Watch and Be Happy

Tears, laughter and the whole big mess of it

Yesterday was a day full of both sadness and joy, one of those weird kinds of days that leaves you feeling both stuffed full and drained empty at the end.

We had our family Thanksgiving yesterday because Nick has come home for his 3 weeks of R&R from Alaska. So I spent the morning cooking desserts and a rice stuffing. Gabi helped with a few things, but mostly she prepped for her physics classes (she's spending hours and hours every weekend getting ready for her AP class. I just keep telling her, "next year will be easier.")

I made both pumpkin and pecan pies as well as a gluten-free chocolate cake (from a mix, and it turned out really well!). Then a brown and white rice stuffing that was yummy enough that even gluten-eaters would enjoy it.

So there was all that joy to look forward to... but at the same time much grief and sorrow. Our friend Jan passed away yesterday morning. Jan was diagnosed with cancer over the summer ~ in both her colon and lungs. Thankfully, she was well enough to go home for a few hours on Thanksgiving to spend with her family. Then on Monday or Tuesday she came down with an infection and the end came very quickly.

Jan was such an amazing woman. She had that grace of spirit ~ born of generosity, kindness, strength and being absolutely grounded ~ that is both profoundly compelling and deeply comfortable to be around. Everyone loved Jan. I think we all aspired to be like her on some level.

Jan worked for the Elk River School District until she retired a year or two ago. She was the librarian, working first at the elementary school and later at the high school. Gabi came home a few days ago and told me that, when she told her classes that Jan was very sick, her seniors told her how they could still remember Jan reading to them when they were little kids. She used different voices and made the stories come alive.

So, after crying and baking and lighting a candle for Jan, we took our plunder to Nick and Amanda's house and spent a great afternoon hanging out with family, feasting and chatting. It's the sort of thing Jan would approve of. Jake and Max are getting to be so grown up, and both know all the plays that the Vikings should have run. Sofia is bright and articulate and can talk about anything, and Eli continues to be the bundle of fun, playing with everyone. It was great fun.

And it was snowing lightly, that first real snow of the season, and everything looks so clean and fresh and lovely.

After we came home we checked our e-mail to see if there was a new CaringBridge posting about Jan. There wasn't, but instead we received an e-mail from Gabi's cousin Kathryn in England to let us know that Kathryn's stepfather Andrew passed away last week. We were both a little dumbfounded at the timing, but that's the way it works, isn't it? Andrew had been a member of Parliament for many years, so Kathryn included an article about him written by the Guardian. It made me proud to have met him.

We closed the day with more physics for Gabi; she's teaching a unit on thermodynamics this week. I cleaned up the last of the pie-making mess and then made some earrings and worked on a little felt credit card case. It was a quiet close to an all-over-the-map kind of day.

Eleven Tips on Getting More Efficiency Out of Women Employees

My lovely Gabi forwarded an article to me yesterday that is far too entertaining not to share. It's from the Sept/Oct '07 issue of Savvy and Sage, and is a reprint of a 1943 article in Transportation Magazine. And, yes, my heading is the title of the article.

So, without further ado... the article, almost in full.

"1. Pick young, married women. They usually have more of a sense of responsibility than their unmarried sisters, they're less likely to be flirtatious [and] they need the work or they wouldn't be doing it...

2. When you have to use older women, try to get ones who have worked outside the home at some time in their lives. Older women who have never contacted the public have a harder time adapting themselves and are inclined to be cantankerous and fussy...

3. General experience indicates that "husky" girls - those who are just a little on the heavy side - are more even tempered and efficient than their underweight sisters.

4. Retain a physician to give each woman you hire a special physical examination - one covering female conditions... [to reveal] whether the employee-to-be has any female weaknesses which would make her mentally or physically unfit for the job.

5. Stress at the outset the importance of time... until this point is gotten across service is likely to be slowed up.

6. Give the female employee a definite day-long schedule of duties so that they'll keep busy without bothering the management for instructions every few minutes. Numerous properties say that women make excellent workers when they have their jobs cut out for them, but that they lack initiative in finding work themselves.

7. Whenever possible, let the inside employee change from one job to another at some time during the day. Women are inclined to be less nervous and happier with change.

8. Give every girl an adequate number of rest allowances during the day. You have to make some allowances for feminine psychology. A girl has more confidence and is more efficient if she can keep her hair tidy, apply fresh lipstick, and wash her hands several times a day.

9. Be tactful when issuing instructions or in making criticisms. Women are often sensitive; they can't shrug off harsh words the way men do. Never ridicule a woman - it breaks her spirit and cuts off her efficiency.

10. Be reasonably considerate about using strong language around women. Even though a girl's husband or father may swear vociferously, she'll grow to dislike a place of business where she hears too much of this.

11. Get enough size variety in uniforms so that each girl can have a proper fit. This point can't be stressed too much in keeping women happy."

*****
By the way, photo credits: The great pic above is from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum, online on Wikipedia Commons. The caption for the photo is, "Two sisters who left the farm to keep our airmen flying. NYA trainees at the Corpus Christi, Texas, Naval Air Base, Evelyn and Lillian Buxkeurple are shown working on a practice bomb shell." I just have to say, the pic is great, but the last name is AWESOME. Buxkeurple. I couldn't make that up!

One more thing

I finished this scarf Tuesday night. The wool/soy blend was great to work with: knitted up beautifully and felt wonderful in the hands. And the soy-based dyes are so lovely. The picture doesn't do the depth of color justice.



I also had fun making a tag of my own. Seems a little boring however (and blurry. Sorry!). I think I need to come up with a more interesting name than just "Handmade by Brandi." Any suggestions?

The beady stuff so far

I've been busy, with the holidays and birthdays approaching, with the annual gift-making extravaganza. Jewelry, hair pom-poms, scarves. I always make more than I actually give away. What happens is that as the deadline for wrapping and/or sending approaches, I take inventory and pick my favorites and give those. The others are either kept (Gabi never minds this, particularly in regards to bracelets and scarves) or torn apart and their parts recycled. So, a few more things so far...

First, two bracelets. The purple/blue one is all glass beads, the copper/white one mixes metal, bone and glass.





I've been having a blast using, finally, some of the gorgeous beads that I brought back from West Africa. These trader beads were purchased in Ghana and Togo. The "serenity" bracelet was given to Jenny as a birthday present, and Gabi laid claim to the "peace" bracelet before it could be given to anyone else. (That is her prerogative!)





This necklace also uses both glass beads from the local craft store and mixed-glass beads from Togo. Check out the close-up to see the lovely colors of the African bead. There are many varieties of these mixed-glass, matte-finish beads, and they are much less well-known than the trader beads. However, I really like their subtlety.





This three-strand is made of glass and metal beads. I found the finding at one of my favorite bead stores in Duluth. The other beads are locally purchased.



Lastly, I went an uncharacteristically sparkly direction on this one (glass and metal). I was thinking of my niece when I was picking beads... that's why it's so shiny.

Hair Bobby Thingys

I've been playing with string again.

Last weekend I spent movie-watching time playing with felt, buttons and embroidery floss and made some fun hair doo-dads. I got the idea from Heartfelt: 25 projects for stitched and felted accessories by Teresa Searle. There are some great projects in this book. Searle provides detailed and simple instructions, and the book is a joy just to look at. The projects would be great for beginner/intermediate as most of the embroidery stitches are very basic (chain, blanket and straight stitches, mostly) and felt is so easy to work with.What really makes the projects pop is the color combinations and the light-hearted, joyful feel of them. It can be hard to find beginner-level crafts that really make a statement, but Searle's do.

And for those of us who are beyond beginner stages, the ideas here are a great jumping-off point for more felty-flossy entertainment. Searle's ideas got my brain buzzing so much that I bought some lovely greenish blue felt to use for a cell phone case and/or little purse.

In the meantime, here are a few of the silly, pretty hair pom-poms I came up with. They stitch up so quickly I made four or five in a single evening, and the simple stitches meant that I really could watch a movie and stitch at the same time (free tip: never try to both watch a movie and make a neat, tidy pallestrina stitch ~ you're just asking for bloody fingers).

First, how the hair-bobs look when worn.



Next, the group I made over the weekend.



And a couple of my favorites.





Of course, Rosie thinks they'd make great toys!



(I did make her a couple, and she promptly lost them.)