Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Ever Sew Clever Bowl Covers

I recently bought some reusable bowl covers from Ever Sew Clever and I LOVE them SO much that I am going to be reviewing them : ) They are made of a cute cotton print on the outside layer and a food safe material (water resistant nylon ripstop which is PVC and BPA free!) on the inside. There is also an elastic band to hold onto the bowls for a tight fit.

Here is my custom set she made for me. I sent her the fabric (it matches my kitchen set). I was very impressed with how well it is made. I also bought a snack bag and it too is made very well! Didn't it turn out perfect? I explained what it is to my husband and he seemed interested. The first night we got them we used them on our left overs. Husband was the one to clean up and he told me that they were "Really neat" and that we "Should get more"! How awesome is that? He doesn't really like my whole 'save money by reusing' stuff so I was really shocked that he liked them. He is set in his 'easy' ways (Disinfectant wipes instead of unpaper towels and all purpose cleaners, etc) so I was really blown away that he liked these.

I ended up buying more of these because I love them so much! They keep your food fresh and they are a TON easier to use that plastic wrap. That is why my husband love them so much. He HATES trying to use plastic wrap. It always sticks together and he can't pull it apart but then doesn't stick to the bowls, you know how it is. It's a pain in the butt and expensive!

These are cute and last a long time! All you have to do is wipe it out or wash them in your washer (NOT dishwasher) after you are done using them. SO easy and simple. I let mine air dry and it doesn't take long for them to dry either. She makes them in whatever fabric you want (she has a LOT of cute fabrics here) and makes them in small (6 inch bowls), medium (8 inch bowls), or large (10 inch bowls). I have found that even my larger sizes can fit smaller bowls. The prices are $6.50 (sm), $7.50 (med), and $8.50 (lrg) which is a great price for something you will be using everyday over and over again!
You can find her Etsy page here. Her web page here. Her Facebook here.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Just Imagine Tutu Review

I got the tutu in the mail and I fell in LOVE! It is gorgeous and sparkly! It fits 12-24 months old. The waist is super soft and stretchy. The length of the tutu is 7 inches (from where the tulle starts to the bottom of the tutu).

The colors are SO bright and vibrant. I am in love with the glitter too. It is SO much cuter in person (I'm sorry I do not have my nice camera to take pictures with).

It is very well made. I looked all around at the tulle and it is on there very securely.

The adorable peace sign bow is unattachable! How awesome is that?! You can attach different bows or flowers onto the front and make it look like a brand new tutu every time you put it on.

I tried to get a close up of the tutu so you can see the glitter. Again, sorry for the crappy camera. You can also see how well made it is. Isn't it just so adorable?! I LOVE it!

Here it is on my LO. It fit pretty well. My LO is 15 months and 22 pounds so VERY skinny. It fit well but had TONS of room to grow. I think it adorable! The length is perfect. Not too short or too long.
You can buy a tutu here and they start out at $15. A tutu like this one is $20. She even makes tutu's for adults. How cool is that?! You can view her price and size list here. All prices are very reasonable!

Friday, May 20, 2011

What Works For Nights?

We've always had a hard time finding something that worked at nights. Even before we cloth diapered, we had leaks with disposable diapers. It has been very frustrating to wake up in the middle of the night/morning because your baby is sopping wet and can't sleep. Or even worse when YOU wake up wet because you cosleep! My son sleeps about 10-13 hours at night and is a very heavy wetter which makes it very hard to find something that works.
Disposable diapers leak a lot. There have been so many times my son has peed through a disposable diaper in 2 hours (happened more in the day time).
All In Ones never worked very well for us. I would stuff it with an extra insert but we'd get leaks for the most part. If your LO isn't a very heavy wetter, it would work great. I know a lot of moms use this with success. (I tried BumGenius AIOs.)
I've only tried one brand of All In Twos. I had a few different hybrids but never tried them at night because I knew they wouldn't work with our heavy wetter. I did try one brand (Doodle Dypes) and it worked great! I only tried it a few times but I never had a leak. (I used two snap in inserts. By the time I had tried this, I had found another solution that worked better.)
Pockets have mixed reviews. For some people, they work GREAT and never have problems! For us, it has worked sometimes, and other times NOT AT ALL! I've used mulitple brands and inserts and still have had leaks. I've used major brands, "overnight" diapers, 2 microfiber inserts, bamboo inserts, hemp, you name it, I've probably tried it. I've tried messing with the rise of the diapers, snapping them looser and tighter. It was a long frustrating road. They worked great at first for about the first month and then we started having problems. Maybe it was because my LO was getting older and peeing more. After 5 months of having to change him in the middle of the night because he had peed through his diaper or waking up to a very wet baby I was sick of it! I HAD to find a new solution. (The brands I tried were BumGenius, RumpaRooz, Kawaiis [a few different kinds of them] and no name brands.
And this is where Fitteds come in. I kept hearing about people using fitteds at night and I was very skeptical. I bought one brand of fitted a few months prior and my LO had peed through it in 10 minutes. I thought "How can this last overnight?" After about a month of hearing about how wonderful fitteds are, I finally bought one. I was VERY nervous to try this. I had also bought a pair of Wool longies because I heard that is the best to pair with fitteds. I prepped the wool and very nervously, put it on my son. I kept checking him every hour just expecting him to be wet. I went to bed and just knew he was going to be sopping wet in the morning.
I woke up and rushed in to check him. He was DRY! I was amazed! I took off his longies and the fitted was SOAKED! I was in awe. Why did I not try this sooner?! The next week I kept expecting him to be wet and every time I would use a fitted, he would wake up dry. I ended up buying 3 more of the same brand and couldn't be happier. We have NEVER had a leak when using fitteds and wool. (We use sustainablebabyish fitteds and wool and HIGHLY recomend them!)
What kind of cover should I pair with my fitteds?
Fleece is a great, cheap option. It is water resistant (not waterproof) so it may or may not work. I have never used this at night but if your LO isn't a heavy wetter, this would be a great option to try. I do not think fleece would hold up for heavy wetters at night. I love fleece covers for day time though.
PUL is a waterproof cover and is a good option for nights. I have used a Rumparooz cover at night and we didn't have leaks.
Wool is the option I would prefer and recomend. It is more breathable that PUL and when wearing a diaper for 12 hours, I would prefer my LO to be in something that is more breathable. The wool we use is SOFT and squishy! It is not itchy and scratchy like most wool is. It is amazing!
You can buy SBISH fitteds and wool here.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

The Flats and Hand Washing Challenge

Why I am doing it and how I am preparing?
(I was going to post this a while back ago but my grandmother died and it spaced my mind. So here it is finally!)
I first heard about the Flats and Hand Washing Challenge and I was interested! I read an article a few weeks prior about families who have to leave their babies in diapers for long amounts of time and even wash out DISPOSABLE diapers to reuse them! At the time I read the article I thought "Why don't they just rewash cloth diapers?!" I understand why some families don't want to or don't even know about cloth diapers. When I first heard about diapers I thought "EW! I am not going to do that! That is gross." Then I found out about modern cloth diapers. I looked through a few different brands and the price is what drove me away. I was broke at the time and having to spend $15-$20 on ONE diaper?! NO I could not afford that.
So I understand (kind of) why some families don't want to do cloth diapers. Whether it be the grossness factor or the start up cost. The start up cost CAN be expensive BUT it doesn't have to be! These poor families who rewash disposable diapers could EASILY do cloth diapers if they just knew about them! I am so glad Kim from Dirty Diaper Laundry has set up this challenge. This is a great way to help spread the word about cloth diapers and how easy they are/ can be!

So why am I doing it? To help spread awareness about cloth diapers. I LOVE them and I know that even a family who is struggling to afford food or diapers can do this. I was in the same place when we first started cloth diapering. I still had to buy disposable diapers and try to save up money to be able to afford one cloth diaper every few weeks and it was hard! If I had known that cloth diapering could have been cheaper I would have gone the cheaper route first. I want to show those families that you don't have to spend a fortune every month on diapers! You CAN diaper your baby and not have to break the bank!

How am I preparing? I have 12 huge flats from Diaper Junction and 3 flour sack towels from Target. I am not going to be using a lot because I really want it to be realistic. (All though we will see how it goes after the first few days. I may buy one more package of flour sack towels) I will be using 2 fleece covers, one wool cover, one RumpaRooz cover, and a large Charlie Banana pocket diaper for a cover. (I have the 'Goodbye Disposable, Hello Cloth' diaper and it's way too big to use as a diaper so I am going to get as much use out of it by using it as a cover : ) It's way too cute to just let it sit there!) The wool cover will be used mostly at night. Fleece covers are a great cheap way to go for covers. They are more breathable than PUL covers and are usually cheaper/just as cheap. The RaRz cover it the only real cover I have so of course I'm going to be using that too!
I've practiced folding my flats and pinning them/snappi-ing them. I LOVE it! I don't know what it is (maybe the simplicity of it all) but I love pinning flats. I love folding them! I was very scared about doing all of this but the more I do it, the easier it gets. The thing I'm worried about it washing them. I am planning on washing some in the sink by hand. I believe my mom has a bucket style washer (like Kim from DDL showed you how to make). So if I decide I hate it, I can go and get hers. She told me she paid about $15-$20 to buy. I will try to find where she bought it.
I will also be washing my flats with normal detergent just like a normal family would (Cheap liquid detergent and powdered Tide). I will not be using cloth diaper safe detergent because I know when you are struggling for money and can not diaper your baby, you sure as heck don't have enough money to pay for extra detergent (and the shipping costs too!). I really would like to make this as realistic as possible. I will be drying them a few different ways. In the bathroom, outside (Attached to hangers and hung up on my balcony), and any just hung up on hangers in the house. I dried one of my flats the other day outside and it took about 30 minutes or less to dry! It was hotter and windy so it dried SO fast!
I really hope this challenge will bring light to families who do not know about cloth diapers. I hope these families who are struggling to afford disposable diapers will be able to see that cloth diapering is easy and cheap. I also want to say to anyone who is struggling, there are programs to help families in need. There are people out there who will donate diapers to families in need. If you need help, ask for it! I try to donate to families as often as possible because when I was starting up, someone helped me and it made a world of difference. I was able to cloth diaper my baby full time and I could finally stop using disposable diapers. So if you have extra diapers you, please consider donating them instead of selling them!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

GoGreen Pocket Diapers Review

GoGreen has generously given me a diaper to review. It is a OS Pocket diaper with snap down rise settings. It is one of their print silky diapers. It will fit 8-35+ pounds. It is soft PUL on the outside and suedecloth on the inside (like what BumGenius is on the inside) and comes with one microfiber insert. See more FAQ here
At First Glance~
It was very similar to other pocket diapers that I've tried. It has cross over snaps for smaller babies which is really nice! I liked everything about this diaper from the start and was excited to try it out.
How It's Held Up~
I've used it a lot and during the day, I've never had a leak. We both loved it! I've used it for nights twice and both times it leaked. BUT the ONLY thing that works for my super soaker is fitteds and wool. He can not wear any other diaper at night (even disposable diapers leak for us).
The Fit~
I was able to put my 13 month old on the first snap setting. He is skinny but he normally he is on the second snap setting on my OS diapers. I put it on the second snap setting and it worked just as great as the first snap setting. I love the fit. It is a little bulky (like most OS diapers are) but it didn't bother me and it didn't bother him. For a one size diaper, it was pretty trim though!
Would I Recommend It?
OF COURSE! It's only $10-$15 which is such a great price! If you are on a tight budget this is the diaper to buy! Or even if you aren't on a tight budget, this would be a great diaper for anyone. I love all their prints and colors.
**4** out of **5*** Stars
The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is because it doesn't seem like it would fit really small babies well and it didn't work at nights for us.

Sorry these aren't the best of pictures. But you can see it's pretty trim for being a One Size Diaper!
Cross over tabs! I love these.

Cute print :)

On the smallest snap setting.

Side view of the smallest snap setting.

Largest setting. It was pretty big!

I tried to show how big the legs can go. They go even bigger when it's stretched onto a toddler!

You can buy it here.

GIVEAWAY CLOSED!
Winner was Jessica Peirce! Congrats!!!

To win a GoGreen Pocket Diaper~
Required:
Like Ramblings of a Cloth Diaper Addict AND GoGreen Pocket Diapers on Facebook. Then comment here telling me you did it (AND leave your Facebook name. Entires that do not leave their FB name will be deleted). Make sure you show GoGreen some love for sponsoring this giveaway!
Extra Entires (Post a separate comment for EACH of of the extra entires you do):
1) Share on Facebook (once) and leave a permalink (Make sure it is open for EVERYONE to see! If you have questions on how to do this, please ask me on my wall!) You can post this once on your wall and once on your business wall if you have one.
2) Go to GoGreens website and tell me which diaper you like the best.

Giveaway will end on May 18th, 2011. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at addicted2clothdiapers(at)hotmail.com or on Facebook.