OMG!! A job!

well, i have accepted my first true teaching position...it is PT (2 classes, 6 hours/week each) and it is ~3 hours away, but i will be teaching for the whole semester! i go to meet the department chair on thursday (yay) and we will get classes set up and the paperwork done, etc. i am a bit excited - i have downloaded the official syllabus and after thursday i will be developing my own and starting to make the lectures, etc.... i am just a bit excited and f is sleeping...YAY!!

breathe - now i need to find a place to stay on the days i will be staying over - i do not enjoy the idea of a 3 hour commute/day so i need to find a place to stay...who knows - maybe this will be the foot in the door i need to stay in the area (actually it is closer to the ocean and near SC boarder) - still looking for a full-time position, but as doc suggested: this is a good way to see if this is really what i want to do and the other jobs will wait for me if they really want me...so here we go...classes start on january 7th, but my first class will not meet until the 10th (monday). YAY!

this picture just makes me happy - cowfish


peace!!!

"the power of ugly" taken from UglyOverload

amazing what one eel can do! behold...the power of eel!

back in the loop (?)

hay...and other stuff for horses (and their pals)...i was just hanging out and enjoying being out of the loop and then i realized that it is almost the end of the year. i have been feeling not so sad about this time of the year...Mom and all...this year has been different. graduating, looking for a job and life-perspective has had a bit to do with things. i still miss mom, but not as dramaticly as i have in the past. dramaticly isn't the right word, but close enough for now.

i have been looking for a job...(duh)...and i have been applying places i never thought i would go (northern IL?!), but i am still holding out hope for someplace closer to the warmer part of the atlantic ocean (read: southern). i have a cohort who will be moving to DC in january and a friend who just got a fishery job up in alaska and will be moving there in january (silly girl! [not really, she will have a great time, but...alaska?...january? - what is she thinking????}]) anyway...is it my turn yet? i know it will be, and thanks to mom, i am not freaking out about $ yet (THANKS MOM!!) and i just need to get out of the house and feel productive about working, etc. i have been "subbing" or "guest lecturing" for Dr. O and Dr. R this semester and that has been fun, but i want my own class that i can make the decisions and rip my hair out because of that...i have enjoyed the experience, but i am ready to go out on my own in those terms.

Ok, enough whining.., : ) below is a picture from National Geographic that i just love!! it is a mudskipper and one of my first "favorite fish"...there have been many over the years and there will be more to come, i am sure...but enjoy the picture of this, one of my favorite fish...from Africa and they can "walk" out of the water, hence: mudskipper with cheeks bulging with water to breathe :)

felted purses, take 2

Ok, so the last purses were too short...so i determined that they shrank about half in height and only a bit in width...so i made them 20" long and the same width...

i like the way it turned out...now i want to make a fabric lining for this one and the other one i made.

follow up to purses

purses were fleted...started out at 14" wide by 11" tall and the yellow strap was 27" long. the green strap was 24" long...ended up 5.5" tall by ~10" wide and the straps were yellow = 34" and green = 27"...i have no idea how the straps became *longer*. i am trying again and working to make it end up ~10X10"...means 14X20" inches before felting!



playing with the purses yielded (f asked me not to show her pic - so i will respect that (besides she was not really smiling), but the strap is much longer):


and:


The purple hats were fun and here they are in use:

and one more to show the pom-pom (a cousin of which can be seen in the "fun" pictures of the felted purses):

now what? quilting and knitting, oh MY

well...i said i was going to show my stuff here when i got going...alice from poked me and said she had not seen my stuff yet...made me take phots of the cool way she showed me to make bags and hats - she was trying to find a nice way to make a flat scarf for her sweety - and this "double knit" idea just made sense and is *so much better* than trying to stitch one end closed after you are done (PIA!) so...i have made 2 hats so far:

with pom-poms on the one the right (girlfriend thought 2 poms would be nice) and the one on the left doesn't have the pom-pom yet...just bring the two "ends" to the center and then catch the center and voila:

like i said, i still need to add the pom-pom.

so, i also was thinking this method would make a great purse (felted)...so (pre-felted and in progress):

they will be the same but opposite and g-friend wants to put a fabric liner in them once they are felted. making two is because the first ever felted purse i made was for my sister in CA (it was an experiment) and the next one i made was better and then she said she wanted one for a friend and then she said she liked that one better and didn't want to give it to her friend, but she did. this time she will have a choice between the two and she can choose the one she like better and pass on the other to her friend and they will be the same but different. one problem i had with the purses is that they tended to flare out at the top...i am hoping that the ribbing at the top will help with this problem

...we shall see when i finish the other one and get to felting...

now...about the quilting...i made one full quilt top last week and made some borders for a quilt i posted about a while ago "spicy dish" but i will post pictures of these later as i have not yet taken any of these...man, i love this "down time," but i need a job to keep my sanity/days straight.

peace for now!

thumbs up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

well, thumbs up to me. YAY!! i am now the lucky recipient of a ph.d. well...i will not officially receive the document until december, but i succeeded in the summer deadline for stuff. i am so darn happy...found out last-week friday, but not until yesterday was i 100% sure...there was a slight SNAFU on the paper work where it listed this tome as a "thesis" and a "M.S. in Biology." but the thesis-guru at school has assured me that it is just a typo and can/will be corrected ASAP. the signature on the tome is appropriate for the document to be correctly submitted, etc. it is mearly a matter of paperwork. YAY!!!

now, if i can just find a job...but it will happen, i just hope it happens sooner rather than later...sigh.

peace

RELAX!

i am taking a few days off from worrying about the dissertation related stuff. i have submitted everything they have asked for and now i just have to wait and see if i get an "up-thumb" or a "down-thumb" from the Powers That Be in the grad school...just hanging out and breathing and reading like a mad-woman and embroidering some antennae on some butterflies that i have been piecing for a friend-quilt...the bodies are being cheater-appliqued (read fusible + blanket stitch) on to the square and then i am going to have my friends write something (just their names or more, what ever they want) on the blank squares i have and i will be making a kind of memory quilt for the PhD-time...we shall see if i can get everyone to do it...just thinking that it would be nice to have that to remember ECU-people.

anyways...time for bed (0035) and i am ready to sleep and not get up with an alarm tomorrow (yay!).

peace

and a comic to pass the time "cats with hands" is the name of the comic strip

breathe

Your secret from Jean-Sebastien Monzani on Vimeo.

a video to celebrate the submission of my dissertation...now i just need those pesky signatures (2 down, 3 to go).

peace!

you could win...

lookie what you (i) could win!!

http://quiltwithus.connectingthreads.com/profiles/blogs/an-interview-with-anita?medid=BE100712&elink=2%3AKarens+Corner&media=BE100712&email=%7Bemail_address%7D

if you win after finding this through my blog, will you share?? the winner gets some fabric and a cool book to use with the fabric!

peace

8 days

so yesterday i was talking to my sister, meg. and i had previously told her that the due date was the 19th...so there she goes saying, "so, you only haeve 9 days, huh?" and i freaked out a bit...but i got over it. today i sent the final chunk to the committee...now i just have to get on OK on the overall abstract and then put it all back together and then to the grad school by next monday, july 19th. we are celebrating a little tonight and ordering pizza we are feeling poor, but it is yummy pizza and will last for more than one meal.

now i just need to find a job and get my account "unfrozen" (read: give the university more $$) and then i can access my transcripts and get said job...i hate this part...feeling like no one wants me, but i don't know that for sure...

oh, well what will happen will happen and it will all work out in the end, right?

peace

20 days and counting

got feedback for 2 chapters, message out to author of an article i am using heavily and have not heard back...want to get the stuff out and done...july 19 is the deadline to get things to the grad school with minimal(?) changes can be done after that...but i wanna be *done*

i wanna quilt and knit...just learned about a cool method of knitting-in-the-round on straight needles...knitting a hat/purse has just seemed to ease up...can't wait to try it, but gotta finish the stupid dissertation first, but keeping going until december is sounding better...there *is* a class i want to take, but i don't know if i can afford (money and time) to do that, but have not heard about pitt cc and a possible job...time is running short and i need to figure something out. school would be an option and i could get more $ from the feds...delay the re-payment of the loans, etc...frustrating..sigh. it will work out as they will i just need to let things happen and keep typing/thinking about the damn paper.

peace. sigh.
feeling a bit like the one on the treadmill...from comic "Speed Bump" on June 23, 2010.

re-re-re-writing

boy, am i having fun! (NOT!!!). i find it hard to be motivated when i am getting no feedback from the two chapters i have re-submitted and i have no job prospects...sad but true. i am going to apply all over the stupid state, though i would prefer to stay around here...maybe something closer to VA or SC, but still nearer the coast than the mountains...we shall see. august is fast approaching and things are getting a bit scary in the job/$$ picture...i refuse to flip burgers, but who knows what may happen after all the kiddies go back to school in august/september...keeping my fingers crossed, but still applying to places...sigh

peace

the post grad let down

i think it is on the same lines as post-partum...i know i have been taking my medications but i sm still a bit down. everyone has left and here we reamain. i can't seem to get back into the swing of the stupid dissertation now that i have been just hanging out. i *know* i need to get back into it, but i am finding it hard. i have begun to fill out an application to Craven Community College, they have a full-time prof position for biology...sounds good, would start in the middle of august. but i have to get it filled out and sent in and all that. it would be in new bern...about 45 min to an hr away...not too far and bigger than greenville and that much closer to the ocean...can't get my hope up too far, but it would be nice...now just to get the stuff filled out. guess that is all for now - once i get the application filled out, i guess i should just jump in...but i want to start with chapter 3 and everyone else seems to want me to start with chapter 2. i have started, but not gotten too far yet...sigh.

peace - heading for literary immortality:

family time

well...the family starts to come tomorrow (wednesday)...we are having a party on friday and then heading to the beach on saturday...andy goes home on saturday and the others go home on sunday...

i really need to get on the edits and changes for my dissertation!

found a cool camera at best buy today...water proof to 5 m or another to 10 m. but ~$260.00 - a bit too rich for my budget at the moment...add it to the wish list, i guess.

gotta get cleaning again...peace.

ABD!!!

hay! i am officially ABD (all but dissertation)...this means that i still need to finish writing, but i am done with all the defense stuff, now it is one-on-one with the committee and each chapter. AND submitting the three body chapters to journals to get published (yikes, but cool)

so, i have taken a bit of time to chill out and now it is back to the grindstone to get the writing done and published and find a job...still no stress, but it feels much lighter...we shall see what happens...

peace for now...and a comic (freerange) for fun, because i don't check my facebook page often, either.

so...it is offical...defense on monday

monday looms large in my world right now...i defend the last 5 years of my life at school...no stress...no worries...yikes!

and my cap-gown-hood-tassel are in at the bookstore...can't wait to see what they put me in...sure it will be great (yeah, right).

fonda said she is going to collect all the quilts i have done during the last 5 years and show them off as my (real) dissertation-haha.

anyways...i guess i will say more on monday, or maybe sooner...we shall see.

peace

my dad...

this is my dad...



please notice the handle-bar mustash, the matching yellow shirt and the chain around the neck holding his glasses...sigh...my dad, easter at the schenk's (sister-meg, hubby-rob, daughter-margo, and son-robbie). man, that would have been fun...i prob would have dressed as one of the bunnies because i might have fit into that costume...haha. enjoy, peace.

de-fense!

april 12, no clue what time, but Monday, April 12. i have ~1.5 feet of articles and books to go through before that time...now, if i can only get motivated to do it...sigh


http://www.gocomics.com/theargylesweater is the link to get to this comic...what fun.

have fun...i am. peace

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (#2)

it is sent to the committee, all 143 pages/3MB. without appendices. it is backed up on two thumb-drives and i will be heading over to both the other laptop and fonda's desk top to put copies on them as well. freaks me out! but i will live...gotta go feed the birds (smile).

peace.

details...

damn details...got everything back from doc, now just working out the details before submitting the whole thing to the committee...at the moment, it stands at 143 pages, double spaced, etc. includes cover sheets, etc. i think it will gain at least one more as i still need to write an overall abstract...sigh...have an email out to doc to see about adding appendices to it before it is sent to the committee...that will require a bit more in terms of details...sigh...we shall see...more to come...

and i haven't gotten a chance to get photos of the quilts i have been working on while i wait...got two tops...one was the planned and the other was a last-minute addition. i like the addition better than the planned one..oh, well. got some excellent backing fabric for the small one and 30% off - yay! ok...bed time, my fingers are not cooperating...my nails are too long, too...sigh.

peace.

twiddling

here i sit...drafts to doc...2 back and edited...3 still with him...his daughter gets married tomorrow...i have one quilt that i think still needs something...and one i wasn't even trying to make that is pretty much done, a small quilt for a baby or someone...i have nothing to edit...i am thinking about working on the powerpoint for my defence, but i am not sure it will happen if doc doesn't get things back to me soon...i still need to get it to the committee, defend and make changes and then submit to the grad school by ~april 11 (the requested a few days early, if possible for PhD students so they can cross all their "t"s and dot all their "i"s)...time is running out and i am a freaking out (quietly) and here i sit twiddling my damn thumbs...and slowly pulling all the brown hairs i have out to be replaced with gray...(maybe not, but feels like it might help)...and using way too many "..." things in this post...oh, well. get over it. i need a massage and a trip to the beach...maybe after the 16th? oh, and taxes haven't even been started...and f is still sick and has no voice...the list goes on, but i will end it here...breathe!

peace

finally

hay! i finally got all my grading done...now i should get the draft back from doc this afternoon and all the pieces that i have been grading back to the students and the back to editing.

got to quilt a bit yesterday...found all my fabrics and then cut them up and put them back together in a different way...still in 20 pieces, but better than the 160 they were when i was finished cutting them up. pictures to follow, but now it is all about making them "random"...moving them around until they look like they weren't placed that way, you know "random." that is part of the 'fun' of quilting...why must i like more scrappy quilts and not just all the same block/fabric quilts? the curse of pretty fabric.

today is the first day for tevas! but it is still a bit chilly, but i have to take the students out in the field today and it will be wet, so better wet feet in tevas than wet feet in something else that won't dry as nicely...sigh...i just hope they stay warm, like they have in the past, as long as they stay on my body, my feet should be moderately warm, or at least not clammy...i hate wet socks.'

anyways...more to come in a while.

Peace.

so...now back to grading

so...doc has all my chapters (yikes). he is reading mine, another graduate student, who defends on monday and then a grant proposal due on monday too. oh, and his daughter is getting married in a week. like he has no stress, either...but now i feel a bit less stressed...slept for ~12 hrs...now it is time to catch up on all the grading for my lab that i have been putting off...and look, here i am doing it again...smile.

grading can be fun, just requires a bit of focus...now that i have nothing due for the weekend, i am going to knock these out and then tomorrow, maybe take some time to sew!! i can't wait! bought some fabric yesterday for a project that has been on my brain for quite some time...requires 20 fat-quarters of different fabric and about the same of a green...i will post picts when i actually finish...but i also hope to have edits from doc on monday afternoon and then make those changes and then send it to the committee and then defend in the next two weeks or so...we shall see. OK enough scatter-brain...gotta grade these things so i can have fun.

Peace.

dissertations...

i can truly understand the whole "ABD" (all but dissertation) thing about now...three chapters to doc and now what is left is the wrap-up (conclusion) and an over-all introduction. gotta chat with doc about how to approach the conclusion chapter...just a bit frustrated about how to start...i know kinda what i want to say...but it is going to be a conclusionary chapter, not a formal chapter and it is really kinda stumping me for a bit...maybe tonight/tomorrow will bring a brain-wave...one can only hope...sigh...



and i went to get my teeth cleaned today...all looks well, except that "crack" on one of my molars...got my first crown last fall...and a "bite-splint" to keep me from gritting my teeth at night...hope that helps to not make the crack worse...what fun? anyone have a place where i can teach when i am done...job search after conclusion chapter...more fun! i am hanging-in, just tired.

peace

still here

hay, still here...just writing...no fun...wanna go to the beach...sigh...soon, soon!

peace!

OMG!!

doc just told me that i actually have only until march 19 (50 days!) until he gets the entire final draft (OMG!!) i don't expect to post much in the next few week (unless i can't stand it - possible)...yikes!

that's all for now...back to data manipulation in Excel and trying to get things correlated (SPSS - statistics program)...no pressure/stress.

Breathe

Peace

YAY!

i figured it out! nothing really new to say today, except that i had to "read" some html (?) and found the bit that made things centered and i was able to fix them - so there! - anyways...smile...working hard on the chapter, as you can see...actually i was, earlier.

chapter due tomorrow, meeting with teaching @9am and then supposed to go to QWACs...then back to chapter...it is coming together in my head, just not on paper yet. it will happen, that is all i know. woke up the other day with a huge light over my head and had to grab the pen and paper i put next to the bed months ago for just such an emergency...glad i did...by the time i got to the computer it would have been gone, but i had the paper and think i made some big leaps in the process and making sense of the data i was working on. anyways...time for bed so i can get up tomorrow and do it all again : )

Peace.

well...

an up-date of the blog (check out the background/header link @ upper left). but can't figure out how to make it non-centered and how to move the heading down so that it is in the middle of the header...well, i will try again next time i need to be writing (all the time). i was doing this just before dinner...the TV was on, so i have a hard time writing...TV is usually off until ~5pm...tomorrow i am up by ~9am and then writing all day because i have a chapter due friday and then next week a draft to my lab group...really excited that things are coming together and i can see the end...scary but true...now i need to think about a job...even more scary (smile).

Peace

first katie-card of the year

My first card of the year is being sent to my next-oldest sister...she and her husband took on the care of Mom's oldest cat - spunkin. they made the decision recently to euthanize her. she had a good life with them and probably more fun in the last few years than before...they figured out that she was likely allergic to the food she was eating and some other things...they had her on high doses of prednazone...she was good. i know it was a hard decision...she was Mom's cat and...there is not much more to say...she had a good life in CA.



done with our new (came in the mail today) "C is for cat" SU! set, and crushed curry and soft suede papers and crushed curry pen. and then a bit of glitter with the glitter pen to highlight the bell and lines in the "C."

i know they miss her. i do not look forward to the day we euthanize spot (Mom's middle cat)...i actually don't look forward to the day we euthanize anyone...but i firmly believe in quality over quantity.

Peace.

found funny photo

found this photo on seattle pi (newspaper link) where i view some of my comics...



thought of me and my dissertation (87 days)...can't wait for the cats to try this!

must go and hand in the "application for graduation" today (due by Friday, but why wait?)...gotta find the right building, etc.

and...Howell is hot today...outside is ~60 and inside, prob ~80, had my shirt off for a while...smile...door was approprately closed, no worries.

Peace

so...anyways

so...yesterday, after i wrote about my deadline (88 days, now), i got sick...don't know what happened, but started to get chilled and very cold and yucky guts/didn't feel good. took a bit of a nap on the couch, but still chills and v. cold...f finally made the bed and i crawled in and tried to get warm with my down comforter, quilt and red acrylic blanket (6 p.m.)...still shivery and chilled...woke up at 10 p.m. and felt better, too hot...went to the potty then read for a bit and then back to sleep (11:30 p.m.) and woke at ~7 a.m. to potty again then back to sleep until noon...damn.

feeling a bit better now. still chilled, but guts feel better - f has the temp down to be 72F in the kitchen - means ~60 in the hall - i am fully dressed and have socks and a jacket...want a hat and maybe some gloves...getting ready to head to bed again.

made a book for a friend of mine...she is in need of a new note-journal and so i found one in our stash and added some rub-ons and stickers and now it is ready to head to it's new home...probably no photos, but it was neat...a 6x6 book with a fun moon on the front and a spiral that is not really a spiral, you know, i think they are called "c-rings" what ever...i hope she likes it.

Peace

THE countdown

well, i finally did it...i have counted the days until i must have my dissertation submitted to the graduate school...as of today...i have 89 days...no pressure.

the banquet was good, the speaker not so much so...but food and venue and turn-out was good, and we had plenty of posters, and fun people to hang out with...now on to other things. like painting tote bags and making quilts and, oh, writing my dissertation!

Peace

altering a bag

hay...you know all those bags that are coming out that are woven recycled plastic bags/recyclable...you know that sometimes they are really ugly, but you feel like you *should* use them to shop, etc...well i just got one recently and it was advertising some apartment community off campus...decided that i would paint it.



i wasn't sure how to start out, but just found some pretty paint, what i have termed "really fancy paints" just because i was board when i labeled the box, and started to paint...



so, i ended up not really liking it, but it is done and i can't really change it much, but i specifically wanted to keep the columns, so i ended up dripping some paint on it and there were times that it was a bit think and wet, but i had a good time, trying not to get it all over myself and my girlfriend, etc.

so...because i didn't really like the front, i changed tactics...i decided that plants and then it went to fish (naturally) and a stupid looking seahorse...but i did it up-side-down, so i can't bitch too much.



this turned out better, but i think it is OK and then i needed to do something on the sides...so i decided that a peace sign would suffice, or at least a form of peace sign...



i have more of these bags, but not black...maybe i will paint them too, but we shall see...smile

see what happens when i don't quilt?

Peace

blog-a-versery

Humm...October 1, 2007 was the "birth" of this blog...i guess it is beginning the 3rd year...wonder what will come next. supposed to be writing, had the TV on so can't write well...sewed...in 2 days, i came up with another quilt top...picture will follow.

i think my girlfriend is frustrated about the fact that i can come up with a quilt in 2 days, but she is struggling with some cool art...what she may not remember is that i have had this planned in my book for a while and then all it needed was for me to figure out how much fabric i needed and find it in the closet...this was all done with closet fabric (yay!!). i am proud. this is another pattern i have been thinking about for a while and just not taken the time to put it together...her art is coming right out of her head...mine has had time to stew and settle in the book and then i get to find the colors i want and make it happen (also only 1 media). she has all this stuff around (way cool stuff, i might add) and she has to figure out how to get it out of her brain and onto the paper that she is using...no wonder it takes her days to get it out...

i love her art-work, it is fun and neat and the things she combines make me smile and think "i would never have done that. Cool!"

anyways, about this blogaversery...guess we shall see how it evolves and changes and now i gotta take a picture of the quilt top and then get it downloaded...posted.

peace for now.

Here it is...it is called "spicy dish":

2010

many changes comeing for this year...hope to graduate and then i have to get a job...no pressure. i have had a bummpersticker on my car for several years...it is fading and no one can read it at this point...i am the only one who knows what it says at this point and that is:

The Only Constant is Change

life is nothing but fun...huh? change can be fun, scary, overwhelming and neat, but also just fading away...leave a comment about change and consistancy. thanks.

Peace.