'Twas the Night Before Valentine's Day...

I think I mentioned earlier in the school year that parents were asked to adopt a teacher and be his or her secret pal for the year. I started with one, then two, then five... and ended up with eight secret pals. Tomorrow being Valentine's Day, I made up little goodie bags for my teachers which I will drop off at school tomorrow morning when I take J in. I have drawing class tomorrow so I'll give her a ride to school, and then after class I am going in to get TSA approved flight status so I can always go through the TSA Pre-check line. The last three times I have had to go through security in Austin I have practically been cavity searched--even when I wasn't flying and was just walking J to her gate. I have been _thoroughly_ patted down several times while the entire line behind me was held up, and that's more excitement than I need at this point in my life.

Also tomorrow, the crew comes to start clearing the brush and weeds out of the the area where the beehives, raised beds, espaliered fruit trees, benches, pond, passionfruit pergola, and new water storage tank are going. It'll probably take till June to get it all done, but we'll have a good bit done by the end of March. The water storage tank is part of the revamped rainwater collection system with grey water addition. I'm very excited to add grey water processing to to the systems of the house. Right now we have two 30 year-old 1,000 gallon rainwater tanks that collect from all the rain gutters. However a rough calculation today tells me that we get about 2,400 gallons of water off the roof every time we get an inch of water. Austin gets an average of 35 inches of rain per year. It would sure be nice to be able to use all that collected rainwater to water the new gardens and top off the pond... Enter the new storage tank. I am looking at a 10,000 gallon tank that will go up by our well house. The location means we will need to pump the water uphill from the current collection tanks, but then it will be accessible for gravity feed to anywhere in the yard and the new garden. I need to figure out the costs associated with the pumping, filtering, and storage in the large tank, but I think it only makes sense to keep as much water as we can for irrigation and other non-potable needs.

The grey water system will only come off of the master bathroom as the rest of the plumbing is already in the concrete foundation and would be too much of a hassle to change. But we are already remodeling the master bath this year, and part of the project will be to jackhammer up parts of the floor to move some of the plumbing. It will be an excellent time to divert all the water from the sinks, tub and shower from the septic field to a grey water system. The first stage will be for the water coming out of the bathroom (through a pipe straight through the wall) to flow through a basket of mulch. Then it will flow through a series of contained wetlands where the water will be filtered--much like in the bog pond at our Atlanta house. When the water comes out after filtration, it will be stored in a tank before being used for more garden irrigation.

I can feel myself rambling tonight so I'm going to cut this post short and come back to the garden plan at a later date.

Once More Into the Organizational Breach!

Another day spent bringing the house to heel. I started with the utility room again because I just couldn't let it beat me another day. Three separate times I thought of something that tried to pull me away, but I stayed strong. Well, I stayed strong for the first two. By the third I decided I had better act upon them or I would forget them because I couldn't keep three things in the front of my mind. Distractions notwithstanding, I did get the gift wrap area done today (shown at right), if not the rest of the counters (shown below).

We also tried a housecleaning system today that brought to mind one of my grandmother Jessie's stories about her early married life. She and Grampa Pete (Cecil, but everyone called him Pete but me--I called him Grampa or Grumpy, which he wasn't) lived in Alexandria Virginia, and they both worked for the government in Washington DC. It was the late 1930's, and on Friday night when they got off work they would go home and quickly clean their house together before having friends over or going out for the evening. I have a wonderful series of pictures of them with another couple on one such evening in their house. The pictures are simple: two happy couples talking, posing, drinking, laughing, enjoying their evening. It's hard to believe they were taken 80 years ago.

But back to the system. Today we tried working through the house together in series: First I went through picking things up off all the surfaces and putting them away, Jessie followed behind me with the Swiffer hand duster and dusted all the surfaces. Then Dave followed her with the vacuum--cleverly getting up everything she dusted onto the floor--and moving all the furniture out of the way to vacuum underneath it. I fell into the back of the line and finished with mopping the floor--including under the furniture Dave moved out--and putting the furniture back in place. It was a great and highly efficient system--even with a slightly balky teenager at the head of the line.

Now my spouse and I sip well-deserved glasses of sauvignon blanc in reward (a toast!) and listen to "All That We Let In" by the Indigo Girls. He is making chicken biryani, raita and nan for dinner, and we have two slices of lilikoi (if you're in Hawaii it's lilikoi, if you're mainland it's passionfruit) cheesecake for dessert. Two slices is okay because it's not Jessie's thing and it was a gift--thank you Lenny the Fish! Haven't decided what we'll watch tonight. I'm in the mood for Kill Bill, and Jessie doesn't like Tarantino's films. Come to think of it, Pulp Fiction would be a good choice too...

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Dinner and he movie are long over. Cheesecake was YUMMY! The Sprout's tender sensibilities were not up for anything dark and grim so we rewatched Grosse Pointe Blank. It's been 21 years since it came out and it has held up incredibly well from the direction to the acting to the music. I spent the movie knitting a cotton dishcloth for Dave with a cat in my lap. Got it half done (the dishcloth, not the cat), and will finish it tomorrow. My mother and MIL both made these dishcloths for us in the past, and they're so great that they're the only ones we use. But time has passed, we have lost a few to the garbage disposal, and the rest are pretty uniformly grey and ratty. Fortunately I have my mom's stash of spooled cotton for knitting them, and everything (including the pattern for them) is available on the Internet so I decided it was time to learn to make them myself.

Now it's time to go to bed to join my dulcetly snoring spouse. I leave you with the Violent Femmes (from the aforementioned movie).

Saturday, But Not In the Park

Another Saturday winds down and I am left wondering what the evening holds. Jessie is holed up in her room eating McDonald's, Dave is plugged into his laptop, and I am in between cleaning tasks. I made good progress today on the laundry and straightening the utility room but there is always more to be done.

Earlier, while in über organization mode, I came upon this little gem of an idea on the web--a wall shelf with cutouts to hold dog dishes! Gallifrey has an elevated feeding station, but I have never set anything up for the other dogs because they're short. They can eat on the floor. But they scatter food and water that turns into muck all over the floor, and it's more difficult to clean up because the dishes are sitting in it. With this ingenious shelf, the dishes can be at any custom height, and off the floor at the same time. The page I found the idea on had lots of other ideas for hanging pet stations including the one below on an Elfa shelf--perfect for the growing dog (would be excellent for a wolfhound puppy!). Jessie doesn't like the dishes all the way down flush with the top of the shelf as it's harder for her to get them out so I might put in a little platform on the underside of the shelf to hold the rims of the dishes up about a half an inch from the top of the shelf. Alternatively I could use some of the boatload of Elfa I moved from Atlanta.

Besides cleaning today, the spouse and I took in a matinee of "XXX: The Return of Xander Cage". I undestand it was not popular and I can see why many people wouldn't like it, but I loved it! I really, really liked the supporting cast of characters they assembled for this one. Yeah, the dialog wasn't so great. Yeah, the direction and the acting in many of the spoken scenes was not good. But, hey, great action scenes! Lots of gratuitous stupid stunts, and a little bit of Samuel L. What more can you ask for?

Then we hit up the Container Store for some wire baskets to hold dirty laundry on the utility cart shelves in the utility/laundry room. Saturday afternoon in the Container Store at the end of the annual Elfa sale... Yeah, nowhere you want to be. Dave fled to the car to wait while I finished having a hanging rod for a closet cut down (they gave me a pager to shop while I waited...) and then I joined one of two excruciatingly long lines at checkout. Seriously, two lines!

Now I end the post with another YouTube classic from _1973_ (and just think, I might get to see them live on June 18!).

On My Soapbox...

I have honestly never lived in a place with as poor a government system as Atlanta on the city level and Georgia on the state level. I am so glad I (almost) no longer have to deal with them that I could dance for joy. My interactions with their business licensing division, their water and sewer department, and their department of labor have been frankly horrific. The latest--and I hope last--in a long string of brain-dead workers slogging through painfully inefficient, out-dated, and blatantly corrupt processes told me today that in order to get the credit I have on our house water bill refunded to me, I not only have to request it, but I also have to show proof of payment. Um, it's my account, in my name, it's closed, and there is a credit. Why would you need proof of the specific payment that caused the credit? Isn't the fact that the credit exists proof enough that a payment was made? No, no it's not. The gentleman on the phone couldn't tell me why I needed to provide a copy of the front and back of the cancelled check other than they needed "proof of payment", "it's the city's policy". Since the overpayment was caused by the title company overwithholding funds to pay the water bill at closing, I don't have a cancelled check and have to get the title company to provide me with a copy of their check. I hope they have one, though in these days of electronic payments I am not overly confident.

Not that Austin is perfect. I am still waiting on the inspection of my solar installation that was supposed to happen a week ago so we can go live (which rhymes with hive) on the system and soak up the sun (literally). But the city has a backlog of inspections to do and they're short-staffed. I swear the older I get, the more time I need to spend on home management. In June of last year Bank of America had a data breach, and Dave's name and social security number in conjunction with the studio address were compromised. Someone took out a merchant account with Bank of America card services for the business of Griffith Plumbing owned by Dave Griffith at the studio address and racked up $1,443 of fraudulent charges against two people's credit cards. By the time I found out about it, Bank of America security had already marked the account as fraudulent and closed it, and they let me know we were not responsible for the chargebacks that resulted from the fraudulent charges. That's great, but then last week I got a form 1099-k from them showing the $1,443 as income for us that they reported to the IRS... WTF. We're not now paying TAXES on the money someone else got from stealing Dave's identity!

But at least I did a couple of fun things today: I had lunch with the spouse, played on the Oculus Rift system in data.world's office for 45 minutes, and mermaided my hair again. And now it's time to down tools for the day!

A Post Over the Course Of the Day

Do I post this morning to avoid doing taxes, or do I really have something to say? Whatever the case, I enjoy a chai latte and a cheddar cheese pasty at the Brentwood Social House and gather myself for the next great adventure(s). As I sat collapsed on the sectional last night, Dave brought up the subject of the bathroom remodel--the Last Great (indoor) Endeavor on the house. He thought it might be a good idea to have it done while we're in Montana this summer. Hah. Even with contractors I love (and I adore Jay and his crew), I am never leaving a remodeling project to be done without me present again. The kitchen taught me my lesson, and even though Dave is happy with it and everything is (mostly) okay, it would have been a lot easier if I had been here riding herd on it. There would have been less damage, the schedule would have been followed better, and I would have seen problems as they were installed, not later as I stumbled upon them.

Fortunately for Dave's sanity and my OCD, we have an apartment to sleep in while the master bedroom and bathroom are being torn up and recreated from scratch. Nothing major is actually happening in the bedroom--just replacing the carpet with a hardwood floor, but you have to go through the bedroom to get to the bathroom and the construction debris and chaos tromped through would wear on both of us. By sleeping up in the apartment we can just pretend the area of the house under remodel doesn't exist.
Of course that means I have to get on Jay's schedule...

--------------------------------------

And now, many hours later, the day is over! I'm on Jay's schedule for Monday, I cancelled all of the utilities and insurance for the studio and closed some loose ends on the house. Then I took my daughter to lunch at her favorite restaurant (McDonald's), and after I dropped her back at school, I headed to my knit along up in Jonestown. The evening was rounded out by date night--John Wick 2 at the Alamo Drafthouse in Lakeline. Ah, a day of sitting. Pure bliss!

Everything That Goes In the Studio is In the Studio

I am now 39 days into the 365 Project and have discovered a truth: When all else fails, take a picture towards Austin from the back deck. My goal with the project is to take pictures that capture the essence of the day--a pictorial journal of the year. Though the focus of today was getting the studio set up more (not totally, not for a good while), and while I could have taken another picture of the progress there, I ended the day with sunset over Austin from the back deck. That view was the essence of my day. I am so happy with our location now that it's hard to find words--and the completion of the parade of boxes into the studio and the return of the U-Haul on the studio was the catalyst for my giddy (exhausted) joy this evening.

After seven months I finally have a studio again--not all set-up, not even any clear workspaces on which to, well, work, but I can *see* the studio. It's no longer a repository for everything we haven't gotten around to organizing for the house, or a stand-in for the garden shed, or a maze in which to lose the cats. No, Now when I survey it from the door to the house I see a studio from one side to the other. Using the garage as a garden shed is actually funny because one thing we don't have at this house is any kind of garden or tool shed. We have a weird room under the master bedroom only accessible from outside under the deck, and for now that's a wood shop/garden shed. It doesn't have any windows, but it does have a hole cut out of the wall with a window ac unit in it. It has three sets of fluorescent light tubes, finished drywall walls, a cement floor, and big double steel doors. Oh, and it has a little wine closet in it with racks for bottles built in.

That last paragraph rambled a bit, but I can be excused as I am beyond rode hard and put away wet. The point I'm trying to make is that I finally feel moved in. The greenhouse (where I set up for ikebana, soap-making, jewelry making and, oh yes, growing flats of plants for the garden) is a total disaster with the new stuff that got moved into it from the garage/studio. The wood shop/shed (little room under the bedroom--I think I'll start calling it the bunker) is packed higgledy-piggledy with stuff from the garage. The utility room I was organizing and setting up before heading off to Florida a lifetime (two weeks) ago is still not finished. The textile studio hasn't been touched in months. And the studio will take weeks to finish setting up--but I don't care. In spite of all that's left to do, I feel more settled in than unsettled.

Tomorrow I will need to clear off a couple of work areas as I have a couple of orders to do, but that's going to be the extent of my physical efforts. The day for me will consist of the ubiquitous, iniquitous taxes and other administrivia which I must conquer before heading off to Wisconsin next week for my Master Spinner's class. It will feel good to sit in the comfy chair sipping tea and working on the laptop--perhaps even without a cat in my lap!

One More Day

I sit on the sectional with my laptop precariously perched on my left knee and the armrest. Normally I would have it, well, on my lap, it being a laptop and all. But right now I have two cats in my lap. This situation might not last long as the big one is licking the little one's head and she is sure to lose patience with him soon and draw blood. I just hope it's not mine. At least her ears will be clean.

The U-Haul is empty. I haven't returned it yet--I'll do that tomorrow. There is still a good amount of stuff in the driveway that needs to be moved into the studio proper, but I have faith that by the end of the day tomorrow, all will be sorted. I have three guys helping me again tomorrow, and they are going to start unloading the cases, standing them up and refilling them. Moving cases of glass is a bitch--especially with three tons of it. I put away 2/3 of the 5 oz frit jars today, and tomorrow morning I will do the 1/2 sheets and the 10X10's. The studio is coming together.  I am still not quite sure _how_ everything is going to fit, and yet I am sure it will. And gracefully.

I'm going to be graceful too. I am gracefully going to lower myself into a tub full of warm water and Epson sats. I am going to soak and relax, and then take an Aleve (wait, maybe I'll do that before the bath), and go to bed. One more day. I mostly just have to get through one more day. Photos at the end.

100 boxes of glass in the truck, 100 boxes of glass...

... take one out and put it away, 99 boxes of glass in the truck.

Today has been a good day. Admittedly I am now drinking champagne, listening to "Kryptonite" by Three Doors Down, and eating Girl Scout cookies (formerly samoas, now called caramel deLites... Who do they think they're kidding? There's nothing "lite" about these babies!) so how bad could it be? But the sale of the studio finally funded at 5:00 pm today, and the last U-Haul from our long move from Atlanta is unloaded down to the (11) cases of sheet glass. Tomorrow I have three guys hired to unload the rest and then help me unpack and set-up. With their help I can get that three tons (really--6,600 lbs) of sheet glass unpacked and re-stored in the crates after they have been stood on end. Today we got the cases of half sheets, the 10X10's, and the scrap glass unloaded, I'll put it away tomorrow too. Then I sent everyone home so I could just sit in the space and plan the layout. Again. More.

And as I sat in the studio tonight, I felt joy about it for the first time since moving here. I knew this studio could be a Good Place (and if you haven't watched that show with Ted Danson and Kristen Bell you are missing something great), but with all the stuff that got shoved in there with every U-Haul load, and the lack of the bones (glass crates, classroom table, wire shelving up the wazoo) to delineate the space, it just never sang to me. But today the first thing we did was pull everything out onto the driveway so that we could set up the newly-arrived bones, and now when I sit in there I can see the possibilities, revel in the light from the new glass doors, and admire the lines of the built-out kiln room. They make me happy. All the crap that doesn't belong there has been moved to another temporary holding area (most of it to the wood shop/garden tools room under the master bedroom--doesn't everyone have a secret cement room only accessible from outside under the deck where they can store their tools and toys?), and what goes back in tomorrow will be pertinent to Siyeh Studio.

The garage is divided into three bays, a kiln room  and a wet area. My challenge tomorrow is fitting areas for finished work, packing and shipping, the last of my retail materials, stained glass materials and tools, molds and other kiln accoutrements, in around the cutting table, work composition table, and massive frit storage I already have set up. Let's face it, I am moving from a 1500 sq ft studio with two hotshops and two storage sheds to an 1100 sq ft garage. Even with everything I sold, gave away, threw away, there is still an enormous number of boxes out in the driveway. And, hey, cardboard boxes--when they're empty, I am going to use them to fill the bottoms of all of the raised beds we're putting in next month. Waste not, want not.

Tomorrow is going to come far earlier than I would like so I finish my wine (red now, finished the champagne) and head off to bed. 'Night all!

Tomorrow, Tomorrow, All Things Tomorrow

Back home, and though I meant to accomplish much today--including the final layout for the new studio which I must begin putting together tomorrow--I ended up resting and sleeping most of the day. The other moves have been hard, but this one broke me. I'm mending, but I am definitely broken. Thank everything holy that it's The Last Time (knock on wood, salt over shoulder) that I'll have to move the studio. Dave had the worst of it last night coming into Austin in the fog and wet on I-35 with concrete construction barricades tightly bounding both lanes. It was harrowing watching him drive it, I can only imagine how tense he was doing it. Tomorrow we will find out if the buyers for the studio funded and wired their money or if I have to start the sale process all over again. I do have one buyer still waiting in the wings, but I am not even going to think about it--much less worry--for now.

Though it is only 10:00 and I napped this afternoon, I am exhausted and going to bed. I feel like a avery old woman tonight, creaking in every bone and joint. Let's hope tomorrow I get some bounce back in my bungee or it's going to be a long, hard week.

Home At Last

I cannot adequately express how happy I am never to have to drive a load from Atlanta to Austin again. I think when all the counting is done, I only drove one of the U-Hauls, but I drove every trip except the one in June after school got out. Now we are home... well, we were home, but Dave and Jessie are off getting pizza, wine, and McDonald's right now. It's been a hard couple of days for all of the Griffiths and we each need our own comfort food. It was also difficult for the pets--keeping Gallifrey from knocking me over in his on-going excitement at seeing me was almost impossible, and even Baxter seemed glad I was home. Tonight, pizza and a glass of red (or two) followed by a hot shower and bed sounds like heaven. I am not in the least bit tempted to read Facebook, or email, or the news. I can just wait till tomorrow to find out whatever idiocy has been perpetrated by our government in the past couple of days.

My last view of the studio came last night when Dave and I picked up the U-Haul from where it had been parked next door. I didn't go in, but I don't guess there was much to see. It was being picked pretty clean when I left on Wednesday. I did salvage a few sentimental things on Thursday like the old wine crates that I used to store smaller pieces of glass when I started working with it. I gave all the glass in them away--no way to carry them full in the mini-van--but I am glad to have the 1985 Lynch-Bages Pauillac crate, as well as some of my other favorites from the late '80's. The things that mattered to me which were important to keep make me chuckle. I had no problem giving away two 6-ft X 2-ft sheets of white Tekta and several molds, but when I thought someone had taken the old wine crates I was really upset. I left Elfa shelving, 6-ft white folding tables, sample pieces from the second book (if I teach any classes on those techniques I'll need to make new samples), and a slew of other things. I felt bad about sloughing them like old skin, but at the same time it was very freeing. I still have no idea how I'm going to get everything I did bring into my new, smaller, studio space, but I'm finally looking forward to trying. Just not tomorrow. Monday is soon enough!

Good Night Moon

For those anxiously waiting on news of the closing, the arrival of the money from the sale of the studio has not happened yet. I have signed documents, the buyer has signed documents, and the money should be transferred on Monday. Boy am I glad Stacy pushed me to insist on using my own closing attorney! Tomorrow morning bright and early Dave gets behind the wheel of the U-Haul--packed as full as full can be (he was grumbling tonight about having to share the front seat with a wire shelving rack)--and I get behind the wheel of the mini-van, which is equally full. By this time tomorrow night we will be home. It has been a very good visit for me, though I didn't get to see even half of the people I wanted to. Dave didn't see anyone, and tonight we are only going to see the inside of our eyelids. Would that I could be more eloquent, but I'm exhausted. Good Night Atlanta!

Counting Snores Instead Of Sheep

Life wouldn't be life if there wasn't a last minute hitch in the giddy-up, and so it goes with the last stage of leaving the Atlanta studio. There is a financial snafu with closing, but I remain confident that everything will turn out tomorrow morning at 10:00 when we all show up to sign papers and go our separate ways.

The chickens went home with Mel and Kyla today, the molds, glass, furniture, packing material, test tubes, jewelry boxes and LOADS of other things I couldn't take with me mostly found new homes as friends dropped in to say good-bye and help me clear things out. I loaded the last of the mini-van--there is room for Dave tomorrow when he flies in from Austin, but maybe not room for Dave and my suitcase at the same time.

I have one more day in Atlanta after a week filled with friends, laughs, reminisces, hugs, tears, and not nearly enough time. But maybe it's better this way--rip the band-aid off, make a clean break, and be gone. Tonight I sleep on flannel sheets covered with happy sheep in the guest bedroom of very dear friends in Marietta. I'm so tired I won't even need to count them (the sheep, not the friends).

We've Only Just Begun

The U-Haul is packed. The mini-van is (mostly) packed. You could not fit a box of kleenex in the back of the U-Haul. I have *never* seen such a great loading job! Of course it weighs like sin. I don't even want to estimate how many thousands of pounds of glass we have in there--not to mention the last of the furniture and a big-assed ceramics kiln (because, hey, everyone needs an art school-sized ceramic kiln...). I'll do a bit more loading of the mini-van tomorrow--there is a smidge of space left in my van and the front seat of the U-Haul. Maybe. Becky, Dan, Linda, Brian, Fawn, Lori, Licha were happy to take things I couldn't, and I am happy that everything I left that I cared about has gone to people I love.The chickens have a new home with Mel, Kay, and Kyla--they want to keep them to remember us--and the Honda sold to Dan. All of the molds and the two big sheets of white Tekta that I left have been claimed by Brian and Linda. Lori took the portable sandblaster. There are still some white Elfa shelves and a couple of 6-ft white folding tables that need homes, but all in all the studio's pretty empty.

Tomorrow I'm going to take an easy day and maybe have breakfast with Keith, have a pedicure and lunch with Becky, meet Mel to get the chickens sorted in the afternoon, and then head out to Anya's for dinner and to spend the night. We close Friday and someone else gets to dream big dreams about the possibilities of that wonderful, quirky little 1920's Craftsman bungalow. I'm glad it's not being torn down. Dave comes in early afternoon now, and Saturday we drive. Sunday we rest. Monday we re-jigger the studio, and Tuesday we unload the U-Haul and return it. Once that is done, our last physical tie with Atlanta will be severed. 

Oh we'll still have emotional ties galore, but there will be no more property, no more pets, no more house and no more studio there. Much as I love Austin and our wonderful house, I definitely have to console myself leaving here with the knowledge that we have an apartment in Austin, and friends WILL visit. Glass friends will come and take glass classes at Helios with some of Paul Tarlow's incredible guest teachers. We'll have our own little spinning retreat in the hill country. Friends will come for food, and music, and weekends with us. We have been so fortunate to build the relationships we have here. I used to wish everyone I cared about would move with us--and I advocated strenuously with them for it. But now I'm glad that I have visits to look forward to, and I'm not afraid this will be the end. If I were up for a cheesy song ending this post tonight, it would be the Carpenters "We've Only Just Begun"... Heck, who am I kidding. I AM up for it!

Roll 'Em Out!

My body is old. My back is old, and my knees are old, and every muscle from my neck to my toes is old. We are all old. And sore. Yes, Dee, I took more Aleve! :-) But thanks to Becky, who moves faster than anyone I know and is uber organized, just about everything in the studio is packed. At least everything I am taking. There is only so much you can fit in a 20-ft. U-Haul, and a 26-ft. one won't fit down the drive in Austin. I have driven one in, but last time I took out a good bit of a mountain laurel and one entire corner of the fence. I don't really wish to repeat that experience. Besides, if I have a bigger truck I'll just be encouraged to take more STUFF, and I really have enough STUFF. What's that saying? If you haven't used it in six months you don't need it? With that direction I wouldn't be taking anything! I have yet to work out what I'm going to do with this load once we get there as, as I mentioned yesterday, it's not going to fit into the garage as is. But, also like yesterday, I'm going to continue to play ostrich and not worry about what I'm going to do on the Austin end of this voyage until we're at least packed and loaded here.

I was wrong the other day about the woman who walked the property when Becky was there wanting to buy it to rehab and inhabit. She is just buying it to rehab and flip. Nonetheless, I got all the doors back for her. I am not leaving the sidelights though. I don't know where they're going to go in the new house, but I am not abandoning them. Many other things are being abandoned, however, and I encourage anyone in Atlanta who wants to come pick through glass--fusible, scrap, stained, architectural clear--crates, lamp frames, molds, clamp lights, and I-Don't-Know-What-Else to drop by tomorrow. If you can't come tomorrow, you are welcome to drop by Thursday, but I won't be there. There are IKEA tables, office chairs, shelving units, refractory material, mixed frit, something for everyone!

Tonight I have curry at the Hinton's, relax and drink champagne. Tomorrow, the load out. When I was little, 2-3 years old and up till I was a teen, my mother would sometimes put on a record when I was going to sleep and I would listen until I dropped off. My favorites were Frankie Laine's "Hell Bent For Leather" and Percy Faith a"Music Of Brazil". Tonight this keeps running through my head:

"Keep rollin', rollin', rollin',
Though the streams are swollen,
Keep them dogies rollin', rawhide.
Through rain and wind and weather,
Hell bent for leather,
Wishin' my gal was by my side.
All the things I'm missin',
Good vittles, love, and kissin',
Are waiting at the end of my ride.

Move 'em out, head 'em up,
Head 'em up, move 'em on.
Move 'em out, head 'em up:
Rawhide.
Cut 'em out, ride 'em in,
Ride 'em in, cut 'em out,
Cut 'em out, ride 'em in:
Rawhide!
Hah! Hah!

Movin', movin', movin',
Though they're disapprovin',
Keep them dogies movin', rawhide.
                                                           Don't try to understand 'em,
                                                           Just rope an' throw an' brand 'em.
                                                           Soon we'll be living high and wide.
                                                           My heart's calculatin',
                                                           My true love will be waitin':
                                                           Waitin' at the end of my ride."

The Studio is Almost Packed!

What a great day! I have been dreading the packing of the cases of sheet glass ever since we decided to move. They are the reason I was in no hurry to put the studio on the market and finish getting everything out to Austin. The sheets of Bullseye aren't scary: They're all the same size--or at least they fit into clearly defined buckets--case, half-case, one foot square. And even the full sheets are only 20 inches X 37 inches and have rolled edges on the sides where you carry them. I would pack and unpack Bullseye glass all day long (and have). By contrast the sheets of architectural clear glass I have (and have had since the early 1990's) are very large, very heavy, very sharp-edged, and sometimes very irregular. Then there's the Fremont, the Desag, the St Gobain, the Fischer, the Oceana, Youghigheny, and Spectrum--all for stained glass work which I haven't done any of since the late '90's.

Every move with the non-Bullseye glass (and this is the sixth since Dave and I have been together) has been a nightmare--one of them I even ended up in the emergency room getting stitches in my leg (or was it my hand?). But today went silky smoothly, and except for two six-foot pieces of white Tekta that we forgot to pack (I needed to cut them first), we're golden!

Yesterday I packed the 10x10 inche sheets, tomorrow we pack the half sheets--Dan the carpenter built me seven or eight half-sheet-size boxes--and then we finish with the odds and ends left in the two sheds, the two hotshops and the studio proper. It sounds like a lot, but it should be very doable for one day. I'm lucky that the studio is selling as-is so I don't have to clean everything out. I can take what I want and leave the rest. Brian is busily packing up his torch set-up in the front room too. Bitter and sweet.

Finishing up tomorrow will allow us to load Wednesday and free me up for a day of socializing (and a pedicure) on Thursday before heading up to Marietta to spend the night with friends there. There are a lot of people I want to see while I'm here, and it's just not going to work out. As usual there are too many cherished friends (a very good problem to have), too little time, and too much work jockeying for my attention. I have been so focused on the events of the day every day that I haven't even figured out the truck unload schedule yet or hired helpers! Breathe.

So dear Atlanta friends, if I don't see you this time, YOU'LL JUST NEED TO COME TO AUSTIN TO VISIT!

All Over But the Packing

Jessie and Gallifrey survey our lush,
verdant yard.

The studio is now closed, all sales from it over. It was a bittersweet day. The bitter started when I drove past our old house this morning to find that the new owners took down the arbor in front that had been covered with jasmine, dug up the jasmine, cut down the fragrant tea olives, the camellias, the Harry Lauder Walking Stick (contorted hazelwood tree), the dogwood, the witch hazel, the service berry, and the yellow dogwood, as well as razed any plant taller than grass to the ground including ferns, quince, and azaleas. It's not like the yard was a mess. I had it radically pruned and neatened before we moved. But there is nothing left there from us now. The crepe myrtles and the maple were planted by the builder, and they're all that remain. I'm glad I couldn't see the backyard and the pond.

It was also sad to to look around the studio with its careless piles of leavings and stuff bound for the truck, and to remember all the hopes and dreams I had for it when we bought it. I never realized many of them, and of the ones I did, most turned to ash for one reason or another.

Clockwise left to right: Half-Moon, Cookies & Cream,
Willow, Sadie, Tuxedo, Night Shadows, Sun Dust,
Creamy, and Pearl

The sweet news for the day was that I sold my mom's Honda without even trying--I even had three people contact me about it--and it looks like the person who is buying the studio might be interested in rehabbing it and living there! I didn't meet her, but my friend Becky did when she was there in my place for the inspection, and apparently the woman buying wanted to keep the woodwork and also expressed interest in keeping the chickens. We have three of our original girls left--Creamy, Cookies & Cream, and Sun Dust--and one adoptee who was nonetheless from the same hatching as our girls--Muffin. They're all getting on in years and I'm not sure how much longer they'll be laying, but they are sweet and friendly and eat bugs.

Tomorrow is the day I have been dreading ever since we decided to move: The day to pack the cases of glass. Oh I got rid of about half of my glass in the studio sales, but the hard stuff to pack--the large sheets of architectural clears and the stained glass--barely even got touched. This is glass I have moved around for over 20 years and haven't really touched in all that time, but still haven't let go. I did try. I managed to sell a good part of a case to a lovely couple at the last sale, but today we only had a few people and no really large glass purchases.

But this move I won't pack alone. I hired two men for three full days to help me pack sheet glass, and Becky has offered to come on Tuesday for a bit. I had hired a woman from Task Rabbit that packed for me a day last spring to come tomorrow too, but she had to cancel at the last minute. Maybe I'll try to find someone else. One way or another, we'll be out by Friday, and it will be all over but for the closing.

'Twas The Night Before the Glass Sale...

Much though the current actions of those currently in charge of this country scare and appall me, I am going to remain true to the nature of this blog and post about GLASS tonight. Part of the reason for that is that every time I try to post quotes and data and outrage over some recent political idiocy, Blogger deletes my post before I can get it up. Tonight, as before, I'm taking it as a sign. So I take another--they seem to be endless these days--deep breath and I focus on tomorrow in the studio. There are plenty of other places on the Internet where you can get your political news, and frankly I need a bit of a break from it too. Note to self: No more reading the news or social media before blogging.

So tomorrow I sell the last of the glass, supplies, and furniture from my studio that is not moving to Austin. Friday of next week we are set--knock on wood--to close on the sale of the studio and pass ownership of our quirky little 1920's Craftsman bungalow and its resident chickens off to a new owner. Observations indicate that the house may be saved and rehabbed instead of torn down and McMansioned. I would be very happy if that were so as it has great charm, it just needs some TLC (and a serious influx of cash).

Tonight I rest up alone at a friend's empty house and quaff my sauvignon blanc readying myself  for tomorrow. I will get up early to stop by Kavarna for an iced mocha and a pastry, and then I'll meet our carpenter Dan at the studio where he will spend the day building me some additional glass crates for my really big and really small glass. I have plenty of Bullseye crates for my regular Bullseye glass, it's the white Tekta, architectural clear, and stained glass glasses that I'm envisioning difficulty packing. And then the half sheets and the 10 X 10's... Just come over tomorrow and buy the darn stuff! Save me! Dee, BLESS HER, is coming to help out with the sale after all which is going to be an ENORMOUS help for me. Nevermind the fact that she is the only one who knows what's going on with the imaged dichro and dichro scrap, just having two people to answer questions is going to help a lot.

Now I'm going to listen to my audiobook a bit and then drop off to sleep. I think I have figured out how to save democracy with Data.world, but that's a post for another day.

The Winter Show

God Bless German Roommates With German Liqueur-Filled Chocolates To Share! Now that I have that out of the way, on with the post. It was another lovely day in spinning land filled with chatting, and laughing, and sharing, and shopping. Oh yes, and spinning.

Tonight, as I reflect on the past three days and prepare to leave in the afternoon tomorrow (early as it turns out), I remember why I did the winter wholesale craft shows for so long. It wasn't for the sales--though that's what we artist/business folk would like to tell ourselves--it was for the friendships and the art. I don't remember the big orders from the shows (not that there were all that many of them). I remember the Reading Market for lunches, the cherried chicken livers from I-Can't-Remember-Where (but Dee will know), and the annual dinners at Maggiano's. The days may have been exhausting, the sales crappy, the expenses excruciating, but seeing old friends from around the country over dinner was always wonderful.

As we artists are solitary cats in our studios, it was the only time in a year for us to get together with both other artists and with the store owners who carry our work and who have become our friends. At the show, we'd hug and laugh and be all giddy to see each other again. But nothing stands still. Some of my friends have retired. Some have died. Some have had to go on to other things because they just couldn't make a living at art--got to have a regular job with a big company for the insurance, doncha know. Some (like me) are still in the business, but looking for a way other than shows to make the annual sales numbers--shows are just too expensive for the return.

But without the shows, there are no trades or wholesale sales between artists. There are no Hulet Chocolates (glass chocolates--can you think of anything better?) or exquisite Loy Allen glass insects for me to bring home. And then there are all the new artists I would meet and whose work I would acquire, and with whom I would march out into the cold in search of dinner and lots of wine. I can't help but miss all of that.

These past few days of happy, artistic camaraderie here at the Spin-In, actually have made me a bit sad that I'm not doing the Philly show this year. Don't get me wrong--I won't miss the exhaustion of show set-up, the fear of crappy sales, or the eternally excruciating expenses. But I will miss my friends, the art, and another giddy get-together.

There are Worse Lives

 What a fiberful day! And that was after waking and walking out onto our balcony to this gorgeous view. The pool shot I took last night was pointing down, and this one is shot looking out.

I'd like to say I sat in my chair and spun alpaca and silk roving all day, but it would be a lie. I spent a lot of time shopping today too. And talking to friends. And walking out for sandwiches. And taking pictures. And talking some more. And shopping some more. At the end of the day a few of us had wine and cheese in our condo before heading out to dinner at The Back Porch. I love Florida for Gulf seafood!!! A little sauvignon blanc and some blackened grouper followed by key lime pie... I don't have words. I also don't have any more room in my tummy.

What spinning I did was all alpaca/silk "thread". I finished the first half of the roving (it's only 4 oz.) and am now making good progress on another 1/8 of it. The shopping was much more exciting! I bought natural green cotton. The green is a very subtle sage that gets darker when you boil it. I'm going to knit another cardigan out of it--though don't be fooled by the phrasing "another cardigan". What I mean is I'm going to start another cardigan--the third one this month--that I hope to finish soon. Two of them are cotton or cotton blend, and the other one is merino wool/yak/silk. I foresee a lot of knitting in my future--and I'm even making up the pattern for the cardigan kind of as I go. I based it on an existing cardigan pattern, and the hard parts--top, arms, upper body shaping--are all provided by the pattern, and then I am just adding some swig and flourish at the bottom. Anyway, all I can say about the shopping is, it's a good thing I drove! I have no idea what I'm going to do for my Master Spinner class in Wisconsin next month as I'm flying. Maybe I'll pack my suitcase inside an empty suitcase for the trip out so I'll have tow to fill for the way home. Fiber ahoy!

A Roomful of Spinners

Fences are For Sheep, Not People

I am nestled in bed at the end of the first (half) day of the January Spin-In in Destin. This is apparently the 29th or so year of the Spin-In--a four day hand-spinning retreat that is by invitation only, and attended by women from all over the southeast. The Peachtree Handspinners Guild group is one of the larger ones there and is represented by about 23 people this year. I attended last year and had a less-than-stellar time, but a couple of friends from Atlanta pressured me to come again this year, and I'm so glad I did. It was non-stop catching up this afternoon with all of us acting like a bunch of sugared-up four year-olds at a birthday party. I feel sorry for anyone else staying at the hosting facility as this many giddy women (and a few men) are LOUD. I'd like to say it's all about the focused spinning, but one of the women near me summed it up perfectly today when someone asked her if she brought her cashmere fiber to spin and she replied, "Oh no! I only brought fiber for mindless spinning!" If you can't talk a mile a minute while spinning it, you should just turn away from your wheel and face your conversation partner. I, of course AM STILL SPINNING THREAD. I didn't mean to spin thread, but this alpaca-silk blend I am working is just perfect for a nice, fine, lace weight yarn--and I've always wanted to try to spin something this fine.

In the evenings after spinning, we go out to eat, talk some more--everything from politics to reproductive history--drink, and we knit. I forgot my knitting on the couch in Austin so I did what any red-blooded American knitter would do and bought more yarn and needles today from the vendors at the SI. I am doing the same cardigan pattern I have at home, just a different yarn.

Tomorrow will start early, another merry-go-round of color and chatter and fiber and enthusiasm. I will immerse myself in it with the knowledge that right now there is nothing I can do about the horrific things that are happening in my country, in my government. It is okay to put aside fear, anxiety, and anger until after this event is done. There are many women around me, sisters in the wool, who are on the other side of fence about all/most/many/some of the issues that bother me, but while I am here, I am focusing on the fact that they are my sisters--not the enemy--and for the next four days, there is no fence.

Passing Through Lousiana

The refineries of Louisiana

Deep breath. Let's start over. I wrote the beginnings a post after catching up a bit on the Internet, and the environmental news was so grim that it spilled over and fouled my post. So now I breathe, I delete, and I start over.

I am reaching right now, trying very hard to come up with good and happy things like unicorns farting rainbows. It was a tougher than usual drive east today, and I am now ensconced in my room at the La Quinta in Walker Louisiana. Someone from the hotel called me this morning to tell me they are starting construction on the hotel now and there are no rooms on the first floor, the elevator isn't working, and they can't serve breakfast. The news came on top of several other difficulties in my morning, and I'm afraid I was less than patient and understanding with the clerk from the hotel. I felt very bad when I got in tonight and saw that they are doing construction because of flooding, and I realized they must have been damaged during the horrible floods last year. Just a little reminder to always give the benefit of the doubt and assume that there's a good reason for someone's actions or some hardship in their lives that you don't have and so to cut them slack.

For a unicorn farting a rainbow, the studio went under contract today and is set to close next Friday. That is both a terrifying and an exhilarating development. I think I have everything set-up to pull it off--even though I will not have the help of any studio elves as Dee is getting ready for her show in Philly in three weeks, and Becky works for an accountant and this is the busy (tax) season. My current plan is to have a last sale day on Sunday--email to go out when I finish this post--and then three days of packing and one day of loading The Last UHaul. Close on the property Friday, Dave coming in Friday night, and then he will drive the U-Haul back to Austin Saturday while I drive the minivan. That's all the easy part. The had part, the part that is twisting my brain is, where am I going to put all the stuff I'm bringing back?!? The studio in Austin is FULL. But if the weather is nice, I guess I can pull everything out of it and pile it on the driveway, and then put it all back in the way it should go instead of higgledy piggledy (which it is now) and find some room that way. And I can set-up the woodworking equipment in a woodshop in the room under the master bedroom.

It's hard to believe that the last ties that bind us to Atlanta (which aren't people) are set to be severed in just over a week. I still have to sell my Mom's car. Anyone know anyone who would like a 4-door 1999 Honda Accord with 57,000 miles--yes, only 57,000, no typo--for $2500? I also need to rehome the sporadically-laying chickens--they're sweet girls, but they are getting old and we are not moving them to the sun and coyote-drenched landscape that is Austin. Anyone know anyone who would like four sweet chickens?

Now I'd better get a sale flyer out and then get to sleep, Destin and spinning tomorrow!

A-Spinning I Shall Go

Today was all about finalizing a contract on the studio property. I have two developers interested and bidding, and both of them want to close before February 10. I still haven't absolutely accepted an offer as there are things about both that bother me. Bother me to the extent that I am consulting a lawyer tomorrow. whatever way it turns out, life is going to be interesting in February.

Tomorrow, after my drawing class I hit the road for Destin and the January Spin-In--a four day spinning retreat. Then instead of coming back here Saturday, the current plan is that I drive to Atlanta for the final studio sale (this Sunday), and three days of packing before closing either Thursday or the following week. It's all still up in the air. When the dust has settled I'll recount my adventures in cash contracts with no brokers and wheeler-dealer developers. For now, I need to get to bed!

Oh My, Oh My, Oh Sunday

Other than Torchy's Tacos for breakfast and a run to IKEA, it was a pretty laid-back day. I did pick up another Bona mop for stone and tile floors--I would have just used my existing one with a new cleaner cartridge, but I couldn't find any cartridges locally. So I have a second Bona mop. Bottom line: tomorrow I mop the utility room and greenhouse floors.

IKEA has stepped up their furniture game and I found the perfect table for the utility room there. It's meant to be a kitchen cart/island, but it will make a great folding table for laundry, and laundry baskets will fit up underneath it--off the floor where the dogs won't pee on them. Welcome to my life. It's taller than it looks in the photo, and it has a really pretty bamboo butcher block edge. Well, not really bamboo butcher block, bamboo butcher block formica. In any case, it's the perfect height and width for the space, and it's stylish too.

Today, the wind blew so hard today it blew the front door open several times. It blew hard enough for us to enjoy the wind chimes in our neighbors' backyard made from oxygen tanks with the bottoms cut off (that used to be in our front yard--life is weird). It blew so hard that it blew all the haze from the air so our view of downtown from the house was crisp and clear. The wind blew signaling change, signaling clearing out and cleaning out. I am feeling pretty good about the cleansing wind, no bluster allowed.

I still have two developers pestering me about the studio property, but I ended the day by just telling them that if they're serious, send a REAL contract, (thank you Stacy Reno for telling me which contract to specify). I told them the points I wanted in the contract, and who I wanted to use for a closing attorney (thank you agin, Stacy, for the recommendation on the closing attorney). We'll see if they respond with new offers or not. If they don't, fine, I am done looking at real estate contracts with spelling and grammatical errors. If they have those kinds of errors in them, how confident can I be that they are legally correct? If those boys want to be in the big leagues, they better get real contract forms.

BeeZ!

Today was the 2017 Austin Area Beekeeper's Association 6th Annual Seminar, and my brain is FULL!! I went with my friend and next-door neighbor Zaga who is also api-curious, and by noon, she was hooked. As you may know, I walked into the seminar already the proud owner of two complete hives, plans and parts for a third, and three nucs (nuclear colonies--one of the ways of getting new bees and a queen) on order. When we got back from lunch Zaga bit the bullet and ordered a nuc--many places around us are already sold out so she needed to move quickly if she wanted to keep bees this year. I also said, "What the heck, they're selling varroa resistant queens and nucs for a really good price."And I ordered another nuc. Now I am short a hive so I am going to need to either buy or build one more. I think I'll buy, and I think I'll go for another Langstroth hive. Zaga also chose Langstroth so we will have three Langstroth hives, one Kenyan Top-Bar, and one Honey Flow. Some of you might remember that this current bee thing originally started a couple of years ago now when I contributed to the Honey Flow Kickstarter campaign. Now look, *five hives* coming on-line this spring!

In today's seminars we learned about bee biology, essential equipment, how to set-up your apiary, month by month management, the basics of integrated pest management and queen-finding, and at the end of the day, we learned to extract honey with a live demonstration. We also learned the mating habits of bees including the fact that the drone bees explode after mating! I thought male black widows had it bad...

Along the way we also learned about Africanized bees in Texas and how to manage the genetics of your hive, nutrition management from feeding sugar syrup to making pollen patties for protein supplement, and how to sample for varroa mites. We were in the beginner track all day so we missed mead making, queen rearing, and customizing and printing your own honey labels, (among other topics) but I figure we can come back next year for those.

A honey super with 10 medium frames,
 shown on its side, ready for extraction

I end the day on a bee high, and with the memory in my mind of visiting friends Bill and Bridget in California many years ago, buying a book on beekeeping, and stating my intent then to raise bees. It has taken awhile, but the dream is coming alive. Honey anyone?

The End of One Era and the Beginning Of Another

Today marked the beginning of the end of Siyeh Studio Atlanta. I haven't finished moving the contents of the studio to Austin yet--I still have all the sheet glass, half sheets and 10X10's of fusible that haven't sold, all the sheets of glass for stained glass left, and other odds and sods left. I also haven't put it on the market because I still have stuff in it, and Brian is using it for his torch-work studio. In spite of the fact that it is not on the market, I accepted an offer on it today with a closing date of asap and definitely within 30 days.

While it makes sense to sell it, my feelings are bittersweet about the final end of 2480 Memorial Drive as my studio. When I think of it, I think of our carpenter Dan building everything from the kiln room to the hotshop to the shed to the chicken coop to the second hot shop/ceramic studio--which we never even got to use! I remember the good times in the hotshop, the sleigh rides, the date nights, the classes and the studio elves. Sure there was a lot of tension and stress with running a retail business, a hotshop, my own production glass business, and managing date nights--and I have to say I won't miss the retail, the hotshop or the date nights--but in tonight's memory (rose-tinged as it is) I feel nostalgia with a twinge of sadness. I also dread the speed up in tempo that selling the studio will require of me.

It looks like a trip to Atlanta is in my near future. It would make sense to do one more sale day for glass and fixtures, and then pack the rest up and haul it back to Texas, but time is already tight and it's going to take me a lot of work to pack everything--the architectural glass alone is going to be a ginormous pain in the patooty. So for those in Atlanta either interested in glass or in seeing me, how does the week of February 7-13 look?

The studio in Austin has big news from today too: the solar was turned on and is functional! The solar company had to turn it back off again and remove their test meter as we are now waiting for Austin Energy's inspection and new meter installation, but I am hopeful that in just over a week, Siyeh Studio will be a solar glass studio.

Rode Hard and Put Away Wet...

Where does the time go? I look up and day, which spread so bountifully in front of me this morning, is almost over. I find myself cramming the things I promised myself I would do every day into the last two hours of the day. That's not exactly the spirit of the intent, and it's not working out for me. Yes, I get the post, and the photo, and the spinning done., but they aren't treasured little moments in the day that I get to enjoy. Instead, they're becoming obligations. Time to reset a bit. Yes, I am going to keep taking pictures, I'm just going to take more of them throughout the day (like I did on Tuesday when I went to my first drawing class). No, I am not going to try to add 15 minutes of drawing in every day. When it happens, it happens, no pressure, no stress. I do like the post at the end of the evening because there are lots of interesting things that happened during the day around which to build a story. If I do it first thing in the morning, it often seems to turn into a list of all the things I contemplate accomplishing in the day, and the list is a totally unrealistic nightmare that I get to report the next morning I failed to complete. No, spinning should start the day. Spinning and piano.

I will not spin tonight. I am tired to the bone after running around all day doing the program for an event put on by the Cinematic Arts Program at McCallum tonight, picking up supplies for it (a wig and make-up for Jessie's teacher to wear as part of his drag costume), attending my first KAL session (way to hell and gone north of the city in Jonestown, and then getting back to McCallum to pick up Jessie, feed her, and chauffeur her back for the event. I have had six hours of sleep a night for the last three nights, and I am normally a 9-10 hour gal. As it's almost 11:00, I'm not getting an early start on the sleep thing, but I'll take what I can get.

Oh yes, and the day ended with a bidding war on the studio by two developers. We haven't determined how we're going to proceed yet, but it looks likely that Atlanta is in my near future, to pack up the last of the studio an finally say good-bye. Good-bye later, good night now.

Make Flowers Not Politics

The universe clearly doesn't want me to post anything more about the Affordable Care Act or Planned Parenthood as Blogger just deleted my entire formatted post and I can't get it back. So instead of a rant, you get flowers. Today Jessie and I started up our ikebana practice again after the holidays, and though it was difficult to get back into the rhythm, we made it. I also practiced drawing today, and in both drawing and ikebana, my head got in the way of my creativity. I think it was the same for Jessie. The last couple of days have found me still more energized than I have been for several months--which is great, but also sliding into the nervy, agitated side of energized, which is very counterproductive to creative work (and a tranquil home). Need to find my happy medium. The kitten, who keeps walking on my keyboard and putting her nose up to mine is clearly trying to help.

I didn't plan to stay up so late tonight as I have slept poorly for the past two nights, but I was unwilling to miss another Spin15 day or a post. So now I post, and when I am done, I will spin. I posted the ikebana pic at right to my 365 Project tonight. It's kind of lame, but unlike yesterday, I didn't take many pictures today--just ikebana. But the 365 Project is not meant to be 365 days of stunning, professionally composed and shot photos--it's 365 days of life. Some days my life is messy and haphazard, and some days it's breathtakingly beautiful so it's perfectly okay that my photos are the same.

I wish I'd had this little chat with myself earlier in the day instead of wasting it fretting that I wasn't going to get to everything I had scheduled, or I was going to be late for something. I spent the whole day anticipating failure and disaster. But life is quite pleasant if I let myself relax and enjoy it instead of worrying about what I won't get done. There is something peaceful about the house when everyone (except for the kitten and me) is asleep and the only sounds are the ticking of the clock, the purring of the kitten in my arms (I type one-handed and pause for frequent pets at her insistence), and the gentle snorelets of the husband. Sadly the kitten's going to be disappointed (and indignant) in a minute as there is no way I can hold and pet her and spin at the same time.

Drawing Class and the Contemporary

I know I said today was going to be about ACA and Planned Parenthood, but after last night's post I was just to blue to contemplate it again this morning. Instead, my first class at The Contemporary Austin Art School! This is the most beautiful campus I have ever seen. It is on 12 acres tucked away at the end of a road, down by the river in near-north Austin. There are peacocks roaming the campus--including inside the ceramics kiln room, and lots of enormous live oaks shading the grounds. The live oaks weave through palm trees and bamboo and cast a shade surely welcome as the weather warms up. It was raining today when I arrived a little early for my class, but the rain didn't stop me from walking around and taking pictures.

My class was wonderful--I made a new friend and I really like the instructor--she even has a YouTube page. Best of all, I feel like I might actually learn to draw! Completely unexpectedly, my posture was naturally perfect, I breathed just fine (the teacher exhorted us to breathe a lot), and I serenely let the drawings flow for all three techniques we learned today: gesture drawing, scribbled gesture drawing, and blind contour drawing. Each one was a little better than the one before it. (Until we got to blind contour drawing where you don't look at the paper while you're drawing. At all. Those were... interesting. I think the sheep below was my best.

Our instructor said she has no expectation of us having any time to practice during the week, but she said we would improve much faster if we do. She said if we do opt to work outside class, she would recommend three drawings, one in each of the techniques we learned, for five minutes apiece each day. I'm going to give it a shot this week to see how it goes. Let's see, spin 15 minutes a day, practice piano 20 minutes a day, blog (about 45 min) daily, knit daily as much as possible, take pictures every day and post one to the 365 Project, and draw 15 minutes a day. And all of that is before doing any glass! My life truly has become a creative endeavor (internal little happy dance).

When I got home from class I was so energized and inspired by my experience at the school that I did one more check of their online course catalog to see if there was a pottery class I could get into. Lo and behold, there is a class starting in March on Thursday mornings that has space. (Most of their classes are filled with waiting lists. There was a one-day Watercolor class That I was interested in that had ten students signed up, and another 35 on the waiting list!) The ceramics class is wheel throwing--both beginning and intermediate--and it will start up right about when we finish our sweaters in the KAL (my Thursday afternoon knit along which begins this week). Too bad the the Contemporary doesn't offer silversmithing. However I did find one place in Austin that does, Creative Side Jewelry Academy of Austin, and I may take a class with them later this spring or next fall--two classes a week is my absolute stretched out max (not including my half-hour piano class Wednesday mornings).

I should do an ikebana or two tonight, but I'm going to wait till tomorrow morning when I'm fresh. So I'll post a few more pics from the class, the campus, the art on the grounds, and the peacocks, and then to bed!