holidays

Back to the Beginning (Revisiting Home Ec)

| Betsy

This year for the holidays I’m going down to my grandparents house, and it got me thinking about my grandmother’s college major, home economics. All I remember from my home economics class in 9th grade was that I learned how to make a pineapple upside-down cake. There was also some really weird lesson where we took tests to see what blood type we were, which still doesn’t make sense as to why it was in the curriculum. I’m not sure if they even have home economics classes now, but if they do, chances are high, they, too, have devolved from the time when my grandmother studied it.

So, I took a look online at the history of home economics, and came across several interesting databases and archives regarding women’s history. Some of them are databases of women’s history and others are based on purely home ec, but either way, they’re not only a great source of knowledge, but might also help stir up holiday conversation if you find yourself with your grandmother and unsure of a topic. Try asking her about what she studied at university, what she hoped to be at your age, or what her career aspirations were. You might not only be surprised, but you just might come away with more respect for home ec, and the lesson it’s passed on through the years.

Most of these are American, but that’s mainly because they were pretty easy to uncover. Have any from other countries? Let me know! Some of them you have to dig around for images, but they are all amazing resources!

*The Making of a Homemaker
*Home Economics to Human Ecology
*The Northern Great Plains: Women Pioneers
*American Women’s History: A Research Guide
*Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture
*The Schlesinger History of Women in America Collection
*Quilts as Visual History in 19th and 20th Century America
*The History of Household Technology with Constance Carter
*From Domesticity to Modernity: What was Home Economics?

8th Annual Supernaturale Holiday Hat & Scarf Drive!

| Betsy

It’s that time again, time to whip up a scarf or hat for someone in need for SuperNaturale’s 8th annual holiday hat & scarf drive!

From the SuperNaturale website:

For the last seven years Glitter has created a winter hat and scarf drive. We donate these items to Sanctuary for Families. They are an awesome organization dedicated to the safety, healing, and self-sufficiency of battered women and their children. They offer an array of services including shelter, legal assistance, and counseling.

Please join our eighth annual scarf drive. Get your knitting needles and crochet hooks out and knit up some warm, washable hats and scarves to donate to people who need them. Send them in by December 10th, 2009 so we can get them to people in time for the holidays.

Mail to:
SuperNaturale
c/o Flat
391 Broadway, 3rd Fl
NY NY 10013

So mark yer calendars, whip out those needles and get to knitting!

Big thanks to Tiny Choices for reminding me this year!

Weekend, We Hardly Knew Ye.

| Betsy

I grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina and spent a good half hour every Christmas holiday with the bears above, watching them sing their songs at the mall. As this was in the early 80s, these bears were super cool because they were better than the band at Chuck E. Cheese.

I had the pleasure of finding them while with a friend’s 5 year old not too long ago and it was indeed a very happy reunion as they still sang all the same songs. In the same order.

The run-up to the holidays this year will be spent wrapping packages and trying to sell people pretty handmade things in a little local shop as opposed to mass-produced things. I’m trying to remind myself of the excitement like the bears above bring, not the freakout, what-the-heck-do-I-get-for-this-person excitement which is not as fun.

Am off to work again perfecting my package wrapping and bow placement, but wanted to quickly say thank you to Etsy for the wonderful Q & A they did with me!

Also, if you’re still trying to find a pretty calendar for 2009, check out this one that you can receive from Mibo when you sign up for the newsletter over here.

Create Your Own Adventure or Follow the Printed Instructions?

| Betsy

Today I ventured into a megastore to buy a gift requested in the Season of Sharing letter I was sent, which I talked more about the other day. To be honest, I was a little worried about venturing into the visual assault that is the megastore toy section. I was struck by all the instructions and brands that seemed to alienate and deviate natural curiosity into a more prescripted playtime.

Determined to make this little girl’s holiday a bit brighter, I spent 30 minutes looking for the #1 item on the list, “gilitor lava.” I asked a salesman, a woman with a young girl, and the young girl herself. Each time we sounded it out together and scratched our heads. The salesman and I agreed it sounded like a superhero. After poring over the entire toy section, I realized she meant “glitter lava.” Success at last!

Suddenly I understood the complete sense of panic and fingers crossed that parents must have when trying to buy gifts for their children. The dolls pictured above were a special circle of hell as when I walked down the aisle, they all started making creepy noises in unison. After finding the glitter lava, I then set out to find the other two things on the list. And then there I sat in the aisle debating which was the better present on the list as I could only choose one: glitter lava, Easy-Bake oven, or Polly Pocket Ultimate Party Boat.

This fieldtrip caused so much second-guessing that if I ever have children I’m going to have start buying their presents 6 months in advance complete with a researched list of pros and cons. I ended up with the Polly Pocket Ultimate Party Boat because not only did it have about a million extra pieces, it also came with a jetski for Polly to ride the high seas on. And who knew that being able to “chillax” was a sales point?! I had no idea it was so ingrained in our culture that it’s Polly Pocket approved, even while “ice cream” remained in quotes.

I’m crossing my fingers that my little Santa writer will not be sad when she opens up the gift and doesn’t discover glitter lava….which just seemed boring and too Mr. Wizard compared to getting a boat, a jetski, boating accessories and child-size sunglasses so the little girl can keep the sun out of her eyes while she’s rocking out with Polly on the boat. The obvious front-runner at first, the Easy-Bake oven, failed because I just couldn’t send an 8 year old I don’t know something you plug in the wall even if it meant there would be no little tiny tasty cakes.

I left the megastore feeling overwhelmed by all the shiny brand new things that mooed and baaed and said “Mama” as I walked past. It seemed completely impersonal with way too many warning labels and notes about choking hazards. Coming back home to my handmade crafty things was a welcome respite as my house was soft and comfy and warm instead of robotic and plastic and kinda creepy.

And I wonder what the future will bring, and if one day I’ll find myself sitting down in an aisle comparing and contrasting toys that my child desparately wants. Will they only want the mass manufactured? Will they choose Made in China over Made by Mom? Something tells me I already know the answer, I just hope it will be possible to instill a respect for the handmade so their hand-crafted items will give them as much joy and wonder as the ones made miles away by strangers.

And if I’m really really lucky, maybe they’ll understand the freedom and the power and the love that goes into their handmade gifts and create their own adventures instead of being told where their little busy minds should wander by chillaxin’ marketers who give them numbered lists.

Tuesday morning, December 16, I’ll be on Martha Stewart Living Radio! I’ll be interviewed for the show Whole Living, which is on air 10-11 AM EST. Not a Sirius subscriber? You can sign up for a 3-day free trial here!

Oh, You’re So Retro.

| Betsy

1. The results of some grade school career aptitude test
2. Photo proving that I still have this shirt I bought in 1994 at Yoyo a Gogo

I was clearing out my summer clothes and pulling out the winter ones the other day when I found this old Crayon shirt. Putting on the t-shirt, it doesn’t feel so old, although I definitely look ages older in the photo than I did when I first put on the shirt at 19…back in the days where 30 sounded ancient and knitting or crafting would have seen anything but DIY and feminist.

The career aptitude test was a treat, as I don’t think you could get a more random list of mismatched careers if you had thrown this in the blender. But those were the days when it really seemed possible to be all those careers at once, or atleast be a veterinarian and a FBI agent simultaneously while also running an ice cream stand on the side. Those were the days where anything was possible, days that happen fewer and farther between as the years progress.

Today I got my letter from the Chicago Sun-Times Season of Sharing. It’s from an 8 year old who, in her letter to Santa, writes why she deserves a present. Not a whole slew of them, just one. She doesn’t ask for a sled and a play kitchen and skis and a pony. She just informed Santa that she’s done her homework and chores everyday and therefore deserves one single gift.

I spent 8 hours today working on a window display for a gift shop in town. After fighting with two fake sparkly tinsel Christmas trees for a few hours, I kept wondering when the holidays were going to hit me. If it wasn’t hitting me as I was untangling fairy lights and ending up covered myriad specks of glitter, then when in the hell was it going to happen? And could love can really be wrapped and contained within a flimsy cardboard box or skating reindeer wrapping paper?

But it wasn’t until after giving up on dislodging the fake snow and glitter from my clothes and hair, that I finally felt the most holiday spirit. Not because I was excited that I finally got the perfect ornament placement for the trees (but I did!) or tied the coolest bow or listened to “Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies” about eighteen times.

It was at the bottom of my 3rd grader’s letter to Santa that warmed me and had me wishing of big cups of cocoa and fireplaces and carols and twinkling lights and warm hugs and anticipation. It wasn’t anything miraculous or deep or pensive that made me cry, just a little sentence that conveyed the hope and kindness that all kids should have this holiday season.

Scrawled in tiny writing in the bottom corner of the letter was written, “Thank you and remember to eat all your cookies with milk and say Hi to Mrs. Claus!” And there was the magic and the holidays. It was the tiniest instructions written with care and concentration to Santa with regards to the wife at the bottom of a letter with one sole request that really finally made it seem like Christmas. Once again, the wisdom of a child rings the truest and the brightest and makes magic (and even mismatched careers) seem possible.