Brighton's wool diaper cover adventure

I have never made something out of something else...does that make sense? Today I made a wool diaper cover out of a goodwill find, a ladies wool suit jacket. it was definatly a challenge. First I had to take apart the jacket and I discovered that there was some iron on interfacing on the inside of the wool. I didn't know what to do so I moved on the ripping open the 2nd jacket i purchased, no iron on interfacing there. So I cut out the pattern. for some reason I'm not getting the measurements correct even though i trace them exactly like the pattern is. So i ended up making the cover too small. It would fit him if he didnt have to wear a diaper underneath! lol. that wouldnt be good. But I'm going to keep it because it's stinkin' cute! ok here are the pictures








since i don't know what order they are posted in; one is a picture of the taken apart jacket, one is of the finished cover, and one is of them on him.

i will be trying this again with another jacket. I will go back to goodwill to pick through some more wool soon!

i made my own fleece diaper cover last night!. I've been wanting to try it out for like a month. i'm glad i made the extra large! It fits well, but is a little crooked but I think that's because I traced the pattern wrong. I only got enough fleece to make one, but i need more covers because I run out of the PUL covers quickly. I don't have enought cloth diapers to be doing it full time anyway. I have about 15 diapers and like 6 covers. But two covers and 4 diapers are the gro baby system, I can use the gro baby covers on other diapers, but i can't use the gro baby diaper part with other covers. So I'm trying to make them. this cover cost me $2. The fleece was on sale and i only bought 1/2 a yard. If it holds up to the pee pee test I will make more.
here's the pattern i used

http://katrinassqs.blogspot.com/2007/10/free-soaker-pattern.htmld




i made my own fleece diaper cover last night!. I've been wanting to try it out for like a month. i'm glad i made the extra large! It fits well, but is a little crooked but I think that's because I traced the pattern wrong

please read, reblog from Big City Baby

I am reposting this for a fellow blogger. Please read through the whole thing and help if you can. Please repost if you feel led and please pray for this girl.
heather

http://bamwallace.blogspot.com/2010/02/small-act-of-kindness.html


A Small Act of Kindness
We can do no great things, only small things with great love. ~Mother Teresa


Inspiration. I've talked a lot about it recently (or thought a lot about it anyway).

Today I feel like I've been presented an opportunity to help someone & I feel inspired to do so. If you feel the same, please let me know. I can use all the help I could get. I know I have no special powers, I don't have mass amounts of money to give to those who need it, I don't have much influence on anyone save for a few close people... What I do have is a blog with less than 100 followers, a twitter following of 300 some odd folks who may or may not care what I tweet & I have a few resources.

I want to compile all of that & ask anyone reading this for help.

I'm not normally one of those people who announces when someone close to me has gotten ill or has passed away. I'm not a person who puts on facebook "RIP Grandpa..." or someone else. I'm just not. I don't try to pretend I knew someone who was involved in an accident or someone who died, just to say I knew them. What I am though, is someone who is compassionate (at least I think so) & when someone I do know is hurting, I want to help. I need to help.



Four years ago or so, I met a group of wonderful ladies while I was planning my wedding. We were all planning our weddings, our dream weddings. We spoke almost daily & we confided in one another. We have still kept in touch to this day. Some more than others, but that's beside the point. One of these women needs us. She needs everyone.


I think she's a pretty private woman, so I'd like to keep this as private as I can, given what I'm about to say (and she has NO idea that I'm doing this- I wouldn't want her to know if this fails). Her husband was murdered. Murdered. Someone took his life. Someone who probably didn't even know him & for no good reason, except that there are people in the world who do things like that.


And she's 32 weeks pregnant with their first child. Their child will never get to know his or her father...


And she's been laid off from work in the past month...


And I'm imagining, she's as lost as anyone can be. As hurting as anyone can be.


My group of friends & I are planning on helping how we can.


I'm wondering if there's anyone else out there- who makes or sells baby products, that would like to help. Or if there's anyone out there with a gently used item or two... Based on her baby registry, she's planning on cloth diapering, at least part of the time. They've asked for organic items- clothing & such... & chlorine free disposable newborn diapers & wipes. They don't have a lot of family, nor a lot of money (as no one does in this economy, of course), & they weren't getting a baby shower...

ETA: They chose to be surprised about the baby's gender, so we don't know those details. Most of the items they've registered for are green. At this point, all I know that they have for sure, are the stroller, the crib & one set of bedding. I'm unsure of anything else, but, knowing, how hectic the last two months were when I was pregnant with buying & planning, I'm assuming she doesn't have a lot of items, nor will she be feeling like she wants to get any...


If you think you can help, or you know someone who would be interested in helping, please, please contact me at amandawallace526 at gmail dot com - subject line: Baby D.


And please, if you are unable to help in any other way, just say a simple prayer (if that's what you do) or send good wishes to this beautiful woman who is about to become a mama. She & her babe need happy thoughts now more than ever...

another blog about a giveaway

So i'm blogging this morning about a cloth diaper giveaway! Go here to enter yourself

http://www.theecochic.com/2010/02/21/get-a-kick-out-of-babykicks-new-bumboo-pocket-diaper/#dsq-comments

I love it when i enter giveaways for a cloth diaper made by a SAHM. And I love it that this company (babykicks) makes 90% of her own products.
You should definately check out this diaper. it's trim and ultra absorbant because she uses a hemp fleece soaker pad. I love hemp fleece.

yummy enchiladas

I think I spelled that wrong! oh well. (just checked and i was right) I made some supper yummy enchiladas today, but they weren't as easy to make as I'd like. They came from the cookbook Whole Food from the Whole World. I got it at a Le Leche League conference a year and a half ago and this is the first time I've opened it! I'll share the recipe with you, but I'll give an overview at the end. Let me say that I made this is kind of a hurry because we have small group on Thursdays and I needed to get dinner done before 6 but after
5:30 when Mitchel got home so we didn't have to eat out again....i really over estimated how long this took me to make. I started at like 4:15 and it was done at like 4:45. oops.
ok here it is

1 lb ground beef
16 oz of green enchilada sauce
12 corn tortillass
oil-like not very much
1/2 cup chopped onion
chedder cheese (i love cheese so i dont put an amount...lol)

PREHEAT OVEN TO 350 i bold this because I always forget to turn it on!

Brown beef in skillet, drain. heat enchilada sauce in sauce pan. Soften each torilla on both sides in heated oil for a few second; drain. Dip into heated sauce. Layer-tortilla, ground beef, onion, cheese another torilla. 6 should fit on a baking sheet. Bake in over for 5 minutes until cheese is melted.
It also says -in New Mexico, they serve this with a fried egg or lettuce and tomato on top.

So I don't know why you have to soften the tortillas first. it was very messy and the tortillas kind of fell apart. I forgot to soften one and just put it in the heated enchilada sauce and it was the same as the others (too me). Maybe there is a reason though. Also, the next time I make it I will put the onions in with the beef like halfway through the cooking of the beef jsut because I don't like the strong crunchy onion taste. also I didn't know if Brighton would be keen on such a strong taste, plus I still worry about how it will come out the other end!

Also, this meal was very quick to prepare abd cook. I didn't read all the way that it was only going to take 5 minutes to cook in the oven! I will learn my lesson someday! I will also learn to take a picture so you can see how yummy it looks.
This is one of my favorite recipes so far. I will definatly do it again now that I know how long it takes and what all is involved. I hope you make it too someday! If you do, you have to tell me how it goes.
Tomorrow I'm not making anything because I'm going to play Bunko with some friends from church!

applecheeks diaper giveaway

Have you ever heard of applecheeks cloth diapers? I have, but only because a good friend of mine just reviewed them and now another blog that i followed just reviewed them too. They are amazing (according to them). I can't wait to try them. I'm blogging about this to hopefully win one, other wise I think I'm going to order a mini sample kit myself. If you want to check them out you can go to www.applecheeks.com
I hope i win this diaper. I'm super excited about it!

if you'd like the chance to win one, go to myweeview.com

what to do...

What do you feed your toddler when both parents are ill, and still make it somewhat healthy? I don't know but we had frozen chicken nuggets and one pear left so that's what he ate.

I hate being sick, but i suck it up because I have to take care of little b. It's worse when Mitchel's sick, because I have to take care of him too...lol. In his defense, he is really sick too. He can't breathe through his nose and he's been sleeping on the recliner for the past few nights so that he can be upright and so that I can get some sleep (he's snoring really bad). But i still haven't gotten much sleep because Brighton is coughing again. Oh well.

So anyway. I hope this house gets better soon. I think i'm going to brave the elements and go to the YMCA tomorrow. I haven't been for awhile and I really need to go!

my baby's on youtube!

for like 2 seconds! I submitted a video of him dancing in a cloth diaper for a campaign to get Ellen Degeneres to have a cloth diaper segment on her show and Brighton made it in the video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4kBN-UgHXo&feature=player_embedded

(you may have to copy and paste the link in your browser)

it's like 2 second at around the 2 minute mark. Who knows Brighton could be on TV!!

So, I love cloth diapers. And I've been cloth diapering Brighton since he was born, but because my daycare wouldn't do the cloth diapers too, I had to buy disposables and i didn't cloth diaper as much as I'd like to. Basiclly just at night and on the weekends.

Well now I'm a stay at home mom and I cloth diaper full time now! yay! and I've been looking into what other cloth diapers are out there. I found Nifty Nappy's diapers through a friends and I have fallen in love with her diapers. I totally judge a book my it's cover so the fabrics she uses to make her diapers caught my eye first. They are totally cute and in style and I can't wait to get my hands on one. I love giraffes and they have a super cte giraffe print i have my eye one. I've also read amazing reviews of her diapers and I can't wait to try one myself.

There is a giveaway right now

Here http://bamwallace.blogspot.com/2010/02/this-nappy-is-so-nifty.html

and I totally want to win the giraffe print diaper. Otherwise I'll probably just buy it. Anyway. Take a look at her blog and nifty nappy's if you are interested in cloth diapers.

i totally made a cloth diaper today!

YAY!! I made a cloth diaper today. it's not the best in the world because Brighton was awake through most of it and getting restless (i should have gone to the YMCA today so he could run off some energy!) Also the fabric wasnt even all the way around. I has to improvize a little.

Hopefully Hobby Lobby will have their flannel on sale next week so I can get some nicer looking flannel. I'm going to get some fleece too soon. Hancock fabrics has really cheap fleece and they have ALOT of styles to choose from.

On Saturday our local botanical gardens (called Botanica)because they had a free day with crafts and all. Brighton is still a little young to do the crafts but we did get him to plant some grass seeds and i helped him make a paper flower (which he later took a huge bite out of!). I didn't get a chance to take pictures of him doing the crafts, but I got a couple cute shots of him out in the gardens (which were dead. Call me morbid, but I like taking pictures of dead plants and nature (not animals). There is something kind of beautiful about a dead flower or a domant tree. I was also playing around with the settings on my camera to get the best setting for the lighting. I know absolutly nothing about photography, but I know what the symbols mean in the menu so if i'm doing a close up of the dead flower I know to change it to the "close up" setting...lol

So here are a couple pictures we took on our outing







Isn't my husband silly.
Ok Brighton woke up from his nap so I need to go get him i guess...lol

dinner tonight!

Tonight I'm making Cheesebuger Zucchini Pie for dinner. It looks so good I couldn't resist trying it. And it was inexpensive, which is what I was going for. I've been trying to find healthy inexpensive recipes that are quick to prepare and a fast cook time, or crockpot meals.
So here is the link to the recipe. This links to facebook to and I would love for some people to try it and give me feedback on what they think of it. Not just taste wise, but was it cheap to make? did you find it easy? anythingelse you want to write would be great! Also keep in mind, i look for meals that look kid friendly. Brighton is 20 months old now. he's not a picky eater, but I try to find things that would be easy for him to eat with limited teeth...lol.

http://www.parents.com/recipe/beef/cheeseburger-zucchini-pie/

I haven't tried mine yet, but I can't wait!!!

check out this blog if you cloth diaper!

http://couponmommyof2.blogspot.com/2010/01/baby-bum-drops-review-and-giveaway.html

Check out this review of cloth wipe solution. It looks like a good deal especially if your baby has sensitive skin. I might look into buying some if i don't win any!

good day!

I had a really great day! It started with breakfast with my dad at Village Inn. I was sad to see him leave, but it was great to spend time with him and help him get a new car!
Then I headed up to Newton to check on our house up there and to get our Finacial Peace University books because we are taking the class in a small group. I can't wait to start it. Mitchel took it his last semester at MCC so it'll be a nice refresher for him.
While I was in Newton I gave my friend Trenna a ring and we met at the local library to have a chat. It was fun to see her and her kids and her new baby (who is 5 months old already). We made some plans to get together again and to do another sewing day. I can't wait for the sewing day because I found a cloth diaper pattern to try.
I also went to the Healthy Baby Boutique and picked up a super cute new Gro Baby diaper and some Rubbabu toys for Brighton. http://www.rubbabu.com/
You should check them out. They are cute, simple and very inexpensive. I'm definatly going back for more soon!
So the day is flying by already. B is down for his nap, but needs to get up soon so he sleeps tonight. I do have to go across town and get some fabric (free!) I got hooked up with on www.freecycle.org It's a great place to get rid of items you don't use and also to get something you may need. I'm thinking we are going to get rid of alot of stuff soon and it may not be worth the hassle of a yard sale. You should sign up for it!

my dad

My dad is in town for a couple days. I love it when he's in town. We have fun together doing random things and I love seeing him play with Brighton. Brighton got a huge smile on his face when he woke up from his nap and Grandpa was here. It's so funny. Brighton can say Grandpa now. It comes out more like Bumbas, but it's close enough.

Today we bought a car (for my dad) he bought me some milk and bananas at walmart.
Tomorrow we get to go grocery shopping. Probably not the funnest thing in the world, but it's time that i get to spend with my dad so it's fun for me. And Brighton loves seeing his Bumbas.

Maybe we'll find something fun to do tomorrow. If we do, there will be pictures. My dad always takes pictures.