Showing posts with label Canadian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canadian. Show all posts

Monday, September 17, 2012

The Bag Lady


I can see myself very quickly turning into what some might call "The Bag Lady." I'm talking re-usable snack & sandwich bags.

I have had my eye on these bad-boys for over a year now but to be honest wasn't quite sure I wanted to spend the money when I was having to buy saran wrap and zip-lock bags anyway for other things. 

But oh my...when I finally took the plunge this summer prepping for back-to-school, once I actually had my hands on my very own collection of said bags? I could not stop looking at them and yes, even touching them over and over. They were so pretty!

[Side note: I am also considered a bit of a "Bag Lady" when it comes to purses, as I love to co-ordinate fun colors with my outfits...so this seems to be sort of a branch-off of that obsession!]


The bold solid colors of the Kanga Sac collection are great as well, but for my first purchase I chose to go with some fun prints from The Sling Sisters variety. The options are endless - patterns for young children [boys, girls and unisex], ones for older kids [such as bicycles, skateboards, big flowers, etc.] and then there are some that are more than suitable for adults [like the prints pictured here from my own personal collection].
Now, so I make my girls [ages almost 7 and almost 9] make their own school lunches and let me tell you, these bags make it extra easy for them to pack their lunches. Last year I was having to often help my youngest one battle with the saran wrap, and many times the amount of saran wrap she had already ripped off the roll was far too much than what was needed for her small sandwich. Talk about waste!!

But with these bags, they just place the sandwich in the bag and zip it up.  Done! Same thing with snacks - like crackers or snap peas or grapes. No fiddling with zip-locks [especially on the no-name cheaper brands with can often be finicky], just place the goods inside and zip it up.

Some of you  may be wondering [as I was] about the size of the sandwich bags. I don't know about your kids, but mine don't take full sandwiches yet. They take a half sandwich which is just a smidge too big to squish into one of the snack bags yet it doesn't nearly fill up the sandwich bag. I was worried that the sandwich would slide all around in the bag and have completely fallen apart by the time lunch came around. But this hasn't been a problem at all. They put the sandwich in the bag and simply fold over the remaining material before placing it in their lunch bags. Easy peasy!

If you're still not convinced, get this: You can use them yourselves too! And I don't mean just for lunches. I'm talking about sticking them in your purse. As someone who has a lot of purses, like I mentioned earlier, I am constantly switching over my load from one purse to the next. Now this task has gotten a lot simpler since I have a sandwich-size bag that I keep all of my toiletries in [lotion, hand sanitizer, deoderant, etc.]. I also use one of the snack-size ones for a few smaller items [like an extra hair tie, a couple of bobby pins and those feminine products]. Not only does it make things simpler to transfer, but it's also so convenient to locate an item now in my purse. No more digging around through everything to find what I'm looking for!

So there you have it. Thoughts from The Bag Lady!  :)




Saturday, September 15, 2012

Worth It For One

When I had my first baby, I wasn't ready. She had threatened to come early from 29 weeks on, keeping me off my feet for six weeks, and finally came at 35 weeks. She was healthy, and home in four days, but what every normal mom does in the final weeks of pregnancy was lost to me. No nursery prep, no washing clothes, no begging for the pregnancy to be over.

I was so glad she was healthy, but I had been so afraid of her arrival that I didn't feel ready for her to be here. But she was. And as any mom of a preemie knows - - heck, EVERY mom knows - - those new babies are demanding. And your first, doubly so, because you are pretty much in shock of the lifestyle change. Pretty much, you do what works. In short, cloth diapers never even entered my mind.

When I saw Pam's cloth diapering demo at a local mom's group, I was impressed with the diapers, but I wasn't ready to take on anything new. I had just gotten a grasp of our new family routine, baby was over six months old, and I just didn't have any brain space to make the switch to cloth diapers.

Two years later, when Baby 2.0 was on her way, I knew that I wanted to try cloth diapering. I had seen the amount of diapers and plastic and packaging and wipes traipsing out to the garbage via my household and I knew I didn't want to contribute another child's worth of garbage to the environment. Also, we knew that I was likely not returning to work for some time after the new baby, so cost was certainly a factor. When you look at the numbers, there is no comparison!

We waited until our new baby girl was 10 lbs (around 6 or 8 weeks) and then we dove in and bought our diaper set, the one-size AMP pocket duos. We opted for the microfibre inserts, intending to lay them 'on top' of the cover (as opposed to actually inserting them into the pocket), so as to make use of each cover twice, decreasing on washing. We also use the Applecheeks disposable liners.

Baby Alice in her AMP Diaper
And I love the lifestyle change. I love not carrying poop-smeared garbage bags to my bin twice a week. I don't mind rinsing a poopy diaper here and there - really, it's NOT that bad. And my peace of mind more than makes up for it.

Plus, baby seems happy. And her bottom is SO cute. 

A couple of people have asked us, since we are openly thinking that this will be our last baby, 'Why spend the money and take on the hassle of cloth diapering for only one child?' Well, aside from knowing I'm doing a good deed for the environment, did I mention I'm going to make at least half of my money back when I sell them after I'm done with them? I'm saving over $2000! 

And if you'll excuse me, I'm off to contemplate what to spend it on...
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Thanks for sharing your cloth diapering journey with us Sara! Every cloth-diapered bottom makes a difference to the environment!

Sara is a work-from-home mom who does PR and graphic design while caring for a three-year-old and seven-month-old. Between spending time with her sword-collecting addictions-counselling husband and generally trying to keep the house from falling apart, she enjoys running a community group for young moms, furniture refinishing, cooking, and sitting down for coffee as often as possible.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

What's new?

LOTS going on in the Tiny TreeHugger World!!

Many products have been restocked lately including:

Knickernappies Ovulation Strips
Knickernappies Midstream Pregnancy Tests
Knickernappies Diaper Sprayers
and NEW from Knickernappies are the Detergent Scoops.
The Pregnancy Test Strips have been sold out for a while [with us and the supplier] but I will be keeping an eye out for when they are back in stock!

FuzziBunz - FULLY stocked of the One Sizes.
We are not going to be stocking larges in the perfect size anymore [just XS, small & medium] and all old colors are on sale for $17.95.

Also restocked are the FuzziBunz Hanging Wet Pail. These are also great for lugging around the swim gear, including the wet towels, bathing suits etc... I have two that I rotate for our diapers, one hangs on the door with dirty diapers while the other gets washed and clean ready for the next rotation!

Baby Kangas One Size diaper colors are restocked now too! You now have the option to add a One Size Hemp Stuffer for $1 off.

KangaSac snack & sandwich bags are fully stocked now too! I make our 8 year old's lunch litter free putting his sandwich in a KangaSac each day, and he chooses what to have in his reusable snack bag :) Watch for more prints of the Sling Sisters Snack & Sandwich Bags on the website soon [also wetbags & wipes!].

Be sure to check out the AppleCheeks products, lots are restocked after the Spring Sale that ended this week. And a few things are no longer special order like the Extender tabs and Starter Kits since they are now IN STOCK items!

Don't forget about the GREAT Cloth Diaper Change we are hosting! Saturday April 23rd, at 11am CST at the Louis Riel Library we are getting babies and parents together to set a Guinness World Record for changing the most cloth diapers simultaneously! Blog post coming about that soon. To pre-register and for more information go to http://winnipegclothdiapers.weebly.com!! Be sure to check out our lovely sponsors too! The first 30 pre-registered will get a swag bag and just by attending you get a chance to win one of the door prizes.

Have a good weekend all!! And hope to see some of you NEXT Saturday to set a WORLD RECORD :)

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

New & Restocked - Jan4/11

Restocked today -
FuzziBunz One Size

also recently restocked:
Laundry Tarts - with a NEW to Tiny TreeHugger scent Gingerbread Cookies!
We have sample sizes too, so for as little as $0.75 you can try any scent. This all natural laundry detergent isn't just for cloth diapers either. You can use it on any laundry :)
**Canadian made**

FuzziBunz Perfect Size Diapers


And on the way:
more Thirsties Size Two Duo Diapers & Fab Wipes
as well as the Thirsties NEW Duo Fitted Diapers with snaps & velcro options!!