Thanksgiving and Books

We had a pretty nice Thanksgiving all things considered. We slept in a bit, spent most of the day alternating between cleaning up, cooking, and just hanging around the house. A handful of friends joined us for dinner, along with my husband's brother and his wife who ended up having to cancel travel plans due to a combo of car problems and bad weather.

We tried some new recipes and everything turned out great. Around 4pm we started Firefly on Netflix and just let it run all evening in the background for party entertainment. The cats stayed out and cuddled until we took the turkey out of the oven. After that they were in the office until after dinner. For the most part they did great with a crowd in the house. We haven't really had big groups of guests since we adopted Curry, but snuggles were enjoyed by all.

I survived all four days of Black Friday sales at work with minimum damage. My feet are still sore and I mostly just want to stay in bed with a book for like a week . . .  Speaking of which, its time for book reviews and I will admit that I haven't been able to finish much this month. But reading is one of the ways I relax so it's been important for me to make at least some time for it.

No-Churn Ice Cream: Over 100 Simply Delicious No-Machine Frozen Treats by Leslie Bilderback

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This seems like an unusual choice for November but for some reason my husband always craves ice cream when it's cold outside. This book has a large variety of recipes using a small set of no churn methods. All of the instructions seem easy to follow and flavors range from traditional to kind of bizarre. Traditional flavors include basic vanilla and chocolate as well as a variety of fruit flavors. On the more unusual end there is berry with blue cheese and lobster vanilla. We haven't tried any of these yet but the weather actually just turned cold this week so I'm sure Bear will want to make some any day now.

Crochet One-Skein Wonders by Judith Durant

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Crochet is one of my crafting skills that I'd like to improve but the idea of taking on a big project like an afghan is just a bit overwhelming. I checked this out from the library thinking it might have some good practice projects. There are really a lot of good projects here but I rated it slightly lower because so many of them fall into the same categories such as scarves or gloves and I don't know that I want to make multiple scarves for myself. I know that I could give items as gifts as well so that would make it better but it still feels somewhat limiting. We also don't have kids or many friends with kids so those projects aren't of much use to me personal either. Overall though I like the projects and the instructions are good so I still would consider this book a valuable resource.

All of the rain and ice this weekend prevented us from getting out to pick up a Christmas tree. I would like to get one before next weekend but with our work schedules that may or may not work out. We haven't decided what kind of color combo we want to go with this year so I've set up a poll where you can weigh in over on the Facebook page. I hope to finish up both my dress and husband's shirt for when we see the Force Awakens by the end of the week. I can get them done soon I'll make a tulle petticoat for under the dress as well.

Thanksgiving Week

Due to increased work hours for the holiday Eclectic Otter will not be posting today.

Thanksgiving Week

Due to increased work hours for the holiday there will no posts this week.

Think Before You Shop

I have been trying to put my feelings about working Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving weekend into words for some time now. It is a source of stress that comes around every year and is one of the main reasons that I am continuously looking for other jobs to apply for. But before I get into all that I want to let you know that I will not be making my regular posts this upcoming week.

This is just a sample of the things I have to do before next Friday.
1. Work 9 hours days every day except Thanksgiving day, starting as early as 5 am and going as late as 11pm
2. Help my husband make Thanksgiving dinner for a group of friends
3. Get the house cleaned for that dinner
4. Make food for two separate work potlucks
5. Attempt to get some Christmas gifts wrapped and ready to send with other family when they visit for Thanksgiving
6. Buy new shoes so my feet don't hate me after those long work days

 I hope to be able to squeeze in some time to work on my sewing for the Force Awakens and I will update you on my progress after the holiday.

Boycott Black Thursday is a movement online where people are pushing for stores to remain closed on Thanksgiving Day. I hearty approve of this idea. Everyone deserves to have a day off to spend time with their families and be thankful for the things they have.  However I want to say that it's not enough.

Shopping on Black Friday also prevents people from spending time with family.

I have personal experience on this point. We have spent the last several Thanksgivings with my husband's family who recently moved to Colorado. Even though my parents live just a few houses down the street from us we rarely have dinner with them because they spend the holiday weekend in Wichita visiting my brother and niece. He works in food service and also only has Thanksgiving day itself off. So this year we have no family to spend time. Everyone will be together for the holidays except us. We got a phone call from my mother-in-law a while back asking my husband if he would be coming out to Colorado and we'd really like to but one day isn't enough time to drive a state and a half away, spend any time relaxing with family, and get home again in time to be rested for a long hard work day in the morning.

We have made a similar trip before. The year my sister-in-law passed away we made a point of spending the holiday with my brother. I was scheduled to close Wednesday before and didn't get off of work until almost 11pm. My husband drove and I snoozed. All that sitting after the long work day made me super stiff and achy. Thanksgiving itself was pretty good. We all helped cook and had a nice time catching up over dinner... But we had to leave right after dinner so that we could get home and put me to bed because I have to be at work at 5:30 am on Friday, meaning I had to be out of bed by 4:30 am.

This last example is not from my own experience but a former co-worker left her job because she choose to return home and spend one last Thanksgiving with a dying family member. I don't really know if she was fired because she refused to work or if she quit when they tried to force her to come in but either way it wasn't a fair way to treat a person.

Celebrate on another Day

People who want to shop on Black Friday always make the argument that retail workers can/ should simply celebrate with their families on an alternate weekend. That's a fairly valid argument if everyone involved is able. I don't feel like the spirit of the holiday or family time should be constrained to that one day.

The problem comes when there is no other time available. Celebrating on another weekend hasn't really ever worked out for our family. Retail schedules are erratic and my 'weekend' days don't tend to match up with the 'weekend' that my brother gets. Add in black outs for using vacation time between Halloween and New Years and it becomes nearly impossible to celebrate Thanksgiving together at anywhere close to a relevant time.

Holiday Pay

A common argument for people working the holiday is extra pay. Unfortunately a lot of retail employees don't get holiday pay for Black Friday. My husband didn't at any of the retail jobs he worked and I don't get it now. It actually surprised some of my husband's coworkers to learn that I don't get time and a half. It's something that most people make incorrect assumptions about.

Volunteer Workers Only

Another thing that people make assumptions about are companies using only volunteers to work on these day. While I believe it could be possible I don't think it's true. The facebook page for the Boycott Black Thursday movement is filled with testimonials from people who work for companies that claim to use only volunteers but are threatening to fire people if they try to take the day off.

Hospital/ Police/ Armed Forces Don't Get the Time Off

This is the final argument that people give for not wanting stores to close on Black Friday, why should retail workers get the day off when police officers, doctors and nurses, and soldiers don't? I don't have an answer to this one except to say that I agree it's not fair. Those professions require someone constantly on call in case of emergency, they are necessary to keep society functioning. Retail workers are not, they could get a weekend off without people dying as a result. Banks are closed for the weekend, does that mean they deserve it more than soldiers? I feel like everyone deserves to get the weekend off and that we should work toward making it possible for as many people as possible.

I understand that this post isn't likely to change a lot of minds on this issue. All I ask is that you stop to think a moment about how your actions may affect other people. Hopefully in years to come there will better solutions and everyone will be able to make time for their families without having to risk losing their livelihood to do so. The company R.E.I. is a great example, all of their stores will be closed both Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday. Their employees have a paid holiday and they are backing up their company values by encouraging people to spend their holiday outside with family. Learn more about the Opt Outside campaign here. I hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving, take time to appreciate the people and things in your life that you can be grateful for and I'll see you next week.

Catching up on Reading

The main part of my dress is completed! 

Well mostly anyway. I made a mistake putting in the invisible zipper and it needs to be redone.

After that all I have to do is finish the lining and the straps. While I've never made a dress with boning before it doesn't look super complicated. However the shoulder strap has a weird pleat that seems tricky... Anyways I'm hoping that another day or two of work should be enough to finish it. Then I can move on to making the shirt for my husband and some accesories.

Meanwhile I've been doing a little reading to prepare for the movie as well. While we were at Target a while back we came across a set of books with the subtitle Journey to the Force Awakens. Since then I've looked for more information and checked the library. I haven't been able find exactly how many books are included but they are supposed to include hints about the upcoming movie. The three that I have read so far are listed as Juvenile fiction and focus on events between A New Hope and Return of the Jedi.

                         

Progress Report

Due to work and the fact that we spent a good part of the day at the zoo on Sunday I havn't made a ton of progress with my sewing but it is coming along. I have finished approximately one-third of the instructions and the bodice is mostly done.

 I might be further along if the cats hadn't insisted on helping

To be honest I've been procrastinating a bit this week because I'm feeling a little depressed about Thanksgiving. I've actually been meaning to make a post about it but can't quite decide how to best articulate my thoughts. What it boils down to is that we have zero plans for Thanksgiving. My husband's family mostly lives in Colorado and because I work retail I can't any time off to travel for the holiday. My parent live just down the street but they will be spending Thanksgiving out of town visiting my brother and niece. My brother is also unable to get time off this time of year.

There's a whole campaign online to boycott stores that are open on Thanksgiving day so that hopefully they will stop and their employees can spend time with their families. And I completely approve of this. I try to be thankful that I don't have to work on Thanksgiving Day itself. But when you work the day before and open at 6 am the day after it doesn't leave any room for travel so I still am unable to visit anyone. We are considering having a dinner with friends but know that most of them have family dinners of their own to attend.

At any rate I have a few days off this weekend and hopefully I can make significant progress on my dress and maybe take some time to focus on the things I have to be thankful for rather than on our lack of celebration.

Pumpkins and Pattern Problems

After getting my fabric all ready to go at the beginning of the week I came home Friday ready to get started, to cut everything out and start sewing. Unfortunately that was not as easy as it sounded. I very carefully smoothed my fabric out and spread it on the table. This is not an easy feat at the best of times because I had 5 yards of fabric and a table that's only 2 yards. The VERY first step to cutting anything is to roundup all the cats and put them in the spare room so they don't pull everything off onto the floor.

After rounding up all the helpers here's the first bit of my fabric ready to go. 

As soon as I started to lay out the pattern I knew there was a problem. The fabric shrunk so much in the wash that the big skirt pieces didn't fit.

Thankfully, I had always intended to add a band of printed fabric around the bottom of the skirt and after a consultation with my Mom and a bit of measuring we devised a solution. We traced the curve from the bottom and moved it up to the point where we determined the top of the printed band should start.

The other problem was that, according to my measurements, my waist is a totally different size from the rest of me so I needed to modify the pattern a bit to make sure it will fit right. Luckily most of the pieces I needed to change have fairly straight pieces so it was a simple matter of angling the side from size to the other.

Then, after 3 and a half hours, I finally had all the pieces I needed cut out. Well....mostly. I still have to cut the border pieces for the skirt but I can start sewing with what I've got and cut those out as I get closer to the end.

Although I went into work late on Saturday I didn't get any sewing started because we spent the morning running errands. We planned to go to the zoo on Sunday and wanted to get our grocery shopping out of the way ahead of time. So we were completely free yesterday for the Great Pumpkin Smash at the Kansas City Zoo.

Last year we spent all day at the zoo for the Pumpkin Smash and rushed to see all the animals they included. This week we only stayed about half the day and only made it to about every other presentation. But it was still a fun event. As always I made a point to see the otter getting their treats and we also saw meerkats and elephants.

The elephants were actually especially fun because the stood on their pumpkins to smash them open and then eat the pieces. It actually made a really neat loud popping noise. We were too far back in the crowd to get a good picture of the actual smashing but you can see the results. As one of the zookeepers said, they get dreamy eyes while eating the pumpkins. They really do look like they think they are the yummiest thing ever.

The other thing we made a point of seeing was the Fennec Foxes. They are new to the zoo since the last time we were out and super cute.

Hopefully I can make some progress with the actual sewing today. If not I also have a day off on Friday that I plan to spend working on my dress as well.

Star Wars Crunch Time

I never got around to searching my cabinet for the missing quilt squares but that's alright because that project is officially on hold. In fact all craft projects are on hold except for work on our Star Wars opening night outfits. I had intended to start them way before now but I havn't so now I feel a little bit time crunched. I know there's more than a month but I'm slow sometimes.

First of all I needed to find the fabric I bought way back when. I found the black I got for my husband but not the blue piece I thought I bought for myself. After searching everywhere I thought I might have fabric I'm beginning to question whether or not I really did actually buy it. However I have reviewed what I did find and come up with a revised plan that I think will be even better.

The Darth Vader fabric is for Bear's shirt and the other two will be used with plain black to make a dress for me. If I have time I also want to make a petticoat for underneath and a fascinator style hair clip with the Death Star on it. I may be biting off more than I chew with this because I didn't realize when I chose my pattern that it uses boning which is something I've never done before. It's also something that my Mom has never done before and she's my go to person for sewing questions and advice. I'm really excited about it but it could turn out terrible, either way I'm pushing forward. The first step was to wash everything so that it does any shrinking before I sew it, and then iron it all smooth again. 

5 yards to iron....

All of which is easy enough if you have uninterrupted time and a regular ironing board. It becomes more difficult when all you have is a small countertop ironing board and three cats who want to "help".

I also started to cut out all the pattern pieces but I haven't gotten very far yet. I like to keep the option to be able to reuse a pattern later in another size so I don't cut along all the pattern lines. I usually just fold the pieces down to the size I currently need and cut along that line, like in the picture below.

However with this pattern I think I'm going to have to revise that plan and use some transfer paper to mark the design to cut out. Otherwise there is no way I'm ever going to get this piece right...

Crafting Roadblocks

Unfortunately I don't have much to show for last week. It seems like the world is conspiring against me. This week leading up to Halloween meant that my job was super busy and crowded with people working on last minute costumes so I just worn out by the end of the day.

Then while driving to get my husband's tooth pulled we noticed that my car is acting a bit off so we have to take it to get looked at. I know that one doesn't relate very closely to craft projects but it boils down to lack of money for craft supplies and also the fact that stress and worry doesn't make you very productive.

We also didn't to a lot of chores and cleaning that we generally do over the weekend because we were busy celebrating our anniversary so this week has been a lot of playing catchup on laundry and other cleaning.

To top it all off I am currently searching for pieces of projects that I've misplaced. I cannot find the embroidery designs that I transferred for the quilt and I can't find a piece of fabric that I know I bought for a dress I was going to make.

But I do have this picture of Curry being adorable in a basket so.... I guess things aren't all bad. Here's to hoping I have better luck this week.