Save Handmade Children's Products

I have been agonizing over this post for a very long time. I wasn't sure how to phrase my concerns and my thoughts, and, quite honestly, I still don't know what I'm going to say. I'm just going to throw some stuff out there and tell you how I feel.

CPSIA are five small letters that have me raving mad and frustrated these days. Of course, you all remember the recalls of last year. Millions of toys were recalled because they contained high levels of lead making them completely unsuitable for children to play with. The vast majority of these dangerous toys were made in China. As parents, we were peering anxiously at the bottoms of our children's toys matching code numbers with lists of recalled toys. In response to this, many parents chose to stop buying mass produced toys and sought out toys handmade by independent artists and crafters.

It was apparent that something needed to be done to protect our children from unsafe toys. So, our government passed the Consumer Protection Safety Improvement Act or CPSIA. The law goes into effect on February 10, 2009, and requires the makers of products for children, 12 and under, to have their items tested by a third party testing facility to insure that those items do not contain dangerous lead levels. Now, that sounds all well and good on the surface, but we all know that surface appearances can be very deceiving.

This law affects ALL makers of ALL products for children 12 and under. That means those handmade toys and dresses and other cuteness made by the stay-at-home mom in Michigan or the woodcarver in New York state who makes those fabulous wooden cars. Testing can run from a few hundred dollars to thousands of dollars per item! Let me assure you that most independent artists and crafters cannot afford that. Even if they could, that cost would certainly be passed on to the consumer. Can you imagine going to a craft show and not finding a single handmade item for your children? No toys, no clothes, nothing. And, keep in mind, it wasn't toys made by crafters in the United States, Canada and Europe that created the problem in the first place.

It gets worse. Ever shop at a second hand children's store? Buy books from a thrift store? Do you sell your kids' used clothes on Ebay? Technically, those items are all hazardous substances as of February 10.

What we have is a case of the government throwing out the baby with the bath water. And let's face it. Our economy is in the toilet at the moment. Families are already struggling. This law makes it even more difficult for them to find affordable quality products for their children. And, it even manages to take away part or all of the independent artist and crafter's income.

The stupidity of it all makes me want to bash my head against my keyboard everytime I think about it. I strongly encourage you to contact your state representatives and voice your concern about this law. Our hope is that they will make drastic changes to it before February 10.

Here is a fabulous pamphlet in a pdf format that you can print and distribute to anyone you know who may be concerned about this law. (And that should be everyone!) Send it to your entire email address list. Drop it off at the local children's boutiques. Wherever they'll let you!

A wonderful editorial in today's Wall Street Journal

And, if you're really brave, here' s the law itself!

Above all, I beg and implore you to go to change.org and vote to save handmade toys! This is so important!

As exciting as it sounds to open my own handmade toy speakeasy, it also sounds a bit exhausting. I'd much prefer to be able to sell and purchase handmade toys without the passwords, hand signals, trench coats and mechanisms to dump the goods when the toy police show up.

Welcome to a New Year at purse-onality

Long time, no blog, huh? I've been busy. Busy with family, Christmas, stuff... Okay, those are excuses. I'm just plain lazy. Which is also the reason my Christmas tree is still up which wouldn't be so bad, if Lil' Kay didn't insist on turning on the lights every evening...

We got Lil' Kay a great gift for Christmas this year. A medium sized hermit crab whom he named Pinchy. Because I find it entertaining to put the cart before the horse (the horse gets the most confused look on his face!), I bought the hermit crab, before I did any research on hermit crabs. Once I started looking into them, I discovered they are fascinating little buggers! And, I found out the pet store gave me all sorts of misinformation.

After visiting Hermit-crabs.com and The Hermit Crab Association and The Crabbage Patch, I discovered that Pinchy needed a bigger tank, more sand, different food and FRIENDS!!! I was totally hooked. As soon as Christmas was over, I went to work to give Pinchy a better home.

Now, I know some of you are looking at that picture and thinking, "Huh, looks like a shell." That's bascially what my Dad said the last time he visited. Let me assure you that hermit crabs are a hoot. They dig and climb and knock stuff over. They're really interesting to watch.

This may be Lil' Kay's pet, but it's my obsession. And, Pinchy has been joined by Godzilla who totally lived up to his name by kicking Pinchy out of the house and terrorizing the tank before he settled in. And, then there's Mothra who is tiny and immediately dug under the sand and hasn't been seen since. My hope is that she's molting. I've never even seen her. She was underground before I even got home the day Mr. Kay brought them home.

So, you see, I've been spending my non-blogging period educating myself about another species. Completely valuable.

Christmas Gift

I bought this super cute little monster patch from auntifranni last week! Lil' Kay is way into Godzilla, and I thought this would be a fun (and inexpensive) way to customize a pair of jeans for him. Over my lunch hour yesterday, I went out to the kids' clothing store and bought a pair of jeans specifically for this patch.

Now, I've never sewn on a patch, so I asked some of my dear Etsy friends how to do it without sewing the leg of the pants together. My sewing goddess friend goodkarma told me to rip open the seam, sew on the patch and then sew the seam back together. Obviously, she has much more faith in my sewing abilities than I do. Fortunately, since I decided to place it under the front pocket, it wasn't necessary to rip out any seams, however, thanks to goodkarma and SeamsVictorian's encouragement, I think I could have done it if I'd had to. (Thank God, I didn't have to!)

Anyhoo, I'm really excited about the way they turned out. I can't wait for Lil' Kay to open them on Christmas morning. Of course, I don't really expect him to appreciate them immediately. I mean, what kid wants clothes for Christmas, but I bet they'll become one of his favorite things to wear! He'll be the coolest kid in kindergarten...

Twilight

I know the movie has been out for several weeks already, but I've been meaning to write this blog entry for a while. Mr. Kay and I went and saw it on opening weekend. As we were standing in line waiting to go into the theater, I told him, "Hey! I think you're the only guy in this line!" That wasn't exactly true. There were other men, but not many.



Having read all four books and totally loving them, I was prepared to be very disappointed in the movie. There is just no way that an hour and a half movie can even begin to develop the characters and emotional attachment that a book can. (Yes, I'm an English major and avid book reader, so I might be biased, but you know I'm right about this!) I'm pretty realistic when it comes to movie adaptations of books. I understand that they can't fit everything in, but there are some movie/book things that you want just right. When the first cast photos started to come out (months ago!) I was even more nervous. I was not thrilled with the way Edward looked.



However, once the movie started, I was totally hooked. Didn't look at my watch even once! Amazing, since I'm not really a huge movie goer. Without a doubt, there were some parts that made me groan, because "that's not how it happened in the book", but overall, it wasn't too bad. I really missed the character development of the other Cullens. Hopefully, that will play out more in the future moveies. And, let me tell you, there are some lines that read in your head much better than they sound out loud!



The casting, actually, was just about perfect! Robert Pattinson as Edward is definitely sexy, although sometimes he was wearing a bit too much lipstick and his hair was bigger than his head. Bella is dead-on. Couldn't have been any better. I adored Carlisle. I really wondered how his character would play on the big screen. This is a guy who is hundreds of years old, but looks like he's in his 20s, and he's a doctor! He was perfect. The bad guy vampires were awesome! Totally menacing and scary and sexy. The only character I had a problem with was Jasper, and it wasn't so much the actor as it was the fact that he walked around all the time with a weird Edward Scissorhands look on his face.



So, that's my take on the movie. I really liked it and will definitely be in line to see the next installment next November.



For months, I've been eyeballing all the very cool Twilight inspired items that have been popping up on Etsy. The quote bracelets from JackandElla are one of my most favorites, but I don't know how I'd even begin to choose a favorite quote! The book covers from this series have become so iconic, and love the way Eastweststudios has incorporated them into scrabble tile pendants! Simplybitten has lots of cool quote type items including window decals. And, I am very enamored with these resin "Be Safe" pendants from bethtastic! They're nice and subtle and so pretty!

So, if you haven't yet, read the books, go see the movie and buy cool Twilight stuff on Etsy!

SNOW, SNOW, SNOW!!

Look what we woke up to this morning! (Well, not the shoveled walk. Mr. Kay had to do that!) Lots and lots of snow!! And, it's still coming down this afternoon. (Okay, it's not as much as they're having up north, but still...) Personally, I love snow! I love it in December and January and February. Then it needs to stop.

It's terribly cold here in Kansas though, so there's not much chance that we'll be out playing in it, although I'm sure Lil' Kay will be begging to this evening. It's just a pretty snow with fluffy flakes.

Over my lunch hour today, I had to venture out to the post office and WalMart. Wasn't looking forward to it, but once I got out there, it was kind of fun to go tromping through the snow and have those light snowflakes tickle my face! And, there is nothing better than the sight of a completely unmarred blanket of snow across a yard or vacant lot, just waiting for someone to run across it and make a snowman or snow angel.

Yep, even though some of you will think I'm crazy, I love winter! I hate being too hot. I always say, "You can put on more clothes, but you can only take off so many."

Can't wait to get home from work tonight and snuggle up in my jeans and a fuzzy sweatshirt, finish up some sewing projects and maybe, wrap a few more presents.

Come on people! It's almost Christmas and it's SNOWING!!!

Over my head

Sometimes I agree to do things and then wonder, "What was I thinking?" I happily volunteered to make the poodle skirts we need for a particular scene in our church's Christmas program. I took the pattern and bought another one in the additional sizes I needed. I measured the girls. Then I read the pattern. Zippers?? Oh my word. My experience with zippers is minimal. I thought we'd be doing elastic here, people! My original plan was to buy inexpensive cotton fabric to make the skirts. Then I read the pattern. It was designed to be used with 72" felt. I'm no math major, but I do know that 72" fabric is NOT the same as 45" fabric. So, I set off to Hobby Lobby praying they would have felt by the bolt! My worry was for naught. They had lots of bolts of felt. I'd just never noticed, because I'd never needed any!



The skirts actually turned out all right. I fairly competently installed the zippers. The waistbands were a big pain, and I'm not totally happy with how some of them ended up, but, heck, they're only costumes! The poodles I used are iron-on appliques. Unfortunately, Hobby Lobby only had three poodles, and I needed four. So, one of the skirts isn't quite finished. That's okay. My sister is on alert to watch for one, and we will be at other shops this weekend. Shoot, the programs not until Sunday night. I've got loads of time!

My Tree Philosophy

We started putting up our Christmas tree on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I finally finished putting the ornaments on this past weekend. I kept running into projects that had to be done! Our Christmas tree is one of my very favorite things. If I could only put up one thing for Christmas, it would definitely be my tree.

I don't believe in theme trees. Okay, okay, they're fine for other people and for "extra" trees, but my main tree is not and never will be a theme tree. Instead, my tree is a mad mass of ornaments made of a variety of materials with a variety of subject matter collected over the past 32 years. Some of them are downright ugly, but they each have a place on my tree.

My mom started a tradition with my siblings and me. Each year she bought us a special ornament for the tree. Each of those ornaments went into our own box, along with the various other ornaments we made or received. The idea was that when we left the house, we would take our ornaments with us and be able to decorate our own tree.

It's a fabulous tradition. My nine-foot tall artificial tree is covered in ornaments and each one is special. I love to look at them again each year. And let me tell you, it's not always the prettiest or most expensive ornament that brings back the most meaningful memory. There are a couple of very inexpensive, even cheap, ornaments on that tree that remind me that even when money was tight, my parents always did their best to make Christmas exciting and special.

I've continued the tradition with Lil' Kay. This year's ornament was an octopus. Lil' Kay is very into sharks, sea life and dinosaurs. We picked it out on Etsy, and it is an amazing ornament! I've tried to get him ornaments that match whatever his latest passion is. He has dolphin, Bob the Builder, dinosaur and airplane ornaments. Plus, I've saved the ornaments he made in daycare the last couple of years and the plastic ones he's painted at home. They are such a great way to see how he has progressed in his artistic abilities.

The other thing I accomplished this weekend, decoration-wise, was to get out my snowman collection. (It's not as big as I remembered...) There are also a few Santas and a moose mixed in, but you get the idea. I love find snowmen made out of different materials and in different poses. The little guy on the bottom left of the photo is one of my favorites, because it looks like he's walking down the street! I also adore the one on the left side of the red box. He has his arms wrapped around himself trying to stay warm! And, yes, that is a picture of a great white shark. Lil' Kay was "helping" with the decorating...