The Cloth Diaper Bug

Aside

I wanted to cloth diaper my first.  I really did.  I thought about it for awhile, never did any research, and then she got here, and I was all mind blown with new motherhood- and incorporating one more lifestyle change MIGHT have sent me into an anxiety filled loony breakdown.  I didn’t do the new mommy thing very well.  LOL. 

BUT I’m having a second kiddo and I SWEAR I have this parent thing DOWN.  I mean- I mess up all the time, but I’ve managed to raise a very smart four year old opinionated little princess punk so I’m betting  hoping that I am able to bypass that dive into a slightly comatose bewilderment with this new baby like I did the first time around.. and plus- HOW freaking cute are these diapers??

BumGenius Albert design. Want.

I just ordered these from Zulily.com! LotusBumz pocket diaper

I interact with a lot of mommies.  There is a very large spectrum of types that I’ve encountered throughout my years of meeting new people and gossiping on mommy support forums.  Some of my dearest friends I actually met online first!  I’ve come to learn that most of the people I get along with are mix of everything: single moms, working moms, hippy moms, mainstream moms, formula feeders, breast is best feeders, organic food vs processed food moms, disposable diaper moms, cloth diaper moms…  we come in all shapes in sizes.  :)

I fall into the middle of all of that somewhere.  There is a part of me that fantasizes about being a total granola hippy.  I’ll admit it.  I’d love to live a totally organic, non processed lifestyle while wearing my babies, breastfeeding,  cloth diapering, and picking wonderful organic foods out of my compost fertilized garden.  In this fantasy I  drive an electric car and wear hemp clothing with flowers in my hair and no shoes.  OK ok I’m kidding.  A little.

I really DO want to strive to live a healthier, cleaner, greener lifestyle- but here’s the truth:

I work, I take classes, I have a kid, I have a husband, I have hobbies- I’m a busy girl- So my reality is that I drive an SUV, I eat processed crap food on occasion, I recycle whenever possible, I always forget the freaking cloth shopping bags at HOME when I’m at the store (grr.), and I wasn’t able to breastfeed so my kid was raised on formula and now processed crap food.  yeah. I am kinda a failure at being my fantasy hippy.

BUT- baby steps right?!

So back to cloth diapering.  I have some friends who do this and were a fantastic resource.  My good friend, Jill, over at Baby Rabies has quite a few posts on the subject.  Here’s a breakdown of the best cloth diapering posts here.  This site was a huge resource for me and it helps that I can ask questions any time and Jill is awesome at responding quickly.  And PLUS she’s hosting a twitter party with Thanks Mama on the subject on May 8th!

I also have another sweet friend who blogs at the Froggy and The Mouse (omg her boys are adorable) who is also a newbie cloth diaper mom so she has been answering a bunch of my questions as well.  Thanks Steph!

Other resources I’m using?

The Diaper Jungle

Kelly’s Closet

All About Cloth Diapers

The Nappy Shoppe

You Tube

As well as others.  I’ve been stalking cloth diaper sites for awhile now…and I feel I still know nothing.  LOL.  But I’ve ordered six pocket diapers that are currently en route to my house at this moment!!  I’m very excited!  And can you believe that you can actually order cloth diapers from Target??

The totally cute diapers I ordered from Target! BumGenius 4.0 Pocket Diaper

Super score for me since I have a Target addiction and a couple of gift cards!

So this is going to be fun!  And interesting!  And I’m sure my family is super stoked about learning how to change a cloth diaper!!

AND if I can find a decent pattern- perhaps I can even learn how to sew my own.  Maybe. We shall see.  That’s a pretty lofty goal.

In the meantime, though, I’m going to work on building my cloth diaper stash and practice on my kiddo’s baby dolls.

 

 

Tip Me Tuesday Submission!

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One of my favorite sites, Tip Junkie, is hosting Tip Me Tuesday.  This site is awesome for tips, tutorials, and ideas.  Today is the weekly link party where you can find all sorts of projects and ideas from all over Bloggyland.  I’ve decided to add my DIY Boys Room Fabric Artwork Tutorial!

Click the link below to check it out!

DIY Boys Room Fabric Artwork Tutorial

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I finally finished the piece of artwork I’ve been thinking about for months.  Whew.  Check that off my project list.

So back in my nursery dreaming days of the second trimester this photo popped in my Pinterest feed:

I immediately decided I wanted to incorporate it somehow- and it’s kind of been a part of the underlying “theme” to little man’s nursery.  I had no idea how to recreate it- but knew I wanted to use some fabric I had and create some sort of artwork.  So here’s the finished product!

Supplies:

  • plain white canvas (Hobby Lobby $5.99 for two)
  • tape
  • Microsoft Word or any program that allows you to create and print text
  • Sharpies
  • Fabric markers
  • Fabric- *Cut fabric with enough left over so that it wraps around the canvas edges
  • Staple gun-  (or you can use furniture or tacks if you don’t have a gun)
Here are my supplies!

 

 

 

 

 

And the fabric markers can be found at Hobby Lobby or any craft store.

 

 

 

 

 

Instructions:

Type your saying into your computer program and choose the font.  I used Microsoft Word and the font was 375pt Brady Bunch Remastered font.  I downloaded the font free off the internets!

After you print out your saying, you will need to piece it together on top of the canvas in order to get an idea of how you want your letter placement.

Use the tape to piece all of the letters together.

 

 

Next tape the entire piece to a window with a lot of light.

I measured my fabric out by placing the canvas on top of the fabric and cutting around the edges- making sure that there was enough fabric to wrap around the canvas.

Place your fabric right side up over the letters and tape the fabric tightly to the window.

Now you can trace the letters with your sharpie.  I like using the sharpie for tracing rather than the fabric markers because the sharpie created a cleaner and sharper outline.

Next I wrapped the fabric around the canvas and stapled it tightly into place.  If you don’t have a nifty neighbor with a staple gun like I do- then you can probably use tacks and a hammer to get the job done.

After my fabric was secure- I then used the fabric markers to fill in the letters.  You can use the sharpie to fill in the letters- which I initially did- but I discovered that the sharpie doesn’t color as evenly as the fabric markers and I liked the darker letter better.

Finished project!!  Yay!!

The nursery is almost entirely complete!  I hope to post full nursery photos soon.

Happy decorating!

Elizabeth

It’s a Boy Thing- Baby Shower!

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I have such a wonderful family!  My sister, Jessica, and very good friend, Amanda, threw me a spectacular shower over Easter Weekend.  They did such a wonderful job incorporating my ideas from the nursery- I thought I’d show off their skills on my blog!

My nursery theme is a complete hodgepodge of ideas.  I’ve named it “It’s a Boy Thing” based off of some cardstock I purchased for the hanging wall letters.  The design is… pretty much anything having to do with being a boy and colorful will go in this room- This allows me to really add ANYTHING without fear of clashing.  So with that idea in mind, my sister and good friend decided to throw a family shower based on this “theme”.

Take a look!

And for the yummies…

I absolutely DIED when I saw this cake.  Dead.  Look how cute and creative this cake is!!  And I used to wear converse in high school so this meant even more to me!  Thanks to my great friend, Amanda, and her cake baking talents!

She even made coordinating Gluten free cupcakes for my family members that can’t have cake!

The food was an explosion of Pinterest boards and ideas.  All of it was very very good.

Pretzel buttons

The recipe for the candy above can be found here.  I warn you though- it’s addicting!

Cucumber Feta bites

Recipe for the cucumber feta bites is found here.

Bite Size Greek Salad

The recipe for the Greek salad bites can be found here.

The party was excellent- Baby Z came home with adorable outfits, pacifiers, blankies, and bibs.  He’s going to be one well dressed little man!

I was so amazed with how cute and colorful everything turned out!  They really did an amazing job with decor and design- and the best part was- almost all of the design elements were colorful toys, puzzles, and onesies that we were able to bring home and put in his nursery!  How clever!

Thanks for reading!

~Elizabeth

 

DIY Hanging Letter Tutorial

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Look at me!  Look at me!  Two posts in one week!  It must be some kind of record.  :D

I just wanted to post a quick tutorial on how I did our little boy’s nursery letters.  After browsing Pinterest for ideas, I decided to DIY hanging letters from a curtain rod.  It was super easy and quick- which I like- because I’m totally running out of time.

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Materials Needed:

  • scrapbook paper- I purchased a book of scrapbook paper named “It’s a boy thing” from Walmart for about $5.00
  • cardboard letters – Hobby Lobby on sale for $1 a piece
  • exacto knife or other equivalent of a very sharp crafting knife
  • Ribbon
  • Glue
  • Thumbtacks
  • cheap curtain rod

First I laid out my letters onto the paper and cut around the edge to create an exact paper replica.

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Then I glued the paper onto the letter and let that dry.

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Next I attached the coordinating ribbon ( I cut each ribbon at about 18 inches I believe).  I attached the ribbon using a nifty little thumbtack to the back.

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Then I screwed my curtain rod into the wall and slid my letters into place!  Done!!!!

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I told you it was easy and fast!!

Thanks for reading!

~Elizabeth

Colorful Toddler Girl Room redo

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Well this pregnancy is flying by.  One of the things on my to do list before I get too bloated and ginormous  pregnant was to redo my little girl’s room with the hope that she’d actually SLEEP in there.  So we painted the walls, repainted a nice twin bed/trundle we bought on Craigs’ list, and worked to organize her gazillion toys, books, and princess dress collection.  She is a connoisseur of sorts when it comes to Disney princess fashion…she knows her stuff.

So this is what we came up with!

The walls were painted Pebble Grey using Glidden semi gloss.  The bedding is from Bed, Bath, & Beyond- I had a hard time finding bedding that incorporated all of the bright colors I wanted to use.  All other decor is either Ikea or crafts that we’ve put together…or the old faithful Walmart Design Studio.

I am not a design person, by any means, I struggle with how to put things together- but I like how colorful the room turned out.  I knew I didn’t want to follow a theme, so it kinda resembles an explosion of toys, dolls, and bright colors- but she loves it!

She  had a blast helping me put stickers on the walls and helping decide where to put her toys and dolls.  Everything has a home.  :)

I think what I like most about it is that the walls are gray- so we can change decor without changing the walls.  I think this is a good room to grow up in.  She’s pretty stoked about having her own space….now if I could JUST convince her to STAY in her bed instead of sneaking into ours…

I’ll have to figure that one out later.

Thanks for reading!

~Elizabeth

No Bake Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake

Aside

Happy day after Valentine’s Day!!!   I don’t really get into V-Day too much, but every year I cook a nice dinner and dessert for the husband.  Last night – because I’m constantly running out of time- I chose to make Lasagna (easy) and THIS  amazing dessert.  

 I will let you just savor that picture for a minute.  I didn’t take it- this is from my Pinterest feed that popped up a couple of weeks ago from the website Mangio da Sola.   It’s a recipe for a homemade from scratch chocolate mousse cheesecake with chocolate ganache glaze.  Oh. My. Gosh.  Here’s another pic: 

Are you salivating yet?  Because I sure was and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this dessert for weeks.  

But like I said before-  I work.  I go to school.  I’m pregnant.  I don’t have 4 hours of free time (HAhahaha!!  Free time.  I can’t even type the word without snickering) to spend in the kitchen trying to recreate this brilliant decadent creation.  As much as I’d LOVE to have FREE TIME just to bake…it ain’t happening in this house.

 I take shortcuts.  I cheat.  It works for me.

 So I’m presenting to you the Busy mom’s Cheaters Guide to Decadent No Bake Desserts!   Yay!

  This bad boy recreation took me about 20 minutes to prepare.  SAWEEEEEET!!! 

 Sure it’s prepackaged and a bit processed but what the hey.  I happen to LOVE no bake cheesecake in all its processed glory.    

 So here’s what you need:

  •  1 box of Oreo ready made cookie crust
  • 1 box of Jell-O no bake cheesecake
  • 1 box of Jell-O chocolate mousse
  • 1 bottle of Duncan Hines Amazing Glazes in chocolate
  • 20 minutes of sweet time
  • little helper is optional

 First prepare your cheesecake mix as directed on the box.  It’s so easy a 4 year old can do it.  

 Now spoon the filling into the Oreo crust  I put this in the refrigerator while I prepared the chocolate mousse from the instructions.  So hard.  I’m sweating with exertion and concentration at this point. 

 Then I spooned the mousse onto the cheesecake:  

 Next I had to prepare the glaze.  Whew.  That’s another minute of my time.  Unscrew the cap on the bottle, stick it in the microwave, and nuke it for 35 seconds and then shake and pour.   And then you are DONE.  Put the whole thing in the refrigerator for at least an hour to set.

 Did I mention how freaking fast this was??  And well let me just say that it hit the spot.  The husband LOVED it.  It is very rich, delightfully cheesecakey, and wonderfully infused with bursts of chocolate awesome sauce.  I can guarantee you that it’s probably not as good as the homemade version from scratch….  but this is a time saver people!!  I made this in 20 minutes!!  And my husband thought I bought it from a bakery!! 

 Lesson learned today:  Cutting corners is OKAY sometimes. 

 OH and cheesecake for breakfast is also perfectly acceptable.  

 Happy “baking”!

~Elizabeth