Olive to sew giveaway!

"Olive to Sew" is having a HUGE amazing giveaway for all the photogs out there. Its worth checking out!

http://olivetosew.blogspot.com/2011/04/april-showersmay-flowers-giveaway.html

Cotton babies and MY cotton baby...

My little tiny baby is turning 1 on September 30th. I have never felt like time has flown by so fast in my entire life. This year was a flash before my eyes. When I look back at my daughter growing up (she is now 11), it honestly felt like she was a tiny little baby/toddler for SO LONG. This first year with Emmett has felt like I accidentally blinked and he was suddenly getting ready to turn 1!

This year we have grown in to a socially conscious, green, loving family all because of this one tiny little person.

This one little person inspired me to remove all harmful chemicals from the household and use only natural products. He inspired me to exclusively breastfeed for 6 months and then continue to breastfeed until at least 2 years and after that, let him self wean. He inspired me to face parental fears of sickness and death and do hours upon hours of vaccination research, which ultimately inspired my decision to not vaccinate him ever. He inspired me to baby wear and co-sleep and cloth diaper! From all of that stemmed our now incessant need to be so green it almost hurts (in a good way!). We have our compost out back, we love our clothes line (even more with fluffy clean diapers hanging from it). We love all of our amazing, delicious fresh organic foods! We love feeling healthy and it makes me happy knowing that my children are happy, healthy, and will have a better life because of the decisions Ive made... All because of tiny little Emmett who is an inspiration 100%.

So, for this little inspiration, I plan to make his 1st birthday amazing and something fun to look back on and remember. His birthday party will be all of our close family and friends watching him smash in to his (of course) completely organic amazing cake, opening his presents and watching him play. On his actual birthday we will be going to St. Louis mainly for a day trip to the zoo. This will be fun for the whole family. Emmett just LOVES animals, especially frogs, so we hope to see some frogs there. Since we will be in St. Louis that day and the zoo closes at 5 I plan to make a long awaited stop in to Cotton Babies! I can not WAIT! Here in Bloomington, IL we have just one diaper store showroom at a woman's home who sells cloth. I cant wait to visit this beautiful shop and touch all the diapers in there. One thing I really hate about online shopping, you cant get a real look at the diapers your buying, you cant touch them, play with the snaps and resizing ect... So basically I will be in HEAVEN at Cotton babies!

http://www.cottonbabies.com/index.php?cPath=99

I have a new Etsy shop!

I have been MIA for a while now but I have a great excuse! I have been diligently making fun crafty functional items!

As a single mom working from home, my income is extremely low and limited. I finally decided to take my talents at creating and hopefully turn them in to some sort of profit to help make my families life a little easier. I try not to stress out about bills but its really difficult sometimes when you really are not sure how your going to pay the power bill each month.

So, here it is, my new shop. Please check it out- share it with your friends and family and if you like something purchase it :) Even if you dont see something you like listed, send me a message, I am happy to do custom orders anytime! I can create outfits in any infant and child size, I can search for all sorts of different colors and prints of fabric and the same goes for the binky clips as well!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/MotherHubbards

Testing out some mommy made Cloth diapers!

I have been cloth diapering my son since he was big enough to fit in the tinniest little cloth diapers I could find. There are so many reasons to use cloth, but here are mine:

1. Its very economical. A package of diapers cost roughly $11. This is referring to Seventh Generation brand which I LOVE for its lack of harsh chemicals. My son would go through a package once a week. That is $44 a month I was spending just on diapers! Now that I do cloth I have saved a ton of money, the start up cost can be scary but it evens out in the end.

2. The chemicals. Disposable diapers contain traces of Dioxin, TBT, and sodium polyacrylate. Dioxin is banned in most countries because of its carcinogenic properties. However it is not banned in the USA. All of these chemicals are being absorbed in to your babies skin when they wear a disposable diaper. No judgement here though! I disposable diapered my first! But, that is why research and knowledge are wonderful things :)

3. Its GREEN! Disposable diapers will sit in landfills for hundreds of years. On average each baby will produce a total of 6,000 diapers in the first 2 years of life. These will be sitting in the landfills anywhere from 250 years to 500 years from now.

4. Adorable-ness... Okay, so I made that word up, but its true! Cloth diapers now are easy to use and come in so many different colors, prints and styles its rediculous!

That brings me to the entire point of this blog. I am reviewing two AI2 diapers that were made by a work at home mommy. We have been using them for roughly 2 weeks now and just absolutely love them! They came in a size medium, brown outer PUL and Minky inner, one green, one yellow. Each diaper came with 2 snap in inserts.

First we used these as an AI2 (all in two) meaning you could snap in the insert and when it got wet, just switch out the insert and put in a new clean one. This works really well for wet diapers, but not dirty (which is the case with most covers and inserts anyway). I loved this option because I could leave my house for several hours with just 2 diapers and the inserts which left more room in the diaper bag. Generally I have the bag stuffed with atlest 4 or 5 diapers, the wet bag, toys, extra outfit ect... But this new option was great.

The minky inner is also very soft and im sure that is nice for my son. He hasnt had a single diaper rash while wearing these dipes as the micro terry fleece inner really pulls the moisture away from his skin.

These dipes have held up very well in the wash as well. They have been through 2 dryer cycles but are generally hung to dry on the line. There has been no pilling, no fraying, no ripes ect... And they also stood up really well to my son scooting across the sidewalk the other day when we were out drawing with chalk lol

One of my favorite options on this diaper were the adjustable leg gussets. Inside the diaper there is a strip of elastic on each leg that can be adjusted with snaps for different sizes. This is great for babies in medium diapers that may have thinner or wider thighs and need a different fit but also I feel that my son would be able to stay in these diapers until potty training age. He is currently quite the chunker and they fit him well on the 2nd leg gusset setting. If I put it on the largest setting he could easily wear these longer.

I would absolutely love to see these diapers come in one size, to allow the adjustable leg gussets to change the size of the diaper to fit from newborn until potty training age. It would also be nice if they came in snaps instead of velcrow. So far the velcrow holds up very well but I prefer snaps personally and that also would allow for size adjustment. Otherwise, I really have no complaints for these dipes! I love them, they are adorable, soft, absorbant and the snap in inserts are very convenient for use as an AI2. I was also able to stuff the back pocket of the dipe with a different insert as the inserts that came with the dipe were too long for stuffing. However, I could stuff the pocket and use the snap in insert for extra absorbancy at night which is nice for heavy wetters!

All around I would deffinately recommend these diapers to other mommas out there cloth diapering their babes. Her diapers will be available on her website after their testing is over, but also be sure to check out her other adorable items like apliqued onesies and cute printed burp cloths: http://www.jillybeanshop.com/

RainReserve Rain Barrel Diverter Kit/Rain Diverter Kit

This is a neat way to utilize all that rain water coming through your drainage pipes (and for me, inevitably collecting in your basement). Give the dog water, water your plants, fill the kiddie pool, wash the car! Without ever turning on a hose! What could be more green?

RainReserve Rain Barrel Diverter Kit/Rain Diverter Kit