I did it

My goodnees . . It's sure been a long last 6 months. Working on actually getting my cleaning products to fruition has been an adventure!
Insurance, labels, terminology, PO Boxes, ideas, trial after trial, discovering that I am apparently very partial to citrus scents and that cedarwood enhances the scent of a lot of things . . its not just for moth balls! Hahaha.
I've had so much fun and felt so nervous about getting it right that I almost got to the point of talking myself out of keeping this up. The more info I find the more confused I get as to what I can or can't do.
But, I decided to take the leap a few days ago and listed 2 of my cleaning products on Etsy. My best mistake ever the Intense Clean that was a mess up, then we decided, what the heck, let's try using it for regular cleaning and discovered the awesomeness with-in and I made it on purpose and it's SO cool . . cleaned up rust, iron build-up and hard water stains better than some big-name brands (which shall rename nameless), which isn't to say that it was spotless with no scrubbing, but it was darn nice!
And the Get Fresh scent for my all purpose cleaner. I've been using the formulation in my house for over a year and a half, when I realized that the cleaners I was using were making my stomach sick and the kiddos were coughing and yucking for half a day after I cleaned big-time or did a bathroom . .. I knew I had to work something else out.
Now Aphia and I make the soap base, using her soap-making knowledge and reading, lots of reading and experimenting.
So, leia clean is officially launched! And I am SO excited with major butterflies in my stomach at the same time (in a good way) :-) Yeay!!!

The EB is on his way!

Ohhhh .... I'm so excited. Just got my Etsy purchases in for EB presents for the kiddos. Miss Thing is the lucky receiver of an adorable Flutterby necklace by bellabuttondesigns. And for the first time, she will actually be able to have her name on the lovely. The only regret I have in giving the minies unique names is that finding personalized items is very unrealistic. That just means they will get unique personalized items, too right?!
And the D-man is getting his very own first of the series Dragon egg with a hatching whelpling. The lovely Angi of ajoydesigns made a very special order for me!! And she has decided to make more of the cuties and post them on her Etsy store .. .lucky to all of you! Here another one of her Dragon's Eggs, which inspired me to ask for a very special egg.She was so quick to come up with something and it's just perfect for him. I know that I will have to keep him from playing with it, though. But I am sure he will understand that it is to look at - he has several look-ats, but they are just SO hard to keep your hands off of :-)

So, the bulk of my EB shopping is in the basket (hahaha, couldn't resist), since we don't do big presents from the EB. They might also get some special candies from Etsy if I don't steal them before they go into the baskets and I am getting them choc bunnies from the local newspaper staff - -they are selling them to raise money for their Relay for Life team. (BTW - if anyone has any fun ideas for a cake to make that would go with the Back to the Future theme for the cake contest/ auction, drop me a comment. I really need some ideas and I volunteered to make the cake again this year for their team).

Have a wonderful weekend!

since you've been gone

So, missed me much?! Hahaha!

Been doing the physical life thing lately .. hubby is working on his last semester of school and he will officially be Total Math Geek and have his coveted math degree ... hehehe. Truthfully, this big-time math stuff is major confusing, I remember being the 'can I try to explain this to you so that I can understand it better' monkey back when we were both in school and just zoning out because if I really tried to understand it would have been hours of explaining and I would have not had time for my school work. So, in the words of Ren and Stimpy "Happy, happy, joy, joy - we're almost done!"

I am currently looking for some super Easter finds for the kiddos and have found a few .. a fellow BSMET member is custom-making a dragon egg for the D-man and the pics I saw so far are unbelievable! Have also found the sweetest necklace for Miss Thing that is serving a better purpose, as it is for the Cora Paige Project (read more by clicking on the link). I will have to show off the goodies after I get them purchased in the next few days, so they are not snagged up by someone else :-) and so that I have time to ask the artists.

Have a wonderful Tuesday, all!!

Blowing my top!!

So, I have a few issues that I am very peeved about recently, but this one has topped my list for sure. The new Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act is out of control!!
The CSPC has decided that the law will apply retroactively for all children's products made and sold prior to Feb 2009 - if there is no certification label you can be (according to the written law) fined and convicted for merely GIVING AWAY your children's used clothing. All used clothing and toys will end up in landfills.
And many, many home-based and small businesses will go out of business! The testing is outrageous and each item has to be tested. They are considering exemptions for wool and wood, but currently no exempts for cotton, hand-made, or even made in the USA or Europe where there have not been findings of lead added to paints or phalates added to plastics. If this law is supposed to be directed at the lead additives, etc from Chinese manufacturing plants and large-scale menufacturers then THOSE are the places that need to be affected by this law, not everyone. Or there needs to be realistic and AFFORDABLE testing. $4000 or even $500 per item is NOT reasonable for small businesses or handmade.
I understand that there is a chance that something may get into cotton (fertilizer, sprays, treatments, chemicals), but think about how many chemicals our children are exposed to by breathing the air after it is sprayed with a room freshener or after a suface is cleaned with a chemical-based cleaner (which most are).
So ... to save anyone who might be crazy enough to read this from more of my tirade, here are a few places to check out:
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/264507
http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/ComponentPartsComments.pdf
http://www.wileyrein.com/docs/publications/13763.pdf

http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/summaries/101brief.html -- this is understanable, but give us better testing methods, please.

http://www.change.org/ideas/view/save_handmade_toys_from_the_cpsia

The time for snow

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas ...

While I am a fan of the white Christmas thing, I am NOT a fan of driving in 'near emergency' road conditions in order to go to a meeting for a fundraising event. Leave the house, all is merry and bright . .then 3 miles down the road . .. slushy, slippery, icky gooey . .. just plain yuck!
Then, after marathon meeting . . with children who although remain rather well behaved, have bumped around under table, hit their heads, sung exceedingly loud and just been their normal goofy selves are totally sick and tired of being at said meeting and 'just sitting there' ... go out to car to brush over 2 inches of wet, oooey, gooey, slush snow type crap off of car.
Have trouble backing up because I am unable to convince husband (who rarely drives said car) to get snow tires, have trouble pulling out of sloped parking lot (double ugh) and still need to go to grocery store. Make it through that lovely place with only 2 floor cleaning incidents - meaning one child or the other decided to plop self on floor therefore transferring floor dirt to said child's coat, pants and most likely at some point into their mouth, because even 6-year-olds still lick everything!
One of said incidents involved both children on floor at register *I give up and we only went in for 5 things!!* wrestling, with daughter squishing son and an store employee walking past giggling and asking lovely children of mine if they were practicing making snow angels.
It's January 2nd and I have officially already won the mom who gives a rip if her children are dirty, laying on the floor being total dorks award. Yipppeeeee for me!!

After grocery store adventure, we get the drive home adventure. 45mph max on the highway - my idea of a super fun time, let me tell ya! Make it home without slipping off the road - phew, some other people apparently didn't see the slushie crap on the road and were no longer on said road.

Now I must remind myself why snow isn't always that bad . .and skiing is not a factor, could care less about that sport - hurtling down the side of a mountain with to sticks on my frozen feet, well, no appealing to me. I peeked through the photos from this winter break so far and found this one - our giant snowman (hubby had to stand on a chair to put his head on) and the sweet smiles of the dirty, floor crusted children!Then there is the recently discovered by floor cleaning kiddos sport of snow dodging! Let's see if Daddy can hit us with the foot of snow he is shoveling off the roof.
I wonder if Sarah Palin did this she could hit Russia with the snow? Oh, naughty, but I could not resist that one.
Happy snow day!!