A lighter shade of Green

I won't sit here try to convince you that I am green. I'd say I'm more a light shade of yellow, maybe bordering on celery; but I'm by no means GREEN.  I mean, I try. I recycle everything that our municipality will let me, we conserve as much energy in the house as we can. We grow some vegetables in our own garden. And we drive as little as possible. It's only a little bit, but I've always thought that every little bit counts.
Now, as soon as I found out that I was pregnant, my mom immediately asked "are you going to do cloth diapers?" "sure," I said, not knowing what I was getting into and let's face it, I've never changed a diaper in my life, so whats difference would it be to learn cloth as opposed to disposables?

Well..... let me tell you. I haven't even given birth yet but diapering my child is something that is on my mind EVERYDAY.  At first I was all about cloth because of the cost of diapers. It's ridic. I didn't know how many dypes a child would go through in a day. 10! But I guess I go to the bathroom that much too ;)
So, 10 dypes a day, thats 70 a week and 280 a month. More or less I should add.
Suddenly, I was wondering what the heck happens to 280 diapers a month. They go straight into a landfill. Which is, ahem, 3.4 billion tonnes of disposable diapers in landfills when you think about the other families in America using them.
Not to mention, the giant factories using energy and omitting dangerous gases and pollutants into the environment used to produce that many diapers. Just so our babies can pee and poop in them.
I'm not going to say that cloth diapering is 100% better for the environment. Believe me I've looked into all the pros and cons.  The fabrics for cloth diapers had to come from somewhere. But so do our clothes. And we have to have those.  You have to wash cloth diapers every couple days, which adds to the amount of water and energy you use. But if you do it in a more environmentally conscious way, you would be hanging them on the line to dry, washing in cold water, using HE appliances and reusing them for future children.

So, back to the cost.  Once I showed my husband that we could potentially be saving $2000 to $2500 on diapers if we buy cloth, there was no looking back. His dutch side took over and I was off to the market to buy cloth diapers.   The market being mainly eBay or other online stores.

Umm, so which ones do I buy? GOOD QUESTION! There are literally hundreds of stores and shoppes that carry their own brand or make of diaper.  Online there is a site which I probably frequent daily, called hyena cart which was recommended to me by a friend who is equally as obsessed with cloth as I am, okay maybe a little more. But also a deeper shade of green then I am.  
First is first. What kind of diaper will you use. Well, there are; and excuse me if I don't get them all.. Prefolds, AO1, AO2, fitted, pocket, one size and flats. I think that's it, but I'm sure as I'm sitting here typing this they have come up with another type just to mix it up a little. Then you need inserts or doublers. Which go inside the diaper for extra absorbency. You'll also need a wet bag for storing the dypes when they're soiled. Also, laundry detergent that is mild enough so not to destroy the fabric rendering them unabsorbant. Word? I don't know.. Anyway.
Not to forget that you'll be needing a good supply of liners.  Basically a thin sheet of stronger than toilet paper type paper that the "mess" goes on and then is just flushed down the toilet. A must really. It should help with staining issues.
Don't forget pins or snappys for your prefolds.  Can't have a baby running around with a diaper that will be hanging around his ankles.  And you'll probably need waterproof covers for prefolds and night time wear. For obvious reasons.
It's all so overwhelming, but if you have friends, like I do who are into cloth too, they will be a GREAT resource in helping you understand the diaper lingo as well as which works best for them. Just ask around. You'll be surprised how many people use cloth and you wouldn't even know it.  Also, ASK YOUR MOTHER! Chances are, you were in cloth diapers. She did this already, washed poopy diapers in the toilet, hung them out to dry, dealt with stains. And wouldn't ya know, she survived it.  My mom said, "oh heck, when I was in a pinch I'd throw a receiving blanket on you, pin it up and you were fine."

What kind did I end up buying you ask? All of them. I wanted to try every system out to see which will work best for my baby and of course works for those changing them. Which I have been told will only be me as my husband claims he "doesn't do diapers" ya, we'll see how long that lasts for.

But, all that said, I will not lie and say that I won't use a single disposable diaper.  I will. But I won't feel as guilty for doing to because the majority of my stash will be cloth.  There are just going to be times when it's more convenient.  Remember, I'm yellow, not green.  Like, holidays, beach days, long road trip days. Any time I really don't feel like carrying a load of crap in my purse. Literally. Also, my parents, well dad, has already let me know that he will not be washing any diapers when little boy comes to visit. Which is fine. But I did happen to mention to him that there is a biodegradable disposable diaper that they could be using instead.
 
Then of course, my husband had the great idea of making our own. Right, like he was ever going to step foot in-front of a sewing machine to fashion some baby dypes.  So it was up to me. But I was definitely up to the challenge. I'm always up for a challenge.  I have to admit, part of the reason I agreed to do the cloth diapering was because I had people saying I was crazy for even thinking about it. So basically I am doing this to prove them wrong. Gosh, I hope I can do it! ;)

It didn't take me very long to figure out how to make them. I got a simple sewing pattern and all the supplies and was off to the races. I know they aren't going to be as absorbent or water proof like professionally made dypes, but if anything I can use them as covers over my prefolds.

Here are a few of the dypes that I have made for our little man. :)

Some have velcro and the rest I am waiting on a shipment of snaps so I can finish them.  Like I said, they all will need doublers in them, and might only be used as covers, but my goodness, can you just see a little tushie running by with these cute little prints on it?! I can, and I can't wait! 

I have saved quite a bit of cash by making these as opposed to buying all them pre-made.  They can get crazy expensive for one diaper. 

Hope you like! 

Talk soon 

Nursery is ALMOST complete!

I haven't really changed much since in the nursery since finding out we are having a boy. Except the pink cherry blossom crib sheets. hehe, little does baby boy know that he will still be sleeping on them until he's old enough to realize it...
It was pretty much exactly how we wanted it.

I still have a few details to take care of, like the curtains. This has been a bit of a battle in my home. You see, I have fallen in love with curtains I saw on HGTV's Sarah 101 but the thing is, they have pom poms.
Not girly pink or frilly ones; black, sophisticated, chic pom poms.  For some reason, my husband doesn't believe that pom poms can be boyish at all or chic.
So, I'm at a bit of a loss. Do I go ahead and make them with the pom poms, and risk having my husband go at them with a seam ripper when they're already hung? Or do I just suck it up and not add them at all? It's a decision that is weighing quite heavily on me.
I say, I do it anyway because chances are he'll never actually notice that they're there. ;)

I'll let ya know in a couple weeks what the verdict was... but for now, here are a few pics of the nursery as it stands right now. Cutrainless.

Yes, this bear is wearing a cloth diaper... My husband asked me to demonstrate how to put on a cloth diaper, and this unfortunate bear was the closest thing I had to a child. I doubt my lab would have stayed still....

I am just looking for a few finishing touches.  A ladder for my rapidly growing pile of blanket and quilts, some wall art and about a couple dozen wooden blocks to spell out my little one's name and such. 

I have a feeing in the very near future, I will have my ebay and paypal account taken away from me. There seems to be something delivered either to my door or the mail box weekly. Maybe I should have them sent to my girlfriends house.....

Talk soon :) 

We found out......

It's a....

We were so happy to finally find out that I am carrying a wee little man, 

so we could both start getting everything we need for him! 

I imagine my husbands first purchase will be a little tackle box and rod, although I've been telling him he clearly won't need it right away :) 

There was more people who guessed that it was a boy 10:6!

I hope this gender revealing party will catch on more in our area, it was a blast!

French Macaroons with Chocolate Ganache filling, YUM

I decided to make some macaroons for an upcoming party I'm having, oh wait.. not just any party. My baby's GENDER REVEAL PARTY! (more on that tomorrow)

I went with pink because I already made blue rice krispy squares :)

It's my first time ever making them, and I was a little intimidated because every recipe I looked at said things like,
"be very careful not to over beat the eggs" or "fold flour mixture in 57 times". And let's face it, I'm not about to count how many times I fold and I'll set the timer to 8 mins for beating. Too much? Too bad.
Also, there was to be NO PEAKS on the little buggars. Well, I had peaks. But I'm not making them for my college Chef. (who I'm sure would complain a little bit and call me a wah-wah)

so here they are. Turned out pretty good in my books,

Before they were baked, as you can see peaks!

And with the chocolate ganache. sweet, but oh so good! 

The recipe I finally went with was from Martha Stewart. Ya know, cuz it's a good thing ;)

Tonka's, transformers and trains... or tutu's, tiara's and tea sets?

My husband and I decided last summer that we would start trying to have a baby. To our surprise it didn't take us very long. My husband says obviously... he's fairly proud of himself :)
We are so very excited to be starting a family, and since I have been able to be off work for my whole pregnancy, I have been very busy getting everything prepared and spending much attention to detail.
Except for one thing..... I don't know what we are having yet!
I spend quite a bit of my free time searching baby blogs, etsy and google for ideas from nursery decor, what bottles are the best to how to save properly for the baby's future.

We both, well more so my husband, decided that we would find out the sex of the baby as soon as we could. He has called girl from since before we were pregnant. And he's sticking to it.  I say boy, maybe to be difficult or maybe because my family has a ton more boys than girls. Which ever it is though, I'll be incredibly happy.

So I came across an idea for a gender reveal party.  At first I thought, what a silly thing to do.  People will have a party for anything now!! BUT THEN.... I started thinking how much more special it would be to have an event to celebrate this milestone in our baby's life. So, from then on I was hooked. Planning planning planning. Crafting, spending and more crafting.
I have to admit, I am a little embarrassed as to what my family thinks or will think about this whole thing. But my husband is so very supportive he says don't worry and do what makes you happy. Have I mentioned I have THE BEST HUSBAND in the world!!??

So, I sent the invites. Ordered the cake. I started the decor. And now I wait. Until tomorrow. I CAN'T BELIEVE WE FIND OUT TOMORROW!

I am so excited I have already started setting up and taking pictures, pre-nieces and nephews running around tearing the place up.

Here are some of them.....

I cut out these little onsies and used my stash of scrapbooking supplies to add a personal touch

I just went to the local variety store and got pink and blue lolly pops. I gotta admit, there was quite a few more that didn't make it home.... I'd had such a sweet tooth :)

I couldn't resist making these adorable but HUGE tissue paper balls. Literally took minutes and turned out 

fantastic. I found the tutorial here.

As you can see I used a pink and blue theme.... 

I made a board for everyone to put their guesses on and hung it on the fridge. It said..

Will it be tonkas, transformers and trains.... OR

will it be tutu's, tiaras and tea sets???

I just had to add a little touch of spring since last week we were 

teased with beautiful weather, so beautiful, my tulips started to sprout. Then we were hit with 

about 10 cm of snow. That's March for ya...

So I just bought some. 

What do you think? Will it be a BOY......

Or a GIRL???

Tune back in tomorrow to find out what it is when we cut into our cake!! 

I had the baker make it either pink or blue inside so when we cut into it, we get a surprise :)

Thank you for reading and please follow as I have sooo much more to blog, from hand making my little sweet peas dypes to how I have decorated the nursery :) 

Okay... maybe one or two more pics of my creations to keep you interested..

interested yet........ hope to be talking to you again :)