Teeny Tiny Napkins for Teeny Tiny Faces

I picked up a stack of cloth napkins at the thrift store last summer to replace our paper ones, and they're great. The kids love them, they're durable, they wash well...but there's only 8, and always seem to be in the laundry hamper instead of the kitchen! We needed more...and we needed lots.

I picked up a piece of home-decor weight cotton fabric a while back during a fabric sale at Joann's, and stuck it away until a project came along. All the home-dec fabrics have big warnings "DO NOT WASH ME!" Obviously, I felt a twinge of guilt when I got home as I threw my piece of fabric in the washing machine and shut the door. (I'm a rule keeper.)

Yeah, nothing happened except that all the industrial-strength starch washed out, it shrank a little, and...it now seems to be absorbant. None of these are good news for your furniture, but GREAT news for your kitchen!

The edges are just serged with a rolled hem edge, and these tiny wipes are a great size for the kids. As my mom and dad pointed out (while laughing and trying on for size) these are NOT lap-sized napkins. They're not even really adult-sized napkins. But for wiping off crumby faces and fingers, and little drips of milk, these are a great size for the kids to work with. They're about 8 inches square.

All About Cloth Diapers

(Mimi sporting Bum Genius at our last family reunion)

There have been some really great cloth diapering write-ups in the blogosphere recently (see some great information here and here), so I thought I'd pitch in my two cents.  (And DO check out those links.  The first is to my good friend Rae and her homemade diapers and general diaper love.  The second is Tsh over at Simple Mom- she had a whole "diapering 101" week that was fantastic!!)

We started cloth diapering Mimi in June, and I LOVE it. Here's why:

1) We save money. We were spending $40 a month on disposable diapers, plus wipes! We also save money on our garbage- now we only half fill a "mini" can every week, and got a reduced rate accordingly.

2) My garbage can is no long a toxic waste site. Come on- anywhere you store disposable diapers for a week, they will STINK.
3)  Happy heinie- no more chemicals on baby's bum!

4) Happy planet. No more thinking about where my diapers will be sitting in 500 years.

5) CUTE. There's just something about seeing a baby in cloth diapers...much cuter than disposables. (How's that for trite-but-true?)
6) We try and have a years' supply of food, toiletries, etc. on hand.  The thought of keeping a years' supply of disposable diapers on hand...is truly daunting.
7)  Clean clothes.  We have not had a SINGLE leak since we switched to cloth diapers.  There have been a few times her clothes were damp, from a cloth corner poking out of the cover, but never a leak.  I can wash her diapers on super-hot water, and leave them in the sun to bleach until they shine.  Soiled clothes...are just stained.

We thought about switching for a long time. (OK, I thought about switching. Because really, how often does Wonder Daddy have the chance to change a diaper? Not often!)  I was nervous about trying something new, especially something that would cost so much to start with.

Here's what we ended up using- these are cotton "fitteds" I purchased on Craigslist.  I change her diaper every 2-3 hours.




We cover them with these water-proof covers. I change the cover once or twice a day, or when it gets dirty or smelly.





This is the second kind of diaper I purchased- a Bum Genius pocket diaper (you can see the inserts poking out.) This is not as absorbant as the fitteds, because it's just those little inserts soaking up, rather than an entire diaper. But, I love that they are micro-fleece on the inside. Keeps her nice and dry.




These are our wipes- the blue is a piece of flannel I cut and serged, and the pink is just a rectangle of fleece I had in my stash. I've also use large white "shop towels" from Costco- they're like washcloths, I love them for burp cloths, cleaning, etc. Right now, the fleece is my favorite wipe. It's a nice size and thickness, and is still soft when I line dry it. I also use these pieces of fleece as diaper liners when I need to use diaper cream- you can't put diaper cream on the diaper, or it will coat and stick to the diaper and inhibit the absorptive properties. (More about diaper rash later.)  I keep a bottle of water (with a 1/2 tsp of baby soap, but that's entirely optional) nearby to spray with.





Here you can see my entire changing station- I change Mimi on the bathmat in front of my bathroom sink, and these baskets are next to us under the counter.





Clean up is a major reason many people don't want to use cloth diapers. (For me, I'd rather hose something off and flush it away than store it in a trash can for a week!) I have two buckets in my bathroom- since I wash every other day, they hold the two days' worth of diapers. For soiled diapers, I use our detachable shower head set to a strong spray (with cold water) to rinse off anything solid.  (A note on the pocket diapers- shake the inserts into the bin before throwing the cover in!  Trust me, you don't want to do it when you're putting them in the washing machine :)  There are flushable liners you can use to help with clean up too- rice paper sheets that can be peeled off and flushed away when they're dirty, or thrown in the washing machine a time or two when they're just wet.  (Imse Vimse is one brand I've heard good things about.)





This cabinet is above my toilet- I keep a basket of cleaning cloths (the shop towels I mentioned earlier) and a bottle of disinfectant (hydrogen peroxide with 12 or 15 drops of tea tree oil). I wipe down the toilet after every spray-fest. This is, hands down, the CLEANEST toilet in my entire house!





Every other day, as I mentioned, I wash the diapers- since they're all rinsed and ready to go, I dump the buckets into the washing machine and wash the load on "sanitary" (the hottest setting on my front-loader: hot wash, cold rinse) with 1/2 Tablespoon of my laundry soap, 1 Tablespoon of Oxy-Clean, and about a 1/4 cup of white vinegar.  If it's not raining, I carry the clean diapers out to the drying rack to dry outside.  The sun will bleach out any stains, and sanitize the diapers.  I can definitely tell when it's been too rainy to line-dry my diapers- they smell musty.  The water proof covers should always be line-dryed, inside or outside, to make them last longer.  This is my original drying rack- I use wooden clothes pins to hang the diapers up by a corner.





I quickly noticed I often ran out of room on that little rack, and recently purchased this larger one from Ikea. I love it- it takes up very little space when not in use, but holds loads more than the wooden one.

All that said, there are a few things that have been tricky with cloth diapers.

1)  I mentioned the great "no leaks" part, but that fabulous seal also seals off smells- there have been many, many times that Mimi has a dirty diaper, and I don't know about it until I change her diaper.  This can cause some nasty diaper rash, and I always feel horrible.  It's been a learning curve, to be sure.  I try and ALWAYS change her diaper every few hours now, and it's helped tremendously.  Plus, I may just be getting a better "sniffer." :)

2) Traveling out of the house for more than an hour or two is tricky- I haven't found a good way to tote around dirty diapers, and carrying spare cloth diapers is a big space commitment in my purse!  Most of the time I carry a plastic sack for the dirty diaper, and keep disposable diapers in the car for emergencies.

3)  I have not found a diaper absorbent enough for night time.  I know there are lots of different diapers out there that would work, but the cotton diapers leave too much moisture on her skin and the pocket diapers just seem too thick by the time I put 2 or 3 inserts in there, and have leaked the time or two I tried.  We just use disposables at night, at least until I find a great night-time solution.  (I've heard hemp inserts are insanely absorbent- that's next on my list of things to try, because I've got about 20 disposable diapers left and I don't want to purchase any more!)

4)  Washing diapers DOES take up water- I have a front loader, and it's not really an issue where we are.  But perhaps it might be for you?  The clothes dryer is the real energy hog in this whole caboodle, so do line dry if you can.  Even if it's on a drying rack set over the heat register.

5)  Ummm...a cloth-covered bum is a somewhat bulbous bum.  It can be difficult finding pants for her :)

The Cloth Revolution

OK, so it's not a revolution (because...there was no fighting) but it's a change for us.  I'd been thinking about cloth diapers for a while, and had some money in my PayPal account from an Etsy sale- seemed like a perfect time to order some diapers and see what it's all about!

I ended up ordering five "all-in-ones" from CrazyCloth.  She has a GREAT price for "AIO" diapers.  These are, as far as I can tell, the most "friendly" diaper- great for dads, grandparents, babysitters, etc.  They're just like disposable diapers, but you throw them in the wash bucket rather than the trash.  I'm still getting used to how often I need to change these-- every 2 or 3 hours, rather than 2 or 3 times a day-- but so far I really like them.

Funny thing, Tsh of Simple Mom, has having a diaper BONAZA this week!  Seriously, so much information- it's been great.   One thing I came away with was that prefold diapers (the ones we use as burp cloths) are a GREAT diaper option.  They're absorbant, cheap, and easy to clean.  I also realized I have a dozen of these on hand!  So, I'll be ordering some snappis and finding diaper covers and we'll be in business.  

Oh, and I'll be ordering some flushable liners from Imse Vimse- little strips of rice paper you stick in the diaper.  If it's wet, throw it in the wash (can go through a few washes).  If it's dirty...throw it in the toilet!  Catches a good portion of the yuck, and biodegradable, so definitely a good idea!

Being as this is Friday, she has a giveaway lined up- it's HUGE, lots of diaper-goodness up for grabs.  

So go over, check out the information!

Market Day!

We're 2 for 2 in my goal of getting to the Farmer's Market every Saturday this season. We had been thinking about signing up for a CSA box-- around here, it's about $30 a week for a big box of whatever the farmer harvested that week-- but I had much rather give myself a budget and go to the farmer's market every Saturday.


Last week, I found leeks, spinach, baby carrots, and jerusulem artichokes-- and if anyone knows a good alternative to simply eating them out of hand, I'm all ears!

This week, it's:

• Leeks, because they are amazing. I'd never had them before.
• Bok choy. Reminds me of my sister, and her mother-in-law.
• small Fuji apples. My daughter LOVES apples. So far today, she's snitched three. Yippee!
• Green onions- these are the monstrous things bundled in blue above. They are gorgeous, but what do I DO with them?
• Swiss chard. These have a red center, and I felt like I had altogether too much green in my basket. We love chard, and ours isn't growing yet because I was a pansy and didn't plant any winter crops.

Pickings are still a little slim at our market, but I love having fresh produce in the refrigerator and handing cash to the family. Most of our stalls seem to be run by Hmong families, with Grandma cutting and arranging in the background and her english-speaking grandson handling the cash box. There is one exception, an "organic" farm complete with printed twist-ties on the produce "Don't Panic! It's organic!" and run by a round, jovial man with a pony tie in his short little beard. He looks like he'd be more at home on my dad's motorcycle, but he's there every week weighing out the escarole and misting down the produce.

Oh, and here's today's lovely photographer. I phoned at 8:20 and woke her up, and she still agreed to come with us to the market today. What a gal!

The Green Machine

A few people have asked about various "recipes" we use around the house for cleaning and such, I thought it might be a good idea to put them all in one spot! If you have any tips to add, go ahead and leave a comment for the benefit of all :) I'll come back and add your tips to the end of the post, so it's easy to see.

I've only included recipes that I actually use on a daily/weekly basis- what do YOU use?

Laundry Detergent (low-sudsing, great for HE machines)

1 bar Fels-Naptha soap, grated fine
1 cup washing soda
1 cup borax

I use 1/2 Tbsp in my front loader, plus a Tbsp of Oxy-Clean. I also fill the "fabric softener" cup with white vinegar. Works like a charm, and so inexpensive!

Dishwasher Detergent

1 packet Lemonade Kool-Aid
1/2 cup Borax
1/2 cup baking soda

I use 1 Tbsp per load, plus fill the rinse aid cup with white vinegar. (I've actually stopped using the Kool-Aid part, and I don't even need to rinse my dishes. And no, I don't have a new, fancy dishwasher!)

Aphid Spray
Courtesy of Mama Papaya

1 teaspoon Dr. Bronnor's Peppermint Castile Soap
1 cup water

Put in a spray bottle, and spray if you see aphids. Kills them, and they don't come back! This past summer was the first summer aphids didn't destroy my fuchsias. Thanks, Mama Papaya!


Chrome Cleaner

Make your bathroom faucets shine like the morning- clean them with a spray of white vinegar.

Toilet Bowl Cleaner

Clean and deodorize your toilet bowl- pour in a cup of white vinegar, let sit, and scrub away. You can also throw a cup of vinegar into a toilet you won't use for awhile, and avoid the "ring."

Homemade Dishwashing Powder

Since a few people have asked about it, I thought I'd post the recipe I use for our dishwashing machine powder. Just like making your own laundry powder, the recipe is variable depending on where you live and what your water is like. So even though I don't have the powder exactly the way I want, doesn't mean you can't give it a shot!

First off, I found the base recipe on this blog. Go over and look around- it's a great blog!

Dishwasher Powder

1 cup Borax
1 cup baking soda
1 packet lemon Kool-Aid

Use 1-2 Tablespoons per load.

Now, I just realized that I threw in WASHING soda, not baking soda. Preggo brain strikes again. We'll see how it does. Also, I intend to start filling my "rinse aid" cup with vinegar. My recipe doubles the Kool-Aid called for, and I'm hoping that the double citric acid combined with the vinegar will be enough to stop the film that's formed on my dishes. Also, this doesn't cut grease especially well. But for right now, the lack of harsh detergents and great price is trumping out the work involved in rinsing the peanut butter off my knives.

And finally, a house-keeping note. No, I am not feverishly posting every day. On Friday I wrote up a few posts as I worked on last-minute projects before the baby's imminent arrival. It may be a while before I get back to these household chores and crafting moments!

Thrifting and Crafties

I finally made it out to the thrift store this morning- we only have one very small (but very clean) 2nd hand shop in our new town. I had to travel back to our old neighborhood, land of the discount stores, tiendas, asian groceries, dollar shops, and bars-in-windows nail salons. We had a lot of fun! I found two placemats (the green with stripes) to make into a larger summer purse for me, embroidery floss for a few projects I hope to start soon, a basket for picnics and to hold Ernie's new doll house people and furniture, and two sets of sheets to make into clothes. I'm hoping the green one becomes a new shirt like the one I made (pictures to come) and the other becomes an A-Line skirt. I can't quite work that out in my head- I want it to hit below the knees, and have enough room and length where it won't ride up when I sit. I haven't seen a pattern like that yet, but there are lots of A-Line skirts in the maternity catalogues. Maybe I should just trace one of my pre-preggo skirts, add seam allowances, and replace the top with an over-the-belly panel?

In other crafty news, I finished the dolls in time for Ernie's birthday! As I sat at the computer yesterday during her nap, I noticed the sad little un-stuffed dolls peeking around my sewing machine. Oops- I forgot. She's still working out their names. For now, my parents are Bobby and Mom-Mom. J's parents are (definitely) Nana and....? It was Bobby, but now she's having a problem having TWO Bobbies. And Grandpa used to be Dadda (just like J), and now she understands that's not quite right either. Sorry guys! Oh, and I thought you'd rather see a picture than not...even though no matter what I try, it imports on its side! Aunt LoLo calls these French dolls (we presented a "baby" doll to BBJ on our trip last week.) I never thought that just making heads would be creepy...they're really easy to trace and paint! They're also really easy to hold, too.

I zipped up a little carrying bag this morning, from fabric leftover from a kitchen apron I made at Christmas time as a gift for Uncle K's brand new, adorable (and now pregnant and feeling sick) wife.


Just for reference: My family consists of Bobby, Mom-Mom, A, R and Boy. BBJ is "Baby", and she doesn't call Aunt and Uncle LoLo anything.

J's family is Nana, B, and possibly Boy (Uncle Fireball). We don't have a name for Aunt J, Grandpa J, Uncle K, the other Aunt J.... I'm sorry she can't say more letters and words, guys! (More on that later- her pediatrician told me to take her to a speech and hearing specialist at this morning's 3-year-check up.)

Have We Hit the Frost Free Day Yet?

I've heard that April 22nd is our magic "frost free day." We can plant anything we like after that day. I finally got my "direct to soil" seeds in the ground yesterday, as well as my "start indoors" varieties.

Here's the 2008 list:
Flowers:
Poppies (red, naturalizing)
Nasturtium, Alaska Mix
Wildflower mix (in a pot, to limit spreading, weedy tendencies!)
Sunflower, Mammoth Grey

Direct to Garden Veggies:
Bush Beans, tri-color
Carrots, rainbow variety
Chard, Bright Lights (comes up yellow, red, pink...)

In Pots Outside:
Mint
Cilantro
Radish, Sparkler

Started Indoors:
Climbing Black-Eyed Susan Vine
Basil
Onion, Walla-Walla
Bell Pepper, Northern King?
Tomato, yellow pear
Tomato, heirloom mix


I don't have my beet seeds sown yet (Bull's Blood variety), Ernie and I ran out of steam yesterday and had to make a grocery run before the bread needed to go in the oven.

We also got our Desert King fig tree in the ground, in the front yard and in the garden picture you can see our Triple Crown thornless blackberries in the background. I hope everything comes up this year! The fig tree is just a stick with roots. I KNOW figs are the last to leaf out, but I'm a little nervous about that stick.

I seem to have misplaced my squash seeds, so I'll grab some more at the store and plant 2 or 3 plants on the house side of the shed. Yeah, it's shady. Yeah, it's neglected. But you know what, I think zucchini will do just FINE there! We'll plant our "potato pot" when it warms up outside, maybe the end of May. It occured to me as I said my evening prayers last night that I can now start to understand what was meant in the scriptures "Cry unto the Lord over your fields." I want so much for these little plants to grow and flourish, and to be able in some small measure to make our family more self-sufficient.

A Greener Choice

While browsing through one of my favorite informational websites, www.consumerreports.org, I came across a button for a new website from the CR family, www.greenerchoices.org

It looks like a great website, with reliable information such as how to reduce household exposure to chemicals, reviews on bamboo towels, information on "organic" produce, etc. Go check it out!

Spuds

For those of you who were around in the Spring, we planted potatoes this year in a garbage can-- Dad calls them my garbage potatoes. I drilled drainage holes, put about 8 inches of dirt in the bottom, and planted 5 seed potatoes (a mix of yukon gold and reds.) After the vines grew 12 inches, I covered all but the top inch with hay and kept adding more hay till they grew out the top of the barrel. When they all died back in the fall we dumped it out and harvested our "treasure." (Instructions are from Cisco the Gardener, found in the PI.)

As you can see it was a very scanty treasure, with some potatoes the size of marbles! I had doubts about doing the same thing next year, no matter that the cost was almost nothing since I already have the garbage can and lots of straw. I'd just need more dirt and some seed potatoes. But the TASTE..oh my, folks. These potatoes are incredible- I boiled them Monday evening, and the skins were tissue-paper thin and delicious, and the vegetable itself was buttery smooth and so POTATO tasting. No seasoning needed. I'm definitely doing this again, even if we only get one meal's worth. (Now that I've said this, everyone is going to ask why I didn't invite them over for our Monday meal :o)

Changes for next year, and for anyone else who wants to grow- I'm going to use more dirt. Maybe start with 12 inches to plant in, then cover the next 12-18 inches with dirt as well. I really like doing this in a garbage can because they're so easy to dig out in the fall, and you can dump the whole thing into a tarp, pick out the vegetables, and load the whole thing into the yard waste cart. I don't know how many more potatoes I'd get if I didn't use any straw. I don't think we'd get more than 2 feet of dirt populated with potatoes- they seemed to all be near the surface, anyway.

Folk Magic

I have a new weapon in my arsenal against the common cold: onion syrup. Basically, layer slices of one large onion with one cup sugar in a glass jar, cover, and leave on the counter 1-2 days until all the juice has been pulled out of the onion. Store the syrup in the fridge (recipe from Seattle PI). It's a mucus thinner- I may be just desperate and crazy, but after I give E a half teaspoon of this stuff I can hear her cough change. It has that "mucus is breaking up" kind of sound to it, where it didn't before. And it's just onion juice and sugar...so what could half a teaspoon hurt? She likes the taste, too. Cold medicine has been banned for small children, and I always felt like it didn't help much to begin with (I want the cold OUT of her body, so stopping her runny nose won't help me.)

This can also be done with garlic or ginger. Enjoy!

It's a new day, it's a new life

First day of a new week! We love Mondays- it's cleaning day, after the busy weekends, and it's the first day to try out new ideas. Last week, I tried to counter-balance my toddler- the louder she yelled, the quieter I spoke. Seemed to work pretty well!

This week, we're trying to be "green." I've been buying my produce from fruit stands and farmer's markets, we use canvas bags for shopping, and try to line dry as much as we can. It's not perfect, but it's a start! I am also trying to get chemicals out of our house. Baking soda or vinegar will clean almost anything around the house, and I've found a recipe for washing detergent that is free of chlorine and phosphates (they travel into the waterways and promote algae growth, which chokes out the fish and native plants.)

Mix together 1 cup grated Fels-Naptha bar soap, 1/2 cup washing soda, and 1/2 cup borax. Use 1 Tablespoon per load, and I like to throw some OxyClean into the wash as well, to help with protein stains, and vinegar into the rinse water to cut down on static cling and and residue left behind from the minerals in the water. Works great! The clothes smell so clean- I'm really excited.

My daughter, Ernie, isn't so excited. The laundry hanging over her changing station really irks her- a girl needs her space!