Diapers

I broke down and bought a package of paper diapers today.

What I should have done instead of lugging 3 reluctant big kids, one eager not-big-but-not-really-little-anymore kid, a very reluctant preschooler, an indifferent and heavy toddler and the baby-who-at-any-moment-would-like-to-nurse-whether-or-not-it's-convenient to the grocery market is dug around in the boxes that have yet to be unpacked to find the cloth diapers which have plenty of life left in them.

I blogged about my diaper system over here a couple of years ago, but since our move, I don't have a convenient cloth diapering area. Really, I should just get over it and clear out the baby bed that Jude doesn't sleep in and use that as a changing area and set up a little plastic bin for holding dirties until they are ready for the wash.

I'm almost ashamed to post such rambling run-on sentences. But it is late, can that be my excuse? And I am somewhat frazzled from taking the children to the store and answering the same questions yet again. (Yes, they are all mine. No, I don't have a daycare [as if I need to torture other people's children by dragging them out on errands, too!]. Yes, they are very well-mannered - probably because I've bribed them with a lunch out!)

Perhaps instead of finding the other diapers I should sew some new ones. I did find two boxes of lovely flannel and can make up flat diapers in no time at all. I made some really cute newborn sized ones from these instructions, and she has instructions for regular sized flats as well.

The diapers I have packed away from the move are mostly from the Ottobre Designs pattern and from the Chloe Toes pattern. On my last go-round with cloth, I really liked the inners made from flannel and the covers from PUL (polyurethane laminate), separate diapers from flannel and the covers from PUL. For a while I was using pocket diapers, but I got all freaky about wet polyester touching new baby skin, then tried wool covers, but never got that quite right. I think in this hotter climate, though, wool won't be as hard to use (it was that it was colder and I felt like I had to keep baby bundled up, so the compression of the wool with clothes on top caused more leaks than I liked. Here, baby can have air circulating with less clothes, leading to fewer wet outfits.

Well, I think that's enough motivation for me to get up and get busy, no?

Lovebugs!

We made some adorable little Valentine's cards for the children to pass out to their friends on Valentine's Day.

Using the Cricut machine, we cut square cards at 2 1/2 inches from the Platin Schoolbook cartridge from assorted colors of cardstock.

Then we cut ladybug backs from the Paisley Cartridge at 2" on black cardstock using the Button Feature from the "Boots" and the circle with Heart cutout from the Shift-Button Feature on "Boots" on red cardstock.Hmmm, looks like my mats need cleaning!



The children LOVED putting the LOVEbugs together and made ooodles of them for their friends.
They gave quite a few out to grandparents and cousins two days before Valentine's Day, so we had to make some more and have another lovebug session today!

New from You Can Make This.com

Welcome to "The DIY Dish!" (WIN a Sewing or Embroidery Machine!)



It's no secret that I love the YouCanMakeThis.com website! It is full of great patterns and ideas. Now YCMT is starting a new blog/show called the DIY Dish and to celebrate (and spread the word) they are giving away two new sewing machines - and one of them embroiders!!

Head over there and check it out! And be sure to sign up for their newsletters so you always know when they have a new feature!

P.S. - You can also go to their site from the new DIY Dish button on the side of my blog!

Hey Jude

A few new pictures of our latest bundle.

I wish 4 months old would last forever! Such a sweet age!

Cards

I've been distracted with my Cricut. So much so that my sewing machine is getting a little dusty. I feel bad for my sewing machine, but I'm having so much fun with all the cool things the cricut can do. Maybe I should sit them together. Then they could hang out and look all crafty and useful. Or maybe I should just grow fifteen more arms so I could use them at the same time.
Anyway, I've been playing with the Paisley Cartridge a lot. LOVE the mushrooms and owls and cherries, but I really love the Card Feature. I've not made a lot of cards, but now I don't have an excuse since I finally figured out how to use this feature. It's not a traditional side opening card (or top-folding, for that matter) But it's a nifty little back opening kind of card that has a cut out in the front as a window.

This has puzzled me since I first went through the booklet that came with the cartridge. After all it's called a "card" so surely it must be able to be used as a "card", right? I found this link that helped explain a fun way to make this little card really work. And then this one that had something shaky shaky in the cut out section. SO I had to give it a go!

Using some bugle beads for the shaky shaky part and the queen's crown cutout card from Paisley I managed this for a special little birthday girl.

Taking advantage of the way this card closes, I did everything I could to the window part, then used the back as the new "front" and had the message of the card inside it. It took a while for me to figure out how to make sense of getting our message into the card but I think it came out well.

I know she'll love the shaky shaky part, and I'm sure that her mom will put it up before she reverse-engineers it to get the beads out!

Speaking of cards, OH MY GOODNESS, I have to try this now.

I love this so much I can't stand it! That tree is brilliant! I know I've seen a fence on one of my cartridges - maybe it's Paperdoll Dress UP. So all I need is the stamp, some polka dotted paper, a leaf punch, that Martha Stewart Deep punch and some thick thread! Or maybe I'll just win her giveaway!

Gmail/Google Help

So, I've moved, changed my email, and Google won't let me use my new email address (it's a gmail addy) for my blogger account. Anyone have any ideas how to work around that? Right now I've got it going to my yahoo account, but I just have that address for email lists and it rolls over to my gmail so that Outlook can pull it all up.

The idea of all the spam from the yahoo address coming through my Outlook makes me nauseated. I'm interested in hearing from anyone else who has already come up with a solution!

Swagbucks

I just added a swagbucks widget to the side - join me in getting swagbucks when you search, ok?