Wipe Out

Today was the day we switched over to using cloth wipes for Flynn, who is snuggled up against my chest in his moby wrap as I type! He loves this thing.

4 days old and at the dog park!

We've already blown through two boxes of disposable wipes since he was born. They were very convenient during the first two weeks because he was pooing and peeing so frequently, and that meconium... nasty stuff!  It would have ruined my cloth wipes. However, the disposables were so flimsy and thin, it took a few of them to get everything off Flynn's bum. Just seems like a waste of money to keep buying them week after week. $4 a box x 4 boxes = $16/month for wipes alone. Uh, no thanks. (Buying diapers is annoying me as well but Flynn isn't quite big enough for his FuzziBunz. Soon though!)

After I used the last wipe, I made my homemade wipes solution. My bottle of dish detergent was almost empty, so I rinsed it out to repurpose it for the solution. I used 3 cups of water, 3 tablespoons of Dr. Bronner's liquid castille soap (the baby kind in the light blue bottle) and 3 tablespoons of olive oil (to keep Flynn's skin soft). In the future, I might add a few drops of an essential oil like lavender (to make it smell nice) or a few drops of tea tree oil (an anti-fungal).

The oil floats to the top, so I just give the bottle a shake before I squirt it on a wipe.

I felt like something useful could be done with the empty plastic wipe boxes, so I hung onto them and turned to my old friend, Google. Well, Yahoo! actually, but it sounds cooler to say I "googled it." Sorry, Yahoo!

This blog came up and I loved the idea. Who doesn't have a whole bunch of plastic bags shoved in a drawer or closet? I bring reusable bags to the grocery store, but always end up forgetting them when I go to other stores.

I made one for the house (lining waste baskets) and one for the car (doggy poop bags, wet shoes, etc.) Now they are all contained instead of floating around and they pop out easily! I love simple organizing ideas and repurposing.

UPDATE: We removed the olive oil from our homemade wipes solution because it was making our cloth diapers repel pee pee. No bueno! So right now it's just water & Dr. Bronner's and it still works great.

2 down, 998 to go...

I always have a list of projects that I want to do, and there is no end in sight. With this baby coming any day and my time about to be extremely limited, it's a problem. So tonight I happily told my husband, "Of course you can watch Terra Nova!" and I knocked two of them out of the way. To keep Indy from following me around the house, we gave him a disgusting delicious pork bone which he is still gnawing on hours later.

After my fabric flower failure, I decided to finish my placemat clutch with one of the brooches that decorated our wedding cake.

It started out looking like this.

The placemat cost $1.50 (Christmas Tree Shops), the magnetic closure was $2.49 (after a Joann's coupon) and the brooch was reused. Not bad. My plan is to look for some cuter placemats next time. Pier One? World Market? Just wanted to try it out and needed something cheap.

Next, I finished a project that I started LAST WINTER. Oh, the shame. I had promised Tim a cozy man-sized fleece blanket (apparently he was not happy with the size and warming capabilities of our current throws) and after I started it, we moved and it got packed away and forgotten about.

Until tonight!

 Just a simple tie-blanket, but hey, whatever makes the man happy!

I've also realized that this post at Small Notebook totally describes me.

My ideas definitely outweight my action these days.

Having a baby will solve that... mm hm... right.

On Tap for the Weekend

The big news story in the northeast is that we're getting SNOW this weekend.

Lots of it.

Before Halloween.

Everyone's in a frenzy!

We are right on the border of the 3-5" zone and the 6-12" zone (just outside of Philadelphia).

I think it's hilarious to watch everyone overreact about weather. We've had a crazy string of events this year: a hurricane, an earthquake, and now snow in October. Being the control freak that I am, you'd think I'd be panicking, too, but I just can't get annoyed about weather. It's weather. We can't control it, so why bother getting upset?

Tim is working on Saturday, which I hate and love at the same time. It's extra moola... but it also leaves me stuck at home by myself all day. Whomp whomp.

My goal is to tire out Indy in the morning. I will take him for a walk in the rain/snow/mix if I have to! Then I need to do some cleaning and start/finish the projects lined up on my sewing table.

1) The placemat clutch is 90% done, but just needs a fabric flower to cover up the magnetic snap closure.

2) I have all the materials for our Christmas stockings, I just need to get started.

3) I have the supplies to make a few Christmas presents (which must remain a secret)... really would like to knock those out before baby.

4) The pillowcase hamper for the baby's room just needs to be assembled.

5) And as if I weren't busy enough with all of the above, I keep seeing cute projects and adding them to my neverending list:

- Recreating this baby mobile

- Jersey knit bracelets

- Making a sisal rope bowl

On Sunday, this furry guy is going to his first doggie grooming appointment at Pet Smart! Giving him a bath inside has become so tedious due to his black hair, our bathroom's white tile and the fact that I can barely bend over right now. $30 for a shampoo, brushing, nail clipping & ear cleaning... this might spoil us.

We'll try to squeeze in dinner out sometime this weekend as well.

Who knows how many more baby-free weekends are in our future!

Another set of XY chromosomes will soon be added to our family. I might have to start embracing girly colors like pink & purple to break up the sea of gray, black, brown & blue I'm swimming in.

Baby Powder & Wipes (DIY style)

There is one smell I've hated for years. The smell of babies. Well, baby products to be exact. I'm sure a plain old baby smells delightful (especially if it's your own) but the smell of traditional baby powder & wipes makes me gag.

After 2 weeks or so of disposables, we're switching over to cloth diapers. I'll spare you from a long-winded rant... just know that I think they're awesome and I'm super psyched to use them! So since we're going to cloth diaper, we're also going to use cloth wipes. Everything goes into the laundry and gets re-used. It just makes sense to use both together.

Since the wipes don't come pre-moistened, I'll need a liquid solution to soak them with before cleaning baby's bum. Luckily, there's a DIY for that! (What isn't there a DIY for?)

Here is the recipe I'm going to use:

1 tablespoon almond, apricot, or other oil

1 tablespoon Dr. Bronner’s Liquid Castile Soap

2 drops tea tree oil (a natural anti-bacterial)

1 drop lavender oil

1 cup water

Mix everything together and store in either a spray or squirt bottle. I like the idea of repurposing a dish detergent bottle because it's *free* and the spout on the top would be easier to use than squeezing a spray bottle trigger 20 times.

They do make cloth wipe warmers, but we're going to forego that for the sake of keeping things simple.

Another little known fact is that you can't use diaper rash ointment with cloth diapers because it interferes with the absorption. However, it's not a big deal because cloth diapered babies get less diaper rash to begin with because of the breathable, natural cloth fibers. The people at FuzziBunz recommend airing out your baby's tush for a minute or so between diaper changes and using baby powder to protect skin from moisture.

According to my Mom (the DIY queen), the best baby powder comes from the grocery store and you may have heard of it. It's called cornstarch! Yep, plain old cornstarch. I picked up a box in the baking aisle for a whopping $1.18. Johnson & Johnson try to sell their "special" cornstarch baby powder for $5. I'm not falling for it.

I bought these cute shakers from Amazon.com to store my cornstarch in (2 for $9). They're really for parmesan cheese, but I hear they dispense the perfect amount of baby powder during diaper changes. I'll be sure to label them so I don't douse my pasta with the wrong stuff.

Of course, we'll be using regular wipes & disposable diapers occasionally, during outtings and for the first few weeks when I'm not up for doing a load of laundry every day. I'm not totally hardcore... yet.

Quickie Curtain

Making a simple, valance curtain is ridiculously easy. All you need to know are the following:

1. How to operate an iron

2. How to use a ruler/measuring tape

3. How to use scissors

4. How to sew a straight line

Measure your window. Measure & cut your fabric. Sew some hems. Sew an opening at the top large enough for your curtain rod to fit through. Hem the bottom... and you have a curtain! Okay, if you've never sewed before, you might want to look up a tutorial or study a pre-existing curtain you want to duplicate, but after you've made one, my over-simplified directions make perfect sense, I swear.

The matchstick blinds we put up in our bathroom window recently grew black mold. Yummy. Most likely due to the long, steaming hot showers I've been enjoying lately. Once the baby is here, I won't have time for such frivolity so I better squeeze them in now! The moldy blinds went in the trash and I decided to replace them with a simple curtain to keep the neighbors eyes out of our bathroom.

After a week of hanging bath towels over the window while my fabric was being shipped, our bathroom no longer looks like a frat house. I used 1.5 yards of Michael Miller "Secret Garden" fabric and a tension rod I already had that just happened to fit the window perfectly.

Total cost = $12.

If the curtain gets musty from bathroom steam, I can just throw it in the wash instead of the trash. And I love how it kinda looks like stained glass with the bathroom light off!

Tutorial City

Tutorials are fantastic for visual learners like myself. People are always asking where I find ideas for craft & sewing projects, so I thought I'd share my favorite tutorials with you from various blogs and websites. Some of these things I've made and some are on my "to-make" list. Basically, anytime I come across one I like, I save it to my Favorites list.  Needless to say, it's becoming a pretty long list!

These are also projects that would make great Christmas gifts! I know, I know, no one wants to talk about Christmas yet, but if you start planning for it now, it'll be a more joyous time of year and you won't have to pay retail and deal with crowded parking lots. Plus, it'll be from the heart... awwwh.

Infinity Scarf Tutorial

Basic sewing supplies, less than 2 yards of fabric and you can have 2 of these beauties.

One for yourself and one as a Christmas gift. Flannel is nice, but you can also use a stretchy knit fabric or even linen. Depends on the style you want to achieve.

Link: http://hisforhandmade.blogspot.com/2010/10/infinity-scarf-tutorial.html

Wine Gift Bag Tutorial

This is one of those addictive projects. Once you make one and realize how easy it is, you'll end up making 5 more. Great for gift giving, and then your recipient can reuse them at BYOB's.

Link: http://www.prudentbaby.com/2010/12/how-to-make-wine-gift-bag.html

Magazine Gift Bow Tutorial

Another fun & creative way to wrap up your Christmas gifts. I went nuts one year and made like 40 of these. Now I have a container full of them and whenever I need to wrap a gift, I just use plain paper and slap on a colorful bow.

Link: http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/2009/10/make-gift-bow-from-magazine-page.html

Tote Bag Tutorial

You could easily get carried away with this project, as well. Reusable bags are all over the place now and I feel like I never have enough of them. (I actually feel guilty when I forget mine and walk out with my goods in plastic.) This alone could be a gift, or you could fill on with more homemade goodies. I'll take one filled with tums. This preggo heartburn is killing me.

Link: http://www.purlbee.com/the-twenty-minute-tote/

French Pouf Tutorial

Stick one of these anywhere & it's instantly cuter.

Link: http://www.prudentbaby.com/2011/09/how-to-make-french-pouf-from-t-shirt.html#more

Citrus Scrub Tutorial

Move over, Bath & Body Works. (Does anyone still shop there, anyways?)

Package your DIY scrub in a fancy jar with some ribbon and gift away!

Link: http://petitelefant.com/how-to-citrus-scrub/

Potted Wheat Grass Tutorial

This is another great gift that looks expensive, but it's so not. Maybe you wouldn't give this as a Christmas gift. Hostess or housewarming gift... absolutely. These would look super cute lining a windowsill in the winter. Green grass... remember that?

Link: http://blogs.babble.com/the-new-home-ec/2011/10/04/how-to-plant-wheatgrass/

Wool Poncho Tutorial

This is one project I need to jump on while it's currently in style.

You don't have to sew ANYTHING. No excuses. You have to make one now.

Link: http://abeautifulmess.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/09/diy-wool-poncho.html

And since we're talking about the holidays, enjoy this little number!

Baby Project: Nursing Cover

If you're interested in making a nursing cover, you're probably not just going to do it for fun. You're planning to breastfeed! First things first, read up on your state's breastfeeding laws. Yes, the act of a mother feeding her child in public was at one time considered "indecent exposure" and laws had to be passed to protect the rights of nursing mothers. Crazy, right?

Photo taken from www.nursingfreedom.org

I still see articles (like this one) pop up now and then about a woman being asked to move into the restroom of a public area because the act of nursing her child was somehow perceived as indecent. (Using what God gave us to feed our babies? Oh, the horror!)

Of course, not every mom feels comfortable just whipping out a boob, so nursing covers are a nice way to feed your hungry baby wherever & whenever without getting uncomfortable stares from passersby.
You can buy brand name nursing covers and Etsy is loaded with cute ones, but I found a tutorial on one of my favorite crafty blogs and decided to make my own. It was surprisingly simple and also cost less than buying a pre-made cover. All you need is 1 yard of fabric, a pair of metal D rings, and a 14" piece of boning (which is a stiff, curved thingy to make the rounded semi-circle at the top of the nursing cover, enabling you to look down & see what your baby is up to).

I love how it turned out & can't wait to use it!

Colorful (Free!) Wall Art

Well, almost free. I spent $6, but you might be lucky enough to have the materials on hand. I have been seeing paint chip wall art projects (click here and here) floating around the internet and thought it looked easy enough for a non-artist like myself to try out. And when I say non-artist, I mean that my drawings look like I just entered kindergarten and I am incapable of coming up with artistic ideas... like this cool project.

Materials:

16 x 20 frame = $0 (leftover from our wedding, it held the seating chart poster)
White mat = $6 (A.C. Moore, forgot my coupon, darn it!)
Paint chips = $0 (Home Depot, Martha Stewart Collection)
Total Cost = $6

First, gather your materials. I had no idea how many paint chips I would need, but Tim and I knew what color scheme we were going for, so we just started grabbing whatever caught our eye. We ended up with just 1 extra. (Don't worry, no one looks at you weird when you walk out of the paint section with handfuls of these guys, they are meant to be taken!)

I layed the mat over the inside of the frame backing and traced around the inside so I would know where to line up the paint chips. (Tim would like to add that he thinks they are not called paint chips. Paint samples? Paint cards? I'm still calling them chips.)

Next, just start trying different layouts. Again, I am not an artsy person, so I just did what I thought looked cool. I ended up making 4 rows of 6 paint chips, going light to dark, keeping the color groups relatively together. Didn't snap a pic of it, but I laid them out first before taping them down, and was glad I didn't just dive in with the tape because I ended up rearranging a few.

I didn't do much measuring, because I think it's time consuming and annoying. Some architect I would have made! When I had all of the paint chips taped down, I trimmed the excess off the bottom, laid the mat overtop and framed it up.

As you'll notice on the left, my non-chalant attitude towards measuring probably wasn't the best one to take, because the first column is slightly more narrow than the rest. Oh, well. It doesn't bother me, and it's hanging in our bedroom, not an art gallery. I also thought about gluing down each paint chip, but I kind of dig the slightly raised/3-D look that it has with them being popped up a little bit. And I also love that the names of the paint colors are still showing. "Darkening Sky", "Plum Pudding", "Sea Glass"... that Martha Stewart comes up with some awesomely accurate names for her paint colors.

Our bedroom is officially on it's way to being (somewhat) decorated. The blandness has been bothering me lately & the baby's room has been consuming most of my interior design budget, so finding a quick & free art project like this is exciting!