CPSIA Lead-Test Law has been DELAYED!

Craftzine

Thanks to the incredible grassroots movement against the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, which would have gone into effect on February 10, 2009, the commission that created the law has voted to stay the legislation for one year.

"The stay of enforcement provides some temporary, limited relief to the crafters, children's garment manufacturers and toy makers who had been subject to the testing and certification required under the CPSIA. These businesses will not need to issue certificates based on testing of their products until additional decisions are issued by the Commission."

Read the full statement here.

Senator Jim DeMint from South Carolina has sponsored an amendment in order to reform the law.

It's certainly not a done deal, but it's a step in the right direction.

Houston, We have a WINNER!

Well folks, my first-ever give away has come to a close. It has been exciting for me and I look forward to doing this more often! Actually, if you haven't already subscribed to this blog, you may want to soon... I promise a give away will be poping up in the very near future....as I have something special to celebrate!!

-Sarah-



Lucky Reader #29 happens to be Ms. Jennifer of Happily Ever After.





CONGRATS JENNIFER!! I will be contacting you soon for shipping details!

New Undies

I received another pattern to test this week and it couldn't have come at a better time! My newly potty-trained kiddo got some new undies! The pattern is for super easy boxer-briefs. Each pair takes very little fabric. You can get 3 pair from 5/8yd of knit! How awesome at that. The pattern isn't available to the public yet, but I promise to let you know when it is!!


-Sarah-










I promise I feed that kid!! (notice his Elmo slippers... took some clothes to the consignment shop today and came home with those. I'm telling you, he's obsessed with Elmo... even if they are almost 3 sizes too big!!!)

Old News

I participated in a sewing swap several months back and since our identity was kept secret from our partner, I never posted my goodies... I wasn't sure if the mama read my blog or not. Well, another swap round has begun and I am super anxious to receive my assignment. In the meantime, I guess I'll share the goodies I sent out!!

-Sarah-

CPSIA Blog In - Bloggers Unite!

As parents and concerned citizens I’m sure most of us at one time or another have been confronted with the question of lead poisoning. But have you asked yourself what your government is doing to protect your children from lead contained in toys? The answer? They're banning toys, taking books from schools and libraries, hurting low income families, killing entrepreneurial spirit and risking putting the economy in an even greater depression than we've seen in decades. I'd like to introduce you to their solution: the CPSIA.

Do you know about the CPSIA? No? Then I ask you to take a few minutes to find out about it.

The CPSIA stands for Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, a new set of laws that will come into effect on 10 February, 2009 and will impact many, many people in a negative way. Make no mistake, this is very real. View it for yourself. If Forbes, the American Library Association and numerous other media are paying attention, perhaps you should too.

How will these new laws affect you? Well, here are a few examples:

To the Parents of Young Students:
Due to the new law, expect to see the cost of school supplies sky rocket. While those paper clips weren't originally intended for your student to use, they will need to be tested now that your 11-year-old needs them for his school project. This law applies to any and all school supplies (textbooks, pencils, crayons, paper, etc.) being used by children under 12.

To the Avid Reader:
Due to the new law, all children's books will be pulled from library and school shelves, as there is no exemption for them. That’s okay though, there's always television. Our children don’t need to learn the love of reading after all.
Article from the American Library Association http://www.wo.ala.org/districtdispatch/?p=1322

To the Lover of All Things Handmade:
Due to the new law, you will now be given a cotton ball and an instruction manual so you can make it yourself since that blanket you originally had your eye on for $50 will now cost you around $1,000 after it's passed testing. It won't even be the one-of-a-kind blanket you were hoping for. Items are destroyed in the testing process making one-of-a-kind items virtually impossible. So that gorgeous hand-knit hat you bought your child this past winter won’t be available next winter.

To the Environmentalist:
Due to the new law, all items in non-compliance will now be dumped into our already overflowing landfills. Imagine not just products from the small business owners, but the Big Box Stores as well. You can't sell it so you must toss it. Or be potentially sued for selling it. You can't even give them away. If you are caught, it is still a violation.

To the Second-Hand Shopper:
Due to the new law, you will now need to spend $20 for that brand new pair of jeans for your 2-year old, rather than shop at the Goodwill for second hand. Many resale shops are eliminating children's items all together to avoid future lawsuits.

To the Entrepreneur:
Due to this new law, you will be forced to adhere to strict testing of your unique products or discontinue to make and/or sell them. Small businesses will be likely to be unable to afford the cost of testing and be forced to close up shop. Due to the current economic state, you'll have to hope for the best when it comes to finding a new job in Corporate America.

To the Antique Toy Collector:
Due to the new law, you'd better start buying now because it's all going to private collection and will no longer be available to purchase. “Because the new rules apply retroactively, toys and clothes already on the shelf will have to be thrown out if they aren't certified as safe.” http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123189645948879745.html

To the American Economy:
Already struggling under an economy that hasn’t been this weak in decades, the American economy will be hit harder with the inevitable loss of jobs and revenues from suppliers, small businesses and consumers. The required testing is far too costly and restrictive for small businesses or individuals to undertake.

To the Worldwide Economy:
Due to this new law, many foreign manufacturers have already pulled out of the US market. You can imagine the impact of this on their businesses.

If you think this is exaggerating, here is a recent article from Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/16/cpsia-safety-toys-oped-cx_wo_0116olson.html

And for those of you prepared to be stupefied and boggled, The New Law
http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/cpsia.html

Did you know? If this upsets or alarms you, please react.

Fluffy Mail and Square Swaps!!

One of my goals for '09 is to learn how to quilt. Well, I'm off to a good start! I just received a box of quilting feet for my machine and I've signed up for my first square swap! I'm super excited. Even more exciting? I made all 24 of my squares from scrap fabrics. No Spending! WooHoo! Now I just have to figure out what to do with the squares I receive! Feel free to leave a comment with a link to your favorite quilt pattern to tutorial...

My squares... Need to get these to the PO, Tonight!


My new feet!


Check out the new fluffy that showed up on my door step today! Can't wait to get started on some new projects! Gonna have to wait until I get home from Perryton though!

Woohoo - It's a Giveaway!

*Closed* thanks to all who participated & Congrats to Jennifer!!






I've been dying to have a giveaway for several weeks now and since my favorite blog (Bloggy Giveaways) is hosting their Quarterly Carnival, I thought now would be the PERFECT time for my very1st giveaway...

So, what will my lucky reader be winning?? A luxurious hand-dyed, 100% silk habotai scarf with over 650 glass beads. (Well over 6 hours worth of HGTV for me to complete the beading!!) Sorry, my favorite shirt stays with me :)


To Enter:

Just leave a quick comment letting me know that you want to win!


(Optional) For extra entries:

Are you a Subscriber? Just let me know you’re subscribed to Sew Cute Babe in an additional comment.


Blog about this giveaway and include your blog link in an additional comment.


Stumble my blog page (www.sewcutebabe.blogspot.com) and leave me your Stumble Upon name in an additional comment.



Ask me a question, any question. I will have a special post answering some of them...

*The Fine Print*
The winner will be randomly drawn at 10:00pm CST on January 30, 2009. The winner will be posted here as well as notified by email. Since this give away is open to both bloggers & non-bloggers, please make sure I have a way to contact you if your comment does not link back to your blog! Sorry, at this time, the giveaway is only available to US readers. Winner will have 4 business days to respond before another name is drawn. Good Luck Everyone!!

I Spy.... Spongebob?

Have you seen the ever-popular I Spy bags? I think they are so cute and love how educational they are. Even my 2 year old likes to play with them! Well, I needed to come up with a birthday present for a friend's 3 year old and thought an I Spy bag would be *perfect*. Then I decided I wanted to incorporate Sponge Bob somehow as the little guy is a big fan of the cartoon. Ah Ha! It came to be at about 2am. Take a plush sponge bob, desconstruct it a bit, fill with trinkets and polly pellets, resew and voila! An I spy Sponge Bob. It really was easy to do. If you try this, I highly recommend re-stitching over all existing seams as the factory job isn't suitable for holding some like pellets that don't need to be in the reach of little kids! If I were to do it again, I would adjust it even more so that the toy was of a flat shape rather than a cube....I think it would make it easier for little fingers to find the trinkets. At any rate, I thought it was cute!

-Sarah-

Change for America... Is there hope for the CPSIA??

Alright, I'll make no bones about it. I am not an Obama fan. However, since majority of America felt he was right to be the next leader of our nation, I'm just going to sit back and hold on for the ride. Most of you know by now that I've been a bit upset about the CPSIA regulations. I stumbled across a website this evening that is trying to help Mr. Obama truly change America. The top 10 voted on issues will be presented to the new President shortly after his inaguration next week. Right now, the CPSIA regulations ranks at #5! Woohoo. So, here is the chance for him to put money where is mouth is. If he truly wants to change America, here's to hoping that he sees the serious implications that this law has on small business owners in American and realizes that our economy that is already on the brink of disaster cannot handle something like this. I understand the need for safer children's product, really, I do.. But this has gone too far. Lead in baby blankets? Come on... those would be mighty heavy blankets. I see the stupid warnings for the Digital TV transition but I've yet to see anything mentioned about this legilslation on national tv! The government has spent 1.3 billion dollars on the digital tv tranisiton and has now requested an extension because the grant money to help purchase the converter box has run out. Did I mention that that bill was in the works for FOUR YEARS!!! So, the CPSIA has had 6 months and $0 to help anyone... does this not seem wrong to anyone else???!?!?!

"Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them" - Ronald Reagan


Now, with all that being said, please take a moment to go vote and help keep the CPSIA legistlation in the Top 10 things that need to be changed in America!

Delightfully Colorful

A little late posting this, but oh well. I love it when our church has pot-luck dinners... I get so excited to make new things and things that I love to eat, but wouldn't normally fix my family. Well, New Year's Eve was no different. We had tons and tons of food, and I added my fair share. I made my favorite dishes, sweet corn, okra salad, sausage balls and hug pretzels. I had seen the pretzels at a wedding I photographed this summer but forgot about them until I saw them on another blog a few weeks ago. Sure wish I could remember where though! I thought New Years would be a great excuse to make a simple, but yummy snack!! Look at how bright and colorful they are!!!

What you need:
1 pgk small pretzels
2 pks Hershey Hugs
1 lg pkg M&M's

Unwrap all hygs. Pre-heat your oven to 200. Lay pretzels out on baking sheet and place one hug in the center of each pretzel. Place in oven for 3-5 minutes - just long enough to soften the hug, you don't want to melt it. Take sheet out of oven then place one M&M on top of each softened hug and Voila - you're done (of course, they need to cool and re-harden before you can stack them!) With all of the awesome colors you can get M&M's in now, this could be very personalized for birthdays, super bowl, etc. (I'm typing all of this one-handed, so if you would like the recipe for any thing else I listed, just leave a comment and I'll get it posted!)

Enjoy!
Sarah

A touch of Class

Finished up another ring sling gift last night. 'Aunt' Karen is going to keep me sewing, CPSIA or bust :) I love love love the look of black and white, so classy and timeless!! It was a bit cold outside today so I had to go about modeling this just a bit different... plus, I was afraid that if I put it on with Madeline I'd fall in love and be forced to keep it in my own stash. Instead, I brought out my lovely 25 year old model (the doll, not the mannequin) Such a sweetie isn't she? Want to know the BEST part of this sling?? Linen is 60" wide and I bought a yard of the 'Diamond Eye' fabric so I have enough to make me one too. Woohoo!!

-Sarah-






Special thanks to Jan Andrea and Celg for their awesome tutorials. This was a new shoulder-style for me and those two made it super easy to understand!

Feeling a bit ambitious here!

I am so so excited about my next project - though it is going to be a huge time-suck! I've dreamed about thrifting a piece of furniture and doing something funky to it for a long time. Mike and I have been working hard on purging our home and really getting things back in order. Things are coming along well but the kitchen is a disaster. I have proclaimed it to be my sewing area and it's such an eye sore and sadly, the first thing people see when they walk in our house. (I got so embarrassed during Christmas when the FedEx or ups guy would come by) I've had some of my crafting stuff in Madeline's closet, but there simply isn't enough space. I've been researching sewing cabinets and sheesh, those things aren't cheap. Besides, I really didn't know what I was looking for. I've had all of my kitchen mess I can handle, so I started browsing Craigslist, not even really knowing what to search for. Then I found it!!! The perfect armoire for me to re purpose for a sewing space! It was well built and a great price. (It was also my late-grandmother's preferred furniture brand - I'm sure she rolled in her grave at the thought of me destructing it!) The previous owners used it as an entertainment center, so the back will need to be replaced... no biggie there. Since at one time it had shelves there are handy notches already cut in the sides and bottoms. I plan on having Mike design shelves for the main interior that fit around my sewing machine! I'm most excited about the inside of the doors! On one side, I will put the peg board from the garage and some hooks to hold scissors, quilting rulers and other things of that nature. On the other side, I will use cork board along with chalkboard paint to have a message center to keep track of current orders and on-going projects as well as a mile-long to-do list! The drawers are nice and deep and will be great for storing all sorts of stuff. I've been saving all of MJ's baby food jars to fill with buttons and other beading stuff. Is it obvious yet how darn excited I am???

Now comes the most important part - the exterior. To be honest, I have NO IDEA! I thought about decoupaging some fabric on the panels - it has 6 that would be perfect for that. But I run into a problem of WHAT fabric. Since this large piece of furniture will have to go in MJ's room, I'd prefer for it to coordinate with her bedding (this and this) I really wish I could paint it a winter white with distressed edges like the frames and clock in her room, but I'm afraid it would really stick out since the rest of the furniture is bright white! I like the toile and stars from the Glenna jean bedding, but I also love the bunnies... *sigh* I just don't know what to do!!!! I've done lots of image browsing on Flickr and Google and did seethis I think it's do-able (not in blue of course) But I'm going to have to find someone who is good with paints as I am NOT! I guess I'm hoping that a readers will give me some fantastic ideas, and soon. I need to get this done as quickly as possible so I can get everything organized and put away before school resumes in June!













Mike happened to mention that I could sell his dresser drawers. So rather than sell these, I think I'm going to re-do them to match the armoire to give miss MJ even more storage in her room!! Yahhoo!


And while we're on the subject of Madeine's room... Look at this super cute idea from the fabulous Martha Stewart I think I'm gonna have to try this if I re-do Mike's dresser. I think it'd be perfect for the top!

Eureka!

I *finally* got the html kinks worked out - only took about 45 minutes of trial and error number changing, but at least it looks a bit better!! I am super excited about a huge project I'm about to start! It's something I've always wanted to do and now I have the opportunity! Be sure and stayed tuned for the before pictures!!

-Sarah-

Felted Food FUN!

I can remember playing for hours and hours with my brother in our pretend kitchen. It was super-fancy 23 years ago and we had every food product there was in our play room. When we moved into town, my dad turned the storage area under the basement stairs into our own kitchen, complete with pantry shelves. Now Aiden is getting to the age where he is wanting to pretend play. At church he likes to use the little tykes kitchen and serve me food. Well, we have NO ROOM in our house for a kitchen set-up like I grew up with, but I thought he could at least enjoy play foods and would really be able to use the table my parent's got him for his birthday. After some searching, I discovered that most play foods available now were either cheap-o plastic junk or expensive wood (read - anything that is easy for Aiden to loose is expensive) I remember some felted food I saw a while back on a forum that I frequent and headed on over to Etsy to see what I could find. I didn't actually find many people selling the finished products, but rather the .pdf patterns for any kind of food you can imagine!! I cannot wait to get started crafting Aiden some pretend food. I love that if he looses any of the parts or tears some up, no biggie... I have the instructions to create it again... so Madeline will get to have the same fun!!! Check out this adorable BBQ Set or the Toaster Set. Who doesn't love Theatre snacks or Pizza I can even make him his own Sack Lunch or Chinese Take Out *sigh* I feel an addiction coming on....I've already discovered these 3 great pattern makers(Gulf Coast Cottage, Ume Crafts, Bugga Bugs)and I know there are bound to be lots more out there!!

-Sarah-

By the way, if you're reading this and have a fairly good grasp on blog html code, could you PLEASE help me figure out why my text isn't stying inside of my main wrapper, pretty pretty please. I'm really getting tired of this wonky look and i'm sure visitors are too!!