Reusable Nappy Week!

Hi thar...

I haven't gotten my blog on for a while now, but had to share with you the event I helped to organise for Reusable Nappy Week! It was held in Brisbane yesterday at the Bleeding Heart Gallery which was AWESOME!

We invited people to come along, bring a packet of disposable nappies to exchange for a FREE modern cloth nappy! Everyone who uses MCN knows what an awesome deal that is, cloth nappies retail for $25 to $40! The plan was to create a massive pile of 6000 disposable nappies, to display next to 30 MCN... because the average 2 and a half year old will have gone through 6000 sposies before they potty train OR just 30 MCN. What a MASSIVE difference!

We hoped to outline to people exactly what they were choosing between. There are some myths that I hear often about using cloth which deter people from making the switch. Here are some FACTS for you:

• Using cloth doesn't necessarily mean using terry squares that require soaking, ironing, folding and pinning! Modern Cloth nappies don't require any of those things, you simply take it off your bub, chuck the nappy into a dry wetbag and every day or two, bung your nappies in the wash and press GO! No harder than washing clothes.



• It is NOT TRUE that the laundering process for cloth nappies is worse for the environment than using disposables. It takes more water and electricity to manufacture a disposable nappy than to wash cloth nappies.



• Using cloth nappies will save you a BUTTLOAD of cash! You may panic at the initial cost to buy your cloth nappies, but its a one off purchase. In the end you will save THOUSANDS of dollars! Note: you will also buy less pants. Speshly in summer. MCN are bum ART!



• MCN are super easy to use! If you can put a sposie on you can put a cloth nappy on. In fact... the amount of times hubby has thrown his hands in the air after trying unsuccessfully to put a night disposable on our daughter is amusing! Never happens with our cloth nappies: he knows exactly which snaps go where, and they can't be misplaced due to squirming!



• MCN are BEAUTIFUL! You can get personalised embroidered nappies... every colour... animal prints... soft minky... even DENIM nappies that look like a pair of JEANS!

Using disposables is wasteful and boring. Plus would you rather wear plastic knickers or cloth ones? You know what I'm talking about, its bad enough using disposable sanitary pads for a few days a month (on that note: switch to modern cloth pads! Thats a convo for another time though)

Anyhoo... the day was great, everyone who came recieved a gorgeous free MCN! Smiles all round! It was such a great atmosphere with all of those like minded mums, Mature Modern Mums got some great photos of us all breastfeeding at the event!

Unfortunately we didn't hit our target for disposables, getting 3712 in the end. Still a massive pile!! Thankyou to everyone who donated nappies, the disposables are all going to Backpacks 4 Aussie kids, a charity who creates backpacks to send to children going into foster care... imagine having a baby land on your doorstep at 2am without much notice? A backpack with nappies included would be a LIFE SAVER! They do great work, check them out and donate to them if you can :)

I'm still exhausted from yesterday, I almost lost my voice from chatting non-stop, my legs and back ache from lugging 270 MCN from my car to the event (and standing up all day!) and there were a few other miscellaneous injuries:

• One large knee bruise due to run in with a table



• One mystery finger gash, one of those ones you don't notice you did until later



• One HUGE shoulder bruise from running into a fire hose at full speed (I lost my keys at the end of the day and was sprinting from the carpark to the venue to look for them! Turns out I'd sent them home with Elizabeth in a random bag, her kind hubby drove them back to me!)



• One chunk of my heart was missing all day as Butterfly tore around the venue with her amazing Grandma... I hardly saw her! Thank goodness for breastfeeding, she had to stop her fun and come back to me occasionally!

It was totally awesome to be involved in such a great event, Nicole and Elizabeth, my co-conspiritors, are AMAZING talented women who put in so much work! I'm glad to have made friends with two beautiful women.

Looks like we are being forced to smile at gunpoint huh... LOL three happy yet frazzled ladies!

Will I be involved next year? Ask me in a week. I'm still recovering from this one! The ANN have asked me to become a volunteer, which I may do, they do fantastic work to spread the cloth love!

CLOTH ROCKS!

Driving in the city is the DEBIL!

OK so today was SUCH a debarcle that I have to laugh about it!

I was invited to Nest Nappies in Paddington (the CITY! Gasp!) too meet the loverly Elizabeth. Now, normally I wouldn't venture past the Juliette Street exit. That was my limit. All of the one way streets, crazy traffic, makes me hyperventilate! But being all growed up and such, I thought I'd have a crack.

So we had swimming first. We hadn't been for a month due to a bunch of random reasons, so Butterfly was VERY excited to be in the pool! She was playing "Up! Down!" in the pool, which led to her swallowing copious amounts of that chloriney water. Pay attention to that fact, it comes into play later. I tried not to get my hair wet but B and her little friend, lets call him Billy, had a splashathon. God love em!

When I was at the swimming hall I overheard a conversation, apparently I had stolen someones car park (I knew it was me when they described the car), but I swear I didn't see them! I even remember thinking, "Wow, can't believe no one has already claimed this one!" And I LOOKED! Pfft anyway, I was panicking as I got to the car, I so expected them to have keyed it or something. Luckily they hadn't.

I calmed down as I drove away, but as I passed Juliette Street the blood pressure rose again! I had memorised the route on Google maps, I had my phone GPS talking to me (a useful function hubby had found the night before) so I was fairly confident. BUT then as I hit the city poor Butterfly started to vomit in the back. Scary vomiting, I was petrified she'd choke. (Theres all that pool water :S) So I had to pull into the nearest side street to cuddle and change her. Trouble is, it was a one way street, I couldn't turn around and reclaim my route, I was FOOKED.

So I held my phone in a trembling hand, trying to listen to GPS man. Only I didn't like him. He kept telling me directions two turns ahead, and I got them mixed with the directions he was telling me to follow then and there! "100 meters, turn left. 600 meters, turn right. Turn left now." WHAT? Also, GPS man, "turning" in my book is steering your car down another street, not just veering with the natural bends in the road. You confusing DOUCHE! Also: I think he took me the bendiest, most confusing route just for funsies.

So then I get lost in Paddington backstreets, and meanwhile Butterfly has started vomiting AGAIN! Should I now mention that was the only other clean shirt I had for her? So with a mixture of ass, GPS man and intuition I finally found Nest Nappies! Woo! I stagger in the door with a topless, upset baby, reeking of spew and ready for fun!! Elizabeth, bless her, offered one of her baby shirts for Butterfly to wear, but it wouldn't fit over her melon. SIGH.

We actually had a great afternoon, Elizabeth is super funny and also especially lovely! I also met Nicole of Krap Katchers, who is also a lovely lady! Butterlfy cruised around the courtyard half nekked, bathing in the dirt, tipping rocks on herself and drawing on her tummy with my pen. Bless her little heart!

When it was time to go, I had to put some clothes on B or her car straps annoy her. ALL I HAD... was a hooded winter jacket (it was HOT by the way). Should have seen the look she gave me when I put it on her, all, "MUM! Are you NUTS?" I bunged her straight in the air conditioned car (froze MY tits off, as I wasn't wearing a ski jumper!) and off we went. My love/hate relationship with GPS man began again, and only one wrong turn later we were on the highway, south of the Juliette street exit, and all was right with the world.

Next time I'm taking the fucking bus.

Vege gardening week (but as always, lots of links to shopping too!)

Echo Way Boon Flair Highchair... http://www.echoway.com.au/catalog/item/7582753/8013715.htm and Yummy Earth Lollipops... http://www.echoway.com.au/catalog/item/7544934/7952843.htm

Red Cross... http://1.redcross.org.au/?fuseaction=newsroom.latestnews&sub=633

See Sam Upcycled kids clothing... http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=10799&id=116230585077775&ref=mf

Eco Toys Rainstick Tower... http://www.ecotoys.com.au/store/view-wooden-toys.php?toy=19

Little scents... http://www.littlescents.com.au/

Dragonfly toys (thanks Vi Nguyen!)... http://www.dragonflytoys.com.au/shop/index.php

Bubblebum clothing... http://www.bubblebum.com.au/

Durand Water Filter (fluoride)... http://durand.com.au/fluoridefilters.html

Miessence mineral mask... http://carbonfootprint.mionegroup.com/en/product/11304 and Cleansing bar... http://carbonfootprint.mionegroup.com/en/product/13211

Scamps boutique wooden rewards system... http://www.scamps.co.nz/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=23&products_id=84

Share your love... http://shareyourlove.com/#849 and http://shareyourlove.com/850

Deceptively Delicious... http://www.deceptivelydelicious.com/site/

Biological Farmers of Austraya (cheers Cara!)... http://www.bfa.com.au/index.asp?Sec_ID=132 and http://www.organicfooddirectory.com.au/

Vege gardening:

Vege gardenin for begginners... http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/vegetable/vegetable-gardening-for-beginners.htm

Companion planting... http://www.figtree.org.au/companion_planting.html

Gardening in small spaces: http://gardening.about.com/od/vegetables/a/SmVegGarden.htm

http://www.thevegetablepatch.com/gettingstarted.htm

Tracey's links... http://green-change.com/2009/10/18/video-permaculture-concept-bill-mollison/
http://www.biodynamics.com/steiner.html

Museum Funsies!

Today my little footprint family went into Brisbane to visit the Museum. Hubby drove as I REFUSE to drive in the city! One wrong turn and you'll end up in Adelaide... and unfortunately hubby took three... oh well, I'd always wanted to visit Perth!



Is a great place to take kids of all ages, entry is free, so all you have to pay for is parking or public transport. Butterfly sure loved it! She crawled around (refused to be picked up) and had fun discovering all the artefacts and animals... probably her favourite was the ant farm, which had little lights on cords that she had a ball fiddling with! She also liked the humpback whales near the entry... according to her they bark like dogs??? Bless her.


Anyway I leave you with some photos from today...

Inside a strangler fig!

sssssssssssnake!



Oooo waz dat?

Look Mumma!

Sharp teefies

Us girls getting edumacated

Butterfly puzzle!

I hope you had a great day too! PEACE

The simple things...

Well! My little footprint family and I had a great day today!! We woke early(ish) and headed on down to the Ormeau fair... it was pretty good! I think it will be better for us next year, when Butterfly is old enough for face painting and rides!! They were a bit beyond her this year.

She did enjoy the animal farm!! This pesky goat kept trying to eat my hair and Butterfly's pants... I much preferred the calm sheep.

Butterfly tried to hug the animals!! She was most intrigued by the fluffy chicken and the Llama. There was a baby calf, which had runny poo running all down its legs, it wasn't a good look. When I mentioned it to my hubby he said, "Oh, thats probably because they are feeding it some crap formula instead of letting it be with its Mother!" I had to laugh, I didn't realise how much my pro-breastfeeding talk had influenced him...

I came across this cute stall of wooden toys, and got Butterfly this wooden shape sorter for $19.95!! I was stoked, I'd been looking for a good one, and this is a good one! I also spent a lot of time at the Bella Bumz stall talking to Rebecca, who had her precious baby asleep on her chest. Cluck cluck cluck!! I was impressed with her cloth nappies, I can't wait to try one! I have also ordered some cloth menstrual pads through her, I'm looking forward to getting them. Rebecca is super friendly and talented, you can have a squiz at her site here.

Butterfly's Dadda enjoyed the fair too, he bought this Penrith Panthers hat for $5 (modelled beautifully here by Butterfly) plus some other Panthers stuff, and dragged me (briefly, thank GAWD) through the old cars they were showing. All in all was a great morning and we will go back next year!

This arvo we went on an adventure to Ikea with Butterfly's grandparents. Which is always a bonus, as her Nanna can't resist buying her anything she shows an interest in!! As a result we came home with a tent and a tunnel courtesy of Nanna, and I bought her a cane chair, some soft fruit/veges/breakfast sets to go with her wooden kitchen she's getting for Christmas... and some random bits n peices (like a dishwashing brush, to do away with disposable scourers, ya know??) Butterfly has such a blast at Ikea, I must remember that when we are stuck for something to do on rainy days! I don't know if they approve of me sticking her in large bins full of sheepskin for funsies... but until the mention it, I'ma keep doing it!

To cap off a great day, I made Mars Bar Slice this evening, with Butterfly hanging around my ankles crying "Ta...Ta... Taaaaa!": her way of saying, Mumma I want some of that... GIMME! So when I was done we sat down on the kitchen floor together to lick the bowl! She really applied herself to the job, and as a result we both ended up having a second shower before bed... her Dadda shook his head at us, but life's all about the simple pleasures, am I right??

My little fishie...

YAY!!! My very first Miessence order (well not technically my first, just the first exciting one!) arrived yesterday!




I tried to keep it to things I REALLY needed, so I still have stuff to order next month, and this is what I reduced it to! Oh, and that's Lavender standing guard over the new booty...

• Baby cream wash (smells sooooo good!)
• Foaming hand wash and concentrate: the concentrate fills 10 bottles and the foam is SO luxurious! One pump is ample, so should last AGES! Which is a good thing, coz I am so in love with this product! I wasn't all that excited about getting handwash, but when I got it I nearly went nuts! It is the prettiest smelling thing EVER!! Like barley sugar lollies! In fact I think I have to go get some barley sugars for my fix instead of washing my hands every two minutes...
• Reflect Outdoor balm, as Butterfly and I spend a lot of time at the park with friends and I needed a good sunblock for her precious head! Haven't tested that one yet.
• Jaffa lip balm... ORGASMIC!
• Ancient Spice Roll on deodorant for Mr Footprint, he mowed the lawn today wearing it and didn't stink, so its a winner! (this one isn't pictured, hubby ran off with it as soon as the order came)
• And one each of the two flavours of exfoliating cleansing bars. They come in these great natural sock things that exfoliates while you wash... I've only tried the tea tree one but its great!

Ohhh I can't wait for my next order already! It is so satisfying to finally replace the last of the supermarket toxic junk with natural alternatives... I was so smug yesterday as I took the Banana Boat Sunscreen down from the shelf and removed the yucky yellow soap from the shower! Now, don't have a coronary eco warriors, the sunscreen was almost empty and the soap will be kept for emergencies and the laundry, I shan't be wasteful!
In other news Butterfly went up to the toddler class at swimming today! Just after I got used to the new baby program... but she did SO well! I think she really liked the activities, as they are more designed for her age level... she isn't stuck doing the same program as the four month olds anymore. The other Mummas were shocked when I asked her to climb in safely and she promptly turned around and slid in, their two and three year olds weren't cooperating. Butterfly does that every day off the couch and bed!
Every lesson Butterfly gets jack of it half way through and signs for milk... and gets most upset when I tell her she can't have milk now, but soon. She's not used to waiting! She's not hungry though, its just her "go to" sign when she's out of her comfort zone.
Anyways I am one proud Mumma of one little fishie!
Man I just washed my hands again and they smell delicious! YUUUUM!
Oh, and don't forget, there are still TWO Jaffa Lip Balms left from my offer! So the next two orders from my website (for new customers) gets a FREE Jaffa lip balm!

I do LOVE a bargain!!

Last week was shite... food poisoning followed by a bad cold for Butterfly and I... we were stuck in the house all week! BORING! Plus I tend to get depressed if I don't see enough sunshine, vitamin D etc etc...

So yesterday we went to the Butterfly Tree Markets in search of amusement and/or wooden toys. We had a great time, there were SO many adorable clothes stalls, I could easily have spent a fortune! I was also tempted by some aromaplay clay, but thought better of it since Butterfly is still a bit young for it and thats something I want to buy fresh. What I DID buy is an adorable CD called "Homespun" by Nadia Sunde... its kind of like a kids CD, but not REALLY annoying!! She sings about the rain, going fishing, having a picnic etc, stuff that appeals to kids, but its good music!! I had to buy it, as she was right next to Hollie's Bumcheeks stall and we were there for a while... the music really grew on me. And Butterfly liked it to!

Didn't find many wooden toys, so from there we headed to the Carrara markets... walked around for an HOUR and didn't find ANYTHING!! On the way back to the car I found a little shop selling wooden toys, almost right next to the car!! Man, if I'd have walked left instead of right when I got there I would have saved myself a LOT of time! Anyway I got Butterfly this little wooden block truck and also wooden racing car thing I've tucked away for Christmas.

Still not satisfied with my purchases, Butterfly and I went shopping again today! Wasn't really planning on spending money, just for a look... but I found THE best bargain!! I have wanted Anamalz for a while now (if you thought Schleich was cool, Anamalz are the BEES KNEES of eco animal toys!), they retail for around $9.95 most places. So I went into the Early Learning Store... and found them for $4 each!!! O.M.G.!!!! Apparently some were even $2 but were sold out :O. So I bought one of each of the animals left (except the emu and panda, they didn't fit in with my farmyard crew... don't ask me to justify why the brown bear is a farmyard animal). So for the price of THREE I got EIGHT!! Are you not as excited as me? Maybe coz you haven't seen and felt these critters fo yoself!

From top left... goat, bull, camel, horse, llama,

In the front: donkey (SHREK! I'm lookin' down!), black ram and brown bear!

We enjoyed the rest of the morning in Borders, I bought Butterfly an Igglepiggle book and we sat down to share an iced chocolate (she likes to have a bit of the cream on top). I always love going out with Butterfly, she's great company! I get some strange stares from people because I like to entertain her, and I talk to her like she's a person (SHOCK: thats because she IS a person!). If Butterfly wants to play silly buggers in her carrier I'll play along. If I read her a book in a store I'm going to do the voices. If she wants to crawl back and forth at the petstore signing "puppy dog" and "puppy dog sleeping" I will share in her joy (FYI hardnosed petshop attendant: this is ADORABLE, not for you to scrunch your nose at).

On the way out I let Butterfly have a crawl around the little playground, and met a delighful three year old called Ella. She was smitten with Butterfly, kept stroking her hair (awww). She asked me if Butterfly had a peepee (I assume she meant penis??) so I said No. She agreed, said "boys have peepees. Do you have a boy baby at home?" I told her no. She surprised me by telling me Butterfly didn't like boys (which is totally TRUE, even the granddads can't get near her!). Maybe she just said that because she doesn't like boys. Or maybe she picked up on Butterfly' body language when a boy sat next to her? Whatever it was cute.

Ella talked to me for a good ten minutes, and held one of Butterfly's hands (and I the other) while she went down the slide. She was such a sweet little thing, and Butterfly liked her, waving bye bye as we walked away...

Twas a great morning, gave me the pick me up I needed!