Monday, February 24, 2014

on a more personal note...

I have been reading.

For those of you who know me well, I have never really been one to read for fun, so this has been a new concept for me to explore. Since I've been here (Friday will mark 8 months), I've read and finished 7 books, and I have 3 I'm reading now (though only one actively because it's so friggen good -I know I'm super behind on this, but I'm half-way through Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire). After I finish the series, I will be reading books sent to me by a lovely friend and mentor (the cuckoo's calling by Robert Galbraith - a.k.a. J.K. Rowling and Dear Life  by Alice Munro).

I have also been busy beading and sewing! Over Christmas I finished the beaded uppers/toppers for my moccasins, which I posted a picture of way back when.
Here is the progress:


I picked a patter for the moccasins that would require minimal stitching - just around the heel and the "crumpling" (as the sewing instructor called it) at the toes. I finished the actual body of the slippers in 2 hours.


Then I had to sew the upper on. To get the finished look around the edges, a thin strip of leather (this is moose hide) is placed between the leather and stroud (what the beads are sewn on to) before sewing. I hand-stitched this, but with a good machine you can do this.


I made the liners out of duffle (wool) using a pattern I found online, which seemed to work well and fit nicely!


And I added a beaver-fur ruff around them! I still plan to do a peyote-style beaded design to go around the back and ankle parts, but I will wait until I have time to do that!


I was also busy over the New Year making Laura's birthday present, which is uppers for her! She was expecting them without knowing the design, but I also surprised her by saying I would make the rest of the moccasin for her too (since she is so busy and also has several of her own sewing projects on the go right now). This is what she got: 


And today I scored a sweet deal at the shop across the street and got these beautiful suedes for only $60! I'll be busy sewing now! I think next up are the slippers for Grandpa's birthday and maybe some more to sell at the next bazaar! 


If anyone wants a pair, put your orders in now! 

7-10 Nights

It's been pointed out to me that I've been slacking in keeping everyone updated on what's going on with me these days.
So ok, here goes the update:

A few weeks ago I took a Supervisor's Safety Course run by the WSCC at which I learned a lot about how many safety regulations there are and how many I haven't been following as a supervisor/employer. Whoops! Our new policy and procedures manual will certainly be reflecting what I learned there. It was a 3 day course and really quite valuable. Scary, really, to think about how liable I am for all of the staff that I am supervising every day.

Work has been insanely busy and stressful and I am completely overwhelmed with all of the responsibilities associated with managing a barely functional daycare in the North. I have had a tremendous amount of difficulty with staff not showing up to work and constantly being understaffed and overworked. It has been a daily struggle to find casuals who are willing to come in or who aren't already working casually for any of the other programs in town. The daycare consistently has only half the staff showing up, making it next to impossible for me to get any administrative work done.
How much administration does a daycare possibly need? SO MUCH! Filling the role of the person who does the hiring/firing, staff discipline, etc.; the accountant (day-to-day accounting like purchase orders, invoices, etc., as well as payroll, paying bills, catching up on data entry), it's also year-end time...meaning T4s, funding applications, contribution agreement renegotiations and mega burn-out. I am totally the type of person to set expectations for myself that are way too high and that no one else has for me, but these are the things that I have to get done on a daily basis or everything will start to fall apart. For example, this morning on the way to work I realized I made a small mistake on all (42) of the T4s that I processed (my first time so cut me some slack) (and keep in mind that I have 5 staff at the daycare, so you can get an idea of the turnover in just 1 year), I also had to give half of my staff written warnings for AWOLs, send attendance reports to Cambridge Bay for funding, make invoices for parents and prepare a funding application that's due this Friday.

I am just hanging on to the ounce of hope that I have left that things will improve over the next couple of months once funding starts to pour in and we're able to maybe get some training for the staff. Keep your fingers crossed for me! I've been feeling so disheartened because things were going so well and I had staff showing up to work every day and it feels like now it is all falling apart again and I'm headed back to where we were when I first got here....just with a better paint job.

Anyway, I have been using my Aerogold Amex like mad so that I can have enough points to book my flights for May because I NEED a vacation. I'm thinking a Caribbean cruise of some sort for 7-10 nights.