Winner of the Love Letter Giveaway announced!

Congratulations to Andreah

of Life's a Hoot!

She is the lucky winner of a set of Love Letters

through the blog giveaway

hosted by Nursery Murals and More

Todays CPSIA update: I'm currently reading through the several updates that have been posted by the CPSC, including the natural materials exemptions. I hope to share my thoughts on these updates with you over the coming days.

Have you sent your letters to the Committee Leaders of the Committee on Energy and Commerce? Here is my letter to them, sent today. Please feel free to use my letter. But also note, as a concerned citizen I hate receiving form letters back from my legislators, so why would I send one? It will be much more impactful if you write an original letter to them in your words, detailing your concerns. Still, a form letter is better than no letter, so if you must...here it is:

I am writing today to express my concerns with the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) passed in August 2008. As the mother of two small children, I am pleased to see that actions are taken to ensure our children’s safety when it comes to toys and clothing. However, this well intentioned law has some unintentional consequences.

I write today not only as the mother of Arden, age 2, and Braden, age 4 months. I also write as the owner and sole proprietor of a small online business called BuggaLove. I create handcrafted nursery décor items and embellished children’s apparel. These items are made from non-toxic materials. None of my materials or supplies contain lead. According to the CPSIA, I am a manufacturer. Further according to this law, I need to have my products tested for lead. My items are not created in batches of thousands, or hundreds. My items are custom made, individually, specific to the needs of my customer at a reasonable cost. The law currently does not take into account one-of-a-kind or made to order items in its testing regulations. Furthermore, the costs of testing and certification on a small businesses, like mine, are burdensome. If amendments to the law are not made, I may be out of business as of February 10, 2009. I very much would like to find a reasonable way to comply with the law and maintain my growing fledgling business.

There are thousands of small business owners like me. We work in our garages, at our dining room tables, and in our spare bedrooms. We lovingly create items with care for our children and children around the world. I realize that this law was well intentioned and necessary due to the toy recalls that took place in 2007. I ask that you please consider a hearing to analyze the unintended consequences of this law and analyze the economic impact of CPSIA due to its broad terms.