Demarle at home party Fundraiser!

My great friend Darla is hosting a fundraiser for my family. We are still unemployed and just trying to make ends meet. I hate that we have to ask for help and I hate that my pride is taking a hit during this challenge but I know it will get better and hopefully soon. In the mean time, I have great friends who always come through for me. If you are out of state, I can ship. Get those orders in! (jsbuquet@gmail.com) Here are the details.

Buquet Family Fundraiser!



Solutions for EVERYONE in the kitchen…

This is an opportunity to get revolutionary kitchen products that will make cooking fun and easy and at the same time support our
family in a time of need.
Purchase for yourself and/or do some Gift shopping.



Here is how it works:



· You can attend the party on the 29th at 6:30pm to see the product being
demonstrated or ask Jaimey for a catalog to place your order without
attending the party.

· There will be a raffle for prizes held at the party on the 29th.

· We will collect orders until January 31st. This is a great opportunity
to show it to everyone you will be seeing over the next 2 weeks.

· You can share the catalog and exciting news about the benefits of cooking
with Demarle with friends and family that you see every day.

· Collect orders (paid with VISA, MasterCard or Check Payable to Darla Truitt).

The Buquet Family will receive Cash Rewards!

Up to 40% of all sales!

Turn your orders in to Jaimey Buquet by January 31st!

Couldn’t be easier! Who do YOU know who wants solutions in their kitchen?
Who is on your Gift Shopping List?
Please let me know if you have any questions and we look forward to seeing you on the 29th.

Jaimey Buquet 503-809-9922

4370 SE Rosewood St., Hillsboro, OR 97123

To see the Catalog go to www.demarleathome.com

Bye Bye Christmas Tree

I know its been forever since this happened (two and half weeks or so) but I just wanted to share these photos.

Grayson is having a hard time getting over the fact that we have little to no snow left. Everyday he wakes up (still) asking for the BOW
And everyday we say the BOW is all gone.
At this point he knew that there was this little patch right outside. So while Zack cut up the Christmas tree, Grayson stabbed at the BOW.

Notice the GIANT mommy slippers on my sons feet. And if you look close you will see the FDNY hat of Zack's on his head. He got him self dressed, I swear!

a mind of his own

Grayson has decided he is his own person and when he wants what he wants,
he should get what he wants...
we are in negotiations.
This is him deciding he wants Daddies phone and if he has to climb on the table to get it so be it. (Dad quit laughing!)

Adventures in Cake Decorating part 1

Many of you know I am crafty, and I am a bit neurotic about my crafts. I love them. Lots of them. I am always trying a new one and while it may not stay around long or permanently there will always be SOME craft in my life.

I have always wanted to learn how to decorate cakes. I tried once, WAY back in 1999 or so, and it was so ugly that I actually wrote on it "The Ugly Cake" and the boyfriend at the time and I never even cut into it. It sat in the fridge for a week until I finally got tired of looking it in all its pathetic-ness and threw it away. It was that ugly.

I never tried again. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't out of fear or anything. I guess it just never really came up again. I don't really like cake. Its a dirty little secret of mine. I prefer cookies. And those I can decorate! I love to decorate them in fact. But not that I have a toddler who will have more birthdays I figured now was the time to revisit cake decorating and take the class.

It is a Wilton class at Joann's Fabrics and a lot of fun so far. Last weeks first class we basically sat and watched our instructor demo some techniques.

This week, we had to bring a cake. We had our choice of an 8 inch round cake that would end up with a rainbow on it (dumb) or a character cake from Wilton of coarse. I chose neither. I know I know. That's what my husband said but I refuse to buy more pans that take up space when Demarle is so lovely and FOLDS! So I used this Imagine mold from Demarle. The 2008 catalog had some photos of things you could do with the mold so I chose the frog.

So I set about, and made my cake on Thursday evening because I had to work Friday and Grayson's mini party was on Saturday. (Mini because it was only two of his little friends) Then this morning I leveled and put the base layer of frosting on my frog. I only had one color of green which I didn't really like so I went to class early and picked up a darker green and mixed up my frosting colors before class.

Class was spent learning different ways to decorate like the star and some writing techniques as well as the textures of our frosting. By the end we had partially decorated the cake for this class. I had most of my green "stars" piped onto my froggies body.


I had wondered right up until I got home how I would decorate its face and such but had always heard about Fondant. Someone brought it up again in class and it piqued my interest once again. So I came home and looked up recipes online to see if it is even something I could do. Turns out there is this fabulous recipe using Marshmallows, water, powdered sugar and Crisco.

I pulled all of these things out of my pantry and started making this recipe. In it Peggy mentions you really have to grease your hands to knead this "dough". I did. I really thought I was properly greased.

I wasn't.

I stuck my hands in and started mooshing. That is about the time I figured out I have a sensory issue with gooey textures being in between my fingers. I started feeling claustrophobic and dizzy all the while determined to make this damn fondant. So I kept kneading, and feeling a little ill. I SO wish I had been able to sprout that third arm to take the photo of my hands but since they were buisy and hubby was snoring quietly on the couch there was noone to take a photo. But sufice it to say, I had NOT greased enough.

Lesson learned. I had most of the mixture stuck to me.

Then BRILLIANT me. I get the idea that there HAD TO BE A BETTER WAY. Famous last words right? So I get all cleaned up (I swear that took 15 minutes to get all the crud off my hands) and I load all my ingredients into my stand mixer. My good ol' friend who is over worked and underpaid. And for this abuse, she spit on me.

Back to the good ol Roulpat. This was getting ridiculous. right as I start to get frustrated and almost about to give up, I decide to try again. And there you have it. Isn't it gorgeous?

Then I colored it.

Then I rolled it out and cut out various shapes for its arms, legs, eyes and mouth. All went pretty well. (If you try this make sure you use gloves for the coloring portion, otherwise your hands will be lovely colors for weeks!) I made two sets because supposedly you aren't supposed to put fondant in the fridge on the cake but I have a milk based pudding filling in my cake so it has to go in the fridge. If the fondant goes haywire I will have backup.

And finally all the parts are on and cute! Voila! Here is my first cake.
I must say I am very proud of this accomplishment. I feel like I conquered something I have had on my to do list for many years. I feel even more accomplished that the fondant worked out, its not even taught in this class! They have a whole class set devoted to it.

And the best part is its not even UGLY. Not even a little bit.

Jonathan Mitchell Buquet

Jonathan Mitchell Buquet
Born to our loving arms Oct 9, 2008
where he spent his short 3 hour life.

A life is not measured in time, or in deeds of importance,
but by how many people love you - and in that case, Jonathan will have had a very full life -full of love


Thank you to

Names in the sand
for the generous gift they give to parents like me who have lost our children.
Nothing heals our hearts, or brings back our children but somehow seeing Jonathan's name in the sand is very healing. I feel at peace.

Happy Birthday Grayson!

Happy Birthday to our precious Little Boy!


You are our sunshine and our pride and joy.
Your daddy and I are so proud of you and all you are becoming.
Everyday is a new adventure that we can't wait to experience with you.

Happy 2nd Birthday to Grayson!
born January 13, 2007
9 days late- 77 hours in labor
Rude!
at 5:44 am
via C section

He may never live that down...

Jonathan's slide shows

Here are both the slide shows: (click on the white words)

belly slide show

Jonathan's birth slide show

The Jonathan slide show is similar but not the same as the one longer one we showed at the memorial.

Cook for a Day!

Its a really good thing I like my kitchen, cause I sure spend a lot of time there!

18 more meals in my freezer! :) Yeah! I spent all of yesterday cooking and prepping for more meals to go in my freezer. I was asked for my recipes and so here they are! I will also try to tell you how I put them all together since many were modified for the freezer etc.

Jaimey's Chili
modified from the Aaron's Favorite Chili
From this book

this is a double-ish recipe from the original. Serves 28-30

3 lbs mixed ground meats- I used 1lb each of grnd beef, turkey and italian sausage
2 green peppers- chopped
2 onions- chopped
4 (16 oz) cans corn- drained
4 (32 oz) cans crushed tomatoes- I used some italian some plain. What I had on hand.
8 (16 oz) cans kidney beans drained- I used 4 chili beans
(in chili sauce not drained) and 4 kidney beans
4 T chili powder
4 T ground cumin

In a large stock pot (used my canning pot) cook meats , onions and peppers all together. Add all other ingredients. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for as long as you want or at least one hour. I did mine for about 3-4 hours. I like all my ingredients well flavored.

We ate this last night for dinner and then froze the rest. To Freeze, let cool. Ladle in to freezer-safe bags or containers and freeze. I use quart ziplocks, squeeze all the air out then put that and a 3 x 5 recipe/ direction card of how to reheat in a Food Saver Bag. Suck out all the air and freeze flat so it stacks well. Makes 5 quart size bags and day of meal. So 6 meals of 4.

Heat and Eat Instructions: Thaw overnight in frig. Pour into a saucepan; heat over medium heat until hot and bubbly.

Chicken Enchiladas
this is about the tastiest white sauce I have ever had! Extras are great on a quesadilla too!
From this book
this is doubled from the original

2 onions- chopped
1 cup green pepper- I used red cause I had it
4 T butter or marg
4 cups cooked chicken or turkey - I used turkey cause I had extra frozen from the last time
8 oz canned green chili peppers, chopped and drained
6 T butter or marg
1/2 cup flour
2 t ground coriander
1 1/2 t. salt
5 cups chicken broth
2 cups sour cream
3 cups Monterrey Jack cheese, shredded
24 6 inch tortillas- I used the taco size flour ended up being about 17 enchiladas or 3 pans of 5 and two extra for a friend.

Cooking day instructions:
1. Cook onion and green pepper in 4T butter until tender. Combine onion mixture in a bowl with chicken and chili peppers; set aside.
2. For sauce, melt 6 T butter in a large sauce pan. Stir in flour, coriander and salt. Stir in chicken broth all at once; cook and stir until thicken and bubbly. Cook and stir 1-2 minutes more. Remove from heat; stir in sour cream and 1 cup of cheese. Stir 1 cup of sauce into chicken mixture.
3. Dip each tortilla into remaining sauce to soften. (I tried this with corn tortillas but they just broke all to crap no matter what I did so I scrapped that and used the flour and didn't dip- might have been cause I froze them previously) Fill each with about 1/4-1/2 cup of mixture. Roll up. Arrange rolls in a lined baking dish for freezing.
4. Pour remaining mixture sauce over enchiladas and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Freeze.

I used one of those tin disposable pans sprayed with canola. Then I put that in a gallon Zip lock and once frozen into a food saver with the recipe/ direction card.

Heat and Eat Instructions: Thaw completely. Bake uncovered at 350 for 25 minutes or until bubbly.


Creamy Basil Pork Chops
From this book, doubled

In two, 1 quart bags place:
2 T olive oil
4 pork chops
4 t. minced garlic

In two sandwich bags place:
1 T. olive oil
2 T chopped Basil (I used dried- I never use fresh, goes bad too fast)
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper

In two sandwich bags place:
1/3 cup heavy cream

Place one of all three bags in two 1 gallon bags and a recipe card. (so in each gallon bag: a bag of pork, a bag of spices and a bag of cream) I put those small bags in a food saver bag for freezing.
Freeze at flat as possible.

Cooking Day Directions:
1. Thaw completely. In a large skillet, heat pork, garlic and oil. Saute for 6-8 minutes per side,
until brown on both sides.
2. Meanwhile, mix the bag of oil and spices.
3. add to skillet a few minutes before pork is done. Be sure to coat pork evenly.
4. When pork is cooked through, remove from pan and keep warm
5. Whisk the cream into the pan drippings for 2-3 minutes over medium heat, until the sauce thickens slightly. Pour the sauce over the cooked pork and serve immediately.

*Disclaimer- have not tried this recipe yet. You could use chicken too.

Honey- Cinnamon Pork Chops with Carrots
From this book- doubled

In two, 1 gallon bags place:
1 bag (16 oz) frozen slices carrots
4 boneless pork chops, rinsed and patter dry
salt and pepper (I did about a 1/2 t. each)
1 can condensed tomato soup
1 T. cinnamon
1/3 cup honey

In a sandwich bag place:
2 T. shelled pistachios, chopped
1/4 cup raisins
For Garnish.

Cooking Day instructions:
moosh all ingredients in large bag then place in a 5 qrt crock pot. cook on low for 4-5 hours.
when done place raisins and pistachios on top for garnish.

Pecan "Stuffing" Chicken Breasts
From this book also- doubled

8 T. butter (could use a little less)
2 celery stalks- chopped
2 small onions- minced
2 1/2 t. salt- divided
4 cups crumbled toast (8 slices)
2 cups pecans- chopped
2 t. parley flakes
1/2 cup water
8 chicken breasts

Prep directions:
In a large skillet, melt butter and cook celery, onion, 1/2 of the salt and pepper until tender. stir in crumbled toast, chopped pecans, parsley flakes and 1/2 cup water. let cool.

In two, 1 gallon bags place:
cooled stuffing mixture
4 chicken breasts
other half salt and pepper

place those gallon bags in another gallon bag or food saver bag with recipe/direction card. freeze as flat as possible.

Cooking Day Instructions:
Thaw completely. Place all ingredients in the bag into a foil lined baking dish (or Demarle mold like this that I did) and bake 400 degrees for 20 minutes covered, 20 minutes uncovered or until chicken is cooked and tender. Stir as necessary.

Carmelized Pork Slices (I did Chops)
From this book- doubled

In two, quart bags place:
4 pork chops
2 t. minced garlic

In two, sandwich bags place:
2 T. packed brown sugar
1 T orange juice
1 T molasses
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper

Place both in a freezer or food saver bag with recipe/direction card. Freeze as flat as possible.

Cooking Day Instructions:
Thaw completely. Cook pork and garlic in skillet 6-8 minutes each side for chops, or total if doing slices turning occasionally, until pork is slightly pink in center.
Drain if necessary. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cook until mixture thickens and coats pork.

Cranberry Chicken
From this book again- doubled

In two, 1 gallon bags place:
8 oz Catalina dressing
1 pkg dry onion soup mix
1 lb can whole- berry cranberry sauce (I used homemade cause I had cranberries to use up)
4 chicken breasts

squish to mix together.
place those bags in a second freezer bag or food saver bag. Freeze as flat as possible.

Serving Day Instructions:
Thaw completely. Place chicken with sauce in greased baking dish, and bake uncovered at 350 for 1-1 1/2 hours.

Helpful Hints:
1. make sure you sqeeze out as much air as possible out of all bags. they freeze better and keep longer and save space that way
2. If you don't have a food saver, its fine, use a second freezerbag. If you plan to make meals to freeze long term or a lot of meals I highly reccomend the Food Saver. I have never had a problem with freezer burn with those bags but I have with double ziplocks.
3. Once you do a day of cooking or however many you do. Its easy to maintain. If you make a meal from scratch (or fake scratch) just make a double or triple batch and freeze the uneaten portions. You will always have a freezer stock this way.
4. Always freeze your meals flat so they take up less space and are easy to get back out. I just tossed one in when I ran out of time and it was wedged in between some stuff, it took forever to get it out of there.

Good luck! Most recipes can be accomodated to freezing. Enjoy!

Help! Save small businesses from CPSIA

One of my favorite little boutiques (the one who originally had my Lovey Doodle Diapers) may be closing soon! With the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, designed to protect our children from unsafe levels of lead in toys it is also written so poorly that many many small businesses will be forces to close their doors after February 10 2009. I am one of them. If this Act does not get changed from its current wording, I will be forced to never make a diaper again for sale. These laws are very strict in the lead testing for everything potentially for a child, which is good but to the extreme that they want these things tested is idiotic.

The companies that are left standing are left with so much higher costs that they will have to raise their rates drastically.

We can let our voices be heard. And heard and heard and heard! Take a moment to visit this link:
http://capwiz.com/americanapparel/issues/alert/?alertid=12274476 simply enter your name and address, and a prewritten letter will be emailed to your members of Congress letting them know that changes need to be made so that we can keep America's children safe without destroying American businesses.

NBD stands for National Bankruptcy Day - a name given to February 10th, 2009 because of the number of companies expected to go under. Don't let us disappear silently.

For more info please check out StyledBabyDesigns blog or google CPSIA (you get all kinds of fun things with that like all the people just like me who have to have fire sales for CPSIA). thank you for helping!

Here are some other links I found helpful:
Glory quilts Xanga site
Info about CPSIA

Jonathan's Due date

Today was my due date with Jonathan Mitchell Buquet. I have no words to describe the sadness in my heart when I think of the loss so immeasurable. I never thought it would be me.

My baby died and he is gone and my heart is still broken.

I love you little boy, for the rest of my life and for all that I do it will be in your memory and for your brother (and hopefully more someday) still living. I know that you are prefect and though your time with us was short, we are forever changed by your love and beauty.

Thank you for letting me be your mommy.

Terrific Twos!

They say its the Terrible 2's but I have never agreed. Its three's I have always thought were horrible. More on that another time. I have always loved the 2's because they are so excited to learn and discover new things. Everything is funny and even when they are naughty its usually in a "learning something new and trying to figure it all out sort of way" rather than just being naughty (like 3's!)

Which brings me to tonight. Grayson turns 2 next Tuesday. In the last week he is all of a sudden full of new words and doing all kinds of exciting new things. We talk a lot over his head and we keep reminding each other that we need to be more careful. Tonight Zack took G to Lowes to get somethings for the gift he is making G and he let G do the ringing up at the self serve check out counter. When they finished Zack told G he did a good job and he was the Boss. G looks at him and says "No. Mama boss, Dada boss". This was totally out of the blue. This is something we say sometimes, we usually ask G who is the boss is and he sometimes participates. (I am by the way- as if there was ever any question) He has also started climbing like crazy.

Tonight we learned that our little boy is almost cut down the middle equally sweet and naughty. He went and got a cloth napkin out of the drawer and was wiping up some milk that splashed out of his sippy cup on the dining room table while we were eating (us, not him, he refused his dinner- another new thing...) Then while we were commenting on what a good job he was doing cleaning up he flicked the straw on his cup so it spilled again... making another mess to sweetly clean up! He would wipe it up and immediately look up for approval.



Then when I took away his napkin to try and prevent this super fun game he climbed on the table to get it back. Before I knew it he was kneeling in the middle of my dining room table. I asked him where his tushie belonged- I thought implying that his butt belonged on the chair! But apparently he takes hints like his father cause he said "table" and sat down.

Now I know somewhere in San Diego my father is giving a high five to Sharon and saying pay back is a bitch and to that I reply, I was perfect and there is no one (if they know what is good for them) who will say otherwise... except you. And you can be replaced! :)

Things are looking up!

I hate that the last year has been nothing but sadness and bummer things on this blog. I hate that I have not had better to write about. But I think things are looking up. My spirits seem to be anyway.

~I have an interview tomorrow for a job twice a week.
~I have another interview for a different job twice a week on Wednesday or Thursday.
~both I can take G to.
~I love, love, love the family I am working for on Friday. Now if I could just get Mom to go back to work more time
~My van got a boo-boo the other day (long story short Zack hit a curb in the ice and broke my tire off) The estimate from the body place was $1700 and since we forgot to drop our deductible it was $1000 before they would cover anything! yikes. So we called our wonderful mechanic, Dave, and he was able to beat it by $500! Yeah! And he will take payments! We so appreciate this!
~We found out this month that the credit union we have our car loans at has a two month per year payment skipping program, just in case you need it. So this month were we run out of money, we skipped the payment.
~I have worked for G diapers in their booths and Grayson has modeled for them, all in exchange of diapers. To say I have a surplus is an understatement. I listed 13 of them on a used diaper website today (they were new) and got what I was asking with in hours of posting them! $184 richer!

These may all seem like little things but since last year it was nothing but lists and lists of bad things in a row, at least I am able to find a few good things in a row. Hey, maybe its like Elle and Erin keep saying. Maybe things are turning around in 09.

To write their Names in the Sand

You never know when life will throw you a curve. This year has been full of trials for my family. We know that eventually things will straighten out and get us back on the path we were once on.

Many people are connected through the losses of their children. Whether in pregnancy or shortly after birth or later. The loss is great and infinitely devastating and heart breaking. There is no way to know the pain you will feel, how many times your heart will break when you relive the moments your life changed forever. Everyday I grow a little more from this experience and know that everything happens for a reason and while Jonathan may not have lived to change the world, he changes the world a little bit every day from his place in all of our little hearts.

I was contacted by a lovely Angel today, Jen, who brought me this blog spot. It is dedicated to writing passed on children's names in the sand on the beaches of Australia.

They are amazing. Their photographs are gorgeous and I hope to get my sweet Jonathan's name written when they start taking names later in the month. I will let you know if its posted and have the photo here.

Cloth Diaper Info and Cloth Diaper Making Info

UPDATE::: See Diaper sprayer and wetbags for out and about and bio-soft liners.

When I became pregnant with Grayson I never knew that I would change in some of the ways that I did. All of a sudden I was wary of the microwave and leaving the room when it was in use and I was way more concerned with the environment and what we are doing to it and how we will leave it to our children and our children's children.
Don't get me wrong I was always caring of these things to the point that my previous boss called me "Green Peace" because I took her recycling home when she refused to change. :) Yes, I know. But whatever I digress.
Suddenly I was caring about things like diapers and how many I would consume if I had the 4 kids I would like. Roughly 20,000 by the way! That number to me was just staggering. One day I was flipping through a Cookie Magazine and saw an ad for G diapers. I immediately ran out and bought a starter kit to play with the flushable inserts before I was even 4 months pregnant!
After Grayson came and I had been using G's successfully for a while I decided I could use cloth in them. I loved that! Instead of having a pile of flushables (by the way- the pic on that page of little feet- ARE Grayson's! :) at the end of the day to flush I just put the cloth inserts in a diaper pail and washed every few days. One thing led to another and I decided to learn from a friend to make cloth diapers and use a combo of homemade cloth diapers, Bum Genius one size and G diapers.
The rest is history. I have taught many of my friends the ins and outs of cloth and shared my knowledge in lengthy emails and conversations. I decided to try and compile this information into one place so that I can point new comers, like my friend Erin who has sweetly asked me for this information a time or two... sorry again friend! Luckily she has a few months still. :)
So with out further ado:(Just in case someone doesn't know- anything in this blog that is a white word is CLICKABLE)
To start cloth diapering you will need:~ A diaper pail. I got mine at the container store for $14. I like the step on flip lid kind because I can be hands free. But any lidded can will work. You need a lid to keep in any smells. It makes a difference, believe me. (and later for keeping out tiny hands)
~ 2 Wet bags for in the can. I bought mine from a popular cloth diaper trading site and got them used for much cheaper. I recommend 2 so you immediately have one back in the pail while one is in the washer with your diapers.

UPDATED: for out and about I use the smaller version of those. These. I have about 4 so I can have some in the pail to be cleaned and some ready to be used. They can obviously be reused until they get soiled or stinky.

~Diapers. I recommend you try and think in advance about your washing habits. If you wait until one day a week to do all your laundry then you want more diapers, if you wash every other day, you can get away with less. I wash when my pail is full but I have enough to go two weeks really if I wanted to with all the inserts for the g diapers too. (But that is gross, too long to wait to wash cloth diapers!) I go about 5 days usually. Many of my friends wash every other day. The average cloth diaper should be changed every 2-3 hours. (disposable users often go longer but really who wants to sit in their poo or pee that long?!) so with an average of 10 diapers a day (more when they are little- less when they are older and sleep more at night) and the how often you wash or want to wash... 10 diapers a day washing every other day, you would need a min of 20 diapers. I am not always good at getting them washed and dried and put away all in the same day so a few extra of whatever number you figure out is good. Or if you get addicted to Diaper Swappers (link above) and you buy tons of cute ones to "try" or make a million of your own... this number goes out the window cause you end up with so many in rotation. :)

~ Wipes. I prefer cloth wipes with cloth diapers because its only one disposal, as opposed to throwing away yucky wipes open in a garbage or separately flushing flushable wipes. Cloth wipes just go in the pail along with separated* diapers. I have never rinsed out my wipes before washing just an FYI. Just wash as normal. I prefer a smooth fabric on one side: minky, flannel, velour or something of the like. And a rougher "grabby" side: terry, chenile, bamboo, hemp... the options are really endless and can be sooo cute! I love many of the ones on ETSY.COM. Go check them out. I have made some of mine but I am still trying to figure out the serger so they are not on my etsy cart yet.

~ Diaper solution. You can use water on your wipes but depending on your wipe fabrics it can make them slide awkwardly on babies buns. I recommend Ribbits Royal Heiny wash.

On their site its about $9.50 for 3 oz which will make about 60 cups of wipe solution. I found mine on DS for about $10 for a medium deli container. It has lasted me about 2 years and I am half way through- maybe. (not sure what the oz are I have...) but I have found that I can use one of the "bits" and then dilute further for longer use. It doesn't seem to affect anything. You can also just put a tiny bit of liquid soap in water and put that in your wipes warmer or your stray bottle.

~Wipe warmer, or spray bottle to spray wipe solution on wipes before use.I use a warmer. No cold butt for my boy! I like to have my wipes ready and a bottle is just another step to me. I make up my wipe solution and fill a bottle (mine is glass from goodwill cause it was pretty :) and have it next to the warmer for when the wipes run out.

~UPDATED: Diaper Sprayer. I use the one from cotton babies website but you can make one using the directions here. This is good for spraying on stuck on poo. (Who knew I would ever write that line!) Note: New Born BREAST MILK poo need not be strayed. It is water soluble and can be put right in the washer, where it will be completely washed away.

~UPDATED: Bio soft diaper liners. I used these too for helping to catch the poo. They are flushable and very easy to use. There are a variety of brands and textured and I am pretty sure I tried them all. I like these the best as they feel like cotton and are very soft and thin. You can also use a fleece liner you make but that was more work to me and I had to spray still. Might as well not bother in my world.

ALSO: Don't use common diaper rash cream (desitin, A &D etc) on cloth diapers without a liner! It can ruin them and hinder the absorption. I use lansinoh (like for breast feeding...) or a natural cream of the like. Burt's Bees makes a great one.

~For in the diaper bag I use flushables wipes mostly but I am trying to get better about carrying a small spray bottle and dry wipes. Fingers crossed.
*Separated diapers- if you use a pocket diaper you will need to take out the inserts for washing for them to be properly cleaned.
The hardest thing I have found about cloth diapering is finding a diaper bag big enough to hold them and all the junk I seem to accumulate. I made this one


and I love it but it still isn't big enough. I am a pack rat so that might have something to do with it. I bought the pattern for this one but considering its called the WEEKENDER it might be a bit much... neahh.

To buy diapers I love these sites:
www.punkinbutt.com

www.cottonbabies.com

www.loveydoodle.etsy.com ~that is my diaper site. :)

The sites I love for diaper making fabric are varied. I use minky in mine so I either get it from a coop on yahoo.com (will list below) or from The Fabric Depot which is local to me but they have great sales and are online too. If you get their email announcements its often 40-50% off. And they have a ton of minky. Don't use dot minky, its a pain to sew with and the dots get all wonky. PUL (the plastic coated outer layer in most cloth diapers) has to be obtained from a cloth diaper supply company or a coop.

www.verybaby.com ~my snap press is from here. I make one size diapers so this is necessary otherwise you can get away with out one. great for snaps (if you have this press- many are NOT compatible with others) and touch tape

www.sewdiapers.com ~this is the chat site for the very baby site. Much useful information here!

www.celticclothswholesale.com ~great hard to find fabrics, decent prices

www.neptunefabrics.com ~a large selection of PUL and good sales

www.clothdiapersites.com ~a place to search out something that you can't find specific to cloth diapers. though it is an advertising sight so you may have better luck searching on google and changing your search a few times.

A coop is a group where one or a few gals take every ones money and order and put it toward designated purchases to get the best price available for everyone. The ones I am listing here are ones I have personally used with no ill effects. These are people who I trust but make sure you do your own research and keep good records of where you send your money so you can make sure to get things coming to you. Coops can take a LONG time so be sure you are willing to wait and know that just because they say it will be here in a month doesn't always mean a month. There are many steps things take before they get back in your hands and if anyone of them is lagging it can take longer. That said many are pretty fast. If you are still interested in coops (LOL) here is the info: (Please tell them Jaimey Buquet sent you so they know you are not a spammer)

This End Up ~Denise the owner of this coop is AMAZING! She was so generous with me after I found out about Jonathan (her son's name she later told me) she held an auction on her coop and raised $600 for my family and another $150 for Now I lay me down to sleep. org. She has never met me or talked to me on the phone. She just felt a heart tug and had to help and we are still awed by her generosity and forever grateful for her kindness. I have done many coops with Denise and she is by far my favorite and the most organized.

By the yard and more ~ often has PUL and minky.

Cloth Diaper Fabrics ~Angie has been great and I highly recommend her as well. I have only bought once from her but super easy and fast.

Cloth Diaper Supplies ~ Stacey gets a bit grouchy sometimes but she runs a good coop and things are always great quality.

SMD Presales ~Okay, this one has a story. But let me preface it with the fact that I was on here for over a year buying fabric with never even a slight bump. Apparently, before I was on her coop she had some problems. I don't know anything other than what I have read. This is a use at your own risk and definitely don't do too many buys at once just in case but Again, I never had a problem and I would estimate I did at least 10-15 coop buys with her without incident.

Okay, I guess the only thing left to mention is my washing routine. I know if you have stumbled on this blog and you a FT cloth user you are probably shaking your head at my fumbling around but most of my friends that are interested in this are very new to the whole cloth idea so its good to be very general. Thanks for bearing with me!

I have a top load washer. I use do a COLD quick wash to get out the main yuckies and pee before the main wash. In this cycle I put a 1/2 scoop of oxyclean and a few "rounds" (round the rub while squirting) of Bioclean- Bac Out I get it from Punkinbutt.com because I love the owner, Audrey and she is local but also because she will refill my gallon jug for cheaper. After the cold wash, I run a HOT wash for the normal time I wash everything else, on my machine its 10 (I guess it stands for minutes though I never really noticed if it is that long or not) with it I put a scoop of Charlies Soap (laundry powder- also on a coop for about half the price) and two rounds of bac-out. When that is done I do a final rinse to make sure everything is out.

I rarely have any issues with ammonia but when I do I strip the diapers by washing in hot water for two cycles. (if they are dirty you still need the cold wash first) When the water is done filling on the first cycle, add a few rounds of DAWN dish soap the plain blue one. Do this until it just starts to make bubbles. Then for the next cycle do nothing and rinse until the water runs completely clear. Ammonia build up means there is something "sticky" in your diaper fibers for the ammonia attach to.

I tend to do an abbreviated version of stripping about every third time I wash, which means I just do the DAWN in place of Charlie's and rinse until clear.

You can either line dry or use the drier for most diapers. I use a dryer cause in the Pacific NW the line really isn't an option in the winter. In the summer or anywhere warm year round, the sun is great at bleaching out those tough to get poo stains that might accumulate.

Okay!? Still with me in this novel?

That's all I got to say about that. (forest gump)

If you have any questions feel free to email me...

Make your own Diaper Sprayer.

Supplies needed (you can get them at any hardware store):
3/8" x 3/8" x 3/8" tee
barb splicer
sink sprayer
(2)hose clamps
toilet supply line

1. Shut off water at the valve behind the toilet
2. Remove supply line to toilet from the valve
3. Install 3/8" x 3/8" x 3/8" tee to valve (One end
should behorizontal- the other two are up & down)
4. Take the removed supply line and install it to the
tee- the top of the tee
5. Cut off large end of new toilet supply line
6. Insert the barb splicer (this will connect the
toilet supply line and the sprayer)
7. Put hose clamp on the new toilet supply line
8. Cut off very end of the sink sprayer
9. Install on the other end of the barb splicer
10. Add all of this to the other end of the
3/8"x3/8"x3/8" tee - which is horizontal
11. You are finished. You can buy a hook to hang the
sprayer on the wall.

about $17 total cost

I took these to the local hardware store
and they initially groaned,
but they got really into the project and
essentially made it for me!!
A couple notes I would add is to measure
your pipe to make sure
of the size (mine was different) and add a valve
at the bottom (right
where it Ts with the pipe).
That will keep the sprayer from shooting water
everywhere anytime its bumped.

The valve pushed mine to about $20,
before that it was about $18

(directions borrowed from the gdiaper yahoo group)

Happy New Year 2009!

I wish everyone who reads this blog a Happy New Year!

Resolutions! ahhh resolutions. Who has them? Lose weight, gain prosperity. Lose the drama, gain an education. They really run the gamete.

This year mine are not really resolutions so much as goals, I know same thing right, well not really. A resolution is something you want to do differently than you have been doing it previously. Save money because you have been too frivolous. Lose weight because you have been too glutenous. Mine are goals because while I NEED change, much of this year has been beyond my control. I have goals to change things but can't be too resolute about many of them.

My Goals:
1. Support my husband in his getting of a job
2. Get a job
3. Attempt to keep house, like literally
4. Try to keep my cool better and not get annoyed as easily
(this might be more of a resolution...)
5. Try to get over my fear of getting pregnant and get pregnant
6. Be the best mommy I can be to Grayson
7. Get organized in my head, heart, life and house
8. Maintain a workout routine.
I would like for this one to be lose weight but if I achieve #5 that just won't be possible
9. Be kind with my words but first in my heart
10. Try to be less of a hermit and call my friends more

That's them in all their glory
What are yours?