July 1,
Since it's hotter than a sizzling frying pan here in Kansas right now, I have had one thing on my mind....let's all go to the pool! Our town recently built one of those fun public pools with water slides, lazy river and all that. I like it because there is something for everyone, and no one gets bored there. Since I have had swimming on the brain, I have been experimenting with making some cute cloth diaper swim suits. I wasn't real excited with some of the choices out there, and thought an Eco baby friendly swim suit should be just as cute as a suit you wear over a disposable swim diap. So after some trial and error, and finally going to the pool with the family, we tried out a few models on our favorite model :-). They did pretty good, but still fit more like a diaper than a swim suit, so back to the drawing board I went one more time, and although I really love the style of my original model, I made a sleeker slimmer suit that looks fabulous on my favorite model...so click on the picture to check it out in my Etsy shop.
    Remember cloth diaper swim suits or diapers are made to contain messes, not really to absorb wetness, my suits, or any others on the market do this job with out the expense of buying pricey disposable swim diapers that are just going to take up room in the land fill. So think about giving them a try this summer.

Hello!
It has been weeks since I added a post, and since the last post I have been super busy sewing and selling!  Alexis and I sold all of my cloth diapering products at the happybottumus diaper swap, and they were very well received.  In fact I pretty much sold out of wet bags and wipes.  It was super fun to actually talk to people and tell them about my designs and hear about their cloth diapering needs and wants.  One of the wants was a diaper bag that would accommodate all the necessities of cloth diapering, I have started creating a few and posted a picture of my first design.  Check it out here or at my Etsy shop.  Please read on if you are interested in cloth diapering, my friend Rebecca Liang of MomBecks.com talks about her journey to cloth diapering.  Check out her store also, she has some great diapering products. and now.... here's Becky!

    When I started cloth diapering 10 years ago out of necessity (i.e. groceries or diapers) I just assumed the only cloth diapers were what they sold at Wal-Mart. So, with $30 to “invest” in cloth diapers, that’s where I headed. Of course the only diapers they had, and still have, at Wal-Mart are the horrible Gerber diapers. Seriously, I can’t believe they are wasting their time and valuable resources on those things. I got my 2 dozen prefolds and 6 plastic pants and headed home to dive into cloth diapering pins and all! (Cloth diapers were a lot cheaper back in the olden days) Of course it didn’t take long to realize that the plastic pants would only last through a few washes before they got holes and I’d have to buy more, and they leaked everywhere and left horrible scratch marks on my baby’s legs. Then there was the issue of what to do with all those dirty diapers at home and when we were out. And I hated wasting money on disposable wipes, but I had no idea there was such a thing as cloth wet wipes because Wal-Mart didn’t carry them. I’m sure I could’ve found something better online, but this was in the day of dial-up internet and I couldn’t leave my child unattended for days on end waiting for each page to load. So I just stuck with what I had.
    Needless to say, cloth diapers have come a long way in the last 10 years! There are more options and accessories than you could ever need! It’s amazing how beautiful diapers have become, and how easy they are to use. But, there is still the same issue of what to do with all those beautiful dirty diapers. For many years I got by with using grocery bags in both the pail and the diaper bag. But I found they didn’t do such a great job of keeping in smells or wetness. I had bags suddenly tear apart on the way to the washing machine spilling dirty diapers everywhere. Can you say YUCK! Cheap me, I knew there were nice pail liners and pretty wet bags but I thought they were a waste of money. So I just kept toting around my smelly grocery bags. I also noticed my diaper pail mysteriously getting stinkier and stinkier.
    Then one day I was shopping online at a diaper website and saw they had free shipping on their wet bags so I bought one. Revelation! I had no idea what I was missing out on! It was so nice to be able to have a PUL bag with a zipper! No more tying plastic bags, and it actually kept the smells in. On top of all that it was just so cute!
    After this eye opening experience I decided to give pail liners a try. Again, revelation! Since I purchased a front loader I had been dreading loading my diapers into the washer because they would inevitably spill out on the floor. It was so gross and frustrating! And like I mentioned before, my diaper pail was always smelly. Since I started using a real pail liner the diaper pail no longer reeks! Seriously, I haven’t changed anything else but the liner – same diapers, same detergent. I’m not a scientist but I’m thinking that the ammonia in the urine was reacting with the plastic grocery bags in a bad way. Other people have noticed it as well – my mom, my husband, my sister, and even my kids. I had a customer come for a consultation last week who was checking out how I have my baby’s diaper station set up and she said, “Wow! Your dirty diapers don’t even stink!” Proof in the pudding.
    Lastly, can I say what a difference cloth wet wipes make. You wouldn’t use paper towels to wash your dishes would you? Why use paper wipes to wash your baby’s bum? My sister-in-law just started using cloth and one of the things she loves most is the wipes! They do an infinitely better job and are soo much softer than disposables. I really think using cloth wipes is a lot easier when you’re using cloth diapers anyway. They just get thrown in the pail with everything else. I just keep a squirt bottle with water on the changing table and wet a wipe down whenever I need one.
I would have to say that even though wet bags, pail liners, and wet wipes are classified as accessories, I really think of them as necessities. Anything that makes life that much easier IS necessary.

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  Well Spring is finally here.  I was reminded of its coming by the Crocus that faithfully popped up in our front yard.  They are so nice and cheery to look at as were were shoveling, hoeing and turning over the winter rested soil in our vegetable garden.  I like gardening, how about you? Whether it be a small flower bed, or a big huge vegetable garden, there is a certain satisfaction in seeing something you chose and plant thrive and grow into a beautiful plant.  This year we are biggering our vegetable garden by just a bit for a couple reasons. Economic times are a little tight for us so growing some of our food is a good way to alleviate the grocery budget. More importantly however, is the fact that we can grow most everything organic. In a world that is so filled with chemicals, additives and of course the threat of nuclear fallout, it is nice to know where your food is coming from.  And of course there is nothing like a homegrown tomato fresh out of the garden.      
   I am excited to see our garden grow this year as I have been doing a lot of reading about companion planting. GH Organics has a great list on their web site with lots and lots of vegetables and flowers that compliment each other by repelling bugs, improving taste or helping to keep weeds down.  They also tell you what NOT to plant in close proximity.  This is a portion of what the web site says about potatoes... Horseradish, planted at the corners of the potato patch, provides general protection. Alyssum makes a perfect living mulch for them. Don't plant these around potatoes: asparagus, cucumber, kohlrabi, parsnip, pumpkin, rutabaga, squash family, sunflower, turnip and fennel. Keep potatoes and tomatoes apart as they both can get early and late blight contaminating each other. With all this in mind we are keeping records of what we plant and trying to have a healthier, happier garden through companion planting.    
  Back to the Crocus....I can't help but post a sweet picture of our little grand baby sprout wearing the newest vintage upcycled dress I made her.  My daughter in law and I are preparing to launch a new Etsy store for vintage and upcycled baby and toddler clothes.

I am very proud of my husband because this year when it was time to order chickens, he said, "No more of those hybrid Cornish cross ugly things that can only live eight or ten weeks and then die of a heart attack if you don't butcher them." At first I was a little disappointed, as those ugly things have a lot of nice meat on them, and we free range them, so they are mighty tasty and healthy, but I considered what he said, and then read an article in hobby farms about heritage chicken breeds. The article is from the March/April 2009 issue, I don't know if you can read it online, I couldn't get to the article myself.  Anyway it listed several dual purpose chicken breeds and several good reasons why you should raise them. There are 26 breeds on the ALBC (American Livestock Breeds Conservancy) and to quote Carol Ekarius, Hobby Farms contributing editor and author of Storey's Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds, "Chickens that come out of the traditional dual- or multipurpose breeding schemes really deserve attention... they produce a respectable egg supply, and although they grow a little more slowely than some of the modern meat breeds, they put on a pretty respectable carcass for meat eaters..."  I was sold.  So I went on reading about the four critically endangered breeds that were developed in the United States.  The breed that caught my eye were the Javas.  The article went on to describe them as  "excellent free-range foragers, hardy and docile in temperament. And Javas are a feast for the eyes!"  I ordered my little Javas from Welp Hatchery and they arrived safe and sound around March 11th.  Right on schedule to the hatchery's shipping dates.  They are a week old today and doing great. I am really loving them, and also loving the smaller scale of a little flock.  So I thanked my husband for insisting on no more cornish cross birds! Check out my other products page for some cute little chicken pin cushions I made in honor of my new flock!