A Lot of Hope

Hey. Yo. It’s Friday. I’m tired. I have survived the first day of actual school with kids. It was fine. Too much talking. I have a new prep period; kind of adjusting to that. It’s earlier but not by much. Definitely had a pulled muscle yesterday, but I think it was from pilates on Wednesday. After school, I did a 1-hour round trip (rush-hour traffic with accidents as a side) to drop another quilt with my photographer. That’s three. It’s cool. I feel like I finished some stuff this year finally.

I traced the last two nights…

Either Bowie is slightly better at listening, or I’m better at picking kitten sleepy times to trace. I had to move him off the light table to be in zoom with stitching friends and trace, but he was so tired, he just curled up again and went back to sleep.

And I managed to finish tracing…

Small quilt, small pieces, not very many of them. Compared to the bigger ones. And then I started cutting them out. This is where small is not so fun.

I started. I will continue. Probably tonight, but who knows? I’m missing the Man’s show tonight…

The girlchild is here, I’m exhausted, the boychild is home from fires. I just wanna hang out. Watch, they’ll both just disappear and I’ll be home on the couch with all the furry beasts. That also might be OK. The Man has a ton of weddings coming up in the next 6 weeks…wants to sneak me in. I don’t mind crashing like birthday parties and stuff, but weddings are dress-up things. Not doing it. So lots of Saturday nights coming up where I will just have to sit around and make art? Hmmm. Pros and cons.

Ceramics-wise, I know two of my things came out of the bisque fire fine…the base of the world figure is there on the right.

The top part is still drying. And the sgraffito thing I made for the garden stake thing they’re doing…it’s there in the middle bottom.

The clay is really light for the background. Wondering about getting some black clay for a sgraffito thing. I just don’t need 25 pounds of it. Hmmm. Anyway, I haven’t been able to get to the studio yet…maybe tomorrow. I also need to fill a tire with air, possibly get new tires, put oil in my car, and also washer fluid. All that popped up in the last week or so. Sigh. Couldn’t do that over the summer when I had plenty of time? Nah.

School! Here’s the 8th-grade team (minus the combo team). We’re back together after…um…2 years?

Yes, we have matching shirts, but science went for a darker gray. I would have gone even darker if there’d been an option. They like their super light colors. I do not.

Here’s my specific team, again.

IDK how many years we’ve been a team, but it’s been a long while. The principal thought about breaking us up because there were so many new teachers, to spread us out. I’m glad he didn’t.

Sometimes they drive me nuts, but that’s true of all teams. And no, I don’t get to be on the same floor as them. So they talk about stuff up there and think I know what they’re talking about. I don’t.

My district passed that stupid parent info thing that violates state law. And some states do this stupid shit.

There’s a local election in November. If it goes a certain way and the dumbasses are in charge, the next 5 years are gonna be shit for teachers in our district. Please vote intelligently. Research the stories you post and make sure they are the truth and not made-up-shit, because I see so much of that. And it’s exhausting. And if you’re trying to friend me on Facebook and we don’t have a personal connection, and you have a picture of Trump and his fist in the air with his tiny ear scratch as your main photo? Don’t friend me. I’ve been unfriending a lot. I keep some because of that personal connection, but I do sometimes question their sanity. Kids first. Your adult agendas need to consider that if your child tells their teacher their pronoun/name preference and NOT YOU, it is because YOU ARE NOT THE SAFE SPACE. You do WANT teachers to be a safe space, right? Well then don’t fuck with our ability to be that. And figure your own parenting shit out on your own time.

Welcome to my TedTalk. Oh, yeah, today is a chill day in science…some vocab, some cover pages, some coloring. I’m in for it. Plus trying to learn kids’ names (hard!) and get ahead of next week for once. Sundays free! Hopefully. I have a lot of hope for life-work balance this year.

It’s Some Day…

Oh hey. It’s some day. In the week. During summer break. Most summer breaks, I take on extra paid work, mostly copyediting, but nothing came up this summer (thank goodness) except the house stuff, which is like another whiny job that never goes away. I stared at the closet for a long time before finally deciding I really should just paint it. And then I stared at it even longer before starting the process. NO, I haven’t painted yet. But it’s cleaned out and washed, and yesterday, I finally made it to Home Depot (procrastinated for a week, y’all) to get what I needed. Today is prime the unprimed/bad paint sections. Maybe paint. Maybe. I hate painting. Really. I do. But I want the closet done so I can put stuff away in it. The house is still a freaking disaster. I put 5 pillows away yesterday. Why are there 5 more pillows? I really don’t know.

I didn’t make it to ceramics on Monday because we puppysat, so I ironed a big chunk instead and managed to finish.

There were a bunch of pieces that were loose on this piece, couldn’t be ironed down until I got to the background.

Then Monday night, I ironed everything down…

There were 5 pieces I never found, so I made new ones.

Usually with a piece this big, I’ll iron it down on the entryway floor so I can see and place the whole thing. There were two major pieces and then a lot of smaller things. But the entryway floor is a fucking disaster (see closet discussion above), so it wasn’t an option. So the pro is I did it on the ironing board. The con is that it’s not straight on the bottom, but I’ll fix that when I sandwich and pinbaste it. Here’s the whole thing, late at night, in the dark…

And then yesterday, I started stitching it down. I looked at how long it took to do the Supreme Court stitchdown (8 1/2 hours about). This is a similar size…it’s about 54″ wide and 80″ high.

My goal is to be finished with stitchdown before I go to San Francisco Friday, so I figured I needed to do at least 3 hours of stitchdown a day. I managed more than that yesterday and got the entire base and I think two whole figures done? I think I’m more than halfway, but I could be wrong. I think the Supremes had more pieces by quite a bit, and that’s kind of what decides how long stitchdown and outline quilting will take.

If I finish today, I’ll try to sandwich and pinbaste tomorrow, although that means clearing space on that damn entryway floor. Ugh.

I also finally finished the handstitching on this one…

So that’s two ready to go to the photographer. There’s Bowie too. He likes quilts. All cats do.

Not going to ceramics on Monday meant my phone told me I needed to go on Tuesday. OK. I’ll go with that.

I finished the glaze on this and put it on the shelf to dry.

It’s all underglaze. And then I went to unwrap the top part of the figure I’ve been working on. I hadn’t been in for a long time, due to my schedule and the classes in over the weekend, and it had dried too fast. Two parts cracked, so I wrapped them while I was finishing up the other piece and then reattached. I’ll go in today and/or tomorrow to check on it and start underglazing it to match the base. There were a ton of people in the last two times I’ve been there. I prefer quiet. Honestly.

This one is kind of refusing to come out to eat. Poor kitty.

There’s her half-toothless face. I try to bribe her with treats. She must be eating something, though, because she’s not super skinny at the moment. It’s warm and she doesn’t like that. I worry about her lots. Leaving her for 5 days…ugh. She won’t take her meds if I’m not here. But she’s fighting taking them now. So there’s that.

In other quilt news, I’m on this poster, as my quilt is in this exhibition, opening this weekend.

Nice to be invited.

Ah yes…

Sharknado? I’m good with it…although I don’t think he can run that fast.

Anyway. Today. I need to think about packing for the trip. I already found a few books and downloaded them, and decided what stitching I’m taking with me. The piece I’ve been traveling with is not in a good stage for that at the moment. And I’m unlikely to have the time to get it into a good stage. However, I had a series of 9 small blocks that are appliqued but not embellished (another Sue Spargo, shockingly), so I grabbed a few of those. It’s unfortunate that the place I’m staying does not have a comfy chair in the room (this type of Airbnb never does…annoyingly), but I’m not really expecting to spend much time in the room. If there’s down time, I’ll go to a coffee shop or something. There’s only about 20 within a short walking distance. Tea, snack, stitching, while watching some videos. Need to remember my headphones. Girlchild is working some of the time I’m there, so I do have some options for down time. Maybe some fabric, maybe some art, maybe a boat ride. Who knows? We might go visit the boychild if he gets stationed far enough south. Right now, he’s about 3 hours north of San Francisco, and that’s without traffic. That would be a long day. ANYWAY. Also today, at least 3 hours of stitchdown. Priming a closet (ooh exciting. not.). Plus maybe ceramics. If not today, tomorrow definitely. Yardwork! I’ve filled 1.5 trashcans and need to fill 1.5 more. Fun times. Bush from hell around the pool. It just takes forever to trim this bush. I would totally pay someone to take this bush down to 6 feet all the way across. OK, IDK how much I would pay them, because yeah, this summer has not been cheap. OK. Eat breakfast, more tea, change into painting clothes and do the first step of getting this closet put back together. That’s a plan.

Until I’m Not…

My brain is so discombobulated. It’s not Saturday? It’s Friday, but afternoon. I feel like I need a nap already. OK, so I was up kinda early to take family to a soccer game (my nephew’s in town, playing in a tournament). And there was sitting in the sun and then eating lunch and I’m a little out of it. And I’m going to have to leave in a couple of hours and drive BACK the way I went to the game, through that hellacious traffic we saw going north. Fun times.

I used to have a blog FULL of soccer photos. I don’t miss that.

Where is everyone going this Friday? It’s Pride weekend…so they’re all going to LA? I don’t know. It was crazy traffic, and I don’t think it’s going to get better as the day goes on. So we’re going to leave pretty early, I think, just to be safe. I’m still a little paranoid that I don’t have enough stuff to demonstrate, but then I will have these bugs afterwards that take too much time to make to be able to sell well. I did one with a regular binding…the others may get a satin-stitch binding (half the time). We’ll see. Or I’ll sew them all together into a bug wallhanging unlike anything else I’ve ever made. Who knows?

I am tired though. Kittens have energy. One kitten (Kitten, the almost-16-year-old) started Netflix up this morning and woke everyone up. Usually I’m smart enough to change the tab that’s up on the computer (because yes, she’s done this before…she’s the Queen of Stepping on the Keyboard), but not so last night. Up too late, didn’t fall asleep quickly, up too early. My own fault. Ironing at night is cooler. Like less temperature cooler. So I do that instead of sleeping.

So quiltwise, not gonna be done by tomorrow…here’s Wednesday’s work done, two of the three main figures done.

Last night, I finished the third…

And started on the things in the sky…

That doesn’t look like much. I have about 450-500 pieces left to iron. Not a small amount.

I also made it to the ceramics studio for more coloring on this…

I think it’s done? Ready to dry?

Get it ready to bisque fire?

This is another art technique that takes a ton of time. Ah well. It is what it is.

I also made it to the native plant nursery yesterday and bought some different native milkweed.

Those will go in the ground as soon as this heat wave (minor) fucks off.

Meanwhile, I don’t have a picture of last night’s skunk, but here’s what I caught Luna eyeballing from inside the house.

And I saw this beauty while watering…

From a book I just finished.

Too real right now. Too real.

OK, I’m going to take a quick nap, pack stuff up, panic more about not having enough (it’s one of my common anxieties, often proven wrong), decide what to wear to this thing, and hopefully have a good time tonight. This kind of thing is always stressful, but I think I’m prepared enough for whatever might happen. Until I’m not.

Nowhere You Have to Go

I do love the middle of July. Well, except for trying to pay bills with no paycheck. That’s stressful. In my district, we get paid at the end of June and then not again until the end of August. Now we go back to school on August 9, so it’s a challenge to pay August’s mortgage and other bills with the one check from June that already paid all of July’s bills. Forget traveling…I start panicking about having enough money for the summer sometime in February. This year I’m OK, despite the huge construction/remodel expenditure, although the August credit card bill includes the carpet costs (oh ouch). Deep breaths.

The part I love is when days start popping up that have NOTHING scheduled on them. No meetings, no exercise class, no Zooms, no nothing. Yesterday. That was the day. There’s one next week too, I think. Today, I only have pilates, which is fine…good for me, actually. It’s such a relief to get up in the morning and think, there is nothing you HAVE to do. There is nowhere you HAVE to go. I mean, my brain has a to-do list, so it’s not REALLY nothing, but I’ve been working super hard on carving out 6-hour art days from these. I do yardwork as breaks, I move furniture and crap back into bedrooms in between bits and pieces of art, but it feels so much better than the crazy that is my work life. This is what Saturdays used to be like. Pre-COVID. I need to find that Saturday vibe again.

Meanwhile, I’m totally enjoying these parts of the summer. The rest of this week gets a little whack-a-doodle, but it’ll be cool. Monday, after the news program, I was pretty tired, but I rallied and ironed. This is part of the left side…about reproductive rights (what’s left of them).

And the right side is about the war in Gaza (and everywhere else…sheesh).

There’s bombs falling all over this piece.

Monday night, I ironed a lot of toes…although I may have ironed just as many on Tuesday? It was just a lot of toes. And an unwieldy large piece, which seems to be how I spend all my summers…delightfully.

I really wanted this ironed together by the weekend, but I think I just lost part of Thursday and a big chunk of Friday, so we’ll see. I did manage to get the legs done in the early afternoon yesterday…

And then started into the torso of the left figure last night.

I’m missing some pieces…one seemed to just have been missed completely from the piece it should have been attached to, but the other five are just not there. I was missing two pieces in an earlier part, and they showed up in the wrong box (I need new glasses, y’all), so I’m just gonna wait it out and see if they show up. If not, I’ll retrace and cut them: two nipples, one elbow, and two heart pieces. Weird to be missing so many.

None of them are crucial to continuing to iron. There was an arm piece missing that was more crucial, so I recut it. So I’ve ironed all the way through about piece 650, but I’ve also done a chunk of the 700s and 800s, with one in the 900s. So I’m close to halfway with almost 12 hours in. I’ve been putting in about 3-4 hours of ironing a day (depending on the day…Sunday was a cluster). Another 12 hours at the same average is about 3 days…but there’s challenges coming up in the next few days, some art events, some people events, some family events. So like I said, end of the weekend? Then iron it to a background, stitchdown, etc. My goal is to finish it by the time school starts for real (August 15…ignore all the prep beforehand, even though it will suck up time). We’ll see…I’m in San Francisco for 5 days next week, so that’ll slow me down. It’s good to have a goal though.

I made it to ceramics yesterday and spent a delightful 2+ hours cleaning up the lines on this and adding more…

And then clearing out the background…

And starting the color…

I really like the black and white, but I also love the color…

This is for a series of garden poles/stakes that my studio is making. It was a test for me to see if I could make a roundish shape (I can). Also a test of this new-to-me clay (which was free). All good. I really need to go in tomorrow and work on underglazing the top of the other piece too, since its partner is on the greenware shelf. The winged woman finally made it into the glaze fire…woohoo! After getting mansplained and whatevered by a couple of people. She IS unstable, yes. Imma have to do something about that. I’m thinking of making her a base of some sort to extend what’s there. Not sure how. Gotta think about that. One of my favorite parts of the clay stuff right now is that I rarely know what I’m doing.

The new kitten finally got a name…Bowie.

He’s a sweet baby except at 6:52 AM when he wants to play. In the bed. By jumping on all the sleeping things, including me, the Man, the dog (not pleased), and all cats. Toes especially. And then he crashes and I’m wide awake. Ugh.

He strangely lies on the floor like he’s a dog. Anyway. He’s a good eater, has a chill temperament, except when he’s got the rips, and is very accepting and interested in all the other animals. Kitten is still ignoring his presence, but her 16th birthday is in a few weeks and she’s pretty happy sleeping most of the day, hidden in my office. The other two are still negotiating how they feel about Bowie. They like the smell of his food, but that might be it.

In politics…WTF, USA? Like really. I don’t understand ANYTHING that’s going on in my country right now, although I’m amused to see my district is being cited by the state for removing LGTBQIA from the sex ed curriculum. Hmmm. I’m not going to comment too much, because I’m on that committee, but here’s a link to one news story…and a link to another. That’s the first time I’d seen the ‘more palatable and proper’ comment. I say, let’s go! Hold us up to that standard! I know we’re rewriting this fall anyway (ugh, I hate two things: this committee and creating curriculum by committee. I LOVE that we’re going to get the chance to add to it.).

But also this…

Not my religion. Also this…

I won’t say his name, but he’s not more important than elementary school kids and their teachers. And if you think he is, we aren’t friends.

Also this…

Not a fan of Project 2025, not a fan of the RNC, not a fan of the crazy states who regulate the uterus more than guns. I’m sure if you’ve read this blog for a while, this is not a surprise…but just wanted to be clear about it. I can’t watch/listen to much of it (it’s OK, the Man is doing it for me)…but when we put power and money ahead of humans, it’s never going to end well.

OK. Today. Fabric. Ironing. Lots of it. Still moving/culling things in the living room that need to go away or find a home. I might be able to move the table back today. Depends. Boychild is still on the Lake Fire. He rode in a helicopter yesterday to his worksite…apparently that was fun. I’m sure he’s exhausted…he doesn’t think he’ll be back until next week…so it’ll be over 3 weeks since he left. He’s rocking a cold at the moment, so I don’t want him coming back until he’s not contagious. The fire is getting under control, a little every day. Hopefully he’ll be home by Monday, so he can see his cousin and uncle…they’re coming in for a soccer tournament, so that’s my Friday morning. I haven’t been to a soccer tournament in a while (don’t really miss them). Gotta find my chair and my sunscreen. But for now, more tea, some breakfast, some ironing. More yardwork (got one more trashcan to fill by tonight), more moving things. Pilates later…

Progress on 1700 Fronts…

It’s delightfully overcast this morning. I will take this July gloom (which will probably not last) and do nothing with it. I really should do something…yardwork when it’s cooler is smart. But NO. I have a ton of art stuff I need to do today. I’ve been putting off the bugs and the ironing of the new quilt, and I can’t put it off anymore. I’m spending three days doing that (and some other stuff, no worries). I’ll do some yardwork, but probably in the evening. I’m not awake enough yet. I have a friend who gets up at 6 AM on a Saturday to do yardwork, and I’m like, um no? Not. I must have had a look of absolute horror on my face, because she laughed. Yes, I’m a night owl. She is not.

So progress here is slow because it’s progress on 1700 fronts. Today will include a trip to the garage to check if I have any roller painting equipment that is in decent condition…if not, I need to go to Home Depot (AGAIN). I did write the final check to all the contractors for all the work they’ve done. Just a reminder, it flooded here in January, and because it came from the ground (I am up on a hill, y’all) and not the roof, insurance covered none of it. Total was just over $22K to fix everything and replace carpet and put in gutters so it wouldn’t happen again. I only had that money because I started saving to remodel my circa 1980 bathrooms and kitchen about 5 years ago. I’m back to saving for those…things I wanted done before I retired. It’s OK…we’ll see how it goes. So now all the remaining work falls on me, because I didn’t have 3K for painting, so I’m doing it myself, and I’m not doing it all this summer, because I hate painting. And there’s a ton of digging in the entryway that still needs to happen. I’ll get to it. I have many ideas and not a lot of time to make them happen, because I’m also trying to recover from the school year, read 40 books, and do a bunch of art. Like you do. And then put the house back together. Yesterday, I emptied 6 boxes of books and organized them and culled a little and put them all away…

This was when I still had two more boxes to open. I was on a Zoom call during this and then a phone call at the same time. Took about 2 1/2 hours. I have two more boxes in the girlchild’s room to do today. Then all those boxes can go in the garage for whenever someone might need them. Oh, I also have a box and three bags of clothes to put away in the bedroom…I did one bag last night because I needed a bag to go to my stitching meeting. None of it is hard…it just takes time and energy. I also want to paint the closet this weekend and buy the paint for the hallway. Because that’s next week. After the boychild moves all his shit. Which hopefully he’ll be home next week to do. Ha! He sends us beautiful pictures…although scary, because fire…

We get daily (or so) reports. It’s hot, there’s a lot of firefighters up there.

So far, most structures have survived, so they’re doing a great job. This is the Lake Fire in Santa Barbara County.

I finally made it to ceramics yesterday…kept getting sidelined by moving stuff. I got these out of the bisque kiln fire…

The red clay fired so pale! I was surprised. It’s our studio reclaim clay and the little bit of red clay really colors the white, which is mostly porcelain I think. So weird. It’s an OK clay to work with…very sticky, but carving works well. So I dipped the two coil pots in glaze…and then I glazed the inside of the two outside pots, with a thin, watered-down layer of clear on the outside. Clear is problematic…it gets cloudy, sometimes it burns out some of the colors. So this is a test. I didn’t clear glaze the big one until the test is done. I like it too much.

I added a cloud of hair to the world figure, and of course, forgot to take a picture. I think it’s pretty much done for adding clay…I just need to underglaze everything.

And then our studio is making some garden stake totem things. I hesitate to call them totems, because I think of that as belonging to specific cultures. But I made a ball with holes in it, underglazed, and carved some yesterday.

Here’s a video so you can see the arms.

Fun stuff. I used some clay someone left out for free (I’m a clay slut apparently)…it’s a Longhorn with grog, I think. It’s definitely sturdier than the other clay I’ve been using. I appreciate that. On the one hand, I really like carving like I draw…but I also like the meditation of building things. So I guess I’ll keep doing both at the same time? If I can go in tomorrow or Sunday and finish underglazing the base of the world figure, it can go on the greenware shelf, and then that’ll clear a little space on my shelf…it’s packed right now with three boards of stuff. I’m an overachiever sometimes.

Speaking of, I got binding and sleeves machine-stitched on both smaller quilts and started handsewing one of them.

It’ll take me a few nights of sitting and watching stuff to finish them. That darker blue one is hard at night. It would be smarter to do it during the day. Oh well.

So yeah, kitten still is unnamed. We are trying names out. Earlier, I heard a lot of “ouch no ouch no” coming from the living room.

Kitten is sharp and pointy. He does sleep a lot.

That pic seems to have some Siamese inclinations. We’re pretty sure dad cat was at least part Siamese. Sisters are both orange, mom is calico. His face and ears and coloring are all different from them.

This is legit…

OK. Plan for today. It’s already 10 AM. Love the summer for that. Gonna eat something, then start ironing bugs (need them done by Monday, or at least some of them). I’m also going to start working on ironing the crones quilt together. I saw the deadline I’m aiming for and it’s closer than I thought. Summer does that…contracts in weird ways. Too much work, never enough time. I have a book I’m reading, I want to draw tonight. Will I? Don’t know. Maybe sometime this weekend. I have three days with not a lot of outside influences, which I appreciate. I’m hoping for maybe some relaxation with the Man in the next few days? We’ll see. But definitely art.

Always Good…

Apparently no one has explained to Simba that people like to sleep in on days they don’t have to go to work. He’s UP! Wants to know why no one else is UP! The world is a noisy place. He wants to bark at it.

OK, three days post surgery, it still hurts to swallow, there’s a little pain on and off (ice packs! Motrin!), but all is good. It’s not going to be a pretty scar…ah well. I don’t really care about that. I do care that the doc just messaged me that everything is benign and clear and I don’t need to do anything else for now, although the tissues they removed are more likely to develop into cancer (we knew that going in). So one worry checked off. Always good. I feel fine, although I’m still not lifting things or working out. First of those is Sunday, fully approved by the doc. I’ll hopefully hike before then.

I made it to the ceramics studio yesterday…finished all four of the pots for the Man. Couldn’t leave the one blank, so I made little Venus flytraps all over it, rainbow-colored.

Simple. I now have 5 pots on the drying rack. I did work on the world figure I started back in April, but I forgot to photograph it. I’m glad I’m finally got some space on my shelf to put the top part…so that’s the next plan.

I have to go in to school today and tomorrow for interviews: new science teacher today, assistant principals tomorrow. Fun times. Yes, I get paid. I also get to make sure they don’t pick someone lame.

I’ve been doing lots of ironing, because it’s easy enough. Well, is it? Lots of complicated stuff being ironed. Tuesday…I did two sessions and got one entire figure ironed.

Lots of browns and flesh tones. Last night, I got the flesh ironed on the third figure, but not all the other stuff…I did the hair and the eyeball, but then I got tired.

That’s her fleshy colors on the right. Plus a dark eye. I’m in the 1000s, but also I’ve ironed some of the 1100s. And some of the 900s aren’t ironed. So that’s clear. There’s still one entire figure to go and a shit ton of stuff in the sky. But the box is full of pieces to cut out. That’s fun.

I drew last night.

I haven’t been drawing. It’s been harder and harder with school the last four years to get time to draw. I work so many hours at the day job. I reserve an hour a night for art, but it’s mostly working on whatever project I’m currently obsessed with. There’s no time for just random drawing, except at the occasional dinner out. I used to do these big random drawings for no reason at all, just because I wanted to draw. So there’s that. Boob and brain in that one. Still waiting on brain results.

Reading a book about the period…called Period.

Fascinating stuff…science and politics and history. I can read nonfiction as long as I’m reading a fiction book concurrently. Which I am.

I replanted a few things. Not this. Just saw this.

It makes the prettiest flowers.

Found this little sweetheart bouncing around the leaves last night…

Hoping it’s OK. I always figure parents are nearby and I should leave it alone. We do occasionally find dead hummingbirds. Sad.

And the owls are still here, seemingly acting like there’s eggs or babies in the box?

I have not given up on them. Hoping to hear future squawking of tiny owlets.

OK, off to school for a little while. Then back here, ironing, plus setting stuff up for an Insta takeover. Tomorrow is interviews all day. I just wanna know if I should bring my lunch? I’ll ask today. Otherwise, I’m gonna sit in the good news for a while.

Hard to Sit Still…

OK, I’m off on my writing days. It’s OK. I probably don’t actually know what day it is most of summer. It’s better that way. We’re so hyperfocused on days and dates when we’re teaching that it’s nice to take some time off from that. As long as I don’t miss any appointments.

Yesterday was surgery. It went well. I’m not in a lot of pain. Got rid of the heavy duty pain meds already. I feel better without them anyway, and now that I can take ibuprofen again, it’s effective enough. I get results next week. Meanwhile I’m mentally designing tattoos for the scar. It’ll be a while before I can do that, but I can still dream it. Everyone wants me to rest, but my body likes to move more than rest. I did OK yesterday…did a lot of stitching and watching videos. One was this Textile Talk by Dr. Teri Walker, who interviewed me at some point for an article she’s writing. Three of my quilts are in the talk, which was cool…

Shout out to all my political activist quilt friends also in this talk.

My surgeon had to sign the side he was operating on.

That sharpie is not coming off anytime soon. I have dissolvable stitches with a waterproof coating that will slowly deteriorate (I’m supposed to gently wash it with soap)…the plus is that I could shower today! There’s some adhesive that caused a mark and some other adhesive that will apparently take a few days to get the fuck off (not on the wound), so that’s fun. But I am no longer orange. I am signed though. WEIRD.

Stitching I did yesterday…

That freaking drizzle stitch tail took forever…

Finished the wings, put the eyes on, and started around the leaves…

I also finished one book and started two more. Wait, I think I finished two books. Hmm. I’m reading one on the Kindle app (nonfiction) and one in actual book shape (fantasy) so I don’t lose my saved up days/weeks on the Kindle. Yes, I guess that’s a thing.

I did ceramics on Saturday afternoon. This is one of the pots for the Man’s carnivorous plants.

It was fun to do, much faster than the last one.

I did a couple of coil pots too…

Just to use up the clay. I’d like to go in today, but everyone keeps yelling “REST” at me. You know, part of my resting is sitting on a stool at the ceramics studio and playing with clay. I could do that for 2-3 hours with no complaint.

From one of the books I’m reading…the last phrase especially.

Yes it’s a book about a bookstore. Once Upon a Tome. It’s amusing, but I’m not sure what the plot is. Or if there is one.

We hiked Saturday.

I’m allowed to take short walks today.

Hiking by Saturday? Maybe sooner. Except I’m doing all these school-related interviews Thursday and Friday. My fault for saying yes. My fault for giving a shit about who is foisted on me next year.

Saturday night’s drawing. New place for dinner. We liked it.

Nice space.

Saturday night’s ironing…I finished the tree in the 1400s.

It was easier than saving those fabrics aside until I got there.

Then Sunday night, I ironed all the fleshy bits on the first woman.

And last night (yes, last night I felt well enough to stand for an hour to iron), I did all the non-fleshy bits on the same woman.

Tried to add a lot of color. This quilt is heavy on the browns and grays at the moment.

Tonight (or this afternoon), I’ll start on the second figure. New flesh tones.

Legit.

OK, one of the things that sucks the most post surgery is that I have to wear a bra for 48 hours straight. I’m already done with it. I was done with it last night. I took it off to shower and it was hell to put it back on.

Not because it hurts…I just hate bras. It’s summer. It’s anathema to wear a bra.

This is the hood of my car…it is covered with bunny fur bits that were pulled out, probably by the hawk that was eating it…

In the tree above my car. It was sad. Although I’m glad only fur landed on my car. Ugh.

More random shit from the internet.

Also legit. And the last one…I swear…before I go REST again (I am tired of resting…yes, it has been 24 hours. Might be my max.).

Oh yes. Well, I will go read for a while and maybe stitch, or maybe come back in here and STAND. I was not put in this world to rest. Some people are very good at it. I fail. I get an F. Don’t lecture me about my body needing the time to recover. I think my body needs what makes me feel better right now. I know better than to lift furniture or dig holes (both are on my to-do list), but if I have to sit on the couch for another 8 hours, Imma kill something. Not a baby bunny though. I’m definitely watering things today. I’ll hold off on planting the other things, because I would have to use a big shovel, and I’d get shit for doing that. It’s a beautiful day out there though. Hard to sit still when there’s so much to do. Please don’t email me and tell me why I need to rest. I KNOW. I still don’t like it.

Last Minute

The number of reminders on my phone right now to remember to do all the things. A kid emailed me yesterday and asked which day I was grading things, and I answered ALL the days. I am getting close to done, though. Seven days. Seven days with one at Belmont Park on a field trip and one is graduation and one is graduation practice and a carnival. So actual teaching days? I have literacy stuff this morning, so half a day today, a whole day tomorrow, and two next week. But honestly, it’s not the teaching that’s the issue. It’s sex ed and that’s easy, although I’m not a fan of all of this curriculum and I wish I’d been able to give myself more time to teach it. I wrote a note in the calendar for next year. Because I don’t even remember what I did last year…the kids were telling me (the ones I had in 7th grade) and I’m like, big fat blank space where my brain was y’all. Sorry. I guess that’s a plus. Nah it’s all the adult crap…last-minute contracts for kids who don’t want to come to school any more, last-minute drop-a-new-kid-in-my-class…oh wait! No! He’s an opt out, but last minute, you have to add him to all the things and GRADE him, this kid who you will never see. And oh yeah, we’re gonna completely change the schedule at the last minute so you have to scramble to finish what’s already a tight finish. People are pissy. I’M pissy. I know I am. I sat in my room during prep yesterday after creating another last-minute thing and just tried not to cry. Because I’m overwhelmed. Texted my co-teacher who was at the zoo with my other work wife (they’ll be back in August…it’s OK) and they wanted to FaceTime me, but then I knew I’d cry. Sigh. Just need it to be done.

I watered my newly planted plants last night. It’s nice to see them grab hold of the dirt and start to grow on their own. I have more to plant…maybe Saturday. After my brain scan. Sounds delightful.

I am making art. I’m making lots of art. Just very slowly. I finally finished the sgraffito planter. Well…for some definition of ‘finished’.

I’m really happy with how it turned out. It’s fun. This is over 8 1/2 hours of creating so far though. So not fast. Maybe faster than a quilt? But now it has to dry, slowly, over a couple of weeks. Then bisque fire. Then decide if I’m going to put any glaze over it? Not sure. I have the two tiles still and I asked a bunch of questions on Monday of the more experienced potters, and got a name of a clear satin matte glaze that MIGHT work, but I’m going to try it out on the tiles first before I do anything to this one.

I almost forgot to do the eyebrow.

I love the hair.

Rainbows for Pride Month.

I’d do this type of thing again.

When I finished, I still had some time left before I needed to head for home. The winged woman piece has been drying for a while. I pulled her down at one point to fix some cracks. But I wasn’t sure how to glaze her. While I was in Maine, I would just let her percolate in my brain until I decided to do some underglazing first…

There will be more, but not a lot…

And then I’ll fire her, and then do an iron oxide after that. Hopefully she’ll survive the firing. That’s always the issue. If she didn’t, I’d probably try to build her again. It really is more about the process than the product for me. Don’t get me wrong…I love the product when it turns out, but the time spent building is what I like most. Same with quilts.

I’ve had this thing lying around since COVID.

Parts just need to be sewn down. Some more parts need to be added. I worked on it a little last night instead of grading.

Then I headed in for about 30 minutes of ironing. Hung up the HUGE drawing…

Made a video about it…practice for an Insta takeover I’m doing later this month.

Very rough and very squinty. Gotta work on that. Laid out the first 100 pieces…

Ironed the first few big ones…already pulling from the 100 and 200 bins. So logical numbering.

It’s a start. It’ll be browns tonight.

Here’s Simba on Monday night, very sleepy.

The owls are still here, they’re still going in and out of the owl box, which is a good sign that they haven’t given up on procreation. No baby sounds though.

Glad to see them still here. Late babies are fine by me. We’ve lost at least two that I know of. Sigh.

OK, to school for a meeting, then another meeting, then a free lunch (this is how they bribe us), then teaching in the afternoon, trying to get some of the packets recorded in the gradebook while they finish their stuff, then another meeting (at a restaurant with one drink and appetizers), and home to another meeting. WTF. So many meetings. Art in between. Book in between? Maybe. Maybe not. Yeah. I need the pillow fort.

Let’s Be Real…

Hey. Two more Mondays. Nine days. Panicking a bit about finishing grades on time, but with all the grading I did all weekend, I’m hoping I’m OK. I’m not taking any more late work, so that should help. One hopes. I still need sub plans for Wednesday morning, another literacy meeting that was incredibly poorly timed. Can’t have the swing sub teach sex ed, but I don’t have spare days, so I’m just gonna have to come up with magical things. The sex ed packets are too long for a normal period, and we have short classes today, so I’m gonna have to figure that out because they can’t do Wednesday’s thing without me if I can’t get through the two packets today and tomorrow. FUUCKKK. Not thinking about that. I’ll figure it out. By myself. Like all fucking year. We have a field trip Friday, and then we’re back for two periods…where I’ll be showing a video and hoping I don’t have another drug overdose in class because of the field trip. What are the odds? I mean, that would be USEFUL professional development. How to deal with overdoses, what to look for, what to do. Let’s be real here. I’m beyond cynical right now. One of the things we do with sex ed is a question box, and the first question I got in there, I had to call Child Protective Services. I was on hold from when I got to the ceramics studio on Friday, through 90 minutes of underglazing, the drive home, and 15 minutes at home with my book until they finally answered. Finished the report at 7 PM. And will anything happen? Well mine isn’t the first report, so there’s that. Disheartening. Extremely.

Ah well. Let’s start with the glazing…I’m almost done…

I did the reds, all the arteries, the heart, tongue, etc.

I also did the darker skin tones. I have a lot of clean up to do in the lines.

Fingernails…

And I started the hair. I got tired after about 90 minutes. I think I only have three colors left to do tonight. I knew CPS would pick up and I’d have to go outside and have this conversation, and I didn’t want to be that tired and still have to clean up after the conversation. So I didn’t finish Friday.

I graded Friday night, most of Saturday, and for about 5 hours on Sunday. Still not done! It’s all the fiddly last-minute redoes and late work that take for-freaking-ever to go through. The Man says I shouldn’t allow that, but I’m pro-growth-mindset. Learn from your mistakes. Figure out the right answers. I love the persistent kids. Well, some of them. Some of them don’t listen and keep submitting, even though they still haven’t read the comments or changed what they’re doing. And some use AI to help and it’s so freaking obvious…I mean, there’s not a lot of 8th graders at my school using the phrase “chronological constant”. I ran one through an AI detector just for fun. I mean, all I had to do was compare the first answer, which wasn’t bad, but was more kid-real language, to the second one, which read like a Wiki article. Sigh. I wrote both of them notes about the future. I doubt they’ll read them. Or listen. YES, I am in defeatist mode. Survival mode.

I also ironed things all weekend. Friday night, got to here.

Saturday night, all but the head…

Sunday night, did the head and ironed it to a background…

Hoping to see my sewing machine soon. We know a part arrived, but there was a medical emergency and we’re not sure if it got installed before that happened. It’s OK…I’m just going to start ironing the big quilt to fabric. I was ready to do that when I realized I had this one piled up too and it was easy enough to iron it together. Feels like a success. Progress. Looks nice. All that.

I had my quilt guild meeting Saturday…worked on her hair.

Slowest stitch ever. I also got a place to stay in Phoenix for QuiltCon 2025. Fun drive.

We hiked…

Babysat the ex’s dog again…

She’s constantly on the hunt. For animals.

It’s always nice to get outside in nature. I miss it. Want to do it more. Although apparently we discriminate against giraffes.

Doesn’t say if they must be leashed.

It’s not exactly a playdate because Simba is annoyed by her, but at least she gets some exercise and attention.

Saturday night, we tried some local breweries/wineries.

Just for something different. Felt bad for the band…there were only four people listening. Ouch.

And here’s where we’re at…

Although I definitely wasn’t smiling even that much.

OK, clay today, plus grading (you knew that was coming), plus starting to iron the next quilt to fabric. I’m tired. I’m done. Today I’m teaching pregnancy. The boys are notoriously stupid about this until I start talking about the financial responsibility of spilling sperm. Fun times.

My Head Is Exploding…

OK. So I managed to do 70 trillion things yesterday to try to make sure I’m ready for ANYTHING: my sub for the next two days, missing my flight Monday afternoon (Alaska Air has already offered me money to switch my flight day, which does not bode well for getting home on time), running out of toilet paper here, the faucet that is failing, a shortage of cotton balls for next Wednesday’s lab…WHATEVER. I feel like my head is exploding. I even had all my breakfasts and lunches planned this week, and then my bosses fell through on today’s breakfast burrito and made it lunch instead…OK, so I have an extra lunch now. I’ll take one on the plane. But the point of the breakfast burrito is that I don’t have a prep during testing, so eating is more complicated on those days, so a solid breakfast helps. Cheerios isn’t gonna do it. Ah well. Roll with it.

I did get two days in the ceramics studio this week, mostly because I’m trying to finish the sgraffito piece so I can work on the OTHER piece…there’s no room on my shelf at the moment. Plus I wanted to make sure all the paper towels were damp for the week I won’t be in there.

So here’s Monday’s progress…all the blues…

Then yesterday, I did the flesh color…

Sorry about all the talking. I forget that people are in the studio while I’m working. Then I add music before I post on Insta, but forget that I would need to download that version. So you get random studio conversations. Ugh. Monday, there was no one else there. It was delightful. Tuesday was busy.

I need some shades of flesh for all the bits I didn’t do. And I realized I should have done the teeth when I did the other whites. Ah well.

And some of the raindrops need touchup.

No clue what I’m going to do with her hair. Definitely red arteries and heart and probably nails.

It’s definitely fun. It’s basically drawing and coloring. On a curvy thing.

So there’s that. Maybe finished mid-June (or 2025…whichever seems more reasonable). No, I need to finish so I can work on the other one.

The cloud/grass planter went into the bisque fire yesterday. That was fast! I’m close to putting the winged creature in for a bisque fire too. Soon. I probably need help with that. The shelf isn’t big enough for me to just put her there.

I’m also doing quilt stuff. Have not stopped that. It’s my late-night art. So really, I’m just doubling up some days. I sorted all the Wonder Under (in two nights) for the new big quilt…

And then realized I had never ironed the last little one together and it’s taking up space in the office. I know it won’t take long, so I’m just doing it.

I cleaned up first, then started setting stuff out. I love this part of quiltmaking, when all the colors come together. I’m going to have so much sewing to do when I get my machine back. Good times.

The Man is trying to make friends with crows.

This one wouldn’t get out of my way when I was trying to go to work yesterday. There are two hanging around. He is just feeding them at the moment…not sure when they start bringing us people’s jewelry, but I think it’s soon.

The proteas are still fascinating…

OK, state science testing is today. I’m a little freaked out by the next 24 hours, but I’m sure I’ll survive. I need to come home and do laundry (after pilates and during book club, apparently), pack, make sure I’m ready because tomorrow is an early start. Gonna be a long day. But we’ll be with family at the end of it, so that’ll be cool. Looking forward to seeing my niece graduate. Yay for her!