SPRING! SPRING! SPRING! Think Ahead! The Season of Plants Reviving!!

Ruth Sandra Sperling
RSS Designs In Fiber - Internet Shop of My Handmade Designs In Fiber






Spring is pretty much my favorite season. Even though I love the warm, golden, orangey colors of fall - the bright spring green leaves budding out on trees, herbs and plants in Spring are so beautiful for me!!

And then the flowers!!

I just love it!!

So, I go all out in my fiber crafts through Spring and Summer to celebrate the colors and themes of Nature!!

Spring actually comes in March, but for decorating, you need to Think Ahead!

So, I am starting to emphasize SPRING in my ETSY shops now.

Here are a few pictures of some SPRING/NATURE Designs In Fiber in my shops:


SPRING YELLOW FLOWERS IN SPRING GREEN LEAVES http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=20993809







A WHITE LOTUS FLOWER FOR SPRING
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=11197430












A SUNBURST - LAYERS OF YELLOWS
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=20239520












A TREE LANDSCAPE IN TAPESTRY ART CROCHET http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=13105129












A COTTON FRINGED SCARF/SHAWL IN MULTICOLOR RIPPLES http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=15404298











A KEYCHAIN OF IRISH LEAVES AND ROSES

Take a look in my shop - maybe there will be something you would like to decorate with -- or give as a gift -- or use around your home: RSS Designs In Fiber

And keep in mind -- I DO CUSTOM ORDERS -- so you can request something designed in the color or subject you would like!!


And most of the things I make are made to last a long time - to be reused whenever you feel like it!



To the Season of Revival - SPRING!!

Ruth

MERCURY IN OUR FOODS??!! WATCH OUT FOR TOO MUCH OF....

Ruth Sandra Sperling
RSS Designs In Fiber - Internet Shop of Handmade Items
RSS Designs Wearable - Internet Shop of Wearable Items


I saw a post yesterday on someone's blog - I thought it was kind of funny because it was about High Fructose Corn Syrup and why it can not be so good for you - especially if you get too much of it -- and not because of the sugar or the calories.

But first I would like to give the links to three articles/documents on the Internet, so you can read them yourself before you read here any further.

1. Chocolate Syrup Laced With Mercury http://greenearthjourney.blogspot.com/2009/02/chocolate-syrup-laced-with-mercury.html

2. Institue for Agriculture and Trade Policy -- Not So Sweet: Missing Mercury and High Fructose Corn Syrup http://www.healthobservatory.org/library.cfm?refid=105026

3. Mercury from chlor-alkali plants: measured concentrations in food product sugar. http://www.ehjournal.net/content/8/1/2


If you have even just taken a look at these three Internet documents - or actually read them through, you will realize that there seems to be some danger of getting toxic levels of Mercury from eating foods with High Fructose Corn Syrup in them.

I am not a scientist who can do tests - or evaluate other's tests - but I can read and it looks to me like there is a possibility of a health issue here.

I avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup because it is a sugar, and for my own personal health issues, I don't eat much sugar (especially in liquid form) and I watch my carbohydrates - in other words, I strive to eat a low-carbohydrate diet (especially simple carbohydrates - I prefer complex ones)because of my own health problems.

But I am also worried about ingesting/absorbing too many toxins/toxic substances because of problems that could occur or could be exacerbated, so I will file away this information about possible Mercury in High Fructose Corn Syrup and will just do my very best to avoid foods containing it - as a safety measure.

I am a label-reader - I read labels for the ingredients in foods I buy!!

What other people do is their business, but the data is available!

Maybe the manufacturers of High Fructose Corn Syrup should just take a few additional measures themselves -- and make sure that their High Fructose Corn Syrup that is used for food just doesn't have any Mercury in it!!

To a healthier world!!


Ruth

Weekend Deal in RSS Designs In Fiber for HEARTS IN FIBER through sometime Monday 2/16/2009

Ruth Sandra Sperling
RSS Designs In Fiber - Internet Shop of Handmade Items
RSS Designs Wearable - Internet Shop of Wearable Items





Crocheting in Thread is an enjoyable artistic endeavor for me.


One of the things I like to crochet in different techniques is Hearts!!


I have had a few of them in my Internet Shop - RSS Designs In Fiber - these are the ones I still have in this shop at the time of writing this article. (See WEEKEND DEAL Below!!)



Lovebird In A Heart: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=19037323








Circle of Hearts and Roses: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=19963912









Irish Crochet Roses In A Heart: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=20389704









Heart Inside A Heart Inside A Heart....: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=20295466









They are each made in the Art of Thread Crochet with Fine Thread.


They are all made with the high quality cotton DMC Thread - Cebelia.


WEEKEND DEAL: This weekend through whenever Monday, Feb. 16, 2009, I go into my shop and take the deal down, a buyer can get the following percentages off for the above "Heart" items:


Purchase one Heart item - 15% Off Listed Price
Purchase two or more Heart Items - 33% Off Listed Price.


For Payment, I take either PayPal or a Money Order/Cashier's Check; if you pay with PayPal, I will refund the percentage off when I process the shipping of the package; if you are going to pay with a Money Order/Cashier's Check, I will email you the adjusted Invoice Total with the percentage taken off when I get the Etsy Order.


I am in three ETSY teams:


1. Etsy Thread Artists - these items are Thread Art
Blog: http://etsythreadartists.blogspot.com/
ETSY Search Tag: threadartists


2. Design Style Guide - these items are Home Decor
Blog: http://designstyleguide.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.designstyleguide.net/
ETSY Search Tag: "interiordesignteam" or "designstyleguide" (I use the first one.)


3. Eco Etsy Street Team - these items are made with 100% & are re-usable decorations
Blog: http://ecoetsy.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.ecoetsy.com/
ETSY Search Tag: teamecoetsy


I hope you enjoy our Handmade creations on ETSY!




Ruth

PHTHALATES - I'VE KNOWN ABOUT THEIR DANGERS FOR 4 YEARS NOW

Ruth Sandra Sperling
RSS Designs In Fiber - Internet Shop of Handmade Items
RSS Designs Wearable - Internet Shop of Wearable Items


It was sometime in February 2005 that I picked up a copy of Delicious Living Magazine and read the article, "Plastic Planet", which is still available online here: http://deliciouslivingmag.com/greenliving/dl_article_1527/index.html .

I recommend reading this article.

You see, I had been hearing around, as an environmentalist, that there were these dangers from some plastics - it was somehow tied into the whole issue of manufacturing them, which is a toxic industry anyway - and recycling them and not just putting them in landfills.

Also, when I found this article I read it all the way through and kept a copy of part of it for my own reference as the article has a "by-the-numbers guide to safety" - it gives the numbers of the plastics that have "no known health hazards" (1, 2, 4, 5) and the ones with "potential health hazards" (3, 6, 7).

#3, Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC or vinyl) quote from the Feb. 2005 article:

"Some research has shown that the phthalates in PVC cling wraps (commonly used
in delis and supermarkets) and vinyl flooring are endocrine disruptors linked to
various health problems. Water and vegetable oils sometimes are bottled in
PVC, and many toys and baby teethers contain PVC."

So, this is the one with the phthalates.

But having recently been reading about vinyl showing with XRF testing to contain lead, I am now wondering if it also contains lead - and if the lead is leachable.

This article, "Plastic Planet" discusses many different issues - and using the plastics "...for what they were intended for and approved for."

Personally, I am careful for myself - have tried to be ever since reading this article -- avoiding 3, 6, and 7 plastics -- my vegetable oil (olive and sesame) bottles are glass!

My reusable water bottle is stainless steel - not plastic at all any more - and I rarely buy any drinks in plastic bottles when I am out any more, though I slip up occasionally - and I watch the number on the bottle.

(I also read the food labels for ingredients - part of watching my diet - this is me! LOL!)

I am glad that the CPSIA bans children's childcare/teething products (including synthetic fiber clothing items that contain phthalates) with phthalates in them - and I am glad that it is retroactive for existing inventory as of today.

I actually want products made with phthalates, styrene, BPA etc. taken out of the market place for everyone.

You would have a hard time convincing me that the manufacturers of plastic products did not have this information available to them years ago - and could have voluntarily stopped making products with these materials that are "potential health hazards".

-- And I rarely use that Microwave, sitting there cold and neglected on my counter, except to heat some water once in a while, if I have to - but never with any plastic containers. But that is another health matter to be covered another time.

Again - to a healthier world!!


Ruth

PUTTING TOGETHER A NATIONAL CONSERVATION AREA IN A GLOBALLY SIGNIFICANT BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOT

Ruth Sandra Sperling
RSS Designs In Fiber - Internet Shop of Handmade Items
RSS Designs Wearable - Internet Shop of Wearable Items


From reading a number of different newspaper articles, I found out that a Non-Profit, "Tuleyome" is putting together an official Proposal for Congress to make an ecologically significant area of Northern California a NATIONAL CONSERVATION AREA encompassing approximately 500,000 acres of public lands providing excellent opportunities for landscape scale management and protection -- and ecosystem management.

It's proposed name is: Berryessa Snow Mountain National Conservation Area.

As mentioned in the writeup (page 2) of the following pdf document on the Internet, "The region is a vitally important part of the California Floristic Province which is one of the 25 biological
“hotspots” on the planet..."

See here for a map for area of the Proposed National Conservation Area and their writeup:
http://www.tuleyome.org/images/stories/file/NCA%20Map%2010%2006%2008.pdf

You can contact this Non-Profit Organization either by email at info@tuleyome.org -- or by phone at 530-350-2599.

This was covered in The Sacramento Bee in this newspaper article: http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/1575533.html

This is not an area that I am personally familiar with - but I do know that it is part of the globally significant Biodiversity Hotspot, the California Floristic Province - and protecting the native species and natural resources of such an area is beneficial to the biodiversity of the whole planet!

I have a map of the California Floristic Province in a book titled such that is an Extract of the original book, "HOTSPOTS, Earth's Biologically Richest and Most Endangered Terrestrial EcoRegions" - from Conservation International (http://www.conservation.org/).

You see, this area is of high biodiversity, but is endangered by development of roads and industries. It includes Wilderness Areas as well as other Federal, State and County public lands. See the map!

In this area, because it is of such ecological significance due to the high biodiversity still here, it is particularly important to protect the biodiversity and limit the development - and the private landowners need to co-operate with protecting the biodversity of the region and even handle the agricultural lands in such as way as to protect the natural resources.

Though I do not live up in that region, if there is some way I can help by writing letters to get Congressional support for this, I will and I plan to contact http://www.tuleyome.org/ myself, where you can look up what is being done on this National Conservation Area and sign up for news and alerts.

Contributing to this will be a contribution to keeping our planet healthy!

What do you want to do?


Ruth

THE POWER OF COLOR IN CROCHET

Ruth Sandra Sperling
RSS Designs In Fiber - Internet Shop of Handmade Items
RSS Designs Wearable - Internet Shop of Wearable Items

One of the members of my ETSY Team, Etsy Thread Artists did a Treasury and gave it the title, "The Power Of Color In Crochet".

Here is a picture of it - and this is the link to it on ETSY (it will expire Monday morning Feb. 9th): http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=38250

This is a subject dear to my heart.

I like to do art in colors. That was true when I was spending a lot of time doing photography and it is true now that I am doing my Designs In Fiber - both crochet and knitting. See my displays of my work on ETSY to the right here on my blog.

And the Treasury above has some good examples of working with color in the art of thread crochet.

My crochet piece, CIRCLES AND LAYERS OF YELLOWS, is in it and can be found on ETSY http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=20239520

On ETSY, search in Handmade with the tag "threadartists" to see the variety of thread crochet our Etsy Thread Artists members have, including quite a large variety in colors!!

Ruth

New documents from the CPSC regarding enforcing the CPSIA

Ruth Sandra Sperling
RSS Designs In Fiber - Internet Shop of Handmade Items
RSS Designs Wearable - Internet Shop of Wearable Items


Since I posted comments about the CPSIA earlier, I thought that I would post some links to documents on various issues regarding the enforcement of this law as of Feb. 10, 2009 - only a few days away.

For those of us who craft in natural materials (wood, cotton, wool, surgical steel etc.) or "dyed or undyed textiles (not incuding leather, vinyl or PVC) and non-metallic thread and trim used in children's apparel and other fabric products, such as baby blankets", fortunately the CPSC has stated in the following News Release that we will not have penalties imposed against us as these items rarely contain lead over the lead limits in the CPSIA. If they find that someone had actual knowledge that products they manufactured/sold contained more than the lead limit, they will not be immune from prosecution.

I suggest that all concerned people read the documents at the CPSC website regarding this for their own information:

CPSC News Release: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09120.html

CPSC Draft Statement of Commission Enforcement Policy on Section 101 Lead Limits http://www.cpsc.gov/library/foia/foia09/brief/101lead.pdf

CPSC Record of Commissioner Voting on Draft Statement of Commission Enforcement Policy on Section 101 Lead Limits (unanimous 2-0) http://www.cpsc.gov/library/foia/ballot/ballot09/101lead.pdf


Also, there was the issue of whether the ban of phthalates per the CPSIA would cover existing inventory as of Feb. 10, 2009. The NRDC went to court on it and won.

Court Memorandum and Order: http://www.cpsc.gov/about/cpsia/nrdcopinion.pdf
(See pages 36 and 37 for Conclusion and Order)

Products with the phthalates as stipulated in the CPSIA are off the shelf as of Feb. 10, 2009, including existing inventory manufactured before Feb. 10, 2009!!

This I am really glad about as I have read for years of the dangers of phthalates and I take steps to avoid plastics known to contain phthalates for my own food/drink containers.

You might want to read the following at SimpleSteps.org - Green Living by NRDC: http://www.simplesteps.org/index.php?option=com_rssviewer&Itemid=49&link=court_agrees_phthalates_are_ba.html .

Again, I am thankful to the attornies at the NRDC for taking necessary legal action on an environmental issue that I deem important for all of us!!

As always - to a healthier world!


Ruth

My Contribution to the ETSY THREAD ARTISTS ARTISTIC CHALLENGE January - February 2009

Ruth Sandra Sperling
RSS Designs In Fiber - Internet Shop of Handmade Items
RSS Designs Wearable - Internet Shop of Wearable Items

One of my Teams on ETSY, ETSY THREAD ARTISTS, is having an Artistic Challenge.

It is our first one for our Team - and this Artistic Challenge was to crochet something in 3 shades of the same color.

I chose a pattern that I liked that was fairly complicated - and I chose to do it in shades of Yellow:

It is listed here on ETSY: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=20239520 .

The three photos above - in order are:

top: the full doily

middle: the center of the doily

bottom: the outer area.

I love this kind of doily!

I am not sure how others feel about it, though I like it! It has popcorns and rounds of layered petals.

It is quite "sunny" - being in Yellows - and I did it in radiating circles of different shades to give it the brightness of a "sun"!

You can vote in our Artistic Challenge on our Team blog: http://etsythreadartists.blogspot.com/ !

There are a few entries and some beautiful examples of what you can do with color in crochet!!

Ruth