First and foremost: Happy Veteran’s Day. A big thank you to everyone who has fought and continues to fight for the freedoms I have.

Judging from my posts, I imagine many think my life is all about CPSIA. Good news: It’s not. I’m excited to say that recently the creative juices started flowing again (albeit it in slightly different directions).

Words to Sweat By™ - Love of Cupcakes

My first adventure is a Whimsical Walney product for adult consumers. The new line Words to Sweat By is meant to bring laughter to what may sometimes be a monotonous routine. These workout towels poke fun at the very reasons why people have a love/hate relationship with exercise and the gym.

New designs will be listed over the coming weeks and I’m hopeful there is something that catches your eye and your funny bone.

My second adventure still involves writing, but for a wholly different audience: children. Oh wait, you’re saying, I thought you quit the kid biz! I did stop selling things for children  but the CPSIA can’t stop me from writing for them.

To get the ideas flowing again, I signed up to participate in Tara Lazar’s Picture Book Idea Month which is happening throughout November. It is great fun to open up my Word document every day and start typing. I jumped into this effort with both feet and will even be doing a guest post for Tara on November 28th about how where I draw inspiration for my picture book ideas.

It’s wonderful to be back in the groove.

It’s just the story I dreamed of hearing when creating the Use Your Words ™ t-shirt line: A child who was so enamored of his shirt, he wouldn’t take it off even after his mother pleaded to let her wash it.

It was a simple concept: t-shirts meant to expand a child’s vocabulary in English, French, and Spanish one word at a time. Since adults are not only continually asking children, “what’s that on your shirt” but also telling them to “use your words,” why not help them along? These beautifully illustrated shirts were a great talking piece for kids and adults alike.

Launched in April 2008, I was very fortunate to have the Use Your Words ™ line mentioned by a whole host of people from Swistle’s hilarious first coverage to Laura’s farewell post.

So as I say goodbye to a product that brought me great pride, I must remind Congress that children across the United States have them outdone. The children know how to use their words where Congress fails miserably.

Since closing Whimsical Walney, I have been busy with a variety of different projects unrelated to creating new offerings. I have just recently been able to get back into a creative mindset and I am very excited to have started working on some new ideas geared toward adults.

Before launching these new products, however, I want to showcase some of the items that are no longer available to children and their families. It will give them the sendoff they deserve.

Today’s Feature: Flags of the World

My Flags of the World onesies and t-shirts seem the perfect place to start because, as shown above, two of the flags I offered were related to the political parties that got us into this mess.

These shirts allowed families to show pride in their country and their heritage and I really enjoyed seeing which countries were being represented with each order. Children across the US are wearing shirts with flags that represent Puerto Rico, Ireland, Croatia, Norway, India, the United States, and many others.

Thank you again to everyone who purchased Flags of the World tops for the children in your life.

After much deliberation, countless conversations with family and friends, and too-many-to-mention “pros vs. cons” lists, I have decided to close Whimsical Walney permanently.

If the days and dates weren’t such a blur lately with all of the CPSIA-related activities as well as just life in general, I would have realized that it was almost a year ago to the day that Whimsical Walney was reintroduced with new branding and a website that did everything I wanted for this stage of my business to showcase all of my new offerings.

April 2008 was an exciting time of new beginnings. It was a time when I was truly starting to build my business instead of just being in business.

Today is the last day of April 2009 and oh what a difference a year makes.

While I may have sensed it would come to closing permanently, it’s still a little stunning to announce it to everyone and see it in print. It is therefore hard to include all of my thoughts and feelings in one long post so I’m going to break it up into separate posts over the next couple of weeks. I will also be showcasing some products that weren’t even seen by many of you because by the time I was actively blogging about CPSIA, I had changed my storefront dramatically by only selling my t-shirts over the web.

Regardless of whether or not I have a business focused on children’s products, I will always strive to foster their development and nurture their imaginations.

Let’s all please remember to let children play.

Many people have been asking me what the CPSIA stay of enforcement will mean to Whimsical Walney so I wanted to provide you with some information on how we intend to proceed in light of this development.

Originally, I thought I would have to close my doors because it would have been cost prohibitive to test products that I knew I was discontinuing and without testing, I would not have been able to sell anything in my inventory starting February 10th.

So, the stay has afforded me the opportunity to sell what’s in my existing inventory because I have the necessary paperwork from my suppliers. What it doesn’t afford, however, is the immediate opportunity to rework some of the products or introduce the new ones that had been inline for this year.

I will therefore still be closing my doors for a time in order to rework and revise my game plan and decide which of the products for 2009 will remain.

While I’m working through the revisions of of my plan, I will also continue to advocate change to this legislation. Those two things alone will keep me very busy.

So what does this mean for you?

• The dates of the CPSIA sale remain. On February 10th, the site will come down until the necessary revisions and additions have been made.
• The Adventures of Whimsical Walney will still be a place to learn about and discuss CPSIA, as well as all things Walney-related.
• This Spring/Summer you will see a new look to the Whimsical Walney website, some tweaks to existing products, and the introduction of some fun, new things for your kids.

I have appreciated all of your feedback and support throughout this process and look forward to seeing what you think when we relaunch in the next several months.

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