LuLu's Woobies

A Fab Collab!

2009-05-04T22:39:00.000-07:00

I'm happy and excited to announce another LuLu's Woobies collaboration in the works!

What goes better with snuggling up with a luxurious blanket, than relaxing with a soft cozy pillow? Now, how about doing that in style?

I've teamed up with Jen of GoltoneDesigns to put together some very soft sets of woobie blankets with matching baby neck and head support pillows. These sweet pillows are so versatile because they cradle and support around baby’s head in the carseat or stroller from birth and then transform into a neck support pillow when the little one is older. I will have very limited edition sets in my shop this month. The wood grain set is one of my favorite combinations. Chocolate brown cotton faux bois with vanilla minky… ahhhhhhh!

Jen in turn has also stepped it up a notch with a shop revamp and some extra fabulous new neck pillows in designer prints to die for! My girls are in heaven with their very own minky neck pillows. You can be too! Visit Jen’s shop at http://www.GoldtoneDesigns.etsy.com/

Thoughts on CPSIA

2009-01-12T08:55:00.000-08:00

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the CPSIA. It’s been one of those frustrating topics that gets my wheels turning, but with absolutely no resolution.

This new law was very quietly signed into existence . I was not even aware of it until I received a plea by email in December from Cecilia of http://www.craftsburykids.com/ , an online shop that carries my knit hats and some amazing handmade children‘s goods from other independent artists. In a nutshell, this law encompasses all children’s products in an effort to increase child safety. It demands that businesses who make children’s product pay for expensive testing for lead and phthalates in their product. As this law is written now, this includes product that is already obviously lead and phthalate free. Some materials have been exempted, but only in their completely natural state. The “manufacturer” is then required to label all products, but not in the way you’re thinking. The labeling must be emblazoned on the product, not on a tag and not on the packaging. I’m dumbfounded when I consider my knit hats. Permanently labeling those would take some serious skill, but then I probably won‘t be able to afford the cost of testing for them anyway, so I guess it wouldn‘t be an issue.

Big business has been allowed to take advantage of the trusting nature of most consumers and has done so forever and I believe it will continue. Toy companies and big retail are able to pressure the market for cheap and dangerous goods from China, a country that has relied on the USA’s seemingly un-satisfiable consumerism, since before I was born. My girls have their fair share of Barbie collections, so I will freely admit that I have contributed to the mess.

The CPSC is supposed to exist to make the American consumer safe from bad products. I remember making a return at my local Target this time last year and being struck by the wallpaper of child product safety recall notices affixed to the wall. I’m pretty certain that there are two things that all of these products had in common. 1.Made in China -&- 2.Sold and Manufactured by big toy companies. Hmmmmmm…… I’m sure that the CPSC met a lot of flack over the children that were victims of lead and phthalate poisoning, magnets that were consumed, and dangerous playpens and cribs. Products that were not so very well monitored by our safety net to begin with. So the response to this is the CPSIA. Poorly written, good intention that has the potential to put safe handmade small businesses out of commission.

Read more about this important issue at http://www.handmadetoyalliance.org/

Visit http://www.shopetsybaby.com/ , to see what you could be missing out on after February 9,2009.

Big thanks to Jen at http://www.goldtonedesigns.com/ for all of the hard work on our team campaign.

A New Year!

2009-01-11T10:43:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! ...and my goodness it's been a long time since I've blogged.

So here's a short summary of the last third of 2008.

Sofie turned 6, started 1st Grade. Halloween. Thanksgiving. Christmas with family. New Years Eve with friends. I think I knit about 600 hats. All in all pretty regular boring stuff until I share a picture of the boys we adopted during this time......

This is Vinnie (lt) and Petey (rt). We found them at New Leash On Life, a really teriffic dog rescue, where the boys had been living for quite some time. We knew we wanted to rescue a Jack Russell Terrier. The boys were a package deal in our eyes. They'd been companions for years, so we snatched them both up. They adore the girls, unusual for their breeds, and this makes us adore the dogs even more. I recently upgraded them to "allowed on the bed" status. Now I get to wake up at 3 in the morning with the hot Vinnie bologna tongue kissing my face. Eeeew!

Hair Flowers

2008-08-03T16:11:00.000-07:00

I've been ogling hair flowers from PforPrincess on Etsy for forever. Not a promo or treasury has gone by without me thinking "I should really include one of those sparkly flowers I love so much...". Here is more living proof of just how amazing these hair clips are. Sofie's birthday is coming up and I just had to treat the girls, but now I may have a sparkly flower clip addiction! OH and it's not just clips, but flowery headbands too!!

The girls are pretty rough on their things and I was really worried they would trash these flowers, but they are so well made. Sof & Lu have put these clips through the roughest of their tough outdoor play. Not only do they still look brand new, but all of the sparkles are intact and the grip is still firm. Talk about high quality! The princesses can battle dragons and still look like little ladies.

See for yourself at: http://www.pforprincess.etsy.com/

New Stuff

2008-07-29T21:54:00.000-07:00

Wow, how the time has flown by! I can't believe it's already the end of July. We have had some definite craziness around here.

Thanks to the Handmade Kids series on Etsy, I have been a very busy girl. But...I somehow managed to put some new stuff together. I am very much in love with the eared hats and have been looking for any way to work them into sets with blankets. So I've come up with these two to start and more on the way as soon as my creative brain comes back to me.

There have been some interesting developments in the Sofie department this month. I was looking down at her little face talking to me one day and discovered an extra set of teeth growing behind her lower front two. I've never seen anything like it before. I think it's funny that she had these alien growths in her mouth, but never mentioned it to anyone. They seemed to be quite huge when I found them and their partners are loose, loose! She never mentioned that either.

She demanded a tooth pillow be made and has been bringing it with on her longer outings from home just in case the teeth fall out when she is away.

Shark teeth

Introduction

2008-06-26T12:12:00.000-07:00

LuLu's Woobies began in October 2006 when my daughter Tallulah was almost 1.5 years old. I've always been a sewer. It only seemed natural to make baby blankets, especially when we realized how attached Lu was to her blanket "Greenie".

Above is Lu in May '05, just a couple weeks old with her woobie to the left in green minky stars. Her comfort ritual now involves hooking a finger through his very worn silky tag and sucking on it or her thumb, or both. We can always tell she's ready to wind down or go to sleep when she picks up Greenie and gets started on the tag.