GETRUNTAH

New Year New Home!

Hello Lovelies!

Well, weve finally done it!  A new site, a new blog, all waiting for your feedback :))

And to celebrate, were giving away an Online Consultation - woohoo! Details are on the post...

Please come by and tell us what you think - hope you like it!

xo Anne-Marie and the Team

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New Year New Resolutions

Soooo, Happy New Year, everyone!

For me, resolutions making is a huge new year must, not only it keeps my hopes and spirit high up in the cloud, but also the beauty of not sticking to most some of the resolutions remind me of how flaw of a human I am. (Anyway "the unresolved" usually sit on the same bench with "regrets" and "only-ifs"). Personally, resolutions, whether you stick to it or not, is such a marvelous, new year tradition, dont you think?


I dont know about you but this year, one of my list includes MAKE A babalismes PAPER DOLL APP!! Yes, yes, yes!! You have read it right! I have been giving lots and lots of free printables here on my babalisme blog for the past 5 years, and one of the most coveted by readers is the paper dolls printable! I was so extremely thrilled to make personalized paper dolls, of boys, and girls, and families, I have lots of paper dolls orders last year! But it really made me sad to turn down an order because I cant fulfill them all at once. I came to a (crazy) solution last year, why not make an app out of it, that you can personalize yourself, and also print it on your own! Even share your creation on social media! I once conducted a small survey on how much you guys would be willing to donate for my free paper doll printables, and mostly answered US$2 for a set of paper doll. Just imagine, for maybe US$0.99 or even free you can get unlimited set of paper dolls!

And heres where I need your help so together we can make the app happens, please tell me more about your ideal childrens app, I want this app to be fully consumer driven, please fill in this survey to let me know about your thoughts. I cant offer much, but for every one of you who completed the survey, your name would be put on the apps free download list ;). You gotta be the first testers! So here goes, my first online survey, please please please share me your thoughts! Lets make one of my resolution  came true!

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New UC Salary Data 2010 was a Good Year for Higher Earners

New UC salary data is now available at Jeffrey Bergamini’s compensation database, and it reveals that in 2010, there were 4,237 UC employees making more than $200,000 for a total gross pay of $1.26 billion and a base pay of $744 million. This means that for the over 200k club, more than 40% of their pay came from extra pay; moreover, the over $200,000 earners raked in 12% of the gross pay for the whole system ($9.3 billion), while they represented under 3% of the regular employees and less than 1% of the total number of employees (including student workers).

If we compare 2010 to 2008 and 2006, we find that in 2006, there were 2,464 employees making over $200K with a total gross pay of $680 million, while in 2008, there were 3,643 high earners with a total gross salary of $1 billion. In other words, during the UC’s “fiscal crisis,” we have seen a continual increase of employees entering into the over-200K club.

To further investigate who makes up this class of high earners, we can break down these employees into six major categories: administrators, medical faculty, athletic coaches, business school professors, academic professors (excluding business and law professors), and law professors. These six categories accounted for over 95% of the revenue of the over $200,000 club in 2010.

Starting with the medical faculty, we find that in 2010, there were 2,772 medical faculty making over $200,000 for a total gross pay of $867.4 million. This means that in the period of 2008 to 2010, the medical faculty in the over 200k range increased their numbers by 476, while their total gross pay went up $187.4 million. It is clear that the medical centers are an economic powerhouse that drive inequality in the UC system.

The second biggest group in the over-200k club is the administrators. In 2010, we find 351 bureaucrats making a total of $102 million, while in 2008, there were 397 administrators in the over 200k club making a total of $109 million. In other words, due to the downsizing of the Office of the President, there are now fewer administrators in the over-$200,000 club, but their average pay is higher.

The next biggest group of high earners are the academic professors outside of law, medicine, and business. In 2010, there were 397 professors making over $200,000 for a collective gross pay of $93 million. If we compare these figures to 20008, we discover that this group has been reduced by 18 people, and their collective pay has gone down by $3.6 million.

In the case of the business school faculty, in 2008, there were 372 faculty making more than $200,000 for a collective gross pay of $93 million, while in 2010, 439 high-earning professors had a collective gross pay of $115 million. This statistics show that while the number of general campus, high-earning professors has been decreased, the medical and business professors making over $200,000 has continued to increase.

In the case of law professors, we find that in 2008, there were 85 making over $200,000 for a collective pay of $21 million, and in 2010, this same group consisted of 96 professors making a collective gross pay of $25 million. So we once again, we see a trend of increasing the number of high-earning professors in the professional schools, while the nonprofessional school professors are reduced.

The final group is the athletic coaches; in 2008, there were 24 coaches making over $2000,000 for a collective payout of $12.8 million, and in 2010, this same group has 35 employees at a collective gross pay of $16 million. In other words, the athletic departments continue to do well in bad times.

These statistics show that as the university continues to rely increasingly on undergraduate tuition to fund the system, more of the pay is going to people working outside of undergraduate education. Moreover, since the UC is the third biggest employer in California, we can see how the wage disparities in the UC system contribute to the growing wage inequality in the state.

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New Year New Thoughts My Word of the Year

Tis the season for fresh starts, resolutions and thoughts about the year going forward, isnt it? Ive got a few things to share today that have been rolling around in my head and heart: some blogging-related, some project-related and some house-related. Its a bit of a mish mash, but Ill try to be concise :).

Over the past year, Ive been feeling especially frazzled and frenzied when it comes to writing this blog. I wouldnt exactly call it stress, but it has made this whole thing less enjoyable that Id like it to be. There have been times this year when Ive felt totally uninspired while feeling pressured to publish/produce content, and even thought about giving the whole thing up. I was feeling that way when we were living in DC (we left in May, for those of who are new around here), but I thought it was due to the fact that I had run out of projects to do in our itty bitty apartment and that we would be homeless for three months over the summer (not literally, but we were living in other peoples houses and therefore no real projects/decorating/DIYing could happen), but the feelings continued when we got to Philly even when I had a whole.new.house to decorate.

Obviously, something else was going on.

When I took some time to reflect on why I was feeling that way, I realized a couple of things:

• The year I started worrying more about page views, creating "Pinterest-worthy" content and how I would monetize the blog than enjoying it for the reasons I started the blog in the first place - as a creative outlet.
• Posting felt more like a grind than anything else, which sapped my energy and sucked the fun out of writing and making things. I often wondered if what I was doing was a waste of time.
• I wasnt getting as much feedback from readers as I wouldve liked. Its hard to keep something like this up when you feel like youre speaking to an empty room. Im not speaking to an empty room based on the page views I have, but when all I hear are crickets after hitting the publish button, that can make me a little sad. 

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New Year New Sleeve

In case you havent noticed, the holidays are over.

Signs are everywhere. This morning, Dolores took down the Christmas tree. To be perfectly accurate I should say that she took out the Christmas tree when she landed on it at 4 a.m.; but in our house it amounts to the same thing.

The cookies are all gone. So are the pies. Mrs. Teitelbaum has put her menorah back on the top shelf and flown to Fort Lauderdale to wait out the winter with her great-nephew Maurice the Florist. And instead of my inbox filling with junk messages that say LAST CHANCE PRE-HOLIDAY SALE!!! my inbox is now full of junk messages that say LAST CHANCE HOLIDAY CLEARANCE SALE!!!

In America, your last chance is never really your last chance. Thats one of the things that makes this country great.

Meanwhile, Im able to knit for myself again. The lopapeysa (remember the lopapeysa?) grew another sleeve.



You may recall that I decided to just follow the pattern for this one, aside from changing everything about it. That meant coming up with a new chart for the colorwork about the cuff. Not a tall order, as the yoke contains elements that are easy to echo in a smaller circumference.

After the colorwork passage, I knew I wanted purple cuffs. I plan to wear this while teaching, and my flailing wrists + purple cuffs should = wide-awake students.

Notice, though, that there are no needles in the cuff; nor has it been bound off. Thats because the photograph was made right before I ripped back the entire sleeve.

Lesson learned:


That little voice in my head kept telling me it was fine, because I like a "snug fit." But this was not a "snug fit," this was cutting off the circulation to my fingers. Granted, the typical baggy generosity of an unshaped lopapeysa doesnt do a fireplug body like mine any favors–some shaping is a must. But lopi should never be expected to stretch like the Lycra in Kim Kardashians Sunday drawers.

Learn Along with Franklin: Part I

In keeping with the theme of learning new things in the new year, Ive decided it might be interesting and useful to share some of the lessons to found in my collection of antique and vintage childrens books. This will be an occasional series–Ill post whenever I run across a particularly sparkly gem of wisdom.

For today, we have a word about multiculturalism/architecture from Health and Safety Series: Everyday Living by Brownell, Ireland, and Giles, published in 1935. This is from "Unit Five: The House You Live In."



Better you should live in a casino.

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New Year New Season Same Old WTF

Dear Bloomsbury,

I dont understand you. Considering the quality of your fiction and the covers on your books, I have to guess you have great editors and great designers.

You certainly have great authors. So why do you keep doing this to them?

The main character of this book is described as far-eastern, and dark skinned. She is a "trouser girl" in this alternate Victorian England. Reading the book, I assumed that was a reference to traditional Thai styles of dress.

Heres the cover.
Bloomsbury, something is wrong in your house. Something that makes you think your Caucasian readers (and no argument, theyre the majority) wouldnt be interested in reading about anyone of another color. And something that makes you feel its ok to make your minority readers feel marginalized; to make them feel that whatever they look like, they ought to be white.

Now, I realize that very likely this cover may have been finished and paid for (and a good cover shoot costs a LOT, I sympathize) even before the Liar kerfuffle. Which would mean that it was before you had that shining opportunity to learn something. Which would also mean that you had more than 6 months to fix this.

This writer is talented, and shes innocent. But I dont know how to support her without also supporting you, Bloomsbury. As writers become more aware and wary of you, though, they are going to start realizing that as talented as you are, youre quite a long way from innocent.

Editorial Anonymous

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New Year New Year

Whats your last year resolution that has been realized?

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