talk about saving some cash....

The diapers are finally pretty much completed. All the liners are sewn up and 26 diapers as well. I saved enough fabric to make about 6 more diapers so that I could do up a tutorial for all you folks who have asked me how to make them. So that's next on the list. Not sure how I'm going to figure out creating a pattern that you can print off at home on standard size paper but I'll figure it out.

There were a few times in this process that I wondered if it was really worth all the work so I priced it all out and here's what I came up with...

Buying 30 diapers and 30 liners new (even with a bulk pricing discount) would have come to approximately $750. I made the same amount of diapers and 38 liners for less than $250. Yup, that's a saving of $500. Guess all that blood sweat and tears was worth it after all! I figure I spent at least 30 hours of work on these little poop suckers but a bunch of those hours were spent on trying to figure out how to actually put them together and making a pattern, so if I ever have to make more it shouldn't take near as long.

So... if you were thinking you wanted some cloth pocket diapers for your little dudes, it just might be worth it to pull out the sewing machine and get to work.

done! done! done!

well sorta.... the diapers are all sewn up and finished. Except for the two that I messed up and have to fix yet. Then I also have to sew another 20 liners or so, but still, the diapers are done! Sorta.

I made a new handbag this weekend. It's clutch size and turned out super cute I think. It's a gift for someone special so hopefully they love it too. This was the first bag that I "designed" myself, the body of it is similar to the Buttercup Bag but I changed a few things and added the big bow. The fabric is left over from the dress I attempted to sew a couple months ago that didn't turn out, the actual dress will be made into an apron soon.

Not feeling too well this morning, after a 4:30am wake up call from my youngest that ended up lasting until 7am. At that point the oldest was up too so I guess I'm in for a very long day.

Activity Day

Last night it started to do this.....

So today I planned a bunch of activities for the boys to keep Kaed from asking to go outside. It's mid-April, I'm not going out when the ground is completely covered in snow.

Activity #1.

I printed out some Cars coloring pages for Kaed. He thought that was just fantastic. Cars Movie is his favorite right now so anything that has Lightning or Mater just lights him up. I've never had much success getting him to color for more than 2 minutes before but having his favorite characters to color seemed to do the trick, he sat there for a good 20 minutes! Brayer played with the crayons and surprisingly didn't try to eat any.

Activity #2.

I made play dough! Never done it before but it was so easy and turned out so good. I got the recipe from Make and Takes. It was the first time Kaed has played with it and he thought it was fantastic. Bawled his eyes out when it was time to put it away and go play with the new foam shapes I made for him and Brayer in the bath.

He loved it when I made some play dough into a ball and proceeded to ask me to make the entire batch into balls.... notice how I made 2 different colors for him and he instantly mashed them all together. Oh well!

On a totally separate note.... Look what you get if you don't wash your floor every time a spill happens, spill art!

sewing for the kids

I've been sewing for the kids every spare moment I get these past few days. Diapers... still, although the end is in sight for those. I also made a pillow for Kaed and appliqued some dinosaurs on the edge of the pillow case for it just because earlier that day at the zoo he had seen the dinosaurs and couldn't stop talking about. And by talking I mean just saying "saurs? saurs? saurs?" It's a good thing I know what his minimal vocab is, because I'm pretty sure no one else can figure it out.

I have so many plans for things to make as soon as my diapers are done. Bags for the shop, some more slings, a ring sling to finish, some skirts for friend's kids... the list goes on. At least I won't be bored!

Okay so this picture should be horizontal but for some stupid reason blogger keeps switching my pictures the other way. Only MILDLY frustrating... and the picture isn't great either but there you can kinda see Kaed's new pillow/refashioned pillow case.

Just wanted to throw out there... how did my boys get so big that they can both swing at the same time?!

A Little Skirt for A Little Girl

It was Kaed's little friends birthday almost a month ago already, but as her party landed on the same day as my nephews we weren't able to attend. Today we were planning on meeting up with them for a trip to The Calgary Zoo so I had to quick pull together a birthday present. Thankfully I already had something in mind and the fabric already bought for it so last night I quite literally whipped up a skirt for her. It turned out great and so I showed it to my husband saying "see if we had a baby girl then I could practically make all her clothes in one night!" He responded by saying "if we have another boy we will already have all the clothes we need." Oh how practical....

Up on Facebook

Well I've got myself a page up on facebook. I've been on the site since it became public to everyone, quickly rendering my myspace profile useless, and I finally got around to making a page for Handmade Therapy.

Basically it's just another way to get people to come here and to my shop so if you're hoping for something new, sorry! Anyway here's the link

I'm still battling away at those diapers, oh how I wish they were done! This project is taking much longer than I expected so I just keep visualizing how I'll feel when they are totally done! I'm thinking that I'd like to take a break in order to make something more creative.... I'm just not sure what, another bag? apron? something totally new?

New Things in the Shop

There are a couple new things in the shop! I new apron, and some new fabric patterns for slings. Click on the right side under my shop if you want to check them out!

Leftover Ham Anyone?

So I made a huge ham for Easter weekend and I just don't know what to do with it all! Travis loves ham but I really am not a fan of all things pork related so there is still a lot leftover. I would make some split pea soup with it but I feel like it's spring and soup and spring don't go in my opinion, soup is for cold days not warm sunny ones.

Anyone have any leftover ham suggestions for me? Recipes that take it but don't overpower the whole dish maybe?

a day or two at the archery club

I've been into archery for 10 years now but it's been a few since I've had the opportunity to actual go out and shoot often. Travis is huge into all things archery related since shortly before we got married so this year we decided to join an archery club about a half hour outside of the city. We went for the first time yesterday morning and ended up staying for over 3 hours. It was great, there was lot's of room to run around for Kaed, a swingset for him to play on, and dozens of targest for us to shoot at. This morning we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather we are having and head out there again, staying for a few hours again. The afternoons were spent reading on the back deck while the boys napped... what a great Easter Weekend!

on diaper duty

only this time I mean sewing diapers not changing them, although I'm doing that too. Yesterday I cut out all the peices for 25 diapers and 35 liners. Yeesh! My back is still aching but I'm itching to get back at it and finish them up.

I made one diaper from start to finish and liner yesterday and washed them to make sure I liked how they turned out and looked and felt and stuff and the actual diaper itself looks great but the liner practically fell apart. I had bought some new material called ZORB for these and apparently they need to be the inner part of the liner not the outer, so I now have to cut out flannel linings for the liners.... because I'm not sick of cutting stuff out yet! Oh well, it will be well worth it in the long run. I'm making all in one pocket diapers this time around and the lack of bulk and leakproofness (we'll just pretend that's a word) will be soo much better than the current cloth ones I am using.

I would show you some pictures of my work in progress so far, but it's really not that interesting...

Aggie Days

We spent the day at Calgary's Aggie Days today. We had a free pancake breakfast, watched a horse shoeing competition, saw a ton of animals, petted some piglets, rode in some tractors, and had a great time!

feeling nostalgic

We had to wipe and reload our computer recently, and while putting all my old pictures back on I found some of my trip to back home to Smithers, BC in September of 2007. My mom had hurt her back so my dad flew Kaed and I up to take care of her. It was such a good trip and I took a lot of good pictures of how beautiful it is where I grew up. I thought I'd share a few!

The view of the lake standing in my parents yard.

Kaed so little and sitting in the long grass in my parents back yard

Kaed is showing us where Smithers is on this map

A hike up to an old farm house on our neighbours farm showed us a Mama Bear and her 3 cubs... you can't see the third in this pictures, but he was hiding behind the grass.

yes I am quite aware of how ridiculously adorable Kaed is.