I have memories of buying a toy for my kids and having it break because of poor quality or discovering that it had small parts and we had a baby brother in the house. Back in “the day” we didn’t think about lead or pthalates in the toys. There are many things to consider when buying toys these days.

ConnPIRG has just released their annual toy safety report, and they’ve launched a new mobile phone website that allows toy shoppers to look up and report dangerous toys as they shop. Check out their new resources, and help make sure kids’ toys are safe this holiday season. Make your list then check it with CT-toy-report-2009.

This document reminds us of all the hazards we might consider including loudness. Almost 15 percent of children ages 6 to 17 show signs of hearing loss. In March 2007, the American Society for Testing and Materials adopted a voluntary acoustics standard for toys, setting the loudness threshold for most toys at 85 decibels but there are still exceedingly louc (and I might add annoying) toys on the toy store shelves.

In addition, think through and avoid toys that have possible choking hazards, while considering age appropriateness, “almost” small parts, balloons, marbles, pthalates and PVC products. What is left for kids to play with? We’ve eliminated dolls (plastic), legos (plastic), toy cars (lead paint). OKAY- wooden blocks it is. Actually one of my kids favorites!

I see from my latest catalogue of  gift items “For Men or Girls”  there is the  answer to every TOGs prayer

The “Senior Moments Game”

As the blurb says – “For those who think they’re losing their marbles”.  If you fail to answer the basic questions and lose all your marbles –  you’ll  find yourself “Living entire days over and over again”.

The winner is the person who manages to get through the entire week!

So look out  – you could find yourself stuck in this job and the prospect of retirement just a distant dream!!

1.  A Celebration

2.  A Reunion

3.  A Parade

My 500th blog post.  I was going to put a photo up to mark the occasion, but don’t seem to be able to do anything with the design. I never looked before. The Man took Son 1 aged 5y 1m to School. Son 2 aged 2y 2m and I unloaded the dishwasher, put some washing on, tidied up – he got a sticker for putting his toys away, sat on the bed reading and cuddled and tickled. A Wednesday Friend was waiting in for deliveries, so I put Son 2 in the Big Pram and off we pushed.  We stopped at the Baker’s Shop and I bought a sourdough loaf for the Mummies’ lunch… and some flapjacks the size of housebricks for everyone’s pudding.  Son 2 saw the flapjacks. “I wan’ fap jak.  I wan’ fap jak.” I put them under the Pram.  A shriek, and a plastic horse was thrown on the floor with force.  We stopped at the Newsagent’s to sort out the paper bill, and then I began the slow, hot task of pushing the Big Pram up the mighty hill from The Town to Wednesday Mum’s house.   I’ve been pushing that pram up that hill for four years now, and today was the hardest yet.  Clearly Son 2 is getting heavier. Because I can’t have lost that much fitness, can I?

Booming Business Wednesday Mother was back from her Business Trip to South Africa.  She opened the door, Son 2 sprang through. “Great hair,” she said. I looked at his fine, tousled blond head and wondered what she meant. Only when the other Mother said “it’s fantastic, takes years off you” did I realise she’d been talking about me. The Business Trip had been very successful and she was pleased. She only got back last night after 24 hours of travelling. Son 2 clung, but soon went upstairs with the other two boys, both aged 3.  We gossiped. Our hostess went to check on the boys. She came back down. “Son 2 is standing on top of the bunk bed.  I didn’t know if you wanted him up there.”  No I did not.  I went upstairs into the children’s bedroom.  I persuaded Son 2 to come down, and sat playing with him and the other two. Then the marble construction game came out. Lots of ramps, tunnels and tubes. And many many marbles. Son 2, like his brother, is a compulsive mouther.  I could not leave him in a room full of chokeables, much as I wanted to sit, drink coffee and chat with the others.   The boys eventually drifted downstairs and stuffed their faces with soup and flapjacks.

There was a carnival in the Big Town this evening, so after picking Son 1 up from school we parked, shopped, and joined in. The Big Town was packed.  Both boys were shattered, bored with the waiting around, but determined not to miss a thing.  Son 2 sat in his buggy, his eyes drooping, yet again and again he yanked his head up.  We left before the end - The Big Town’s four roads in and out aren’t Big enough for tens of thousands of people to leave at the same time – and heard, but didn’t see, the short, loud burst of fireworks marking the finale.  “Bang,” said Son 2.  All the way home. Without nodding off once.

On the way to market

Young Jung lost all his marbles.

The little ones laughed him to shame

while the Big Boys forgot his name.

Then came the long day after

and everyone stood in one line.

YoungJung got everything & then some,

while the hucksters got less than none.

I like endeavor sports more than team sports. This person is going to try to throw a sack of marbles as far as she can.

I grew up washing buckets at my Mom’s Flower shop in a painfully frugal mid-western town. Her arrangement design was basically a European model that focused on style and quality stems rather than size and price. As you can imagine she struggled initially as people failed to see the value in a bouquet of roses that wasn’t half-dead and from the grocery store.

Eventually she figured out the key: You can try telling them about the superior quality all-day but they can’t feel flowers lasting 10 days longer—What you can do is put the flowers in a bigger vase and fill the bottom with marbles so the flowers feel heavier.

Online marketing consists of technology and marketing; which are measured in very different ways:

• Marketing: From an agency perspective we are constantly striving for better ways to measure value-added to our clients. Engagement campaigns can be especially difficult because there are usually a myriad of goals, all weighted and measured differently.

ie, A campaign’s primary objective is to increase ‘positive’ mentions of X brand on various social media sites. A secondary objective is to increase facebook fans. The primary objective had moderate success and the secondary objective had great success. How do you reconcile this?

• Technology: Technology uses the term perceived usability to better reflect that for web-based applications value is negatively correlated with awareness. Time for a sports analogy: An offensive lineman goes unnoticed by fans until he screws up. Same goes for technology: A customer is likely to become aware of the functionality, usability and aesthetics as a result of the user-experience not meeting the user’s expectations. (see Don Normon’s post for a thorough overview)

No doubt balancing these contrasting views is challenging but seriously analyzing how customers determine ‘the value’ of your product or service is paramount to establishing your pricing models.

Bottom line: What are your marbles?

Happy Week before Thanksgiving Week!  Greg and I have been busy doing shows and we are done for the year, so it seems like a good time to run a sale.

I am running at 20% off all items on etsy, artfire, and the website.  Just write in my message to seller section “Thanksgiving Sale” and I’ll either send a revised invoice or refund the difference from your paypal payment.

www.cdlampwork.etsy.com

www.cdlampwork.artfire.com/

www.chase-designs.com/

And marbles are included too:

www.chasedesigns.etsy.com/

Last day of the sale is Sunday the 22nd.  Happy shopping!

Deanna

Do you remember poking cats-
eyes into outlandish rat runs ply
scrap hammered with Dad’s rusty nails,
rubber band rails?

You didn’t always collect high score
but you always hit bottom first.
I’ll bet you a steelie at two score and ten
that you’re coming out
and I’m going in.

The following is a story I wrote in a workshop 2 years ago to describe why and how I came to be in Public Relations.

My father called them ‘alleys’ – probably because they resemble the fulsome yellow eyes of alley cats – but I always knew them as marbles, the schoolyard currency of preadolescent boys jammed deep into overall pockets or toted in the purple velvet sacks that came with high-end rye whiskeys. In the late 80’s marbles occupied every school recess and lunch break. Kings, Jumbos, Steelies, Opals, Black pearls – I had them all. At age nine I was the neighborhood pro and a little bit obsessed. Strangely enough, however, my absorption in marble culture offered me unique opportunities to discover early communications skills, which can now serve as poignant examples of how I was steered into the public relations field.

Like almost everyone, we had a peculiar teacher at our school who, in addition to wearing black socks with sandals, garish broaches in the shapes of animals and unhealthy amounts of perfume that somehow smelled fluorescent, was also a really unhappy woman. She especially hated marbles. She hated how the kids in her class would trade marbles behind her back while she scribbled on the chalk board, cringing at the sound of them hitting the parquet floors. She hated that she became some sort of referee during recesses when kids would come crying to her because they lost their favorite marble in a match. She hated them so much she would snatch them away from children at every chance. She was a Hungry Hungry Hippo.

One day, a friend of mine hauled his entire collection of marbles to school in a large plastic pail. While the children were queuing to enter the building, he shifted out of line to talk marbles with another kid in the line next to us. *SNAP! Shrieking incoherently, the teacher tore the bucket from his hand and launched it across the yard. Of course all the kids broke ranks, scrambling for my friend’s marbles, me included. It was chicken feed for our souls and we pocketed those shiny multicoloured globes in a beggar’s frenzy, but it was the culminating moment in a long saga that finally led to the school principal calling an emergency assembly.

There was no debate, marbles were to be banned. This was the decree and the teachers smiled smugly to themselves as we whined in astonishment. When everyone settled, the principal once again addressed the students. He asked if there were any comments – I had one.

“Sir,” I began, as I rose and stood on my seat. “I think this is unfair. On behalf of everyone who plays marbles in this school I beg you, please don’t ban them.” I was told to sit down. It made no difference. The assembly disassembled and we filed back to our classrooms as though heading for the gallows.

After school a group of us met in the street outside my house. Because of my oration earlier, I was chosen to lead a resistance. We devised a marketing strategy and drew posters on the sidewalk until well past when the streetlights came on and our parents began shouting from the windows. The next morning we posted flyers, circulated petitions in the classrooms and gave inspirational talks during recesses. We nagged our parents to call the principal and to help us write letters to the school board. We invented a secret language that quickly irradiated throughout the school. Teachers noticed that we were more distracted than before the marble ban. Now they could hardly understand what we were saying.

A month later another assembly was called. It was short. Marbles would be allowed again in the spring, with certain conditions. Our black-socked teacher nearly wept at the news. That was enough for us. We emptied into the halls pumping our fists in triumph.

Without knowing it I had begun my communications career. Having represented the interests of the marble-playing community, devised an awareness campaign and actively engaged my peers to democratically affect their school’s policies, I learned that I had an ability to communicate effectively and that epiphany has lasted through to today. As such, I can certainly say that I will always love communications…and marbles.

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Hi everyone
Some extra information about the Bernie Stonor workshop at the end of November at Penel’s place:

• the workshop will be on a weekday, probably Tuesday or Wednesday, or both if people would prefer 2 days
• you can contact Penel directly by email – firebirdbeads@gmail.com

Cheers

Fiery

If I’d known the 20 years between age 10 and age 30 were going to go by so fast, I would have:

1.  Colored more pictures.

2.  Taken the old mason jar with holes punched into the cover and caught and released more fireflies.

3.  Played more marble games.

4.  Saved my won marbles.

5.  Watched more cloud formations.

6.  Eaten more berries by the handful on a sunny day.

7.  Stolen more rhubarb from gardens.

8.  Skipped rope more with my friends.

9.  Written down my friends names and addresses so we could always be in touch.

10.  I would NEVER have given up chocolate for Lent.

11.  Dated more.

12.  Listened to more music.

13.  Saved ALL of my earned money.

14.  Given my Mom more flowers.

15.  Told my Grandmother I loved her – even though she knew I did.

16.  Kept writing in my Diary.

17.  Travelled more.

18.  Visited more friends.

19.  Been kinder to my brothers and sisters.

20.  Kept on trying to ride a bike – even though the first time resulted in the bike going across the road and over the river bank where it was thrown against the rocks and I was also banged up and bruised.

My D key is still sticking. So if a word doesn’t make sense, add a “D” and see if that helps!!

Anyways, I received a question from someone who wanted some magnets but didn’t have the time to make their own, they wanted to know if I could do it instead. Of course! I can assemble any kit/project kit advertised on my blog for a small fee.

This was the finished product.

I outlined the red letters with my black Zig Millennium pen and added the Maya Road ribbon to the handle.

There are nine magnets in this kit- eight red apples, and one green apple.

(The tin/magnets auctioned for $32.00!)

You can see the original kit HERE. The tin used above is a Maya Road suitcase much like this one HERE.

Only seven and a half weeks before Christmas! Have I mentioned how much I LOVE Christmas? Every other year we celebrate the meaning of Christmas, give to others, donate our time, help in the community etc. That just so happens to be this year. We also give to others, in hopes of teaching our children to give to those who are less fortunate, or in need of something that we can provide. Don’t get me wrong, we do still have gifts for our children, however there are only (give or take) four or five items per child. We’re fortunate to have most of our family cooperate with us, though some believe it’s silly. Birthdays our the time we go all out crazy! I LOVE birthdays! They are so special and important- I’m the person who remembers and acknowledges everyone’s birthday, even my former boss- from five years ago! I never forget when my birthday isn’t acknowledged. It’s really hurtful to me. Silly I know, but my family has always made my birthday special. Speaking of birthdays, today, Alex turned 27! For breakfast the girls and I made him pancakes with blue sprinkles! They were so proud of their pancakes, we even put a candle in it and sang happy birthday!

:: sniff sniff ::

On that note, I hope everyone had a great weekend and Halloween!

My D key is still sticking. So if a word doesn’t make sense, add a “D” and see if that helps!!

Anyways, I received a question from someone who wanted some magnets but didn’t have the time to make their own, they wanted to know if I could do it instead. Of course! I can assemble any kit/project kit advertised on my blog for a small fee.

This was the finished product:

After taking a few photos I thought the tin was rather plain, so I outlined the red letters with my black Zig Millennium pen and added the Maya Road ribbon to the handle of the Maya Road tin. There are nine magnets in this kit- eight red apples, and one green apple (using October Afternoon paper). I hope the person receiving them enjoys them! I know I would!

You can see the original kit HERE. The tin used above is a Maya Road suitcase much like this one HERE.

Only seven and a half weeks before Christmas! Have I mentioned how much I LOVE Christmas? Every other year we celebrate the meaning of Christmas, give to others, donate our time, help in the community etc. That just so happens to be this year. We also give to others, in hopes of teaching our children to give to those who are less fortunate, or in need of something that we can provide. Don’t get me wrong, we do still have gifts for our children, however there are only (give or take) four or five items per child. We’re fortunate to have most of our family cooperate with us, though some believe it’s silly. Birthdays our the time we go all out crazy! I LOVE birthdays! They are so special and important- I’m the person who remembers and acknowledges everyone’s birthday, even my former boss- from five years ago! I never forget when my birthday isn’t acknowledged. It’s really hurtful to me. Silly I know, but my family has always made my birthday special. Speaking of birthdays, today, Alex turned 27! For breakfast the girls and I made him pancakes with blue sprinkles! They were so proud of their pancakes, we even put a candle in it and sang happy birthday!

:: sniff sniff ::

On that note, I hope everyone had a great weekend and Halloween!

After Max’s birthday dinner, Marissa was playing with the old wooden blocks that you put together to make a marble rollway.

When she was all done, she wanted me to take a picture of it.

Not sure this is the picture she wanted, but it looked really cool, and not really like the work of a three year old.

BUS041 Marbles – Go Marilee 7″ (1995)

1. Go Marilee
2. Grant Me The Day

A number of marble-related injuries have occurred at schools and homes since marbles were invented. As a result, the design of marbles will now forever change.

Since the mainstreaming of marbles as a toy some two centuries ago, there have been twenty-two injuries and one death caused by these benign-seeming death-traps. At first, these statistics were ignored by manufacturers who claimed that the statistics were simply too low to be classified as significant. However, FAP (For All Parents) started up and international petition that yielded over a million signatures. After taking the petition to the International Court, a ruling was made in FAP’s favour stating the all marbles were to be recalled by their manufacturers.

In response to this, global marble manufacturer Round Phoenix made a proposal to change the design of marbles, making them less hazardous. The new design will be a cube rather than a sphere, making impossible to slip on.

Safety Marbles have been well-received by parents, teachers and by FAP themselves however, children do not seem so happy. ‘How the hell do you roll this shit?’ Johnny (8) asked. ‘I’d rather play with a used condom. My poor kids will grow up never knowing what real marbles are.’ Sarah (12), mother of twins commented. A children’s right organisation known as For Our Kids or FOK for short made this statement, ‘This is an infringement of children’s rights. They have the right to choose what they play with. You don’t see FAP going around schools confiscating knives? No. Why? Because children have the right to defend themselves. Just as they have the right to play with whatever they want. If I confiscated everything harmful from my eight-year old, he would have had a miserable Guy Fawkes because apparently fireworks are considered dangerous too. This is just another classic FAP publicity stunt.’

Regardless of politics and group fighting, the International Court has made its ruling and all spherical marbles have been recalled. They are to be replaced by their safer counterparts by Monday in most major retail stores.

Here’s a smattering of pictures from the first half of the month: RJ’s sudden fascination with Superman, a visit to K and J’s place, trips to Gingin, lots of tree climbing, legos, marbles and painting, oh my!

Compared to his obsession with dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures, RJ’s interest in Superman is fairly mild. You’re more likely to catch him pretending to be biologist Nigel Marven.

Don't fear, Superman is on the way.

RJ and I made some Superman badges. I told him, "We don't need no steenkin badges!" but he just wouldn't listen.

K and J’s have an amazing treehouse. It’s multi-level, and is outfitted with a flying-fox, a giant tyre swing, a climbing wall and harnesses and attachment points for everything.

LR and K ride the tyre swing to pretty amazing heights.

LR tackles the climbing wall at K's place.

RJ and J discuss some of the problems they've been having at home.

LR’s tree has grown into one of the best climbing trees imaginable – kid capacity, 15. We’ll find out for sure at this year’s Halloween party.

RJ and LR found an egg shell under LR's tree. Does that mean there's a nest up there somewhere? They've searched all the lower branches and haven't spotted it yet, so maybe not.

RJ climbs up without assistance these days. The monkey genes... they run deep.

Some other recent moments…

Sometimes he just has to yell it out. Negotiating with a hungry three year old who needs a nap is not always possible.

LR tries out Dad's camera while RJ attempts to escape.

LR and RJ worked on this massive castle project. We still haven't managed to use every piece of lego yet.

RJ and Mum adjust their complicated marble run and sling marbles all around the room.

LR adding some details to her big canvas, "The Planet System". It depicts an asteroid crashing into a prehistoric volcanic landscape leading to the collapse of the dinosaur populations on Earth.

On Friday I was meeting some friends at Town Hall, but I had arrived half an hour early. So I went to Jet to have a quick coffee. Sitting by myself in a corner booth I was given a menu… and left alone for twenty minutes. When I finally was served the waiter apologised because he thought I was waiting for someone. Apparently you’re not even allowed to have coffee in cafes as a singular. When Kat arrived she said: ‘I wish I lived in a city where you can sit somewhere alone, without waiting for someone’.

While I waited, I wrote this on the back of my book mark.

Edmund Fields killed a man once. At least, he would often say to himself, he was better than all the Doctors that the world could offer. Doctors who resuscitated people, saving them from the sweet rest of death, only to let them plunge through it again, and sometimes again and again, So Edmund Fields was a good man. 

He carried marbles in his pockets because he liked the sounds that made while he walked and whenever someone said to him that he had ‘lost his marbles’ he could pull them out and show everyone that he had, in fact, done the opposite.

When Edmund had met Hyacinth he knew immediately all the feeling to which the word Love had been attributed. She smelt of flowers, laughed like a ringing bell and smiled the smile of a thousand suns. In Hyacinth he saw life and life after death. When Edmund Fields killed Hyacinth’s husband he shovelled his marbles into his mouth. Edmund Fields took his marbles with him everywhere he went.

Ein langweiliger Mensch ist einer,

der Sie am Alleinsein hinderte,

ohne Ihnen Gesellschaft zu leisten.

*

A boy and a girl were playing together. The boy had a collection of marbles. The girl had some sweets with her. The boy told the girl that he will give her all his marbles in exchange for her sweets. The girl agreed.

The boy kept the biggest and the most beautiful marble aside and gave the rest to the girl. The girl gave him all her sweets as she had promised.

That night, the girl slept peacefully. But the boy couldn’t sleep as he kept wondering if the girl had hidden some sweets from him the way he had hidden his best marble.

Moral of the story: If you don’t give your hundred percent in a relationship, you’ll always keep doubting if the other person has given his/her hundred percent.. This is applicable for any relationship like love, employer-employee relationship etc., Give your hundred percent to everything you do and sleep peacefully

Marble Board Winners

See all PowerShot A580 Photos

Marble Board Starting Line

See all PowerShot A580 Photos

An excuse to finally go to the Bunker Club and not be looked at like an old bag?
An excuse to finally check out many of the studios in Creekside without feeling like a wanna be?
An excuse to eat cake outside the post office at the Marbles?

Excuses? I don’t need no stinkin excuses.

It’s Deptford X Festival time, and from the Festival party at the Bunker next Friday to the exhibits in the Old Police Station, the Albany and those of the open-air variety, I am really going to soak up this Deptford-based festival!

Here’s my picks of the festival:

Cardiff-based Sam and Jason at the Old Police Station – Outsider / Informer

New X Atlantic – Artists from Goldsmiths and the Californian Arts College in the Interview Room at the Old Police Station.

Before and After – an exhibition by Fred Aylward at the Albany Cafe of old entertainment venues in the area, and a screening of Babylon, a film made in Deptford in 1980.

Towerblocks and Tunnels by German Joerg Obergfell at BEARSPACE

Knit or Die by Sally Spinks – Urban Graffiti (knitted graffiti art) at the Deptford Train Station, Johnny’s DIY and Birds Nest Club. Sally is nominated for the Deptford X Award.

Good Life, 2009 – billboard by Phil Ashcroft located at Goldsmiths College which relates to changing landscape of Deptford and New Cross.

Absolutely all the exhibits at the Deptford Project Space

The open studios at APT Gallery, the Lewisham Art House, the Old Police Station and 8th.

The Deptford marbles Tea and Dance Event on New Cross Square at the Marbles.

Of course the party at Bunker on 2 October – Friday night, and regarding the Old Bag comment above, I lifted this from The Deptford Dame’s most recent post:

I’ll let you know how that all goes!

It used to be that kids played marbles. Okay, this is way before my time, but follow the analogy here. The idea is that you play and you get to keep what you win. Like trophies, with the added bonus that now you get to play with what you won, too.

mine:

the janitor–separated, somewhere between ordinary and attractive, smells good and has a great smile, says we should go for a drink sometime

the teacher’s aide–attractive but older, head over heels for me, first man I remember buying me a present (who wasn’t already my boyfriend or husband), married *sigh*

the principal–I’m not sure on this one. Call it a marble that I’ve just realized is in my path, a tricky but not impossible shot. Also a shot I know I shouldn’t take. Sometimes taking a precious marble from another player is just cruel. I’ve always liked him. He’s an intelligent, attractive, and sincerely GOOD man. I don’t think he would ever in a million years hit on me; I don’t think he even knows yet that he likes me. But when you pay attention to these things, you start to see the progression before the pieces are all in place. I like best that he really likes me.

the married guy–total whore. Do I keep him around for the phone sex and maybe to hook up? To make me feel good when I’m feeling desperate? He’d certainly be good for it. Not for much else, I don’t think.

my husband–who’s just started to realize that I’m something worth fighting for, apparently right as I seem hellbent on proving him wrong.  So sad to be faithful for so long, then throw it away so quickly in some strange hormonal binge. Smart, responsible, intolerable.

internet boyfriend–I miss him. I want to call him up, but I know I don’t really like him, just like how he makes me feel. That seems shallow. I should let him go, back to his wife and baby and happy fidelity. But to kiss him one more time!

replacement internet boyfriend–*sigh* never the same.

the one I could never have–also married, but not in that sad desperate way the rest of them are. So good looking, strong, athletic, exciting, intelligent, commanding. The kind of man I wouldn’t believe existed if I didn’t see him sitting there across from me. Not patronizing, not placating, but what? How could I believe in someone like him?

Collecting is like binging, so fun and easy until the desperation kicks in. Do I want these men? All of them? Any of them? What would I give if I could know that there was someone out there worth having? Would I wait? Cross my legs and my fingers and wait for my fairy tale? Or just keep playing around and hope I could still catch him?

There’s more to be said here than just a stupid list, but the wine is going to my head and the night is already too lonely. Maybe later.