Wednesday, April 27, 2016

coffee!

All of us moms could use a good cup of coffee to start our busy day. I love how much variety starbucks has with their drinks. I've been ordering the same thing for many years: caramel apple spice. I love it and it is by far my favorite item.
To all you busy moms (and dads) this giveaway is for you. Enter at the Rafflecopter link below and leave a comment with your favourite starbucks drink or menu item. I would love to hear more drink ideas.


GIVEAWAY DETAILS
Prize: $100 Starbucks Gift Card
Giveaway organized by: Oh My Gosh Beck! (Please email becky@ohmygoshbeck.com with any questions.) 
Rules: Use the Rafflecopter form to enter daily. Giveaway ends 5/11 and is open worldwide. Winner will be notified via email.
Are you a blogger who wants to participate in giveaways like these to grow your blog? Click here to find out how you can join a totally awesome group of bloggers!

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Sunday, February 21, 2016

Seventh generation healthy baby home party

What is a Healthy Baby Home Party? 

Seventh Generation's home parties are powered by people like you who are focused on creating a healthy environment for the next generation. Developed with input from non-profit partner, Healthy Child Healthy World, they are a great way to get together with friends, share helpful information, and make an impact!

Healthy Baby Home Party kits are provided to all selected hosts and are filled with educational info about our environment, helpful tips, a fun game, and samples and coupons from Seventh Generation and other favorite family-friendly brands like bobble, Plum Organics and Zarbee's Naturals.

What is the Application Process?

Sign up at generationgood.net to join the Generation Good community, or log in if already a member.
Accept the Healthy Baby Home Party Application offer on your Generation Good dashboard and complete the application.Applicants will be notified by end of March if they have been selected to host a party, via an email to the email address assigned to their Generation Good member profile.
All selected applicants will then need to confirm their participation by accepting the Healthy Baby Home Party Mission in Generation Good and confirming their shipping address.
1,900 FREE Party Kits will be distributed in this round.Hosting spots are open to US residents only at this time. Canadian parties are planned for later in 2016!
Full terms and conditions are available within Generation Good in the "Healthy Baby Home Party Application" offer.

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Balm Baby/Taylor's Tonics

If you have never heard of this line of products you are missing out. Balm baby/Taylor's Pure and Naturals is a family owned small business that specializes in all natural products. Their products are locally made and packaged in eco-friendly containers. Taylors house llc products are organic, natural, made in the USA, vegan, nut free, gluten free, and cruelty free. They have many different product lines and I've just barely started making ripples in their products. What I have tried I have absolutely loved and highly recommend.
Today I want to review a couple of their tonics. The tonics are used as perfumes, aromatherapy, and body therapy. Taylor's tonics are stored in blue or green glass roll on bottles to protect the natural oils. There are many different scents including: Spirit Lifter (anti-stress), Pick me up Peppermint, Cramp Ease, Earl G, Breathe Autumn, and Big Calmer (sleep). The two I am going to review are Cramp Ease and Pick me up Peppermint.


Cramp Ease is designed to be rolled on areas of inflammation or cramping to bring relief. My first thought when I took the lid off was how amazing it smells. The scent reminded me of an orange dreamsicle and it smelled so yummy. Sometimes when people think of natural products they anticipate a strong or awful scent. Cramp Ease was neither of these. The scent was so light and perfect that I could easily see it being used as an everyday perfume. I have used it on many different cramps and the relief has always been instant. My husband gets tension headaches and after rolling this on his neck his headache will quickly subside. To test out the inflammation aspect, I rolled it on some red spots of inflammation that I had on my feet. I had tried many different things to get rid of these spots prior to this and nothing gave me any relief. After just a couple of days using cramp ease at night the spots completely disappeared.
Pick me up Peppermint is made with peppermint that is USA grown. This tonic can be used as a mood enhancer and awakener when rolled on pulse points due to its aromatherapy properties. I have used it to remove tension and to relieve migraines. It's the most affective treatment I have found for my migraines after many years of dealing with them. My husband has been diagnosed with hypersomnia and this tonic has helped him on many occasions to give him more energy and alertness. Just this morning we just it as a mood enhancer when we were both feeling stressed and overwhelmed. Best part about this tonic is that it smells just like candy!
I have always loved being able to find alternative more natural remedies to ailments that we have and have been able to find that with Taylor's tonics. I am very pleased with the products and will continue to buy them. I carry these two tonics everywhere with me because I would not want to be caught without them.

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Sweet Pea Bamboo OS AIO

I was a little late to the game finding these little gems. My stash was basically complete and I thought there was no way there could be another brand that would work for us. I stumbled upon Sweet Pea diapers during a sale and I'm so happy that I did. Before the sale I had never even heard of the brand and didn't realize what I was missing out on.
Sweet pea bamboo all in one diapers are comprised of bamboo cotton and bamboo velour inside. There is a sewn in snake like insert of bamboo cotton topped with a luxurious layer of bamboo velour. There is an additional snap in soaker made of a layer of microfiber sandwiched between two layers of bamboo cotton.
The insides of the sweet pea bamboo all in one diaper are super soft. Even after many washes it has not lost any softness. The bamboo interior make this diaper extremely stretchy and easy to get a great fit. There are two rows of rise snaps allowing for these to fit from 8-35lbs. The four hip snaps also overlap to fit skinny babies or newborns. I love that each tab has four snaps because it allows for there to be no wing sag.
Bamboo is super absorbent and these diapers easily hold up to my heavy wetting son. I change him every two hours at the most typically to avoid any rash and the diaper is never fully saturated at changes. It also holds up during naps and I never get any compression leaks. The bamboo velour topper is stay dry and is soft against my baby's bum. My youngest has very sensitive skin and this is one of the few diapers that do not cause him to break out.
Sweet pea diapers are very affordable and durable. They hold up well in the wash and dry very easily and quickly. I air dry my diapers most of the time and they dry within a couple of hours even in the winter. I have had some of my other natural fiber diapers being stiff after they are air dried but this is not the case with these diapers. They are still very soft after air drying and do not need to go through a fluff cycle in the drier.
My sweet pea diapers are one of the trimmest diapers I own. I can put normal clothing over them and they fit perfectly. Even with the extra insert snapped in I have no issues with it being too bulky. They are also very easy to roll up in order to contain any mess easily thanks to the overlapping snaps.
There are many cute prints and bold colors available from sweet pea. There are also retailer exclusives that are starting to come out. Sweet pea also creates all of their prints by themselves so they are truly unique.

Monday, January 11, 2016

Blueberry Simplex

The simplex has two rise snaps and 8 snaps across the front. The fit was too big for my newborn. This was the last one size diaper my son grew into.
The simplex has a snake soaker with fleece on one side to help keep the baby's bottom dry.
The simplex is an all in one that features a pocket that you could put boosters in if you need to. This is what we use for overnight. I place a hemp insert into the pocket and leave the fleece against my baby so that it wicks the moisture away. We have not had a leak yet doing it this way.
The simplex is a very trim and easy to use diaper. They also have many cute prints and retailer exclusives.

Saturday, January 9, 2016

Smart bottoms 3.1

I'm going to start my reviews with the Smart bottoms 3.1. The 3.1 is an all in one diaper made with organic cotton and pul.
This is the beautiful Colten's catch exclusive from Squigglybugs. It's one of my favorite prints. They have so many exclusives that come out and are gorgeous. I love all the beautiful prints and colors.
Back to the review. The 3.1 features 3 rise snaps and 8 snaps across to ensure fit from newborn through potty learning. I didn't try them on my newborn as I went with the born smarts for the umbilical cut. My 16 lb baby could still easily fit on the lowest rise.
The 3.1 features a snake insert that you could fold in many ways to get the absorbancy you need. You could fold in half like this:
In thirds in front for extra boy protection like this:
Or in thirds in the middle for extra girl protection like this:
Which ever way you choose to fold it folding under allows for easiest poopy cleanup. The big thing about these diapers is to make sure your wash ample times for maximum absorbancy. I could easily let my infant go for hours in these diapers without ever having a leak. They are trim and don't look bulky under clothes like the cloth diapers of my oldest's diaper wearing days.
My youngest does have very sensitive skin and any amount of wetness bugs him so I do lay a Smart Bottoms fleece liner in my diapers. It does not add any bulk and is really simple to add in there.
This is my first ever stash shot of my beautiful collection. Most of them are shamelessly exclusives from realtors.
http://www.momsmilkboutique.com/ exclusive rainbow fish (sold out).
Liltulips.com exclusive sea adventure (sold out).
http://www.kellyscloset.com/Smart-Bottoms-Atomic-Blast-Exclusive-Collection-for-Kellys-Closet_p_5682.html atomic blast available at link
Abbyslane.com exclusives moon fairy and rainbow love (both sold out).
http://www.babyzagogo.com/Babyzagogo-Exclusives_c_69.html twelve and Evans expedition available at link or soon to be stocking.
http://www.squigglybugsllc.com/Squigglybugs-Exclusives_c_558.html Christmas tree, candy cane, Colten's catch (with mint and burgundy snaps), and royal bug still available at link.
http://www.lalisfluffshop.com/LaLis-Exclusives_c_69.html Harry potter inspired exclusives rowena, helga, godric, and Salazar available bundled (until Monday) or individually at link provided.
Thank you for reading my post and bearing with me as I just start it up. I apologize as I do not know how to add the pictures like I want them to be added when mobile yet so I will have to try to correct this when I get on my computer. Please comment with any questions and I'll be happy to answer them.

Friday, January 8, 2016

Cloth diapering part 2

When I started looking to build my stash for my son many years after having my daughter I wanted to try a bit of everything. So I started with research. I did a lot of research and picked a few of the top rated cloth diapers to try on my baby. I also built a newborn and one size stash.
For his newborn stash I chose tiny gdiapers, little joeys, newborn simplex, sweet pea aio and born smarts. My stash was mostly gdiapers and joeys but I had a couple of each of the others. I believe each style had their own pros and cons. I loved that I had different brands and styles to try this time.
For our one size stash we have rumparooz, ella bella bum, bumgenius, simplex, smart bottoms, and sweet pea aio. With trying all these different brands we have been able to find what works for us and go without having leaks. I have also become very much in love with all the beautiful prints available.
I'm so much more pleased with what diapers are available now. I will start with reviews on each brand tomorrow so I can go into each in detail.

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Starting out

When I cloth diapered my oldest not many people knew about cloth. My family thought I was crazy. My mom had cloth diapered me many years ago so she offered some advice.

With my daughter we wanted to save money and save the environment. The big brand at that time was bumgenius. That was a bit pricy and since we were just getting started we didn't want to spend that much at the start. 

We chose to buy gerber prefolds and vinyl wet pants. We learned many different folds and used cloth diaper pins. I was so proud of my little cloth stash. We had leaks but that was to be expected as this was all new to us. 

After a few months my daughter started getting chunky thighs and the vinyl seemed to be irritating her poor legs. So we looked into different options for covers. We had so many prefolds that I didn't want to buy anything else.

 We stumbled on econobum covers. We were so happy to have found a different cover to use. But after about another month she was outpeeing the prefolds at night and we wanted to find a new night solution. Our local target had just started carrying Charlie banana diapers and they looked really neat so we decided we would try those. I'll do a review on a later date of all these styles of diapers but we weren't satisfied with any of these options. 

Thankfully my daughter potty trained at a relatively young age so we didn't have to worry about all the leaks. We always packed many outfits to bring with us for all the leaks we always had. 

Cloth diapering has changed drastically over the years. There are so many more options now for my son and we rarely ever have leaks. I'm glad that cloth has become so mainstream that I have been able to have options and figure out what works best for our baby. I will come back to make posts once a day and review all the diapers we've tried and what has worked.

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Introduction

I've just started this blog and wanted to introduce myself and this blog. I'm the cloth diapering mum. I have two littles here with me and one perfect angel watching over us always. I have cloth diapered both my earth littles and have learned a lot on that journey. I've started this blog to help other mums with advice and reviews of products and also to have an outlet for myself. I like to use many natural methods and will also post on those and whether they worked or not. I hope you enjoy my blog as it starts to develop.