Hello world,
As you all know, I love using cloth nappies but I was thinking tonight, it really has changed my life!
Its saved me money - even tho we have bought some nice nappies and have a sizeable stash I've still saved on what I would have paid for sposies. And Pie is only the first of I hope many babies (well probably 3 cos I don't know if I'll have many more pregnancies in me than 3!) so its only the start of the savings.
I feel good about leaving less impact on the environment - I feel good knowing that we are doing our part for a better future for our beautiful girl. I feel good knowing we are raising her to see the importance and ease of reusing, to not be caught in the throw away mentaility that our society has somehow come to.
I love how happy and comfy my Pie is in them, she rarely gets rashes now that we use cloth and she looks adorable in it!
MCN Lovers R Us - what a life changing experience that has been! I feel so proud of having made something that has turned out to be so successful already, I feel good knowing that ppl come to my page for help and they get it! I feel good when I see what a happy community it has become! And I've taken the online cloth adventure one step further and co-founded Unite for Cloth - a group encouraging people to be cloth advocates by providing the information, handouts etc to make it easier to speak up for cloth. Its only 4 days old but I can't wait to see how it grows!
But the way that cloth has changed my life the most is the amazing women I now call my friends - none of whom have I met!
I have 2 Christmas cards hanging on a piece of ribbon strung across my lounge room window - they are both from women I have never met but I call my friends now and our shared love of cloth bought us together!
When I check my email now I'm often emailing back and forth with a wonderful lady who I'll call L - she makes such beautiful nappies and has such a kind heart, she lives in SA. Or it'll be one from C who lives in Melbourne and has such an amazing spirit! She works so hard and gives without any thought of take! Or it'll be comments of my blog from E who is the ultimate Mummy/business woman combo - she really understands and values family and she is also one of the loveliest women I've ever encountered! She lives far far away in WA! When I log onto facebook my notifications are always packed! There is K who is like a soul sister, we send parcels to each other swapping all sorts of little nic-nacs and my baby girl has dollies named after her baby girls! Or A who has the most fun spirit of any person I have ever known and makes awesome Xmas decorations! There are J and J who I can always count on to share the Mummy joy whenever I put up a photo or a post about my girl! And thats just the start!
These new friendships are so wonderful! During my pregnancy with Pie I had to give up my job (at 16wks - so very early!) and my independence and I lost alot of self-confidence and I got somewhat forgotten about by alot of my closest friends - suddenly I was pretty well housebound or needed my husband to drive me to places, get out the wheelchair and push me around - it was a lot of work PLUS we had next to no money and I was in pain so it quickly became too hard for my friends and I to really see each other and 9months on my confidence is still shaky and my friendships are still not the same as they were. BUT meeting these wonderful ppl reminds me that there is a whole big world out there and that things change for a reason!
Cloth has changed my world, how has it changed yours?
Jodi xo
Thursday, 8 December 2011
Tuesday, 6 December 2011
The Xmas Advent Adventures 2011 Day 3 - 7
Hello World!
Day 3: Put up the outside lights -still need to do that, its been raining!!!
Day 4: Add your special decoration to the tree...
Now you will have all seen the baby Piper and the Canberra Raiders decs on our tree - I got a bit eager and added them to the tree when we put it up - wooooops! But we did get some very special ornaments in the post on day 4 so we added them instead:
thank you Amy for the beautiful gift! You have no idea how much it means to me to get something so special in the mail!
Day 5 : Write and send the Xmas cards:
And before we moved on to the next day Pie and I enjoyed 5 minutes under the xmas tree:
Day 6 : Unwrap something special from your stocking!
Day 7 : Visit Santa!
We couldn't take any photos at the Santa exhibit because apparently the meaning of Christmas is the $17 they want you to spend on a Santa photo and therefore cameras and mobile phones are banned. I didn't want to cause any probs by taking pics of the face she gave Santa but it was a good one! We don't want a Santa photo because a) Piper really doesn't like the guy much - when he waved to her today she wiggled back in her stroller and gave him the stink eye - and he was a good 15 metres away, and b) I'd prefer our christmas photos to be ones of our happy smiling, crazy bub, not of her terrified sitting on the lap of a stranger! So we just went over close, I gave him a wave, she gave him a death stare and we continued on our way. If she's keen to go near Santa I'll certainly do it, but so far, she isn't!!! We did run in to Mrs Clause tho and she gave us....
And here are a few more snaps of our day cos I'm in the mood for photos:
Jodi xo
Day 3: Put up the outside lights -
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| Very simple, we also have a light garland that says Merry Christmas too. They get the message out tho - Merry Christmas to you, from us! |
Day 4: Add your special decoration to the tree...
Now you will have all seen the baby Piper and the Canberra Raiders decs on our tree - I got a bit eager and added them to the tree when we put it up - wooooops! But we did get some very special ornaments in the post on day 4 so we added them instead:
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| K is for Kev |
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| J is for Jodi |
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| And P is for Pie :) |
thank you Amy for the beautiful gift! You have no idea how much it means to me to get something so special in the mail!
Day 5 : Write and send the Xmas cards:
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| This is still a work in progress 2 days later! Cards from vista print, photos of Pie by my sis! |
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| Seeing the lights up through the branches of the tree is pretty magical, you definately should try it! Pie loved it! |
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| As unwrapping is a little tricky and I didn't want the something special to get damaged I just put it in her stocking! |
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| A Mr Men Christmas book - Yay! |
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| Reading the back to see what the books about! |
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| Really enjoying the story! |
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| And finish off with a bit of showing off to the camera! |
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| AND a bit more! |
Day 7 : Visit Santa!
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| Heading towards the Santa circus - how cute are those volleys! |
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| A Gingerbread man tattoo!!! Not sure if Pie will be getting a temp tattoo this Xmas tho. |
And here are a few more snaps of our day cos I'm in the mood for photos:
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| Pie wasn't too impressed when I busted her doing some sort of dance in the backseat today! |
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| But I got a pic from the other side and she was far less cranky! |
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| And ofcourse, the new crazy smile!! (how do I rotate photos on here???) |
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| A very tired Mummy and her gorgeous Pie xo |
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| And here is a page from the special photo book I had made for Piper for Xmas! |
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| Dancing to Aunty Sharni's music on Nanny's table - this girl loves pop! |
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| Then we got a special parcel from Mary-Beth when we got home |
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| Daisy Duck rocks Xmas! |
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| Straight in the mouth - clearly gets the Piper seal of approval! Thanks Kel xox |
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| Oh and one from earlier this week - the only time its been hot enough to rock her xmas dress I made!!! |
Friday, 2 December 2011
The Xmas Advent Adventures 2011 Day 1 and 2
Hello world,
On the first day of Christmas my advent said to me:
Put up your Christmas tree!
Put up your Christmas tree!
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| Pie wasn't too sure what was going on - there are spikey green plasticy things everywhere! |
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| Exploring some lights while having a dinner break! Typical kid, let Mum and Dad do all the work! |
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| Wow! |
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| And on with the special ornaments: Baby Piper at 5 weeks old |
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| And one for hubby - clearly a fan of the green machine! |
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| The battery went flat on the camera! But here is the finished tree :) |
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| And then comes the attempts to pull down the decs! "Nearly....nearly... just stretch a little further..." |
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| "Wahoo!!!" Good job wiggling on that cute butt Missy! |
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| "What?" |
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| Me and my girl - not a great pic but the only one where she wasn't trying to eat my nose or pull my hair!!! |
On the second day of Christmas my advent said to me:
Write a letter to santa!
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| See - there it is in my messy hand writing :) |
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| Poor kid, was too cold for the usual topless painting so she had to wear a smock! |
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| Getting busy on her Santa letter: This year she decided to communicate artistically! |
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| Really getting the message across to Santa! |
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| Taking an inspiration break on her 2nd piece of art |
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| The finished letter: What she said is clearly between her and Santa. |
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| "Yay! I wrote my first Santa Letter!" |
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| "Oh and Santa, PS...." |
jodi xo
Tuesday, 29 November 2011
Water fun
Hello world,
Its amazing how much fun the simple things can bring to a bub. And how wonderfully grounding enjoying the simple things with your baby can be. Today Pie and I played with her new water tray (a Granny present that couldn't wait til xmas!)
Pie has been a little nervous around water, she often takes a few sharp breaths when we put her in the bath or if the shower water runs over her face, she really didn't like the beach when we took her but I think it may have been the cold and the sounds that scared her most. Last weekend however she went swimming with her Dad in the pool at my parents place and once she was used to the cold she really seemed to enjoy herself BUT nowhere near as much as she enjoyed today.
Its funny how just tipping water out of a little bucket can be so satisfying. Pie wasn't too sure where to start - there was lots to look at in our little water tray! But once I showed her how she could tip the water out of the bucket and watering can they quickly became favourites! Pie would tip them up, the water would run down her arms and all over me and the play continued :)
I think I know what to get for stuffing fillers - some little cups that she can use to move the water around as the bucket is big and tricky to fill for a little person!
I'm sure this is a pretty boring blog BUT today I was reminded of how wonderful being a Mum is and how lucky I am to have this wonderful little person in my life! So I'm blogging to remind myself to cherish these moments even more than I already do and to make time to make simple memories!
Piper also discovered the pure joy of sucking the water off my hands and out of the watering can but I didn't catch a shot of that ;)
What fun simple play do you and your kids enjoy?
jodi xo
Its amazing how much fun the simple things can bring to a bub. And how wonderfully grounding enjoying the simple things with your baby can be. Today Pie and I played with her new water tray (a Granny present that couldn't wait til xmas!)
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| So excited by all the toys! |
Pie has been a little nervous around water, she often takes a few sharp breaths when we put her in the bath or if the shower water runs over her face, she really didn't like the beach when we took her but I think it may have been the cold and the sounds that scared her most. Last weekend however she went swimming with her Dad in the pool at my parents place and once she was used to the cold she really seemed to enjoy herself BUT nowhere near as much as she enjoyed today.
Its funny how just tipping water out of a little bucket can be so satisfying. Pie wasn't too sure where to start - there was lots to look at in our little water tray! But once I showed her how she could tip the water out of the bucket and watering can they quickly became favourites! Pie would tip them up, the water would run down her arms and all over me and the play continued :)
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| Me and my gorgeous Pie! |
I'm sure this is a pretty boring blog BUT today I was reminded of how wonderful being a Mum is and how lucky I am to have this wonderful little person in my life! So I'm blogging to remind myself to cherish these moments even more than I already do and to make time to make simple memories!
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| Hi Mum, don't I look cute in my tie dye singlet (thanks for the freebie Rascal Rumps!!!) |
What fun simple play do you and your kids enjoy?
jodi xo
Monday, 28 November 2011
Bring on the festive season - Advent Calendar!!!
Hello world,
Last blog I mentioned the advent calendar I wanted to purchase and today I did, so I thought I'd share it here tonight :)
Picked this one up for $10 from Big W but you could make one or find a different one online somewhere if you can't get the Big W one I've got. (The pockets didnt come filled - I just forgot to take a photo before I had put them all in while I figured out the activities!)
To fill the pockets and write our day by day Christmas activities on I also bought a pack of gift tags - they were $6 for 50 so I've got half of them left to use on gifts and they fit well in the assorted pockets. I'm a bit funny so I've been cutting out bits of cardboard all night to cover the TO and FROM on the back of the cards. If I had a printer I would have just printed out the activities and glued them on the pack but I don't :) If you did have a printer you could print them straight on cardboard and cut them out to use rather than buying some.
So after all my prep pasting little bits of cardboard to other bits of cardboard I needed a list of 24 activities to write on them - and here it is in no particular order (except xmas eve dinner which clearly will be occuring on xmas eve!)
Last blog I mentioned the advent calendar I wanted to purchase and today I did, so I thought I'd share it here tonight :)
Picked this one up for $10 from Big W but you could make one or find a different one online somewhere if you can't get the Big W one I've got. (The pockets didnt come filled - I just forgot to take a photo before I had put them all in while I figured out the activities!)
To fill the pockets and write our day by day Christmas activities on I also bought a pack of gift tags - they were $6 for 50 so I've got half of them left to use on gifts and they fit well in the assorted pockets. I'm a bit funny so I've been cutting out bits of cardboard all night to cover the TO and FROM on the back of the cards. If I had a printer I would have just printed out the activities and glued them on the pack but I don't :) If you did have a printer you could print them straight on cardboard and cut them out to use rather than buying some.
So after all my prep pasting little bits of cardboard to other bits of cardboard I needed a list of 24 activities to write on them - and here it is in no particular order (except xmas eve dinner which clearly will be occuring on xmas eve!)
- Put up the Christmas tree
- Put up the outdoor lights
- Write a letter to Santa
- Choose a special Christmas treat (I will wrap up a few special christmas treats that Piper and her future siblings can pick from in the future - may not do it this year as she is 9mo and won't really get it - but I might do it anyway!)
- Place your special ornament on the Christmas tree
- Drive around and see the Christmas lights
- Mail out the Christmas cards
- Visit Santa
- Go for a walk to collect pine cones
- Go to the library to pick out some Christmas books
- Make Christmas Cookies
- Drive around and see the Christmas lights
- Buy a gift for the wishing tree
- Listen to Christmas carols
- Do a Christmas craft
- Wrap some presents
- Make pinecone bird feeder and hang outside
- Make candy cane play dough
- Watch a Christmas movie together
- Go to Carols by Candlelight and have a family picnic dinner
- Make handprint/footprint ornaments
- Fish and Chips for dinner down at the beach
- Unwrap a special Christmas treat
- Have traditional xmas eve dinner with family
You probably noticed that I doubled up on a few, I did this intentionally, you don't have to!
And here are some awesome blogs for inspiration for creating your own Christmas activites advent calendar:
The Christmas Book Advent Calendar is an idea that I love and will be putting to use - maybe not this year as I've got 2 days to buy 24 Christmas books - but definately for future Christmas'
So another tick off the list waiting for the christmas month to arrive - one family activities advent calendar :
Jodi xo
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