The season’s spiraling activity has already begun, and the familiar tension from tight budgets and family ties may be inescapable. While homemakers are happy to look back to more traditional times for their holiday decorating ideas and holiday menus, they might want to check out another old fashioned tradition.

Epsom salt, actually magnesium sulfate, is a natural, time honored antidote for handling stress, whether it’s from sleigh rides to Grandma’s house or ten trips to the mall.

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According to the undergarment industry, 8 out of 10 women wear the wrong bra size. Some women start with the right size but gain or lost weight. Women may keep a favorite bra, not noticing that they, and the bra, have changed shape. Even good quality bras lose elasticity after time. Many women set their strap length once and don’t realize that the strap, or their bosom, may be slipping.

Too often, women simply adapt to the discomfort of a poor fitting bra, to the poking, chafing, pinching, rashes, sore necks, shoulder indentations and red marks. A good fitting bra affects not only appearance but physical well being, too.

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Not every breast cancer can be identified with a breast self exam, but a monthly self exam is one step women can take to protect themselves that is free, easy and convenient. It is one way to find a breast cancer early, when it’s most likely to be cured. It is cost effective health care that has been a life saver for thousands of women.

Many women initially feel uncomfortable with the procedure. But, each month, as a woman commits herself to the habit, and becomes more familiar with the routine and with her own breasts, it becomes more comfortable.

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Tall boots, platform pumps, spiked heels–fall footwear is elegant, elongated-and often painful. Even women with the most severe authority issues, don’t seem to object when fashion decrees exquisitely agonizing styles are the rule. Women and their shoes are just one of those gloriously inexplicable phenomena, like why the swallows return to Capistrano, how lightening bugs light their bottoms, and before cosmologists solved the puzzle, the Aurora Borealis.

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By Pat Lawrence

Gail Hutchinson always had clever fingers and an eye for color. Needlepoint and crocheting were customary pastimes, and painting was an important part of her life. But, on vacation in 1985, she visited Cherokee Village and “watched the Indian ladies weave. It was fascinating.” When she came home, she sat down with a friend who was making baskets. “I thought maybe I could support my painting habit by making a few baskets! I couldn’t even finish one that day.”

But, she didn’t give it up. “I bought instructions, and taught myself.” She took her first basket weaving class in 1990, but by then, she was already selling baskets and teaching the craft herself. She began showing her work at local arts and crafts shows, first at the Rhododendron on the Capital Complex grounds, then at Mountain State in Ripley and Jackson’s Mill. By 1994, she was designing her own patterns and by 1995, she was on the road, traveling across the Mid Atlantic and Eastern Coast, selling her basket designs, rather than baskets and teaching other basket weavers her techniques.

“I had attended a weaving conference, and took the opportunity to propose to teach at the following year’s conference. They accepted.” Gail began submitting proposals to teach at conferences all over. “You an choose which events you want to propose a class to. At first, I chose everything! In the beginning, I’d make about 300 baskets for a show. I’d make them in the kitchen and stack them in the living room from floor to ceiling-and we have a small house!”

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