UPDATED: RECEIVED THE FOLLOWING GUIDE FROM THE CPSC AT 1:23 AM TODAY!:
Nothing like waiting until last minute? Unbelievable!
Not sure how the rest of you feel, but this whole CPSIA stuff continues to mentally and physically DRAIN me! I spend a tremendous amount of time reading, bewildered, rereading, twittering, disseminating information, testing, retesting, and banging my head against the wall.
It has all knocked the life out of me. Some think it’s no big deal. But the reality of it is another story.
Read the latest 7 items from the CPSC from this past Thursday and Friday. Now before you get all excited and think you are off the hook, perhaps you should read some of the thoughts around the web:
Fashion-Incubator: 3 Days Until National Bankruptcy Day
Senator DeMint: Congress Turns Toy Story into Nightmare for Small Business
Rick Woldenberg: The Emperor Has No Clothes
Rick Woldenberg: CPSC Commissioners Speak Out
Rick Woldenberg: CPSIA More Serious Message
Overlawyered: What Will Be Enforced?
Overlawyered: CPSIA Fifty Stars and an Asterisk
Overlawyered: CPSIA Chronicles February 10th
The Common Room: There’s a Difference Between a Policy and a Law
The Common Room: CPSIA and State Attorney General
The Common Room: Open Letter to NRDC
Shopfloor: Ambiguous Enforcement-Certain Disruption
CPSIA by Numbers (Part 1): How Much Safer Will CPSIA Make Us?
CPSIA by Numbers (Part 2):Stochastic Approach
CPSIA by Numbers (Part 3): Scary Sounding Chemicals
(Note: Yes, I did eat the tires off my first carriage….LOL!)
Honestly, I don’t have a game plan yet. I rented an XRF gun to lead test my boys’ clothing line and everything else in my sewing studio (over $400/day). All fabrics, elastics and trims passed. Problems occurred with some snaps and zipper heads (thankfully I have lead-free substitutes). Not sure if the reflection of the silver on these items gave me false-positive results. So what I’ll need to do now is have these items in question re-tested by a professional (more $$$).
But the good news is I can continue to sell for the next year. Yet, unless the CPSC decides to allow component testing next year, my business won’t be able to survive the high cost of third-party lab testing. Kathleen of Fashion-Incubator sums up how I feel.
With friendship,
Lisa
THE DOMESTIC DIVA'S DISASTERS™ 
thanks Lisa for a great article – I will be tweeting the link to spread the word!
I agree – it is EXHAUSTING. And the last-minute stuff… someone at F-I posted that, yeah, that stay of enforcement was great. Too bad she’d already sold off most of her inventory at a loss.
Argh. Awesome list of links, though. I posted this entry on my FB Profile, where I am quickly winning for “Most Annoying With Constant CPSIA Content.”
Great article. While I do not have a business that is affected, I have been reading up on the topic. In fact, our editor did an article/interview with Kathleen Fasanella in January.
I can only offer my empathy as you try to make sense of a very confusing (and costly) situation. Thank you for the links, I plan to read them as well.
Best of Luck,
Chrissie
Hello, Lisa. Just found your blog, thanks to the HomeGoods websight. Plan on reading everything, looks really interesting! I was wondering, you had a black desktop caddy on one of your blogs that you got at HomeGoods/TJX, do you remember what brand it was? I stopped in to a store in another state and found one identical except it was red AND two tiered. Now I want it, can’t find one, and I am kicking myself!!! If I had a brand name, I could go from there!!! Thank you so much, great site!!!
Thanks Lisa. I have done everything I can, from speading the word via forums and several blogs to making media calls and sending emails to phoning and writing to congressmen (not only my own, either.) It’s such a mess. No one seems to have any authority, but they continue making statements and issuing opinions. And yet, the law stands as written. Nothing has changed.
I feel worn down and depressed. I keep hearing news stories about how wonderful it all is – the government is here to protect you from the evil, money-grubbing manufacturers who want to poison your children.
I appreciate your hard work on this, too.
Thanks! I love the carriage tire bumper sticker! Discovered your site a couple months ago and love it!
Can you say incredibly stupid? I heard on the news the other day that stores that sell ATVs have to test also. Apparently someone is afraid that a kid will take the atv apart and eat a part inside it.
Can we say Nanny state? I just wish that my government would leave me alone and mind it’s on business. And it’s only going to get worse.
I think you will enjoy reading this!
Dr. Seuss Meets the CPSIA –
http://www.easyfunschool.com/the_CPSIA_meets_Dr_Seuss.html