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Monday, February 28

AppleCheeks Review: Update

I wrote up a quick review about AppleCheeks a few months back. Here's a video on how to get the best out of your AppleCheeks diapers.

Thursday, February 24

Buy 2 Get 1 Free at Rachelle Anne Miller's Shop!


I've talked about Rachelle Anne Miller before and ranted about how fantastic I find her art. Well she is expecting baby number 2 very soon and thought she's do a big sale before she becomes MIA for a while...

Take advantage of this sale! I bought the 3 prints shown here for Kate's room and absolutely love them. Bonus? She's fantastic to work with and very accommodating! A very sweet woman. :) Sale ends February 27, 2011.

Sunday, February 20

Charlie Banana nana nana vs FuzziBunz


(WEB) (FACEBOOK) - 4 out of 5

I am in LOVE. Move over Fuzzibunz I found Charlie Banana. I find the PUL on this diaper exceeds in quality, I love that you get the 2 microfiber inserts (much like the new One-Size Fuzzibunz and elastics on the legs for a custom fit). I love the colour options for this diaper. It's is MUCH like the Fuzzibunz. I just like the fact that I have the option of buying a great pocket diaper from someone else... I've made it known that I'm not buying the new Fuzzibunz being manufactured in China, I find their PUL to be "cheap" and sticky feeling. I find them difficult to stuff. (Look the label, it will tell you where the diaper was made - I prefer the USA and Mexico versions - apparently they will be producing them in Turkey now.)


Charlie Bananas are hard to come by in Canada, but luckily Double K Boutique is selling off the rest of her lot at a discounted price.


Pros:
  • Absorbency - great for regular flow
  • Fit - Trim and sleek under clothes, custom fit with elastics and snaps, perfect fit on my little girl
  • Leaks - no leaks, even with nighttime use
  • Softness - SUPER soft microfleece
  • Drying time - covers take an hour or so
  • Retail price - competitive!!! Can get them on sale for as little as $15 CAD if you're willing to do the hunt. - Can go as high as $24.95 CAD for prints (which are adorable)
  • Insert - you get 2 microfleece inserts, a short and a long
  • Ease of Use - Snaps! and pocket stuffing

Cons:

  • Absorbency - not sure if can withstand a heavy wetter
  • Leaks -no leaks yet - but I'm not using this as a main diaper yet
  • Drying time - new liners take an overnight dry or 15 minutes in the dryer
  • Ease of use - tricky if you have a fidgety baby like mine, but I bribe her with a toy


NOTE: I did not receive any compensation for this review. These opinions are my own. I have purchased these diapers at full price for this review.

Saturday, February 19

Blueberry AI2 and Minky Pocket

(WEB) (FACEBOOK)
Retails: $19.99-$34.99

I've been lagging a bit in the diaper review department lately - it's not that I've lost the want to try new diapers, but more like I'm lost all my free time!

Anyway, onto the Blueberry. From the makers of Swaddlebees, I really liked the look of the diaper and fell in love with the Minky. I even shelled out the ridiculous $30 to pay for a cover cause I liked it so much - unfortunately, it didn't fit Kate very well, and I finally gave up and put it up for sale at half the price. I bought the cow print AI2 for $10 in a gently used condition. It needed a little sunning and then it was as good as new.

Blueberry All-in-Two - 3.5 out of 5
- Kate is modeling it in the picture above in cow print

I been using this AI2 for at least a month now with the Blueberry One-size Hemp and Microfiber insert. Although it's one of my favourite, I was speaking with a woman at Extraordinary Baby Shoppe and she was telling me how much she hating this diaper because it was so hard to keep it clean and un-stinky. I thought she was exaggerating and dismissed it - til a week later, I understood what she meant,... I have to wash this diaper twice to keep the stinkies at bay. Once just the way it is, and a second time flipped inside out to ensure it really cleans the microfiber. I don't really mind since I have a huge stash, so I wash once, flip it inside out and throw it in the wetbag for wash number 2. It's a really trim diaper and works fantastically for an overnight diaper.

Pros:
  • Absorbency - VERY absorbent - insert has 3 layers of hemp and microfiber and diaper has a thick layer of microfiber sewn right in.
  • Fit - trim and cute!
  • Leaks - none at all - even with a "blowout"
  • Softness - soft with a satin finish on the outside
  • Insert - has a built in microfiber insert and an open pocket to allow for your favourite doubler.
  • Ease of Use - easy side snaps
  • Style - Comes in cute patterns!
Cons:
  • Retail price - a little steep for my taste
  • Drying time - takes a long time to dry - at least a full day
  • Insert - difficult to keep the built in insert clean

Blueberry Pocket Minky - 3 out of 5

I used this pocket diaper for about a month with a Blueberry Microfiber insert. I adored the look of this diaper... until I put it on Kate. It's actually so bulky that it made her legs look awkward, almost like she was getting ready to ride a horse. I never used it as a daytime diaper since it didn't allow us to put pants on her - and I wasn't overly impressed as a nighttime diaper. Probably because I'm so used to how well my Dreameze and Little Beetle have worked, that this one fails in comparaison.

Pros:
  • Drying time - fast drying time
  • Leaks - none
  • Softness - soft inside and out
  • Insert - easy pocket diaper
  • Ease of Use - snaps
  • Style - Comes in cute patterns!
Cons:
  • Retail price - a little steep for my taste
  • Absorbency - mediocre
  • Fit - very bulky


NOTE: I did not receive any compensation for this review. These opinions are my own. I purchased these diapers at my own cost.

Wednesday, February 16

Me.Read.Good.

I don't read books very often, unless they're a little satirical. Books tend to lead me to a snore and some books can take from months to years for me to finish (enter I am America and So Can You by Stephen Colbert). I can't pinpoint the types of books I like, but sometimes I find one that's an amazing read and I just can't put it down. My favourite book through high school was To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I must have read it a dozen times. The movie stinks, but then again, I hate black and white oldies.

A few years ago, someone suggested I read a book called The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. This is an autobiography that focuses mostly on the author's mother and her "loose" thoughts on life and parenting. I COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN. I sought out other books by the same author and found the prequel to The Glass Castle titled Broken Horses - this one features her Grandmother. Seems there's a long line of distorted morals in this family. Not the same impact, but it shed new light on The Glass Castle. Easy and quick read - and you can't believe sometimes that people live nomadic lives like these.

My new read? A book my mom highly suggested. She's into dark books as much as I am, difference being she reads a book a month. I'm not competitive with her, so I let her win the bookworm contest. Anyway, she suggested I read a book titled The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne a fictional tale about two boys - the son of a Nazi commandant and a Jewish concentration camp inmate becoming the best of friends. Spoiler alert... it doesn't have a happy ending. Available for $5.99 at Winners/Home Sense. A steal for a good read!

Tuesday, February 8

Happy 5 months Kate!

As a new mom, you find any reason to celebrate... every milestone seems so important. Even though Kate is driving me bonkers these days, and I'm wearing thin on no-sleep. It's the little giggles and chatter than keep me going.

I stumbled on this recipe and I can't wait til I can make these for Kate big 1st birthday bash. Then again, I wish she'd stay little forever. You see Kate has figured out that, she can't crawl yet, and back frog jumping often bumps her head first into wall. Her mobility of choice is now rolling to get somewhere which means, I can't just leave her on the floor with a couple of toys and run off to do laundry anymore. She requires a lot of attention and is too stubborn to take a mid-afternoon nap. This equates to no downtime for mom. You would think in this case that she sleeps through the night, wrong! She still gets up for 2 feeds and a diaper change. However, we have hit a major milestone. Kate gave up signing for 'milk' and is now actually requesting "lait lait". Of course,... she doesn't do it when you ask her to,... she resorts to yelling this when I'm not fast enough with her milk. We've also heard "mamamama" when she can't see me and is upset. I thought it was a fluke and that she was just playing with her m's, but she seems to have associated me to "mamamama", thanks do Dad who's been really pressing this on her since birth. He's determined to raise a genius. I would rather she veg out once in a while. ;)

If you haven't visited Skip to My Lou's blog yet, you should. There's a lot of entertaining posts and great recipe and gift ideas.
http://www.skiptomylou.org/2010/05/18/how-to-make-rainbow-colored-cupcakes/

Tuesday, February 1

MYO - Fancy Diaper and Wipes Case


I tried this and failed miserably. I will try it again... I think I just need practice with a glue gun? Silly me. I had the peanut shaped case from Huggies. I think a plain square one would have made my life a lot easier. Try it out and share with us on Bibmababy!

http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2009/03/diaperwipes-case.html?spref=fb