Under Construction

CPSIA--good news

Good news.

I may be the only craft blogger who hasn't posted about the proposed CPSIA rule that would enforce lead testing on all products for kids under 12 (effectively putting out of business many small, domestic producers of children's items). BUT I did write to my elected representatives and was gratified that Congressman Lungren's office sent me a personal email and I actually talked on the phone (!) to someone from his office about how this legislation would affect my family income (um, not really at all, fortunately for me). I didn't even vote for Mr. Lungren but was pleased by the response. I also got a semi-personal email from Senator Feinstein's office that was at least relevant to the topic. All in all, I was rather impressed at the responsiveness.

ANYWAY, just saw this post on Craftsanity. Hope it's accurate, I haven't verified but she's a reporter so I'm counting on her to have done so.

From Craftsanity:
...
"The Consumer Product Safety Commission voted unanimously to issue one year stay of enforcement that will postpone the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act crackdown.

Whoo-hoo! I think this means we can legally buy and sell sock monkeys after Feb. 10.

I’m gearing up to get my little darlings ready for bed, so I can’t blog in-depth about this right now. So here’s the scoop straight from the commission:

“Significant to makers of children’s products, the vote by the Commission provides limited relief from the testing and certification requirements which go into effect on February 10, 2009 for new total lead content limits (600 ppm), phthalates limits for certain products (1000 ppm), and mandatory toy standards, among other things. Manufacturers and importers  large and small  of children’s products will not need to test or certify to these new requirements, but will need to meet the lead and phthalates limits, mandatory toy standards and other requirements.

The decision by the Commission gives the staff more time to finalize four proposed rules which could relieve certain materials and products from lead testing and to issue more guidance on when testing is required and how it is to be conducted.

The stay will remain in effect until February 10, 2010, at which time a Commission vote will be taken to terminate the stay.”

The stay is great news, but there’s still plenty of work to be done to revise this law to ensure all makers of safe goods for children can afford to stay in business.

While this issue is far from settled, today’s announcement is a promising step in the right direction."

...

I was actually pretty confident this would work out (based on no evidence whatsover) and I'm glad to see that, for now at least, it has. Happy weekend, everyone

Hoodie

Hooray--finally, I make something that Biscuit wants to wear. Boo--it is a very weird looking thing.

I bought this very stretchy, pink, sweatshirty fabric on the clearance rack at JoAnns knowing it's the type of fabric Biscuit would wear. Also purchased See & Sew Pattern B5234 which I realize now is a pajama pattern but I loved the idea of a hooded dress.

I proceeded to make it about 3 sizes too big so I hacked inches off the bottom but just rolled the sleeves. I planned to put a pocket on the front but didn't want to bother before confirming if she'd actually wear it. Of course she spilled tomato soup all over the front at school so I may never bother with the pocket.

It may be a weird dress but it sure is satisfying to make something and have her get excited to wear it! I think next time I'll use the pattern to make a hoodie sweatshirt that isn't a dress. And I'll make it the right size!

Lazy and trees

I have been hit with a walloping case of lazy. Not so much at work where I've been busy. Mostly at home. So I'm trying to focus on small goals.
A load of laundry.
Wiping the kitchen counters.
Catching up on my DVR recordings.
Spacing out on the internet finding cool things like this blog with sneak peeks at upcoming books.
This interesting article about universal health care (via Snickollet)

And, unrelated, I've been obsessed with tree silhouettes. Like almost driving off the road while observing birds in roadside trees obsessed. Harder to photograph than you might guess.



Biscuit and I went for a walk on Sunday to have a picnic and take photos of trees at the river. She was SORELY disappointed to learn that, no, she couldn't put on her swimsuit and swim in the river in January (in the rain). What is UP with this kid's swimsuit obsession lately? After the meltdown subsided we had a very lovely walk. And this photo is terrible but this feathery (fungus?) inside the dead tree is one of the coolest things I've seen in a while.

Winter in the garden

Poinsettias in the compost heap
Broccoli just before harvest. It became tofu/chicken and broccoli in peanut sauce.

Lettuce is starting to go to seed.

Celery doesn't seem to be bunching like you see in the store. Why?

Onions grow slooooowly.

And the weather was so nice I even put in a (wonky, but free materials on hand) path from the sidewalk to the garden. Being tested by my dancing fairy in the waning light. Love that headband!

Last night I planted peas and (more) lettuce. Today it is finally raining. We'll see if anything comes up.

Crochet: 100 times better than knitting (I think)

This idea of crocheted stones is 100% ripped off from Resurrection Fern and not nearly as well executed. But for a third ever crochet project I'm pretty pleased. The other side:

You can see Resurrection Fern's GORGEOUS work on her blog here and at her Etsy shop.
I also made one of her little rock babies (although I haven't gotten around to a face.

I'm absolutely a beginner at crochet but so far I'm finding it much more intuitive than knitting. I can actually make the shapes (mostly) that are in my head. My stitches are super messy and I am still not sure what double crochet means. But I'm learning.
::
Finally, head on over the Not Quite June Cleaver, she's having a give away of a cool book and asked entrants to post about the contest on their own blog. Here's the link.

Ready to enroll at Hogwarts

I started this coat months ago when I found the dark denim on clearance ($2/yard at JoAnns) and found the knit (lining) at the thrift store for $1. It's hard to find a button-less coat pattern (and Biscuit still REFUSES to wear anything with a button) so I modified a pattern that I have since misplaced in my disaster zone craft room and added a front, center zipper and the lining. I also made my usual mistake of slightly enlarging the pattern in hopes of having it fit longer. I finally hemmed the whole thing last week and it only took about 20 minutes. What the heck was I waiting for?

Turns out my slight pattern modifications turned it from a coat into a graduation robe/wizard robe. The front zipper accentuates the graduation robe look although Biscuit and I both like it. Unfortunately, the sleeves just fit so she has to wear it now or never and she won't be able to grow into the length (mid calf).

The collar is also a little big/silly/floppy. On the upside, at least she would try it on!

I think I'm going to add some embroidery detail to make it less monochrome and robe-like. Perhaps I should first clean Biscuit's room!

P.S. Those cards she's playing with are from D. Sharp's etsy shop. I saw them and thought Biscuit would love them (she does--Numbers! and Cards! All in one!). I thought my dad, who was in the Navy, would get a kick out of them. Wonder if he remembers the flag numbers?

In case you're in the market

These are the best pencils. Hands down.

I just thought you should know. And Jen made me think to tell you with this photo. In case you need some, click.

Last Christmas post. I promise

I have failed to mention one of my favorite (and easiest) Christmas gifts from this season! I made my sister a cookbook (and made a copy for myself).

I collected all of my favorite vegetarian recipes from online and cookbooks and formatted the online ones to print and scanned the cookbook ones to print and printed them all out. Then I futzed with the formatting for a good long time and took the whole thing to Kinkos to photocopy onto cardstock. (random hint: at my Kinkos, ivory cardstock was 10 cents cheaper per sheet than white. Bizarre!) Kinkos trimmed to size and did the spiral bind for about $4/book.

But, the piece'd'resistance (sp?) was the cover--cardboard from a cereal box. My sister's was an All Bran box (that girl loves her bran). Mine was Cheerios (duh).

I added in a few jars of spices that the recipes use and called it a gift. (note the use of the typewriter for the tags. Very happy about that)
 
And, the last Christmas thing, my impromptu gift tags. I had extra print outs from testing the memory game on paper before committing to fabric so I cut them up and taped them to gifts. Perfect for Biscuit to help pass out gifts!
 

Feeding my addiction

Beth says it's de-lurking day so it must be true.

And I've been meaning to update my blogroll for ages to include all the folks who are kind enough to swing by (and comment on!) ye olde blog.

So, leave a comment and, help me get my blogroll updated.  I already added a few new blogs (that are in random order because a Bloglines wizard I am not).

In case that doesn't give me enough reading material, I've also signed up for Twitter. Let the productivity end....now.

I have the answer

of what to do with Lemon Curd....mix it into plain yogurt. Best lemon yogurt you've ever had.

You're welcome.

It's posts like this that make me think I should sign up for Twitter (but I had to share this excellent discovery). So, how 'bout a photo?

A dewy spider web from a walk over Christmas break. Not exciting but all I've got.