Meow! Our August Giveaway!

Congratulations to Paige of BrooklynAlizabeth! Paige is our July winner of the oh-so-cute ribbon flip flops from Momosbows. Congrats to Paige and kudos to Stephanie Key for the donation to our team's monthly contest!

Our contest giveaway for the month of August is courtesy of Becca Block from PurrPrints. If you love kitties, you will want to get to know Becca's shop. Her art captures the essence of cats!


The giveaway this month is a 5x5" signed archival print of PurrPrints most popular design, Kitty Love, in red and brown.

This prize is valued at $10.

To enter, please visit Becca's Purrprints shop and come back here to leave a comment and tell us what you like about her shop or her art. If you tweet about the contest let us know for another chance to win. And if you post this at your blog, leave a comment with the link for yet another chance to win.

The contest ends August 31. We'll draw a winner that evening and post by the first week of September.

Good luck to all and thanks for playing!!

Our Hot July Team Giveaway!!

Congratulations to Toni Johnson of Vernon Ave our winner for the month of June. She wins the lovely earrings created by Jama Watts of These Precious Things. Congratulations to Toni!

Our giveaway for the steamy hot month of July is brought to us by Stephanie Key of Momosbows. And very appropriately, her giveaway is flip flops!

One pair of Polka Dot Princess Flip Flops (in pink or white) and a matching bow!


Description:
This style of Princess flip flops are available in pink or white. The sides are braided with pink, green, and white ribbon for that special look. Complete with green and pink polka dots and a tiara, this pair is a great gift for:

-Birthdays
-Flower girls
-Birthday favors
-A Pageant Contestant
-Or any day for that special girl

All of my bows are secured with elastic cord and the ends are heat sealed. There are no pokey wires to worry about here! The tiara is nestled between two bows to ensure that it sits up far enough away from little toes. These are new, quality made, Cariris flip-flops (no cheapos) that retail without the bows for $8-$15.
These are available in the following kids' sizes:
11/12
13
1/2
3/4
and Toddler sizes with a backstrap:
7/8
9/10

They are valued at: $18.00 with the matching bow valued at $7.00

How Do I Enter?
In order to enter this drawing, please visit the Momosbows store, then come back to this blog and post your comment. Tell us what you like about Stephanie's shop or tell us about your favorite item. If you post this giveaway on your blog, let us know that too, for an additional chance to win. Also, if you twitter the contest, let us know and you get an extra chance for that as well.

We'll draw a random winner on July 31 and will announce it here.

Good luck to all!

CPSIA - Save our Children?

In August of 2008, during the time that election and re-election bids were in full swing a campaigning was nearly all we heard in the media, a law was passed to “Save Our Children”. Now, I’m all for a law to “Save Our Children”…who isn’t? Can you imagine the stampede of congressmen and women to sign this thing? Can you imagine the amount of criticism for someone who wanted to look into it further before “Saving Our Children”? Once signed, they could relate to their voters that they helped “Save Our Children”. So now that it is signed and passed, it goes into full effect on February 10, 2009.

What this piece of legislation does is require testing of all products intended for children ages 12 years and younger. This, I have no problem with. It is the redundancy of the law that causes me (and many small business owners) great issue. The law states that all components of a product must undergo testing as well as any finished product. I have already obtained MSDS sheets stating CPSIA compliance for all of my supplies (below is a list compiled through an etsy.com forum of all suppliers thus far offering certification sheets). As of August 14, 2009, I will also have to send the first in each batch of bows to an approved third-party company to be tested before I can sell it to the public. Each time I test a “first of the batch” it will cost between $200-$500. This will in turn, force many small businesses to close due to the huge increase in overhead costs. The large companies that have caused the need for this law will not be fazed by the huge cost of testing since they mass produce their items and will only have to test the first one produced in a batch of thousands. For smaller businesses this poses a problem since we normally only produce maybe 5 of the same item and each one is handmade by us. We cannot ship internationally or in the US because our items will be deemed as containing a hazardous substance, and it is against the law to use the Postal Service to transport hazardous material.

Let’s face it, the age of toy trains that are tainted with lead paint, poisoned baby formula, and little dots that turn to GHB (the date rape drug) when mixed with saliva who doesn’t want to “Save Our Children”? My suggestion is to take a closer look at where those tainted and poisoned items were manufactured. Oh, no, we don’t have to look, because we all know where they were made, and it wasn’t in the United States. But yet, the CPSIA is going to hardest hit the USA handmade businesses.

Below is a list of links to help you contact your congressmen and women about this law. Please contact them and ask that this law be amended so that we can truly “Save Our Children” from growing up without handmade items.


Lawrence H. Summers is the Director of the National Economic Counciland Assistant to the President for Economic Policy.You can call the White House at Comments: 202-456-1111Switchboard: 202-456-1414

Committee on Energy and Commerce
Attn: Henry Waxman2125 Rayburn House Office BuildingWashington, D.C. 20515

(202) 225-2927

Ed Whitfield – congressman from Kentucky on the Committee on Energy and Commerce
http://whitfield.house.gov/
2411 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515

(202) 225-3115 Voice (202) 225-3547 Fax

Article by Stephanie, of MoMo's Bows, who handmakes tons of super cute beanie caps (above)and curly, wonderful bows for little girls' hair. She works at home crafting her handmade goodness while enjoying watching her two sons and daughter grow up.

Learn more about the CPSIA at: http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/legislation.html#summaries

and the winner is...

Daydream Art Studios, with 54% of the votes for this ornament:

Close runners up were MoMo's Bows and Whimsy by Mari, who tied for second with their beautiful ornaments!

The reader comment who won a $20 gift of BEST Bucks is Libby, from Aurora's Garden!

Congrats to everyone!!