Last day of 2009

Dear Blog,

I will be closing you. since this has not be working for me.

I do not like New Year Resolutions but I'm making one this year.

I will be consistently blogging on 2010, in order to do so I will start fresh.

I will be setting up a new blog and when this is ready I will put the new address here.

Happy New Year!

Patricia

Coming back - I hope

Dear Blog,

I really do not have too much time for you, so I keep neglecting you. Anyway, I want to let you know that you can find me at the Urban Street Bazaar. I will be sharing the booth with Mandi from Mandibeads

Here is the flyer!
I hope to see you there.

Bye,

Patricia

Etsy Shop - Managing your time 101 - Part One

• Are you struggling to find time to do everything?

• Do you feel overwhelmed by it?

• Do you think the day does not have enough hours?

Well, you will be surprised how a little organization will take you a long way. Actually, managing your time is not rocket science, it is simple if you have a process. So let's get started:

The first thing to do is be realistic with your time, sit down and write down the hours that you will be dedicating to your shop. Do not cheat, be absolutely honest with yourself. After you are done with this step, you should have a list like this:

Monday - 4:00 PM - 9:00 PM - 5 hours

Tuesday - 4:00 PM - 9:00 PM - 5 hours

Wednesday - 4:00 PM - 9:00 PM - 5 hours

Thursday - 4:00 PM - 9:00 PM - 5 hours

Friday - 4:00 PM - 9:00 PM - 5 hours

Saturday - FREE

Sunday - 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM - 5 hours

Total hours: 30 hours

So far so good. Now think again, are you willing to commit to those hours? If not, adjust it until you have something reasonable.

When you are done, do a happy dance! First step is completed.

Tomorrow, I will be posting Step Two.

Stay tune!

Melba is in a better place

Dear Blog,



I had been mute for a few days because Melba got very sick and over the weekend I had to make the decision that you do not want to make. Melba went very peacefully on 03/15/2009.

I miss her very much so my other 2 cats, Sam and Jessie. She was a very sweet kitty that adopted me 7 years ago. I will always remember her.

:-(

Patricia

CPSIA - Answer from TX Senator

Dear Blog,

You may remember that I contacted our Texas senator... well this is the answer I got:

Dear Ms. Ivanisevic:

Thank you for contacting me about consumer safety. I share your concerns regarding the safety of consumer goods, and I appreciate having the benefit of your comments on this important matter.

Recent revelations of tainted imports and other consumer goods are troubling to all Americans. To address this critical issue, then-President George W. Bush established the Interagency Working Group on Import Safety by Executive Order on July 18, 2007. Led by the President’s cabinet secretaries, this working group thoroughly reviewed our nation's supply chain to identify risks and make recommendations on how best to improve product safety in the marketplace. The working group concluded that no single stage in the supply chain—from foreign manufacturers and exporters to domestic importers and retailers—bears full responsibility for recent product recalls. Therefore, it is important to detect vulnerability in each stage of the supply chain and respond with a comprehensive policy that ensures public safety.

An important step towards increased consumer safety came on July 31, 2008, when the Senate approved the Consumer Product Safety Modernization Act (P.L. 110–314). This legislation bolsters the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the federal agency that inspects consumer products and enforces compliance. Additionally, P.L. 110–314 updates product safety standards beginning with toys and other children’s products by banning six categories of phthalate chemicals and all measurable traces of lead from toys. P.L. 110–314 will modernize product labels to make it easier for parents and consumers to determine if a product they have purchased has been recalled, and for the first time retailers will be prohibited from selling items that are subject to a recall.

Because the volume of children’s products required to meet new safety standards is large, P.L. 110–314 allows the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to designate accredited third-party laboratories to inspect and approve products designed or intended primarily for children age 12 and younger. The CPSC is required to issue accreditation requirements for such laboratories and maintain a list of the accredited laboratories; deadlines for the publication of such requirements differ according to the type of product being tested by the laboratory.

Furthermore, many manufacturers of children's products are concerned with how the CPSC will implement these testing requirements—chiefly with the costs associated with third-party testing. As a result, the CPSC is currently soliciting comments from manufacturers and the public as regulations pertaining to this section of the law are written. It is your right as a citizen to participate in the regulatory process. The CPSC has established the following website where individuals may find more information regarding local meetings, how to submit comments and recommendations, and how to join a mailing list for updates on CPSC developments: http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/cpsia.html.

I am encouraged by your willingness to participate in the regulatory process, and you may be certain that I will keep your concerns in mind should relevant legislation be considered by the Senate. Thank you for taking the time to contact me.

Sincerely,

JOHN CORNYN
United States Senator

At least somebody answered but but.....

Cya,

Patricia

Thursday! Stand Still Day

Dear Blog,

Well, today is Thursday and tomorrow is my favorite day of the week, so I should start planning for the weekend. This week I had been very busy at work but those are not news. For the time being I'm trying to figure out what products I will have for the summer and how to promote my Etsy store. I'm not getting very far but I will keep trying.

In addition, I cannot decide what the blog should be about since I'm not in top of it as much as I would like to be.

What would you like to read about? Give me a hint.

Let me know,

Patricia

Social Networking - Too many choices

Dear Blog,

Happy Friday to everybody!

Well, now i'm getting on the roll of all these social networking sites, and if you have not noticed , they are bunches of them so it seems that is not enough time to keep them updated.

Yesterday, I started to talk about Twitter as one of the popular sites, as you probably know Facebook and Myspace are very popular too. So the question remains, how do I keep up with all these stuff?

The answer is fairly simple, Facebook and MySpace have what they call applications, so you can add Twitter as I did and then everytime you post something on Twitter will get broadcasted to Facebook and Myspace. That's neat!

I actually discovered this by mistake but that is a different story!

See you soon,

Patricia

Social Networking - Tweet or Not Tweet?

Dear Blog,


It looks like these days if you do not get into the social networking/ viral stuff you are living in the stone age. You can use these venues for personal and/or business whatever you are up to.

One of the sites that is becoming extremely popular is Twitter and you can see I'm on that , just look at the right hand side of my blog page. You can follow me if you are inclined to do so.

I had been experimenting with it and still am but one question most people ask is: What is Twitter?

The short answer to that question is Twitter is like mini blogging, so everytime you post something is like a little blog post. You can update it as many times as you want, actually they are not rules.

You can reply to your Twitter buddies or just read their posts, check their links, post your links to whatever interest you, anything really....the sky is the limit.

Just give it a try, you may find out that you love it!

I keep reading articles on how to use it so I will be posting some of my ideas in future posts.

Bye for now,

Patricia

Work in Progress

Dear Blog,

Here is new type of work in progress. Little crocheted hats for wedding/bridal shower favor, they can be pinned to a guest with a corsage pin. They are around 3 inches in diameter and the ribbon an flower can be different colors. Here are a few pictures of the prototypes completely white.

Tell me what you think!

Patricia

CPSIA - Well, February 10th has passed

Dear Blog,

This is a sort of re-blog of this article from Etsy which I suggest you read:

http://www.etsy.com/storque/craftivism/cpsia-its-february-10th-so-now-what-3413/


So it looks like that some materials are exempt.....

The following materials are known by the CPSC to be inherently lead-free or are exempt, and can be used in their untreated/unpainted state without any risk of sanction or penalties by the Commission.

• Precious gemstones: diamond, ruby, sapphire or emeralds
• Semiprecious stones provided that the mineral or material is not based on lead and is not associated with any mineral based on lead
• Natural or cultured pearls
• Wood
• Other natural materials including coral, amber, feathers, fur, and untreated leather
• Surgical steel
• Gold, of at least 10 karats
• Silver, at least 925/1000 pure
• Platinum, palladium, rhodium, osmium, iridium, and ruthenium
• Yarn, dyed or undyed
• Dyed or undyed textiles (cotton, wool, hemp, nylon, etc.), including children’s fabric products, such as baby blankets, and non‐metallic thread and trim. This does not include products that have rhinestones or other ornaments that may contain lead or that have fasteners with possible lead content (such as buttons, metal snaps, zippers or grommets).
• Children’s books printed after 1985 that are conventionally printed and intended to be read, as opposed to used for play
• Certain educational materials, such as chemistry sets

The Commission has also provided limited exclusions for products containing component parts that contain lead in excess of the 600ppm limit, specifically:

• Components that are not accessible, that is cannot be reached by a small child’s finger or tongue. Paint and other coatings or electroplating are not considered barriers that make a component inaccessible.
• Components of electronics devices intended for children that cannot be made inaccessible and cannot currently be made with a lead level that meets the limit.
  

So some of us will be ok after all, what it is not clear to me if this must be added into the law or not. Next step it seems to be to contact the manufacturer of the stuff, in my case, yarn and go from there. I had been reading Etsy forums on the matter and some sellers have concerns because the yarn manufacturers are not responding or they said that they will not be testing.

Oh well! Still very confusing. We will figure this out.

Bye,

Patricia

P.S.: My next post will be about something else, I need a new tune.

CPSIA - We need help!

Dear Blog,

Today I received this email from the Handmade Toy Alliance:


"Thank you for your continued support to Save Small Business from the CPSIA. It has been an active week. A stay of enforcement was issued by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) on Friday, January 30th. Although it has stayed enforcement of many provisions of the law, the CPSC has made it clear that they lack authority to fully correct the CPSIA. Urge Congress to provide the CPSC with guidance that will protect toymakers, thrift resellers, publishers, and clothing manufacturers from the unintended consequences of the CPSIA. A technical amendment, the CPSIA Regulatory Relief Bill, will be introduced on the Senate floor soon. It is important that we gain Senate support for this necessary legislation. Here's what you can do:

1. Call your Senator (switchboard: 202-224-3121).
2. Identify yourself as a constituent and ask to speak with the Senator or the staff assistant who follows Commerce issues.
3. Ask him/her to co-sponsor the CPSIA Regulatory Relief Legislation, and tell them if they have questions about the legislation they can contact Tom Jones in Senator DeMint’s DC office at 202-224-6121. Tom’s email address is tom_jones@commerce.senate.gov
4. Ask them to vote for the CPSIA Regulatory Relief legislation when it comes to the Senate floor, possibly as an amendment to the stimulus package as has been rumored.
5. Get five friends to do steps 1-4.
   
   We need to show strong support of this amendment in order to get the Senate to pass it. To read the specifics of the amendment, go to:
   http://demint.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=JimsJournal.Detail&Blog_ID=295d58b2-b6fe-c446-1432-24b6199424ed
   

We have also made strides in our intiative at change.org. We are in the final stages of teaming with a non profit agency and going forward with our national campaign to save small businesses. There is a new petition that you can sign and send a letter to Congress. To see the petition, go to: http://www.change.org/ideas/4203/view_action/tell_congress_to_save_small_business. Our blog posts have also begun. View these at: http://www.change.org/ideas/view/save_handmade_toys_from_the_cpsia .

Thank you again for your support. Our grassroots campaign would never have gotten as far as it has without the support of people like you.

www.handmadetoyalliance.org

"

In addition to this, Etsy posted a similar article yesterday. You can find it at:

http://www.etsy.com/storque/craftivism/message-from-senator-demint-call-your-senators-about-the-cps-3370/


I was going to call, however I decide to try an email first. The senator for Texas is John Cornyn

I went to Contact and sne t an email, I will wait a few days and then call if I do not get any response.

Bye for now,

Patricia

CPSIA - The saga continues

Today was released a one year stay on the testing. You can find the Press Release at:


http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09115.html

Finally, some good news!

CPSIA - Do something about it!

Let's kick 2009 with something meaningful....


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.