Booooo GoldieBlox

I have been sitting back quietly biting my tongue since I watched the GoldieBlox Kickstarter campaign last year. I was slightly annoyed by their marketing, but not enough to really even comment on the issue.

And then the new video came out and went viral (which happened to have a sound track parody from one of my all-time fave bands, the Beastie Boys)



and my friends were posting the video on Facebook with such comments as "I have never believed in "girls toys" and "boys toys." Girls need to have fun "thinking" toys too, and they don't need to be pink : )"

Weird. Because, not only is this product clearly marketed as a "girl" toy... it freakin' pink!

{source}

Great brainwashing, GoldieBlox. You know what? My girls like pink (as much as their father and I have tried to discourage that), but they also enjoy primary colored match box cars, wood blocks... Legos upon Legos:

Oh... and they do have the pink set of Legos mixed in there. (Oh, shit, how did that baby doll and pink crib sneak into my house? How dare my daughters aspire to be nurturing mommies and play with god forsaken pink baby dolls!)

And, also, there are already oodles of fantastic engineering toys out there for little girls:

{source}

However... I was willing to overlook all of this crap and keep my mouth shut about GoldieBlox questionable marketing... UNTIL they turned into litigious thieves.

When I heard the Beastie Boys song on the video... I had to assumed they had paid for the rights to it... right??? I mean, who in this world does not understand the concept of copyright? 

Nope.

The used the song WITHOUT permission. And, to add insult to injury, when MCA passed away last year, he specifically forbade his music from being used in this manner. The will reads (in part): 

"in no event may my image or name or any music or any artistic property created by me be used for advertising purposes,"

Oh, wait... it gets better. The Beastie Boys did not even sue this company yet... but GoldieBlox SUED them! Bizarro, right?

And now I know I will never buy anything from this company. Shame on you for disrespecting this mans wishes. Shame on you for pretending to "empower" girls by stealing and misusing another's property.

Shame on you.

6 More Handmade Christmas Gifts Projects for Cheap

Each year I decide what I want to buy and what I want to craft myself. My decisions are largely based on time and money. And, of course, as the girls get older I have to pair that with the endless Christmas lists they come up with.

A couple of years ago, I went mostly handmade... but by someone else's hand... via Etsy. I came up with a great handful of gifts that were under $10... and the girls ended up really liking them.

The year before that, I made a large portion of the girls gifts by hand.

This year, I am all about making many gifts myself. I have spent hours scouring the internet for projects that are inexpensive, within my ability and, most importantly, that the girls will like. So, without further ado, here are some of my handmade gift ideas for the year:

{source}

I have already bought some great colorful socks to upcycle to fingerless gloves (or arm warmers... leg warmers... whatever.) My favorite tutorial can be found here.

{source}

I will making a ton of hair accessories for Christmas as all 3 girls are into wearing them right now... and, of course, we lose them by the dozen. I love this super simple (and super inexpensive way to make bows. I have a bunch of felt on hand in many colors, so this will be easy.

{source}

I will need a way to store all these accessories that I plan on making... and I really like this frame idea. I can get an inexpensive frame from Goodwill and probably utilize my scarp fabric. I bet I can do the project for under $5.

{source}

I am going to make Acadia a Music and Movement box. I had made Annika one... filled with small musical instruments, movement toys... and she loved it. And you can get away with it for really cheap.

{source}

I am going to make one of these for each of the girls. They love having photos of themselves and friends and family and I feel like this will be a fun way to display their photos.

{source}

As with hair accessories, the girls are now enamored with any costume jewelry. I think these bracelets would be perfect. I can make a wide variety with the scraps of fabric in my stash.

Have you come across any other ideas for your Christmas list? I would love to add some more projects to mine.