CPSIA and how it will affect YOU, the consumer

If you read my blog chances are you also read other craft-related blogs out there and are probably sick of seeing the acronym CPSIA all over the web. I hope you don't turn away when you see the title of this post because you think this is some sort of industry-related stuff that does not pertain to you, the consumer, the buyer. Just give me a couple of minutes to explain how this law will also affect you, if it indeed goes into effect on February 10th, 2009.

If you think the internet is saturated with CPSIA rants that is because February 10th is right around the corner and people are finally starting to realize that it's too close for comfort.

Here are a few questions I'd like to ask you:

• Have you purchased handmade, or "boutique," clothes or accessories for your kids in the past?
• Have you ever gone into your local family-owned toy shop in search of unique toys for your children? Something perhaps you can't find at Walmart or Toys R Us?
• Have you ever received a handmade quilt, baby blanket or pillow for your child?
• Have you ever purchased anything for your child at a local arts & craft fair? or at your school? or at your church?
• Have you ever commissioned a special piece of furniture (crib, rocking chair, high chair, doll house) from a local artisan?
  
• Have you purchased anything on Etsy, and I mean anything (jewelry, shoes, toys, clothes, hairbows, bibs, burp cloths, blankets, booties, books) for your kids in the past?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, then this law will affect you too. (But even if you prefer to buy from large toy & clothing manufacturers, this law will still affect you... read on.) As a little background, the CPSIA stands for Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, and it was written after high levels of lead were found in toys and other children products manufactured in China. I'm sure most of you remember that mess a few months ago! Well, we are all in favor of protecting our children from dangerous substances, that is not the issue here. The issue is that the way this law is written the only items on the shelves that will be available for children will be coming from these large manufacturers that created the problem in the first place, because they are the only ones who will be able to afford the very costly third-party testing for lead and phthalates as mandated by this law.

And just to clarify, we are not asking for this law to be obliterated. We all care about the safety of our children. We are just asking for it to be amended to protect innocent small businesses across America which mostly started as a result of wanting to give parents and children a safer alternative to mass-produced toys & clothes.

What does this mean for our economy? If this law goes into effect, hundreds of thousands of indie designers, seamstresses & crafters will have to cease producing their adorable handmade goods because they won't be able to afford the cost of testing and certification (and if you're wondering just how costly these tests are, check out this comprehensive article written by Happy Panda. She has done extensive research on this matter!). It also means that hundreds of thousands of children's boutiques, indie bookstores and privately-owned toy stores across the nation will have to close their doors because their vendors will be gone and they won't be able to afford testing of their own. No wonder they are calling February 10th, 2009 "National Bankruptcy Day"!

And what does this mean for you, the consumer? It pretty much means that if this law goes into effect, you will no longer be able to buy gorgeous handmade clothes, shoes or accessories for your children. It also means that you will not find small-run, handmade, unique toys at your local privately-owned toy store and you will probably never see children's products sold a Craft Fairs across the country again. But if you do happen to see any of these products available after February 10th, they will now bear overinflated prices because their makers will have to add on the cost of testing and certification. Be prepared to pay $800 - $1000 for a custom boutique outfit that used to only cost $100 - $200. And speaking of over-inflated prices, you will see these on mass-produced children's items from large manufacturers too as these companies will incur the high costs of testing as well.

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Just as I was writing this post, I came across this article (via Boutique Cafe) that states that "[CPSC Spokesperson, Patti Davis] said hand-made, one-of-a-kind items likely will be exempt, which would allow small-time crafters and seamstresses of children’s products to continue making and selling original products.” This is a promising assertion, but unfortunately is not an official ruling at this point (note the use of the word "likely"). I hope we can make it official.

So, what can you do to help? There are several ways you can make your opinion be heard:

• Sign this petition to repeal the CPSIA
• Vote for this idea on Change.org to be presented to President Elect Obama on inauguration day
• If you feel so inclined, contact your Senator and Congressman/woman regarding this issue
• Spread the word! The more people that are aware of this the better.

Thanks for staying with me through this long and grueling post. I can't stress enough how important this issue is. If I find out any updates I will post them here.

P.S. I do want to add that because this law was so poorly written, it has been interpreted differently by just about everyone out there. I was just chatting today with some business owners that I have gotten to know well over the years and everyone seems to have a different opinion as to whether this law will affect them or not, and also whether the law is retroactive. If anything comes out of all this publicity, I will hope at least it will force the law-makers to take a closer look at how the law is written and make any necessary exemptions and clarifications before it is too late.

**Getting off my soap box now**

Under the tree...

I won't lie to you and claim that I only gave and received handmade gifts, 'cause my nose would grow like Pinocchio's. With items like Wii and Nintendo DS games on some people's lists, it's nearly impossible to stick to a purely Handmade Pledge. But I did do a heck of a lot more sewing this year than any prior year, so I'm pretty proud of myself (and exhausted!) Here are just a few things that appeared under the Christmas tree...

I made Andalucia kitchen sets for each family. I embellished some pre-purchased towels with my 1.5" wide ribbon and then added either a pot holder or an oven mitt to each set.

My mom & dad got the Mod Blooms Fire set and my sister, Caty and hubby, Jason, got the Birdie Damask set:







My brother-in-law, Sean and wife, Alicia, got the Mod Blooms Earth set:



And my father-in-law, Jim, got the Moorish Tile set. I made him a pot holder instead of an oven mitt (cause I was told guys like pot holders better... something about big hands...)



I made an appliqued name pillow for my niece, Asja. Her room in FL is decorated in an "Under The Sea" theme -- lots of blues, greens & aquas with a touch of Nemo. So this should fit right in:



I made another appliqued name pillow for Sophie. Her room is pink, pink, pink with a Princess theme:



And since Sydney already has a name pillow, I made her a giraffe stuffie based on a pattern from Melly & Me (I met these ladies at Quilt Market this past October and they were such a delight! I couldn't wait to actually make up one of their cutie creatures!)



I just adore how she turned out! I used Tiny Dots Petal for her main body and Tiny Dots Earth for her hoofs and horns.



My dad received a handmade leather-bound sketchbook I purchased on Etsy from this seller. What great customer service -- he shipped it out the same day! Then I went to Heather's parents shop to get a plaque with his last name put on the front flap. Papi loved it!!!



Even Jon got bit by the handmade bug this year and decided at the last minute to make a Beer Turkey! Yep, you read it correctly. His friend, Todd, pointed him to this recipe using Hennepin beer and a few spices that I was not too keen on... especially the rosemary! I don't know about you, but I cannot stand the smell or taste of rosemary, so I was a tad nervous about this. But, to my utter surprise, the turkey turned out AMAZING! I could not taste the rosemary at all and it was so juicy and tasty I had seconds & thirds... and so did everyone else!



Christmas was great! And the best part of all, as usual, was watching the kids as they opened their gifts, jumping around so much I could barely get a good picture! What a blessing that is!



Sophie was beside herself with her new princess pillow... "A perfect match!" she said.



But by far my most favorite memory of this day was watching Sydney running around the house while clutching her new giraffe -- which she quickly named Pinkie -- and screaming "This is the best gift EVER!!!" WOW, that in itself made all the sleepless nights, back pains and headaches from the past couple of weeks totally worth it.



I'm happy to report that my family stuck to my wishes for a handmade Christmas too. I set up a Wishpot list a couple of weeks before Christmas and it contained lots of items I had *hearted* on Etsy, like handmade jewelry and knitted goodies, which are now in my possession... YAY! I even got a gorgeous handmade necklace from my dear friend, Daria, which brought me tears of joy. I'll share all these soon! :)

Oh, and I can't end this post without mentioning a little surprise I received in the mail a couple of days before Christmas. This Andalucia camera strap and fabric-covered journal came from Gabi at My Funky Camera. I have to say, my camera and I are feeling mighty spoiled these days. Thanks, Gabi!



Hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas! off to veg out some more...

Three handcrafted gift ideas

As promised, here are a few ideas you can do quickly at home without a lot of effort or skill needed. And if, like me, you are feeling like you're cheating on your Handmade Pledge, these ideas oughta get you back on track...

1. Peppermint Bark
(Oh, lovely, delicious, tempting peppermint bark)



All you need is:

• 1 package of white or dark chocolate morsels
• About 6 - 8 candy canes or a handful of those cute round peppermint candies (I know you are all in deep admiration of my technical lingo here, but try to contain the applause until the end)
• Peppermint Extract

Here's how you make it:

• Cover a cookie sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper.
• Put all your candy canes or peppermint rounds inside a heavy duty zip-lock bag (the freezer bags are great for this). Then take it to the garage and pound on it lightly with a hammer until all candy pieces are smashed down to dime size or smaller.
• Melt your chocolate morsels according to the directions on the package. Since I don't own a double boiler, I opted for the microwave method and it worked just fine. Just remember that the white chocolate is a bit more stubborn than the dark. It starts to harden a lot quicker than the dark chocolate, so you have to work twice as fast!
  NOTE: It just occurred to me today that not all packages of morsels have melting instructions on the back (I usually buy Ghirardelli, which does, but the Hershey brand doesn't) so if you need to know how to melt them in the microwave, a good rule of thumb would be to start slowly... like 30 seconds on medium power, then take it out and stir it . If the chocolate is not melted completely then microwave again in 15 second increments until it's completely melted. :)
• After your chocolate morsels are melted, add 1 teaspoon of peppermint extract and stir quickly. Immediately, pour mixture down on your cookie sheet making sure it is spread evenly.
• Drop peppermint candy pieces down on your chocolate mixture until it is covered evenly. You can even push some down with a spatula or a fork.
• Cool in fridge for at least 10 minutes (I always cool mine for about 1/2 hr.) Break into odd sized pieces and enjoy!

P.S. You can do the double layer kind too, with dark and white chocolate. I opted against it because my family members are pretty divided on what kind of chocolate they like. Jon won't touch white chocolate with a 10-foot pole, and I prefer it to the dark!

This is an excellent gift idea! Just prepare colored tins with a layer of parchment paper and fill with your homemade bark. Tie the whole thing with a bow and add a handmade gift tag... just like the ones below.

2. Handmade Gift Tags



If you're like me and have kept all your old Christmas cards from years past, this is an excellent craft to do quickly one afternoon and even get the kids involved.

• Just buy a round paper punch at any craft supply store, 1.5" - 2" diameter works great!
• Punch out your old cards. No need to center the design... the wackier the better. I used some of my ModGreetings overages for this project.
• Then using a hole punch, punch out a hole near one end of your circle (about 1/8" from edge),tie a piece of ribbon or jute through it and VOILA!

By the way, I am loving the look of brown craft paper with natural jute for my presents this year. It has such an earthy, organic feel, dontcha think? Add to this my recycled gift tags and I'm feeling pretty good about my pledge. ;)



3. Framed photos



I must say that a framed photo is about the easiest, cheapest gift you could ever make that will be received well by all. Well, that is, if you follow these simple rules:

1. Grandparents LOVE pictures of the grandkids, so knock yourself out.
2. If the framed photo happens to be a gift for a more distant relative or a friend, you'd better make it a picture of themselves or their kids (chances are they won't be putting a picture of you on their wall... just saying!)

Photos don't have to be professionally shot to make a good impression. A candid photo or fun snapshot can make a great gift if presented creatively! You could even use a cool picture shot at a park or playground. Get yourself some premium quality photo paper and print them at home, or take your photos to your local photo lab for an enlargement. Most of them will do these in 1 hour!

The frames can be thrift store or garage sale finds. Nothing too fancy needed! Spray paint is your friend. And you can even embellish your painted frames using buttons, shells or found objects and a little hot glue. Let your creativity roll...



Hope everyone is having a fantastic Holiday season! I've been sewing up a storm, how 'bout you? I promise to share my handmade gifts with you all after Christmas (since my family and friends all read my blog it would kinda spoil the surprise!) ;)

made by hand

Is it just me or has anyone else out there noticed how many more people are embracing the Handmade Pledge this year? Maybe it's been like that for a while, but it just seems like every blog, website & tweet I come across promotes handmade items, whether it's handcrafted holiday gifts, baked goodies, ornaments or even handmade wrapping paper, boxes and cards... it's everywhere and such a delight to the eyes!

In the spirit of my Handmade Holidays, I wanted to share a little surprise I received in the mail from my favorite aunt, my Tia Olga (plus it's more proof that this sorta artsy-crafty, OCDish madness really runs in the family!)

She made these handcrafted felt stockings for the girls and they totally blew me away! Can you imagine how much time went into these?? Every little feature on every face was hand stitched. Every sequins and bead was hand applied. All the little toys and figures were carefully stuffed to give it that 3-D look...



There are balls, puppy dogs and teddy bears spilling out of Santa's bag...



There are pretty ballerinas and old-fashioned train engines gathered under the tree...



Each stocking is beautifully personalized...





She even autographed them for us...



I can assure you right now these will be cherished forever. If I could display them all year long, I so would!



And speaking of 'made by hand', the girls finally sat down to write their letters to Santa. Here's Sophie's. It's gonna be darn near impossible for me to stick to my handmade pledge with these sort of items (especially the top 2!)



Sydney's list (dictated by Sydney and written by her big sister, since Sydney can only write her name and the numbers 1 - 7 right now) is a bit simpler... I think I can get creative and still please her. ;)



P.S. In the past couple of days I've made about 120 gift tags out of my recycled greeting cards and two batches of peppermint bark, one with dark chocolate and one with white (remember my obsession with this candy goodness?) My family seems to prefer the dark, which is quite fine with me because I adore the white! More on that at a later post. I need to get back to work... deadlines approaching! :)

Handmade Goodness

So, I told you guys I took a partial Handmade Pledge the other day. Well, I wanted to share with you a few of the handmade goodies that I have gotten for the girlies in my family before they're all wrapped up.

First and foremost, I cannot say enough great stuff about GiftsDefine on Etsy. OMG! Irma was super sweet over several email conversations and so accommodating too! I had specific needs that she was able to meet and deliver within days. From the moment I opened her meticulously wrapped box, beauty just spilled out! Everything has gorgeous ribbons and sweet hang tags and little extra surprises here & there...


I ordered these adorable fairy angels for Sophie, Sydney and my niece, Asja. The angels come in your choice of hair color and dress/wing colors. Just look how awesome! And each came with a personalized dangle.... the girls are gonna freak out! I just know it. hee hee. I already know what I'm gonna do: when they leave the milk & cookies for Santa, these little angels will appear in its place the morning after.... kinda like a "Thank You Gift" from Santa himself. Ooooh... I can't wait! :)

Then, for my little Sydney, I ordered this super cute pink suitcase full of zoo critters. Again, the suitcase came all decked out with ribbons, hangtags and a personalized charm...

Inside, the most adorable stuffies I have ever seen. She even got a little "adoption card" with them. :)

Check out the detail on these wool stuffies:

I think the giraffe is my favorite, but I really do love them all. AHHHH! I want some for ME! LOL!


Then for the "big girls," Sophie and her cousin, Asja, I ordered something completely different and a lot more "grown up," LOL! I followed a link from Lisa's blog to this site. You upload a high-resolution photo of your child and they make a totally personalized book for them. The book is hardcover and high quality. I just had to get them. It just looked like the kind of thing Sophie & Asja would totally dig. This particular book I chose is a "fairy" theme and the story is advanced enough that they should be able to enjoy it for a few years... at least well into their teens.


When the books arrived, they far exceeded my expectations. The image quality and printing was excellent... definitely an A+. I give them a B+ on the Photoshop work -- but you gotta understand that I am a Photoshop maniac. I was actually Adobe-certified at one point (back in 1996, I think) and went to a ton of training to be able to teach, so I will most likely be a lot tougher of a judge than the average person. I know the girls will LOVE them and that's all that matters. And at the risk of sounding snooty, I expected it to look at lot worse, LOL!, so I was pleasantly surprised. :)


The story is really cute, and their names appear all throughout it, so it will be a very special book for them. I highly recommend it! PLUS, their website is extremely user-friendly. Photos are easy to upload and they take you step-by-step through the ordering process, which only takes a few minutes. Visit the FlattenMe website to check these books out. They also have other themes... even for boys and for infant/toddlers. :)


OK... I wanted to end this posting by saying that I will be taking a much-needed 2-week break from designing, sewing, ebay and maybe even blogging. I might pop in here a couple of times if I start feeling withdrawal pains but I can't promise anything. I have family coming to stay with me starting tomorrow, Friday the 21st and ending on Sunday, January 6th. Not all of them all at once (thank goodness! LOL!) but nevertheless, every day starting tomorrow until 1/6 will have me playing the hostess with the mostest, so wish me luck!

Also, don't forget to leave a comment on my last post regarding my Boutique Cafe interview. I will be drawing the winner of the custom appliqued tee on January 1st! Good luck, all! And HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!!