Holy Moly It's Happened Again!

I'm in ANOTHER incredible treasury !!!! This time created by rockthepolkadot - a Home Birth theme:

"in honor of midwifery and babies lucky enough to be born at home." she says.

Awesome.

Brings tears to my eyes. I'm feeling the etsy love.

My homebirth tshirt is getting a lot of love. It's a topic close to my heart obviously, so I'm thinking the message is that my shirts should reflect things I am passionate about...excellent food for thought.

I'm definitely passionate about quails, folks....

Im In a Treasury!!

I'm in a real live, and beautiful, treasury! The mama from mylittlegirlscloset  featured me in her treasury that is themed "Who am I" - I think I love who she is - the kitties, the geek necklace, love it all! I'm so honored to be a part of it!

OK that's it, I'm buckling down this weekend and setting a goal: at the very least I will be listing my quail shirt by, lets say Tuesday. Onward and upward, people!

Tasty, Quick, and Gooey

You in?

OK, here's what you need:

graham crackers - at least one

marshmallows - at least one big or 4 little

chocolate chips - at least 4

peanut butter - at least a knife full

Put your (one large or four small) marshmallow/s on a 1/2 of a graham cracker, stick it in the microwave til it starts to poof (10 secs in our relatively wimpy oven). 

Pull it out and press your chocolate chips into the marshmallow.

Spread some peanut butter on your other other half of the graham cracker and put it on top of the marshmallow/chocolate to form a sandwich.

Consume the ooey/gooey goodness (as fast as you can while hiding from your children in the kitchen is optional - careful it's messy and you may be wearing evidence when you finish.)

Some Time Summertime

This evening. These clouds. This freshly cut grass. These boys.

This Man.

Sewing Success!

OK, these are not perfect (yeah that one in the middle - waistband is attached inside out, oops). But they are so completely functional and fit so wonderfully:

...and were made by me! And how freakin cute is that kid, huh?

To a non-cloth diaper devotee they probably look a little funny, but they are fleece soakers. Here's how it works. Fitted diapers are diapers that do not have a waterproof layer, so they need a cover over them. You can buy waterproof layers, and there are some great ones out there, but they don't breathe so great. So an alternative is using fleece or wool. You lanolize the wool which repels the moisture but still wicks the moisture out and then it evaporates. Fleece does the same thing, but doesn't require the special care that wool does. Its sounds unlikely but it is really like magic - you can have a soaked diaper under these things, but to the touch the fleece is completely dry. And now I can make them, thanks to this free pattern and a wonderful tutorial by Liberty's Belle If you aren't interested in sewing your own, but want some fleece soakers, check out her etsy store, she's taken them to a whole new level of cute:

LibertysBelle

OK, now I'm really gonna knock your socks off. Thanks to a fabulous tutorial over at diapperswappers, I overcame my fear of elastic this weekend and.....MADE A FREAKIN' DIAPER!

I can hardly stand myself at this point. I used an old tshirt, a microfiber towel for the absorbant layer, and some microfleece for the inner. But  there's more! I've been talking about those pillow covers I've been working on, made of canvas dropcloth I then appliqued and embroidered...well, this weekend I used this amazing and magical tutorial and installed a zipper that looks like this:

I mean, SHUT UP, right? It is the coolest thing - you follow these crazy and bizarre step by step instructions then you cut open a seam and voila there is this beautifully and professionally installed zipper. I was on cloud nine. Nobody in my house was impressed, so I hope you are! It's the little things, you know? Here's the finished product from the point of view most non-sewing folks would think is most important:

It may not all be much in an accomplished sewer's opinion, but as far as I'm concerned I'm ready for project runway. I'd like to thank the academy, and the laundry list of great tutorials I listed above, katrina who was generous enough to share for free her soaker pattern, my husband who let me spend a huge chunk of the weekend hunched over my sewing machine with only a small amount of griping and guilt tripping, and most of all my boys, my inspiration. More on them later!

Huggies Cannot Out-Cute Cloth

I haven't blogged for a few days. I've been spending my online time in cloth diaper bliss over at diaperswappers. My little guy is just getting too long for his medium clothies and I'm in the market for some new cute fluff with a higher rise. Let me tell you buying disposable diapers was NEVER this fun. And super duper bonus, I get to sell all his mediums to raise money for the new dipes! The satisfaction of this win-win situation is just one of the many reasons I am so happy I decided on cloth this time around.

So if you're a mom, you've likely seen that Huggies has come out with a new disposable diaper that is supposed to look like jeans. I know a lot of you are thinking they are adorable and can't wait to buy them. Those of us that cloth diaper are looking around in amazement, 'cause, hello? The Huggies don't even begin to compare with even the made at home with old tshirts diapers that we are seeing for sale in the land of cloth! The stomach churning commercial that has accompanied their launch has been especially off-putting:

Seriously? Way to sexualize a toddler, Huggies. And "I poo in blue"? Did they actually hire toddlers to write the commercial?

So if you mamas out there are thinking of buying you some faux denim huggies in order to harness their debatable at best cute factor, I beg you, please take a quick look at what cloth has to offer?

And I'm just sticking with the cuteness argument, I won't even go all eco friendly on you. Here is just a very small and biased towards my taste sampling - I didn't even get into some of the "heart melting, pink fluffy cupcakes and ruffles, make you wanna breed just to try for a girl and buy more diapers" diapers that are out there...

softbums (one of our favorite!)

goodmama one size organic bamboo velour

kiwi pie fitted

They're soft and squishy, they're wholesome with elephant and giraffe prints - they're sweet babies in summertime running around in the grass....

But, you know, if you're down with the whole gel in the hair, paparazzi posing, sex object image....or just REALLY like jeans on babies, then Huggies has got your back:

This blogger shudders and exits stage left...

Weekend in Pictures

Because honestly to tell it all would take a year. It was a very busy weekend.

Trip to Goodwill:

Knitted another tank top, and embroidered a little heart on the front of one of them:

Line dried a sheet then played in it like I was 3:

My new "thing" whipped cream on all my coffee. It has eliminated my Starbucks requirement:

Helped Willie paint a dropcloth rug. I just need to seal it with some polyurethane and then it will be sent to grandma and grandpa. It's a picture of the ocean (it's hanging upside down - that's a "W" at the bottom):

Sat with the little guy and watched the big guys plant some tomato plants we started inside:

I did some other stuff too, I started those pillow covers on dropcloth...I've got the appliques on and am now embellishing (or desecrating, depending on how you look at it considering my embroidery skills) the Amy Butler fabrics I used to make a duck, an airplane, a kite, and a hot air balloon. The theme was "things that fly" and Willie and Rowdy got to pick the things. I also made Boone a pair of fleece diaper cover longies that ended up looking like harem pants, as well as a fleece soaker that he might fit when he turns 12 - I'm assuming he'll be out of diapers by then so I guess that was kind of a bust. Anyway, it was a nice weekend, but I'm beat!