Crafting in my Closet!: April 2012

Monday, April 30, 2012

Goodies for Mommies Giveaway

I'm so happy to be a part of this goodies for mommies giveaway. I myself have an awesome mother and I strive everyday to be an awesome mom to my girls. I hope one of the coolest blog followers ever (Ie, a Crafting in my Closet reader!) wins this awesome giveaway! (Could I have used Awesome any more? no? Awesome!) =)

Welcome to Goodies for Mommies Giveaway!

No one in the world can take the place of your mother. Right or wrong, from her viewpoint you are always right. She may scold you for little things, but never for the big ones. ~Harry Truman

Jade of Happy Home and Family and Diva Fabulosa fashion blog

would like to celebrate Mother's Day by giving 5 lucky mommies some goodies.

Sponsored by: Mama Never Told Me ,WhatToExpect.com , How to Rock Your Baby, & Dryper's Wee Wee Dry

Health and Beauty Diva and Best Vacation Places

There will be 5 package at stake. Each winner will get the following (prizes will be sent separately by the corresponsing sponsor)

$20 in CASH or AMAZON GIFT CODE
Mama Never Told Me books by Emily Van Do - Retail Value $9.95 each
A Choice of What To Expect Books by Heidi Murkoff - Retail Value $ 8.97 - $19.11
How to Rock Your Baby - $10.19
Dryper's Baby Shirts (For Philippine residents only)

Goodluck Mommies!!

Mother's Day is almost here and we are celebrating with our love for cloth diapers!

Welcome to the Mother's Day Cloth Diaper Giveaway Hop hosted by Daily Mothering! Nearly 100 blogs have linked up to bring you dozens and dozens of exciting cloth diaper giveaways. Enter my giveaway below and then hop to the other blogs listed at the bottom of this post to enter their fluffy giveaways too! Each blog has a cloth diaper prize valued at $15 or more, and many blogs have prize packs worth over $100. And, don't forget to enter the GRAND PRIZE giveaway at Daily Mothering for your chance to win this amazing $1300 Cloth Diaper Prize Pack!

I'm so excited to bring you this awesome giveaway! I couldn't have done it without my awesome sponsors, Rockin' Green Soap, Glow Bug Diapers, Sunbaby Diapers, Baby Babu Diapers, and CJ's BUTTer. I hope you all read my sponsor spotlights leading up to this awesome giveaway. So now onto the fabulous prize package one lucky winner will get!

Mother's Day cloth Diaper hop: Sponsor Spotlight Baby Babu

From May 1-12, 2012 I'll be participating in the Daily Mothering Mothers day blog hop. Daily Mothering will be having a huge grand prize package of Awesome cloth diapers and other great things!

As the giveaway gets closer I'll have more information about the grand prize. There are 100 different blogs participating! So many awesome possibilities to win cloth diapers!

I was given the opportunity to review Baby Babu, and I am very impressed. For such a new company they are very on the ball, and a real pleasure to work with.

Mothers day Cloth Giveaway hop: Sponsor spotlight: Sunbaby Diapers

From May 1-12, 2012 I'll be participating in the Daily Mothering Mothers day blog hop. Daily Mothering will be having a huge grand prize package of Awesome cloth diapers and other great things!

As the giveaway gets closer I'll have more information about the grand prize. There are 100 different blogs participating! So many awesome possibilities to win cloth diapers!

I was given the opportunity to try sunbaby diapers and sunbaby has been really cool and will be giving one diaper to the winner of my giveaway from May 1st -12th.

Mothers day cloth diaper hop: Sponsor spotlight: Glow bug Diapers.

When I started cloth diapering, I used Pre-folds and covers. After a little bit I switched to AIO's and tried a few pocket diapers. I love my AIO's, I wasn't really a fan of the pockets. For two main reasons, one, Morgen sucks at un-stuffing the pockets so I would end up having to rewash them because I would have the insert hanging half out even after a full rinse, wash and rinse. The second reason was that stuffing diapers is a pain, and when you have a 3 year old who wants all the attention on her all the time, a baby with reflux, housework and still want time to do some sewing or spend time with my husband, I want ot make things as easy as possible. So My solution was to chuck the pockets I had to the bottom of the diaper box and use only my AIO's.

Mothers Day Cloth Diaper hop Sponsor Spotlight: Rockin' Green!

From the moment I signed up for this hop, I knew the first company I would contact would be Rockin' Green. I already use their amazing detergent and ammonia bouncer, so I knew they would be a perfect sponsor for this hop. I'm So excited that Rockin' Green has generously offered to give the winner of my prize pack a bag of Rockin' green in their scent of choice!

Sponsor spotlight: CJ's BUTTer

From May 1-12, 2012 I'll be participating in the Daily Mothering Mothers day blog hop. Daily Mothering will be having a huge grand prize package of Awesome cloth diapers and other great things!

As the giveaway gets closer I'll have more information about the grand prize. So far there are 97 different blogs participating! So many awesome possibilities to win cloth diapers!

I have a great prize pack lined up for you from some wonderful sponsors. Today I'm going to tell you about my first sponsor, CJ's BUTTer.

kids clothing week.

I'm so excited, Monday starts kids clothing week! I look forward to this every year so I can work on Tabitha's summer wardrobe! I have so many ideas of stuff I want to do, so everyone needs to keep me accountable! I'm really going to try to make one thing a day this week! Wish me luck!

Friday, April 20, 2012

Real Diaper week continues!

Tomorrow is the Great Cloth Diaper Change event and I'm so excited! Today's real Cloth Diaper week challenge was re-use.

We already are pretty good when it comes to re-using, we want to get as much out of something before throwing it away as possible. We use reusable water bottles, cloth sacks instead of plastic bags (for the most part, we still use plastic for raw meat, but then we re-use the bags as trash bags in the bathrooms). We use cloth swim diapers and have since Tabitha started swim lessons right after her first birthday, we use re-useable snack containers and I'm pretty good at using reusable everything when it comes to diapering but we had planed on Tabitha still wearing diapers at night. But little mis had other ideas. She wants her potty in her room and wants to be able to go when she needs to. But she's still not waking up dry every morning, she is most mornings but its not enough yet for me to put her in panties at night. We've been using pull ups at night but after looking at the cost and realizing it could take up to a year before she's fully night time potty trained we decided to buy a pack of flip trainers. They come with 5 inserts and as long as she doesn't get the shell dirty she can wear it more than once, plus I already do a load of diapers every day so its not like it's any more laundry.

Another area morgen and I have been talking about is paper towels and napkins. We use them all the time and really making reusable paper towels would be so easy. Double sided flannel in the size of paper towels with snaps on both sides so they can wrap around the paper towel holder. Easy peasy. So I'm making the pledge to stop using paper towels and paper napkins while at home. I plan to make a tutorial on how to make cloth "Paper" towels and I'll post it here in the coming weeks.
In the mean time here are some links I think may be helpful in switching to cloth full time.

Traveling with Cloth Diapers

Cloth Diapering Overnight

Top 10 (Money and Earth saving) Reuse tips

I hope many of you are planning on attending the Great Cloth Diaper change event near you tomorrow! Let me know if you went and i'd love to see pictures posted to my facebook page!

Check here for a location near you.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Real Diaper week

This week is real diaper week, and this Saturday Evangeline and I will be participating in the great cloth diaper change. I'm very excited and to go along with this week the Cloth Diapering bloggers are writing posts talking about the amazing benefits of cloth diapering.
With Tabitha we used disposables. I had really wanted to cloth diaper, but our living situation was just not conductive to cloth diapering. With Evangeline, I was determined. To get morgen on board, I showed him all the receipts from Tabitha's diapers over the 2 1/2 years she was in disposables (I bought my diapers on amazon, so i saved all my receipts on the computer). I showed him that we had spent close to $3000 over 2 1/2 years on diapers alone. Not including wipes. We had already been using re-useable swim diapers, and since i breastfeed my girls exclusively the diaper can go straight into the wash, no dunking or anything. I also showed him we could get flushable liners to use when she gets older and starts eating solids. When morgen realized we could spend between $300-500 compared to $3000, he was sold. The part that really sold me though, was the fact that my great great grandchildren will be alive before Tabitha's disposable diapers degrade in the landfills.
Another selling point for me, less smell. We used a diaper champ with Tabitha and took it out every few days, but even then the thing always smelled. Now we use planet wise wet bags and I wash diapers every day. I do one load of diapers a day. Its really not that much extra work and once you get into the routine, it doesn't even seem like extra work.
Another great thing about cloth diapers? No diaper rash. Tabitha always had terrible diaper rash. We were always slathering her up to try to clear it. Before Tabitha was potty trained we switched her to cloth too. She wore pre-folds with covers and her diaper rash improved tremendously. Eva has never had a rash.
I LOVE our cloth diapers. We use one size diapers, which means they have snap down rise and fit from 10 to about 35 lbs. Not only will Eva be able to wear these diapers the whole time she is in diapers, our next baby will be able to also.
In May I will be taking part in the Mothers day cloth giveaway hop hosted by Daily mothering. I have some great prizes lined up for my awesome readers, and Daily Mothering has an amazing grand Prize giveaway that will run during the same time. I'll be starting my sponsor spotlights later this week so you can see what awesome products i'll be giving away. Stay tuned! And if you have any questions about cloth diapering don't be afraid to ask!

Eva in her Bum Genius Freetime in Sassy. One of my Favorite diapers.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Solstice Sunglasses Giveaway!

Welcome to the Solstice Giveaway, presented by CouponTrade.com, Solsticesunglasses.com and Moms with Voices Media! 3 lucky winners will receive a $100 eGift Certificate for Solstice Sunglasses CouponTrade.com is the newest location to save, because they offer both coupons AND discounted gift cards. Whats more? You can SELL your gift cards there too! Solstice offers so many great styles and brands of sunglasses, you will have a hard time choosing how to spend your prize! Best of all, free shipping and returns! Entry is simple, just fill out the Rafflecopter form below!

Seamingly Smitten Sewing pattern Giveaway!

If you've been reading my blog for a bit, you've no doubt heard me gush about Seamingly Smitten patterns. Jennifer of Seammingly smitten has created some amazing patterns. I have been lucky enough to be a pattern tester for two of her latest patterns. One thing I love about Seamingly Smitten's patterns are they are written tutorial style, so you can learn new techniques as you sew. They also have very detail step by step full color photos to help you along your way. Seamingly smitten offers PDF patterns for women and children!
The first pattern I got to test was the double ruffle halter dress. I made it for Tabitha for St. Patricks day. Tabitha LOVES this dress. I plan to make a few of them. This dress is so easy to make and is so stinking cute on!

The second pattern I got to try was the pillow case dress. This dress was incredibly easy to put together. I loved making this dress. Its definitely one where the fabric does all the talking. I had some beautiful G.E. Designs, Gudrun Erla for Red Rooster Fabrics, fabric that was perfect for this dress. Tabitha being on the tall side, next time I make this I will probably add an inch or two to the bottom.

So what does this mean to you? Well Jennifer has offered to give two winners their choice of 3 e-patterns from her store!! How cool is that? I'm totally jealous of whoever wins! Want to know some of the patterns I would try? I'll take your silence as a yes! HAHA.

The first one I want to try os the Ruffle Galore Pinafore and Ruffles Galore Pants. Oh EM GEE! I can just imagine how incredibly adorable Evangeline would look in this! Plus I love that this pattern goes from 6 months to 6 years! So versatile! I would love to make Eva and Tabitha coordinating Pinafores! They would be so adorable! Right?

The Second Pattern I LOVE! is the Ruffled Collared Cape. So stinking cute! Oh I am so buying this one to make the girls capes for Christmas this year. I love the ruffle and I just can get over how adorable my girls would be in this! This pattern goes from 9 months to 8 years, and since its a PDF you can get tons of use out of it.

The third pattern I love is the Classic A-Line dress Pattern. Its REVERSIBLE! I love that! Two dresses in one! And if your kid is a messy eater, blamo turn the dress inside out and no one will be the wiser! This pattern is 6 months to 6 years so again you get tons of use out of it. Super easy and would be perfect for a beginning sewer. This dress has one pattern piece which is pretty cool and I for one can't wait to try it.

Are you ready to win some great patterns? Awesome! Just fill out the raffle copter below and good luck! Make sure you check out Seamingly Smitten's Etsy store to drool over the patterns you want to try too!

This giveaway is from 12:01 Friday April 13- 12:01 Friday April 20th. Open to the USA and Canada. I was not paid for this review, all views are my own.

want to win an Ipad?

head on over to Bay area mommy and enter to win an Ipad 2 or a Kindle fire!! Go Here now!

Tuesday, April 03, 2012

Natural House giveaway

Hey all, Melissa over at the coupon bible is doing a natural house review and giveaway! go on over to read her review! you can enter here too. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Whimsey Couture Ruffle Neck Romper

This weekend I had the opportunity to try out the Ruffle Neck Romper pattern by Whimsey Couture. It came out really cute. There was a bit of a learning curve to this pattern, but thats true of any testing pattern, and I really like how it came out. The instructions have pictures every step of the way which is really helpful.
I was excited to make something for little Eva since I'm always sewing for Tabitha.

I actually really like the snap tape (this pattern comes with a separate tutorial on working with snap tape which i've never done before.) and Morgen was happy that I learned how to use it because it makes diapers easier!

If you'd like to check out Whimsey Couture's patterns, check out their Blog, Pattern store, and Facebook

Sunday, April 01, 2012

Seamingly smitten pillowcase dress

So I got to try another pattern from Seamingly smitten. You'll remember Seamingly Smitten from the double ruffle halter dress I made for Tabitha for St Patricks day. This time I got to try out her new pillowcase dress pattern. Yet again it was another fast and easy pattern to put together. It came out super cute and was very fast and easy to put together. I like Jennifer's patterns because they are easy and fast. Lately thats about all i'm able to sew with potty training Tabitha and Eva being awake more as she is getting bigger (I can't believe she's already 2 months old!)
I used Halo by G.E. Designs, Gudrun Erla for Red Rooster Fabrics, I've been holding onto this fabric for about 6 months waiting for a project that I could use it for. I love the fabric but its so busy that It really needs to be used in a super simplistic design. This dress fit the bill perfectly. I think this dress shows off the fabric wonderfully. The only thing I would change about this dress is that I would make it longer, which will be easy to do next time and for this one i think i'll just add a ruffle to the bottom. I think its adorable and for a younger child the length is perfect but for my almost 3 year old i prefer longer dresses. However I also think it looks adorable with leggings under it and may leave it this length and use it as a tunic. I didn't get the best pictures because my camera battery is dead and I can't find the charger (major bummer!) so I had to take them with my Ipod. The fabric has some small blue blossoms on it which is why I chose the blue ribbon to go with it. The blue ribbon is perfect I think.
I hope you like the dress =) And If you want to check out more patterns by Seamingly smitten check out her blog, facebook and Etsy store.