Hot Fluff Cool Baby Giveaway!

Welcome to the Hot Fluff Cool Baby Cloth Diaper Giveaway! This awesome cloth diaper stash starter event is sponsored by Greenie Beanie Bottoms and hosted by Just Add Cloth, along with over 75 wonderful and influential bloggers who all love cloth! Cloth diapering is a great way to reduce our waste, help our planet, and save money. Cloth diapers are Hot items and Cool for your baby! Not only are cloth diapers more breathable in warm weather, but they make adorable accessories in Summer!

Starting your stash can be daunting, so this prize from Greenie Beanie Bottoms is a great way to get a variety of diapers to try out. Greenie Beanie Bottoms is an online retailer of cloth diapers, accessories, amber teething jewelry, and reusable menstrual and nursing pads.They offer totally free shipping for all orders in the U.S. and low flat rate shipping to Canada.

Now on to the prize!

Our Hot Fluff Cool Baby cloth diaper prize comprises everything you need to get started with cloth!

 

One lucky winner will receive:

2 Happy Heinys One Size pocket diapers

2 Wahmies Deluxe One Size pocket diapers

2 Drybees All-In-One cloth diapers

2 Oh Katy One Size Pocket diapers

2 Tweedle Bugs One Size pocket diapers

A dozen Tiny Tush Perfect Wipes

A Knickerknappies Hanging Diaper Pail /wet bag

2 Pairs Agoo baby leg Warmers

A Wolbybug wet bag

A jar of LuSa Organics booty balm

5 Fold-to-Fit Bamboo inserts by the Cloth Diaper Company

2 Happy Heinys One Size diaper covers

That's 10 pocket diapers in winner's choice of colors and closures, two wet bags, 12 cloth wipes, two pair baby leg warmers, diaper cream, two diaper covers, and five bamboo terry cloth inserts!

Bringing the grand prize total to over $300!!

With 15 diaper changes and accessories to match, this is a great beginner stash for anyone just starting out in cloth diapering. This giveaway runs from 12:01AM July 16 through 11:59PM July 31, EST. It is open to residents of the U.S. and Canada. Must be 18 or older. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. Entering means you agree to the terms and conditions stated in the form. Entering is easy! Simply fill out the Rafflecopter form below. a Rafflecopter giveaway *The participating blogs are not responsible if sponsor fails to provide prize. Bloggers did not receive review items or compensation for this event. ********************************************************************

Winners and a White Flag

Here are the winners for my last giveaways:
Theraneem: Teresa T
Tropical Traditions: Jennifer R

Congratulations and thanks to everyone who entered!

Ah, Summer Blog Challenge...
I enjoyed plugging away for about a month but then:

• I went on vacation, got out of the habit, and lost my momentum, 
• It got hot and I didn't want to go near the laptop, 
• I didn't have time to hop around to read other blogs and that's half the fun!

So I raise the white flag to the Challenge and will go back to posting whatever I want to--hopefully a few times a week.

Sunset on Lake Erie

 

Friday Flowers, 7/6/12

Vacation to Lakeside, OH was great! Yet its so nice to be back in the garden again (though my abs, back and quads don't think so).

'Better Boy' tomatoes growing in containers. These are much more vigorous that the 'Brandywine' that I grew last year and it is a challenge to prune them to one stem. Lots of blossoms though!

Cool whites in the Pool Garden

Echinacea 'White Swan'

I love the Gaillardia 'Burgundy'. It has spread itself around quite nicely.

Daylily 'Fairy Tale Pink'. I only spread around the daylilies that I really like. The rest are left to languish in the shady back yard.

I'm surprised that I don't mind the cool blues and the hot reds, pinks and yellows together.

Thyme in the foreground, lavender in the background--smells amazing!

Variegated yucca and Daylily 'El Desperado' (Why don't you come to your senses, you've been out riding fences...oh geez.)

Monarda 'Raspberry Wine'

Daylily 'Bama Bound'

Finally, the container annuals just barely survived vacation and are starting to perk up!

How Do you do your laundry? #BlogChallenge Day 28

I like to go pretty crunchy (natural, green, whatever) with my laundry.
Detergent:
To a one gallon container add:

• 1/2 cup Borax
• 1/2 cup Washing Soda

Fill 3/4 full with hot water and shake until powders are mostly dissolved (I use a plastic 1 gallon vinegar jug so that its easier to shake and pour). Add:

• 1/2 cup liquid castile soap (I'm currently using Dr. Bronner's Almond Hemp)

Fill the rest of the way with water and invert to mix. This will separate and become a little lumpy, but I just shake it before each use. This recipe originally called for two gallons of water but I made it more concentrated to save space. More water may equal less lumps. I use two Tablespoons per load in my HE front loader. There are 256 tablespoons in a gallon, so I should get about 128 loads.

I have noticed some fading of dark colored knits when using borax in the laundry. This doesn't bother me too much since most of our cloths come from thrift shops :-)

Fabric Softener:
Distilled white vinegar
4 homemade dryer balls
Myers Green Day Lemon Verbena dryers sheets (not as effective on static as the dryer balls! I only use these 'cause I got them on sale).

For Diaper Laundry:
I'm trying out Eco-Sprout right now and am happy with it so far. 
Dawn Original dish detergent worked well for occasional "stripping" of noxious fumes that accumulated over time. I soaked the diapers with the detergent for a few hours and then washed them without any soap until there were no suds left.
I always add a little vinegar to the fabric softener compartment for diapers too.  

Tip
I do a lot of cleaning with cloths instead of paper towels. I have learned from experience that you should hang wet cloths to dry instead of throwing them in the laundry pile wet. That will prevent stinky gross stuff from growing on it! 

The Dream "Me" Day: #BlogChallenge Day 25

What is your Ideal day of "me time", without thinking of money, time or any of life's other normal stresses?
 I wonder, in thinking about this subject, will I become discontent? No, because it is such a fantasy I don't even long for a day like this. I am so blessed!

I wake up at 8am, eat my oatmeal and drink my tea in peace. I head out into the garden to take pictures, dead-head, and putter. Then I head out for a few hours at the spa with friends--massage, mani-pedi, light lunch. The afternoon is spent at a local yarn store picking out skeins of hand-spun and/or hand-dyed yarn and then a garden tour. Supper is king crab legs--lots of them! Dessert: creme brulee and tiramisu. Then a romantic evening with the hubby includes a Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra concert, dancing (in this dream we both salsa :-), and a walk on the beach (oh, look! Now we're in the Caribbean! I think I'm getting carried away.) Getting home, I snuggle with my sleeping little boy and look forward to being climbed on all during breakfast tomorrow.