Re-Committing

I'm re-committing to cloth diapering. This summer our county and most of our state experienced a pretty widespread serious drought, so I kind of abandoned the notion of cloth diapering in an effort to be a little more environmental friendly and water conscious, at the same time I was getting frustrated with our diapering system because dd would sit in our lap and pee and the wool just wasn't holding it nor was the diaper so puddles were getting frustrating. The drought is still on and the county is still taking measures to reduce the water consumption around the county, but I figure that drought may be a short term thing where the diapers that are filling the landfill will be a long long term thing. Its kind of I'm the devil if I do and the devil if I don't no matter which way I play this deck of cards. So I'm going back to cloth and saving my washes until we have a very full load (2-3 days). As my dh says in the grand scheme of water usage us cloth diapering won't amount to much depletion of the water supply. So I'm re-evaluating my Stash and working up some more wool pants for the little one.

Which leads to these pictures. This is a pattern I got from the Dragonfly Faery (listed in my sidebar!) I don't know if she is selling the pattern or where, but I was a tester on it, and totally love the style. These are hip hugger pants but you can tailor it to your preferences. I don't like the drawstring in longie pants because it always comes undone, so I did a slightly tighter vertical style cuff that needs stretching to fit at the waist (which is perfect) and then added some stitches to fit at the waist. It was done in Paton's Merino in a Brown and pink, burgundy, brown combo! And no we generally don't potty train until closer to 2 1/2 - 3... though she is starting to express an interest! So I'm out testing new diapers and picking up some fillers for my stash!

These are one of my favourite style pants though! For some reason I just don't have the patience to knit them! LOL!

Composting, Gardening more to the Hobbies

So my goal for the year was plain and simple..... SIMPLIFY!
What do I do?? Add some more hobbies to my life! But these are good hobbies really! :) Gardening will benefit the family... we'll eat fresher food, we'll spend more time outside sweltering in the summer heat, it'll be fun, digging in the dirt is theraputic, getting dirty is fun!!

The first thing I did was got a compost bin (and a book to go with it!) Its been years since I thought about composting, but I figure its good for the environment, its good for our garden and a good place to start a decent biological lesson for the kids! M is going to make a homemade see through compost bin out of soda/pop bottles so we can all learn what is going on in our big black bin outside (and so I can learn through osmosis! since I have no clue what the heck will actually be happening the big black bin outside!!) So there we'll all benefit! Then on giving back to the environment we'll be using soil that is made from the waste that we would have dumped in the landfill. I mean dh and I dump a ton of grass and garden clippings in the garbage every summer when mowing season is here, and this way we can put it back to good use. Anyway I'm excited and so are the girls they can't wait to help put the bin together and start collecting daddy's cooking scraps.

In the mean time we're opting for a slightly larger garden entrance this year. Last year we attempted to grow, grew 3 tomatoes and 3 pepper plants that did horribly, I'm hoping this year to add some herbs, and other veggies that might be fun! We have a decent sized lot but none of it is ideal for growing food as it doesn't get enough light or is on too much of a hill, so we're limited to what can be grown in containers and the limited skill of our growers (me and the kids! LOL!)

I can't wait to get started. Feel free to join us in our adventures and if you have ideas to share we're all ears! :)

Sewing - A New Bag

A Bag for my friend. Based on a bag I had hanging in my closet I tried to get this as close to it as possible...

I'm Back! :)

Back with a new resolution.....Here's a layout of M learning to spool knit and having a blast! :)

Font is Rockwell, Flower from Ribbit Kisses by Rebecca Gold, Amanda Rockwell and ??? at Elemental Scraps

The oldest and I are recovering slowly from the Flu (cough, congestion thing) the little one hasn't shown symptoms of it but is periodically warm yet full of energy!

Ewww the Flu

And no not the stomach bug....
Curling up in my blanket going back to my delusional fevered state *sigh*!

Pnu - Tires *GROAN*

Dh had a flat.

The girls and I spent the day learning the art of pumping tires... 9 of them to be precise!

Did I mention it is cold out there for June? I'm a suck! LOL! Grew up in the great Northern wilds of Canada and here I can't even tolerate a simple GA cold snap! *SIGH!* Whatever will I do?

Today's Layout!

Vintage Winter by Danielle Engebretson (at digitalfreebies.com)
Fonts are Bradley's Hand and Monotype Corsiva

Walk in the woods made us all cold as an Artic cold pressures hits our area! This is what she thought of it! A true Southern' Bell! LOL!

Happy New Year 2008

Happy New Year! :)

Cliche - 2007 went by so fast.

I generally don't do New Years Resolutions anymore instead I make a list of things I'd like to accomplish and slowly work my way through them see sidebar for my progress! LOL!

As always get fit and lose weight is at the top of that list but with Christmas just passed I've got my hooks (& needles) on the notion of doing a handmade Christmas... hey family if you're reading put your order in now LOL there is no telling what I might come up with ! *GRIN*

With that I was well I'm hoping to burn through some of my stash so I can upgrade. 20 yr old yarn isn't fun to work with anymore! (have I said that before??)

Well my first project that I can share is a Swiffer type mop cover. I'm tired of the funky smell of the cloths I buy, I'm tired of trashing them after one use and want to go back to the multi-use concept and yes despite the drought my city is facing I'm going back to cloth diapers too. *Sniff* Single use products don't sit with me anymore. So if these work out I'll be set.

The yarn in the pic to the left here is a 100% cotton, worsted weight. The blue thing for those that don't loom is a knifty knitter loom. The idea for this cloth came from a brief glance I had of someone who had knit and buttoned a cotton cloth onto their swiffer. The pattern for this cloth came from Canadian Crafter. Here is another Sheep of a Different Color and one hakucho more for good measure!

Also on my list of things to do is crochet some shopping bags out of my stack of grocery bags that I have here. So things are moving along! :)