If You Don't Talk, I Won't Listen

Read kids books before you read them to your child

2009-03-14T21:40:00.000-07:00

An obvious thing I know but with being so busy sometimes I just don't do it. I trust that the books that are put on display in my local library in the children's section have been read by the librarian, otherwise, why highlight them. I am in the middle room picking up an assortment of animals, crayons, dolls clothing, blocks, paper, stickers, coloring books, videos, more books, clothing....and am listening to my husband read my daughter this book. So, this Genie saves this King but makes him do all these foolish things in order to get rid of some awful spell or something and the King is pretty embarrassed and decides to kill the Genie even though the Genie saved his life. I am drifting in and out of the story. Then I hear, the soldier gets mad at the dog his best friend because the dog bit the horse he was riding while he was trying to shoot a deer. His horse broke his leg and he was so pissed that he was unable to catch that deer that he shot his dog. He then started to run after the deer and began wading through some water and realized that the water was cursed. As he began to turn to stone he realized that his best friend the dog had only been trying to save his life. This was the last thought he had before he was petrified. About 10 minutes later Ava came out of her room weeping inconsolably about the dog who had been shot and had only been trying to save the man. About the man who had realized he had shot his best friend who had been trying to save him and had died as well. About the horse who had a broken leg.
I will read the book before I read it a loud to my daughter.

Clarification about the CPSIA for small businesses and crafters!

2009-02-10T07:12:00.000-08:00

sbguide.pdf

Check it out. A bit of common sense regarding this law. Thanks BreeAnn from Tiny Revolutionary. Once again you rock this world!
XOXO

Hope for all us small manufacturers

2009-01-21T10:00:00.000-08:00

Just received a copy of this letter from BreeAnne from Tiny Revolutionary and it is great to hear that we are being considered.

Congress%20Opinion%20on%20CPSIA.pdf

Also received this email from Congressman Earl Blumenauer today:
Dear Mrs. Frost,

Thank you for your letter regarding the Consumer Products Safety Commission and the recently enacted Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. I am a strong supporter of that law, which ensures that children's products do not contain dangerous amounts of lead.

Under the Act, all products aimed at children 12 and under must be tested for lead and phthalates, beginning February 10th. Recognizing that this testing may place a heavy burden on smaller retailers, I'm very pleased that the Commission is taking a critical look at the manner these requirements will be implemented. I am also pleased that Congress will be reviewing these requirements early this year to ensure they are implemented as efficiently and fairly as possible.

Again, thank you for expressing your concerns and I look forward to the implementation of a law that protects children and preserves economic opportunity.

Sincerely,
Earl Blumenauer
Member of Congress

CPSIA law takes effect Feb. 10th. Retailers take inventory of all your current stock!

2009-01-13T13:35:00.000-08:00

Got this information directly from the horse's mouth, Nychelle Fleming, spokesperson for the CPSC. As a retailer and reseller of new children products everything you have in stock before Feb. 10th 2009 does not need to have certification or be tested for lead. This is also true for resellers of used children products. What we do need to do as resellers is to make sure that we don't accidently resell products that contain lead. This means carefully screening all your instock products for metal and paints. Things like cribs, jewelry for kids, snaps, zippers etc should be verified because if you do inadvertendly sell something with lead and you get caught the fine is heafty.
You can rent a scanner that tests for lead if you have a ton of products you are concerned about.
http://www.niton.com/Toys-Consumer-Goods-Screening-with-Handheld-XRF/
Or you can just throw away those items. But, things like cotton t-shirts or books you can continue to resell and there is no deadline for getting these products off your shelves.
Resellers are responsible for making sure the products they put on their shelves after Feb. 10th do have certification so keep your records.
Manufacturers have to test and certify anything they sell after Feb. 10th. They must test all products for lead and toys, sleepwear, childcare items (bedding, bibs, burp cloths) for lead and phthalates.

Save our world of fun

2009-01-07T10:14:00.000-08:00

Always get your quote in writing

2009-01-05T10:12:00.001-08:00

While I am ranting away I learned a valuable lesson this last week. Always ask for a quote in writing because you may be on a very different page than the contractor you are working with. Also, contracts are very good to have as well. A signed contract from a previous contractor saved me a couple of thousand dollars when he did not fulfill his end of the contract.

I got my quote over the phone. Big mistake. Big misunderstanding. He said he charged $20 an hour and I am like wow cheap but he did come with a reference.

I wanted him to move the cat tree on the left up a little, add a little to my css, add in a couple of boxes at the bottom of the page so I can put in specials. Nothing major. In my mind I am thinking 2 to 3 hours tops. He tells me I should convert from tables to divs and I say sure. He says to pull out the javascript and I say sure. Both seem very minor. Then I ask for a quote and he says he figures around twenty but if he goes over he will let me know.

I am thinking twenty DOLLARS and also thinking "Wow, that is really really cheap but if he can do all that in one hour more power to him. I think, he is probably quoting low and will probably end up calling me"....never ever imagining that someone would turn this into a twenty HOUR project. My whole website store took less than that. I could have taught myself CSS in that amount of time.

I get a bill for $400 and a page that looks like crap in ie6, with a style sheet not attached to the xml...just a lot of buggy stuff and because I was thinking $20 and once I get the basic layout I will beautify it into what I really want I get an ugly assed looking page too (my fault...he did say he wasn't an image guy). A contractor that can take a 3 hour project and turn it into a 20 hour one (actually 40 cause he said he spent 40 hours and was cutting me a deal and I could throw in some clothing to make it even!) ....well it can happen so get your quote in writing.

I do not think this contractor was cheating me. I honestly think he took 40 hours of his time to work on tweaking my front page. I do not think him a bad person. He just worked in a very different way than I do. I should have been suspicious when I got a long paragraph about how my facebook logo wasn't showing up and the reasons why and how it might be fixed and I am like dude, don't worry about that, it will show up once you are on my server. I think this contractor was overly diligent and slow as molasses because he was probably teaching himself along the way. Hence the cheap $20 an hour price tag.

IF I had gotten a quote in writing from him I would have realized that he intended to take 20 hours to tweak my front page and all the pain that followed could have been avoided. My bad. Lesson learned.

I just spent 5 hours learning some CSS and redid my page.

Here was our starting point:
http://www.babywit.com/original010809.php

Here is what I got from the contractor:
http://babywit.com/divs.php
Really ugly in explorer 6 as is most everything

Here is my redo:
http://www.babywit.com/

And now I know some CSS. :)

Extremism defines the US...my rant

2009-01-05T09:58:00.000-08:00

It is everywhere. Good vs Evil. Either you are on the good side or the bad side. Stories, books, movies. If you are evil you are quite evil. So evil you deserve to die and the good are good because they take out the evil. It is a necessity. This is what we are teaching our children. This is what my daughter is learning. So, I have taken to telling her stories where the grossly evil are actually not so bad, in fact can turn out to be your best friend if given the opportunity.
Our politics are a shining example and on the polar ends of both camps sit very frightening closed minded people. People who judge others. People who write in to websites they take offense to only to offend back, to kill, to take down...all the while feeling justified somehow. People who write into sites that sell baby clothing to rant on and on.
Today I see it in our laws. Ever since I started babywit I have been begging for phthalate free goods. I have requested from all my vendors. In my own shop I use what is supposed to be (as much as possible) free of things like lead and phthalates. Overseas for quite awhile it has been illegal to make children's goods with these poisons in them. The US lagged far, far behind in any sort of legislation to protect our children. Finally, after a few deaths, a few scares they come up with an act. An act so extreme that it will dismember the entire sector of manufacturers that make children's goods. Handmade toys, locally sewn clothing and on and on. What is it with the US? All I see happening is for phthalates to be removed from products and then a huge plastic makin' companies to come along with something equally horrible ....I mean it is plastic afterall....that does just as much harm to our environment and our children...am I just a downer or what?
I am all for testing but sound testing that makes sense and doesn't wipe out an entire sector from existence... one sector that is actually using or trying to use materials that leave a lighter footprint on our earth.
That was my ten minute rant and sorry it doesn't make much sense at all. Lots of coffee and irritation.

Please help keep small manufactures like Baby Wit in business!

2009-01-04T13:01:00.000-08:00

Read this article in the LA times about what is going down:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-thrift2-2009jan02,0,2083247.story

As most of you know I own a children's clothing business, and as of February 10, myself and thousands of others in the children's industry will be deeply affected financially or will be out of business. Remember the outcry last holiday season over lead in imported toys? In order to combat such safety issues, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has passed legislation called the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). The law sets stringent guidelines for children's products containing lead and phthalates (a chemical used in some vinyl products). It is supposed to go into effect February 10th, 2009, and after that date any product intended for children ages 12 and under must meet these guidelines, and have a certificate of compliance from a CPSC-accredited laboratory. This includes not just toys, but clothing, jewelry, blankets, sheets, books, bibs, strollers, carriers, and anything else that a child under 12 might come in contact with. Sounds great, right?

In theory, maybe. But in actuality the law is so far reaching that it may succeed in turning the economy upside down. For starters, the CPSIA requires end unit testing on every product intended for use by children under 12. It is the responsibility of the manufacturer to do this testing, regardless of how small the business. That means that manufacturers (like myself ) will have to pay to get every different product they offer tested. These tests have to be done at a CSPC accredited lab, and cost tens of thousands of dollars. For example if you offer 3 different types of dresses. Each dress contains 2 different fabrics, as well as buttons, and thread, so that's potentially $600 to test one dress. But if you have 3 or more styles, that's $1800. And when you get a new bolt of fabric, you need to start all over again.
At present, there are no exemptions for small businesses and "micro" manufacturers and most handcraft artisans. There is no exception for quantities made, where the garments/products are made or anything else. Nor is there an exception for unadorned fabric components, unfinished wood components, materials which, by their nature, are free of lead and phthalates.

Also, the Act takes a "guilty until proven innocent" approach, which would treat a handmade, unfinished wooden toy that doesn't meet the certification deadline of 2/10/09 as a "banned hazardous substance" which would be illegal to distribute in this country. Each infraction carries a $100,000 felony charge. This legislation is also retroactive for any pre-existing inventory as of February 10th, 2009. This means that everything on the shelves in those big (or small) stores will also be "banned, hazardous substances" - contraband.
Larger corporations that can afford testing will incur thousands, maybe millions of dollars in fees, and this expense will be handed down to the consumer, probably making the prices for children's products go through the roof.
This also means that after that date, even selling your kids old things on eBay or Craigslist will be illegal. Charities will not be able to accept donations without a certificate of compliance either. February 10, 2009 is being dubbed "National Bankruptcy Day" by many people in the apparel and toy industry. If this legislation is not amended, it will affect everyone from port workers to parents looking for legal products. Billions of dollars worth of children's products will have to be destroyed because they can't be legally sold, and this will cause major environmental problems.
While I am all for higher safety standards and keeping our kids safe, this law is so overreaching as to put thousands on manufacturers of children's products out of business -hurting our economy and causing even more loan defaults. Though this legislation was well-intentioned, it cannot be allowed to stand as is.
Please help us defend the American dream and our entrepreneurial spirit! This law affects every stay at home mom trying to help put food on the table and every grandmother knitting blankets for the local craft fair. It makes the thousands of us who have found a niche in the burgeoning children's market have to make a tough decision - continue to produce items illegally and possible incur a $100,000 fine, pay the enormous fees and raise costs of goods sold, or close up shop!

Please help us!
Contact your Congressperson by clicking HERE.
It only takes 30 seconds!
If you have an extra minute send a hard copy of the letter as well!

To sign the online petition click HERE.

Read more about it here at www.nationalbankruptcyday.com

Please copy and paste this on your blogs, we need all the help we can get!

Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA)

2009-01-01T21:15:00.000-08:00

The intention behind it is wonderful and great. Make sure our kids our safe. Protect them from products which inflict harm. As a mom of an infant you know I am all about keeping my children safe. I am tired of worrying that his plastic ducky or teething toys may contain something that hurts him. I am tired of finding out that my daughter's toys have been painted with lead paint.

But, this act is written in such a way that it will put every small manufacturer of products for children out of business. What it says is that you have to get every single end product tested for lead & phthalates. There are no exceptions. If you make an organic cotton dress and dye it each style and each colorway must be tested. Tests start around $600. To test an abbrievated line might run close to 20k. I would no longer be able to offer 40,000+ combinations of images on tees. Can you imagine getting that tested?

With this law coming I had prepared by seeking out (hard to find!) a manufacturer that produced phthalate free transfers. We started purchasing them in October of 2008. We were the first to purchase them from this manufacturer as they had just cleared them. We do not print with plastisol but print all our shirts with water-based inks...the oasis line from Wilflex....although we are looking into the Rutland inks as these seem to be a bit easier to manage and we hate doing discharge. Stinky.

Our fabrics are sustainable, our thread is cotton, we hand-dye our products using a low-impact dye and we make everything here in Portland, OR. But, we are not excluded from this forced testing. Guess who the idiot was that signed this act into being?

As a small manufacturer I don't mind getting all my products tested but shouldn't it be done at a component level? Does it make sense for me to get my various styles tested if they all use the same fabrics, zippers, elastic, snaps and dyes? What a waste of $! If everything I use passes certification wouldn't it make sense to assume that the end product is free of these harmful chemicals? What is logical about asking small struggling businesses to bear the cost of making sure our society is safe? If every end product is tested can you imagine there even being enough labs to do the testing? Can you imagine how they are going to enforce this act?!

But, Rebecca came up with a brilliant solution to all of this. If this act does not get amended in March so that we can continue to make and sell our products we are changing the name of our site to Midgetwit.com. I hope that url isn't taken yet.

Late Packages...extended Xmas

2008-12-26T17:11:00.000-08:00

We just opened the door to the UPS man. He had 7 of our package in hand. All Christmas presents that were supposed to be delivered before Xmas. It was ok though because the kids jumped on the second round of gifts...even if they were not wrapped. :) Glad the snow is melting....

Volta Coffee, Tea & Chocolate

2008-12-24T14:37:00.001-08:00

Volta Coffee, Tea & Chocolate, originally uploaded by DaseinDesign.

Ooo la la...

Baby Clothes with Political Messaging

2008-11-27T10:37:00.000-08:00

We keep receiving these emails from folks with opposing view points from ours. Messages like "I was going to buy that David Bowie onesie from your site but now that I see you support (insert upsetting baby shirt here...ie Obama, gay people) I am taking my business elsewhere and never coming back. Or the folk who write "I am really upset that you don't sell right wing shirts. You should respect ALL your customers and offer both sides. That is no way to run a good business and I am shopping elsewhere."
Good God. On our front page I say LIBERAL LEFT WINGERS PROGRESSIVE etc. When you go to an Italian restaurant are you pissed off when they don't have Chinese on the menu? I think the Chinese in Oakland really figured out that people who buy Chinese food expect to also see hot dogs and donuts on the menu. Tons of shops that cater to both. But I do not. Why? Because I am not out there to just make a buck. This entire site is part of a message. Part of something I am saying. Or trying to say. I am not perfect so neither is my message. But, this is a small business. I have two full time employees and one part time. We work out of a garage. We are passionate about what we do. We love making shirts that reflect current policy. We love babies (we are all women.) We also could not imagine selling any product that does not reflect our personal beliefs. We are not some cold corporate mega mall selling store with generic clothing. We personally design all our pieces. We talk, bleed, love and sweat over what we make. Why the hell would we sell a McCain shirt or a shirt bashing gay marriage if we absolutely think these things are wrong? There are so many sites out there that sell this sort of thing. If you read our front page, we don't cater to the allmighty dollar.
I mean if we are going to dress our children in clothing we purchase we want to make clothing we would want to purchase.

Love Sees No Gender Baby T-shirt and Ovary Dose Skirt

2008-11-26T15:24:00.000-08:00

We are sitting at our desks thinking about what we really want to say on this subject. All of us believe very strongly that gays be allowed to marry the same as everyone else. Why not? What harm does it do to have couples who really and truly love each other get married? To express our opinions Rebecca came up with the Love Sees No Gender line. This says it all. Love is color, gender, height, weight, handicapped blind. Love is blind. We added in a couple of cocks as an image because it needed a bit of wit thrown in Baby Wit style. So, our new controversial baby shirt is a pro gay marriage baby shirt. We hope it does well.
Then we have this hot pink interlock skirt that I need to print on so we decided to stick an extra pair of ovaries on it. We felt it necessary because in the past we have received inquiries from the opposite sex on how this all works. Things like, does your pee and poo come out of the same hole? We thought a physical representation of what is a happening down there might help.
Finally, our gargoyle jacket is so freaking cool. My daughter wears hers everyday and loves her little toddler zip up hoodie.

New Organic Baby Dress, Toddler Dress, Kids Dress

2008-11-25T10:03:00.000-08:00

Our new hoodie dress is truly beautiful. It was so hard to make. I started this pattern over a year ago and finally it is done. I used that heavy 100% organic cotton interlock fabric, put in a drop waist so you can see that cute little toddler belly and cinched it up on the sides a little. I added in a huge cloak hoodie inspired by the little red riding hood cloak and also knowing that my daughter is nice and warm under her helmet whenever she is on a bike or in the bucket of the amazing Madsen bike. We underpriced it for how much we paid to sew it out but I just want people to put this on their daughters. It is great as a dress with some stockings. This dress comes in size 18 to 24 months for babies and sizes 2T,3T,4T,5T,6T for toddlers and 8 and 10 for the bigger girls. We love this dress although if your daughter has a big head you might have to stretch the cotton a bit.

The Cost of Making Cool Baby Clothes in the US

2008-11-22T17:48:00.000-08:00

I have decided to start talking about the process of making cool baby clothes in the United States because I keep getting these emails asking how in the heck I can charge so much $ for a one piece. I am forced into this long monologue of defensive explanations. Simply put, when I lay out the costs to someone for all that we make it becomes obvious why we have to charge more than $12 for a tee shirt.
To cut and sew a simply tee here in the US (not counting fabric costs) is between $4 and $5. If I purchase my blanks from American Apparel we are looking at $4 to $5 a pop for a one piece. That's not organic. Tack on another buck for that. Then, we hand-dye our pieces. We also hand-screen everything. That means that we are right there placing each screen on your shirt and dragging ink across your shirt. Then, the big thing is, we have to do wholesale in order to actually stay in business. This means that we have to sell our shirts wholesale at HALF the cost of whatever we sell it to you for. The stores buying our baby shirts won't really take anything else. You can try lower % but they won't buy unless your stuff is just so original that it can't be found elsewhere. So, in order to sell our shirts that cost us around $8 to make, we have to sell the wholesale for $12 and that will cost you $24. We are making $4 a shirt which isn't even viable. We have to make at least double our costs to remain in business. This means we should charge $16 and you pay $32 for a baby one piece. WOW.
For cutting and sewing in the United States for the organic fabric we are looking at around $7 to $8 a yard. To produce an original pattern and grade it out you are looking at a $500 investment. For our princess twirly dress we use around 2 yards of fabric. To cut and sew that piece cost $8. $32 is what it costs us to make a size 6T. Double that for wholesale and you are looking at the store charging $128 and who in the heck would buy that dress for $128. To be competitive it should be priced at around $42. So, we took it out of wholesale, lowered our price as much as we could and are offering it drop ship. We are still not making the margins we should make to consider it a viable product.
So, if you are wondering about our pricing, trust us when we say we put a lot of thought behind it and aren't at all trying to rip you off by asking you to pay more than a China made shirt. I haven't even told you all about the huge efforts to find patternmakers, cutters and sewers and quality control issues in the US. You wouldn't believe the time lag of doing it here vs overseas. Next post I will tell you all about that one!

Please stop with the damn pool parties

2008-10-22T13:36:00.001-07:00

OK, I admit it. These days I am not delighted at the prospect of slipping into my swimsuit and sliding into a chlorinated pool. Not at the top of my lists. If there is a pool birthday party I usually send Jim to it. This time he was out of town and I was cornered. I mean, Ava's first invite to a birthday party at her new school. I barely had time to pull together a gift and gmap the pool before it was time to depart. Running around I realized that I had declared my one piece black swimsuit too small and quarantined it permanently to the basement. This meant that all I could pull out was the bottom part of my 1950s hamburger swimsuit and my EGAD string bikini...and let me tell you, the last thing I wanted to do after having 2 kids and having breast fed both of them was to don a fucking STRING BIKINI in front of all the parents. But, I had not been in a pool with Ava in a couple of years and she was begging me and I had Atticus who loves swimming so I took a very deep breath indeed and slipped into it.
Now, you would think that at a swim party there would be some parents in the pool, right? At least the host, right? Not this one. Nope, not this one. Ava is begging me to come into the pool and watch her go down the slide and put her head underwater and dog paddle. Plllllllllllllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzeeeeeeeeee mom. You never come into the water with me.
I look over at the row of white plastic chairs lined up neatly at the edge of the pool filled with moms and dads from Ava's class.
I look over at my daughter's pleading eyes.
I sashay over to the shower room, remove my outerlayer, cover with a towel and sashay 'casually' past that row of dry, comfortable moms and dads.
I remove my towel and feel the spotlight on my bod making me overheat.
I jump in the pool.
I do this twice during the party because Atticus wakes up and wants to go swimming and I have never been in the water with him.
And, I know what all you moms out there are saying about being proud of your body. I am proud of my body because I can't believe it spit out two healthy kids at my age and made milk for them and is still looking fine in a pair of jeans but FOR THE LOVE OF GOD and all that is good and kind...
Stop with the freaking pool parties.

Bubble & Paris

2008-09-22T13:10:00.001-07:00

The Bubble show was wonderful. I would so recommend it over the ENK show. Sold more and everyone was so nice. The feel of the show was just great. I usually hate these shows but I did enjoy hanging at that one.
The Yankers went over very well. So well in fact that the woman in the booth next to me started asking if we had patented the idea and claimed that she had just sewn out a piece quite like ours. Then she proceeded to really examine my sample. Peeps were going on about them. So, I have decided to refocus on these a little more.
I have been busy downstairs screen printing and just found out from Wilflex that apparently I have the ONLY gallon container of Aquaplas...the base for a new water-based ink that you can print on darks. I feel quite special. Am printing our polar bear design with it today.
We did a home exchange and went to Paris for 3 weeks. It was amazing. Although it wasn't that culturally different as it wasn't a 3rd world country...there were certain differences that I admittedly enjoyed seeing. They dress a lot better than people in PDX. Tons of guys in suits on Vespas. So cute. Everyone was still smoking. There were no highchairs. There are parks every block and they are so well manicured we imagine that everyone must have gardening duties in Paris. Also, talk about conservation efforts. Recycling everywhere. All the cars were super tiny smart cars. Efficient household appliances and everyone walked...therefore we did not see any overweight people. Coupled with tinier portions of food at each meal and perhaps that each meal costs around $20 to $50 a person....well Jim lost 10 lbs!

Off we go to the Bubble Tradeshow

2008-08-01T13:19:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow we leave to NYC. Our first tradeshow where I am showing my own inventions. I am of course, terrified. I am actually used to doing horribly at shows. At Magic I think I came away with 3 orders and one of them canceled. At ENK, basically the same thing but it was ok because we got some stores after the shows. I was ok with the rejection and the walk bys because putting transfers of funny sayings and other peeps artwork on American Apparel shirts. But, the Light and Gravity/Yankers line IS my heart. My designs. Two years of hard, hard work. And, if it does poorly, well, I have decided that this will be a sign that this is not what I am supposed to be doing. So, this is a big show for me personally.
On the other hand, what if it does well? I will have to continue to move forward with new and innovative products. I will have to keep on working. This obviously isn't the worst case scenario. :)
Pray for me to the deities...

But we will have such fun in NYC. Julie Glanville is flying out! Our old production manager Kristin Dockter is flying out! My sister Karen will be in town! Ava's old nanny Berlin will be in town! Suzy from focoloco will be in town! Rebecca will be coming along to run the show. I can't imagine a more glorious assortment of people.

Click here to view our Spring 2009 catalog. Don't hesitate to be amazed. :)
babywitcatalogsmall.pdf

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree

2008-07-20T13:11:00.001-07:00

Ava's first yard sale. She talked us into dragging up all her old toys from the basement so she could set them up on blankets and sell them to people walking by.
She is outside right now sitting under her little tree trying to peddle her wares.
This is just so damn cute. OMG.

It all finally comes together...

2008-07-15T21:46:00.000-07:00

Jim and I decide to throw our one year old a festive party with lots of kids running around in the backyard and grownups just sitting around chatting. I am of course stressed out about the shoot on Tuesday and am frantically printing out big foot and the new insect box in the basement. My allergies kick in like nobody's business. I mean my nasal drip is more like a slow steady leak and I am trying to manage it and somehow manage to get ink on my hands, then on my face while trying to stop the drip so I reach for a wet towel and dab the ink off my face. My allergies just worsen and I have take two allegra and I reach for the over the counter meds. Then, my face starts burning. I feel like I want to rip my freakin' face off. My son's party starts in two hours. I still haven't made it to see my seamstress for a sample I need for the shoot. I stop at Burgerville for something to eat. My face is burning and when I step out into the sun it feels like nails on my face. AUGH I AM MELTING.
Let me tell you that getting through that party was difficult. I just wanted to lie down and die. Fortunately because of all those meds I was flying after two beers and a baby food jar of red wine. Things got much better. I was able to enjoy seeing Atticus eat his first chocolate cake.
Then everyone just hung out on the green grass and watched the kids run around the backyard. It was so wonderful! Seeing everyone. Not having snot run down my nose anymore. My face was still burning but it finally occurred to me that when I wiped my face with that wet rag...that the wet rag might have contained some discharge ink. AH HA. I wiped ammonia all over my face.
Tonight was amazing. Amy McMullen showed up with with camera in hand and she started shooting my kids, Pandora (baby girl model extraordinare), Aiden and Amity, Ava & Atticus and her son Aiden. We did it in Bitty's backyard and for the first time I was blown away with what I had created. It all just fit and looked so fantastic that I couldn't even believe that I was the designer. I am serious! It was the most amazing feeling in the world. To see children look so good in things you have created. I have never felt that way before. It is really, really addictive. Heh. The crowning moment for me was when Aiden started to have a fit when he had to take off the leisure suit. He asked me if he could wear it home! And, the other Aiden was so digging the Big Foot shirt he asked me if he could have it. And, Amity and Ava were both dying to twirl in the twirly dress. And, Pandora's mom was just like loving the Yanker dress. Finally, after all this hard work I feel like I achieved what I set out to even though I haven't made a dime yet. It was such a great night! I am dancing around!

Large format printing

2008-07-03T09:58:00.001-07:00

I have learned so much from this one woman at this screenprinting shop. She can't even believe that I was at all able to get even one good print. First of all the mesh count was way way to tight (355) for water-based inks and the image was too close to the edges and the blankets were already sewn together. Huge mess.
When working with our first screen printer she really dug the detailed mesh. Now I am quickly discovering why you might want to use a 195. Also learned that you want a mono filament screen.
Our screenprinter threw up his arms and quit because he couldn't deal with the smell of our discharge system. Augh.
So looking for someone who maybe doesn't work out of their home and has ventilation.
I have gone to only 2 sessions with a Rolfer and I am blown away with the results. In only two weeks my posture is significantly better. She also told me that my pregnancy had moved my hips out of place and my sacrum was off. Already a lot of the pain in my legs and back has lessened. Her name is Carola DiLorenzo of BodyWave if you are in PDX and interested.
I just read 1-2-3 Magic Effective Discipline for Children 2-12 and am thrilled. I have read so many books on methods of disciplining your children and as my husband commented, they all land on our book shelf. I am excited about this one because it is already pretty much what we do (counting/time outs) but gives clear instructions on how to do it effectively. Also gives various examples of what to do when things go wrong. The main thing is it is so easy that when you are under stress you can remember exactly what to do.
I am now trying to convince my husband to read it so we can get together on our discipline.
Will let you know more laters.

A month and a half without a post! What is up?

2008-06-29T20:40:00.000-07:00

I have been running on empty trying to get this new line ready for NY. Rebecca and I (& hopefully Kristin) are flying out to NYC to have a PARTY and to launch Light & Gravity. I have been working with folks in the US and it has been so difficult. More on that later.
I am getting close but this large format printing is a lot harder than I thought. I am trying to print with water-based inks but haven't invested in a conveyor dryer yet so you can imaging how hellish it is to print using some ink that you have to mix some goop into to get it to air dry. The ink becomes so thick that it prints unevenly and is a bitch to pull across a 36 inch screen. I lay waste to 22 baby blankets. Look for some specials on these hand-printed gems on the website soon. It is a truly magnificent print. Giant oak tree and birds on organic cotton.
Also, did you know that if you install CS3 on one computer you can't install it on another. I have a desktop and a laptop and I can only use it on like one?!
Started taking a Technical Fashion Illustration class at PCC so I could use illustrator to draw out my designs.
Everyone is doing obama shirts. It is crazy. So we had to come up with the craziest. Obama Rama and WWOD? are so great. They make me laugh everytime I see them.
I am working on a Rosa Parks shirt. Should be ready in a week.
How do we come up with shirt ideas? Well, we sit around and talk about crazy stuff. Someone will say....do you know about the bees? How all the hives are dying? How all the bees are dying. How nothing is getting pollinated? Then, we will sit around and think hey, we should have a shirt about this so other folks can know what is what. This is a big deal, you know?
We basically riff off of each other. Sara, our marketing writer, came up with WWOD? and Rebecca said you should stick his head on Jesus' body and then I took some pics, fooled around and tadah.
Anyways, enough about work.
Here is the latest development. In PDX the schools are on a lottery system which means you can potentially get into any school. You just put your name into the lottery for that school. There are public and charter schools. We put Ava's name into MLC, Emerson, Buckman, Sunnyside, Trillium and Portland Village School. We were wait-listed on all of them or didn't even get in. Portland Village School called and admitted Ava and I was good with that. There are many aspects to Waldorf that I like. The no media. The focus on nature. The nurturing of our little ones, the story telling plus they don't force children to learn by memorization. Jim was not so thrilled. He was tired of the cult like nature of the school. He preferred Vernon, our neighborhood school. So we enrolled her in both to see what teachers she landed. Well, last week we got a call from Trillium that we were in. I was not so hot on it. I didn't find the classrooms warm and nurturing and just didn't get the warm and fuzzy from the building. Also, I have a problem with K through 12. Don't like that much age mixing.
But, after talking to tons of folks I am changing my tune.
More on what we decide when we decide. I am hoping she lands in Emerson...

Large Format Printing

2008-05-16T23:11:00.000-07:00

So, the folks across the street were kind enough to burn our giant screen for us and we got it back into the shop, put a couple of clamps on our wood table, rolled out some fabric and printed the giant tree. It is so beautiful although a couple of problems we are going to have to work around include the fabric bunching up because it is such a large print. Think if I put palette tape on the table it should be ok. It took a lot of ink and actually my smaller squeegee worked a lot better than the 32" one.
Bummer that we already sewed out our blankets because the fabric is a triple layer (we went all out on this one) and makes it difficult to check it before being done. Once I lift the screen it is done. Also, the screen is so big you definitely need two folks printing it. But, it is something I always wanted to do and it wasn't as insurmountable as I imagined.
Hot today. Just did the MAJOR miva update to my store and that was/is scary because I have about a gazillion modules and half of them needed updating and the other half may need updating but I might not discover this for awhile. Augh.
Busiest weekend of my life and Atticus is not feeling so hot. All congested and fever and 4 teeth coming in. The Alberta Street Fair during the day and Saturday night is Cathy's birthday prom party which should be a hoot if I can find a baby sitter, then Sunday morning brite and early is the POW festival, then Sunday night I am taking Jim out for his birthday. I wanted to take this class on Saturday as well but that is probably pushing it...talks about how to do knockoffs. Desperately needed but Jim said I had to decide between the class and POW festival and it is his birthday and all.

Raining Blood

2008-05-06T10:24:00.000-07:00

Update on the blog post below:
We hired a new CPA and he redid the very same taxes that Julia Fitzgerald CPA did. We got back an additional 3K over when Julia Fitzgerald CPA did our taxes. No joke. He works with many small businesses up and down Alberta street and we can highly recommend him. We have worked with 3 CPAs so far and he is by far the best. Honest, dedicated, easy to understand and um, doesn't have any personality disorders. For his information just comment to this blog.

On prepaying people before they render their services. Don't do it because they are probably requesting payment upfront for a reason.

Here is my wonderful and delightful experience with two um, biz professionals.

I hire Julia Fitzgerald CPA on recommendation from the SBDC. Julia Fitzgerald CPA is the most expensive CPA I have ever worked with but I am told that Julia Fitzgerald CPA provides excellent customer service and does more than just plug in the numbers. Not only do we not receive decent customer service we received back a tax return that we could not file.

When my husband went in to pick up our taxes the first week of April he was asked to pay in full before Julia Fitzgerald CPA would let him look at them.

When I looked at them some errors I found:

Julia Fitzgerald CPA had left out auto expenses insisting that leasing an auto didn't get a gas milage deduction. I had to write two emails to her explaining in detail that we weren't leasing our car as it was fully paid for.

Took our Fixed assets that we had section 129'd for the past 3 years and decided to start depreciating them without discussing this with us.

Some other minor stuff but no big deal.

Julia Fitzgerald CPA redid the taxes just in time for me to pick them up the day before our personal taxes were due. When I picked them up I was surprised to find our tax payment had increased rather than decreased as expected (as the auto milage was to have been added in.) There was no explanation as to why this should be and none of her staff could offer a satisfactory explanation. In fact, I was treated as though I was a rather bothersome person for even demanding an explanation. Julia Fitzgerald CPA sat in her glass office and refused to come out to offer what would have been a one minute explanation.

I left the office unable to file my taxes on time. I emailed asking Julia Fitzgerald CPA to please call me asap.

I received a return call 10 days later. Julia Fitzgerald CPA had added in A/P (we are on cash basis) rather than subtracted A/P and when Julia Fitzgerald CPA saw it Julia Fitzgerald CPA had to subtract it twice from expenses. Easy explanation. One minute. No big deal.

While doing our personal taxes my husband found a the Domestic Production Activity Deduction and since we do all our manufacturing in the US we thought this might be something we could take. It is fairly substantial at 6% of net income. When we asked Julia Fitzgerald CPA about it she said she did know about it and it would cost between $250 and $700 for her to do. No apology on Julia Fitzgerald CPA's oversight. Nope. Just an email detailing Julia Fitzgerald CPA charges.

When I took back the general ledger changes Julia Fitzgerald CPA had made and entered them into my own books I was expecting our books to match because when I passed off my books to Julia Fitzgerald CPA I made no further changes to them (learned my lesson on this from a past experience) until I received back Julia Fitzgerald CPA's changes. They did not match up. I called the office asking if perhaps they had not passed on the latest GLs to me or if there were additional changes made that were not on the paper they had given me. I was treated like a leper for asking. Wasting Julia Fitzgerald CPA's time. I was told that no, they had passed everything on and that it was an issue with my books but I could hire Julia Fitzgerald CPA to do our bookkeeping and make them match up.

Jim and I had pretty much decided not to give Julia Fitzgerald CPA another dime and at this point I just wanted some working books back as we had not done any bookkeeping since I sent her my books in Feb. and I needed to move on with a new accountant.

Julia Fitzgerald CPA's office told me I had to go through 1000s of GL entries to find out why it didn't match up. I spent an entire day doing this and I saw that that the books they used were not the same as the final one I had. I didn't know how this could have happened. I didn't necessarily think it was Julia Fitzgerald CPA fault but I needed help figuring out what had happened. I downloaded all the books from my email that I had sent Julia Fitzgerald CPA's office and none of them appeared to be the books that Julia Fitzgerald CPA's office had used. I emailed explaining my situation and asking them for the file they had used to do my taxes off of. Julia Fitzgerald CPA refused to even check out this possibility saying that Julia Fitzgerald CPA had used the final books I had sent. PERIOD. No help trying to figure out this issue. In fact Julia Fitzgerald CPA acted as though I was a pain in the ass (because I wasn't giving her any $) and how dare I ask her for the final file she had used to do our taxes off of. Julia Fitzgerald CPA did offer to send me over the final file they had completed but it would force me to upgrade my books to 2008. Plus, there were errors in the books they had used. Julia Fitzgerald CPA told me if I had given her the wrong books that I could pay $250 for an amendment to our taxes that had already been filed.

On and on and all I wanted was the original quickbooks file Julia Fitzgerald CPA had used to do my taxes off of. Julia Fitzgerald CPA wrote me back that she had wasted more than the average amount of time on my books and to not contact her anymore.

It gets even better.

During our initial meeting Julia Fitzgerald CPA suggested I get my corporate books in order. I thought this quite a good idea. Julia Fitzgerald CPA recommended her good friend Phillip Greene from Innovative Investment Concepts. I called Phillip Greene from Innovative Investment Concepts telling Phillip Greene from Innovative Investment Concepts I would love for him to look over my books. Phillip Greene from Innovative Investment Concepts called me back telling me Julia Fitzgerald CPA and Phillip Greene from Innovative Investment Concepts had had a talk about my company and that I needed to pay Phillip Greene from Innovative Investment Concepts to become an S Corp as I could not lease my building to babywit LLC. I told him that I was set up as a 2 member LLC filing with the government as an S corp. Phillip Greene from Innovative Investment Concepts told me that this was not legal and I needed to do the conversion so I agreed and sent Phillip Greene from Innovative Investment Concepts the payment for his services upfront as he demanded. I felt odd that Phillip Greene from Innovative Investment Concepts and Julia Fitzgerald CPA had had this discussion about what my business should do without me there but I trusted them. After a bit of back and forth with Phillip Greene from Innovative Investment Concepts the stuff Phillip Greene from Innovative Investment Concepts was saying just didn't sound right to me. I asked for more details as I wanted to understand why I had to be an S corp and that I was unhappy with the whole process of converting and wanted to make absolutely sure that I couldn't just stay a 2 member LLC. Phillip Greene from Innovative Investment Concepts told me that I should trust Phillip Greene from Innovative Investment Concepts. So, I tried really hard to (because I was on vacation and just didn't have time to do my own research) but it just didn't sound right.

I went back to Julia Fitzgerald CPA and asked her to confirm that this was true as I had read in Nolo Press LLC book that indeed a member could lease to an LLC.

Phillip Greene from Innovative Investment Concepts had already filed us as an S corp even after I had emailed saying I just wanted to make sure this is what we had to do.

Julia Fitzgerald CPA wrote a one line email back saying that indeed you can lease to a two member LLC. So, we never had to convert at all. I asked Phillip Greene from Innovative Investment Concepts to just refund me my funds for converting us to an S-corp as we did not want to go this route and he had misadvised us and to convert us back to an LLC and then we would hire him back to do look over our books as an LLC.

Today we got a check back from Phillip Greene from Innovative Investment Concepts for half the amount saying Phillip Greene from Innovative Investment Concepts was keeping the other half for filing us as an S-corp and for having to write so many emails justifying why Phillip Greene from Innovative Investment Concepts was converting us to an S-corp. So, now I have to pay a lawyer to fix the mess Phillip Greene from Innovative Investment Concepts made of our company. WOW.

So buyer beware.

Earth Day

2008-04-21T14:41:00.000-07:00

I am thrilled about Earth Day and the awareness it brings to our planet. I just wish it were a bit more real. If I get another crappy email promoting some dumb-assed sale for some stupid "green" product that is not really green I am going to scream. I am purposely not sending out an 'earth day' newsletter because all this damn greenwashing is making my tummy ache.
Like these green shirts that aren't even organic?! or printed in a friendly manner? Gotta love the awareness but just want it to be more real more real more real.