How I Decorated for Christmas with $30 [Part Two - Mini Christmas Trees]

Welcome back!  I hope you had a good weekend.  Mine was filled with rain, rain, lovely winter rain :)  Seriously, I really enjoyed the colder weather and the clouds.  It finally feels kind of Christmas-y down here in Phoenix.

Okay, part two! I have run across about a bazillion mini christmas tree diy projects on pinterest over the last month [as I am sure you have as well, if you're a pinterest lover like me].  The one that particular caught my eye was from this website.  The blogger had made her trees using cereal boxes instead of styrofoam - being that those styrofoam cones run you about $5 a pop, I was intruiged.

total cost: $17 [but you can sooo do it for less]

Supplies:

• green button tree: buttons, hot glue gun, gree glitter, mod podge, and a styrofoam cone
• boa tree: mini boa, cereal box, hot glue gun
• "twine" tree: macrame [left over from junior high!], mod podge, cereal box, hot glue gun
• felt tree: white felt, fabric pins, styrofoam cone.

Inspiration: All these lovely blogs :) Click on the links below the pictures to head over to their blogs and the original tutorials.

scissor variations

beautiful matters

a-muse studios

You'll notice that I caved in and bought a couple styrofoam cones.  I really wish I hadn't.  I had bought two because I wanted to make a couple of trees that involved using fabric and pins.  But by the time I was done, I realized that I would have been better off to have glued my fabric instead of pinning.  This makes the styrofoam cones more or less obsolete.

In case you totally just skipped over that last paragraph, here's my summary on styrofoam cones: you don't need them.  Just use cereal boxes.

Here's a better way to do the felt and fabric pin trees - glue the felt circles with a hot glue gun, then, if you really want the pin-in-the-center look, pin them through.  From there you can either leave them as is [and have a ready-made torture machine on the inside of your cone] or else cut them short or even just bend them to the side.  Regardless, your tree will cost you more like $1.30 than $6. Score.

Same thing goes with the gree button tree.  My original inspiration was this tree.  I really liked the pearl pins in the buttons, but again, the styrofoam was completely unnecessary by the end because I wound up just gluing the buttons anyway.

I don't have any pictures of the process of making these trees because I want to make sure that the original creators get their dues for their hard work.  Please head over to their blogs to get the details and step by step processes if you want to make some for yourself.

So here's the grand total!  I did end up spending $30 at the craft store when I bought these supplies, but I did buy more supplies than I actually needed, plus I bought a couple things [styrofoam cones!] that I found out I really didn't need.  If I re-did this project, accounting for these changes, the total cost would be this:

garlands x2: $6
tissue paper: $2
bag of pom poms: $2
green glitter: $2
1 sheet of white felt: $0.30
fabric pins: $2
hot glue gun: $5
mini boa: $2

Total: $21.30. Eh, not bad :)

To end, here are a few more links of cheap Christmas decorating projects that I was really hoping to do this year.  Sigh, maybe next Christmas :)

pom pom garland@ noodlehead

hot glue gun snowflake ornament @ pitter and glink

snowflake curtain @ bugs and fishes

Looking for even more inspiration?  Check out my Pinterest holiday board for more!

How I Decorated for Christmas with $30 [Part One - The Tree]

Actually, $30 was way over what I was planning to spend.  I thought I had the math figured out while I waited in the check out line, but the cash register said otherwise.  And the cash register always wins.

Honestly, you could do all this decorating for less.  For one, because you might actually have a lot of the supplies on hand that I had to buy.  And for two, because I will let you in on a couple of secrets so that you won't waste money [like I did] on supplies that were kind of pointless.

The whole decorating for Christmas thing actually started in March. Husband and I were working through our stuff, deciding what to keep and what to get rid of [that whole moving thing, you know], when we came across our awesome, giant, artifical Christmas tree.

"We aren't going to have space for that when we move, are we?"

"I don't think so."

So we gave the Christmas tree back to my parents.

Around September, I started talking about decorating for Christmas.

"Honey, its September. Its too early for Christmas talk."

"I know, but we don't have a tree anymore.  What are we going to do?"

"I don't know.  Let's just not have one."

That was not going to fly with me.  It was going to be our child's first Christmas; our first Christmas with our child; never mind that she wouldn't remember a single thing about it! We needed some kind of tree.

I ran across an idea a couple days later [thank you Pinterest!] where someone had made their Christmas tree out of books.  I told Josh about it. From there, the idea spiraled out of control into our very first holiday tradition.

We are going to make our Christmas tree out of something different each year.

The cool thing is, we are starting our tradition our child's first year of Christmas.  The goal is, once she [along with any future siblings] is old enough, she will get to decide how to make the Christmas tree some years.

This year marks year one of our family's Christmas tree tradition.

total cost: $2.00

supplies: cardboard, tissue paper

inspiration: Curbly.com

Cute, no?  I really like this tree for three reasons. One: it cost me next to nothing.  Two: it takes up no space.  Just nail it into the wall and you're good to go. Three: you can make it as big [or small] as you can manage.

I added a garland made of pom poms and yarn [$2] and a paper star I had found on the internet and cut out last year [$0].

[So I'm totally only halfway through this post and realizing that I have way too much to write about for just one post.  So here's a quick finish of the tree and garlands, and then I will finish up this post with a part two about the smaller decorations I made.]

The garlands were a self-inspiration born of a conundrum our cardboard tree presented - there was no where to hang ornaments anymore. And we have a decent number of ornaments that I personally am pretty fond of.  We live in a pretty old house, and with that comes some pretty old fixtures.  Most of our ceiling lights and fans have really long chains attached to them, which then hang down the ceilings and walls to the outlets.  Not too pretty.  But they are perfect for hanging things off of.  Like ornaments.

cost: $6

supplies: garlands, ornaments, and ribbon

inspiration: the ugly chains on the wall!

I like garlands more than I like christmas trees, in all actuality [I know, weird]. The garlands I found were on sale for $3 a piece, and one for each chain in the two living rooms were plenty.

[sorry about the terrible picture] I felt like our light fixture over the dining table was a little lacking next to the garland, so I strung up some leftover ornaments with ribbon. [Both I had on hand, so it cost me nothing].

Well, that's all I have to share for tonight!  Stay tuned for part two of my decorating extravaganza!

Cloth Diapers at 10 Months

I've been trying to figure out lately what to write about for cloth diapering.  This may have been obvious by my lack of anything cloth diaper related over the last month :) One thing that I thought might have some real value to write about is my experience month-to-month using cloth diapers. I have come up with a series of questions that I plan to answer each month about how things are going.

This monthly update is intended to be my personal example of what cloth diapering looks like on a month to month basis.  I'm really curious to see how things trend month-to-month for us - now I will actually have a record instead of trying to rely on my poor memory.  I will share any issues that come up and how we are dealing with them, along with some numbers and brands that are working particularly well at this age. Keep in mind that babies and experiences vary - these posts are simply to share with you how things are going with us.

Adelle turns 11 months tomorrow.  Last month of infancy! Here's a quick snapshot of the last month of our cloth diaper world.

Adelle - 10 Months 

# of Children: 1

Gender: female

Size: 16 lbs, 26 in

Average # of Diapers a day: 9

Laundry Schedule: Just about every 3 days, on the dot.

Routine: 2 pre-folds used during awake times, all-in-ones during naps/bed

Diaper Size: One size diapers - middle settings, Thirsties covers - size 2, smallest settings, Disposables - size  3

Leaking?: Yes! This child has definitely started peeing more, both while she is awake and over night.  I have found that if I don't change her within 1 1/2 hours while she's awake, she will soak through onto her clothes.

How's the Poo?: Still in the semi-solid state.  Honestly, I prefer this stage right now.  her "leftovers" are solid enough they usually just roll into the toilet [so no need to really spray], but they haven't started to get the Toddler stink to them yet. Unfortunately, they are leaving more permanent stains on the diapers that I am having trouble getting out.

Night Time: We are still using cloth diapers overnight, and started putting 2 inserts inside this month. She went through a week where she soaked through by morning, which prompted some troubleshooting.  After making sure we didn't have a repelling issue, we started stuffing an extra insert at night. Since then, we have had no issues.

Did you Use Disposables?: Yes.  We had a church retreat over the weekend and a couple date nights where using disposables just made more sense. There was one afternoon I used disposables to combat an on-coming rash with butt paste.

Any Changes: Now using extra inserts at night.

Any Issues: We thought we had a repelling issue when she started soaking through diapers regularly.  My first reaction was to stop using our cloth wipes solution.  Reason was that I had read that our particular concoction can sometimes leave residue on diapers, which may in turn cause them to repel instead of soak.  I'm pretty sure our issue was actually a bigger bladder, but I haven't gotten around to using cloth wipes yet.  I am planning this next month to get back to using them.

Favorite Brand: I'm really loving our Bummi's TotBots this month.  They are fitting really well on her, and do a good job of soaking up overnight.

Still Like Cloth?: I know, silly question :) But who knows?  Maybe I'm going to suddenly hate it some day.  I still really like it.  I have moments [usually when she's had a particularly messy poo] where disposables sound more appealing.

These questions were based on my experiences over the last month.  The questionnaire set will probably vary somewhat each month, but I hope to get a set group of them that I consistently answer each time.

Do you have any particular questions you'd like to see answered each month? Let me know in the comments sections below!

Hope you had a good weekend!  We finally got Christmas decorations up - I'll be putting pictures up later this week of my $1.99 Christmas Tree :)

The Day I Locked Myself Out Of The House

I don't remember anything particularly unusual that started off the incident. I was  cleaning the kitchen when kiddo started crying in her crib. 3:30. Nap time was officially over. I figured I still had enough time to run trash out to the alleyway. So just like every time I've even taken out the trash, I grabbed the trash out of the bin, tied it up, and walked out the back door. The dogs wanted to come out too, so I let them come with me, and then shut the door.

It was only once I came back that I realized just what had happened.

The lock on our back door is old and wonky.  If the latch is already half-locked [which it usually is, being that its old and wonky], oftentimes it will finish locking itself when you shut the door. Usually this would happen and I would lock myself inside the house. This was the first time I had actually locked myself out. With no keys and no phone. With the dogs out in the back with me, and my baby inside, in her crib. At least I was wearing shoes.

old and wonky and half-locked

I think I tried to open every window at least three times. Good news was, they're hard to break into when they're shut and locked [burglars, take note!]. Bad news was, I couldn't get back in. I ended up having to meet my neighbor [finally!] so I could borrow her phone to call Josh.

He, of course, had class for another 30 minutes so he wouldn't be answering his phone anyway. All I could do was leave about 50 messages explaining to him to get home as soon as he could because I was an idiot and locked myself out of our house. In every sense of the word.  There was literally no way to get back in without either a key or a locksmith.

So I spent the next hour and a half talking to my neighbor for the first time since we had moved here three months ago. I learned a lot about the neighborhood. Apparently we aren't the only ones with a scorpion problem. The entire neighborhood has a scorpion problem.  Explanation: Our neighborhood sits right off one of the 5 plus highways that go in and around Phoenix metro.  When the city built said highway however many years ago, all the scorpions had to move somewhere.

Consequently, they decided to move into our walls.

Good news is, however, scorpions do hibernate during the winter.  Super creepy news: they're asleep in my walls.

Just typing that sends shivers down my spine.

Anyway, as you have probably guessed, Josh did finally come home.  Husband neighbor was kind enough to drive up to ASU and pick up Josh and bicycle and get him back home a little before 5:00. All was well and we ate chicken with roasted sweet potatoes for dinner [I do love roasted sweet potatoes].

I'm pretty sure this whole incident is God's fault [don't freak out yet, just keep reading].  Why? Because this: I have not wanted to meet our neighbors since moving here, despite this spiritual tug [if you will] that kept nagging me to just do it.

Why else am I convinced it's God's fault? Because my child  fell back asleep.  This kid never, ever falls back asleep once she wakes up in the afternoons.  But that day, she did.  And even crazier, she stayed asleep until 5:00.  Never has happened before, nor since. Because of that small grace, I could focus on talking to my neighbor without stressing out about a crying baby inside.

Lastly, if I had taken the trash out five minutes earlier, the oven would have been on, and there would have been food cooking on the stove.  And I've walked out of our house many times before to change over laundry or throw out trash while food was cooking. The timing could not have been any better.

God wanted me to meet my neighbors; it's as simple as that. And because I was being a complete knucklehead, he decided to orchestrate my house to lock me out and force me to talk to my hippie mama neighbor for an hour on my front porch.

So why on earth am I telling you this?  Well, because I said I would in my Thankful post. And to let other moms know that I, too, have locked myself out of the house with my kid inside.

And because I feel like there's a personal side of me that doesn't really come out in this blog.

I am a Christian, and I believe that God and I have a personal relationship.  Oftentimes, our relationship is one where I don't believe I see him work in my life.  That afternoon, God decided to show up in my world in a very deliberate way.  This story is a sweet story for me personally.  I saw God act as my dad kicking me out of my house and making me grow up a little.  I saw him also make sure that nothing seriously wrong would happen with my child or my house.  He took care of all the details, and he took care of me, too. While I totally get that this story may not really be all that interesting to you, I am realizing now just how much this day has mattered to me.  And that's why I am sharing it.

Roasted Sweet Marmalade Potato Casserole

So I'm totally posting a Thanksgiving recipe a whole week late.  Yeah, I'm that girl.

But guess what?  I made my very recipe up, again!  I offered to make sweet potato something for the Thanksgiving party I went to this year.  I have never, ever, been a fan of sweet potatoes [just like I'm not a fan of stuffing either], so I decided to take on the challenge to see if I could create a sweet potato dish that I actually liked.

Fate would have it that I would discover the wonder of the roasted vegetable.  It all started with me roasting apples and sweet potatoes for Kiddo, so I could then dice them up as finger food.  Being the good parent that I am, I try everything that I put in her mouth.  Turns out, roasted sweet potatoes are kind of addicting.  Something happens when you cover a sweet potato in canola oil and roast it - it turns into candy.  Don't believe me?   Then try this recipe out.

Roasted  Marmalade Sweet Potato Casserole

Whew, what a name!  I decided to add orange marmalade to the recipe for two reasons - one, everybody else's recipes put citrus in their sweet potato casserole, so I figured I should join in.  Two, we had a whole jar of the stuff left over from a previous dinner. Score.

Time: 1 hour [to be on the safe side]
Bakes: 425 degrees fahrenheit
Makes: a 9x13 pan

Ingredients

• 8 sweet potatoes
• Oil, for drizzle
• 3/4 cup half & half
• 1/2 cup orange marmalade
• 1 stick [8 tbs] butter
• 4 tsp cinnamon
• Marshmallows or walnuts [or both!] for topping

Directions

1. Slice your sweet potatoes into 1/2 slices.
2. Next, put them in a large bowl and pour a little bit of oil in.  Toss potatoes until coated.
3. Arrange onto a baking sheet in a single layer, and roast at 425 degrees for 15 minutes [or until soft, but not burnt].
4. Put your roasted potatoes back into your bowl and blend until mashed thoroughly.
5. Add the half & half, marmalade, butter, and cinnamon into the bowl.  Blend again until all the ingredients are mixed together.  [At this point, you can take a break and wait until you're about ready to serve. The next part will only take a few minutes]
6. Place sweet potato mixture into a 9x13 pan. Cover with either marshmallow or walnut toppings.
7.  Broil until marshmallows are browned/walnuts are toasted. 

The scoop on marshmallows - yes, they are gluten-free. From what I understand, certain brands make their 'mallows in dedicated gluten-free facilities, but regardless, they all should not have any wheat ingredients in them.  If you're concerned about any traces, check with the particular brand to be on the safe side.

picture time!

roasted sweet potatoes...yum.

blend them up, or let your hubby do it [you didn't thinkI wore giant watches, did you?]

slather into a pan

toppings!

Remember when I said that roasted sweet potatoes are like candy?  This casserole is like candy mixed with marmalade [candy] then topped with marshmallows [more candy].

Now I understand why I like it.

What's your favorite Thanksgiving menu item?  Honestly, its not Thanksgiving without fresh baked rolls for me.  I have childhood memories of hoarding 5 or 6 of them during mealtime...

Thankful 2012

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm kind of excited because this is Adelle's first Thanksgiving.  I have these fantastic visions of her eating her first bites of turkey and potatoes this afternoon and getting adorable pictures of it all, but who knows how the day is actually going to go!

Remember my post a couple months ago about how being thankful helps me become more content?  Well, I think I need to share some of my thankfulness with you guys, simply so I can fight this dicontentment bug that's been crepping back into my thoughts over the last week.

Ten Things I am Thankful for This Thanksgiving

1. I am thankful for my daughter - I have a healthy, happy little girl who sleeps on her own and gives me the best kisses.  I couldn't ask for anything more.

2. My husband and I are learning how to continue loving each other well through big, life changes and the daily strain of, well, life as we know it. Even though some days are bad, most days are good.  And in general, our relationship is trending in a positive direction :)

3. We have a really good place to live, in a really good neighborhood.  I finally met our neighbors this week [I'll give you the whole run down on that story next week!], and I was reminded that this is a really, really good neighborhood to be living in. God truly blessed us when we made the decision to live here without really knowing much about this place.

4. The scorpions are hibernating now.  No more sightings for a few weeks.  Not too excited that they're probably sleeping in our walls [yuck] but at least I can breathe a sigh of relief for the next couple months.

5. I am thankful for my new friends here in Phoenix who know how to love one another.

6. I am thankful for Cesar Milan - without his TV show, our dogs would be out of control!

7. I am thankful that Adelle knows how to go to sleep on her own.

8. I am thankful that I can't come up with anything I want for Christmas.  That means we have no needs!

9. I am thankful that the mornings are cool, and the afternoons are bearable.  It means I can get out of the house now for walks in the afternoons.

10. I am thankful for the GI Bill.  Without it, we wouldn't be able to be here in Phoenix, living in our house, with neither of us working, and Josh still going to school full-time.

What are you thankful for this year?

Corn Bread Stuffing

Are you excited for Thanksgiving too?  Tons of yummy, free food, a few days off from work slash school, and, if you're close to family, you have an excuse to hang out with them all day :)

However, Thanksgiving meals when you have a food intolerance can be...a bummer, especially when half of the menu is off limits. I will be honest from the beginning, I'm not a huge fan of stuffing.  But I totally realize that there are a lot of people who really, really like it.  Maybe you do? If so, here's a gluten-free stuffing recipe to use this Thursday!  I did a trial run on this stuff a couple weeks ago for church. I got a few compliments on it (good thing, I believe), and I even tried it out myself.  Again, I'm not a big fan of stuffing, but it wasn't bad.

This recipe is based off last Thursday's corn bread recipe I shared with you.  It will be your base, with some typical but still-yummy veggies and seasonings to make it all stuffing-like.

Corn Bread Stuffing (From Taste of Home Cookbook)

Time: 25 min prep, 40 min bake
Bake: 325 degrees
Makes: 9 cups

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups chopped celery
• 1 1/4 cups chopped onions
• 2 and 8 tablespoons butter
• 1 9x9 pan of gluten-free corn bread
• 4 teaspoons rubbed sage
• 4 teaspoons poultry seasoning
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 1/3 cups chicken broth

Directions

1. In a large skillet, saute celery and onion in 2 tablespoons of butter until tender. Then transfer to a large bowl.

2. Break corn bread apart into small pieces.  Crumbling is okay, but the goal is to have more chunks than crumbles when you're done.

3. In bowl, add corn bread, sage and poultry seasoning.

4. Combine eggs, 8 tablespoons of melted butter, and chicken broth together. Then add it to corn bread mixture, stirring gently so as not to break apart the corn bread too much.

5. Grease a 9x13 baking dish, and transfer your stuffing into the dish.

6. Cover and bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes.

7. Uncover, then bake for 10 more minutes [or until thermometer reads 165 degrees] and stuffing is lightly browned.

you can already tell, this is so not going to be healthy.

cutting corn bread

cutting more corn bread

the stuffing pre-bake

foil is so shiny...

mmmm, stuffing.

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving break planned this week!

Tennessee Corn Bread

The mornings are chilly, the holidays are coming; I think there's no better comfort food than corn bread.

I originally found this recipe while on the quest for a gluten-free stuffing last Thanksgiving.  What happened was after hours of scouring everything for a stuffing that didn't use bread, I ran across a recipe that used corn bread instead.  Corn isn't wheat, right?  Perfect. Now I just need a corn bread recipe.

Turns out, a lot of corn bread recipes use flour anyway.  Except this one!

Now for the disclaimer: while cornmeal in and of itself has no gluten in it, oftentimes it is processed in a plant that process wheat.  Know your gluten-intolerance limits.  If you can't handle wheat contamination of any kind, then you will want to get cornmeal that is labelled gluten-free and states on the box or bag that it was processed in a wheat-free facility.

Okay, now on to the good stuff!

Tennessee Corn Bread (From Taste of Home
Cookbook)

Time: 30 minutes
Oven: 425 degrees
Makes: a 9x9 pan or 9 in spring form pan

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise [the cookbook notes that reduced-fat or fat-free mayo is not
• recommended]
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 cups yellow cornmeal [again, know what your intolerance can handle, and choose
• your cornmeal brand accordingly]
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. In large mixing bowl, beat together eggs, mayo, buttermilk, and oil until smooth.
2. Add cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt into bowl, and stir together until just combined.
3. Grease you 9x9 pan or 9 in spring form, and add batter.
4. Bake at 425 degrees for 18-20 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

I'm starting to fall in love with my spring form pan.  It can bake anything into a beautiful circle - now my corn bread can be both yummy and visually appealing.

pour some honey on it...

eat it with some soup.

We had it with some Vegetable Lime Chickpea Chili that I found over at Two Peas and Their Pod. It's a pretty delicious vegetarian chili to combat the winter chills or some stuffy noses.

Curious about how our weekend went?  Ha ha, I'm going to tell you anyway.  Well, Dellie slept...okay.  She had trouble going to sleep and woke up a few times during both nights, but at least she wasn't alone.  Our friends' kiddos had a pretty rough go at it too.  But no one died, and we came back feeling like we learned a lot from the conference.  So success?  I suppose so when you've got a 10 month old.

See you Monday!  I'll be posting my corn bread stuffing recipe, just in time for Thanksgiving!

Tuscan Stew

Over the last week, a very exciting new development has occurred in our household - Dellie is mobile!  She can both crawl and cruise around tables and chairs like a pro.  Its been really exciting to see her jump in physical ability literally overnight.  The only problem is that night thing - my child now refuses to sleep.  I don't know if she is just so thrilled to be able to move around or what, but it has made afternoons and evenings a little bit more stressful [when I say that, I actually mean a lot more stressful].  I'm honestly just pinning my hopes that her sudden disinterest in sleep is just a side effect of her new skills, and she will go back to her normal sleep routine within a few days or so.

Okay, actually, I'm really hoping it will go away by tomorrow night.  We're going on a church retreat this weekend. Turns out we will be sharing a room with another family who has two kids of their own.  While a not-sleeping child is stressful no matter what, it will be exponentially stressful if we're trying to get her to sleep in the room with two other poor children who actually know how to take naps.  Sigh... if you get the chance, send some prayers our way.

On a more happy note, I am going to share with you a recipe that I think I can safely say I actually made up on my own!  I originally did start with a recipe, but realized that I had bought all the wrong ingredients for it.  How I did that, I don't know.  So I just made up my own thing with what I did have. The result is my very own Tuscan Stew.

Tuscan Stew

Time: 30 minutes
Makes 6 servings

Ingredients

• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 cups diced carrots
• 2 sticks of celery, diced
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 2 cans [28 oz in total] chicken broth
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 can [15 oz] pinto, white kidney, or great northern beans
• 1 can [15 oz] garbanzo beans
• 8 oz box of gluten free pasta [I used Ancient Harvest Quinoa pasta], any shape you'd like

Instructions

1. In 4 qt. saucepan, saute onion, carrots, and celery together in olive oil, until onion is tender.

2. Add broth, water, salt and pepper, bring to a boil.

3. Stir in beans and pasta, return to a boil.

4. Reduce heat and let simmer for 15 minutes or until pasta and veggies are tender, stirring every so often.

Things I really like about this recipe is that is is easy to make, and doesn't take too much time.  And even though there isn't any meat directly in it, the beans still keep it really filling.  Lastly, it reheats well for leftovers.

Happy Friday!

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I linked this up on Whatever Wherever Wednesday!

Why I Use Cloth Wipes

I will begin by saying that I totally recognize that there are about a bazillion other blog posts about the wonders of cloth wipes. This post is simply me chiming in to say that I like them too!

I didn't believe any of the praises I read about cloth wipes for months.  I honestly just thought it was a bunch of crazy zealous earth mamas. But enough people were writing about how using cloth wipes was really simple and you could even make them yourself for nothing.  I eventually decided that buying a dozen cloth wipes to test out wasn't going to hurt anyone.

Guess what? Everything people have said about cloth wipes is true.

- They are easy to use. All I have to do is spray a little bit of my wipes solution onto a cloth wipe, use, and then toss the wipe with the diaper.  Before, I would have to try and separate the disposable wipe out from the diaper and throw each into their individual trash can [gross].  Now, it all goes into the same trash can, which all gets washed together.  Easy peasy.

- They are cheap.  The first pack of cloth wipes that I bought cost me $11.  Since then, I have just made cloth wipes with leftover flannel my mom gave me.  I have more than I could even possibly need for the same price as a 700-count box of disposable wipes.

- They are environmentally friendly. In all honesty, I'm not a particularly earth-friendly person. A lot of times I feel like recycling is just too complicated.  I mean, seriously, who can actually keep track of what those numbers actually stand for? But using cloth wipes is really, truly, a straight-forward, visibly environmental thing that I can do.  I don't create waste with all those disposable wipes, and I don't have to add wash time or detergent to my load of cloth diaper laundry. I actually get a little proud of myself knowing that in this silly little way, I am helping reduce trash by using cloth wipes.

Do you use cloth wipes?  What do you like about them?

This Morning's Scorpion [A Handmade Baby Costume]

We found another scorpion on our kitchen floor this morning.  It is by far the biggest sighting so far.


A little back story for those of you who might not know: Since moving to Tempe in August, we have found eight scorpions in our house and backyard.  Friends who have lived here their whole lives are astounded, because apparently this is not normal, especially considering our neighborhood.  I feel like dressing Kiddo up as a scorpion sums up with what our world has been like since moving here. Crazy, cute, with a hint of the ridiculous.

Not going to lie, I am pretty proud of myself for coming up with this costume idea.  I'm even prouder of myself for pulling it off.  Most of all, I'm proud that I made it for less than $10.

Here's how it happened.  Take one six month size footed pajama from the clearance rack at Target.

Cut out scorpion design from felt. Sew, stuff, and then sew some more.

The pincers, legs, and tail were all first sewn by machine, then stuffed.  I then hand-stitched them, along with the back and arm designs by hand onto the back of the pajamas.  All in all, not too hard.  Felt might be my new favorite fabric.

Only downside is the footies are making it very hard for Dellie to crawl around.  But she's managing :)

Happy Halloween from J&S Extermination Services ;)

Shelby, Josh, and Adelle