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May 12, 2009: Long time no update! Spring has arrived
Well, it's been too long since my last post!
Spring has arrived, and with it, my allergies. My little sister came out for a much enjoyed visit and we have been taking advantage of the increase in nice weather to go and enjoy what we love about Oregon so much.
Here are some photos from places we have explored recently.
Wahclellah falls
Woodburn Tulip Festival
My son was enjoying the bouncer thing they had set up at the Tulip farms - though he did get a bit spooked when it got to it's highest point. Frankly, as a mom, I was probably just as spooked to see him fly that high as he was! hehe
My daughter calls these "wishies" - there are many of them in the field right by our house.
The Balsam Root flowers and Lupines are growing wild on the plateaus by the Columbia Gorge right now - truly a spectacular sight!
May your spring be full of color as well!
Mar 05, 2009: Been busy around here
My son turned 7 this past week, and he has been a big fan of the Spy vs. Spy cartoons so he requested them on his cake!
This was the cake I made for him. Note that the candle was the bomb wick! The funniest part was when my husband popped a paper bag as my son blew out his candle and everybody jumped.
His party was at a roller skating rink this year.
For most of the kids, this was their first time on skates - and for some of the parents too hee. Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun though!
Between party planning we've also been dealing with "House of Plague" around here. Next year, we're going to make sure to get those flu shots as soon as they become available! Everyone being sick was not a lot of fun.
Feb 22, 2009: What we did today - Globetrotters fun!
Our boy's birthday is next week. As a birthday surprise, we got tickets to see the Harlem Globetrotters this afternoon.
We bought cheap seats but still had a decent view, but got lucky in a drawing and won front court-side seats!
This is my favorite shot from the event though:
Feb 09, 2009: Featured in this month's Pregnancy and Newborn Magazine!
Neat! Look what's on page 33 of this February's issue!
Jan 19, 2009: Mother Nature, I am not amused
OK, we've had our biggest snow-storm in memory.
That was then followed by flooding and collapsed roofs from record rains which leftover snow was collecting like sponges.
Now, we're dealing with winds.
I should point out that we're fairly used to winds out here, but this particular storm is pretty intense. This morning we awoke to find two 30+ foot trees downed in our yard, just about every fence around the yard collapsed, and now roof damage.
We woke up this morning to find these results of the latest night of pounding in our own backyard!
Neighbors have been helping figure out what to do with some of this mess.
Jan 12, 2009: When it rains it pours...
My 6-year-old cracked a tooth on hard candy (learning the hard way why they call it a "jawbreaker" I guess) and they have to pull it out and put in a spacer today. Wish me luck! It's been a week of craziness around here.
Jan 11, 2009: CPSIA update
Good News! (I think...)
At least on the resellers front: thrift stores and consignment stores will continue to be allowed to exist with new updates to the sweeping new CPSIA regulations that will take effect on February 10. A "clarification" to the law was issued this week to exclude sellers of used items from requiring the expensive testing to comply with the new regulations.
In addition, there have been a few proposed amendments to the law which would include some exceptions and leeway to try to make some room for small businesses. I have not, as yet, seen a really clear outline translated into normal English, which explicitly calls out exactly what these amendments would actually mean, and to be honest, my eyes were sort of glazing over while I tried to read the new documents (No surprise though, since this was definitely the case with the original document too.)
Most small-sellers that I have talked to are hopeful but seem to share the confusion about exactly what the changes mean. If anyone has seen a clear outline of what the law now does apply to, and what steps a small business now needs to take to comply, I'd love it if anyone has a link to share, and would gladly pass those on to my artsy friends who make lovely handmade toys, clothes, and accessories!
For more information on this topic: Please see the Handmade Children's Items & Unintended Consequences article on Etsy, a website specializing in sales of handmade items.
My understanding is that the reported "revision" or "exception" is a "proposal" (read 'suggestion/idea/PR statement'). This law has NOT been changed! There is no reason to become lax about this. The idea is good, but remember, we have lost our rights to produce children's goods in the USA through our inaction. Let's stay active until there is a tangible, legal change to this- an ACT OF CONGRESS. Anything else is simply rhetoric.
In the meantime, I plan to continue to make my loop pendants (nursing necklaces) in the same manner as always, though I still plan to rename them as I have actually gotten a lot of feedback suggesting that many folks did not realize that you didn't need to be a nursing mom to enjoy them, while many more have been buying them for years without their "functional" aspects in mind.
After all, it has always been my intent to first-and-foremost offer lovely artisan jewelry that just happens to be durable, tactile, and fun.
Jan 07, 2009: Have you heard about the new CPSIA law?
This February, Laughing Starfish Jewelry will no longer be selling nursing necklaces.
You see, there is this new law coming out which has, frankly, been terribly written even though it has good intentions. Hundreds of people have been reading the law for months and are freaking out, but no one seems to have a firm grip on all the details. It's taken so long to slog through it all that only now when the deadline is imminent is it truly beginning to sink in just how far reaching this law will be.
I'm sure that Congress had nothing but noble intents, but they obviously didn't spend a lot of time thinking this issue through when they signed it into law.
Feb. 10, 2009, is being called National Bankruptcy Day, and indeed, for many, this will be the day that a lot of homegrown businesses will go kaput after many years of success.
What led to the law
Last year, in response to a bunch of recalls by large companies who manufacture mass-produced goods in China, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) put together a new federal law which will go into effect Feb. 10, 2009. It will put many new restrictions on products and goods made "for children under the age of 12." Among the new regulations is a requirement that each unique design of any product needs to be sent to an external lab (one of a short list of about 15) for official lead testing certification.
Mandatory lead testing
That sounds great, in theory. When it’s a major manufacturer mass-producing thousands of the same product, it seems that should totally be part of the process. But the cost of a test on a single unit costs as much as FOUR THOUSAND dollars (on the scale of what I'm facing anyway).
When you make just a few--or as the case is with my work, mostly one-of-a-kind pieces-- it's just not financially possible. Besides, the lead testing process usually destroys the product "unit," so testing is not even physically possible with those unique pieces.
Additionally, I use non-unique pieces--a purchase of enough artisan beads to complete a design but still in very limited quantities.
Responsibility falls to the end-product manufacturer
Seems like there should be a way to get certification based on the materials you use, right? After all, if you're not *creating* leaded goods, why are you being asked to test for them? Shouldn't they be tested by the folks that make them?
But there isn't. The testing is being dropped totally into the lap of the "manufacturer"--apparently defined in this case as being the one to assemble a product and put it on the shelf. This includes, by the way, all those cute little stalls at your local craft fair selling baby booties, sweaters and hats--even the ones selling wooden toys that don’t have anything that might have lead in them.
It is on this point specifically that I most take issue with this law. If materials such as beads, yarns and fabrics were required to pass such testing when imported, there would not be this problem of having "safe" materials selected for use in children's (or any products). Even though I may be over 12, I am not sure why *I* would want to be exposed to lots of lead either.
Child-related products hit the hardest
This new law will require testing for ANY products that are made for children 12 and under to use, including:
• Jewelry
• Clothing
• Room décor
• School supplies
• Educational aids
• Art work
• Art supplies
• Pillows
• Hair bows
• And so forth!
Reading the whole "brief" --67 pages long-- requires some basic law education but you can get the gist of it in the CPSIA's FAQ section here.
Testing even applies to resale or vintage items
Many items that were legal this holiday season will be banned come Feb. 10, 2009. Whether the gift was a hand-held video game by a super multinational corporation, a “Made in the USA” pair of jeans from a local mom & pop retailer, or one of the fantastic wooden toys available at ETSY shops, it would be banned because it hadn’t been tested, had failed testing, and needed to be reworked.
Reselling or reusing untested items for a child under 12 would be illegal and punishable by (enormous!) fines and jail time. So no one--even a consumer looking to green up the Earth a little--could list a child's items as a vintage piece at ETSY or a sell it as used on eBay, Craigslist, or even at a garage sale, without being tested. Consignment stores and thrift stores like Goodwill? I have no idea how they could possibly stay in business.
There's no distinction between an artist selling flannel caps at a craft fair and a multi-million dollar corporation shipping lead-tainted mass-produced items. I have no idea how they will enforce it, but I don't want to be the test case.
Laughing Starfish process for purchasing materials
• I am very careful about where I buy my materials, and avoid some of them altogether.
• I have worked hard to create a network of vendors who I feel I can trust not to sell me stuff that will be tainted.
• I have tested a number of items that had been sold to me as “lead free” that failed testing and then had to dispose of those items.
I tend to stick to more expensive artisan glass beads made by friends and known artists. Not only is their work unique, but they don't cut corners, and they properly anneal, or treat, their glass to prevent cracking. Artisan beads are more expensive, but that cost covers the laborious cleaning that artists do once they’ve created the bead.
New law ignores mass-produced products
Those packages of beads you find at the local craft shop or the cute, painted animal buttons at the fabric store? They are NOT subject to these new laws.
In general, anything metal or painted made in China is suspect because it takes a lot of work for a consumer to research the companies that aren’t cutting corners. The importers that use lead in their products see marginal savings--we're talking pennies to the thousand units when they do these mass productions.
Congress would do Americans a much greater service if they stopped the hazardous stuff at the border when it's manufactured--and by that I mean at the point where these tainted supplies are actually *created* in the first place.
If Congress did that, it would at least eliminate the potential guess-working that has to happen all the time. It seems to me that there is absolutely no reason why these leaded things should even exist regardless of who it's intended for. I would welcome legislation which amended this law to require that all of these commonly used components such as beads, fabrics, yarn, buttons, clips, etc., should have better labeling. The stop sign for the toxic materials come at the point of production of those materials, not further down the line where unsuspecting buyers then put this stuff together.
On the flip side, there's a lot of over-reaction. Swarovski crystals, for example, have been banned in California for more than a year because of their lead content in children's items.
Crystal has to soak in an acidic environment for about eight years for even a trace of lead to leach out. Grownups who store brandies in crystal decanters are at risk, but a kid who swallowed a crystal would pass it long before the lead could leach out. Crystals have a higher danger of being a choking hazard.
The way the California law has been written, it puts the warning squarely on the leaded crystals simply because of their lead content, making them seem equal to the hazards of leaded metal charms where the harmful lead dust is on the surface and can rub off easily.
How Laughing Starfish will change
• My necklaces, even though they have been called “nursing necklaces,” have always been for adults, but I will now make it clear that they are “not for kids.”
• I will continue to be discriminating and choose to only work with materials that are non-toxic (even though I cannot afford to send them to a 3rd party lab for testing – I have no interest in working with hazardous materials in order to protect my own health!).
• I shall continue to do the same process of making my loops super durable for klutzes like myself who have a tendency to bust their jewelry all the time.
• I will sell the loops as regular jewelry intended for adults, and they will be not recommended for children under the age of 12.
• My loop style will be labeled "Fiddlestone Loops" because I wear them as worry-stones and it no longer has anything to do with nursing for me. I have had a large number of customers who don’t even have children who have told me that they really like the tactile aspects of these pendants for fidgeting with, so I will continue to provide these on my website.
• I will continue to offer the same guarantees I always have for their durability. There's nothing about the way I make them that will change.
• Apparently, the one exception to the law that I could find is for custom orders. Special "Can you make me a bracelet with X, Y, and Z?" type orders apparently are still OK. But if I make something, take a picture of it, and put it up on my website for general sale, it’s then considered a "manufactured good." Anything I post that way will have anything to do with children.
The end of the “American Dream?”
At this point, I simply do not know how any start-up company that even hopes to have anything to do with kids can begin business in this country given this new environment. I feel like the whole idea of the "American Dream" is rapidly slipping out of reach--that the only way to survive is to join an already existing mega-million-dollar company that sends all its production overseas anyway.
As a parent, I am also deeply saddened by this law the way it stands now. I have always preferred alternative toys and clothing to the licensed characters and mass-produced stuff you find in the big box stores and this will pretty much put an end to that.
The bottom line
• Tons of companies whose products are more than likely completely safe are thrown into extinction because the testing laws are just financially impossible.
• Small companies are closing shop altogether rather than face the potential fines.
• Companies like Selecta or woopsiebaby, or even the super sweet toys from German companies like Holztiger and HABA, are suspending all U.S. sales because of this law.
• Countless of small crafty artists who used to frequent online and craft fair places for sales will close shop or be operating "illegally" (be it willful or through not knowing that, in fact, this law does apply to them too).
• Medium-sized companies are going to be reducing their product offerings in order to accommodate the testing. (I considered this, but if I chose say, 2 of my more popular designs, then I'd be reduced to only making those two necklaces forever.) For example, a company that may have had about 180 toy product lines will likely reduce the options down to about 20. Entire lines will be eliminated not because they're unsafe or unsuccessful, but because it just costs too much to do yet another unit test. Maya Wrap, for example, has a line of doll wraps that they are discontinuing.
• Expect our landfills to soon be overflowing! And our children to go naked! (Well, I hardly ever have paid full retail prices for brand-new clothes having relied on secondhand stores and consignment shops, which will likely close or no longer carry children's clothing with this new law.)
• It is sadly ironic that the large companies that moved their manufacturing overseas and created the problems of hazardous levels of lead in their products are likely going to be the only ones that are likely to survive this new law. Not that they are likely happy about this law either, but at least they have the means to continue to exist because they've had years to build their business before this law was passed.
Learn more about CPSIA
• Wall Street Journal article
• CPSIA - What Children’s Clothing Designers and Manufacturers Need to Know
• The CPSIA: Good in Theory, Hurting Small, Favorite Green Businesses in Practice
• The Sky is Falling - CPSIA Issue
• Handmade Toy Alliance
• Information from the perspective of the fashion and textile goods industry at fashion-incubator CPSIA forums
What you can do
• Spread the word!
• Sign the petition
• Vote on President Obama's new Change.gov website, Save Small Business from the CPSIA
• Contact your Congressional representatives!
• There is a fabulous post written over here by Nature's Child outlining some really key points that should be pointed out in conversations with our representatives.
Dec 27, 2008: It's cold in my office!
This may have contributed to my lack of new work recently. It's hard to do beadwork while wearing a coat! (That's the temperature INSIDE my beadroom, not outside!)
Today it is raining! I have never been so happy to see rain!
We managed to get out yesterday, finally, and drive over slightly thawing roads littered with broken chains and smashed headlights to get to the post office to pick up a WEEK'S WORTH of mail that had not been delivered.
We got a newspaper this morning too! It's like coming out of a cocoon - except anyone trapped in a small space with 2 kids under the age of 7 for about 13 days tends to go just a little bit CrAzY.
Anyway, I hope to be able to get back to beading shortly. But first I need to go take my turn at shoveling the sidewalk of the yucky mucky slush.
Dec 23, 2008: Snowpocolypse: White Christmas in Oregon
Our snow level went the wrong way!
Yesterday they declared a state of emergency in our area and they sent in the National Guard because even our firetrucks and ambulances couldnt get out to folks in this stuff! (They don't salt the roads here, and we have very very few plows!) That said, folks in New England and the cold parts of the midwest would probably find much humor in the headlines on our local news stations.
Many travelers are stranded and have been sleeping at the airport - others can't get home. This will definitely be a Christmas long remembered by all, I suspect.
I did manage to get out today to walk to the post office though, since our mailman never made it to our neighborhood yesterday. They're actually saying a second storm is expected to come in tomorrow morning too!
We don't have many snow plows here, so tractors and bulldozers will have to do - at least they're trying....sorta.
The hills are a bit steep to attempt to learn driving with chains here. I am not even sure they'd do much good with the kind of car we have, particularly with these roads still thick with the white stuff! That was why I opted to walk even though it's quite a trek!
Crazy wind-swept iced trees! We are grateful that our neighborhood's power lines are underground. Not all around here are faring so well though.
I do love the lights in the snow at night though!
Dec 22, 2008: snow fever
They're saying this is breaking 40 year records for Portland area snow. There are now buses that are reportedly stuck in it on roads, even with their chains! Craziness! I'm glad we at least had no travel plans for the holidays - because there are people sitting in freeway parking lots right now, some heading to the airport where they may well be spending the night due to so many airlines canceling their flights.
Also, we're almost out of milk. I hope the wind settles a little bit because I have a long walk through this stuff to the store, assuming they, at least, managed to open. Our kids dentist appointments this morning were canceled because the staff and dentist couldn't get to the office. You know the cabin fever is bad when the kids are disappointed because they're missing a trip to the dentist!
Stay warm everyone!
Dec 22, 2008: Alright guys, I'm ready to have our rain back now!
Yet another day of being snowed in after a solid week of housebound kids and Winter Break didn't even officially start until this weekend.
It's gotten up to 19 degrees outside - but the freezing rain continues to fall.
I hear it's +10 Celcius with no snow in Norway, and that they are missing their white Christmas! I think we'd like to trade back with you guys now! ;)
We in Oregon don't deal with it very well!
I've got a couple new pieces to share, but no photos yet because 1.) My bead room is in the uninsulated part of the house - in other words, I need a jacket to sit in there long and that's not so useful when trying to do delicate work!
and 2.) My window for light is covered with snow!
I'm hoping the weather forecasters are wrong about us being stuck inside with sheets of ice on the road till Wednesday! We still haven't finished all our holiday shopping and errands!
Dec 19, 2008: Snowpocolypse
The snow here keeps falling - (so unusual to have white for so long here!). The kids have had a full week of extra vacation due to school closures and delays this week. From the way they play it up on the local news channels, it's been nicknames "Snowpocolypse" around here.
Yesterday there was finally a school day and then it started to come down and I opted to pick the kids up early and go make some memories.
We saw some beautiful sights in snow-covered fields. The littlest one kept calling it "Snow Wonderland".
Then I came home and shoveled the sidewalk and driveway (my car was sliding on ice too much to get up into the garage!) and suddenly felt very very grateful that the snow is such a novelty around here ;)
Dec 15, 2008: rare snow storm in Portland!
We've got snow and cold temperatures here in Portland!
They're saying it's going to be cold for a whole week. Schools all around town are closed tomorrow, all the roads are requiring chains, and there's talk of record held since the 70s being broken this week!
The kids are LOVING it!
Dec 13, 2008: mail form woes!
Apparently my mail form has not been working this week! Huge apologies if you have tried to contact me and not heard anything! We're working on getting that fixed now!
Update: Mail is fixed now. If you have tried to contact me recently and have not heard back - please contact me again - I have not been getting those mails!
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