CPSIA delayed... Yay!

Good news! The U.S. Consumer product Safety Commission has delayed for one year the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) banning all children's items not laboratory tested (at a cost of thousands of dollars per item) for lead. You can read more about it in the Etsy Storque. Yay! We made a difference! The work still isn't over to clarify this issue, but at least we have more time for discussion.

This is great for kokoleo because I have a big web shop update coming soon - chock full of all new kids clothes! Stay tuned!

It's a beautiful day. . .

No one likes to see a tattered flag flying in the wind.

So this weekend, when I was at Goodwill (where I finally found the absolute perfect desk which I'll blog about another day) I uncovered an awesome American flag crumpled among the linens. It wasn't printed, like most flags I get, but stitched, red fabric to white fabric to blue fabric, with white stars embroidered on it. Plus, it was HUMONGOUS - 6 ft. by 4 ft., bigger than any flag I'd ever flung before. And! it was just $5! Score!

I waited until Tuesday at noon to raise it.

I feel like I got my country back.

No mo' kokoleo. . .

. . . or, at least that's what's going to have to happen next month if the new child product safety law goes into effect. The Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) is an ill-written law that demands ALL items intended for children be tested for lead content, at a cost to the manufacturer of roughly $300 per component. For big name companies of mass produced toys and clothing, this might not be a problem, but for those of us who make one-of-a-kind items by hand, it will drive us into bankruptcy.

Therefore, like a good shrewd businesswoman, I am going to pass this cost on to my customers. Starting next month, I will increase my prices to cover the testing of each item I create. Also, expect a 4-6 month delay in shipping, as I must send each piece to a lab for testing.

Kokoleo friendly monsters, which used to sell for around $30, will now cost $2,735 (plus $5 shipping). It breaks down like this: $30 for the monster (my profit) +

and that's before taxes (included in the price). Sundresses, which usually sell for $40, will now be $1,540 (plus shipping). That's $40 for the dress (my profit) +

And personalized pieces, the bread and butter of my business, will now start at $2,140 (for a two-letter name), and $305 for each additional letter (plus shipping). This pillow:

would be $4,265. This banner:

would be $3,955.

Sounds crazy doesn't it? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for keeping lead away from our kids. I would never make anything I would not allow my own children to play with or wear. I pride myself on making quality, durable, safe items. Kokoleo has been a way for me to do what I love to do, stay at home with my kids, and make a little money each month to help with the bills. I don't do it in the hopes that one day I'll be some fatcat C.E.O. of kokoleo, I do it because I like to make things with my hands and there are people out there who appreciate handmade things. It's a living.

So what can you do? You can join the Handmade Toy Alliance to find out more about his legislation, who it will affect, and how you can help. You can sign the online petition asking this law to be revised. You can also write to your Congressperson and Senator using the Handmade Toy Alliance sample letter or write your own. Most of all, you can spread the word. Email, blog, talk about it on the playground. Please don't let one-of-a-kinds become a thing-of-the-past.

Yes We Did!

Well, that was fun, wasn't it? What an inspiring night! I feel good about our future now. I'm not going to be naive and think that Captain Obama will swoop down and instantly FIX IT, but I'm confident that a movement has started and we all will have a part in making America great again.

I think my favorite part about these past few months is distributing my Obama bottle cap pins, barrettes and magnets. I sold about 35 and donated $50 to the campaign, then gave out over 100 to random strangers around town. A batch of 12 went to to the Obama headquarters (to give to their volunteers) and the rest went to anyone who commented on the one I was wearing, or who I happened to notice wearing an Obama shirt, or who I simply overheard talking up Barack. It's fun to give gifts to unsuspecting strangers.

One I sold on Etsy got lost in the mail so I sent another. When the customer wrote to tell me that the lost one arrived and she would return it, I said she should keep it because Pennsylvania needed it more than California. As a thank you, she sent me one of her awesome handmade buttons. Sweet crafty karma!

I hope we keep up this spirit of camaraderie and can reign in the naysayers soon. Let's all hop on the Straight Talk Express and put Country First and work to achieve the CHANGE WE NEED because Yes, We Can!

(Sorry about that cavalcade of catch-phrases. The election season warped my brain cells.)

Election Day anxiety

I'm HOPEful, but nervous. I remember how devastated I was in 2004 when Dubya got reelected, so I'm not going to "measure the drapes" quite yet. For a while, I lost faith in the ability of our country to come together. I worried that we would always at the mercy of a government that divided us and continued to make decisions that hurt it's citizens. This year, however, I've been inspired.

I know, without a doubt that I made the right choice in the voting booth today. I have full confidence that my candidate can bring the CHANGE WE NEED to our country. I have been impressed with the Obama campaign, always staying on message and taking the high road in the face of so much negativity. I have been moved by the sight of citizens working together to take back our country to make it respectable again. I am happy to see the anti-intellectual movement losing ground. We need to have some smart people in charge for a change.

Fingers crossed, prayers said, vote cast. . . there's nothing left to do but hurry up and wait.

Happy Halloween!

McKenna's still trying to figure out all these weird traditions people celebrate. This isn't her first Halloween, but it's the first where she actually notices the abundance of pumpkins and skeletons and spiders and such.

Sage showed her how to scoop out the guts.

See? No more guts! (He's soaking in it.)

If you see my Halloween blog post from last year you'll notice a similar picture, only without the little girl looking on.

Sage wanted "one mad pumpkin and one silly one." He drew the outlines and Erik cut them out.


And here they are all lit up:


And here's the one I did:

(I just couldn't have an Obama-free blog post.)

Bottle Caps for Sale!

By popular demand, my bottle cap pins, magnets, and barrettes for Barack (which were recently featured on The Obama Craft Project blog) are now available online in my Etsy shop.

For each item sold I will donate $1 to the campaign at www.barackobama.com. Last weekend I sold 21 pins and magnets, came home and donated $30 to the campaign and got a free t-shirt. Not a bad trade!

Except it's not as cool as the ones I've seen at craft shows. Own a piece of handmade history! This is only the most important election of our lifetime, you should get something to remember it. Or make something and send it to me. If you send me something I'll send you something. Deal? I have a lot of bottle cap buttons to get out there.

Bottle Caps for Barack

All the handmade Obama stuff I saw at the Abbot Kinney Festival last weekend inspired me to get crafty and help out the campaign too. I've always wanted to make casting resin bottle caps so this week I taught myself how. It's easy! Albeit messy and not necessarily cheap. But I like how they came out. You should make some too. Here's how. . .

First, get this stuff:

Clear casting resin, a bottle of the catalyst (which makes the resin harden), a measuring jar, gloves, and some bottlecaps. (Thanks to the NoBar in North Hollywood for giving me a few nights worth of their bottle caps. I have enough to last a while now.) Make sure to do this outside or in a well ventilated room, otherwise the fumes will make you loopy.

Next, find the image you want to encase in the resin. Now, normally I'd encourage people to make their own damn images and not swipe other people's off the internet, but I wanted to use the easily identifiable ones so I google-imaged "Obama logo" and picked out my favorites from the campaign. I hope whoever created them doesn't mind, since it's to promote the cause and all. I doubt Shepherd Fairey will sue me for wanting to further his propaganda.

The first batch I made I printed on regular paper and cut them out with scissors. Those didn't turn out so great. By the second batch I realized that glossy photo paper looks much better, and by third batch I got this awesome circle cutter to pop them out in no time. Now, set these aside.

Also, gather up and set aside these:

Glue, pins, magnets, barrettes, and whatever other attaching devices you can find.

Now, start the process by mixing your resin and catalyst (8 drops of catalyst per ounce of resin). I used 3 ounces for about 35 bottle caps.


Next, fill them halfway.

Go do something else for a half an hour. . .

then come back and insert your circles. Press them down hard to push out any air trapped underneath.

Now, mix up another batch of resin/catalyst and slowly fill the rest of the bottle cap. The line between underfilled and overfilled is tricky, so be careful.

Once you've got them all filled, go do something else for a few hours. RESIST the urge to touch them. You will get your fingerprints on them or bang them into each other and mess up the nice glossy sheen they get if you just LEAVE THEM ALONE. Go run some errands, eat dinner, watch the debate, and when the kids are in bed you can glue magnets to the backs of them, like these:

I used a couple juice bottle lids to make to those big ones and they came out nicely, so feel free to think outside the bottle cap. The bottom row is my first batch. Here's a closeup of the difference between using photo paper and regular copy paper:

I also made some barrettes:


And pins: So there you have it. Now go make your own Obama bottle caps to raise some cash for the campaign at your next rally/fundraiser/craft show. Or, just give them to people so they can promote the cause. They'll either think you're really awesome and thank you or tell you to go to hell with your eastern elite liberal ideals. Either way it'll get people talking.

If you want one of the ones I made, come visit the kokoleo booth this Saturday night at the Eagle Rock Music Festival, visit the Obama phonebank in North Hollywood Park next weekend, or check out my Etsy shop in a few days (kokoleo is currently under construction). $1 from the sale of each bottle cap will be donated to the campaign at www.barackobama.com. I'll get them all out there somehow! Hopefully, in four months you can wear one to his inauguration.

Another Mama for Obama

Have you been following the news? I have, and I can honestly say that never in my life have I seen so many crises in our country. Growing up, I never felt like we had a revolution to get excited about. I was jealous of the 60s. I think these are our 60s. The times they are a'changin. . . finally! I just hope it's for the better. It certainly can't get much worse.

And yet, we're muddling through. Our house is worth half of what we paid for it, groceries and gas and utilities are costing more, business is down in shops where I sell my stuff, and we're doing without a lot of extras. But, it's not so bad, really. In a way, I think it's a wake-up call this country needed. Times like these make you realize what's really important. Still, my heart goes out to those who are losing their jobs, homes, life savings, etc.

Now that Sage is back in school, I'm enjoying a new routine where I sew and listen to CNN during McKenna's naptime. If I'm a housewife then this is my soap opera, complete with drama, intrigue, excitement, and scandal. I was super-excited to watch the debate, then a bit disappointed that there wasn't a hands-down winner. I have tried to keep an open mind and I'll be the first to acknowledge a valid point by the other side, but I'm no fence-sitting swing-voter. I know without a doubt who I trust and know can lead us in a brand new direction. And I know without a doubt who I think has some terrible ideas. Trouble is, half the country seems to like that guy just as much as I like mine and they think all those terrible ideas are good ones. It's shaping up to be a nail-biter of an election, and we still have 5 weeks to go! All I know is we better get it right this time because the last 8 years have shown us that the wrong choice can ruin everything.

Last weekend I volunteered to work a phone bank calling voters in Nevada to talk about the issues and encourage them to vote for Barack Obama. It was pretty intimidating, sometimes disheartening, sometimes uplifting (one woman told me I convinced her Obama was her man), and generally a good way to spend an afternoon. I also helped handwrite postcards to voters in the swing states while I sat around a picnic table with other Obama supporters discussing the latest news stories. That equals fun in my book. Those few volunteer hours were the least I could do, literally, it wasn't much. There are people out there doing way more for the cause and I applaud and support them.

While I was there I got lots of compliments on this barrette (for sale on Etsy) that I made, and I donated $20 and got that bracelet and ring a lady was selling. I love all the grassroots handmade political gear that I'm seeing, especially because it's mostly all pro-Obama. (I guess McCain folk aren't that crafty? Granted, I do live in liberal L.A.) We went to the Abbot Kinney Festival in Venice Beach today and it was like a Grateful Dead show with everyone digging each other's t-shirts and other gear. Here are just a few that I managed to capture:

Are you registered to vote in your area? If not, there's still a little time left. Google yourself a registration form and then on November 4th just fill in the box that says Obama/Biden. It's easy!

Talkin' Politics

Okay, I know it's frowned upon (by some) to talk politics in public, but I can't help it. Too much is at stake in this election. For the past two weeks I've been closely watching in both conventions. I've listened to almost every speech. I've cheered and cried and argued with the television. I've been uplifted and inspired, then saddened and angered. . . confident, confused, hopeful, hopeless, ashamed, proud, and simply amazed at it all. I am on the edge of my seat for CHANGE.

What about you?



The first person to leave a comment gets an Obama sticker.

I blame Bush.

Anyone else feeling the pinch? The crunch? The economic monkey on your back? Sheesh. Gas is $3.63 around here. A gallon of milk is over $4.00. According to Zillow our house is now worth less than what we paid for it a year and a half ago (at the peak of the market, of course.) We always seem to be a few steps behind the times when livin' is easy, arriving on the scene just in time for the booms to bust and the bubbles to burst. Remember the (Bill) Clinton years? Those were fun. There was this new thing called the Internet and lots of shiny new dotcoms. The budget was balanced and there were jobs and houses sprouting up all over the place. When I think what's happened since then, it breaks my heart. I feel like we're in the (painful) home stretch. It'll be better soon. It can't get much worse. I hope.
I loved this sticker the minute I saw it and a few weeks later found out why. Shepherd Fairey made it. I love his art. You can buy this sticker here from Sticker Robot. Let's plaster it all over the place.