Ok, you are going to laugh...

I have finally decided that I am clinically insane.

This revelation probably does not come as a surprise to those who know me, but this turn of events should surprise even my husband. I have set up so much on my plate that Im not sure I can get it done... heres where you come in: I need you to keep me on task.

So, what have I lined up on my plate that seems so daunting? Here goes:

*I am redoing a guest bedroom... this entails:

*Priming and painting the entire room (including stripes on one wall)
*Setting up all the new furniture and moving the old furniture out
*Sewing the curtains, quilt, pillows and various other items in the room

*We are going to DragonCon in September, so I have a few costumes Id like to get done before then... They include:

*Padme Amidalas Corset Gown... I need to make the mermaid skirt out of both silk and burnout velvet and bead the necklace by hand.
*Two Starfleet uniforms... I need to find a place that does custom fabric printing in an inexpensive manner, sew the uniforms and find the pants and boots for both a man and a womans outfit
*Finish my Silhouette costume... I have all the parts, now I need to dye and alter them... oh, and find a wig.

Yeah, did I mention that Im also thinking about training for a triathlon (also in September)? Holy cow.

So, heres what Im going to do... Every few days Im going to post pictures, updates, and information and I need all my friends and watchers to give me encouragement and props to keep going. Trust me, there will be tons of pictures to share... especially of the costumes... So, stay tuned... This blog is SURE to become MEGA-active over the next few months.

Take care all and happy reading,

Jen

Whew!

Ok, talk about craziness!!!

First things first -- I didn't realize that I would be sick so often once my son went to preschool!!! I think I've been sick more times in the past six months than I have in the past five years. I even came down with the nastiest case of the flu and it took me two full weeks to get over it.

Of course, everything had to happen in April and May, one of the busiest times of the year for our custom memory blankets! Ridiculous.

I just wanted to pop on and let everyone know that yes, we are still operating and yes, we'll be around for a while. Because of all the various personal issues (between illnesses and funerals... which I've been to three since February), we've taken a hiatus on doing local craft shows and, as such, we have a ton of leftover items from last year. The husband has issued a decree that no new items will be made until I've cleared out last year's stuff... SO....

SALE TIME :)

Yup, sale time... and a great sale, too. I'm starting off with burp cloths, though I'll be adding bibs and blankets later on this week. The sale is as follows:

*Grab Bags -- Buy three burp cloths for $9 (retail price $16.50)
*Free shipping on orders over $40
*All orders over $100 will receive a free gift (valued at no less than $20)

Oh, and check out a few of our custom tshirt memory quilts that we did for graduating seniors!

You know what's not an enjoyable alarm clock?

I just thought I'd start off the blog post with my wonderful alarm clock this morning -- the sound of my husband throwing up at 6 am. Yeah, that's not a great way to wake up on a Sunday. He's got some sort of stomach virus and he's been laid up all day today, poor guy.

We need some sort of well wishes our way -- I don't think my household has seen the sunny side of "healthy" in a month.

Speaking of months... February is starting off with a bang. I think I've had as many items sold in these past few days as I've sold in the past six months (including Christmas). Absolutely amazing!!

Oh, and my items? I put our Valentine's Day blanket up on Etsy and Art Fire this morning. I think it's awesome -- a large minky blanket with red applique hearts. It can be personalized with whatever saying you so choose -- let me know what you think about it.

I'll be adding a whole schmeal of stuff in the next few days -- burp cloths, bibs, blankets... awesome stuff, so check back often :)

CPSIA Blog In -- What it means to you!

I've spoken a couple of times about the CPSIA and its effects on my business... but I wanted to take a few minutes and talk about how the CPSIA affects everyone. Not just me, not just you, but virtually anyone who lives in the United States. Take a second and become informed -- write your representatives and tell them you are worried about the impacts. Without Americans standing up and demanding change nothing will happen and you *will* be affected.

So, what is it?

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) was approved by Congress and signed into law in September of 2008. It states that, on February 10th, all children's items sold (all items intended for children under 12 years of age) must meet "acceptable" levels of lead -- 600 ppm. In August, that number will drop to 300 ppm. As it is retroactive, it applies to everything that HAS been made and everything that will be made.

Ok, but I don't make anything for children... so I'm not affected, right? Well... no... Let's take a second and see who IS affected by this legislation:

Do you purchase handmade items?

If you purchase handmade items, or items created by a small-scale manufacturer, you will see your options completely disappear come the 10th. Why? As the testing for lead is placed solely on the shoulders of the manufacturer (regardless of whether a supplier has already tested for lead), the costs for small-scale businesses will be astronomical. No handmade artisan can afford the testing (which runs $75 per component of the final product). As they cannot afford to test, as the law dictates, they will be forced to shut their doors. You will no longer be able to find handmade items on Etsy, Ebay, Art Fire or in your local craft fairs for children unless they are in direct violation of the law, which carries severe penalties.

Do you visit libraries?

It's not just handmade that's being affected -- as the law covers *anything* that's made for children it includes books. Libraries loan children's books, so they are liable for the mandatory testing as well. No library would be able to afford the cost of testing every book in their children's library so they will be faced with tough choices. They can either ban children from the library, test all children's books or thoroughly eliminate their children's section. As libraries will not be able to afford the testing the most logical consequence is that you'll see children's sections disappear.

Perhaps your child will appreciate War and Peace instead of the Berenstein Bears.

Do you shop in second-hand stores?

Do you, out of choice or necessity, visit the Salvation Army, Goodwill, or one of the countless other second-hand stores for your shopping needs? If so, you might just be affected. Second-hand stores, while under no strict obligation to test, still must be sure that the items they're selling for children are free of lead. They are just as liable as the original manufacturer if they sell something lead-tainted -- including vintage children's clothing.

Again, like the libraries, second-hand stores are faced with few good options. They can stop accepting donations of children's items, they can test or they accept the possibility that they could be fined hundreds of thousands of dollars. In the words of the CPSC's former spokeswoman, they don't have to test... but they have to be sure the stuff they're selling is free of lead. Many second-hand stores will stop carrying children's items to avoid facing this kind of liability.

Do you support charities like Project Linus (a charity that accepts handmade blankets to give to sick children in hospitals)?

As the CPSIA applies to all things traded, loaned, sold or given away, logic would dictate that as it affect libraries, it will, too, affect charities. Perhaps we can all give some great made-in-China blankets to sick children instead of lovingly-handmade quilts.

Yeah.

In the end, the CPSIA affects you if: you've ever borrowed a children's book from a library, ever visited a children's story time hour at the library, plan on borrowing a children's book from the library, bought anything from a second-hand store, will buy anything from a second-hand store, appreciate handmade items, purchase organic (since many makers of organic items are handmade, small businesses), care about the economy (this will shut the doors of thousands of small businesses) or, essentially, live in the United States and are a parent/aunt/godparent/grandparent/etc of a child.

Please, please take the time to demand Congress and the CPSC amend the law. Ending lead in children's products is GREAT, but the law is poorly written and overly broad. It casts too wide of a net to catch the fish (essentially, cheaply made crap from overseas) and will destroy businesses where many of the owners are work-at-home mothers.

Take care everyone!

My husband is defective, can I return him? and other musings...

Some musings from the desk...

*I'm finally over the "big sick" !! Yay :)... What started way back on the 18th has finally reached its conclusion and everyone in the Made By Moms' household is finally better. Goodness, that took forever!

*Something happens to me in September -- I stop exercising... I'm not sure why, it could be the busy nature of the following three months (all three of our birthdays, our anniversary, my parents' anniversary, and three major holidays), or it could be the cold... but I stop running. Well, I started running this week and I feel AMAZING! I ran a personal best in the 5k -- 28 minutes -- and went 2.25 miles today in 20 minutes (before I stopped to go and lift weights). Holy cow, I forgot how good this feels!!!

*I'm running my first "official" 5 k at 9 am on Valentine's day. Wish me luck! I have a goal of making it in 25 minutes... I have my finger's crossed.

*My husband is, indeed, defective. I've wondered about it for years now but this morning I got official confirmation. I think a part of his brain is missing somewhere (he probably forgot it) because he is *so* oblivious. What did he do this time?

Well... we'll start by explaining that he's an eye doctor -- that's how we met (I know, sweet right? lol). I wanted to get a pair of prescription sunglasses and the frame rep gave me a great price on a pair of Brinkley sunglasses so I decided to get polarized lenses. To make a long story short, the lab who did my polarization screwed it up and it makes me nauseous. I need my husband to take the glasses back with him to work so the optician can send them back to the lab to fix their mistake.

Sounds easy, right?

Not with my husband. I repeatedly remind him, only to find the sunglass case left on the kitchen counter each morning. I even put the sunglass case next to his keys, but it's been two full weeks and he hasn't brought them in. Last night I got the ingenious idea to actually stick his wallet INSIDE the sunglass case (it was sticking out slightly) and put his keys underneath the case.

What does my defective husband do? He takes the wallet OUT of the sunglass case, closes it, removes his keys from underneath and LEAVES IT ON THE COUNTER. Seriously, he's defective.

*We're getting closer and closer to February 10th, when I'll have to close my doors. It's making me a bit sad, but I'm getting frustrated at the attitude on the Etsy boards. What started out as a "let's band together and help each other out" has become a finger-pointing, venomous diatribe where people are starting to call others out for closing their doors/staying open.

Look, that type of attitude will get us nowhere. We need to support one another and stop labeling. Calm down, everyone.

If you're not familiar with the CPSIA, I'm going to be doing a piece on it later where I answer the most frequently asked questions to the best of my ability.

*My son is becoming a big boy. He started his second week of preschool and hasn't cried ONCE this week!! It's amazing to see the changes in him in just a few days. Plus, he's made me three necklaces in three days... so my jewelry collection is expanding at an unheard-of rate ;) I'll post some pictures of my beautiful creations tomorrow -- he's a budding designer :). I truly, truly love the preschool I found for him. It's five days a week, three hours a day -- that's perfect for my son's temperment. He couldn't deal with the day on, day off routine of most part-time preschools, so I'm pleased. His teachers are wonderful and they have a child-to-teacher ratio of 7-to-1, which is world's better than those daycares-disguised-as-preschools with a 15-to-1 ratio. Can you imagine having to take care of 15 three-year-olds? Holy cow, one is enough... 15 is a free-for-all. Plus, it's a Montessori and I love how he's learning by doing... he's having fun, refining his gross motor skills and learning to add by the simple process of playing with blocks. I *heart* Montessori :).

Anyway, not only is he going to preschool, but he's finally pooping on the potty! Oh my, you wouldn't know the struggle we've had over that. He's three years old and has been going number 1 on the potty for around4 months, but the number 2 has remained elusive. I've ignored him going poop in his underwear for 4 months (when I ditched all the daytime diapers)... it's so nice not to have to clean up poopy pants for once. *sigh*

Well, that's about it from my desk... my son has had enough of entertaining himself, so now it's time for his nap. I look forward to talking with everyone again, soon :)

Jen

Yay, our interview is on the air!

I'm so excited, I can barely concentrate (it's either the excitement, the throbbing headache or the fact that I still am not 100%)!!

The interview with Carrie from Natural Moms' Talk Radio Show is up on her website.

Please, please read and listen -- I hope I did everyone justice. I was starting to come down with my cold when she called (and I was away from my notes), so please don't be too brutal :).

Here it is!

Enjoy! :)

Jen

Check out our new bib!

We're running a huge CPSIA special on an item in our store -- one of our new, Messy Baby bibs. It's 100% organic, made from Harmony Art fabric and flannel, and it's being offered for the low, low price of $642.00. You read that right -- how can I offer this stuff for such an inexpensive price, well, let's just say it's an unbelievable deal I'm crazy to offer!

So get yours now, it's sure to fly out of my Etsy store!

Check it out here!

We are on a TALK RADIO SHOW !!! Listen in, please!!

Hey everyone, exciting news! We are going to be featured on an internet talk radio show -- Natural Moms' Talk Radio -- on Monday afternoon at 2 pm. Please take the time to listen in -- go here to to find out how. Carrie, the host, is based in Atlanta and we'll be doing the show via phone.

A little about the show: it's a show targeted towards moms looking to green their environment and simply mother the more natural way (homeschooling, cooking healthier meals, etc). It's hosted by Carrie who is a recently-divorced work-at-home mother of four living in Atlanta. She has a blog and website for the Natural Moms Talk Radio show, so you should definitely go and check them out.

She graciously bumped us up to Monday, as our topic is crucially important, even though she usually has a 12 week lead time. Hopefully, through this effort, we will be able to provoke a lot of ordinary moms and consumers into action. The more attention we attract, the better it will be for us in the end.

Anyway, if you're an artisan, small business or grandma who is impact by this, please leave a comment about how it will affect you... I might just bring it up on air! Take care and have a great day

Jen

After Christmas Sale!!

Our Art Fire shop is having a huge after-Christmas sale to clear out all of our older inventory to make way for all the AWESOME new items coming up this year!!

We'll be discounting blankets anywhere from 50 - 75% in our efforts to clear some space in my home -- you simply can't beat these prices!! Today alone we listed six items up for clearance in our shop -- check out the links and descriptions below... Don't see something that strikes your fancy? We'll be adding quite a few more blankets over the next few days -- keep checking back :).

Blue Flowers Medium Snuggle Blanket -- Reg. $20, Clearance $10
Red Trains Medium Snuggle Blanket -- Reg. $20, Clearance $10
Flowers and Minky Blanket -- Reg. $25, Clearance $10
White Butterfly Brocade and Minky -- Reg. $40, Clearance $18
Blue and Green Mod Dot Silk and Minky -- Reg. $35, Clearance $15
Large (43" x 62") Green Swirl Quilt (channel quilted) -- Reg. $80, Clearance $30

If you have any questions about these blankets or their prices, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Take care and happy shopping!

We had a Merry Christmas!

I just wanted this to be a quick post letting everyone know that our Christmas went well! It had some highs and lows -- with the lows being that my aunt, who rocks, is in hospice care and is not going to make it much longer -- but we came through it ok. We visited with her on Christmas Eve and she enjoyed seeing my son... :-/

It started out with a fun family dinner at a restaurant for Christmas eve (always a tradition to eat out on Christmas Eve)... You can see how seriously I take life in this picture taken by my three-year-old (that's my brother on the right, with the evil red eyes... yeah, I always knew he was put on this earth to torment me... now I have proof he's evil!!!):

He's actually pretty good for 3 -- I think he takes better pictures than I do! I got a nice new camera for Christmas (actually, I got it last month but it was my Christmas present), so he got my old Nikon Coolpix and he was more than thrilled. I have so many close-ups of his nose, lips and cheeks that it's not even funny.

Santa, mommy and grandma were all very good to my son -- he was inundated with all things Pirates. My brother got him a dress-up kit from Disney, which grandma and child immediately used to dress up...

Anyway, we hope your holidays have been the most merry, the most bright and the happiest that any season can offer. From our home to yours, Happy Holidays!!!

With love,

Jen

Organics are Coming, Organics are Coming!!!

Just thought you guys would want to be the first to know -- it's official. Starting in mid-January we will be offering products made with only 100% certified organic materials (with the exception of the snaps we use to close our bibs). We'll have our snuggle blankets made out of flannel, sateen prints by Harmony Art, sherpa, fleece and terry cloth. They are going to be amazing!!! The organic fabrics we're purchasing are truly top-notch, premium quality, you're going to be astounded.

I can't wait to get them on the market!

If you'd like to pre-order, the two prints from
Harmony Art we're getting in are Fields of Honey (a sateen)...

and Moon (a lightweight flannel.






Both will come with matching onesies, burp cloths and bibs, and all are available for pre-order. The reason we're offering pre-orders is to gauge the desire for these products. We only ordered a small amount of the fabric, so there will only be limited quantities available (at first). If the demand is high enough, we'll order more fabric. The pre-order will just be a reservation system -- you won't pay anything until I send you pictures of the completed items (**unless** it's something that I will only make on custom, like a large blanket). If you're interested in reserving yourself a blanket, bib, burp cloth or full set, check out the prices below!!

The prices for pre-orders will be a little less expensive than our regular price:

Small Snuggle Blankets (17 - 18") -- Backed with organic flannel, with squares of sherpa, fleece, and two panels of flannel/sateen print -- $27.00 (Reg Price = $30)

Medium Snuggle Blanket (20 - 21") -- Backed with organic flannel, with squares of sherpa, fleece and two panels of flannel/sateen print -- $32.50 (Reg Price = $36.00) ... These are custom orders only!

Large Blanket (30" x 36") -- One side flannel/sateen print, one side regular flannel -- $40.00 (Reg Price = $45) ... These are custom orders only!

Receiving Blanket (38" x 38") -- One piece of flannel bound by a binding of sateen or flannel print -- $48.00 (Reg Price = $55.00) ... These are custom orders only!

Premium Receiving Blanket (38" x 38") -- Two-sided blanket with one side flannel/sateen print and the other side regular flannel -- $60.00 (Reg Price = $70.00) ... These are custom orders only!

Bibs (large -- 8 x 12", snap closure) -- One side flannel/sateen print, one side flannel, fleece or terry cloth (won't be in until late February!) -- $10.00 (Reg Price -- $12.00)

Burp Cloths (11" x 18", eco-friendly batting inside instead of cloth diaper) -- One side flannel/sateen print, one side flannel/fleece/terry cloth/sherpa -- $11.00 (Reg Price = $14.00)

Organic Onesies (natural color, sizes 6-12, 12-18 and 18-24 in stock... name brand Bella onesies) -- Appliqued with either 100% recycled felt in an Earth design, the Moon flannel in a crescent moon, or the Fields of Honey in a flower design -- $18.00

All fabric will be pre-washed to prevent shrinkage at home (as organic fibers are rarely treated against shrinkage), in an all-natural wash from Seventh Generation. They will come shipped to you using the USPS's boxes made from 100% recycled materials with no tissue paper (unless requested) to save waste.

As always, your products will be handmade in a smoke-free (but pet-friendly!) home.

For our local customers, we hope to have these in the Evolve store (these will be a bit more than we charge online to cover consignment expenses) on Thornton Ave, by the end of January!

Take care and Merry Christmas :) :)

Jen

Someone explain this to me...

Ok, I'll admit it... I have the soul of an engineer. I'm very artistic in my own way, but my true heart and soul belong to logic, reasoning, mathematics and science. Forget art class, I wanted Physics.

I'm weird, so sue me.

Anyway, I've never understood the whole "family recipe" thing... as in "this stays in the family and you can NEVER, NEVER EVER give it out to anyone... ever. Period." To me, there simply is no rational to it and it feels selfish (I have something that's mine, all mine, and I won't share it with you... nahny nahny boo boo). Why am I discussing this?

Well, I was baking anise biscuits with my cousin... it was my grandmother's recipe that we've spent two Christmases perfecting. Why? Well, her measurements aren't really 6 cups of flour, it's 6 cups of flour more or less. It isn't 8 oz of juice, it's a "glass of juice." It took us a while to discover her glasses were 10 oz, not 8. A handful, well... her hands are bigger than mine! A "demitasse cup of baking powder" but we can't find her demitasse cups... ACK.

Cooking might be an art, but baking is definitely a science (which is probably why I prefer baking). If you add too much liquid, your cookies won't set... too much flour and they'll be dry rocks.

Anyway, we think we've hit on the correct amounts of everything (perhaps a bit more anise next year) and I laughed about how I wanted to take grandma's recipe card and scan it to put it on the internet... just so people could see what we were working with. She was scandalized -- put Grandma's recipe on the INTERNET so EVERYONE could see it? Holy jeez, you would have thought I was proposing putting nuclear secrets on the internet. This shock and adamant refusal started a discussion as to WHY it's taboo to share her biscuit or butter cookie recipe (which, oddly enough, doesn't include butter... go figure)... All we ever got to is because "it's a family thing."

Yeah, I'm sorry, not good enough. Sentimentality doesn't trump logic, which to me is "If someone appreciates something of yours enough to ask for the recipe, use what you learned in kindergarten and share." It's the right thing to do. I share every single recipe I have -- from my mother's tomato sauce to my eggplant parmesan, lasagna and chicken salad recipes -- when people ask. My best friend shared her grandmother's tea cakes recipe with me when I told her how much I liked them.

So what if people make them for their family or make it to bring to parties? The rational was: "If you give out the recipe, everyone will bring the same thing." What? With Food TV, AllRecipes.com, Epicurious and the thousands of websites and blogs devoted to recipes... everyone will bring my grandmother's anise biscuits to the same party? Not rational. Not logical.

So come on, blogosphere... are you like that? Do you not share "secret" family recipes? Why? How about the other coin -- why do you share? I share because it makes me feel good that someone liked what I made (same reason why I sew stuff for people... I like the appreciation). I can understand not sharing a recipe you make money off of (like if you owned a bakery!), but if you're not profitting from it... uh....

Help me out here, give me your reasons!

Jen