Christmas in July on Etsy

Having worked in retail half of my adult life, I have turned into one of those people that starts shopping for Christmas presents somewhere around the beginning of the school year.  I know, I'm one of those shoppers!  I promise, you can be prepared for the holidays early without busting out the Christmas carols and knit sweaters in July. 

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 All "Christmas in July" really means is that you can take advantage of some really great sales and start stocking up on Christmas gifts early.  If you do a lot of shopping online, it's always best to order early.  Businesses get backed up, and so does the post office, so Christmas in July is a great way to get rid of the stress of holiday shipping times.

So, for those of you like me that like to get some (or all) of your shopping done with plenty of time, or love shopping online, this sale is for you!

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 Many Etsy sellers are offering up Christmas in July sales this month.  Some of them have already started, and some will be starting shortly.

CUTEure Creations will be having a sale this week! Starting Sunday, July 10th, everything in my etsy shop will be 20% off for 2 weeks! Make sure you check it out.  I will have my fall line tentatively out for sale (all color options will not be shown but custom orders will be welcome) along with the products you already know and love.  If you are a fan of mine on Facebook you'll be able to see additional offers and ready to ship items throughout the time of the sale.

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 Make sure you come check it out!

My First Sale

Well, I know I haven't mentioned my shop much on here since I opened it-other than just telling you all that it existed-so I thought I would write a post entirely dedicated to CUTEure Creations.  It is, after all, the reason you haven't heard from me in over a week.

I had my first live sale this past weekend, and have just been so busy focusing on that for awhile.  This sale was focusing mainly on hair bows, although I did have a bit of my crochet work up as well.  It was a very slow time, ending in only 1 trade and no sales.  That is Okay though, it was a great learning experience as to what people really want to see, and how much more of an impression I can make if I kick it up a notch (okay, a couple of notches).  The good news is, no one else really sold anything last weekend either, so it wasn't just me.

The other good news is that I did get to trade another vendor for this cute little guy on the right.  She does such cute work.  I'm hoping she will actually go into business soon! This was just a trial run for her, but I love her little hand made plush toys!  She helped me unload one of my 100 hair bows and I just need to get crackin' on the hat she ordered for her little boy!

All in all, it's been a busy-but fun-few weeks full of creating new items, learning new things, and planning what comes next.  I have so many fun ideas for this shop, I only hope I can keep this energy up and keep creating and putting new things out there.  As for now, I have a couple of orders, and one more Christmas gift to take care of these next few weeks, and then it's on to production time!  I plan on getting into more craft shows and fairs this spring, so I need to start getting things ready now.

Pint-Sized Cleaning Help: Another Point for the Green Team

Ahh, cleaning.  The foul stench of bleach, the cracked and blistering skin from the use of harmful chemicals.  Struggling to keep my daughter out of the bathroom while I scrub so she doesn't breath in harmful fumes...wait.  That doesn't sound so nice, does it?

That's right! It doesn't! And that's why I don't do it that way anymore.  In fact, Addie helped me scrub down the bathroom last week during a cleaning frenzy.  We bonded.  I cleaned.  She played with the dust pan.  I didn't worry once that she was breathing in harmful fumes or that she would touch the cleaning container that had a splash of bleach on the side. Nope.  We just had a good time.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like I let her play with the rag I was scrubbing with or anything, but it was nice to sit there and talk to her while I scrubbed without worrying about her touching anything. And you know what? I don't think my bathroom has ever looked cleaner, nor has cleaning the bathroom ever gone more smoothly!

Granted, I have been using green cleaners for over a year now, but we've still been weeding out the few chemicals that we have had stocked up under our sinks.  I just can't waste. To me that is even less green than using the bleach.  I've been scrubbing Addie's bathroom with Method cleaners and vinegar ever since we moved here for fear that I wouldn't rinse the tub out well enough, but I continued using my bleach-based cleaners on our bathroom to use them up.  Finally we made it!  No harsh chemicals, a clean bathroom, a happy toddler, and money saved on cleaning supplies*.  What more could I ask for?

* Apparently Borax is an amazing bathroom cleaner! It's also cheap, multi-purpose, eco-friendly, and something I already keep  on hand.  Gotta love it.

No Einstein in Our Crib

Parent alert: the Walt Disney Company is now offering refunds for all those "Baby Einstein" videos that did not make children into geniuses.

This is such great news.  I mean, not for me, really, since I never bought into the hype about turning my daughter into a genius before she could talk.  Lucky for me that I also did not buy into the hype that putting my daughter in front of the television every day while I did chores checked my email was actually considered educational. 

I think it's funny, though, that despite not using educational toys and videos to teach my daughter to read or know her shapes or learn to talk, she's already begun exceeding my expectations.  For example, this is how our morning play time went today:

Me: "Addie, where is the ball?" (we had paid no attention to the ball at all today at this point)

Addie: looking around through her toys before she catches a glimpse of the ball and holds it up proudly to show me that she found it.

Me: "That's great! Bring me the ball, please."

Addie: Starts running towards me holding the ball out, hands it over, then claps and grins proudly.

Take that Baby Einstein! My daughter is excelling all on her own.  No videos.  No expensive toys.  Just a ball and her Momma.  Just a bit of quiet interactive play.  Who knew?

I think it is great that Walt Disney is finally admitting to their marketing scheme, and letting the public know that regularly showing their video to your baby does not only not make them smarter, it can actually slow down their development and cause attention problems.

Don't get me wrong or anything.  I have no issues turning on a cartoon on a few occasions where no one can focus on anything, and Addie won't eat, play, sleep, or settle down for a book.  Yo Gabba Gabba is a lifesaver in those instances!  So, no, I'm not totally against TV for children.  What I am against is being told that my child will not come out ahead if I do not buy these videos.  That I am wasting her childhood on toys and play time.

What ever happened to being a kid, for that matter?  I see commercials for kids toys these days, and no longer do I see toys that build imagination and require active play.  Instead, I see commercials for learning video games, and movies that teach your child to read and write, play computers, and toys filled with so many batteries and lights that a young child just needs to sit there and watch it go.  Children used to be able to learn through playing outside, through using their imaginations, and through testing limits.

Hopefully, this lawsuit and this reaction by Disney will spawn a new idea into parents' minds that it's okay to not be perfect.  It's okay to not send your kid to Harvard on a full academic scholarship.  It's okay to give your child the tools he needs to succeed in life without pushing him too far.  It's okay to let him be a kid for now.

Way to go, Disney! It takes a big "person" to admit their mistakes!!

What Cosmetics Do I Love??

This is in response to a BlogHer blog written by Mom101, "What are the cosmetics you love? I mean, really really love in a long term let's get married kind of way?"  She asked, and I'm telling her.  And yes, I realize I write a blog about motherhood.  What does that have to do with makeup, you ask?  Well, don't you like to feel pretty?  I feel that this blog fits well into my new goals that I have blogged about here before.

Let me start by saying that I am by no means a cosmetics snob.  Other than my short stint with a love for Mary Kay foundations and Ultimate mascara, I've always gotten my cosmetics at Target.  Alas, I've still got a few favorites, those that I buy time and time again.  Surprisingly, my cheap mascara that I pick up at the check-out lane didn't make the list.  Maybe I need to re-evaluate.

My favorites include:

1.  OPI "I'm Not Really A Waitress" red nail polish.  I tell ya, I've never been able to wear red on my nails.  Never.  Then one day five years ago, the nail tech at a local salon recommended I try this and I've never looked back.  They have apparently discontinued this color now, which makes me really sad.  I've got three bottles stock piled to give me time to find a new favorite.  Why do cosmetics companies make a perfect product, get you to fall in love, and then take it away?!

2.  Victoria Secret's "Strawberries and Champagne" Refreshing Body Mist.  This scent has been one of my favorites for seven years now.  Every time I buy something different to experiment, I end up disappointed and trudge back to Vickie Secrets admitting defeat.  Why fix what's not broken?

3.  Another favorite scent  of mine since high school is The Body Shops "Oceanus" which is a nice clean scent-my typical favorite and not as surprising to me as the above item.  I've always been a fan of clean smells and this perfume just works perfectly with my body chemistry and smells light all day.

4.  Mary Kay Velocity 3-1 cleanser and moisturizer.  By far my favorite face cleanser and moisturizer combo.  It's designed for teens with acne, but works wonders on my skin.  This is probably my most short-lived affair with a cosmetic. It's only been in my make-up bag for a couple of years.

I'm sorry I can't claim any actual make-up shades on my list.  If I did, I would be lying.  I change brands and shades every time the compact runs low.  Maybe one day I'll find a favorite that I can add to this list.  Until then, the only items I can give kudos to are the behind-the-scenes products, cause, you know, the nail polish only goes on my toes these days.

Safer Kids Products

Like any mom, I have always been especially careful (and I'll admit sometimes a bit paranoid) about what I feed my daughter, or what toys she gets to play with. I breastfed, made home made purees, kept harsh chemicals to a minimum, and put all my plants outside. I read reviews for 3 months before picking out the baby gear I finally settled on. I checked all the safety standards of everything that has ever affected her existence in any way (including reading up on keeping my cats). The only thing I didn't do, was think twice about what I put on her.

Before I had Addie, I went out and bought a huge bottle of Johnson's & Johnson's Night Time bath soap and lotion, just because I have always loved the smell of it. Despite blowing off everyone's advice (do you notice a pattern here??) about not using too many products on baby's skin and slathering her with lotion after a "smell-good" bath every night, she had amazingly clear, smooth skin for the first two months. I thought I was in the clear, and basically told everyone I knew that they were full of it. Boy was I wrong.

Addie soon came down with a pretty bad case of infant eczema (also called atopic dermatitis), which causes a dry, itchy, red rash, usually on the face, arms, and legs, but can appear anywhere on the body. It can be the result of an allergic reaction (even though it is not a direct symptom of an allergy), or it can be aggravated by the heat or irritants that come in contact with the skin, such as itchy fabrics, or chemicals in lotions, soaps, and detergents *.

When I learned this, I started looking into every product I used, trying to find out what we could do better. Let me tell you, most of you would probably be surprised at what is in our baby products.

More than half of the soaps and lotions on the market for babies today have been found to contain traces of two chemicals. 1,4-dioxane or formaldehyde, or both have been found in some of the biggest names out there, claiming to be "gentle" and "pure". These chemicals, according to the EPA, are characterized as carcinogens (cancer causing chemicals) **. Now, I know what some of you are going to do, you're going to go pick up that bottle of baby shampoo and start reading the label, right? Don't bother. These chemicals aren't intentionally put into the products, and aren't listed as ingredients. They are apparently by-products of the manufacturing process, created when the chemicals break down over time, or when two chemicals combine.

To make matters worse, the laws governing chemicals in products (The Toxic Substances Control Act) only helps to keep tabs on new chemicals. There are thousands of chemicals already in products that do not need to be tested. This just doesn't cut it, if you ask me, and since you're reading my blog, let's assume you did ask me.

I must say that the idea of bathing my daughter every night in a bath full of toxic chemicals, no matter if it's a safe amount or not, has lead me to pay a bit more attention to what products I buy to put on my daughter, as well as in her. I have just become so passionate about this, and I feel that, while maybe every parent won't feel as strongly about this issue as I do, we all at least deserve to know. For those of you that now want to do something, you can visit the Parent's Magazine website and fill out a form letter to send to your senators and congressmen to let them know that the Kid Safe Chemical Act (being reintroduced this summer) is important to you, too.



*http://www.babycenter.com/0_eczema_10872.bc

**http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/12/AR2009031202940.html

Sleep safety

All her life, my daughter has been a pretty laid back sleeper. I have had no problems putting a Lovey and her blanket in her bed, she's never had a bumper to keep her out of the slats, I just never worried.

This past week however, she has discovered belly sleeping. This means she rolls, scoots, & turns all night long now. This morning, we were awoken abruptly about an hour early by a crying baby. Willie went in to check on her and she had her legs through the slats and couldn't move.

Obviously, we knew we had to do something about this. So, we went and bought a Breathable Bumper to put in her crib. This is a great invention! I definitely recommend it for any worried parent. It has all the protection of a pillow bumper, with none of the suffocation risks or climbing risks.

We put it in her crib tonight, and I feel much better with it there. Here are some photos, including one of it doing it's job already: