My Attempt At Cloth Diapering

When I  found out that I was pregnant with my first son I was really excited. I spent most of my time on the computer reading about pregnancy and raising a baby. I found this baby cost calculator online that estimates how much you will pay during the first year of your childs life. When I went through and added everything up my costs came to almost 6000 bucks! Does it REALLY cost that much to take care of a baby for just one year?! I went through the cost calculator and started cutting things out.  I didn't really need a changing table, baby rocker, dresser or diaper bag (all of my purses are big enough to hold my kitchen sink, so they could handle a few diapers and a bottle). Then I realized that it wasn't just these big items that were making the costs go up it was the diapers, baby food, clothes and toys that we would be buying him. According to this calculator disposable diapers were going to cost me $72.00 a month, thats $864.00 a year! I could buy the all of those things that I cut out of the budget with that much money. They have an option for cloth diapers on the cost calculator as well, which was $19.00 per month if you washed them on your own. This price seemed a lot more reasonable to me but did I really want to try cloth?
My first thought was... AHHHH diaper pins! It honestly freaks me out to have anything so sharp next to a baby's skin and trying to put a diaper onto a wiggley baby, one of you is bound to get stabed.
Then I rememberd the pail of stinky diapers out in the garage next to our washer when I was a kid. Could I really wash those poopy diapers? My Mom cloth diapered my 4 siblings and I so it shouldn't really be that hard to do.

The inside of the diaper

I love this fabric

A few months ago I dicided to make a few cloth diapers to see if I would like it. If it didn't work out, then it wasn't a big loss.

Outside of the diaper

The pocket where the insert goes

I found a free pattern online for a pocket diaper and made a few. I used some prefold diapers that I bought on sale a few months back as inserts. Some were made with velcro closures and a few with metal snaps. The diapers looked really cute but they were not very efective. The ones with velcro never stayed on my son very long. There were quite a few times where I found my baby running around the house butt naked. Once I switched a few of the diapers to metal snaps that wasnt much of a problem but some of the metal snaps rusting once they went through the washer a few times.  I also had some leaking problems around the leg area of the diaper so I was changing Charlie's diaper every hour which was a little too much for me. I ended up moving back to disposables.
Since the last design didn't work for Charlie, I spent a few days trying to alter the old pattern to work for him. I took apart one of the old diapers and reused the material so if the new pattern didn't work I wouldn't waist money. I looked at a bunch of different diapering options online and watched a lot of diaper reviews. It was really helpful to get a look at real moms and hear what they liked and didn't like about cloth diapers. It made it a lot easier for me to decide how I was going to try to design my diapers. Thank you to all those moms and dads who took the time to do diaper reveiws and show us your diaper routines.
 Here is what I came up with.

Fold over elastic is awesome by the way.

I used plastic snaps and I love them!

Double gussets around the legs.

so cute!

For my new diaper I got rid of the pocket and added double gussets to help keep it from leaking, plus I used fold over elastic  and I changed the shape a little around the butt area. Once I finished the diaper I put it on Charlie to do the leak test. I finished the diaper later on in the day (around 5:00) and he wore it until his bed time (8:30) with no leaks! I will do another leak later to see how long the diaper can really last.
It still has a few things that I need to fix and alter, but it seems to work pretty well (at least it's better than the first ones I made). For the next diaper I think I am going to try making my own pattern from scratch so that I can get a better fit for Charlie. Lets just hope I can get it to work.


Thanks for reading!

Wreath Tutorial #2

Here is another wreath tutorial. The women at my church made these at an activity last year and I was not able to attend, so I though this would be a good chance to give it a try.
I had to do most of this project while Charlie was asleep because he really wanted the hot glue gun. He has grown tall enough that he can reach things on the table now. He almost pulled the whole container of beans off the table, so I had to put everything away until he took a nap. I was lucky that he took one of his rare 3 1/2 hour naps, I was able to get a lot done.

The materials you will need are...
- 1 foam wreath
- pinto beans (any type of bean will work)
- hot glue gun
- glue sticks
- spray paint
- ribbon
- lots of time and patience

I started by gluing the beans around one row at a time .

I glued ....

and glued.

This is what it looks like close up.

It took me most of the day to finish adding all of
 the beans on the wreath.

Then my wonderful husband spay painted it for me.
I decided it wasn't as good idea for me to do the painting since I'm
pregnant.

Put 2 or 3 layers of paint on it and let it dry over night. Just remember when painting anything make sure that you do it in a well ventilated area. After you are sure that your paint is dry you can attach your ribbon and hang it on the door. 

Crochet a Beanie

Since Christmas is not far away I have been looking for gifts to make for my loved ones and honestly I am freaking out a little. I guess I didn't realize how little time we really have until the holidays are here. So this week I have been doing a lot of crocheting (mostly because I am tired of sitting in front of my sewing machine) and I found this awesome beanie tutorial on YouTube by Crochet Geek. I am not very good at crocheting but I like to pick it up every now and then just to make sure that I still suck. 

This hat took me 2 hours

If you are still learning like me this is a good tutorial for you, so here it is. Crochet Geek also has some great tutorials on the basics of crocheting. 

The only problem I really had with this project was getting enough time to just sit and finish it. It only took me about 2 hours but if I had waited for my son to take a nap it might of moved along faster. I spent a lot of time chasing him around the house as he ran away with my yarn or crochet hook. 

And just for fun here is one of the other projects I'm working on. New pj's for Charlie! They are going to be footy pj's when they are all done. I still have to cut down the legs and the arms because the pattern I used was way too big, then I need to add the feet and the trim. I don't have much left to do and I hope to get it done sometime this week if I can find time. 

Thanks for reading.

Wreath

I am so excited for the holidays, it is my favorite time of year! I love the cold weather, hot cocoa, Christmas lights and the cookies. Since we are so close to Christmas time I thought I would do an easy tutorial on wreath making. 

This is a very simple project and it didn't cost me more than 6 bucks. The materials you will need are

-1 wreath (I bought one from the dollar store)

-Yarn (You wont need more than half a skein of  yarn)

-Hot glue gun

-Decorations of your choice for the wreath.

-Wreath hanger (I also found this at the dollar store)

I bought this wreath at the dollar store but you can find foam wreaths at your local craft store for about 5 bucks and up.

Tie a knot around your wreath to
 keep your yarn secure.

Wrap the yarn around the wreath

Wrap some more...

and more...

When I had about 10 inches left to wrap,
I added in some silver berries. 

I cut the most of the stem off of the berries
 leaving  about 2 or 3 inches,
then  I stuffed the end into the wreath 

This is what it looks like close up.

Next I started wrapping around the berries
until the first cluster looked like this.
Then I pulled the remainder of the stem up
and wrapped the under it the .   

Hot glue the end of the yarn and berries
down to keep it from unraveling.

Add any other decorations you want
then hang it on your door. 

Thanks for reading!

Its been too long

The past few months have just been crazy, we found out a few months ago that we are pregnant with baby number two. I have had almost no energy so I have not done very many projects. During the past week I have started feeling so much better and I'm ready to work on some new stuff.

This Halloween I didn't really do anything fancy I dressed up as a witch, my husband was a wizard and I found a cute little elephant costume for Charlie at goodwill. The only thing I made was our wands (I will post a tutorial for that soon). Since this year was so uneventful I will show you our costumes from last year.

I am a big Star Trek fan! I remember sneaking out of bed every night to watch Next Generations on tv with my older brother and sister at 10:00 at night. Even though I new I would get into big trouble if (when) I got caught out of  bed by my mother, it was worth it.

 My husband and I spent weeks on his costume alone, I think that I burnt my self with the hot glue gun about a thousand times. I only spent a few days on the star fleet costumes, they were really easy compared to my husbands outfit.

This was the first onesie I ever made

My costume didn't turn out quite right

My husband and his brother all dressed up

Thanks for reading!

Handmade Baby Shorts

My ten month old baby boy has been growing like crazy and he is starting to run out of clothes that fit him. So I decided to make him some shorts so he can keep cool during those hot summer days to come. Instead of using a patter I took some of  his shorts and used them as an outline.

I just love the way these turned out and they should last for at least a few weeks before he grows out of them. If anyone wants a full tutorial on how to make these cute shorts, just leave me a comment and I will try and write one up soon.
Thanks for reading!

Baby Food Jar Spice Rack

Here is another post for all you moms out there who have a million baby food jars sitting around your house waiting to be used.
I got the idea to make my spice rack from this site. She put her jars on the refrigerator, but since my refrigerator is not next to the stove, I made a magnetic frame that I could hang anywhere in my kitchen.

Thanks for reading!