Giveaways!

The Cloth Diaper whisperer is giving away..
2 -flip covers
1- dozen- birdseye cotton flat diapers!

Here is the link to the giveaway!! All entries must be in by Thursday May 12th @ 7pm EST

Fluff Friday 129

Garden Diaries - The work begins..

Last weekend we finally tilled the garden over! I am really excited to finally start planting, although I still have some work ahead of me. As you can see from the picture I have been pulling out most of the roots and large chunks of grass. The two bags off to the side are organic compost. I am using the compost to enrich the soil that is already there. It is important (so I have read) to make sure your soil is nutrient rich before you begin planting. As my daughter and I were digging through the dirt yesterday we found this lovely lady :

Yep, I am officially terrified of my garden now. This is a Carolina Wolf Spider. Needless to say I went screaming inside and have not been back out since! Apparently these are great to have in your Veggie garden, because they control the population of your pests. They are not poisonous...just really really ugly and scary looking. I decided not to kill her, and just let her be...but I am definitely wearing gloves and boots from now on...uuckk.

The belly- 30 weeks

Well tomorrow I am 30 weeks pregnant! this pregnancy seems to have gone by so quickly. I am sure I won't be saying that around 36-40 weeks, but I definitely feel time flying by. I have still so much to do and yet I am anxious to meet my little boy. We have not completely decided on a name. I think we will make a decision closer to the due date. As many moms know..names are so difficult to agree on. You can't please everyone but you definitely need to make your spouse happy at the same time. I just wanted to post an update on my pregnancy because I realize I don't talk about it very much. I have a had a great pregnancy so far...minus the sickness for about a month, and my battle with hormones. I am  healthy and happy for the most part. Now the hormone issue is interesting. I never had a problem when I was pregnant with my daughter. I had a picture perfect pregnancy (although my husband was deployed my entire pregnancy and for the first 10 mths of her life) I still felt everything went smoothly and she was born a healthy 8lbs 9 oz. This time around, I am struggling to keep my emotions in check. One minute I am happy and busy..the next I don't know what to do with myself and I am depressed and angry. I lose my patience VERY quickly and I find myself turning into someone totally different. Its difficult to know the difference between real valid feelings and "crazy lady" hormones. I think for the most part, I have taken a healthy attitude towards them..and by talking about my feelings to my husband and those I am close to I feel like I have taken some control over the "out of control" feeling I get when my emotions are out of whack. Now if I could only find a way to not drown myself in ice cream when I am feeling this way...

Cloth Diapering 101- Choosing your Accessories

Somewhere down the Cloth diapering rabbit hole you finally figure out what it is you are going to need. You make list after list and then you price items on a bunch of different websites...its takes forever and its frustrating because you want to buy everything at once! I know..I have been there. It is so important to look around at different websites and give yourself time to really find some good deals. There are quite a few places that offer free shipping over a certain amount, or there are websites you can join that do promotions on certain diapers or give out coupon codes. For Example I am subscribed to the "clothdiaperchannel" on youtube. They usually have a coupon code for gogonatural.com. Another important thing to remember is that you don't have to buy all this stuff in one place. So here is my list of things I needed to get before the baby gets here.

• Diaper Sprayer - Ebay 
• Diaper pail - Lowes 
• Diaper Pail liner - gogonatural.com 
• Spray bottle for wipe solution - Hobby lobby
• Cloth wipes- Make my own
• Wet Bags (2) -Make my own
• Infant prefolds (24) - nicki's diapers.com 
• Diaper covers (7) - 
• Snappis (3) -gogonatural,com
• Pocket Diapers (28) -
• Doublers (5) -nicki's diapers.com
• Hemp inserts (4) - nicki's diapers.com
• Detergent

As you can see I have decided on where I am getting most of my accessories. This list was made probably a few months ago so I have knocked quite a few things off since then. I already have the diaper pail (which I just got from Lowe's for about $13.00...its a white kitchen garbage pail with a flip open lid) I got my spray bottle (for wipe solution to go in) from Hobby lobby for $1. I made my own cloth wipes! Super cheap and easy, you can find the tutorial here. I also made my own wet bags, a little more difficult than the cloth wipes but still it was a fantastic idea, because normally you pay between $16-$25 each online but if you go to a fabric store you can make two or three bags of any size you want, any pattern you want for about $15. I will be making another bag in a few days..so keep an eye out for my tutorial on that. As for my actual diaper stash, I don't really know where to get the rest of my diapers just yet. I am on the fence about which brand to get. I only need about 3 more pocket diapers and 1 or 2 covers. I am always looking and checking for good deals, coupons or contests going on online. When it comes to my inserts and doublers...I would like to stay with nicki's diapers.com because she always has some of the best brands in stock. I have heard great things about Hemp babies...so I have bought 2 from nicki already. I will probably get more once I finally have everything on my list.

Budgeting is really important for me, because I just don't have the $80 to spend as soon as I want something. I really have to look for a good deal, great shipping prices (if not free)! I have to get the most for my money. Making my own stuff has really brought my expenses down. I am also going to be making my own wipe solution. It really is very easy. I found quite a few different recipes online. I personally think the less ingredients you use the better, for example I will be making mine with Chamomile Tea, gentle baby soap and  tea tree/ lavender essential oils. I can also add a little vinegar or olive oil/baby oil to the mix..but its all about experimenting to see which recipe does the best job.
All I really needed to get for this recipe was Chamomile tea ($2) and the tea tree/lavender oil. There is a local health food store that I like to go to, and they sell a 30 ml bottle for about $8. This bottle should last me quite a while.
An item you may be worried about ordering online is detergent. Many people recommend brands you can only order online. So there is the price for that PLUS there is shipping, sometimes even extra because of the weight (depends on the site or brand). There are brands of detergent that you can buy right in your grocery store. I would do some research on them first before you try them. I found this site, which helps you know what to look for and how to read detergents labels.
Zany Zebra- Diaper detergents.
or this site that compares all different brands : Diaper Jungle- Detergent Chart
I am going to try Charlie's soap, I bought mine from the natural food store for about $12. You only need a very small amount so this should last quite a while as well.

 I hope I was able to help with a few new ideas on getting started with cloth diapering!

Garden Diaries - The beginning

So I have a little bit of a late start..its Almost May 1st and I do not have a single thing planted. Today we FINALLY rented a tiller and turned over the soil on my small patch of grass. I am excited to get out and work through all the weeds and grass tomorrow! We also bought a few bags of Organic compost to enrich the quality of the soil. I think it might be a little to sandy still to plant anything. I am hoping to have a good nutrient rich soil by the end of next week! Tomorrow we will be constructing our compost bin as well! So I will follow up with pictures of that and our newly tilled garden.
I have read that it would be a good idea to build a raised garden, but I am working on a very limited budget and I am doing this to save money on food after all...so I will try this first and see how it goes. I am already fearful of our neighborhood terrorists (the squirrels!) I planted morning glory flowers out front and they dug up and stole all my seeds!  So I have some reading to do....

Keeping it simple- cloth wipes!

Here is just a small tutorial on making your own cloth wipes. They are not super fancy, just keeping it simple. You will be wiping poop with these little guys, sooo don't get too fancy. Its probably the easiest sewing project I have ever done :)

Materials you need.

Flannel material - As much as you want, for mine I only had 1/2 a yard left and it made 12 small wipes.
(you could probably hand stitch these, but I used a sewing machine)
Iron

Step 1. Cut the desired size from your flannel. I try to make them all the same size..

 Step 2. Iron down a 1/4 inch seam all the way around the edges:

It should look like this when you are done Ironing:

Step 3. Zig zag stitch  all the way around your fabric like so :

 Step 4: Make sure to back stitch at the beginning and end! and you are all done!! :)

I love this project, its so easy and does not take up much time at all. If you have old towels you can easily recycle them into Cloth wipes too. I will probably make some out of towel material for those "heavy duty" clean ups.