Celebrate our Earth! Wet Bag GIVEAWAY from Recycle Fashionably!-CLOSED

Winner: Trisha Grimes, I sent an email your way. You have 48 hours to respond. I love you all! Thanks for being so nice to our earth!

Tomorrow is EARTH DAY!!!

Hi Earth, how you doin'?

Did you know in the past 50 years, humans have consumed more resources than in ALL previous history? * Eeek! Even one small change in our routine makes a difference and those changes and those people add up!

In celebration, Recycle Fashionably is giving one of my readers a wet bag, The Baby Mate. Yeah!




Isn't it cute? I totally want one!

The Baby Mate is PERFECT for all your gross and non-dry needs! That poo explosion? Throw it in the Baby Mate! Potty training accident while at the grocery store? Throw that outfit in the Baby Mate! Do you cloth diaper? Throw the dirty diapers in the baby mate! Out with your friends for happy hour and they made you laugh so hard you peed your cute underwear? Babymate! See, it really works in all situations!

My friend Aurora started Recycle Fashionably and her mission is to keep plastic bags out of landfills. Her bags are adorable and if you saw how cute Aurora is you would totally get why her bags really ARE so fashionable! Aurora, will you be my personal stylist and teach me how to dress cute? Along with this adorable wet bag, you can view her grocery bags (Environ Mate) and gym bags (Sweat Mate). These bags are very well made and THICK. I'm pretty sure I could curl into a ball inside the Environ Mate and my husband could tote me around without even stressing the bag (We won't talk about the damage I would do to his back, will we?! HA!). The point-her bags are hard core! Being super business woman and crazy talented, Aurora just opened up Fabric Bliss in Denver. She sells super cute fabric, her bags and all sorts of local goods including my headbands. If you are in Denver, you should go in there and ask her for the business woman special. Aurora, you need a business woman special!

Want to win a Baby Mate???


MANDATORY

Head over to Recycle Fashionably facebook and fan her page. Easy peasy! Come back here and leave me a comment telling me you are a fan of her facebook page! Make sure to include your email so I can get a hold of you if you win.


EXTRA ENTRIES (Leave a separate comment on this post for each entry you completed below.)

1. Follow Aurora's blog.
2. Follow my blog.
3. Fan Fabric Bliss on facebook.
4. Follow Recycle Fashionably on Twitter.
5. Tweet this giveaway. One tweet per day. Leave me the link in a comment.
6. Tell me what YOU do to be green. Limited to ONE comment!
7. Tell me what event you are attending for Earth Day!


EVENTS!

Check out the Earth Day website, A Billion Acts of Green for a list of events!
Cloth diaper? Join me at The Great Cloth Diaper Change! (I'll be with Eco-POLITAN.)


*For that fact and more including sources, visit Ecocycle.org.


Giveaway ends May 19th at midnight. Winner will be notified by email and has 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be selected. All winners selected through random number generator.

A big thanks to Recycle Fashionably and Happy almost Earth Day!!!

The Great Cloth Diaper Change and Helpful Cloth Diapering Tips

I know, I'm totally obsessed with diapers. I think I'll have to go to weekly meetings once my kids are both potty trained to get over the pain of not diapering them in total cuteness. The recent discovery of an amazing cloth diaper store is just fanning the flames. It's crazy to really love the things my children poop in but I do, I love cloth diapers!



The other day I walked into Eco-POLITAN. It's a green baby store in Lakewood, CO but if you aren't local, they have an amazing website. Yay! Robin (Owner and mommy.) was in the store and she totally SCHOOLED me on diapers... and I loved every second of it! Eco-POLITAN is one of the locations for The Great Cloth Diaper Change and you can sign up through their site or a location closer to you. There are 400 locations around the world and they are going for a Guiness World Record in celebration of Earth Day. Join me!!!



I'm really excited to show you the new diapers in the Strebel household. I never really understood why anyone would not want a super easy all in one diaper but now I get it. I GET IT!! I see the light! I'm going to show you the diapers in later posts so look out for those. I'm a happy mommy right now!

First, a few things I learned that might help you if you cloth diaper:

Diaper pails: With disposables, these are a must. We went without a diaper pail for the first year of Sawyer's life but the smell was terrible. Diapers smell... bad. I had NO IDEA that I was suppose to flush all poop down the toilet when using disposables. The smell drove me to actually purchase a diaper pail. Now that we are on cloth, a reusable bag for the diaper pail just made more sense. The cloth bag IN the pail prevents the lid from closing and sealing. It's amazing to me that most of the time our diaper pail is not sealed and it's NOT smelly because we dump all poop down the toilet. Long story longer, as my friends would say, I wasn't sure if I was using my diaper pail wrong or bought the wrong type of wet bag. The answer? I'm not an idiot and I wasn't using it wrong. Phew! Obviously cloth wet bags are thicker than trash bags and the diaper pails really aren't built for the thicker material. If you are going to cloth diaper, get a wet bag and use the type of trash can you would have in your kitchen. They also have wet/dry bags that seal. Hang those from the back of your door. Clean diapers in front, dirty diapers in back. Brilliant!

Image here.


Inserts: Yeah, yeah, we all know that you throw an insert into a pocket diaper but for some reason it never occurred to me that I can stuff an insert into my all in one diapers for night time diapering. The next problem would be choosing an insert, there are MANY to choose from! My next lesson, materials! Microfiber absorbs FAST and pulls moisture away from the skin. Hemp doesn't absorb as fast but absorbs MORE so what you want is microfiber near that tushy and hemp behind the microfiber. I had NO idea WHERE you put the insert mattered. Hi lightbulb in head!

Image here.
Knickernappies are a popular insert and they are sewn in a loop so they dry quicker. LOVE the fast drying time!


Bleach and Detergent: I've heard bleach was a major no-no with cloth but the last shipment of Bum Genius diapers specified washing diapers with bleach once a month... and I was sooo confused. Robin informed me that most diapers will say NOT to wash with bleach and some diaper companies warn bleach will completely void your warranty but Bum Genius may have made their lining in such a way that it holds up to bleach. Unless I'm only washing my bum genius in a load, I'm going to guess it's wise to avoid bleach all together. And speaking of washing, I learned that everyone is pushing less detergent but sometimes that really isn't the case. You can't get a really dirty load clean on a tabespoon of detergent so use more if needed. If the diapers smell dirty, you need more detergent, if they smell like soap, you need another rinse. If they smell like NOTHING you did good job... unless your detergent is scented. Really it's about figuring our your machine, your detergent and just a little trial and error! I promise, it's not any more difficult than figuring out how you need to rinse your dishes before putting them in the dishwasher to get the best results from your machine.

Charlie's Soap has the strictest instructions: Wash out your machine first with Charlie's Soap and old rags. After that, use Charlie's Soap on EVERYTHING to prevent any buildup on your machine that will get on your diapers. I had a friend tell me the same thing once and thought it might be overkill. From OUR experience she was right, Charlie's Soap instructions are dead on. Whatever soap works for your cloth diapers should be used for EVERYTHING. If you change up your soap, go back and wash out your machine with the cloth detergent and rags. I found washing all of our clothes in the same detergent as the cloth was huge in preventing rashes and keeping our diapers pee thirsty! Mmmmm.


And if you are on disposables... just dump that poop in the toilet! Easy peasy!



Love you guys and a huge thanks to Eco-POLITAN. Join us April 23, 2011 for The Great Cloth Diaper Change!

And Sean Makes Three

I have been dying to take pictures of an adorable, squishy newborn ever since I got my hands on one of the Canon 50mm lens. Everyone said how great it was for portraits and now I love it too...

But not as much as I love this little guy! Meet Sean! He is about two weeks old and just the sweetest little thing. I met his mommy about a year a half ago and she was soooo awesome to let me into her home and get some of the first pictures of this adorable little one. His daddy had to travel for work that day and mom was still cool, calm and relaxed, not to mention beautiful. I would of been a hormonal mess! Sean is one lucky little dude to have such great parents!










A HUGE thank you and congrats to the Ryan family!

How do you know you're a clean freak?

My mom was a psycho clean freak growing up.

Now I know she REALLY is on the mental ill side, not joking BUT growing up we didn't see her as ill. We saw her clean things like a camera crew was going to burst into the door at any minute and any dust speck would equal a pubic lashing.

In all honesty I really enjoyed never having a dirty house. My clothes didn't stay in the hamper longer than a day. Sheets were washed once a week if not more. There was never, EVER a dirty dish in the sink. There was never a spot of food left in the sink. I could walk barefoot on the floors without a worry something might get stuck to the bottom of my foot. Our. House. SPARKLED.

On the flip side, my mother was not a mom. I can get into this... or not but I'll make it quick. We haven't spoke since I was in high school. She slipped into an incredible depression, she took lots of prescription drugs. She found her source of happiness in other men. She could of cared less about me and my brother. She was verbally and a handful of times physically abusive to me. In her words I was a cunt, a slut, a B-word (why is it that I can say cunt but not the b-word?), and no one would EVER love me. Basically she took her own fears and projected them onto me.

She took solace in cleaning. In all her months of depression and self-deprecation she still kept a sparkly clean house. Nothing was going to get in her way of an immaculate living space. I hurt my knee and was on crutches for a month and I guess when I walked or crutched my way away from the sink, I made a crease in the floor rug in front of the sink that sent her into such a rage, she ran after and and pushed me to the ground screaming.

My dad and step mom didn't care so much about hair on the floor or dishes in the sink but they cared about US. They cared about supporting our passions and being involved in our lives. They didn't sweep the floors twice a day but they made sure to attend every game and cheer practice.

I have WAY more fond memories of my dad and step mom in a not super clean house versus my mom and step dad in a crazy clean house.

Can I say something really quick: I'm not posting all this for anyone to feel sorry for the way we were raised, we are talking about CLEANING here! And really, growing up in a tough environment made me tougher, I'm actually appreciative of this. I knew I could depend on no one and got myself into college and became a pretty damn awesome person BUT I'm realizing I like things CLEAN.

And wonder, as much as I strived to be the EXACT opposite of my mother, how alike are we?

I like things more on the sparkly side.

I HATE stuff on the floor. If I feel uncomfortable barefoot then I have waited way too long to sweep the floor.

Speaking of cleaning the floor, Geoff wonders why I do it on my hands and knees (Okay, let the jokes roll in.), but no other method gives better results. I like it on my knees!

I'm not sure how many times I disinfect the counter daily.

I like all beds to be made every morning.

I vacuum at least ever other day if not every day.

I HATE dishes in the sink. NO DIRTY DISHES IN THE SINK EVER! EVER! It's weird because I could care less if I go somewhere and there are dirty dishes in the sink, I just can't stand it in MY sink.

Sheets must be washed once a week.

Kids rooms must look tidy and toys put away every night.

The living room must be clutter free before bed time.

I can't stand hair ANYWHERE. Hi, no animals in this house!

I'm not saying that our house is always clean. I have an almost three year old and an almost one year old. Once I clean something up, they mess it up, I find beauty in that. I hope to ALWAYS find beauty in that.

And, of course after a glass or two of wine all rules are thrown out the window!

Am I a clean freak?

Am I my mother?

What is normal in the cleaning house world as a mother? What is not? What is acceptable to YOU? What is not?

I guess ultimately I want to make sure my family feels comfortable in their own home and above that want them to know and FEEL that I am there for them and will happily take any sporting event, chess tournament or spelling bee they participate in over scrubbing the dinging room floor.

And never call them a cunt.

Point? Make sure my children are sporty and I'm well hydrated; wink, wink.

Brains After Baby?

I can remember my junior high cheerleading routine but can't FOR THE LIFE OF ME remember what I did yesterday.

The thingy (I'm very technical.) I use to plug into my ipod at work isn't long enough to be plugged in with the case ON my ipod. Every week I forget this small fact and try to jab the plug thingy into my ipod while the case is STILL on. Every week. Seriously.

I can remember that Sawyer left his "Bank-ette" (blanket) in the master bathroom but forget why I walked in the bathroom in the first place.

Tell me memory returns. Tell me...

Shadows

http://iheartfaces.com
I decided to enter my first picture in the Iheartfaces photography challenge.

The theme was shadows and more than anything I want to be challenged to try and take DIFFERENT pictures.

Shadows was a rough assignment... or maybe I've been out of school too long!



Here are the boys working on the Jeep!

Washing Machines are Evil. That and People Annoy Me.

My blog has been all rainbow poo and baby smiles but you knew big-mouth me was going to come back sooner or later right?

I am all happy and in dreamy land with my camera and my babies but then I saw a post on facebook yesterday that just

set.

me.

off.

I have a friend; first time pregnant, trying to make decisions, sort all of this baby nonsense stuff out; post something about the AMOUNT of cloth diapers there are to choose from.

There are a lot. It's kind of overwhelming.

One of her friends wrote her saying she should maybe re-think her decision to cloth.

That in itself pisses me off. Who is this chick to tell another mom what to do?

The best part were her arguments: Boys pee more than girls, you'll be doing laundry twice a day, she wouldn't last a MONTH on cloth and will be in disposables anyway, they aren't good for the environment, they cost more money than disposables, etc.

Are you laughing yet?

Or are you pissed?

I'm still kinda pissed. Fist off, she says to re-think the cloth decision. F you chick! I mean, REALLY?!?! You are the master mother we should all base our motherhood decisions on what you say?

She said that this new mom will be on disposables in an a month so might as well not try cloth. Well, I'm sorry YOU are a failure and a lazy ass but that isn't EVERYONE.

Laundry twice a day? Did you cloth diaper with only two in your stash? I do laundry every other day and still have a few left that are clean.

Boys pee more than girls? Let me see your scientific evidence doctor.

Not good for the environment? I used this lame excuse too... when using disposables and not wanting to do any more research.

Let me have someone else sum it up for you:

It is estimated that roughly 5 million tons of untreated waste and a total of 2 billion tons of urine, feces, plastic and paper are added to landfills annually. It takes around 80,000 pounds of plastic and over 200,000 trees a year to manufacture the disposable diapers for American babies alone. Although some disposables are said to be biodegradable; in order for these diapers to decompose, they must be exposed to air (oxygen) and sun. Since this is highly unlikely, it can take several hundred years for the decomposition of disposables to take place, with some of the plastic material never decomposing.

The untreated waste placed in landfills by dirty disposable diapers is also a possible danger to contaminating ground water. Pro-disposable advocates say that cleaning cloth diapers uses more energy and contributes to the load on sanitary sewer systems and potential water pollution. This view really makes no sense if you think about it. The amount of water used per week to wash cloth diapers at home is about the same amount consumed by an adult flushing the toilet four or five times daily for a week. Also, the greater amount of water and energy being used by diaper service companies to wash large amounts of cloth diapers multiple times; the per diaper impact on energy and water supplies is actually less than home washing.

Finally, when flushing solids from a cloth diaper down the toilet and washing the diapers in a washing machine, the contaminated, dirty water from both toilet and washing machine go into the sewer systems where they are properly treated at wastewater plants. This treated wastewater is much more environmentally friendly than dumping untreated soiled disposable diapers into a landfill.

And if WASHING diapers are terrible for the environment than we better get rid of our clothes and dishes. HEAVEN FORBID we wash that stuff. We'll use paper and styrofoam dishes, throw-away hospital gowns and trash every towel after use.

DO NOT WASH YOUR REUSABLE ITEMS, it's BAD.
I'm pretty sure I couldn't type a statement more stupid than above.

Cloth diapers cost more than disposables? I switched to cloth because I was damn sick of spending $100 a month on diapers. I spent $250 total on my stash including a wet bag. I spend $20 ever five or so months on Country Save detergent and our electric bill when up about $10 dollars since I started cloth but it's also the same time we started using the hot tub. I'm taking a wild guess that the hot tub takes up most of the extra energy.


More importantly, aren't we over this crap? This judgey, do what I do and if you don't you're wrong parenting CRAP?!?! If a mom decides to use disposables, COOL. If they decide to cloth, COOL! Co-sleeping versus crib, bottle versus breast, cry it out versus soothe? I mean, you are MOM and you know BEST for YOUR baby so lets support other moms trying to do their very best raising THEIR baby.

It takes a village.

And basically: I. Support. YOU. I support YOUR decisions. I support YOU GUYS doing whatever you can do to be the best mommy and daddy even if it's not what I do.

If you are going to be all judgemental then you are kicked out of my village. The tribe has spoken.

I Totally MADE Her!

We had a tutu party while her brother was napping. Note to self: get a tutu.

My Husband's Girlfriend

Look at her all slutty, purposely standing so can see right up her skirt.