More Home Organization

So I've been working on this post for weeks. Its a lot to cover and I'm still not finished. :) Organizing the baby's room was always a high priority for me. The little sucker angel has more stuff that my husband and I do combined.

The first thing we purchased was from IKEA, although you can find these anywhere. A simple closet organizer. The uses for this has changed in the past year as my son has grown and changed. He's little now, so the top drawer holds his clothes for the week. Eventually when he's older (there are five pockets), each pocket can stand for one day.



On the top of the closet I have these adorable bins from the Dollar Tree. I created labels on the computer, printed them, laminated them, and stuck them to the mini clothes baskets. I really like this system, as it keeps all of his linens organized. That boy has a lot!











He has a dresser from IKEA and we picked up these drawer organizers from IKEA (they fit exactly into the drawers - concidence?) This has really helped to divide his onesies and swimwear by sizes.



I also put these in his bottom drawer, to divide up his shorts and pants into first two piles (shorts and pants) and then my size.



The top drawer contains another drawer organize (again, from IKEA) for all his other odds and ends.





The linen closet is another beast. I found this idea on pintrest (and then stole and adapted it for the nursery, can you tell?) Our linen closet is small, so I'm still unsure if I like this method or not.

Cloth Wipes & DIY Detergent for Diapers

So we've been cloth diapering with our son for a while. (He is almost 22 months) We're trying to continue being more environmentally friendly and more cost efficient so I made some cloth wipes. I used a simple tutorial I found on pintrest that used fleece and water. Easy enough right? Wrong. After a few days the fleece started to leave little fleece bunnies on little man's behind and all over his cloth diapers (even turning the insides of them blue!). I don't know if I used the wrong type of fleece or what, but we instantly scratched that idea and went back to the throw away kind.

Then I found this tutorial about using flannel. So I made six cloth wipes to try out and see how they do. They did awesome. I use just water and they work great! SO much better than the throw away kind (esp. on big messes). I made some more and I only need to rewet wipes every other day or so. The tea tree oil isn't necessary when using cloth wipes, however, I did use it when my son had an extremely bad diaper rash and *poof* it was gone in a 24 hours. Awesome.



As for the detergent I use on my cloth diapers, I highly recommend this one created by Hive of the Honey Bee. Super simple: 1 cup of oxy clean, 1 cup of washing soda, 1 cup of baking soda. I initially chose this one out of all the other homemade recommendations because this one is borax free. I avoid all cleaners that use borax because of its toxic properties. Ick. I am not bringing that into my house!

I've used it for about three weeks so far and it works great! Two days ago, I noticed that the diapers were getting a little scratchy and rough, so I did a cycle of diapers using Snuggle fabric softener and All Laundry detergent, followed by a cycle with this DIY detergent, before hanging them out to dry. So far, the diapers have remained super soft since with no reaction to little man.

My First Crafty Love

My first crafty love will always be cross stitching. I used to watch my mom cross stitch all the time when I was a little kid. One day, I begged her to show me how and I stitched my first little cross stitch. A pair of ballet slippers (I had a thing for ballet). It was horrible. The stitches went all different directions and I stitched until I had too few threads left, but that was the end of it. I was in love. I haven't stopped since.

I've been working on these Jungle Critters for LM's room since before he was born (OMG). Actually, I've been working on these for the last year and half. I have two more down, and only one to go!





When we had decided to do a jungle theme in LM's room, I purchased a baby sampler for his bedroom. My awesome friend Emily offered to stitch it for me. Needless to say she was done with this puppy long before I finished mine. She did a fantastic job.



Yes, that is a photo of the top half. The bottom half contains his name and poundage. :)

Birthday Madness

Trying to plan a birthday part for a one year old was painful, considering I've never even attended a birthday party for a one year old. However, Party City and the fact that the only cartoon my LM will watch is Phineas and Ferb on netflix, made my life a little easier. Add to that some wonderful "Where's Perry" cotton fabric that I found at JoAnn fabrics and you have yourself a one year old's birthday party!



























Albertson's grocery saved my bacon with this birthday cake. I was really getting scared that I was going to have to make my own.



Everything was commercially bought (hangs head in shame) expect for the high chair kit which you see in the picture above. The only ones we could find were boy or girl themed. So using the "Where's Perry" fabric I found, I created the birthday cake kit. I sewed a flag banner that got taped to the table, cut out a large square for a floor mat (no sewing involved, I was a working mother in a hurry!), and made a bib (complete with snaps.)

And yes, everyone had a great time at the party. Of course my LM wouldn't eat his birthday cake. It wasn't until two days later, he actually tried a piece. Good times.