Fan the Seed…

I’m waiting for my photo editing app to restart, so I’m writing without pictures. I’m a visual person and pictures help me write. Ironically, I don’t need pictures to read because my brain makes them while I read. Probably explains a lot about how I make art. I’m in that complicated stage where I’ve been working on the same quilt for MONTHS and I’m almost done and the next one needs to just pop up so I can keep working without going insane. Drawing needs to happen. Drawing is hard. Not really, but having the mindspace for it at the end of a workday is hard. And right now, finding mindspace for anything is hard. Between an idiotic government, school crap, and grading, I’m just not there. But there’s a seed, a hint of an idea for the next piece, which will be constructed differently, so hopefully I can fan that seed into a fire. Wait, that’s not how it works. Or is it?

I spent the weekend in San Francisco with the girlchild, which meant plenty of art and good food and walking. My knees are reminding me of that part. My shoulders/back are kind whack from carrying an over-the-shoulder purse instead of a backpack. Easier in some ways, more complicated in others. I finished one book and started another. I stitched nothing and drew nothing (short flights…it’s hardly worth pulling things out of your bag, because then you’re descending). I graded a little, just enough to keep one nostril above the flood.

The night before I left, I was sewing binding. Sunday night, when I got back, I was sewing binding. Last night, I finally finished binding and got one sleeve and a bit done.

Tonight I finish.

OK, so the trip. Started with my taking pictures of Craig Calderwood murals in the baggage claim area…

There’s some fun airport art out there.

Then the next morning, walking to meet the girlchild for breakfast (my alarm didn’t go off)…

I took a bunch of pictures of murals…maybe some I took last time.

I stayed in the same place. It was quiet last time.

It was pretty quiet this time. Girlchild had a ceramics class in the morning and I was going to tag along and get a day pass and just make a thing while she advanced wheeled.

She made two things…my camera had clay on it by then.

Hence blurriness. But one marbled with two colors. While I made a coil pot.

So that was 2.5 hours, and then I thought class was done, but I looked over and they were all throwing a second pot, so I made something crazy.

Hopefully that neck will hold up. And the wings. We’ll see. I left them both for her to fire and glaze. Like a good mom. We were there a good 90 minutes later than we thought, so our second plan for the day (third?) was out due to closing times, so we met up with a high school friend of mine and a bunch of her family who all know the girlchild.

This was the walk back to change clothes though…

All one mural…

I didn’t even get it all…

Then we walked to the girlchild’s apartment for HER to change…

Lots of walking. It was the Chinese New Year parade, so traffic (even buses) was insane, but we grabbed takeout, walked up a huge hill, and ate in a park.

It was nice to see everyone, though I’d just seen my friend on Sunday (long story).

The next morning, I saw a rainbow across the Mission…

Mostly because it kept raining.

Then we went to the ICA (which is free) for some art.

Some beautiful work about mold and decay by Kathleen Ryan.

Fascinating how real it looks.

Another weirdness in the museum…

Maryam Yousif’s Riverbend pieces…

Ceramic and wood.

Rodney MacMillian’s Untitled (Orange Hills)…

Reminds me of screenprints I made in the 80s…spill and dribble the ink.

Shinique Smith’s Dusk…

There was definitely a lot of fabric going on at ICA…

Anthony Akinbola’s Neopolitan, made of durags.

Fun stuff. Tried to ignore politics, but it’s impossible.

So much stupid.

Oh yeah, I am. I’ll be sitting the SAQA booth on Saturday from 12-2 if you want to stop by. Taking a class, sitting in some lectures, checking out the art. Not sure how all the travel of the season ended up in consecutive weekends (gonna kick my butt), but whatever.

Nice kitty. My kitty bit someone because I wasn’t here to feed her. Hmmm. OK. School. Apparently I gotta go there and do things. Then ceramics. Then grading, the neverending grading. Ugh.

Packs a Punch

Oh my. This week keeps changing but it packs a punch. It’s fine. I’m rolling with it, but could use more sleep (my own fault…well, not all of it). I’m currently negotiating with a teenaged boy cat who’s trying to bug my frail old lady and a middle-aged crankyass dog. And I haven’t had my tea yet (just two mouthfuls), so I don’t have enough of a caffeine buffer to deal. I often feel that way when I get to school…except up the ante to 136 middle-schoolers and all the adults (honestly, sometimes the adults are the hardest part). Yeah well. This week, it’s hard to know who is easier to work with…it’s up in the air. The dog/cat/cat interactions are probably my best bet.

I’m still watching all the censorship of art quilt stuff roll around out there in internet world, interspersed with the nuts crap that is our ‘government’. Deep breaths. I’m glad the two art quilts that were removed were both purchased. That’s more validation than anything. (hint: International Quilt Museum…my banned quilt is still available…I Was Not Wearing a Life Jacket…it still doesn’t have a penis in it. I have pieces that do, if that’s what you’re into. Just call me. Actually. Email me.)

I’d forgotten about the oil spill…and the flying saucer underground. This was a weird dream I had, wrought in fabric, penis free. It had a buyer at one point, but that fell through. Ah well. And I think it was before the debacle.

I’m still quilting here.

Part of why I’m so tired this morning is because I stayed up too late quilting last night and had to be up early today.

Why did I stay up too late? I was in the zone and not watching the clock. When I looked up, it was almost 11 PM. Whoops. OK. So I think I’ll get the outlining done tonight? Maybe? Then start the background. I think I can get all that done by the weekend and then start the binding. A week past the deadline. Oh well. I do know what I’m doing next, although the drawing doesn’t exist. It’s been in my head for a good long time. It’s also for a deadline. Then I need to make more stuff…some smaller pieces until the summer. I’m thinking of an artist residency for the summer, but I’d need to find one and be able to afford it. So then I’d also need time to find one and apply to it. OK. So realistically? Yeah. Not this week. I’ll try.

So I killed another one of these…

I bought 3 (4?) in 2022. So not bad, one a year. I had one left. Ordered 3 more to arrive today, I think. They break where the thingie is banging up and down on them. I’d break there too if I were them. Badly designed…but cheap.

I made it to clay on Monday…finally. Glazed the boychild’s thing. Hopefully it doesn’t stick to things. Then worked on the arms…broke off a leg trying to move the base (it’s heavy). Good times.

I’ve tried to fix cracks in the shelf between the top and bottom about 17 times. Doesn’t work. Sigh. It’s looking good though. Not sure how the head is gonna go. I suspect I need to fire the bottom before I lose it completely. It’s not dry though. Close. Close enough to be breaking. Ugh. Finish the arms…then figure out the head. Decide if I’m carving the back. I want to. But it’s too dry I think at the moment. I can fix that. But I need to spend a few hours there to do that. Maybe Monday? I have the day off. That would be good…(don’t think about work…don’t think about work).

I’m waiting y’all. Sword rushing at Musk? I’m in. Take out the minions. A few RePUGlicans while you’re at it. That big orange guy? A spell…don’t kill him…cast a spell and make him put it all back. Sigh. Such a joke.

OK. Today. Meeting this morning. Need to leave in 15 minutes. Teach skin cancer. Exciting stuff. Then grade some shit. Unless my coteacher can stay and work on the space unit. We did yesterday. It was good, but it’s frustrating to have to plan around another shit that is annoying that some other adults at school decided we have to do (there’s a lot of that going around). I also have one day I’m gone for myself and one day I have to be at the district office (ugh, not my choice), so I’m planning around those things (plan stuff my kids can do with a sub, right?). Then I have the oh-so-exciting annual mammogram at like 7:20 pm. They keep moving it later. Annoyingly later. I’m a little anxious about that…after last year’s ‘oh hey, we found something’ and all the shit that happened and then gladly ended with no bad cancer shit? It’s a little nerve-wracking having another one. Plus things still hurt. So I’m gonna pop some pain pills ahead of time. Deep breaths for that too. Then quilting! Losing myself in the up and down of the needle tracing all the crazy shit I ironed down. Good end, as long as I go to bed on time. Wish me luck with that. Art Brain is a crazy bitch. She doesn’t care what I have to be able to do the next day.

Bright Blue Skies

OK. Monday. I see you. You have bright blue skies, you’re not totally freezing (I know, it’s Southern California; we’re never that cold, right?). Today is a day of direct instruction (all on, all day), a 2-hour staff meeting mostly about stuff I already do in my classroom (woo), then hopefully some clay and some sewing. Oh yeah, probably have to grade shit. I spent about 4 or 5 hours yesterday doing that. I should do more. Ha. Always.

Well, in awesome news, SAQA pulled the entire exhibit out of the AQS shows. AND both pieces sold, one to a private collector and one to the International Quilt Museum. I’m glad SAQA finally stood up to the bullies. I wish they’d done it sooner. Hey, IQM, I’ve got work you can acquire! Ha. Hopefully this is a sign for the next four years, of groups and people standing up to the power hungry, the critical, the categorizers, those who can’t let everyone exist without pigeonholing and censoring them. Because there’s a lot of that going on. Sigh. I’m glad the artists got the support they should have.

I went up to Palos Verdes on Saturday with Polly Jacobs Giacchina to a show we’re both in, 9×9 Contemporary Quilts and Containers, curated by Carrie Burckle and Jo Lauria, at the Palos Verdes Art Center. We were blessed by the traffic goddess, so very little of that either direction. We were able to see the show before all the people got there, so we took photos. Both of us got onto the banners, which is awesome.

Apparently just because our art was the right size for them, which made me laugh.

I have 4 pieces in the show…

All right outside the bathroom and at the top of the stairwell. Good viewpoints all.

There were a lot of people at the opening, which was cool. I talked to most of the quilt artists (I only knew some of them), and a bunch of other people who liked my work, which is always a cool thing.

Polly with some of her art…

She sold one…before the show even officially opened! Cool that. It was a long drive, but ultimately good to see the show and get all the kudos. It’s up through the middle of April, if you find yourself in the area. I grew up in LA, and I don’t think I’d ever been to Palos Verdes before. So there’s that.

Quiltwise, I didn’t get much done this weekend. On Friday night, I packed up a quilt and drawing for delivery on Saturday for a show in LA opening in March. I delivered that and bought binding fabric for this quilt, because the store with more choices is only open on Saturdays during non-working hours (they close at 3, y’all). I’ve given up on getting it done and photographed by Friday, so there’s that deadline gone. Oh well. I took a picture of where I was in the outlining when I pulled it off the machine to match binding…

And then I finally got back to the quilting last night. I bought thread too, because I was going to run out. Luckily they had it locally, but I had also bought it online and it arrived Saturday. All good. Plenty of thread now.

Guess I need to check the thread stash at the reopened store near me. I never go there…they never had much I needed before. Maybe they do now?

Sleepy Bowie…

Better than rampaging Bowie.

Oh yeah, ceramics. All but one tiny animal is out of the glaze fire…

My daughter’s trinket dish did not fare well…it is stuck to that cookie. I might be able to get it off. The other tiny animal got clear glaze put on and put back on the glazed shelf for the next firing. The other bowl thing got glazed, but it’s really thick, so I wanted to let it sit a bit and make sure it’s dry. Hopefully I’m going in today to do some actually hands-on clay, so I’ll put it on the glazed shelf too. Then back to the big sculpture! That I started in November and am still working on. Forever.

OK. To school. My coteacher was out Friday and will be out this morning. I have to find the rest of the flashlights during prep and put her lab stations together. Assuming I can find enough flashlights for that. I’m teaching the EM spectrum, mostly how the different wavelengths affect materials, eventually DNA. Which the stupid curriculum does not CALL DNA…it calls it ‘genetic material.’ Sigh. Like make it even harder for kids to figure out. So annoying. Then vocab literacy stuff after school. Then hands-on clay. Then quilting. Oh yeah, I’ll grade. I said that in the first paragraph. I never stop doing that until like June 17. It’s annoying. Oh well. Someday I won’t have to grade anything at all and the world might stop because of it.

Not Muddied by Exhaustion…

Oof. Well we got rain. Good thing, because that fire is still out there south of us. Definitely more in control with the rain and humidity coming up a bit. And we needed rain. Hoping it wasn’t so much that there were mudslides in fire zones. Just enough to give the plants some water and help put fires out. That would be good.

I wanted to be done with stitchdown last night, but I spent a bunch of time on school stuff yesterday instead of art. It needed to be done. This week is a little chaotic and it’s easier for me to do some of the grading with a clear mind, not muddied by exhaustion or kids talking. So I started it Friday night after finishing the ironing down to the background…here’s the whole thing…

Then the stitchdown start…

I did about three hours on Saturday and another hour last night…

I just have the head, that visual disturbance stuff, and the space cat. Not much…not even an hour’s worth, I think. Tonight though. Then sandwich and pinbaste and quilt.

In other quilt news, there’s my piece on the far left at Form, Not Function, where it won Honorable Mention.

And here’s one of mine on the banner of a show that opens next Saturday…

Now that’s cool. A boob out in public.

I’ve been glazing some little animals I’m going to try to make into pincushions…

This is going into the glaze fire with a clear satin coat.

I still have one that’s going into the bisque fire; its tail may not last. We’ll see.

The reddish one is the girlchild’s trinket dish. Hopefully the glaze doesn’t run too badly.

It’s actually supposed to turn out a blue green with a hint of brown. Glaze colors are weird that way.

And I’m just stitching wool down for another Sue Spargo quilt. Neverending.

My fault. I enjoy making them so I keep getting more. This tree one looks fun though.

This was Friday’s sun through the fire’s smoke cloud as it floated over us.

I drove a little bit west and I was out of it. But it smelled like smoke, like fire too. Like I said, that one is under control and I’m sure they’ll get it out in the next few days. More rain is headed in today, although not a lot.

OK. Today the kids will need to take notes on their own (ha! That’s funny) while I grade stuff. We’ll see how that goes. I’m tired still. Ugh. Not sleeping well again. Meetings after school, although I’m supposed to have a team meeting and all of my team except me are in another meeting. So yeah, IDK how that’s supposed to work. I will meet by myself? Probably. Then home to finish stitchdown. Oh yeah! The bees have mostly left the owl box; we moved it away from the post yesterday. Hopefully sometime this week we can put the new owl box up and invite owls to stay there (owl airbnb?). I’ve heard barn owls recently. I hope they didn’t already pick somewhere else. I hope they’re lurking around and waiting for this one.

Also, I’m back on FB and Insta…not ready to let the fascist tech overlords take over everything. I’m still on Bluesky though…I’ve got people on there too, so I’ll stay there unless it seems like a no go. We’ve had a bunch of different apps pop up and disappear over the years. You never know what will stick.

On the Next Step…

January is flying by. It always does. So does February with its built-in shortness and double holiday whammy (for us anyway). Then March lasts for 3 months. It’s weird that way. Having a Monday off is nice; it gives me some extra rest/relaxation time, although I mostly suck at that, unless you count reading, which I do. And making art, which I totally do. I’m progressing on all art fronts, although slowly…which is fine. If I don’t hit deadlines, and I probably won’t…let’s be realistic…it’s not the end of the world. So…I’m still working on my friend’s mom’s quilt…I’m more than halfway, but there’s still a good chunk to do. I’m going to have to pull it off the machine tonight though so I can piece the backing for the final iron down, and then stitchdown after. I’ll do another 30 minutes on the background before I do that though.

The art quilt I’m working on is getting there…I ironed half the tree parts Monday night…

The tree goes from winter to spring to summer to fall (right to left)…so last night, I ironed summer and fall…

And then the last two little bits…the spaceship…

And a catronaut.

Castronaut? sounds painful. Anyway, on the dark background, she’ll show up just fine. Although she has kind of some disco tendencies too. I think. Tonight, I’ll piece the background and iron the whole thing down. Hopefully.

I have a piece in a show at Road to California in Ontario, CA, this weekend. It’s part of the SAQA SoCA/NV chapter’s New Pieces.

It is apparently at waist height. Hmmm. I apologize now for you having to bend over to see the details. I don’t enter Road any more because the lighting and hanging aren’t great, but this was my group and I wanted to be supportive. I feel like they need to accept fewer pieces and hang them with space between and not double hang. But I didn’t hang the show…so there we are. Also, there’s boobs and a uterus, so that will make some people clutch their pearls. I’m OK with that. I’m not going to make it up there…I have two art meetings already this weekend. It’s messy.

I went to clay on Monday and got more details put on the upper torso and started arms.

Still not entirely sure how I will dry/fire arms, but it’s in progress.

I do like the heart and lungs though. So far.

Side view, she’s leaning a little further forward than I’d like. I have to store the two pieces separately due to the size of shelves. The bottom is mostly drying and the top is mostly mushy still, so it’s a challenge. I haven’t even figured out the head yet. I need more clay and the boss has been away at a conference. I don’t actually have anywhere to store the clay, although someone in my shelves is storing it all on the ground. Which they told me was not OK, fire marshally stuff, also I can’t reach my shelf due to all the crap on the ground. Minor issue. I’ll be back there on Friday and hopefully get more clay. Or? Not sure. I was expecting her to be there Monday unfortunately. That does mean I’ve used almost 20 pounds of clay in this so far, minus a few things the girlchild and I made. Fun times.

I’m reading Swordheart by T. Kingfisher…I find it amusing.

Sometimes I chortle out loud even…

Lizards sounds painful.

I grew two bell peppers this summer. I waited too long to harvest them, of course.

I don’t mind feeding the animals…

This is the new government by the way…

So first of all, I’ve never heard of large and small cells to define egg and sperm. I’m not sure why they didn’t use those words (because they are scary???). Second of all, they are idiots. If only it were that simple. But it’s not. I have a 3-hour sex-ed curriculum meeting tomorrow at the district and a prep-time meeting tomorrow. Sigh. I’m tired of being in charge of things, but I honestly can’t trust the world to be smart about this stuff. I’m still off the regular social media. Still trying not to watch the crazy-making shit. Except I saw a conversation between teachers about what to do when ICE shows up on school campuses. Sigh. And our Newcomer population is growing crazily, mostly I think because they’re desperately trying to get here before they’re not allowed to. Such a hateful government. Really disappointing.

With that, I’m low-fi teaching today…just means I’m not directly teaching. It’s review. And finish the things. Tomorrow is an academic assignment. I’m really trying to be mostly hands off this week. Last week was all on, and it was tiring. OK, not gonna lie, but yesterday was also tiring. Ah well. Last night, I had a hard time falling asleep and then once I was finally there, kaboom! Cat fight under the bed. Fun times. Loud. Someone was pissed off. And then the little cat (who is not so little anymore) was up and about before my alarm went off. Squirrely bastard. Pilates after school (already tired)…then quilting, ironing the whole thing down, and hopefully starting stitchdown. We’ll see how that goes. Good to be onto the next step.

Incognito Year…

I’m running on crazy time now, y’all. I was going to write on Monday, but oops, stomach flu or food poisoning…and then this morning, the rescheduled appointment from early Monday morning, and now it’s almost 10 PM. But hell, it’s still Wednesday. When I get off schedule, I get really off apparently. So yeah, how are things going? Ha! Can’t get the bees out of the owl box…all the bee peeps are on Winter Break. Can’t get the house or yard done because I spent Monday completely out of it with the remains of the whatever-the-hell-it-was, Tuesday much of the same. Today I’ve been better (food helped), but felt like I had to do EVERYTHING and that everything took FOREVER to get done. Not really of course, but days seem to go much faster over break than they do in real life. Which starts Monday. With a vengeance. A possibility of an 11-hour day. Fun times, y’all…fun times.

So Friday night, I ironed…I think that was the first leg. Nah. I straight up have no idea what I ironed, but my app says I did? No photos either. I also did a little clay, underglazing mostly. And put this this together with all the requisite borders.

No, it’s not done. There’s 16 big embellished flowers for the borders. Bowie thinks he might climb it. This is Sue Spargo’s Homegrown, a block of the month I started in March 2020. No joke. Last night, I pinned some things down to it, also with Bowie interest.

Back to the other quilt. Who the fuck knows what I did on it Friday night. On Saturday, I did nothing on it, because the Man’s band played the House of Blues and I was there from 7-11 PM.

Sunday night, I ironed the lower half of the other leg…

Monday night, I was half dead, and last night, I did the other half of the leg…

It remains to be seen whether I’ll get any of it done tonight. I’m knackered. Not sleeping well, worried about the bees and the world and fires and going back to school. Not halfway yet. And I start three days of Zoomie art classes tomorrow, so that’ll fuck with my ability to get art done. Plus my bro is in town again. So family stuff. It’s all good. It’ll get done eventually.

I did finish the binding and sleeves on the bird wool quilt today. I’ll have to take a better photo sometime and post it. That’s the 12-year finish.

Clay stuff…been glazing some small things, then working on the second level of the crazy sculpture I’m making…

I made boobs today. Although they need some forming. I needed them to solidify slightly before I started banging on them.

Also, just like in real life, they are top-heavy. So it does fine here with 12-15 pounds of clay holding it up, but on its own, that piece just falls over. Right now, it has a roll of paper towels holding it up. Hoping to get back to this on Friday or Saturday. Need to pack up four quilts first, plus take classes each day.

Here’s the day I was sick. I got up, thinking I could make it to the doc appointment, even took a shower. Crazy. Not going anywhere. Slept until noon, when I tried to drink Gatorade…

Not sure it went uphill from there. I think I managed 3 bites of rice at dinner. Anyway. I’m mostly recovered now, but my stomach still wants me to remember. So small bites and not very much of anything. But better.

These two enjoyed three weeks together, but now she is gone again and he is bereft.

Oh wait, no he’s not. He has the boychild.

This old lady has had a hard week. No one medicated her when I was sick, and her body doesn’t do well without her meds unfortunately.

She seems better today.

She does like a sunny chair. Might be a fight for it tomorrow.

Woke up after Monday with questions, lots of questions.

I don’t think that’s changing all year. In fact, I’d like to set up an incognito window for me for the entire year. Maybe I can just watch from the sidelines and pretend I don’t have a horse in the game? I realize that’s totally and completely not possible. I have thousands of horses in the game, dammit.

The current book I’m reading briefly mentions the town I lived in for a year…

Found that amusing. It was in the boonies, that’s for sure.

OK. So. I’m tired. I have lots going on tomorrow…and the next day and the next day. I do want to iron, though. Tough call. Also classes will be in here, in my studio, so stuff has to be cleared up enough for that to happen. Hmmm. There’s also some chance class will be rescheduled. Our teacher is not in a fire zone, but the wind has caused internet and electrical outages. The fires in Los Angeles, by the way…my goodness holy crapitude. I remember seeing fires up in the hills above where we lived when I grew up south of Pasadena. I know Eaton Canyon, hiked it and other areas up there. It’s hard to watch all of it burn. Damn wind. Climate change. WTF is Trump saying about letting the clean water run? Man is on crack. Maybe he needs the incognito window more than I do.

Dribble Away

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.

Ah Sleep…

Humpday this year seems to be Tuesday instead of Wednesday. Hardest day of the week. This week, they’re all hard. I am tired. I know, it feels like I’m always tired. But I’m Friday tired this morning and it’s only Wednesday. Doesn’t help that the last two days have been LOOONNNGGGG. Ah well. Yesterday was a 12-hour day for school, which is a lot. Sat through part of a school board meeting to protest their paltry 0.5% offer, when they have 8 times the necessary reserve and a chunk of money from the state that would cover our increase and more. Our health insurance costs will go up more than that, so they’re essentially giving us a pay cut. But you want me to work more, work harder. Do it for the kids! I can’t do anything for the kids if I can’t pay the bills. Don’t they always tell you to put your own oxygen on first before you put on your kids? Anyway…this is after a bunch of people left, because they kept moving when public comments were…

There were more before. Outside even. There’s been more in previous meetings…it’s the damn holidays, we’re all exhausted, and the school board needs to see that we’re listening to how much they value us. My school has lost like 4 teachers mid-year, which almost never happens. They need to see that. Plus the 6th graders who went away three years ago (they sent them back to the elementaries), half of them are now coming back to our school, which has no empty classrooms. Crazy stuff.

So that was yesterday. Student IEP at 8 AM, at school by 7:45 AM, out of the school board meeting at 7:45 PM, home, on the couch…because I stood for 3 hours.

To Nova drooling all over my shirt. She was happy.

Art stuff: I finally finished ironing everything to fabric…I stayed up a bit late because I knew there wasn’t much and I just needed to get it done.

That’s 24 hours of ironing. Now I can cut things out. Kitten was trying to help…

Not very helpful. The night before was no art, but I did get this Bowie/Simba connect…

And I did some ceramics…

Some sort of mutant cat that was too soft to fix at that point. It’s not really going in there…it’s going on a knee, but it was a good place to store it to harden up a bit. I’m running out of room on my shelf, but all the drying shelves are totally full, so I can’t move her out. Yet. Give it time.

Yesterday’s early morning…

I got to sleep in 30 minutes this morning…tomorrow is another early start though.

I love this kid’s dino drawings…

They don’t know it yet, but I’m keeping this. Which I guess leads right into this…

Yup. I’m a crow. I admit it.

And this is really where I’m at.

I have so much stuff I want to get done before break so I don’t have to do it on break, but my brain is mostly nonfunctional. I got some homework graded in class yesterday and will aim for more tomorrow, but by 6th period, all I could do is stalk kids on our tracker app and add the sentence starters to the slides for them because they weren’t even doing that. That’s what we get for trying to do actual school work this week. What kind of dumbasses are we?

OK, notes about electric motors today, then finish the academic thing, because most of them didn’t. Pilates after school. I have to cook. I already emptied the dishwasher. I’m having a hard time keeping my eyes open right now. Not good. Cut things out then sleep. Sleep. Ah sleep.

Rest Will Come…

So not ready…for any of it…school, the holidays, festive crap. We have our school holiday party after school today. Woo. That is the energy I’ve got for that. I have stuff that needs to ship, but I should have done some things yesterday that I didn’t (whoops), I did do some things that ended up being more expensive than they should have due to stupid rules about coupons, ah well. Today and tomorrow are significantly chaotic. It might calm down after that? But I can’t ship these two things without some input from me and others, so that’s problematic. The school years that take us right up to Christmas are the hardest…no time to prepare, get stuff done. And all the stuff I might have done over Thanksgiving just didn’t happen. That said, I rarely ship to the Seattle crew on time, so this is no different. Five days of school. I’ve gotta come home each day and be efficient.

Artwise, I did OK this weekend. I made time for it, at least, which is better than some weekends. I ironed all three nights and almost finished…this is Friday night…

Finished the word bubble and the brain thing.

Saturday, I got all the tree trunk and branches done. Ran out of some fabrics (they weren’t big enough), so I improvised. Hopefully well. You never know.

Last night, I did all the other tree parts: leaves, flowers, berries, stems. Plus some birds and a nest. Some owls. All I have left is a spaceship and a castronaut. Not a typo. Maybe 20 pieces though. I just was already running late and this week, it’ll be hard to be short sleep this week. Too much going on. Gotta get kids to finish shit. Ha! We’ll see how that goes. Ugh. I did finish grading all the late work. Amazing how many kids turn it in blank. Don’t read instructions. Don’t watch instruction videos. Just half ass it. Fun times.

So tonight, I’ll finish ironing the last 20 pieces and then start trimming. I’m about a week behind where I thought I’d be. I won’t be finishing this one in 2024, I’m pretty sure. Ah well. It’s fine. I’ll have an early 2025 finish instead. There are pros to that.

I didn’t go to ceramics on Friday, because (1) I was exhausted, (2) I needed to be available for someone, and (3) they were having a potluck when I’d be there and I wasn’t up for that. Someday I’ll be up and available for a potluck. Not sure when. So I went Saturday. I was the only clay person there…lots of glass people all off in the glass space. It was nice. I worked for about 2 hours…first to make a volcano (like you do)…

But mostly to put a shelf inside this piece, which is the base, so I’d have something to support the next level…and then to start the next level.

Kinda nuts.

That’s the tallest I can fit on my shelf…so I either need to put the base on the drying shelves (but keep working on it?) or…wait, that is what I need to do. But I need to make arms too and the upper torso. So I honestly don’t know how I’m moving from here, because I don’t have any more room on my shelf. I’m going after school today, so I’m gonna have to figure my shit out. Hopefully there’s room on the drying racks. Might need to let the top stiffen up a bit before I take it off and try to build off of it. Dry a little, but not so much that I can’t build. And the arms have to either rest on the knees or go around them. So that’s a challenge if I have two separate pieces. Yeah.

I worked on the coral as well.

Nice texture.

Friday’s shenanigans.

IDK who wrote that, but this is not the first person I saw sitting there (that’s my coteacher).

I could’ve sworn this was a book teaching cats to knit, but no…

Literally, it’s patterns of cats that you can knit. Still cool though. I don’t have that kind of patience. I have some kinds of patience, but not that kind.

This seems very real for the next few years. Or at least days.

Middle school kids. Ugh.

And this…really…should always be true.

Even if it is spelled wrong.

OK. (takes a deep breath) It’s gonna be OK. Kids are gonna start their academic thing about MRIs. I’m going to grade that pile of homework while they do that. My coteacher and I are gonna get the lab set up for Thursday and get the first week of January, maybe two, set up and copied. I’m going to go to clay and make some decisions. After the school holiday party, which is on campus and involves no lubricants. Then finish ironing, cook dinner, head to the airport to get the girlchild, who will be home for the holidays. Pro: the barky little asshole who was pissed about the raccoons on the roof and the coyotes in the distance can sleep somewhere else for a few weeks. Boychild is being laid off today as well for three months, so everyone is around. The house is a disaster, there’s no Xmas stuff up at all, and I don’t have the time or mental space for it until maybe Saturday. All good. Maybe Thursday actually…unless I’m still grading things (ha! Of course I’ll still be grading things. WTF are you thinking.). But for now, find a sweatshirt that’s dry and clean, make more tea, and go to school. The rest will come. Literally. REST will come.

If I Had Time…

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

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

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

I’m still ironing.

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

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

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

I did ceramics on Monday…

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

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

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

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

This is how my knee is feeling.

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

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

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

Gratuitous picture of Simba…

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