Monday, January 30, 2012

Cloth Diapering: First Order

We have made the decision to cloth diaper our little man when he arrives, for many reasons. After many, many, maaany hours of research, we made our first order last week, and it arrived this weekend! I have been a twinge obsessed with cloth diapers lately, you can ask my husband or my mother. Luckily for me, my husband supports this decision wholeheartedly! 
The cloth diapers today are not the way cloth diapers used to be. There are many different options. We have decided to go with the option that is somewhat similar to the cloth diapers of old. We are starting out with the prefolds and covers option. In our first order we purchased 6 OsoCozy "Better Fit" Unbleached Prefolds. This is how they looked when they came to us:
Prefolds have to prepped before use to maximize their absorbency. I boiled mine in a large stock pot for about 45 minutes. You could also send them through the wash about five times. 
This is how they looked afterward:
They will continue to quilt-up more as they are used and washed.
We also purchased three covers. All three are different brands. I want to try out different styles and brands to find out which works best for us and our baby. The covers I chose have rows of snaps that make them adjust to different sizes. Here they are at their smallest size:
And their largest:
Thirsties Duo Wrap- size 1, fits 6-18 lbs.
Flip- one sized, fits 8-35 lbs.
Rumparooz G2- one sized, fits 8-35 lbs.

We also ordered a Snappi. (forgot to get a pic) These awesome things are the modern answer to diaper pins! No more pins, just a simple easy snappi.
Here is a short (aka: 4 seconds) demo of a snappi in use:


I hope to post more about cloth diapers in the future. There is SO much information about them. I am very excited about starting this journey! Saving money and saving the earth!

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Project Nursery: Before

Things are finally falling in place for the nursery. Even though the room hasn't changed yet. The biggest decision to make was the crib bedding. Once that decision was made it was easier to start making more decisions about how we wanted to decorate, etc. 
Up until now this room has been used as a guest room and storage for too much junk!
We will be using the dresser in the nursery, but we are painting it more of a baby fun color. The mirror in the corner goes on top of the dresser. It will also be painted and attached to the dresser. 
This beautiful four poster head and footboard needs to be repaired. Once we make those small repairs they will be moved to our bedroom and put to use. 
All of my sewing and craft items are stored in this room. I plan on making room for them in our closet, and hopefully getting rid of some of it. 
There are also several boxes of who-knows-what in this room and closet. My mantra and goal for the next few weeks is "Get rid of! Get rid of! Get rid of!"

Sunday, January 15, 2012

A Wee Bit of Whimsy

Tonight I decided our bedroom was lacking. (In many ways, really. As in, NO decorations at all!)
So I came up with a way to spruce it up a little using what I had on hand.
 A while back I was thrifting sheets like crazy from the Beehive in Arkadelphia.
I happened to have two of the same flat sheet. Put together they make a wonderful canopy.
Now we have pretty daisies over the bed to make the room a happier place.