to give up on…we’ll see tomorrow or Sunday.
I made the hands on Tuesday…
I need to work on hand construction. These are so blocky and solid, which I like and don’t like. But they’ll do for now. The face, I started that yesterday…
I draw a lot of open-mouthed faces, so I wanted to try that in clay. It’s currently hardening up a bit so I can figure out how to attach it to the neck. Plus hair…hair is weird in clay. So I’ll go in tomorrow or Sunday and attach the hands and/or the rest of the other arm, hopefully get the head on, or decide to do hair first, make sure it all still sits properly in the base. I need to make a heart too. I’m not very good at building with clay but I enjoy it. It’s hard to not be good at something, but I enjoy that too.
In quilt news, I’ve been cutting things out pretty seriously the last few days…
I’ve put in 10 hours and 40 minutes, and I’m more than halfway done. The pieces are put into the box with the lowest numbers at the bottom, highest at the top, and I work my way down. So I’m currently cutting pieces out in the 700 and 800s. So that means there’s probably another 10 hours to go.
I had two Zooms yesterday, which helped. Today, I’m supposed to be moving a lot of stuff, but I don’t have all the medical stuff I had yesterday…I am approved to lift things, though, and I don’t have TB (teachers have to be tested for that regularly). All good. The Dermabond glue on my boob scar is finally starting to wear off…pro: it will look better, con: it’s still sore. Not as bad as the biopsy though. The doc said all good, no need for more than the normal surveillance. SURVEILLANCE. Yeah that’s not what I think of when they say mammograms and breast exams. This thing wasn’t palpable anyway. Only found in a mammogram. Fun times.
Speaking of fun times, we have crows and hawks constantly squawking. This one was loud as heck yesterday afternoon.
Probably wondering where that other big tree is that used to be in my neighbor’s yard. They cut it down, Hawk! Cut It Down. I know, WTF?
I’m in the third book in the Alchemical Journeys series by Seanan McGuire…really enjoy this world.
I’ve finished 7 books since school ended on the 14th. Well, 8 if you count the one I finished ON the 14th (I didn’t). I love to read. I love to lose myself in other worlds. I love that I can read before bed and not worry about having to be up for work, although there is no sleeping in…someone started tree trimming at 8 and I was already half awake…and there was no sleeping through that shit. Ah well. Still more sleep than I would have gotten during the school year.
I do constantly say “I’m here” in response to those questions. This might be what I mean. I actually find it very difficult to come up with a pat response to that question.
Anyway. Today. Breakfast, more tea, more moving shit, putting quilts away (might need help with some of that). Cutting things out. I have two art shows to enter, I need to do stitchdown on that other quilt so I can pinbaste both of them, and I finished the center piece on the Sue Spargo Homegrown piece. I was all excited, thinking it was time to trim all the houses and sew them together, but no. The center piece has borders with big ballsy flowers on it. Hmm. I see. Wasn’t expecting that. Found the pattern and fabrics (that’s an achievement in itself right now). So I’ll get that process started (because now I won’t be putting those things together until probably Winter Break!). Ah well. It’s a process. It’s fine. Probably gonna go read something first. Reading sounds nice, doesn’t it?
Kathy Nida 