the isle of illeagal toys…

So I promised my husband when we started this blog that I’d never use it as a platform to air my political views. Well I’m breaking that promise and I hope he’ll forgive me when he reads this because I have found something worth airing my frustration.

In response to my previous post I have decided to start selling my diaper bags and quilts online via Etsy and 1000 Markets. As with the start of any business I was doing a lot a research online and time after time I came across articles regarding the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. At first I was excited that the government had responded to all the lead paint scares on children’s toys in the last 2 years. As I researched it further I started to become torn over the legislation. Although I am totally pro having companies like Mattel forced to test their toys that are manufactured in China so my kids don’t get lead poisoning I am totally against that the same legislation will essentially put many independent toy and children’s clothing makers out of business. This article – Heard in Slammer: “I Used to Make Handmade Toys”; sums it up best. As well as this open letter from Etsy about all of their sellers that will be affected.

I realize that this legislation was not enacted to target these mom and pop crafters but the act will force them to pay a whomping $4,000 fee to test each toy type. So, not a big deal to drop $4,000 for Mattell to test a Barbie product line that they will produce thousands of, but for an independant producer making one-of-a-kind toys each individual toy would have to be tested. Thankfully the products I am planning on selling do not fall under the restrictions but I prefer to buy handmade toys for my kids and I’m sad that I can no longer do so. So it looks like we are adding residents to the Isle of Misfit Illegal Toys.

I will be writing a letter to my local state representative who happens to be in my district and is aslo on the House Subcommittee on Commerce Trade and Consumer Protection. I have also joined The Handmade Toy Alliance who is working hard to get changes made to the law to save the mom and pop crafters. And lastly I will be scouring my favorite independant producers of childrens prodcuts and buying up some products that will no longer be available.

-Megan

to sell or not to sell…

So I’ve been debating a lot lately about what I can do to bring in some extra cash. There must be a way I can use a bit of my creativity and design sense to make a bit of cash. And with the popularity of Etsy there is actually an easy avenue available to sell some of the products of my creativity.

So I am polling my 12 readers as to whether I should venture to sell a few things on Etsy. The two things I am debating selling are my baby quilts and the diaper bags. I created both of the designs and patterns and make both entirely. It would cost about $30 each to make new items to sell. If I get positive feedback that they are items worth purchasing I’ll make some new versions and post them in my Etsy store and see if they sell. If they do and there seems to be demand I’ll continue to make more.

So to help with the decision here are photos of each:

Quilt

Sorry for the wonky angle, the smallest child was obviously taking a nap on said quilt which prevented me from getting a better shot. Smallest child is still sleeping on said quilt which is allowing me to blog.

So if I had to describe it I’d say it is a 30″ square baby quilt made of 100% cotton top, polyester batting and a soft minky back. The tree is hand pieced and sewn. It is machine washable and dryer safe (which why make baby products that aren’t?).

Diaper Bag

Front

Back

Inside Front

Inside Back

The diaper back is made of 100% heavyweight cotton. It measures 15″ high, 18″ wide and 3″ deep.  There are two pockets on the front and a large pocket on the back perfect for a changing mat. There 6 pockets on the inside including a cell phone pocket, a large zippered pocket and two bottle/sippy cup pockets. The strap allows you to attach it to a stroller, shorten it to handbag length or wear at full messenger bag length. It is also machine washable and dryer safe.

Let me know your thoughts!

-Megan

6 weeks to thanksgiving…

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am taking a break to write a post since my darling husband is home today to deal with the little monkeys and I am in the middle of basting a ham for supper. Yes, ham. My mother-in-law is hosting a large family dinner at her home and I am supplementing the turkey with a ham.

I was inspired by my friend Lynette’s post about what she is thankful for, for herself. So I decided to generate my own list.

1. I am most thankful for God’s limitless grace! I have been meditating on God’s grace a lot lately and I’m growing more and more thankful for it daily.

2. The ability to create and the fact that I was created to be creative. I have loved pouring my creativity into SO many different medias lately. I am currently making ALL the Christmas decorations for our home and trying to do so for less than $30. Circumstances have been such that we haven’t been able to decorate or really establish any Christmas traditions since we’ve been married. So we are starting from scratch and starting on a shoestring budget.

3. Clinton’s job. In this economy we are grateful for his steady work and that it provides for our families needs.

4. My Creative Therapy. Which is what I have named the binder where I organize my thoughts, inspiration and life. More on this later.

5. My adorable little monkeys. Bella is TOO CUTE!…and she knows it. Today William is SIX WEEKS OLD! He’s a healthy strong little boy who has been sleeping six hours straight at night for the last four weeks! Pictures to follow.

6. Coupons and the ability to save our family lots of money on basic needs. It takes a lot of time and work but we typically save 45%-50% on our groceries each week. We haven’t spent more than $30 on a week of groceries for the past three months straight. And I haven’t changed the types of food I cook.

7. Quiet afternoons when both of my children are sleeping. I typically spend this time reading and prepping dinner. Which are the two most stress relieving activities in my life.

8. Cool, Texas mornings. I like to sit on my front stoop all bundled up and drink my coffee. It is the only time of day and this is the only time of year when Texas reminds me of Seattle and it makes me miss the Northwest a lot.

9. Our townhome and the fact that it is the first place that feels like home since the first apartment we lived in right after we got married.

10. My wonderful marriage to my wonderful husband. We’ve been blessed with three amazing years of marriage and I still get excited when I hear his voice on the phone. He’s my hero.

As promised, here are some recent pictures of the little monkeys.

Liam at 4.5 weeks

This is Bella sitting in Liam’s baby bath. I had just finished giving him a bath and was draining it when Bella decided that she needed to bathe herself. This was the guilty look I got when I caught her.

This is Liam angry at me for putting him in one of his sister’s size 4 diapers. Bella was taking a much needed nap and I didn’t want to go into the nursery to get one of his diapers for fear that I might wake her up.

-Megan

i laughed so hard, i cried…

Check out this FABULOUS video of a Seniors Choir

Thanks Beth Catron for introducing me to such a great video.

-Megan

fighting my inner home ec major…

Here’s a little background. I went to The Master’s College. TMC had a really great business department based on sound biblical principals. That is the ONLY reason I went to TMC. I went in very cynical about the number of people who seemed to only be at TMC to find a spouse. I frequently was found criticizing the seemingly very expensive dating service. I ate my words when I met Clint and ended up getting married the fall after I graduated.

Along with this expensive dating service that I mocked ceaselessly was the Home Economics Department and the women who were paying upwards of $24k a year to obtain the degree. I have no problem with the subject matter taught in the department. But speaking from experience, most, if not all of the subject matter taught you can learn from other sources for a lot less than $24K a year. I did appreciate the girls who admitted that the whole reason they were home ec majors was to get husbands.

So here is my struggle. I never wanted to be what the home ec majors strived to become. I didn’t want to be a house keeping, sewing, decorating, cooking woman who stayed home all day. Low and behold, I seemed to have turned into that very woman. Not only that, but I am wishing that I had taken several of those classes because they are skills I wish I had.

I am a creative person who feels the need to do something creative often if not daily. I would prefer to paint but painting is not something you can just drop at a moments notice. Being able to drop things at a moments notice is key when you have 2 kinds under 2. So I picked up sewing about 2 years ago and once again it has been fun to create stuff. Unfortunately I am not trained at all so I am trying to learn as I go. In the past month, I have sewn several rag dolls for Bella, a baby quilt for Liam, curtains for the whole house, and a diaper bag for myself. It’s been fun to make stuff again.

-megan

if i have ten minutes…

So I was inspired to write this post because of this post from my friend Shay.

I wouldn’t say that I am a busy person even though there is a TON going on in my day-to-day life. I always have lots of things to accomplish like maintaining a marriage, my children, my home, my faith, my sanity etc…..but I never seem terribly stressed if those things don’t get accomplished. I am grateful for that lack of stress because I think it holds down a lot of stay-at-home moms. Somewhere along the line I gained an understanding that my world is TOTALLY cyclical so if something doesn’t get done it isn’t a big deal. Because if it did get done I’d be redoing it the next day regardless. Now this can give way to laziness so I have to keep on top of that. I have come to a recent realization that stay-at-home moms need to give up on the idea of balance.  Instead, I try to make sure that I am investing 100% of my effort into whatever task is at hand.

Sorry for the long intro…didn’t mean to delve that far into my brain…I just meant to say that I am busy, but a few times a day I get 10 unassigned minutes. When those minutes come along I almost always hit my google homepage. More specifically I hit my Google reader and read blogs. I am obsessed with several blogs. I have to keep on top of my feed because otherwise I get overwhelmed by the HUGE number of posts in my feed. I have a routine (that drives my husband CRAZY) where I scan the beginning of the post and do one of two things; either mark it as read and move on, or open the post up in another tab (thanks Firefox) to read later. The part that bothers Clint SO much is that by the time he gets home, I have like 20 tabs open in Firefox from all my 10 minute sessions of the day. I typically don’t get around to reading these in depth and bookmarking them if necessary (in delicious) till the small children are in bed and Clint is watching football.

As I look through the blogs in my reader I am shocked by what comprises my favorites. I read several personal blogs of friends strewn about the planet. I read a few blogs of other Christian stay-at-home moms who seem to be level headed, art enthusiasts who haven’t given up on passions outside of the home (ie photography, gourmet cooking, painting etc). Several creative blogs of everything from clothing pattern makers, to scrapbookers, photographers, and quilters. I am currently in a phase where I am fighting my inner home economics major (I have a whole post on this to come later this week). And I read a couple of organization and decorating blogs and lastly one financial blog.

It seems like a lot and I am glad they don’t all post daily. I typically have about 20-30 posts in my reader everyday. I typically read half of those in depth. And now this 10 minute break is up and my youngest is once again discontented with his little life.

-Megan

one week in…

Well I am a mother of two and it has finally hit me. It hit me like a Mack truck in the face as my darling 18 month old daughter is not adjusting well. I don’t blame her. There is no way we could have explained in a way that she would comprehend that we would be taking the baby home with us.

Liam is a sweet, easy baby. Which is a total blessing considering my angry, spiteful toddler. She is finally starting to adjust and hopefully will be manageable solely by me by the time Liam hits the up-all-night phase of infancy.

Since Liam is in the eat, poop and sleep in between phase I actually have gotten a TON done around my home. It is to a cleanliness standard that I have longed for since I have moved in. I finally unpacked the last box from our move in August. Now I am in decorating mode and totally taking advantage of the fact that my mom is here to help.

Recovery has been just as easy as last time. I haven’t needed pain killers since my last day in the hospital. I am mobile and can function nearly at 100%. I am still not allowed to lift more than 10lbs (which means I can’t even lift Liam in his car seat) and I am not allowed to exercise for another 7 weeks. I am excited about that 7 week deadline and am looking forward to being active again.

-Megan

day two…

Well hello again from the Presbyterian Hospital of Plano.18 months ago we were here with Isabella. Now we’re here with another little one. Megan made the comment to me, “its amazing how God increases your capacity to love.” Its so true. It blows my mind that I don’t feel any less love for my wife or Bella (if anything, I love them more than ever!), yet I have so much love for my new son. Hopefully, I can answer a couple of likely questions from our readership.

1. And probably most importantly, Megan and Liam are doing good. Megan is healing well, and Liam is eating, sleeping, and, well…doing everything a newborn should do.

2. Bella is oblivious to her new brother. She has actually had a little bit of a cold this week, so she hasn’t seen her brother much. I don’t think the full realization of just how much her world has changed until we all get back home.

3. Sleep? Sleep?? We’re getting a little. One of the nice things about the hospital is that you can send your newborn to the nursery during the night so that you can get some sleep in between feedings (but remember, he eats every three hours or so).

4. If you think of anything else to ask, leave a comment and we’ll answer it.

5. Oh before I forget, here are some more pictures

william manuel ochoa…

Here’s the quick update….I had a second child today. William Manuel (aka Liam) was born at 12:19pm via c-section. He is a very healthy 9lbs 3oz and 19″ long. He’s a good eater and fairly quiet…at least thus far. And by popular demand, here are some photos…

i feel like blogging…

This morning, I feel like blogging. Liam is coming on Thursday at 5pm. It is nice to be so close. Lord willing, the time will fly by. My mom gets into town next Wednesday afternoon for 2.5 weeks. So, between now and then there are several things that I would like to get done.

Cleaning is the main thing. Accomplishing this is easier said than done. Although I am feeling fairly good at this stage I am still awkwardly huge and having lots of Braxton Hicks contractions…this makes pretty much everything really difficult.

I have been sewing a bunch. I got one of two wedding presents completed. I finished Liam’s baby quilt. I made myself a new diaper bag without a pattern (yay!). I made cloth wipes for the small children. Make fun of me if you will, but since I am already using a cloth diaper system I might as well go the distance. I would also like to finish some curtains and get them put up but that is last priority.

I am learning all about what it means to be a parent of a kid with food allergies. Bella is officially allergic to avocado and eggs. Although her reactions are not classified as severe, her allergist would prefer that we cut out anything with egg for the next six months in the hopes that she grows out of it. So now I read every food label, rethink what I cook, and carry an epipen with me at all times. Not my favorite past time….but since an egg allergy can grow into something life threatening I am taking it seriously.

Hopefully this time next week there will be lots of pictures of baby Ochoa. Our hospital has free wireless so Clint should be able to post.

-Megan