Excellent news!

Etsy is reporting that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has granted a one-year stay for enforcement of the CPSIA rules to review the issues that have been raised by small businesses.

This is fanfreakingtastic news for both small businesses that create items for children and for families that want to buy high-quality, unique, and natural toys and clothes for their kids. Keep up on what further work needs to be done to make sure the exemptions are granted in the next year, but today I think we can give ourselves a pat on the back for all the letters we've written and calls we've made that have helped this day arrive. Hooray!

My first Treasury!

I rarely look at Etsy Treasuries because they're just SO overwhelming. To have the usual 400+ lists of 12-16 items each is a little more stimulation than my feeble mind can take. (Plus, I would never get any work done!) But I happened to pop in there this afternoon, and there were 335 lists, and it needed to drop only below 333 to snatch one up.

My thought process (which often resembles a conversation among very good friends) was something like this:

"No way."
"Are you f[lipp]ing serious?"
"Refresh, refresh. It must be a mistake."
"I am refreshing, chill out!"
"OK, OK."
"Well lookit that. It's for real. For real-for real."
"So what the hell are we going to post?"
"Sh[oo]t, we have to do that first, don't we?"
"Add some fellow EcoEtsy teammates' stuff, obvi."
"Well, duh. But a theme, a theme! My kingdom for a theme!"
"Go with what you know."

Which, my friends, is why I have a map-themed Treasury over at Etsy right now. I included items that were just plain gorgeous as well ones that had maps of places near and dear to my heart (New York, Florida, and of course, DC). Enjoy!

Linkity links and a question.

After the exhaustedness of last week's Inauguration, and the exhaustedness of the excitement leading up to Inauguration, I've been totally pooped. (What excitement, you may ask? Well besides the peaceful transfer of leadership to the first minority leader of the free world, there was also the small matter of being invited to the White House on Wednesday, January 21. Yeah, that picture was taken from inside the gate.) Plus, DC was amazingly vibrant and dense with all our houseguests and various visitors coming for the festivities. It was fabulous to ride Bianca down the street and have groups of people respond to her bell with cheers. I'm sad that people have left and cars have returned.

In other fun news, my landlord determined my house's roof leak was caused by the heating system's expansion tank, which was housed in my closet. The back of my closet. The back of my deep closet. At least removing three years' of stored stuff from it (plus my clothes) means I have an opportunity to sort through and donate a ton of it to help me get ready for the big move in April. Unfortunately, this requires me to get it off my crafting area's floor in a reasonable amount of time. Sigh. I'll be doing that the next couple of evenings, rather than the much funner creating of new stuff.

Long story short, to tide you over, I'm going to link you to some fabulosity that you hopefully haven't come across before (or that you should rediscover if it's been a while). I can't remember where I first heard about all of these, so I apologize for the lack of hat tips.

} Open Drawer, a de-stash Etsy shop run by the woman behind d. Sharp and the d. Sharp blog.

} Dating a Banker Anonymous girls, a terrifying-if-true blog where women dating bankers in the financial meltdown can commisserate about their suddenly lower-rolling lifestyles.

} Angry Chicken, the blog written by Amy Karol that has now inspired me to eat much, much better (once I move out of my group house requiring me to share a somewhat-gross refrigerator with four other people, that is). Oh, and there are occasionally beautiful projects.

} Chez Larsson, a blog written by Benita, who has a lovely sense of simplicity in her Swedish home. It's a little heavy on the white for me to live with every day, but I do enjoy the tips on organizing and decluttering.

Semi-relatedly, is anyone interested in swapping before-and-after blog posts about crafting or studio spaces? I know I could use some motivation in getting my space cleaned up of things that don't belong in it, as well as better organized.

And the winner is,,,

I fully intended to post the winner of the celebratory-hearts drawing yesterday, but I was a little derailed by spending the afternoon with 399 of my closest friends at the White House, hanging out with my new BFF Michelle. (Yes, for real. It was awesome.)

So, a day late, I'd like to announce that Ashley M. is the winner, as determined by the scientific hat-pull performed by my coworker! Congrats, Ashley.

The rest of you need not despair, however. From now until the end of the month of January, put "Happy Inauguration!" in the notes to seller and receive 20% off your order! After receiving payment, I'll issue the discount back through PayPal.

Hooray!

50+ and counting!

I was so happy to watch my hearts climb upward last night, reaching 50 shortly after midnight (Eastern time, that is). I went to bed super-excited.

So imagine how thrilled I was to wake up and see that people had continued adding me to their faves even after the goal was reached! I'm currently at 52 -- and of course, always welcome more hearts! Thank you so much for your support.

As promised, to celebrate I'm going to host a giveaway of a handmade product of mine. I have been getting feedback about the Recycled Stationery Letter Sets --people love the maps and want more of them in the package. The map envelopes are time consuming to cut, so to keep costs down for customers, I had only included one map envelope in each packet, and used reclaimed envelopes for the rest of the set. But so many people have found the letter sets while searching for maps that I am going to split the product line. There will be a set with all map envelopes and blank labels, and then a set with all reclaimed envelopes with handmade map stickers at a lower price point. This will more accurately reflect the skill and time that go into making each letter set.

I'll be repackaging all of the letter sets this weekend to reflect the change, and I'll post here once they're live in my Etsy shop. However, one lucky commenter will be able to get the very first revamped set! If you want to play, leave a comment here with either a) your re-use resolution for 2009, or b) why you like something in my Etsy shop, along with a bot-proof email address to reach you. (While not required, you are more than welcome to pimp my giveaway on your own blog, linking back to this post.) To celebrate the United States' new beginning along with the new beginning of the Recycled Stationery Letter Sets, comments will have to be received by 11:59pm EST on Tuesday, January 20th. I'll use the scientific method of putting the entries in a box on Wednesday and pull one out. The winner will be posted here (maybe along with some pictures I take at Inauguration?), so tune in!

And, of course, if you want to heart craftgasm you are still more than welcome to do so. ;)

50 hearts by midnight?

I just looked at my Etsy shop's hearts and found that 45 people have listed me among their faves -- that's so exciting! Now I'm eager to reach the big 5-0 milestone. If craftgasm reaches 50 hearts by midnight (I'll even make it Pacific time, to help up the ante), I'll offer up an item from the shop for a giveaway raffle here on the blog.

Sound fun? Let's go!