No more tag blanket!

I just got 3 tag blankets pulled out of my shop over the weekend. So, I did a little bit research online about the issue. Apperantly, the company call "Taggies" patented the whole thing. Not just the name "taggie", it's about the whole design. Basically no one can make a security blanket with 2 piece of fabric with some ribbons in between. They can not be made for sale, or use. So, if a grandma or mom made one and gave it to their kids, they could be in trouble too. You cannot sell or use such an item. What idiot patent officer gave them such a broad definition? And I think the patent is valid untill 2020! And from what I read, there are lots of people got into trouble and got their eBay store suspended, or sued by Taggies. Any craft store or website offered instructions about how to make a blanket with tags or even a stuffed ball with tags got in trouble as well. And I heard that this thing is not exactly an original design, Fisher Price had a similar design and had that patented in the 70's. So, sounds like this Taggies company did some modification and re-patented it. But no one seems to be able to find a picture of that Fisher Price blanket, we can not be sure about that. And in the forum I read this morning, there are lots of scams around this issue as well. There is a woman, or several of them, goes to the craft or sewing forums or eBay and asks people to make her a blanket, and her description is just like a 'taggie'. And if any nice person did her the favor and made it for her, she will then have your store closed, and demand money, and threaten to take them to court. What a B*! Some people received some badly photocopied letter from some collecting agency or "lawyer" and demanding for money and threaten to ruin their credit history. They had to call fraud offices. What a mess!
And people have been talking about babies got their fingers caught in the tag, cut off the blood supply,and badly injuried. Sounds very dangerous. So one thing for sure, I won't buy anything from Taggies, and I will tell my friends not to buy from them, not only because of the evil monopoly thing, but also the safety issue. I don't want that to happen to any of my friend's babies. Besides, that was just a new thing I wanted to try. It's no big deal to remove them from my shop. My main interest is still my knots anyway. I better check whether the bib or burp cloth or nursing cover are patented as well. I don't want to get in any trouble or mess. My Etsy store is just a fun thing to do, I definitely don't want to mess up my credit history because of it.
So, a friendly warning to any one who reads my blog. If you or your friends make these taggie thing as well, even if just for yourself, BE CAREFUL!

More Beautiful Orchids

AK brought some more blooming orchids to our office. I knew he's good at growing orchids, but I am still blowed away by the varieties and extremely healthy conditions of all these beauties, and check out their stunning flowers.

Rodriguezia Macroplectron x Ionopsis Utricularioder
Paph. Virtuous 'Snow' x Pinocchio 'Prince'
And here is the taggie I uploaded to my shop this morning. It matches the 'red hot hawaii' nursing cover perfectly. The nursing cover fits both boy and girl, because IT'S FOR THE HOT MOMA! But this one is definitely for a little princess. I made matching bib and the burpcloth, just need to take some pictures so I can post them online as well.

A New Neighbor?

I saw a pretty big animal in the yard this morning. My next door neighbor told me about it last week, and she snapped some pictures. We think it's a woodchuck. It's pretty big, at least 2ft long, including that short tail, and it is fat. Just hope it's not pregnant, otherwise, we are in big trouble. I did a little bit research online, and apparently it can damage the foundation of the house, and destroy vegetable gardens! And it's quite popular in Northeasten! It looked quite gentle this morning, but its aggressive nature could be a problem. From now on, I have to check around the house and yard, and if I found any holes or tunnels, I have to call the animal control. Hope this new neighbor behave itself.

Oh, here are the new items I uploaded today.
Nautical Burp Cloth
Nautical Taggie / Tag Blankie

A little disturbance in the neighborhood

Late Sat night, around midnight, some people were bored enough to through rocks to our circle! We live at the end of a very nice and small Cul-de-sac street, and have been enjoying the friendly neighbors for the past 3 years. But apperantly, some people who live on the next street are not all that nice. Last month, someone was playing with fireworks at 2:30Am, and it was a weekday, not any holiday! My next door neighbor found some fireworks half way buried in her flowerbed in front yard! Those are not the used ones. It was so dangerous! They have a 2-year-old little boy, what if he touched it and it exploded! Who would do things like this? This time, I guess they were competing to see who can throw the rocks the furthest! Sunday morning, we found around 50 rocks in our circle, big and small. The biggest ones are about 2/3 of a brick size, and the small ones about egg size. They hit my neighbor's fence, and badly damaged one guy's car. The windshield and one side window were broken, and lots of dents on the roof and side door and the hood and the trunk! There were some small ones got really close to our cars, but fortunately our cars were not directly hit. We had to call the police and file a report. I just don't understand why someone do such a thing! And do they think damaging other people's properties is fun? Those really big rocks all fell inside my neighbor's yard, because they were just too heavy to reach the circle. What if their little girl were playing with the dog in the yard? Those rocks are big enough to crack her head open! I don't even want to think about it.

OK, changing subject. I just uploaded this new nursing cover to my shop. I found this fabric on a pile of boring ones in Fabric Place. I guess someone had it cut but then decided to give it up. I was so lucky and got a great price for it. It's so gorgeous, I wanted to make a cute skirt for myself. But since I already have lots of skirts, I decided to make it into the very functional nursing cover. At least some hot moma out there will appreciate it and put it in good use. The back fabric came to US with me about 9 years ago, just couldn't decide what to do with it. I think it matches the red Hawaii flower fabric very well, so ok, I can give it up. :) And since I got my cute fabric labels last Friday, I sewed it to all my pieces. I think it looks very good, don't you?
And I got a surprising email from flickr, saying that I am Serena & Lily's newest contact! I just recently posted some pictures on flickr, haven't quite figure out all the features yet. So, you can understand how surprised I was. I had to check it out. It turned out they are two brilliant women, one designer and one businesswoman. Together they started a new adventure, opened a new business called Serena & Lily Nursery Designs. Their design is so devine and elegant, I was totally amazed. And felt so honored to be chosen as their new contact, which means they liked my pictures, I am guessing the nursing covers. Here are some of their items, but you can go to their flickr account to see more.

Strawberry, Any One?

Here is how my strawberry plants looked several weeks ago. And last week. And this morning. Yummy!

Introducing TranquilBaby

New line of products for my shop. This one is called 'Fashion Girls', and it's absolutely gorgeous! And this one is "Victorian Garden Red".
I am having so much fun making all these baby gifts, can wait for my new fabric labels to come, so I can put it on my items and put them in my shop.

And here is another set I just sold to M's friend. It's double sided and fit for both baby boy and girl. Two burp clothes and a tag blanket.The tag blanket.The fabric bag that holds everything, can also be used as a travel diaper bag, enough room for a couple of diapers and a small box of baby wipes.

My train this morning was packed with Celtics fans. People at the last 3 stops couldn't even get on. Almost everyone dressed in green, and surprisingly lots of teenagers. Guess they don't have to go to school today. When I finally got out of North Station, the streets were already closed and thousands of people waiting on the sidewalks. The Boston famous duck boats were ready in the parking lot. Everyone was super excited about this parade, and I had to cover my ears sometimes because of the screams.

WE ARE THE CHAMPION!!!

Check out more celebration pictures here. I am exhausted this morning. I came home around 9pm last night, and made some baby gifts while watching the game. So I ended up working hard until midnight. Then I was too excited to sleep! But it was all worth it. We are the Champion AGAIN! This couple of years are super great for all Boston sports fans, and fans all over New England. Lots of them probably didn't get any sleep at all last night. Don't know yet how the city is going to celebrate, but I bet it will be over the top great.

Update: My pink necklace just got featured on Etsy Treasury. Yippee! Go check it out yourself here.

Tired of Orchid?

I have more orchid pictures to share. Actually these two are AK's again. He will bring more blooming ones to office, so I can take the pictures. He has a super shiny green thumb.


And here are the items I uploaded to my shop last night.

Early Summer Blooms

Pictures of the early summer blooms in my yard and my neighbor's yard. Enjoy.

Portulaca, a.k.a. Moss Rose
Variegated Scented Geranium
Purple Cone Flower
Cilantro's flowers are tiny, but very elegant in clusters.
Beautiful rose, very sweet scent. (my neighbor's)
Clover's tiny flowers. Even though it's weed, DH and I like it a lot.
Peony. My neighbor got it from her co-worker's yard.

New Items in My Store

After yesterday's party, I got a chance to relax today because of the rain. Great time to get creative. I made 8 new cell phone charms and finished 4 sets of bookmarks. This time, I tried some new background settings, with my orchid, and lots of my unique Chinese brush painting stuffs. Love the results. Just uploaded 2 cell phone charms and 2 sets of bookmarks to my store. And more is coming up. Please take a look and share your opinion on the new backgrounds. Thanks.

Dark green PanChang knot charm

Lavender Panchang knot charm

Jungle flowers Panchang knot bookmark

Music sheet Panchang knot bookmark

Last of My Spring Bulbs

These are the pictures of newest and last blooms of my spring bulbs. They are not as strong as before, but still very pretty.
And did you watch the game last night? What an exciting game! "The Celtics overcame a 24-point deficit en route to a stunning 97-91 victory over the Lakers in Game 4 last night at Staples Center." (The Boston Globe) Honestly, I thought the game was over after the first quarter. How can you come back from that deficit, when you are playing against the Lakers? But I guess Lakers is not what they used to be, and Celtics just wanted it more than them. Great win! This morning, a lady on the shuttle said that Celtics should let the game 5 go, and come back and win at home. Several of us almost screamed, NO, NO, NO! Wherever you win it, you are the champion. You cannot take any chance when Kobe Bryant is on the other side. They have the skills and experience, if you let them, they will take you down. No way, we can not just give them the game 5 and let them gain their momentum. No way! Just bring the big shiny trophy home, we can celebrate when they come back. One more game! One more, baby!