I know that I have been lagging a little bit on posting.  It is not because I have no content.  Trust me, we have been very busy around here.  It seems that I only have so much energy in the day during my third trimester, and no matter how I might try, I am always running on empty.

Daphne goes to bed at 7, and at that point, I usually run outside and do any other animal activities that didn’t get done for the day.  I make sure everyone has food and water and fix anything that needs to be fixed.  By the time I get back inside from that, I am very tired, and all I can think about is checking my email and going to bed.  I’ve even set up a laptop in the bedroom so that I can combine the two activities.

So, though I’ve been taking photos and gathering content for the blog, the thought of sitting down and doing any mental work is enough to get me to sleep.

I am usually the kind of person that has to be busy doing something all the time, and I feel like if I didn’t do a lot during a day that it was a total waste of a day.  Lately, however, I have been running so low on energy that I have been taking naps during the day while Daphne naps.

I CHERISH the time that I get to spend alone getting one thing or another done while Daphne sleeps.  It’s not that I don’t love to have her help me, it is more the fact that it is impossible to put her toys away while she is playing with them or to mop the floor while she is standing on it.  Some household chores are simply not meant to be done with the help of a 2 year old.

So, the fact that I have been willing to give up that time seems to be a miracle in itself.  It sure does feel nice to put her down for a nap and then fall into my own bed for an hour or two of genuine rest.  I have been enjoying the rest.

So, don’t feel too bad that I have been neglecting blogging lately.  I am very sorry.  I simply am too tired to do everything that I want to do in a day, and my blogging time is currently competeting with my sleeping time.

When I was in Greece, I used to harvest wild Oregano from the hillsides to bring back to cook dinner with.  At one point, I harvest a lot of it that I then dried and put into a bottle to bring home with me (I know, I know, not totally legal).

I ran out last year, and I decided to plant some Greek Oregano in the garden so that at least I could enjoy the lovely taste I discoverd in that magical land.

The plant was small last year, and I didn’t get much from it, but it survived the winter beautifully, and I realized the other day that if I did not do anything about it it was going to go to seed early.  I quickly took my scissors out and cut down the plant to harvest for the kitchen.

I got a LOT of Oregano from the harvest.  It filled up my entire food dehydtrator.

When the plants had fully dried out, I pulled all the leaves off and put them in a bag.

Daphne’s job was to squish the bag up so that the leaves broke down into smaller chunks that could be used in the kitchen.  She was really fond of the job.  She liked to call it “squish, squish, squish.”

I now have a full pint of freshly dried and harvested Oregano from my garden that I can use to my culinary heart’s content.  I am excited to see future yields from the plant!

Wool is an amazing and fantastic fabric to use as a diaper cover for a baby.  I have found it to be bullet-proof, meaning that it doesn’t leak, even during the wettest of nights.  Wool is able to absorb 30% of its weight in water before it even begins to feel wet.  There are many, many other fantastic properties, but I’ll go into that in another post.

One thing about wool covers is that they do require some care.  They don’t have to be washed with each use, which is a nice feature.  The trade off for that is the fact that they take some attention about once a month.  How do you know when it is time to care for the diaper?  It will either start to take on a bit of a urine smell or it will begin to leak.

This process is called lanolizing a diaper.  Lanolin is the waxy/oily substance that sheep produce from their skin.  If you have ever felt a raw fleecce off a sheep, you know that it has a greasy feel to it.  That grease is lanolin.  The beautiful thing is that lanolin does the same thing for sheep that we want it to do for our babies.  The lanolin prevents the wet from seeping into the wool so that the sheep can stay nice and dry.  In our case, the lanolin keeps the wet from soaking out of the diaper.

You can get lanolin from a pharmacy or a health food store.  You can use either solid or liquid, it doesn’t matter which.

Fill up a sink with enough warm (not super hot) water to cover your diaper cover.  It is possible to do mulitple diaper covers or longies in a batch, but I wouldn’t consider doing more than 4 at a time.  You want to make sure that the lanolin can get into the fibers of the garmet.

Put your diaper into the water and let it soak for about 15 minutes.  This lets the water get into the individual fibers so that when you introduce the lanolin it will be able to reach through the entire fabric.

Add a tablespoon (two if you are doing 4 covers) of wool wash to your sink of water and work it into the cover.  You want to get any urine or dirt out of the cover that is in there.  However, remember that felting takes place with heat, soap and agitation.  A gentle working in of the soap will clean the cover and do no damage, just make sure that the water is warm and not hot.

Drain the sink and then squeeze any excess water out of the cover.

Fill the sink back up (just enough to cover the diapers) with warm water and place the covers back into the sink.

Fill up a cup with water and microwave the water until it is boiling (if you want to avoid the microwave, you can just boil water and put it into a cup.

Add a teaspoon of wool wash to the water and mix it in.

Measure out a teaspoon of lanolin PER DIAPER COVER and add it to the mixture.

Mix in the lanolin.  This should form an emulsion, and the mixture should start to turn white.

Continue mixing until all lanolin has been added and the entire mixture is white.  Any lanolin that has not been emulsified into the mixture will not incorporate into the fibers of the cover.

Pour this mixture into your sink of water and covers.  Work the lanolin mixture into the diaper covers using your hands.  If there is more than one cover, make sure to work the lanolin into each of them and rearrange the order of the covers as you go.  You will feel the grease working into the fibers of the fabric.

Allow the covers to sit in the lanolin for at least 15 minutes.  I let mine sit overnight to ensure that they soak up as much lanolin as possible.

Wring any excess water out of the covers and then hang them out on a line to dry.  If it is winter, you can roll the covers up in dry towels to dry.  It should take about a day or two to get them all the way dry.

Repeat this process when your covers start to leak or take up smell.

It really is a very simple process that will keep the wool in your life happy.

I am going to start working on a diapering series on the blog to help educate people on diapering.  I have spent the last 2 years working intensively doing research and learning the ins and outs of many different methods of diapering.  I find that this is important information to share with other people, and I have made it a personal mission in life.

One of the major problems with diapering is that there is not a lot of information available online, especially when asking a search engine to tell you about cloth diapers.  Many companies have worked very hard with their money to get into the top spots in the serach engines.  So, rather than be able to educate yourself about the different types and styles of diapers, you are looking at products.

Many of the “secrets” of the cloth diapering world can only be reserached when you are already in the know.  For example, it is impossible to learn about using wool for diaper covers unless you know that wool can be used as a diaper cover.  It is ironic that you have to already be educated about many things in the cloth diapering world before you can do reserach and become educated.

I remember sitting down at my computer after deciding that I wanted to try cloth diapers.  I spent several hours at the computer trying to understand this new world in front of me.  I didn’t get very far, and I ended up making a decision about diapers that wasn’t the smartest.  I really had no other clue.  I spent a few hundred dollars on diapers that I didn’t know how to use or know that I was going to like.  Luckily, they held their resale value, and I was able to get use out of them and sell them for almost what I had paid for them.  In truth, they were total garbage.

So, as I go through this adventure of cloth diapering another baby, I am going to share my knowledge, skills and mistakes with you.  I made my entire stash of diapers after careful examination and research.  As I go through the series, I will post tutorials on how to make diapers for anyone that might find that useful.  Hopefully, we can all become more educated about the subject.  After all, cloth diapers are adorable, they help protect the environment, and they are simply the best solution for your baby’s health and future happiness.

When we go to story time at the library, the very last part of the story time is spent blowing bubbles.  When it is bubble time, the leader turns on a song called I Think You’re Wonderful while blowing the bubbles.

Whenever I start to sing this song to Daphne, she stops me and says, “Mommy, you’re wonderful!”  It really is the easiest way to put a smile on my face.

You’ll understand when you read the lyrics:

I think you’re wonderful, When somebody says that to me

I feel wonderful, as wonderful can be

It makes me want to say the same thing to somebody new

And by the way, I’ve been meaning to say, I think you’re wonderful ,too.

When we practice this phrase, In the most honest way

Find something special, In someone each day

Lift up the world, One heart at a time

It all starts by saying this one simple line

I think you’re wonderful, When somebody says that to me

I feel wonderful, as wonderful can be

It makes me want to say the same thing to somebody new

And by the way, I’ve been meaning to say, I think you’re wonderful ,too.

Each one of us feels important inside,

Loving and giving and glad we’re alive,

Oh what a difference we’re making each day

All because someone decided to say;

I think you’re wonderful, When somebody says that to me

I feel wonderful, as wonderful can be

It makes me want to say the same thing to somebody new

And by the way, I’ve been meaning to say, I think you’re wonderful ,too.

A few of my friends and I get together every other Thursday to knit and chat about life.  I’ve been making diaper covers and other things so much lately that I decided to try something a little bit different.  I decided to make my first hat!  I made a nice stripped hat for Daphne.  It goes really well with a specific outfit that I like to put her in often, and it just looks so darn cute.  Unfortunately, I can’t seem to capture photos of it on her, but here are some static photos just so you can see the creation!  Hats are lovely, and I definitely think that I will be doing more of them in the near future–in fact, I am in the middle of one for the baby right now that matches this one.  The only difference is that the hat I am making now is made out of yarn that I spun from my very own rabbit hair!

Bless Daphne, when I ask her where her hat came from she says, “You made it mommy!”

Of course on my baby sewing kick I managed to get a few pouch slings sewn for fun.  As I said before, I greatly lacked variety in slings with Daphne.  Though a mama doesn’t need every kind of sling known to man, it is nice to have a vareity to try and to string about all the places you go so that you are never left without.

I have never tried using a pouch sling before, so I am excited to see how it goes.  My friend Rebecca has a really lovely one that her 8 week old baby is very happy to sleep in.  I am hoping that this baby will like the slings I made.  It turns out that it is incredibly simple to make a pouch sling, so if you are in need or know someone who is in need, feel free to give it a try.

I made a brown sling and a khaki sling.  Didn’t I mention that I’ve been feeling the brown color lately.  Daphne was happy to model for me.

And of course she loves being in the sling with daddy.

This is the beige sling.  Of course, it got drooled on shortly before the photo was taken!

Of course once I had made a sling for myself, Daphne needed one to carry her baby around in.  I was able to use some scrap fabric to whip one up for her easily.

There are some excellent resources to make the slings.  I would post a tutorial, but the truth is that I did not do anything original, so I will just direct you to what I did do.

The woman who runs this site has spent a lot of time writing up information to help mamas make slings for their babies.  The information on how to make a pouch sling is particularly helpful.

However, the best thing you can do is watch the following video.  It really helped me a lot to get the sling put together simply without any confusion.  I thank the woman who made it deeply.  Go for it.  Make some for yourself or someone you know.

I’ve been into doing extra preparation for emergency situations lately.  I’m not worried about anything happening, it must just be a part of nesting or crazy cleaning or something.

I picked up a flier recently that was interesting to me that I thought I might pass along.

You can help emergency responders a lot by adding a contact to your phone called ICE.  It stands for In Case of Emergency.  You create a new contact with ICE as the name and then list the number of who would need to be contacted in an emergency.  If there were to be a car accident or a fire or something, the emergency responders can grab the phone and call that person to contact them and let them know what happened.  I think it is brilliant.  I put several ICE contacts in my phone labelled ICE 1, ICE2, ICE3 so that there are several options in case the first person couldn’t be contacted.

I also did this for Jared’s phone as well.  Just another simple thing that can greatly help if it ever needs to be used.  Consider doing it today for your family.

I did a photo shoot recently of a beautiful local family.  I set the images aside for a while before I edited them, and I must say that when I sat down to edit a few of them, I was giddy with excitement.  Quite a few of them came out looking really well.

I consider that I am on maternity leave right now for most photo projects, but I still love shooting, and I must say that even though I am VERY pregnant, I’ve still got it.

There is nothing like the love of a sister right?

Every family needs a ballerina.

What I wouldn’t give to be 7 again.

I love this relaxed portrait of a daddy with his girls.

And this is what daddies are for right?

Yeah, I was totally in wedding photographer mode!

Kissing the new baby. Yummy light!

I’m showing you the more artistic and less documentary photos.  There were other good shots at this location, but I think this photo tells so much about this family.

There were so many good shots from this family shoot.  I thought the ones here were the most original and creative of the bunch.  I am loving the yummy black and white processing I’ve been doing lately, so that is why you get the pleasure of feasting your eyes on so many of them now.  This is such a special family to me, and I am so glad that they opened their lives to me to let document their lives.

I am opening up my schedule to shoot more maternity, family, infant and children sessions over the next couple of months.  Contact me if you want to book a session.  We always have a lot of fun and bring out a lot of personality.

It is obvious that I am making almost everything I can imaginably manage to make for this baby.  It is not that I feel that I need a lot of things, but anything that I think that I do need is easily made with a bit of research and some talent and persistence.

One of my favorite things with Daphne was putting her in a sling.  It helped me keep her close and out of trouble.  I could nurse her in the sling.  It was easy to carry her around a store without having to lug around a heavy and awkward car seat. I was also able to get things done when I put her in the sling.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have a lot of funds available to buy and try every different carrier, so I had one or two that I used all the time.  The thing about slings is that you can never really have too many.  Babies spit up on them and they can get left places.  They also are easily forgotten.  I was constantly forgetting to bring the sling with me necessitating that I do without.

I did a lot of reserach over the past few months and discovered that it is incredibly easy to make slings.  They cost very little to make when all you are buying is fabric.  I am becoming a more and more accomplished sewer all the time so I had little difficulty sitting down and figuring out how to put slings together.  I am thankful for that skill.

I decided to make two different ring slings out of linen fabric.  Linen is strong and soft and supportive, and makes a lovely sling.  It is, unfortunately, one of the more expensive fabrics, but it was totally worth it.  I have been buying a lot of brown fabrics for this baby (and for Daphne and myself for that matter) lately.  Because you only need half of the witdth of yardage to make a sling, a cut of fabric will give you two slings, which is a lovely bonus.  You can always sell the extra one, leave it in the car or give it away as a baby shower gift.  I opten to make two–one for home and one for the car.

These slings are ring slings, for obvious reasons.  They are great for running into the store quickly or for walking a baby around during a long walk.  They are easy to get a baby into and out of, and they adjust really easily.  They will hold anything from a newborn to a 35 pound toddler if necessary.  I have carried Daphne in them a few times, and she is 28 pounds now.

It must be noted if you are going to make ring slings that you get your rings from somewhere that sells rings specifically for slings.  Many of the rings you can get at fabric stores are for purses and are not meant to carry the weight of a baby.  They can bend or break making it very dangerous for your baby.  www.slingrings.com has rings that are very inexpensive.  There are lots of colors, and the shipping is very affordable.

This is the first sling I made.  I put a brocade tail on the end for decoration and to ensure that the sling was long enough.  I did not anticipate that it would be almost too long, but I find the extra tail length to be stylish and not bothersome at all.  You can also throw it over the other shoulder when the baby is sleeping.

I made this second sling with the other half of the fabric from the first sling.  It also has a nice brocade tail that I like.  It is also long, but I really don’t mind.  I now have a sling for the car and a sling for the home.

After making the above two slings, I got inspiried.  I decided that I was going to make a sling out of a special fabric called solarveil.  It is a fabric that has been discontinued, so it was hard to find.  Essentially, it blocks out 70% of the UV rays from the sun.  It can also get wet and dry very quickly.  It is a great sling for the beach or for times when it is very sunny.  Additionally, people use the fabric for slings for the pool or the shower.  It is possible to put a baby in the sling and go into the swimming pool or take a shower when no one else is around to handle the baby for you.  I am excited to use the sling.  I was happy to get a hold of some of the fabric.  I sold half of it to another mama that was wanting to make a sling for the same purposes.

You should be inspired to make your own sling if you are in need of one. I spent less on these three slings than I would have if I had bought one retail from a store.  They are just as lovely, and though some of the stitching might be sligthly crooked in some places, they will work wonderfuly.

There are lots of resources if you want to make your own slings.

Maya Slings are really popular ring slings, but they have a tutorial on their website to make your own sling if you desire.

I actually was interested in a different style sling. The slings I made are pleated on the shoulder. I like the look a lot more. I got the tutorial from a fellow blogger that I read. It is a lovely tutorial. I would recommend you try it. It is the one I decided on after a LOT of research.

There is tons of information and other research and patterns for free here.

I have also found the Sling Sewing Yahoo Group to be incredibly helpful in any questions that I had.

Hopefully those resources will help you if you wanted to make a sling of your own. Otherwise, you can just admire my own handwork (that I am very proud of).

I’ll leave you with an action shot of Daphne and I putting a sling on that I really like.

And a photo of my little girl wearing a sling just like mama.