Crafty Baby Gifts

A friend of mine had a baby a month or so ago, and I wanted to share what I made for her and her little guy.
I had seen these tutorials out in webland ages ago and had been itching to try them out - they make a nice shower gift, and I wanted to pass the ideas along.

Hung Out to Dry: A Brief Tutorial

More cloth diapering stuff folks... I'll stop soon, I promise.

One of the drawbacks of wool soakers (for more on wool soakers as diaper covers, see my previous post) is that you need to get them good and dry between uses. We have five, which we rotate through each diaper change. Having 5 diaper covers on the go, some of which may be damp and need to dry before their next turn, can be a space issue. You can't stuff them in a drawer because they won't get dry (or at least they won't in my humid basement nursery) but leaving them lying all over the place looks untidy and leaves them vulnerable to cat-related abuse. The only option for me was to hang them up.

This little rack was about a half hour project, if you don't count the time the paint took to dry. I used:

• 3/4" x 2" strip of wood, cut to about 31" (the length is up to you - I had this bit of wood lying around and as I don't have a saw, it stayed the length it was).
• 7 Wooden clothes pegs (or whatever number suites your needs - odd numbers are more aesthetically pleasing than even numbers).
• Hot glue, wood glue, or craft glue.
• Paint (I used acrylic).
• Ribbon for embellishment, if that's your thing.
• Drill and screws.

Measure out where you want your clothes pegs to be and mark your strip of wood. Glue the pegs to the wood, making the top of the peg flush with the top of the wood. I used hot glue because I am into instant gratification.
Once the glue is dry, paint! I recommend a coat of white as a primer if you are doing a light or bright colour, especially if your bit of wood, like mine, has manufacturey details stamped on it. When the paint is good and dry, embellish your rack (lol... Rack... Sorry, I lack maturity and self control) in whatever way would suit your room decor. I wrapped ribbon around mine and glued the ends down on the back, which gives a nice bit of colour and texture and also coordinates with R's floral mobile and the wall decor.
Drill two starter holes so you don't bugger up all your hard work trying to force bits of metal through the wood, and fix the rack to the wall with screws. This rack is only meant to hold lightweight objects, and weighs almost nothing itself, so don't worry too much about drywall screws and the like.

Yay! I would guess this project cost about three dollars, factoring in all the materials, but if you are like me and have this sort of stuff lying around, it's free! I love it for hanging soakers, but it would be a really cute way of storing hats and coats or dresses or any other adorable baby clothes that need a home and want to be displayed.

By the way, how much do you love those numbered cards on the wall above the soakers! The illustrations are ridiculously sweet and the cards are sturdy enough that they can be used as a teaching tool when your little one is learning to count!

They are the Animal Counting Cards by eeBoo, an amazing brand of beautiful kids' toys and learning aids. Ours were a gift bought at Sprouts, a lovely boutique in downtown Victoria. I can't afford their stuff, but maybe you can! Their selection of high quality children's items is delightful. I want every single thing they sell.

Cloth FTW

I heart my cloth diapers. Well, R's diapers. Not mine. I don't wear diapers. Really.

I upsized and upgraded our diapers from Bummis infant sized prefolds and PUL covers to Kissasluvs One Size Hybrids closed with a Snappi. I love the Bummis for their durability and fantastic price, but the Kissa's are fantastic and I'd never go back. They're soft and fuzzy and cute and amazingly absorbent. They dry faster than prefolds. They're trimmer and softer and a much better fit. However, the main reason I chose them was so I could use knitted wool covers instead of PUL ones. If you've spent any time with me in the past few years you will have noticed that I am a knitting fanatic. When I learned about the possibility of wool diaper covers, I couldn't resist. Wool is God's gift to my baby's bum. Seriously. Also to sheep, I suppose.

Why? When wool is still coated in its natural lanolin (sheep grease - very gross in theory but hey, it's in your lip balm and it hasn't killed you right?) it repels water. After it becomes too wet to repel any more water, it absorbs up to a third of its weight in liquid without feeling wet. It breathes, keeping baby's bum a nice temperature both in winter and summer. It's antimicrobial - I don't know how, I'm not hip with the scientific jargon, but it is - meaning unless poop gets on the cover, you don't need to wash woolies very often (like... months) and they won't smell or be gross. It's even fire resistant. Wool doesn't have to be itchy and unless your kiddo is actually allergic to it, there shouldn't be a problem with comfort. Least importantly but most obviously, wool soakers are so CUTE!

I used the Curly Purly Soaker pattern - an awesome free knitting pattern with a great final product and very accurate sizing - and the Frantic Mama soaker pattern (also free) to make these:

They all use my hand dyed wool from my previous post. They fit R really well and look so very sweet on her bulky little cloth diapered bum. I haven't seen a single leak since I started using them. She seems very comfortable and has a far greater range of motion in her legs and waist than she did in her old covers. When she's wet you can feel a little dampness, rather like how a disposable diaper feels when it's wet (the barely damp part, not the warm, squishy, gross part). I haven't had any problem with compression wicking so far, including when I took her out in the me tai carrier for over an hour. Wool soakers take a little more care than PUL covers - I hand wash with Eucalan wool wash and lanolize them using Lansinoh (marketed as nipple cream, but just pure lanolin) as per this video tutorial. They are fantastic - wool is really as good as everyone says it is. It really works.

I love that I can use something natural like wool for R's diapers. Would you rather wear wool socks or plastic socks? Cotton underpants or paper and gel polymer underpants? The same goes for diapers. I'm happy with this choice.

By the way, I got the Kissa's diapers through Parenting By Nature - a Canadian online retailer that sells so much more than cloth diapers. The service was great, and shipping was free and fast. I'm pretty darn pleased.

A Very Merry Un-Earth Day

I have been thinking about an Earth Day post since Thursday morning. I wanted to talk about how important it is to conserve natural resources; to reduce (reuse, and recycle) the colossal amount of plastic crap we consume every day. However, the more I thought about it and thought about it and thought about it, the more frustrated I became. Here's why:

One day isn't enough. One week won't do it. A year doesn't scratch the surface of the real problem. Stores offering Earth Day sales on "green" products (some considerably less green than others) are a perfect example of this short-term eco-friendly attitude. We are repeatedly told that we can reduce our environmental impact if only we purchase this or that thing. Our landfills are filled to the brim with things. You don't solve the problem by throwing out your gas guzzling SUV and buying a SmartCar. You solve it by dragging your bicycle out of the garage, or walking, or using public transit, and saving the car for when you really need it. You don't solve the problem by buying hemp or organic cotton clothing at eco-friendly boutiques. You solve it by wearing what you have until it just can't go any further, and then continuing to use the material in whatever way you can (t-shirts make great dish rags, by the way). We have to buy responsibly, but only after we responsibly use what we already have.

I think what bothers me the most is how little I follow my own rules. Don't get me wrong, I do try. We are diligent recyclers. Our car is pretty good on gas, and I try to find ways to use it less, and more efficiently. I'm really making an effort to conserve energy and water. Yet in the back of my mind there is always a nagging voice (not a real voice. I don't hear voices... yet) letting me know that I could be doing so much better. I've been trying to compost our kitchen waste but the recycled bucket I've been using (my parents buy cat litter in sturdy lidded plastic tubs) is a pain - the lid doesn't come off very easily and it stinks enough that I don't want to waste time playing with it. My first thought is "I should buy one of those little green plastic compost tubs with the carbon filter at the top!" WRONG. I need to put in a little effort, use what I have, and stop being such a wuss. If we want to slow down and maybe even reverse the damage we are doing to this beautiful planet we are so lucky to have as a home, we all need to put in a little effort, use what we have, and stop being such wusses. Every day needs to be Earth Day.

Here's a nice, Un-Earth Day flower to calm things down after all that ranting.

I have taken one eco-friendly step that I am pretty proud of. I completely switched to cloth diapers and baby wipes. In some areas of the world one could (try to) argue that washing cloth is nearly as harmful as throwing out disposables. Here, water is plentiful and is used to generate electricity as well. Disposable diapers, especially with a newborn, quadrupled our garbage output and cost a fortune. Cloth diapers are so easy to use, and, as a bonus, they come in cute colours! Washing them is no more disgusting than taking care of a stinking bag of disposables. Most importantly for us, they don't cause allergic reactions and diaper rash the way both Huggies and Pampers did. R seems to have a very delicate bum.
We use Bummis organic cotton prefolds and covers. I can't recommend them highly enough. And hey, if you have enough fabric lying around (you can even use flannel sheets or old t-shirts if you like) you can easily make cloth diapers for your little one. Particularly if you plan on having another child, cloth diapers are so much cheaper. Every time I change a diaper I'm not thinking "eww gross, poop." Nope, I'm patting myself on the back for choosing the best possible option for me, for my daughter and for the planet.

My goal is to change my behaviour so that I feel that smug sense of (justified) satisfaction a great deal more often. Who's with me?