I have been sorely MIA...

If you recall, last I posted was just as we were coming on Easter, and I hope everyone had a good one. We also had a birthday party here on the 11th, and an out of state guest. Still, the absence is inexcusable.

To make up for it, instead of putting up a post of yarn, fiber, or fabulous UFO's, I'll start us back up with some fun photos that exhibit what we have been doing with ourselves here for the last couple weeks.

We have spent quite a few days at the local park, just a couple blocks away. Its great fun for the Beeba 1.

But Beeba 2 prefers to stay in our own backyard, and have a swing with her big brother.

I'll post more tomorrow, with some up to date Yarn Everyday Pics, and who knows, maybe even a further in progress shot of the Monkey Socks.

Till then, Keep having fun!

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Can't Have Pretty Yarn Pics Every Day...

I just am not quite that prolific, lol. Today's Pics have a subject of a much cuter variety.

The weather was great today, sunny, and Warm (in the 50's, imagine that) and the Beebas and I went out for a nice long walk after lunch.

Beeba 1 was feeling photogenic, so here he is, in all his cuteness. He was very tired by the time we were done walking, which worked out fine, cause by then it was naptime.








And so with that, I leave you for today, to think of tommorrow, and what it might bring.

Happy Holidays!

The Holidays are here, and everywhere we find christmas music, glitter, mistletoe, and garlands. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanuckah, Kwanzaa, or some otherr holiday I apologize for not knowing of, it is a time for celebration, laughing children, and often frustrated parents.

New Toys abound in our house, due to our Thanksgiving trip to NC, where we celebrated christmas early with family who won't be here next week. This afternoon, the smell of baking cookies will rise in my house, and Saturday, we celebrate christmas again with DH's Brother and his family. Then the smells of turkey and stuffing will be wafting around my kitchen.

My Birthday is next week too. I will be 27... and as my DH reminded me, I am older than he was when we met, I must be getting old... I feel it, too... but in a good way. We have a lot to be glad for this holiday season. We have 2 beautiful healthy children, we own our home, DH has a good steady job when many do not, and while we cannot always buy everything we want when we want it, we do have everything we need.

This year, We tried to buy toys for the kids that encourage imagination... not that they need the encouragement... Beeba 1 loves trains, and in his mind, anything can become one. He will look at rain on a window and find a train, or at the clouds. Beeba 2 is growing fast, and can get into anything she tries for, with little effort. She is trying to pull up to a stand now, too, and sometimes succeeds.

So, to my friends, family, customers, and readers, I wish you a Happy Holiday, whichever you celebrate!

Thanksgiving travels; GCDH Drawing; Happy Holidays

Well, Thanksgiving is done. My family and I traveled 12 hours each way down to NC to visit My dad and sisters. We had lots of fun, and did an early Christmas celebration with them too. The Beebas both got entirely spoiled, and really, so did my husband and I...

Beeba 1 is happily driving me crazy today with his new Drum set... Beeba 2 is just so worn out she is sleeping all morning in my lap... and the car was so loaded, that all of us but my husband the driver had things on our laps... even the almost 7month old Beeba 2.

I of course had the diaperbag, and all the trip snacks all over my lap. Beeba 1 had jackets and coats on his feet, which he hated... it frustrated him more than anything that he could not kick all around.

Evan little Beeba 2... she had her brand new and very first dolly on her lap, along with 2 teddy bears, 2 blankets, and who knows what other little toys. Between them sat the large box of Beeba 1's new Drum set... so they could not see each other, and with the piles in the car, I could barely see either one of them if I tried.

I heard the line "well, what do you want to do about it?" a lot when I worried about the over-packed situation.

In the meantime, I got a new cell phone, as an ongoing birthday/Christmas present, and as such will be changing my contact info for the web-shops to reflect that change.


On the business end of things, The 2008 Great Cloth Diaper Hunt has come to a close. I hope everyone has enjoyed the hunt. For those who have entered into our mini hunt drawing, I will be drawing a winner as soon as we finish getting settled back home. Meaning, it will be this week, but give me a few days. I will notify the winner through email as well as here on the blog by Saturday afternoon.

Happy holidays to all. Watch in the near future for more great sales and promotions from Beeba Bottoms!

I've been Distracted

Hello. Sorry I haven't posted in a little while.... I've been a little distracted. The weather is getting cooler here, and we are getting busier. Despite now being a one car family, which in itself is not a horrendouse thing, we have been running around what seems like an awful lot.

Beeba 2 is being baptized later this month... and for that, we have family coming from out of state. of course, most of that family will be staying with us. so not only do we need to neaten/re-organize/clean our downstairs of our house for the day of the baptism, we need to do something with upstairs, to alleviate the clutter there.

And with the cold weather comes cold drafts through our old windows, and the need to turn on the heat. Of course, knowing what heat cost us last winter, we have been afraid to turn it on, lol. But... it had to be done. We spent the day yesterday putting plastic on the windows upstairs. we got 2 rooms done, (5 windows) and have 5 windows left upstairs to do. my hubby put better insulation on our back door, but didn't account for it taking so much, so he needs to get more for the front door. and we are debating putting plastic up, as much as it would be ugly, on the windows and doors downstairs too. cause if it could save us on our heating bills this winter, it would be worth it. we may postpone that till after the baptism and party, though.

Both the Beebas are growing. Beeba 1 finally calls his sister by her name, instead of simply "baby"... and Beeba 2 sits up on her own now... for about 30 seconds to a minute at a time. She loves to make lots of fun sounds now, too. And Beeba 1 is finally trying a little harder with his potty learning, so maybe we'll have just one in diapers soon? Its about time, he's 2 and a half... most of his friends, some 6+ months younger, are fully out of diapers now.... even nights for several.

Meantime, I am getting more busy for business too. I have an order to fill of 15 diapers and 6 covers... and possibly another order of embroidery too. not sure on that one. its a good thing, though I'll be super busy for a while. (no spinning for me for the next few days, lol) Those orders will fund our trip to see my dad for Thanksgiving.

And, the Great Cloth Diaper Hunt is coming up. As you know, Beeba Bottoms is sponsoring this year... so I hope it all goes great!

Spinning...

... Is really quite fun. I did get some actual work done today, but I spent an awful lot of time thinking about spinning.

I am not fast. I am not good. But I am having fun. I started with a top whorl spindle made from a 2 inch wooden car wheel, a 1/2 inch cup hook, and a 12 inch long 1/4 inch dowel. It worked. That was when I was impatient about getting the spindle I ordered, which I assumed would be much better than mine.



I had ordered some wool to spin, and it was (is) so soft, and pretty natural color... super nice to feel, but I had a hard time getting it to spin even... It is put aside now till I get just a little better.









A few days after I made my own spindle, I got 2 packages in the mail. one of them contained the spindle I bought. would you guess, there were only 3 small differences between it and the one I made. 1, they used a 1.5 inch wood car wheel, lol. 2, they used a bigger cup hook, go figure. and 3, they tapered the end to a point. The only difference I actually think I liked was the tapered end, and that only asthetically... its a drop spindle... the end doesn't REALLY matter.




The other package was a very thoughtful and highly apreciated gift from one of the members of my favorite Diaper Sewing Board, Diaper Sewing Divas. She sent me a bottom whorl drop spindle, handmade, with a painted whorl and both ends tapered, no hook at all. And, she sent a nice big ball of fiber to spin. Shetland, which I have now found is a much better starting fiber, though I am not sure exactly what I will make with the finished yarn, as shetland isn't the softest. But, I am now spinning that fiber, and really enjoying it. It is much easier to spin, and I have spun most of the spindle full.



The spindle I bought also came with "a handful of random fiber floof" I spun that, and it too was easier than the super soft wool I bought. I made a mini-mini-mini skein, lol... it might be a few yards long... (I navajo plied it... I could not figure out any way to do regular plying... with only one single... besides, the navajo plying seemed easier, somehow.)



One day I'll get my hubby to drill some holes in a peice of wood to make me a lazy kate for spindles.

heck, one day, I'll probably find a way to get a spinning wheel, too. cause I am having tons of fun.



Oh, and two year old Beeba 1 saw me "playing" with my spindles. he had to have one. so, for the whole under a dollar it took, I put a spindle together just for him.

Then I was at the craft store and saw this little wooden Disc. A little over the 2 inch circumference of my big wheel, but it weighs the same as the 1.5 inch wheel on the spindle I bought. I figured, hey, it costs all of 12 cents, why not grab it?

So I did. I had my hubby drill me a hole in the center, big enough for the dowel I already had, and there was a spindle whorl. But I already had 3 spindles. and I only started spinning last week... so there had to be an excuse to make another one, right? well, the excuse was that I have seen so many super cute decorated ones online, (and really want them all, lol... ) that I should have a more decorated one too. Plus, I wanted to try every kind of spindle I can... see what is best for me.



So this one is .5 ounces, made with more evenly distributed weight whorl rather than center distributed, with a spindle length of 9 inches total, and 8 below the whorl.








It spins really well, too. so, I have 4 spindles now. and what do you think, I have favorites. 2 favorites, actually. They are tied. The spindle given to me, and the most recent decorated one. Different reasons.

For the spindle I was given, part of the reason I like it is because it was given. Something about the fact that it was handmade for me, the the good feelings thus infused in it. Also, my first mostly even yarn was spun on it. (I have now, by the way, plied that single as well... but it is still on the bigger spindle, waiting for more yarn to be added, or waiting to be taken off and skeined. I still have about an ounce of that wool to spin...)

The new decorated spindle I like a lot too. I like that is it is light, and spins really easy, and that it is super pretty, and makes me smile. I like to see the gold paint glinting off it as it spins, and I like that I actually have been doing pretty good spinning on it, too. I also like its shorter length... it makes me feel like it would be easier to travel with. and I like that it has a hook, because I can spin faster without doing a half-hitch... though I am sure I will use the turkish style spindle I was given quite often too.

third favorite is the spindle I made first, believe it or not. I like that I did not spend a bunch of money on it. I like that it does spin well. It is slightly heavier... at a whole .7 oz, lol... and it is bigger than the other spindles I like best by a few inches. I like it for plying. I am sure there are better spindles... but I like it ok.

and my least favorite is the one I bought. Of course, there are reasons for that, too. 1, I paid $5 plus shipping for something that as I look at it, I could have made for a dollar. 2, it seems out of proportion somehow, with a 12 inch length and a tiny little wheel whorl. and 3, I think for something that was bought, it would have been nice if it didn't look like the whole thing was bought and thrown together from craft store supplies in 5 minutes.

Home School Preschool

So, Beeba 1 is almost 2 and a half, and I have been thinking about trying to insert just a bit of structure into his education. He likes to sing and play with blocks and alphabet letters, and to color and draw, So being that those are all things preschoolers do, I figured I'd find a preschool curriculum for him.

Well, While I was thinking of that, one of the members of The Mom Pack (an online group of MOM Business women I belong to--- you can find their banner on any of my websites, including this one) came to the group asking for a few people to try her new preschool curriculum, in exchange for some exposure and some feedback. It was a match made in heaven. (which makes sense since her curriculum is christian based.

You can find her Curriculum at www.sonbeams.com

I figure, We'll try it, see how Beeba 1 responds, and blog about it, both to chart his progress (and give me accountability for teaching him) and to grant her some small bit of exposure.

Today we Started, week 1, Day 1. It really is meant to be Monday through Friday, but that's the beauty of homeschooling, you can do it whenever you want. I have a feeling we'll repeat the first day a couple of times, anyway...

Beeba 1 loved the idea of practicing the letter of the day on his chalkboard... but is as of yet unable to make a letter without mommy helping. Makes sense. I mostly let him just color, and when he asked me to help make the letter, I did.

We Introduced a scripture of the week, and a color, and a number, too. we did not get any further than that today, but that's OK. I think we did OK for a start.

The curriculum looks very interesting, though I need to read more of it still... it will be better for him when I have everything ready and don't need to check the paper between every activity.

and just for fun, I was playing with photoshop last night... here are a couple pics of Beeba 2... see which is your favorite. (hint, they are the same pic)


Have a happy day!

To Rearrange, or not to Rearrange?

Heh. I just finished showing off my workspace,although I suppose really that was more about my machines, and I am already thinking about how I can re-arrange it. more specifically, make it more efficient. As it is, On the side of the room I didn't show, I have piles of fabric, and I can't even Iron because the Iron is all covered up. I have dead space behind my machines on my desk, and an underutilized cornier of the room.

So, my thoughts: Get one or two systems like this one. Stack them only 2 or 3 High. (I think thought that if you stack 2 high, you can only get one full cube from the other pieces in the set, so I am thinking 2 sets stacked 3 high.

One stack would be put in the back corner of my sewing desk, behind my sewing machine. It would hold, on the bottom cube: Stabilizers and Embroidery disks. maybe a binder if I print out my embroidery designs into a paper catalog... but not sure on that one.

Above that in the second cube would be Embroidery Blanks. Things that don't need to be cut. (things that need to be cut are better off being closer to the cutting area.)

The Third Cube would hold either more embroidery Blanks (which eventually I am sure I will accumulate) or I don't know what. On top of the third cube, I'd like to get a clock of some kind... something cute and fun.

Across the room, I would like to put a second stack. That would be on the table that houses our desktop computer. In that one, I would re-organize our computer paper, software, and etc. My Husband has a lot of games that take up space, it would be a good place for it.

Then, I'd like to bring down a bookshelf... we have one like this one only brown up in our spare room... unused. The only problem is, its pretty tall, and our toddler runs around in this room... we'd need to anchor it to the wall... and my husband does not want to do that.

but, if it got brought down, it would find its home in the under utilized corner. I would like to use the top shelf for accounts (paper copies of sales and etc), patterns, etc. Depending how much space was there, I would like to keep a basket of some kind for extra notions and things.

The rest of the shelves I would like to fill with plastic bins. The kind with locking lids. Each bin would have specific things.... finished products that are stocked on etsy, on beebabottoms.com, things that aren't stocked, items that are part of in-progress orders, etc. Then I can dedicate the drawers those things are in now to what they were originally meant for... more fabric!

I keep re-organizing this room... trouble is, with Beeba 1 running and playing in here, it gets a mess again in no time. I have to keep his little table here too... for him to color at, or do crafts of his own. And the swing for Beeba 2 stays too. And the toys Beeba 1 drags in... hmmmm... will my space every really be organized and efficient? for more than a day?

Diapering on the Go, or How our Hot Mama proved a point.

When I was pregnant with Beeba 2, My mother in law told me she was going to get me a gift. She said she wanted to make life easy for me, and so she wanted to buy me something to make it easier. So what did she insist on buying? DISPOSABLE DIAPERS. Yuck. Now, I am not against Sposies for people who need them. But I don't need them. I make and sell cloth diapers, for goodness sake.

She tried to tell me how hard it would be to launder them all the time. I proved that within days after Beeba 2 was born. Her next tactic was the on the go tagline. She thought it would be impossible to fit cloth diapers for both kids for an afternoon in my diaper bag. and that it would be impossibly heavy to do.

well, we proved her wrong a few weeks ago, and at her own house. It was really hot, and with our then 2 week old baby, we did not want to stay at our warmer than liked house. So, we called up and asked if we could come over and cool off in her air conditioning.

i packed enough diapers for an army in my Hot Mama Bag. I loaded up on wipes, filling my new Wipes Case (which will be available on my store site in the near future) and filling every poscket of the diaper bag with diapers. Enough small and newborn diapers for a 12 hour period (with a child who wets every 2 minutes, it seems) and 6 Large diapers for my 2 year old, since we never seem to know from day to day with him how many he'll need. I had an extra blanket in there, and an extra outfit for the baby. And 3 Wet Bags. And a bunch of covers. Plus the changing pad that matches the bag.

We used most of the diapers, by the way... thats just how my kids function, apparently. and I swear, they both wet more when we are away from home.

The diaper bag closed nicely, a little bulging, but more than sufficient. And when we got to her house, She had more things to give me, old clothes that were my husband's as a baby. (why she didn't give us these things when Beeba 1 (the boy) was smaller, I don't know... but that is beside the point.

The point is, we had more than enough diapers, and the bag was not overflowing, nor was it uncomfortable to carry. All the extras she sent us home with fit in the bag too. WE DID NOT NEED SPOSIES. This was a point I had been trying to make to her for some time. I think she might have finally gotten it. When I refused to take home more than one small bag of sposies she had gifted, back just before Beeba 2 was born, I swear she thought I was crazy. I think she was a little insulted, too.

But my kids don't need sposies. They do better in cloth. (so far as I know. Beeba 1 had bad rashes in sposies, Beeba 2 has never worn a sposie, so I don't know how she would do.)

I added some pics of my Hot Mama bag here. They are not pics of that day, at the time I was not thinking about blogging them, just show off pics I took when I first sewed it up. This is so far proving though to be the best diaper bag I have had... and I have had a few.

And sorry, I cannot find this fabric again. When I originally showed the bag to some friends, I had several people ask me to make them one. Its why I now offer custom Hot Mama's on my website. But they wanted the EXACT SAME FABRIC. Unfortunately, It happened to be clearance fabric, and is now gone, un-findable at my fabric stores. Personally, I don't have a problem with that, as I like the thought of these all being one of a kind. Don't you?

The Life of a mom.

Heh... this morning we went to a local free play-center to meet some friends. Beeba 1 was excited, but being 2 yrs old, had to be ornery anyway. He fought with everything from getting a shirt on to getting out the door. On the positive side, he did help pick a nice clean diaper for his baby sister, and gave her a kiss.

Our friends include Beeba 1's Best friend, 2 weeks younger than him, her mom (my best friend locally) and 3 other children she babysits. we had fun, and Beeba 1 was most happy stealing all the "CHOO CHOO TREAN!"s from the other kids. He is obsessed with trains.

We got to go shopping today too. Since we bought my Embroidery machine 2 fridays ago, we have been living VERY frugally. But, the hope is that the machine will bring extra income into the house. so, when we had the money available, and the local Husqvarna dealership was running a Closing the business sale, we grabbed it. I paid about half its value. It was worth it, and though we may have eaten an awful lot of spaghetti in the last week, and we ran out of milk yesterday, it will be worth it in the long run, and we did not starve, by any means. (we saved the last cup of milk for Beeba 1 this morning)

And now, we have milk, and juice, and all sorts of food in the house again. We are still going to be living frugally for the next few weeks, because this is the mortgage paycheck, where the bulk of the money coming in goes straight out again. But we always manage to survive. Eventually I'll get some sales in my shop, and that will help, but for now... we survive.

I am ordering more supplies, too. Don't worry, they don't come out of this paycheck... I'm not that dumb. But I do know that if I don't have the materials available to make diapers, that would be no good. so, I ordered lots of nice Cuddledry microfleece, and some more PUL, and some FOE.... lots of yummy colors, too. I am dying to embroider on some pretty ocean or chocolate brown PUL... the embroideries I have seen on those colors have been to die for. But that has to wait until next month, when I get my Card reader forthe embroidery machine. Apparently my brother agrees that embroidery is a good way for my business to grow, since he decided that he will buy it for me with some of his military sign up bonus. Yay! He is gonna buy me some thread too, so by August, you can expect to see embroidered Diapers available for sale in my shop, and Custom slots available through my website. I can't wait.

hmm.... haven't got any pics up yet today, huh? Howabout a cute pic from last summer? Beeba 1 Loved SpiderMan last summer, so I made him a Spidey Diaper... It had no closures, since that was before I got my snap press, and I was tired of Hook and loop at that time... I just closed it with Pins... I always did mean to put snaps on, but got distracted, and then he out-grew it... go figure. Excuse the bad pictures... I never planned for these to be shared, so I didn't bother making them nice.