Today is the Autumnal Equinox

Source:  gallery.yopriceville.com

Equinox:  the time when the sun crosses the plane of the earth's equator, making night and day of approximately equal length all over the earth and occurring about September 22 (dictionary.com).  Doesn't get much closer than this in Flagstaff! 

Sunrise 6:14AM    Sunset 6:20PM 

 

Signs of Autumn at Our House

There are increasing patches of fall color.

New Mexico Locust is just starting to turn,

 

as is Meadow Rue

and this glorious but unnamed bush.

Red is showing on the Sumac

and the Rose Hips.

Seed heads are taking over blooms,

except for Holly Hocks, which are showing one last effort.

 This funny fellow appeared in the yard. 

 The gold fish have come inside from the pond.

 

The wood has been cut, split, stacked and dried,

just in time for the first fire in the wood stove today

 

 

 because Hurricane Lorena remnants brought us rain and very cool temperatures.  First snow is reported on the San Francisco Peaks! 

"How beautifully leaves grow old!  How full of light and color are their last days!"

-------John Burroughs

Elementary Craftiness

I'm not embarrassed to say it out loud:  I'm not crafty.  People in my family, by both blood and marriage, are crafty/artistic in various ways.  I didn't get the gene.  But that doesn't keep me from having ideas that involve craftiness.  And doesn't YouTube make any craft project look do-able, even for uncrafty people like me? 

So I'll get an idea, research it on YouTube, purchase the necessary components (usually minimal, thank goodness!  I know myself well!), then.....put it all away for another day, because I'M NOT CRAFTY! 

This particular project has been put away for going on two years.   I go through my clothing seasonally a couple times a year.  Last year I focused on running wear.  I'm trying to simplify, and had gotten rid of some colored running shorts and purchased all black to make complementary tops easier to find.   For summer, I wear old (some even ancient) t-shirts that I've cropped both length and sleeves to make them sleeveless.  However, there's transition time in both spring and fall where I don't want to be either sleeveless or fully sleeved.  Yep, that would leave short-sleeved. Being thrifty in certain ways, I had purchased a packet of four men's white short-sleeved tees for that purpose.  They satisfied.  For awhile.  Then I got to thinking they were too boring, and perhaps there was a way to embellish them.  Uh-oh.  Crafty.

I did quite a bit of looking, both on-line and in crafty stores.  I finally settled on something as simple as it gets:  iron-on transfers.  Well, simple in the old days, when you bought iron-on commercially produced pictures or letters and ironed them on.  Not so simple now.  These days, one purchases blank transfer paper, makes or discovers the image they want on the computer, prints it onto the transfer paper using their own printer and their own ink, then irons them on.  I purchased the transfer paper, promptly lost my crafty mojo and put everything away. 

Some time recently became available, and I decided the opportunity was ripe to either do this project or decide not to do it and dispose of the evidence.  I chose to go ahead and try it. I'd already made the (minimal) money investment; the time was free. 

Here those plain white t-shirts, calling for something of interest to happen to them.

Instructions that involved a learning curve: 

• Among the materials listed is:  "New T-shirt.  Do not wash or clean garment in any way prior to applying the transfer."   Uh-oh.  These t-shirts have been worn, sweated in, stained a bit around the neck with sunscreen, washed and dried.  Well, it will either work or it won't.  
• "Design your image on the computer using your own photos, graphics and/or text." Over time, I had found plenty of designs and saying on-line that I liked, and had copied them into a file.  Easy-peasy, I thought, until I read the next instruction.
• " 'Mirror image' before you print.  This may also be referred to as "Flip/horizontal" in your computer's program's tools."  Just like that, I was out of gas.  Nothing obvious in my computer's program's tools.  I Googled it, which, like YouTube, can answer just about any question.  I went through the several steps as described, but found when I used images copied from the internet, a gray background came with them.  This was a problem Google couldn't solve, and it eliminated all but one of images I'd found and liked.
• Since three of the designs I liked were sayings rather than pictures, I decided I could still use the sayings, but "design" my own images using the various scripts and font sizes available in Word.  Sure enough, there are plenty of fun scripts in Word!  I tried several out and decided on three.  When it came to font size though, the maximum size readily available wasn't quite big enough.  Clicking around the area randomly, I came across a separate button that increases the font size ad infinitum! Who knew?  I chose sizes I liked.
• I then successfully "mirror imaged" the three designs with letters.  The fourth design, copied from the internet, worked without being mirror imaged, eliminating the gray background problem.

 Here are the four designs, successfully mirror-imaged and printed!

They did print with those gray lines you see, so I had to cut those out and apply each word separately.  That worked out for the best for layout.  Cutting, layout and iron-on were all straight forward.  Results?  Oh, am I feeling crafty!

It's A Holiday!

Source:  Pixabay.com

Labor, Defined

 

Noun:  expenditure of mental or physical effort especially when difficult or compulsory; human activity that provides the goods and services of an economy; an act or process requiring labor; a product of labor; an economic group comprising those who do manual labor or work for wages.
 
Verb:  to exert one's powers of body or mind especially with painful or strenuous effort; to move with great effort; to be in the labor of giving birth; to suffer from some disadvantage or distress.

 (www.merriam-webster.com)

What is Labor Day

"Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers.  It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country"  (www.dol.gov).  

Why Labor Day Was Established

Labor Day was established in 1894 in response to horrific working conditions engendered by the Industrial Revolution.  Labor legislation has been a work in progress since 1636, and continues today.  In the news currently (a short list) are minimum wage, sexual harassment, and impacts of immigration and tariffs.   

Interesting Facts About 3 Notable Labor Groups

Blacks:  Slavery was abolished in 1865.  Unemployment of Blacks is 6.1% (www.bls.gov), ~double that of the national unemployment rate of 3.7% (www.ncsl.org). 

Children:  Laws protecting children were proposed, passed, and struck down starting in 1916.  In 1938 the Fair Labor Standards Act was passed and upheld, and protected children from many types of labor.  Except agriculture.  Today, hundreds of thousands of children work in agriculture, which is considered the second most dangerous occupation in the US. (www.wikipedia.org).  

Women:  Depending on the source, the gender pay gap is still 78%-94%.  (www.wikipedia.org).  

19 Synonyms For Labor

Activity, job, daily grind, effort, industry, grunt work, accomplish, achieve, take steps, go for broke, do one's thing, undertaking, carry on, stew over, go for broke, take steps, struggle, sweat, achieve. (www.thesaurus.com) 

9 People Who Labor On Labor Day

Police and other emergency dispatchers

Police and other emergency responders

Hospital workers

Retail workers

Restaurant workers

Air traffic controllers

Nuclear power reactor operators

Forest Service workers

Hotel workers

 5 Labor Day Quotes

"Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration.  The rest of us just get up and go to work." -  Stephen King

"Rest when you're weary.  Refresh and renew yourself, your body, your mind, your spirit.  Then get back to work." -  Ralph Marston

"I learned the value of hard work by working hard." -  Margaret Mead

The big secret in life is that there is no big secret.  Whatever your goal, you can get there if you're willing to work." - Oprah Winfrey

"Labor Day means grilling outside!" -  Katie Lee