Rare Pinterest Success - fuzzy felt dollshouse!

Having not really got Pinterest to start with, I've started finding it really inspiring in terms of getting me crafting. I'm really enjoying the process of seeing something online and working out how to make it.

So, a few weeks ago, I saw this beautiful set of fuzzy felt dress up dolls:

http://theprudenthomemakerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/a-gift-day-day-nineteen-felt-paper.html

This led me to the originator of the idea:

http://charlaanne.typepad.com/charlaanne/2012/05/made-with-love.html

She had also made a felt dollshouse to make it into a takealong toy.

I'm not going to go through my method step by step, as Charla Anne sells the pattern for this toy on Etsy, and I don't want to undermine her earning opportunity. However, I decided to have a crack at working it out for myself. I don't think the end result is quite as sophisticated as the original, but I'm pretty pleased with it, given that I drew the patterns freehand and figured out the method myself!

Rachel is desperate to get her hands on this but we have just wrapped it up for her friend's birthday today, so I am going to have to make another. Oh well!

This is what it looks like:

Cute, don't you think? I may love it a bit too much!

Slightly makes up for my previous stuffed elephant Pinterest fail which has ears sewn just above its tail. Oops!

Review: Lake District Wildlife Park

We've just come home from a sunny March week in the Lake District. Renting a cottage in Keswick with friends, we've had as relaxing a time as can be had in a house with 3 small children. One of the highlights of the week was our visit to the Lake District Wildlife Park.

Located about 10 minutes drive outside Keswick, the park has a beautiful setting - as you might expect from the Lake District, every direction gives a view of hills and mountains. On a sunny day, it's pretty spectacular:

We went with four adults and 3 children under 3, and found the park to be well laid out, and easy to get round with a pushchair and two small sets of legs. There is a wide range of animals, which adults and children alike enjoyed looking at: everything from tapirs to lemurs to otters to birds of prey to meerkats...reptiles, owls, a cockatoo who said hello, many varieties of monkeys, a zebra and more. They were well kept, in sizeable enclosures and all seemed healthy and happy (in distinct contrast to the animals we saw in an Italian zoo a few years ago). We got a bit snap happy, and here are some of our favourite pics and animals:

2 week old piglets

 

Golden eagle

There are many more - I was really struck by the variety of the animals and species there. We were there on a quiet weekday in early March, and were impressed that there was a half-hourly programme of activities, including hug-a-bunny (taken very seriously by my 2 year old):

We also saw the feeding of the meerkats - I won't share the photos of this one, but we were somewhat surprised to discover that meerkats weren't vegetarian, and in fact ripped into a bucket of (already dead) chicks with some gusto! I was glad that our kids weren't quite old enough to understand what was going on - I'd imagine parents of older children would have a bit of explaining to do!

The falconry display was impressive too - we missed the owls display, but enjoyed seeing various birds including Rupert the vulture flown. We took a lot of photos of empty space (they moved really quickly!) but managed to capture a couple:

I was particularly impressed by the knowledgeable way all of the staff talked about their animals and the affection they seemed to have for them.

In the event of rain there is a small indoor soft play area, where my daughter unfortunately found her favourite animal of the park:

However, I could imagine this being hideously heaving with children on a cold weekend day so it probably wouldn't keep you entertained for long.

Overall, it's a really nice place. We spent most of the day there, including a picnic lunch outside, and I'd thoroughly recommend it for attention to detail (for example, a safari jeep to play in whilst watching the zebra), interesting activities, and a huge variety of animals to look at. It was pretty reasonably priced for us (£8.95 per adult) as we didn't yet have to pay for our children - that kicks in from the 3rd birthday, at which point it's also £6.95 per child or £30 for a family of four. I still think it would be worth the money, especially if it is a nice day, and if you make the effort to go to all of the displays. 

One for the to-do list if you find yourself near Keswick with a spare sunny day on your hands!

Note: this is not a sponsored post, we paid for our own entry and my review is spontaneous as we had a great day there (and I wanted to show off our photos!!).

How parenting a toddler prepares you for working in HR - or vice versa!

I've been musing recently on how much synergy there is between the skills required to operate effectively in HR, and those required to parent a toddler so, eventually, I had to write about it. I'm not suggesting that working in HR makes you a better parent, or that being a parent makes you a more effective HR professional, as such, but there is a definite crossover. For example:

Knowing the answer to everything: my toddler has an endearing faith that I know the answer to everything. Generally, I can come up with something. At work, it sometimes feel like this too. Sometimes, I have to fight the urge to explain how Google works instead of answering a question...(note: this does not work with toddlers).

Negotiation: once you've mastered negotiating a toddler out of bed, into clothes, through breakfast, into a coat, into the car, and into nursery, any negotiations that come your way during the working day (whether related to agencies, salaries, complex exit scenarios) are a piece of cake. Nothing is harder than that first hour of negotiations each day.

Coping with ambiguity: toddlers are not consistent. Learning to live with toddler-ambiguity (happily eating pasta, happily eating pasta, halfway through the plate, I HATE PASTA) is a fine preparation for flexing your approach to fit the strategy of the organisation, supporting business needs, and changing your approach halfway through a disciplinary investigation meeting when something entirely unexpected comes up.

Recognition: you can't expect a lot of thanks from a toddler. Similarly, HR is one of those functions that tends only to get noticed when things go wrong (or when you deliver spectacularly on a project, obviously). Good preparation for getting your motivation from other sources than external recognition!

And finally - the struggle for definition. Theories and opinions abound on the nature of parenting, how to do it, co-sleeping, babywearing, breastfeeding, attachment parenting, working, not working, leading to a potentially constant sense of having to defend your own approach and (at times!) very existence. HR seems to have a similar struggle for identity and worth. My approach on parenting has been to ignore the debates and go with my gut instinct. My approach in HR has been much the same...rather than worrying about whether I have a "seat at the table", I'd recommend getting on with doing a good job, taking the best-fit approach, demonstrating confidence and letting results lead to influence.

Add to these key skills the eagerness to do a full week's work in fewer hours to demonstrate that nothing has changed (and overlook a slight tendency to be way more forgetful due to lack of sleep), and why would you not want to employ a toddler's parent in HR?!

HR Dilemmas from Children's TV: The Fat Controller's management style

It's been a bit too long since my last post. I'm definitely not a prolific blogger - I prefer long gaps to blogging when not inspired just to keep the blog active! Tonight, whilst reading "Emily" from the Thomas and Friends series, for the third time during that meal, inspiration finally struck! I'm slightly cheating on my theme as this is linked to a book, but the same behaviours are displayed in the TV version.

For those unfamiliar with Thomas the Tank Engine (is that anyone?), Thomas and his friends all work on the railway on the Island of Sodor. Whilst they apparently have drivers, the only human who regularly appears is the Fat Controller, and it is his management style I want to examine today.

I would describe the Fat Controller as a "JFDI" manager - he expects instant obedience when he gives an order, and regards any attempt to reason with him as argument and therefore insubordination.

Behaviours that he will often exhibit are:
- Issuing orders without context or explanation
- Shouting at his engines if they attempt to ask questions or offer an alternate opinion
- Punish the engines for perceived misbehaviour without fully investigating the situation
- Being particularly angry when something happens that inconveniences him personally
- Expecting the engines to understand and deliver what he wants with limited explanation or training

Whilst this can lead to short term results, and the immediate task will get done, there are some mid- to long-term implications of this sort of management style:
- It teaches the engines to obey because they have to, not because they want to - thus, if they can get away with not obeying, they are likely to take the opportunity to do so. For true engagement, and enhanced productivity through discretionary effort, it would be better to use a more consultative style which leads to the engines performing well because they want to.
- New, Gen-Y, engines such as Emily expect to gain fulfilment, recognition and progression through work, and to have their opinions listened to. Engines are, in the main, no longer going to work in the expectation that it is ok to be treated like a homogeneous group - they are individuals, and want to be recognised as such. Failing to engage with this is likely to lead to disengagement, higher attrition, and potential damage to the employer brand, which may cause difficulty in recruiting. The JFDI style doesn't tend to fit well with the WIIFM generation.
- The tendency to punish without investigation could lead to unfair disciplinary action and, in an extreme, dismissals, which creates an obvious legal risk. More generally, though, unjust treatment has the potential to significantly damage the employment relationship - with an unfair manager, people may leave (regardless of how good the company is), or if they stay, unjust treatment tends to lead to poor morale, ongoing disgruntlement, and lower productivity.

In short, the Fat Controller's management style is at odds with the majority of current accepted theory on managing a productive, engaged workforce, and he would be advised to adjust his style. Whilst Thomas and Friends appear to be committed, and geographically static (i.e. low flight risks), this cannot be relied upon to continue; they may leave or (possibly worse) they may remain, in a disgruntled, disengaged state, where they work to rule and only perform when forced to!