DIY: Decorative Comic Book Letter

I love Pinterest and wanted to make some cute comic book letters for my boys.  When clicking on all the links it was very hard to find directions that I liked all in one place.  I had to sift through all the letters to find directions, while finding easy ones were even harder.  Here is my own version of how to create a 3-D letter and how to mod podge the comic onto the letter.

Supplies

metal ruler

cutting board

masking tape

x acto knife

scissors

stiff cardboard box (diaper box)

flexible cardboard box (cereal box)

pencil/pen

mod podge

foam paint brush

comic book

2 printed letters

3-D Letter

First you need to choose a font for your letter.  A font that has a flat bottom works the best for curved letters.  I use Aerial Black.  If you don’t have Aerial Black, use Aerial and make it bold.  I make the font 700-800 point.  This fills up an entire 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper.  You can make the letters uppercase or lower case.  You may also need to print landscape versus portrait for some letters like m.  Print two copies of the letter of your choice.  Tape the paper to the stiff cardboard and cut out.  If your letter doesn’t have a flat edge on the bottom like s, make sure to cut a small straight edge on the bottom so the letter can stand up.  If your two letters do not match exactly don’t worry you will never be able to tell once it is assembled.  Next you will need to cut strips of cardboard of equal width from the stiff and flexible cardboard.  I use my rule width as the width for the strips so no measuring is required.

You are now ready to assemble your letter.  Cut the strips to the lengths needed.  I use the stiff cardboard for the base and the flexible cardboard for the curved edges.  Tape the letter together.  It should now be able to stand.

Selecting your Comic

When I select my comics I try to find ones that have lots of images of my character.  Make sure the images don’t all fall on the backs of another as you can only use one side.  It is also very difficult to find two comics that have the same illustrations, so one comic book per letter is best.  Now that you have your comic you need to take out the staples and select the pages/images you would like to use and cut them out with your scissors.  I use my 3-D letter to trace onto the back of the images I am using for my cutting guide.  When doing the sides you will want to make sure you cut those strips a little larger so you can wrap the edges of the letter for a seamless look.  

How to Mod Podge

I use a matte finish mod podge and start with the sides, then do the front and last the back.  You do not need to make the back perfect since no one will be seeing it, just make sure all the cardboard is covered.  To mod podge the letter you brush on a coat onto the back of the comic and stick it to the cardboard.  Once all sides are done and have dried add two to three coats of mod podge.  Make sure you brush in the same direction so your strokes all look the same and allow the letter to dry before adding the next coat.  You can mod podge anything.  I also did the light switches in the boys rooms.

Enjoy!

xoxo
-J

Baby Cakes: A Natural Birth Story

As you fantastic readers are soon to discover, I am a huge proponent of natural birth. No this isn't because I have a 'I'm better than you' syndrome, nor am I one of the delusional women who will tell you that birth is a painless experience. No no no. It's because I am such a Type A pain in the ass that I feel an unexplainable urge to research as much as I can on almost every new adventure that I embark on. Birth definitely being one of the most life changing of all. And my findings yielded a definite conclusion that cannot be disputed even by the most surgery happy OB: natural birth is safer for mom, for baby, and for billfold. After deciding on a natural birth I still ended up being induced with my first daughter due to pre-eclampsia. I had no pain medication and ended up with a baby in the NICU and a not so pleasant birth experience. The second time went quite different (and much faster and crazier!).

Here is my story.

On wednesday, June 26th, The day before I delivered baby cakes #2 I was getting a lot of stuff done around the house. I mowed the lawn, pulled weeds while squatting, helped my friend shampoo my carpets, cleaned out all my daughters toy boxes and reorganized them. I was hoping I would start feeling some contractions but I didn't feel anything other than low pressure when I would walk. I went to sleep that night and woke at 1am with very minimal cramping. A friend of mine had been induced and delivered her daughter the evening before and we have the same doula, T. She was still awake and coming down from that birth so I chatted with her a little bit and made a joke 'you need to get some rest and get ready for the next birth!' And then of course reassured her that I was feeling nothing and that I was sure it would be a few days at least. I read a couple birth stories online, checked Facebook and I went back to sleep around 2am.

At 3:30 I woke up with a crampy feeling. I felt a little like I needed to poop, or let out a huge fart. I tried and failed to use the bathroom and still felt crampy but I was noticing a sort of regularity. At 4am I decided to take a hot shower to see if they would subside and in the meantime I had my husband, L, start timing them with an iPhone app. The shower did not help stop them but rather sped them up. I was still in denial and was sure I was just having gas pains. Who wants to call their midwife in from almost 4 hours away for a fart? L on the other hand, after seeing the contractions were every 2 minutes, called our midwife P, and doula T. P lives 250 miles away and left her house immediately. T headed to our house as well.

At this point I finished showering and got ready for the day. My stomach was growling so I asked L to make bacon and eggs. The contractions started to get more intense, to the point that I had to concentrate through them, and were lasting 35-40 seconds. T arrived quickly and set up some essential oils. P called the local student midwife, J, and she also headed out to the house. When food was finished it no longer sounded appetizing so I ate a couple bites of Greek yogurt instead. T suggested we walk around outside to see if that would slow things down in cool air. About 5 minutes of walking outside I vomited. This is when J pulled up to the house. We went inside, she checked my vitals and called P to update her.

I was in the zone now. I had to vocalize through contractions and was swaying and leaning on a ball. It was at this point that the decision was made to transfer to the hospital since it was obvious that P wasn't going to make it in time, and J didn't feel 100% comfortable catching the baby. I wasn't happy about the transfer, especially since nothing was wrong. I went along with it though. L called my grandma to come over from a couple houses down and watch my 21 month old daughter. L and J laid down the seats in the back of my car and threw pillows and blankets back there so I would be somewhat comfortable. We loaded up, me on my knees and elbows surrounded by J and T. P called ahead to the hospital and told them we were on our way and I was in precipitous labor. By now it was after 7am.

L drove the 25 miles at over 100mph to the hospital as I was screaming in the back and trying my hardest not to push. With every contraction the pressure was unbearable but T kept telling me to keep my chin up and don't push. The car ride was definitely the most excruciating ride of my life. When we got to the hospital L pulled into the ambulance bay and we were met by the ER staff and a stretcher. I piled on and the nurses literally sprinted me through the halls while I was vocalizing (loudly!) through contractions. Once we made it to a delivery room I was checked and told I was complete. The on call doctor wasn't there yet and I was told not to push. I climbed onto the bed backwards and started pushing on my hands and knees anyway.

P arrived then, handed them my medical chart, asked who was on charge, and saw that baby was crowning, and that the nurses (all 8 or 9 of them) were just standing there staring at me. One nurse approached me in the middle of a particularly brutal contraction with a tourniquet and told me she was starting an IV. I told her no, and she said I had to. I yelled no at her and she retreated. My water broke during a push with a very audible pop, and the fluid was clear. P knew the baby was coming and the doctor wasn't going to make it, so she gloved up, and told me to turn around on the bed since I was fighting gravity. I flipped around and the next contraction I pushed out the head. She had a very tight nuchal cord which P removed, and the next contraction her body was born at 7:51am.

The on call doctor walked in when I had the baby on my chest. L got to announce that it was a girl and the doctor clamped and cut the cord before it stopped pulsating. I delivered the placenta after the doctor tugged on the cord, and was given an injection of pitocin and dose of cytotec. The drugs were unnecessary since I did not have much bleeding. I had a very minor first degree tear which he sutured, even though it did not require stitches. The nurses did all the checks on baby while she was on my chest and I had to be quite firm with them when I declined a bath and nursery visit. She was 6 pounds, 14.5 ounces and 19.5" long.

She latched on and nursed for 2 hours straight while the nurses left us totally alone in the delivery room and I chatted with P, T, J and R (the other midwife who came from Montana as well but left after P). L made a run to the cafeteria to get me some bacon. We moved to the room shortly after and I got a shower, and cleaned up. I still can't believe how great I felt immediately after giving birth. The thing that hurt the worst was my throat from vocalizing! Recovery from the second birth was amazingly quick and easy, I felt 100% about 5 hours later.

I didn't get the peaceful home birth I wanted. Instead I got a crazy awesome story to tell everyone (even if they don't want to hear it). Sometimes things don't always go according to plan, but it's important to know what you want and to roll with the punches! I've got two beautiful, healthy little girls and that's what matters the most.

xoxo
-S

Die Laughing: Funny E-cards

xoxo
-A

No Bake Cookies: Organic, Gluten Free, Dairy Free & No Added Sugar

I have a major sweet tooth, and cookies have always been a serious weakness of mine. Unfortunately my little nursling is dairy intolerant, so I have been making some radical (in my opinion) changes to my diet. No butter or cheese is close to the seventh circle of hell to me. I needed desperately to find something to fill the void, especially since I always seem to crave that which I cannot have. Such is life.

I experimented the other day on some no bake cookies. You know the ones. They're chock full of sugar and butter and bring back delicious memories. I wanted a healthier version of the classic. It took 3 tries but the final result is ahhhhhmazing! These are much better after being refrigerated until chilled, although it's very hard to resist a few spoonfuls straight out of the pot! These delicious cookies are organic, gluten free, dairy free and with no added sugar. It's just an added perk that on hot summer days they also require no oven! 

Ingredients

1/2 cup local honey
1/4 cup organic coconut oil
1/4 cup organic unsweetened almond milk
1/2 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder
1/3 cup natural organic nut butter (peanut or almond)
2 cups gluten free oats
1/2 cup organic shredded coconut
1 Tbsp vanilla extract 




1. In a medium saucepan heat honey, coconut oil, almond milk and cocoa powder over medium heat, whisking until combined. Bring mixture to a boil.

2. Remove pan from heat and stir in nut butter, oats, shredded coconut and vanilla extract until combined.

3. Drop cookies onto wax paper and refrigerate for at least half an hour until chilled. These cookies can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week. 

Enjoy!


xoxo
-S

The 40 Day Organization Challenge

Day 2 is a cabinet and drawer cleaning, but hubby decided to clean our pantry first so we will go skip to that for now. Luck has it, the pantry cleaning is supposed to be completed on day 4, so we will just switch it up a little. Let me just say that our pantry was a hot mess but now its beautifully organized!

We went to the dollar store and picked up some bins and cheap containers to start with. Luckily, we’re close to school starting again so there are lots of organization goodies!

We found the easiest way to clean and organize was to go shelf by shelf.

First, sort everything into keep and toss (expired food) piles then set to the side. Within the ‘keep’ pile, organize items based on the type of containers (cans with cans, boxes with boxes, etc.)

Next, decide where you want everything to go and return it all to the pantry (in its categories).

Easy as pie! You should now have a beautifully organized pantry.  

Days 3 and 4 will be cabinets and drawers. I know in my kitchen it's too much to accomplish in 1 day so it shall be 2!


Until tomorrow   

xoxo
-J

“They don’t make cute clothes for boys.” FALSE!

I’ve really enjoyed dressing up my girls throughout the years and when I found I was having a little boy, I was determined to find stylish clothes for him.  I took to the internet and started window (or, browser) shopping!  Let me tell you, whoever says there aren’t any cute boys clothes are WRONG!  There are so many adorable ways to dress up your little man.  Here are my 3 looks:

Geek Chic

A pair of trousers, a plaid or pinstriped shirt, suspenders and/or bow tie, and some oxford shoes? You’ve got yourself a precious little geek!

The Rocker

A band t-shirt, skinny jeans (or leggings), some chucks  and some spikes to his hair or throw on a beanie! Ta-da! Mini Rockstar.

Boat Life

Some stripes, shorts, and boat shoes and he’s ready to sail away!

 

More looks to come!

xoxo
-J

Don't be intimidated: Cloth Diapering

When I first had my son two years ago, the thought of cloth diapering made me cringe.

All I could think about was endless amounts of laundry and theprobability of getting nastiness all over my hands with every diaper change. I also thought about CDing on the go or out in public and it all seemed too complex for a new mommy brain. I was turned off by the idea and ran straight to the disposable diaper section at Target. I used disposable diapers for the first four months of Max’s life, until I read some pretty disturbing facts about disposable dipes.

Did you know it is estimated that the U.S. consumes nearly 28 billion disposable diapers annually? Probably not, but this will baffle your mind even more: Disposable diapers are estimatedto decompose 250-500 years after its been thrown into a landfill. Pretty mind boggling right?

Even if the environmental impact doesn’t sway your decision, there are tons of other reasons to make the switch to CDingyour baby.

For babies with sensitive skin, a cloth diaper might be the solutionto a problematic rash. Think about all of the chemicals that are used to create one disposable diaper; dioxins, sodium polyacrylate, tributyl-tin, dyes, fragrances and other kinds of plastic. Personally, that’s too many chemicals I want against my baby’s butt.

Different dipes for different babies

If there’s one thing you need to know before you start buying cloth diapers, it’s that not all cloth diapers are the same. Finding the system that works best for your family is extremely important, so here I’ve demonstrated the basic types of diapers that I’ve owned and worked with, so that the process of choosing which systems to try out is easier for you.

Here we have 4 covers, 3 microfiber / hemp inserts, 2 wipes and 1 unbleached 

Indian cotton pre-fold.

In other words, 4 diapers and 2 wipes.

I know, it seems like a handful but its really not.  The covers (blue, green, red and purple) are what we’ll see on the baby’s butt. You can either use a pre-fold (above purple cover) or you can use inserts (right of green cover) to stuff into the diaper cover for absorbency.

The gDiaper

This is a diaper from a brand called gDiaper. These are the more mainstream of CD's (I bought these at Babies R’Us, but I’ve seen them at Target, too) and sell in packs of 2. Each diaper comes with a gCloth that’s just a hemp/microfiber insert that works as an absorbent layer for the baby.  It also comes with a snapped-in liner that holds the gCloth in place. The liner can be snapped out and interchanged with other gCloth diaper liner inserts, too. 

The diaper also fastens behind the baby, so that the ‘g’ is on the baby’s butt. 

This helps to keep the diaper on the baby, so that there’s no way they can take it off by themselves.  The liner, the cover and the insert can all be thrown in the wash when its time to clean the dipes.

Buy the gDiapers here.

The PreFold Diaper

This is a standard diaper cover I found on Amazon for under $10. Its called the Bummis Super lite, but any kind of diaper cover (with a polyurethane laminate inside to prevent leaking) will do. Here’s what it looks like inside:

To make this cover into a fully functioning diaper, we need to fill it with a pre-folded piece of cotton (unbleached and organic if possible).  I bought my prefolds at Cotton Babies for only a dollar a piece. 

There are many different folding techniques when using a prefold diaper so instead of demonstrating my folds, I chose my favorite link with the most information.

The Eco Friendly Family has awesome pictorials here (and they use a cutesy stuffed bear to demo, so you have to see it now).

**They also use a Snappi which is a rubbery device with claws that holds the prefold in place. Personally, my diaper covers were enough to keep the prefold in place so I didn’t need the Snappi. If you do need one though, they’re pretty inexpensive and you can find them online.

After you choose the fold that suits your baby, cover the prefold with the diaper cover, and you have a fully cloth-diapered kiddo. Also, depending on the fold, it might be more efficient to fold the prefolds in advance and place them in the covers, so that when its time to change a diaper, you don't have to fold anything.

The Pocket Diaper

What you are looking at is a diaper from Charlie Banana (get it here) the savior to my cloth diapering issues. This type of diaper is a hybrid of the two diapers that we’ve talked about. 

The first diaper had a liner system which has a moisture-wicking cloth inside.To clean the diaper, you have to completely remove the liner and replace it for another use. The second diaper consists of cotton that serves as the only absorbency and a laminated piece of material to prevent leaking.

The pocket diaper is a soft cover with a lining that’s sewed into itself to create a pocket. The inside of the diaper is usually a micro fleece that serves as a smooth, moisture wicking material so that your baby doesn’t feel wet when they are.

The front of the diaper includes snap-fasteners.  Compared to Velcro, these are probably better diapers for babies who might pick at the diapers or try to take them off.  

A great feature of the Charlie Banana brand is the sizable elastic straps around the legs. They’re similar to bra straps and size from a newborn XS (its so ridiculously small) to a toddler LG. These diapers could really last a long time. 

Using the pocket diaper is pretty simple. All you have to do is stuff the pocket with absorbent material and after the diaper is full, toss the diaper and the material into the washer. Its cake, really. These Charlie Banana diapers come with  I chose to stuff my diapers with hemp inserts because I felt that they worked best for my son. You can buy diaper inserts here 

or use the ones that come with your diapers. 

You can also use a ‘doubler’ which is just another layer of fabric 

underneath your insert for maximum protection. I used doublers at nighttime 

and hardly dealt with leaking diapers.

If you choose to buy cloth diapers online, I recommend a diaper cover/or pocket diaper that has a snapping fasteners with three or more rows of snaps. 

These diapers can be used on a small infant or a toddler. Here's a Kawaii diaper (one of my favorite dipes) that demonstrates how to use snaps for different sizes.

I promise to do a follow-up post on how to wash and maintain CD's! Until then, you have this guide to different CD's and systems. 

What other questions about CDing do you have?

xoxo

-A