Teeny tiny dipes

When I was pregnant with baby#3, Benedict, I was stressed about buying disposable diapers for the first few months since the price of diapers up here is crazy! Our cloth diapers don't work very well for tiny bums and legs so I usually wait until my babies are 1 month old and bit chunky before wrapping them up in some fluff. I had all of the supplies for making my own cloth dipes so I drew up a quick pattern for making newborn size cloth diapers. 

I used patterned PUL and green microsuede from www.diapersewingsupplies.com, and snaps from an amazon store (can't remember which supplier) and velcro/touch tape/ hook and loop/whatever you want to call it, that I already had in my sewing stash.

I ended up making 9 in total, but here are a few that I managed to get done before Ben arrived in August.

Pretty tiny 

All ready and waiting for Benedict

A bit snug

Now, we knew Benedict was going to be big, but I figured he would fit the dipes longer than he ended up wearing them. But look how cute he is at only a few weeks old!

If I make more for future children (not sure if #4 or #5 will happen, we're pretty maxed out at 3), I will make the inside tabs longer and not bother with 2 rows of snaps because the hip snaps were not really needed.

I love how they turned out and I wish wish wish I took more pictures of Ben wearing them.

Clearing the cobwebs

Hi Blog world...
Hi...
I feel like I need to apologize for being away for so long, but really, who am I apologizing to? You, me, the Internet? Ha, well, please forgive me for my absence. I've been busy- you know, if busy includes sleeping (actually, not sleeping), drinking a LOT of coffee, avoiding housework, being grumpy because my craft room was invaded by my adorable hurricane of a son, having another baby (YEAH, 3 boys! And you better believe they will know how to sew, cook and crochet!), and a whole lot of nothing. Ok, somethings.

 Shepherd getting ready for SK school pictures

Liam (aka Hurricane) getting ready for church 

My peaceful Benedict

I know most of my posts say I'm planning on posting some of my projects soon, but seriously folks, I am working on it. Be excited for tiny newborn dipes, my most beautiful baby blanket yet, of course hats and maybe some other crafts. I've been behind for 2 years (yeah, 2 years since my last post), let's see if 2015 is my year at becoming a successful "Mommy blogger", maybe even a Pinterest phenomenon. Doubt it, they just added Friends to Netflix! (No Laura, that's junk)

Anyway, again, sorry. I am still here, for anyone who reads these humble stitches of my heart...

xo

Cleaning Cloth Diapers

Over the years I have learned a lot about cloth diapering, one skill being cleaning those suckers. I've used both top loaders and front loaders to wash my dipes and I have to say that top loaders are 100% the best for washing. Top loaders fill right up and use lots of water, something that cloth dipes need!! I also really like being able to soak my dipes right in the washer without having to stick my hands in to wring them out (I've done that and it's gross!!!).

The year we lived with a front loader (for those who use one no offense to you if you love your's, I just had the worst experience with mine so I'm a bit biased) I battled the stinkies almost every time I washed a load of diapers. I tried every kind of soap made for front loaders and cloth diapers but I was still stuck putting smelly (although "clean") diapers on my little guy. Through research and trial and error, I have come up with a nice, simple recipe that works great for both front loaders and top loaders (but better for top loaders, heehee).

For the recipe I used equal parts Washing Soda, baking soda, and powdered Oxy Clean. I then added some lime essential oils (a few shakes) for fun, but also for the boost from the acid to cut the smell of the ammonia in the pee. I usually just do 1 cup of each and mix by shaking it in a little container, then add the drops of lime and shake again. I did use a metal whisk to get rid of any lumps from the oil but you don't need to if it doesn't clump.

There you have it, diaper detergent! Now I will let you know my routine for washing.

Since my little guy isn't so little anymore (19 months tomorrow), he goes through less diapers than he did when he was little so I am finding myself washing them less frequently, about every 3 days, but it's generally recommended that you wash every other day to avoid bacteria build up and the dreaded stinkies.

*Note: this is the method I use for my top loader. For front loaders you can follow the same steps, adding more rinses at the end, and possibly an additional wash to make sure the dipes are clean. Also, I use pocket diapers with microfiber inserts.

Step 1: (make sure most of the poop has been sprayed off before soaking or else you're just soaking in poop water, I use a bumGenius sprayer attached to our toilet)
Only do this step if you have a bad case of the stinkies, if stink isn't a huge issue, start at Step 2.
Soak those dirty diapers in cold water for a couple hours or over night with no detergent added. Luckily our new washer has a setting to soak during one of it's wash cycles, so I just use that. Make sure your water setting is to super or the highest water setting. If you have a bad case of the stinkies you can soak over night with 3 Tbsp of detergent and follow the remaining steps.

Step 2:
Pre-wash cycle on COLD (my washer has a short pre-wash setting, but you could just run your shortest load if no pre-wash on your washer)

Step 3:
Regular or super wash with HOT water with about 2 Tbsp of detergent

Step 4:
Regular wash on COLD, no detergent

Step 5:
Repeat step 4. My machine has an option for a second rinse, which I usually turn on for step 3. Or you can just run a rinse cycle or 2.

Step 6:
Dry. I love hanging my diapers to dry outside on the line in the sunshine. The sun bleaches the stains and I find that if there was any smell (there shouldn't be) the breeze blows it away. Or, if it's mostly winter where you are (like it is for me, bye-bye summer), you can dry your diapers in the dryer or hang to dry inside. 

I hope you have diapers that smell like, well, nothing! If you find they still smell you might need to do a good soak over night again. You can also stick your head in the washer after step 3 and if they still smell, repeat step 3 (or 4 if you want to save some $ on your gas bill). Good luck!!

Handmade Dipes

Just a quick post tonight to mention that last winter I attempted making some cloth diapers. They turned out quite nice I think. The first one I made was from this tutorial, but I top stitched it before adding the elastics and it turned out a bit frilly. 

A little frilly

The second one I modified a bit, I didn't top stitch until the elastics were sewn in place and I used a cotton print over a girly PUL fabric, but that resulted in a more narrow dipe.

Cotton over PUL, you can barely see the flowers!

Slight difference

I'm hoping to make up some more once the craft room is put together. Right now it's looking pretty chaotic and I still need to "encourage" the husband to help me build a desk, and a kitchen island, and a guest room bed, and ,whoops got carried away there, haha!

Seriously messy

Well, let me know what you think of the two styles. One has side snaps and the other wraps around front.

Here we go again...

Oh my, how embarrassing! I was just about to hammer out a blog post about being a lazy blogger, that I am still around, just crazy busy until I noticed my last blog post was that exactly! Lazy blogger. Well again, I am still around, I've been working on a few projects and WE MOVED!

Moving Day

We are now in a Northern Ontario community while my husband teaches on the reserve. At first we thought our move would just be temporary but after discussing with my husband and praying, we decided we would relocate for a while, we even bought a house ($86,500 for a house, yes please!).

Front view of our new house

Many big milestones have happened and are coming up for us that I will be sure to post, like my little Sheppy heading to Junior Kindergarten next week, Trevor starting his first full-time teaching job, Shep's 4th birthday, tons of house projects....oh my the list is long!

Shepherd riding the bus for the first time during the Safe Riders Orientation.

Lazy blogger

Hello Friends,

I am just popping in to say I'm still around, just very busy being a mom, but I have some fun things to post so keep an eye out for new recipes and creations I have been working on. Also, it's little Liam's first birthday on Friday and I have many projects to show you that I hope will make his day special.

See you soon!

Settling in

I can't believe we have been up here for a month! Sometimes it feels like longer, and sometimes it feels like we just got here. We're finally unpacked as of 2 weeks ago when we stayed up late one Friday night rushing around cleaning and unpacking the last few boxes so we could have a presentable house for some guests who were staying with us.

Part of the unpacking process has included unpacking and organizing my craft things, and let me tell you, that is hard! My crafts are all stored in this old pantry style cupboard we got from Canadian Tire when Shep was born (we used it as a closet in his room), and anytime I want to making something I need to pull about 5 things out (with about 10 things falling on my head in the process) and nothing stay neat in there. And don't get me started on my yarn! I used to keep my yarn in a big blue tote beside our couch, next to the fireplace- it was so nice to sit and watch a movie and work on my projects by the fire- but our new place doesn't have the same space. My tote is now stored in the crawl space behind our coat closet. I shouldn't complain because it is actually a really neat little hideaway that we've nicknamed Narnia.

Anyway, after all of those excuses that have kept me from crafting the past little while, I have been able to work on a few projects. I'm working on a few slipper patterns for women and kids and I'm pretty pleased with them. But, surprise, I haven't finished them, I've only made 1 slipper of each pattern, haha. I'm also slowly working on the blanket for Liam. The list goes on and on for the projects I want to complete.

I also sent out an email for friends and family to let me know what they would like for Christmas. That is my priority right now. Well, Liam isn't napping this morning so I'm off. I'll post pictures later of my current projects and my sad storage situation :).

LG

Working away

I feel like I haven't had any time to do anything. I know that's such an over exaggeration, but this time it's true. The sad thing is, I haven't been terribly busy, things just have not been running smoothly around here. I've decided to do one load of laundry everyday to keep on top of things. That ended up with loads left in the washer because I forgot about it, loads sitting unfolded in baskets around my house, and baskets being tipped over with Shep using the contents as a landing pad. Oh, and the kids have given up on sleep! My kids used to be great sleepers. The house is quiet, with no one home upstairs to wake them and I'm being quiet, usually trying to finish a craft, and an hour into their naps (naps that took 30 minutes to an hour to get them to sleep) they are awake and crying. Sigh!

One good thing that happened the past few weeks is that I got my walking foot in the mail! Yay ebay!

But, it's bittersweet because I have no time to actually sit down with my machine to use it. My machine is sick :( I don't know what is wrong with it. It's making some knocking noises and not sewing properly with uneven stitches and poor tension. I've tried everything to fix it. Cleaned and oiled it, changed the needles, tried every possible tension. The one thing I haven't tried, now that I think about it, is that I haven't tried a really good quality thread. I've been using just whatever polyester blends and some are pretty old. I think I will try some new thread and pray that it works.

Today, I did manage to do a little craft with the kids for my dad for Father's Day. I know, that was last week but they live up North and we're going to visit them this weekend for a week! I'm so excited. So, I found this stepping stone kit at Michael's on sale and figured I would give it a go. I'm not 100% pleased with it. Here is the progress so far. It needs to set for 48 hours and we did it at 11am this morning.

Well, I must be off. Liam has been screaming for a little bit and I don't think he's going back to sleep :(

Baby Eli's finished blanket

My dear friend had her little (well, little isn't really how you can put it, he was 10 lbs!) baby boy this month and I finished the baby blanket I made for her.

It's the "girly" blanket I was making if I had a girl, but I figured it could be gender neutral. I also added another round of blue on the border after this picture was taken. She loved it and I'm sure Eli will like it too!

I think I will start selling blankets soon, probably once Liam is a bit older, but I'm sure I can whip them up pretty quickly if the price was right ;). I'm also making a brown basket weave blanket for Liam right now so the orders will just have to wait for now.

same ol' poop, different pile...

I've decided to take on yet another craft... diaper sewing. Yes, I know I can barely get through the crafts I have on the go already but I am determined to make cloth diapers. I have the fabric, the snaps, the elastic, the patterns, I'm just waiting for my new even feed walking foot to arrive in the mail so I can start my cute little dipes. I started with a wet bag but the feeding dogs in my machine ate the material like it was nothing! Besides, I needed to get the walking foot for quilting, yet another craft I will be taking up soon, but that's for another post.

We've been using cloth diapers since our oldest, Shepherd was about 18 months old. We were shocked at how much money we were literally throwing away and decided to look into the cloth option. We're not overly environmentally conscious, just more health conscious and we learned that disposable diapers are full of harmful chemicals! I always hated when the diapers would shed little jelly pieces on our little guy's bum. He was also very prone to rashes and burns that we later realized were from using disposable diapers and he had fewer to no diaper rashes since switching to cloth. Our second, Liam has been in cloth since he was 1 month old and only had rashes in disposable diapers. He did have a few rashes when we tried switching to cloth wipes but for some reason he does much better with disposable wipes. I really would like to switch to cloth wipes, again since the wipes are full of chemicals but we can always choose natural disposable wipes.

Anyway, cloth diapers can get pretty pricey and although I have found a great Canadian store based in Vancouver, I have recently found a site to buy fabric specifically for making your own cloth diapers. It's not Canadian but the prices are great! As soon as I get that walking foot, and assuming my kids are well behaved, I will be posting pictures soon of cute little handmade cloth diapers.

knit tales

I've decided to brush up on my knitting skills. By brush up, I really mean learn how to knit. I knew how to knit in high school (I won't say how long ago that was, but it was long enough to forget to knit), but I'm just no good at it anymore. I'm getting a little bored of my stiff crochet stitches and I want to make something soft and light. I don't know what I will make with summer coming, but it's a good chance to tackle the skill before fall and winter.

Oh boy, can you tell it's late? It's taken me about 30 mins to write this post because I keep daydreaming about knitting, and whether I really know how to at all anymore.... ugh, to bed!

Camera Shy

Yesterday I helped throw a baby shower for a dear friend. I helped with food, games, and made her a lovely gift. The only problem, I forgot to take pictures of the final projects!!!! I guess it's not a big deal, I can always take pictures of the gifts when I visit my dear friend or take pictures of the new baby with the gifts.

I made my dear friend a cute tote using some adorable fabric I bought online, a cute little taggie toy, bee themed thank you cards and I finished (ha, it's not finished, I still need to sew in the ends, but I still gave it to her at the shower) the colourful blanket I was making for myself if I had a girl. She doesn't know what she is having but I knew she would like the colours and she can use it in the future if she has a boy this time round- although I secretly think she's having a girl!!!!!!

I do, however, have a picture of the cupcakes, Oreo pops, and the fruit skewers we made (the picture of the fruit is from another dear friend's party, but they looked exactly the same!).

Vanilla cupcakes with blueberry jam frosting!

Oreo pops as favours!

Rainbow fruit skewers!

Well, hopefully I can post pictures of the gifts I made my dear friend soon...

...long time no blog!

Oy, it has been a while! So much has happened in the last 2 months (oh dear, 2 months and I'm just getting around to blogging...). Liam has outgrown all of his hats I've made him. I started an owl hat for him but surprise, surprise I never finished it! I did however, manage to make him an adorable bear hat. It reminded me of a cute little grizzly bear hat. Also, the 2 blankets I started for "baby#2" are only about half finished....

Well, I said I would post pictures so here we go...

This is Liam about a week old wearing his grizzly bear hat :)

Tummy time!

I have also started making baby "moby" style wraps but I haven't been able to take a decent picture where Liam and I look somewhat normal at the same time, so that might not be posted anytime soon. Also, I have been busy crafting and baking but silly me forgot to take pictures!!! I was able to make a cute purple and pink tutu for Shepherd's girlfriend's 2nd birthday as well as a frilly apron for her :). And last weekend I was able to whip up some homemade lemon cupcakes with strawberry frosting!! YUM!

Alright, both kids are asleep and if I want to be able to make it through my 2am date with Liam I best be off to bed. Thanks for putting up with my gibberish!

It's a...

BOY!
Well, baby Liam (full name William) Davis was born one day early on Feb 1/2012 at 9:23pm. He was a tiny little thing (thank God) weighing 7lbs 14oz, but loooong at 21''. He is soooo cute but since he's so small, his little head doesn't fit many of the hats I made for him. The solution: make Liam more hats! The secondary problem: no time! Oh well, I'll find time soon enough, but for now, Liam will just have to endure the hardships of not wearing his mom's super cool hats; it's a good thing he has a full head of hair.
Pictures coming soon!

Boy or Girl?

Since we don't know the gender of our bun in the oven, I'm always being asked if I have a "feeling" whether it's a girl or a boy. For the longest time I felt it might be a girl because the ultrasound tech said "she" at one point during our appointment even though we told her we wanted to keep it a surprise. Over the last few weeks I've change my thoughts to the baby being a boy with a heart rate usually hovering around 136beats (anything below 145 is supposed to be a boy, anything over is a girl, according to ol' wives tales).

Well, I wasn't able to commit to either one of my feelings so I've been making gender specific hats and I'll just sell the hats I don't end up needing.

Here are my girl hats

And here are my boy hats

This one could be for either a boy or a girl, but it's pretty colourful so I see it more of a girly hat

Baby blanket blunders

This "boy" blanket is giving me some grief! I started with a chunky white yarn but didn't account for the gauge change when I was choosing my other yarns. The greens and blue I chose are much lighter than the chunky white yarn so I'm experiencing some puckering I guess you could call it. I ended up removing the center white stitches to help the blanket lay flat. The end product is more circular than square but I think once I add the border it will square it up.

Since I was getting so annoyed with my boy blanket, I started my girl blanket (I usually have a few projects on the go at the same time). Again, not learning from my mistakes, I didn't think about my gauge and I used a chunky yellow cotton yarn that doesn't have as much stretch as my other yarn choices. I think I've also lost or added some stitches along the way, giving it a rounded shape. I think the border should help once again.

Still going...strong?

Well, I'm still pregnant. I should be glad because it gives me a chance to finish the 2 blankets I'm making for the baby (we don't know what we're having and I have too many yellow and green blankets, I wanted a colourful girly one and a nice blue one), as well as all the baby hats I keep dreaming about.

My son doesn't like when I crochet, he always says "no, no, no Mommy" and pulls it out of my hands. It's a good thing he's cute or that would just be annoying. He gets the yarn caught between his fingers and it's hilarious watching him try to unravel himself. Much cuter than when my husband moves my projects and ends up undoing rows of my hard work!

So, while my son is napping and the house is quiet, I think I'll pour myself a cup of raspberry leaf tea (apparently helps to bring on contractions, I've been drinking it for a few weeks!) and stitch until the baby comes.

Hello blog world!

Well, I've been thinking about starting a blog to post my projects and little thoughts, but considering how long it took me to actually start my blog, my posts might be far and in between. You see, I'm 39 weeks pregnant, potty training a 2 year old boy, starting a crafting business and trying to keep my husband sane and happy through it all. I hope you all enjoy my quirks and projects. Please feel free to comment and leave me messages.