Woke up weirdly early today (around 4), which is probably okay because I have a fairly busy day (which is probably why my subconscious decided I should get up, sigh). I’m leaving tomorrow to drive up to Racine (about an hour north) for a week, where I’ll be teaching at the Novel Bookcamp: https://novelbookcamp.org
It’s just close enough that I suppose I could commute every day, but that’s not the plan — I’m going to stay there. It’s held at the Siena Retreat Center — anyone been there? Tips for staying? (I’m wondering specifically if the rooms have air-conditioning, so I know whether I should pack a large fan — I can’t sleep if it’s hot.)
So today is a lot of packing and getting as much of the garden ready for my absence as possible — I did a deep watering of the front garden yesterday, will do the back garden today, and hopefully Kevin will manage to keep the new plantings arrive while I’m gone; everything else should handle next week’s 90F temps okay. There’s a slim chance of a thunderstorm Wed, but I’m not betting on that.
Plan for today:
• spend next few hours reading student manuscripts, doing a morning resin pour, setting up the sprinkler (which I need to move periodically), and collecting things for packing (like writing games, fun :-))
• 10 – 11:45: record podcast with Benjamin Rosenbaum
• 12 – 1: work with Eliana to get a few resin orders in the mail (Angel and Praveena’s are ready, I think), and I promised my niece a copy of my cookbook and forgot to bring it to CA, so need to ship it. (Susan Whyte Duran, she wanted Vegan Serendib? And did she want it signed / personalized at all?)
• 1:45: haircut — I’ve been cutting my own short hair for months, but I’m sure it’s a little wonky, esp. in back, so I decided before this professional event to indulge in an actual haircut from someone who knows what they’re doing 🙂 Heck, if they have someone with time, I might even get my eyebrows done. I mostly go around like a feral wombat in the summer, since I’m not teaching and no one has to look at me, but occasionally I feel like playing femme. Briefly. If I lie down, I suspect the impulse will pass.
I suspect after all that, with the short sleep, I’ll need a nap. But after that, a quick run down to Berwyn Sprout to pick up a few writing-related pieces that I might sell up at the Bookcamp, then packing, maybe some weeding and mulching if it’s not too hot — there are six bags of mulch in the back of my car, and I’d like to clear them out before loading up and driving to Racine tomorrow.
Pictured below, setting up for a coral peony piece. I’ve been working with the peonies from the top down (pouring thin layer of resin, dipping peonies in resin and placing them upside down in the mold, pouring more resin, adding imitation gold leaf as the final layer, which creates a sort of squished, lush, romantic effect with the very thickly-petalled peonies that I like.
I’m curious whether working from the other direction would let me preserve the openness of this peony — I’m going to give it a try and see what happens. It makes me a little nervous, because I have two people who currently want coral peony bookshelf art pieces and only two coral peonies, so if I mess one up, someone will be disappointed. But sometimes mistakes are how we learn, so onwards — wish me luck!
(I’ll start with pouring resin and the gold flake layer, and then a leaf layer, so nothing too dramatic yet. I probably won’t actually pour the peony layer until tomorrow morning.)
