8 Years Ago Today....

In Our Hearts

We thought of you with love today, 
But that is nothing new. 
We thought about you yesterday. 
And days before that too. 
We think of you in silence. 
We often speak your name. 
Now all we have is memories. 
And your picture in a frame. 
Your memory is our keepsake. 
With which we’ll never part. 

God has you in his keeping.....We have you in our heart.  

Eight years ago today, it seems like yesterday.  He was here one minute, we were having a conversation, and the next minute he was gone....Hugh William MacLeod, my Father, died 8 years ago today in my arms.

I remember telling my Mother that night that "life has come full circle for me", Daddy was there and held me the night I was born and I was there and held him the night he died....full circle.  You never really know how much you miss someone until they are no longer there.  You still pick up the phone when you need someone to talk to, you still look at Father's Day cards even though you don't buy one.  Full circle...

The great grandchildren he never met, the grandchildren that married and he wasn't there...you never forget them, you never stop missing them...hug your loved ones today, be thankful they are still right there with you.

Eight years ago today.....

A NEW Market Venue!

New to the handmade scene is 1000Markets.com.  As a merchant there, I have to tell you that the "look" of 1,000 Markets (or lovingly nicknamed 1KM) is something you've never seen before on any other online venue.  Clean, crisp and classy...

The home page lets you browse through all the different markets available to shop from.  You can choose a specific market or just take a stroll through all the marketplaces to your hearts content.  Fine Art, foods, children's items, beautiful jewelry etc.  You'll not run out of markets to window shop through!

I'm a merchant member of a very special market called "Child's Play".  It is a market where you'll find all sorts of things for babies, toddlers and children from clothing to toys.  All beautifully created with loving hands and care.  The quality is one thing you'll recognize along with the variety of things made.  Each merchant was chosen carefully by the other merchants in the market itself.  We are a self-juried group of merchants, we run our own marketplace inside 1KM itself.

A prospective merchant must first pass through the jury process to be accepted into 1KM and then they have to apply for membership into whatever market they are interested in joining. Almost every one of the current markets at 1KM are individually run by their own voluntary "staff" as it were.

Child's Play is a fabulous market to window shop through.  If your looking for a gift for a new baby, a first birthday gift, an heirloom you can pass from generation to generation, stunning one of a kind clothing, beautiful mobiles, creative and fun toys Child's Play is the place to look!

Join all the merchants at Child's Play, come and take a look at all we have to offer.

How do you "see" your final product?

I had a customer ask me the other day "how do you see what a child would like"? I thought it a rather odd question and then I started to really think about it. I went into my sewing room and just sat there for a while looking at all I use that helps me create the toys I make. What did I "see"?

Machines first, an embroidery machine, a "regular" straight stitching machine, a serger and then fabric, thread, stuffing, scissors.....and pictures. Pictures that parents had sent me with their babies or toddlers playing with the toys I made. When I looked at those pictures I saw several things; a happy baby, maybe a smile or that darling drop of drool while they chewed on a toy. Then I really focused on the toy, here is where the "how do you see what a child would like" part came into play.

I looked at it first as a Mother, then a Grandmother (or Nana as my 9 grandkids call me). I saw something that was safe, no removable parts, nothing to small to choke on, something that can be washed (every Mothers dream), something that can't bang up little heads or hurt them when they fell on it as they learned to toddle and walk and nothing that could dent or scratch the furniture! Then I looked at it from a child's point of view, it was bright, colorful, chewable, small enough for tiny hands to hold on to, interesting enough to create my own "fun" with.

As I sat there a bit longer I realized that the very last thing on that list of what I "saw" was "will it sell". All of the other things were more important to me. I firmly believe that when you turn your thinking and your creating from something you love to do, something you want to share with others to something you just want to make a "living" off of, you've missed the boat. You have just taken the "Artisan or Crafter" out of the picture and put the "retailer" in!

You've gotta have heart I guess I'm trying to say...put your heart into your work and the rest will follow...I see the babies and the toddlers, and I see the Mothers and Fathers and Grandparents that feel good about giving their little ones something created by hand, that is safe, and something that is fun, something that will last for years and years to come. THAT is how I "see" my final product...

So Much Fabric....So Little Time...

It's amazing how much fabric one can collect for no apparent reason! When I start calling for the need for more shelving in my sewing room my other half tells me to "get rid of 1/2 that stuff your never gonna use it all". Then I take a walk out to his tool shop and start touching and counting ALL the hammers....JUST the hammers.

Here's how this conversation usually goes...

"How many hammers do you have Dear"? "I have just exactly as many hammers that I need that's how many"! "Well, Dear, I've counted 21, what on earth are you going to do with 21 hammers, can't you get rid of 1/2 of these cause your never gonna use them all"..."I have a hammer for every job, they are all important and each of one them is different" (kinda like the shelves full of fabric I have, I have just what I need for every order I could ever wish for and each of them is different). "Honey, it seems to me that you really don't need ALL these hammers do you, look at how much room they are taking up on your tool bench"....."All right DEAR, I get your point, where do you want the new shelves".

I rest my case.... and my favorite fabric store is having a sale this weekend, how nice!!

"Our Neighbors Are Pigs..."

Well, not really, our 2 footed neighbors are actually quite nice!  These "neighbors" are rather odd looking and not really pigs at all, they are Javelina, or collared peccaries.

Javalina have a very good sense of smell and really poor eyesight.   They are a small animal, and stand about 1.5 feet at the shoulders and are about 3 feet long from nose to tail. Their average weight is from 40-60 pounds. Javelina travel in herds ranging anywhere from 8-27 animals (the largest ever counted was a herd of 54). Their dorsal scent gland and their sharp sense of smell, helps each javelina identify other members of the herd.  You most likely will "smell" one coming before you see them!!

Javelina are usually found in the low to mid-altitude deserts and cactus desert grasslands between 1,000 and 5,000 feet.  Sometimes they will travel into the higher altitudes for food which may include pinyon pine-juniper, oak, and pine-oak vegetation between 4,000 and 7,000 feet but they don't live there.

Javelina are pretty much herbivores (plant eaters), although they have been known to eat insects once in a while. They primarily eat cactus and other spiny and succulent plants, roots, tubers, and pods .

Javelina babies, or "piglings," are born pretty much all year long, with the highest numbers born in June. A litter consists of one to four piglings, with an average of two.  They are just the cutest little things, you wonder how they can keep up with the herd as their legs are so short! Mother Javelina are very protective of their young, and they WILL go after you if you come upon them and they have their babies with them.  They have been known to attack dogs and kill them.  So when we walk our dog we walk with a large walking stick and we try not to walk during the time the "locals" come out to forage for the night!!

Our "neighbors" are quite in tune with the beat of the rest of the "hood".  They seem to know which night is the night before garbage day.  We see large herds of them (usually the same herd as they are very territorial) roaming down the subdivision streets on Monday nights!  We learned to not put our trash out the night before as they knock over the trash cans and forage through the weekly throw aways!!  They make quite a mess....many of the old time neighbors still insist on putting their cans out on Monday's and they can more often than not be seen Tuesday mornings in their bathrobes picking up trash!  We also learned, quite early on, to keep our garage door closed because they will go through there as well rooting around looking for something good to eat!

This guy seemed to be alone today, maybe he was the scouting party leader for tonights feast....and the night before garbage day is tomorrow!!

LET It SNOW !!

Yup, even in Tucson, Arizona it snows. One of the neatest things about living in this desert is the fact that we have Mt. Lemmon in the Catalina Mountains within driving distance from town. You can literally drive 45 minutes and be on the slopes skiing here in the winter! Mt. Lemmon received 8 inches of snow on Sunday night and another 10 inches last night. The "snow level" dropped to about 3,500 feet (Mt. Lemmon is about 9238 feet tall). Where we live, at the base of the mountains, we're at a little over 2,500. It's wonderful to walk the dog in a light jacket and still see the snow in the mountains.

The grandkids love it when their parents take them up the mountain to go sledding. One of our grandkids, Noah, just turned 3. Noah can't go up the mountain due to having to have 2 different surgeries on his ears, the altitude just makes him scream from the pain. My son, Noah's father, took the other 2 boys up to frolic in the snow. Now Noah knows he can't go, but was just thrilled when his Dad and his brothers William and Dakota brought a pickup truck bed FILLED with snow back to their house! He had hours and hours of fun making a "snow boy" as he calls it and tossing snowballs at his brothers! They even piled it high and let him slide down on his plastic saucer.

Tucson does have lots to offer, but the summers here are just brutal, that's why we now head to Missouri and the lake in the Spring! I thought I wouldn't miss Tucson when we moved, I'm beginning to think otherwise. And as the remodel on the house starts to take shape, I think I will miss it even more this year....we may be rethinking renting or selling this house...somehow we would like to hang on to it.....if we can...

Look For The Rainbow In Any Storm!

On Friday, January 31, 2009, Congress placed a "stay" of enforcement on the CPSIA Law which would of gone into effect on February 10, 2009. This means that the CPSIA required "third party" testing for all children's products will not have to take place. This does not, however, mean the existing laws requirements for lead and other chemicals can be ignored. We must still adhere to the "reasonable testing" portion of this law. To my business, this just means I am now turning to my suppliers of fabric, stuffing, thread and ribbon and asking them if they have written certification that their products are free of lead and other chemicals that the U.S. Government is regulating. So far, I have had very good luck with my suppliers. They can assure ME in writing that their products are safe and that allows ME to assure YOU that my finished toys are safe for your baby!

One of the biggest victories in this entire thing is the fact that the "big toy companies" (who were very, very involved in writing this law) are very upset right now! They had fully intended for this law to put the "little guys" out of business, thus allowing them to monopolize the market. Sad to say this would of taken your "choices" as a parent away from you. Because, the only ones that could afford the third party testing would of been the huge manufacturers.....so sorry guys!!

Bottom line, my toys are safer now than before. Is it because my suppliers have done something different to the manufacturing process of their goods? No, my toys are safer now because I now know, for sure, that the supplies I am using are safe.....and I have that in writing from them! Nothing has changed except my peace of mind, and YOURS.

Thank you for supporting me through this. If you wrote to someone to protest this law, thank you, if you listened to me whine about it for months, I REALLY thank you, and if you kept my spirits up when I was down, bless you......remember, there is always a "rainbow" in every storm!