Mar. 27, 2006 - Cloth Diapering on the Cheap

Now that my washer is fixed, I am using cloth diapers again.  I only have like 10 of my favorite fitted diapers and my flats I sacrificed to cleaning while the washer was down so I needed a few more dipes.

 

These are the ones I wanted, motherease os.  But a quick peek into the checking account revealed that it wasn't an option.  So I had to get creative.  This is what I did.  I have four diaper covers that fit.  I bought a package of 48 shop towels and some diaper pins and I am in business for under $15.  If I had to buy the diaper covers it would have been about $40.

 

Here is a picture of how I am laying them out for my 2 year old daughter:

(I am using two towels, one fold in quarters layed down the center of one layed out flat).

 

 

Here is how I fold them next (with my cutie pie):

(Please excuse the yucky wall, a paint job is on my do list and we can acutally afford it this year, yay!)

 

 

Then I just lay baby in it and pin on each side. 

It's working great and I'm glad I did it.  No leaks at all at night time.  But if I had loads of money, I think I would buy the other ones, lol!  Because snaps are so much easier.  See what a lazy woman I can be.

 

So if money is tight, give this a try.  It works really well and you will save a bundle.

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Mar. 24, 2006 - I am doing the happy dance!

My washer is fixed!  After 4 long months of going to the laundromat, my washer is fixed.  And it works better, the clothes are practically dry now from the spin, and they weren't before because of a fill problem.  So now this is me .  I even have that happy grin on my face! 

 

But going without a washer taught me several things.  First to be thankful for what I have.  Second to be thankful even when we don't have.  And lastly patience, but I still need some work on that one.  I also built up some nice biceps carting the laundry from home and back, especially since I would bring it home wet and spend the next day and a half drying it at home.

 

I have been learning new things in the kitchen about nutrition.  Right now I am learning to sprout my grain and dry it.  Then to mill it and use it in my recipes.  Or to use the 2 step process.  I have a loaf of bread rising and it is looking pretty good, so we will see how it will turn out.  I used the two step process on it, and it hasn't been too hard.  So hopefully the loaf turns out well and I can just make it part of my daily schedule.  I don't really like homemade bread after it has set for a few days, so I think I will just bake it daily.  But we'll see, the best laid plans sometimes just don't work (at least for me).

 

Well, I'm off now to match up my nice clean socks.  What fun, eh?

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Mar. 1, 2006 - I Am Blonde

I am blonde and have heard tons of blonde jokes.  I actually think they are quite funny, my favorite being this:

 

A neighbor looks over the fence at his blonde neighbor who is planting cheerios in the backyard.  He asks her what she is doing.  She replies, "I'm planting my doughnut seeds."  I love that one!

 

Anyway, I am not offended by blonde jokes.  But at times I think hearing so many has given me a complex.  Like yesterday for example.  The repair guy was here to fix my washer.  He opens the door to check it, and whoosh!  Out comes gallons of water.  The poor man!  And of course I run around like a chicken with her head cut off trying to deal with a couple inches of water all over my laundry room and kitchen floor.  Finally I remember the shop vac and bring it in.  We vacuum up the water till the thing is overflowing and then he dumps it.  We go to use it again and it won't suck.  It turns out you have to take the filter off when you suck water!  Oops!  So we take the filter off and he sucks the water up for me.  But all the while this is happening, I am apologizing and feeling REALLY blonde.  I felt like the dumb blonde woman that fills her washer and then calls the repair guy!  I was beet red.  Well, I guess he has another blonde joke, lol!

 

In my defense though, I had drained the water out twice before.  And then the last time that my dh fiddled with it with my brother-in-law, I didn't.  That was the important time it turns out.  Because whatever they did, messed up the fill switch.  So, now it needs a drain/pump fix and a fill switch fix.  Ahhh, the joys of domestic life.

 

Anyway, life goes on, somehow my machine will get fixed.  And I have certainly given this repair guy a vivid memory!Someday soon this will be me!

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Jul. 13, 2005 - Sewing Tip

I just finished making 3 matching summer dresses for my little girls. They came out really cute. I thought I would share a tip for marking the back of the dress (these are tie shoulder summer dresses, and it would be hard to figure the front from the back) and the size/owner. I had some sew in interfacing. I cut out clothing label size tags and wrote the girls names on them with permanent marker. Then I just added it to the back seam before I sewed the garment and when I turned it I tacked the bottom down with a row of stitches (I get bugged with tags always popping up). So now on wash day I can easily tell which dress belongs to which daughter. I know that tags can be purchased and sewn in, but I thought that this was much more frugal.

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