Cloth Diapers (I can't believe I'm posting about this, hah!)

Today, I found Rob and I having a conversation about cloth diapers, and after we hung up I had to just laugh at the fact that we're definitely on a new adventure if this is something we're interested to talk about. :)

There's this great blog that I follow called Young House Love that mostly posts about DIY home projects, however, they also have a little girl and they tend to share different projects and adventures they've encountered in parenthood. One of them being the adventure of cloth diapering. (Dun dun dun!)

All I can say after a little bit of reading, is that it's not what it used to be. I probably never would have looked into it if I hadn't seen this informative blog post. The process is a lot easier from the days where it was just a piece of cloth and a safety pin.



bumGenius sprayer

Now-a-days there are cloth diapers with snaps, no pins, and are adjustable as your child grows, so the whole one-size-fits-all works for these. They aren't just a piece of cloth, they have built in liners that absorb all the goodness, lol.

The clean-up apparently has been improved as well. Once removing a dirty diaper, if it's wet you can just place in a bag for storage until laundry, if it's soiled then you take the diaper to the toilet...and here's where I think the newer part is...many cloth diaper-ers have a sprayer hooked up to their toilet. So right away, you take the soiled diaper to the toilet to rinse everything off, then place in the bag.

Now, the next thing I'm learning about is the bag you place the dirty diapers into. They have washable bags that are meant for dirty cloth diaper storage, they're called wet bags. The bag is specifically made to help hold in the odors. The great thing is that when it's time to wash the diapers in the bag (I hear about every 1 to 1 1/2 days) you simply pour the diapers out of the bag into the washer machine, then toss the bag in with the diapers to be washed! Pretty cool and easy in my opinion. This has been found to be a better alternative than just tossing the dirty diapers in a bin with a plastic bag in it, and then not often getting around to washing the smelly bin.

So now let me mention the cost, cause honestly, the main reason I'm entertaining this idea of cloth diapering is for the savings.

The family of the link that I posted above only purchased 12 cloth diapers and have found this to work for them. The ones that they use and recommend are called bumGenius. For 12 cloth diapers, the cost is $265. They've used these diapers since their baby was 9 weeks old up until now, they're child is now two. So the cost savings of not having to buy disposable diapers is really astronomical. When washed with the appropriate care, they also come out looking really great! On the family's blog, they did an update a year later taking a picture of the inside lining to show if there were stains, and all look stain free and like-new. I should also mention that the wet bag mentioned above can run for about $19. Here's a link to some that I've found.

I should also mention that they come in a bunch of really cute colors...definitely can coordinate with anything. (there's more colors than these pictured below)

Overall, I'm a thrifty person, and can totally see the money saving benefit and even ease of going this route. Surprisingly, Rob was already on this train of thought of cloth diapering (oh the things I learn!) So we'll see, but it looks like we may be leaning in this direction.

My Barely There Bump

I took this little questionnaire from a friend of mine who just had her baby (yay!). It'll be interesting to see the changes in my answers over the months. All I can say is that I'm appreciating my sleep while I have it. :)

How far along? 16 weeks tomorrow (Second Trimester)

Total weight gain/loss: Gained 1 lb

Maternity clothes? Almost, I'm waiting for some cotton skirts to arrive! I'm over unzipping all my pants, time to be comfortable!

Stretch marks? Nope

Symptoms: Haven't had any nausea (thankful, and sorry to those who have to deal with it!), only symptom so far is having to empty my bladder a lot more often

Sleep: Sleeping great! Only have to get up once a night to relieve myself...goodness my bladder is sensitive now

Best moments this week: Getting to hear our baby's heartbeat on Monday and scheduling the appointment for our anatomy sono! Next month!

Movement: Nope, don't feel anything yet

Cravings: Nothing that I wouldn't normally crave pre-pregnancy (I'm a natural craver) :)

Gender: Unknown

Labor Signs: None

Belly Button in or out?  In, and Rob likes to think that the baby can hear him better when he talks through my belly button, like it's microphone or something...oh my man :)

What I miss: Soda and subs :(

What I am looking forward to: Finally seeing our baby on a sono and finding out the sex next month, AND getting my skirts in the mail...I have a feeling I'm going to live in them!

Weekly Wisdom: I received a sweet card from a friend of mine with some advice that had been given to her during her first pregnancy, "Always remember, you are the perfect mother for your child and your child is the perfect child for you..."

Milestones: Making it to the second trimester, time is just flying by right now, however, I've heard it can slow down the further I get along. Also getting to cross off my list of who I need to tell the news to, it's finally all out and public...such a relief!

Love to you all!

-Lisa

What Motivation?

Well, talk about motivation flying out the window, lol. :)

But I'm not beating myself up at all, breaks are good for my brain. There's always something to do. I burned myself out on that hallway project and all that brainstorming/plant removing with the yard (which credit is really due to Rob, Kenny and my sweet in-laws) however, if possible I think I may have found some new motivation.

It came upon me when I ran into my neighbor across the street who had a design question, which then led me to see his place for the first time. It was really nice and cared for. When I was leaving and standing on his porch I realized the state of the outside of our house that he gets to stare at when he sits on his porch. Lol. And maybe a little of the motivation has returned...just a smidge.

Growing up and owning a house isn't an easy business, is it? Rob and I love to do what we want on our free time, not that we don't sacrifice, but I know it won't always be as free as we're used to. Rob and I were driving to our friend's house the other day and saw a man raking some dirt next the sidewalk. Lol, all we both could think about was how miserable that looked.

My main adverse reaction for doing anything outside right now is this Florida heat. Maybe it's because we only had what felt like one really cold day this past winter. :-/

I bought a new ceiling light fixture for our front porch. That's been sitting in a box a week later because the globe looks wonky by the way the glass was formed, so I've been meaning to request a replacement part. For free of course. I did finally schedule my routine maintenance on my car. That was a mini success!

Well, all this rambling to tell you that I am still here, slightly unmotivated/motivated, and happy. :)

Hope you are doing well and not overdoing it. Life's too short. Be sure to stop and smell the flowers, or if you have no plants in your front yard like ours, smell your neighbors flowers. :)

Hallway Reveal!

As previously mentioned, I've been trying to get the lighting better on these photos, but oh well. So here we go, here's our completed hallway...enjoy!

Before:

and after...

A special piece that Mrs. Hunt found for me. It was scrap art paper that Larsen and I would clean our brushes on during art class. Lar then had us both sign it on our sides that we used and then matted it. Again, a very special piece.

Made this one using leftover fabric from the piano bench, and some photos from our wedding...

An art piece from Etsy...we love this guy.

Another art piece from Etsy...love this one too. (Also pleased with how the frames conceal our ac temp unit and alarm unit which stick out like sore thumbs in the before picture)

And another print from Etsy, along with some card art.

Another one that I made. A good verse for me to remember. I found the free image online and typed the words over it in publisher.

When I think back to all that I did to this hallway, I'm surprised I found the motivation. I guess I just took everything one step at a time, which usually is the way to go. Yes, that is the way to go. Here's all that was done:

• Painted hallway (changed it from the blue color to a grayish color using leftover paint - Shale by Martha Stewart)
• Spray painted door knobs and hardware (for the whole house too, there just so happens to be 5 doors in this hallway, two that aren't seen in these photos)
• Spray painted frames white (only ended up purchasing two of the frames from Goodwill, everything else was sitting in a closet)
• Created 5 homemade art pieces
• Purchased 4 prints from Etsy
• Hung frames/mirror/porthole
• Collapsed with relief once all was complete

Overall, collages can be scary to start. But I found myself just keeping the larger frames evenly spaced out and sprinkled the smaller frames around it. I think the overall flow of it sits well with me. That's the scary thing about collages, what happens if you hang everything and the whole flow just feels wrong? Thankfully it worked out.

I did start by using the tip where I cut out the shapes of the frames using brown paper and taped it on the wall to give me an idea. However, painters tape wasn't holding well so it fell off shortly. Thankfully I took a picture of the layout before it all fell.

So this concludes the hallway. I had a few more ideas for it, but you know what? The hallway and I need a good break. So this will do, lol.

Have a great day everyone :)

Diggin Up Bushes Under The Brutal Sun

Welp, today we attempted to dig up our bushes in our front yard for our landscape makeover. Even though I knew it wasn't going to be easy...I didn't quite expect it to be that hard either. With wasps and snakes and thorns and stubborn roots, we only got so far (with an extra helper!) (yay, Kenny, yay) Looks like we're gonna need a part two...or three.

Let me also state, Florida sun is brutal.

So here we go, we started with the goal to remove all the bushes or old roots starting from the big front window down to the right.

We started by chopping off the branches of the bushes...

Then Rob got stung by a wasp on his hand... :(  (hard to see, but trust me the puncture is there!)

Then as more chopping continued, we found this little guy hanging out in a bush...he then proceeded to go into our siding...eek. At least they eat bugs. :)

Then we came across a bush with mambo jambo thorns...we placed those choppings in a different pile so we'd know to handle later a little more delicately.

So these are the bushes mostly chopped up...remember it feels like 100 degrees out...this looks like a moment of cloud coverage. (thank you, God!)

And well, here is where we ended...not completed, but hey, it's progress!!

We have two bushes (stumps/roots) left to dig out of the ground. At least we got two. The sun was beating down hard and we eventually found ourselves inside laying on the floor loving a/c and cold travertine tile.

Here's the before again...

and after

So, I'm thinking during the week, Rob and I will pick at these bushes (roots) when the sun is almost gone. It was just too brutal today...there was no way we could have continued. MAJOR RESPECT for roofers and manual outdoor laborers in Florida.

I. do. not. know. how. you. do. it.

So that's all for today. Progress to be documented! Oh and I will also mention my final print arrived from Australia for our collage wall! I'm now just editing the photos (lighting in our hallway is so baddd) and will have pictures of that soon! (maybe bad lighting and all!) lol

Had a great rest of the day (post bush uprootal) with my sees and dad at Miguels restaurant (oyeh! Cinco de Mayo!) lol. And then at Lifequest. Still fighting off this heat headache.

Anyway, everyone enjoy your evening!! Couch time callllllllls. (I am coming, akee akee!)

Plants Plants Bo Blants!

With our landscape makeover in sight, I thought I'd share some photos of some plant ideas I found at a local nursery here in Tampa (shout out to Manny's on the Bay!) These were just some of the ones I was drawn to. I don't have any rhyme or reason or plan or anything right now. I'm hoping this post will help me narrow some things down.

So sit back and enjoy some pretty pictures of this virtual garden! (please excuse the fact that I have no idea what any of these plants are named)

I'm seeing a possible combination of the above plant/bush with the purple bushes below...

The below reminds me of a Christmas tree...which makes me likey

I'm really liking the two plants below...I like how structural the leaves are. Maybe in the empty bed in front of the big window?

These next three pictures remind me of something I would find in an English garden...especially the second plant. I like how it's natural and kind of weed-like.

pretty...

For some reason the one below doesn't look like it would be easy to maintain...but I love it.

I'm looking forward to getting some of these planted in our front yard. It's really going to make a difference getting rid of those weird bushes and filling that empty plant bed in front of our large window. I'm praying that I can keep whatever we plant alive. I think with the money and time invested in it, there's no way I'll let these babies go.

As I'm not knowledgeable about a lot of this, I do thankfully have my friend and my mom who will help us make the final decisions and what will do best in our yard. I keep hearing how gardening is therapeutic for a lot of people, I'm interested to see if it affects me so. We shall see!

Stilllll waiting on the art print from Australia. Anxious to take pictures of the hallway to share, however, trying to maintain patience and control and not take the pictures until it's truly finished. I almost caved today. lol :)

Well, happy Thursday evening everyone, got any gardening projects on your mind?

This Is A Story, About A Lovely Porthole

...dee dee daaaaah daaaaah do dee dee dee dee dah (anyone else able to sing along with this?)

So I had the idea for our collage wall to add a sweet porthole. We are suckers for the nautical theme, however don't want to be the type that go themey overboard. (lol, no pun intended) So the plan was to find a real-ish looking one, not a plastic one with a mirror backing.

Well a friend of mine is a professional garage sale shopper and had known about my desire for a porthole. Lone and behold she found one (yay Hope!) And she haggled it from $20 to $5. Woop! Woop!

So here is our new friend, Mr. Porthole. He originally came with a frame backing. When I first received it, I didn't notice the blue picture was actually a picture of something swimming at me. Can you see it?

It's Mr. Dolphin! And he has a friend swimming behind him. So realistic looking, huh? :)

This was before I removed the frame backing and cleaned him up real good. Even though it has the frame backing, we like to believe that this was actually salvaged from a boat. It's pretty heavy and solid feeling. It's probably far fetched to think it's actually from a boat, but that's what we wanna think. :)

Here he is all hung up in the hallway. It was a little tough figuring out a way to hang this. We settled on some heavy duty picture frame "hooks" that grab the lip between the outer frame and the door/window.

I love his brassy-ness.

Well, I'm just waiting on ONE more print to arrive in the mail (from Australia!) Once I get that up, I'll be sure to take the final photos of our completed collage hallway. Definitely happy that I took the plunge with this project. The little hallway has already turned into a conversational piece and it really is a little reflection of Rob and I.

Welp, that's all for today. What about you, is there anything you're doing to add personal touches to your home? Any new ideas rolling around in your head?

Happy Tuesday to you all! :)