Honey, We Can See Your Nipples

Okay, if you're not a nursing mama, you might just want to skip this one.

Saturday after my run I was walking home to cool down. An older couple was approaching me. The man whispered something to the woman. She said to me as she passed by,

"Honey, we can see your nipples."

"Oh, that's okay," I said, and continued on my way.
As a mama nursing a (very busy) toddler, I estimate that one person every day (other than my husband and my daughter) sees my nipples in the flesh. Bird is constantly popping on and off to take in her surroundings while enjoying her "neenee." This is par for the course and doesn't bother me in the least. That's what they're for!

So seeing my nipples through a bra and a shirt after my run? Not that big a deal.

Not that big a deal as long as they are:
a) level with one another
b) pointing in the same direction

I hope you can have a laugh on me today. :]

We have a winner!

I know I should include a screen grab of the random.org results, but you'll just have to take my word for it because I'm posting on my iPod Touch from my bed where I'm currently nursing the Bird down for the night.

The winner is #5! Congrats to my new friend Crystal! I'll be in touch to discuss your prize.

Thank you to everyone who entered. I bet we'll do another giveaway when we reach 100 "fans." And be sure to check out our Wool is Wonderful post below.

Wool is Wonderful!

You might wonder why we sell hand-knit wool shorts to be used as diaper covers. I can attest that wool is an amazing diapering tool! It naturally repels water (so it is a fairly waterproof diaper cover--assuming you change your babe regularly), which is how it keeps sheep dry. It is also inherently anti-odor and anti-microbial. This means you really don't need to wash it often; I only wash our covers in the event of a pooptastrophe or if I want them to be extra pretty when I'm showing them off (i.e. to get off the food crusties).

I alternate between two wool covers. The first is a lovely deep-plum pair of shorties that Em (aka Mouse) knit for Bird for her birthday. I love these because I don't even need to put pants on Bird. :] If you'd like to check out our selection of shorties, or custom-order a pair by size and color, please head on over to our Etsy store.

The other wool cover I use regularly is a sustainablebabyish | sloomb double layer organic merino wool cover. This cover is thick and breathable, great for overnight. I bought a "seconds" cover, meaning fully functional, but not aesthetically up to their standards, so I got it for about half price.

If you think that wool might be too hot for summer, think about this: would you be cooler wearing fabric that can breathe or a plastic, waterproof rain jacket on your summer outings? Wool allows your baby's diaper to breathe and cool down. It is the combination of urine (moisture) and heat that causes smelly, irritating nasties to grow in your baby's diaper and on their skin. Wool is the perfect solution: waterproof but completely breathable.

Giveaway!

We've reached 53 "fans" on facebook. To celebrate, we're doing a giveaway: a pouch sling and a hand-knit wool ball, though we would be willing to discuss crediting that amount (up to $25) toward another purchase instead, should the winner desire. Simply comment below, once per person, to be entered. I will use random.org to select the winner at 7:00 p.m. CST on Thursday, August 5th. Don't forget to leave a way for us to get in touch with you, should you win!

Other exciting news, we've made another sale and are in talks about our first custom order. Things are getting exciting for The Kat & Mouse!

I promise to have another real post, soon. Life just gets in the way of blogging sometimes!

Our First Sale! and Loving the Line

First off, YAY! We had our first sale today! One of our paisley Mei Tais is off to its new home, where I hope it will be taken on many adventures.

As for the line, I'm referring to a clothesline. We strung up a temporary one (can't wait to own our own place so I can put up a nice sturdy permanent one that doesn't sag!) and I've been using it to dry our laundry. The sun is an amazing natural (and free!) stain remover. Stained diapers and stained clothing are no match for the sun's rays. Plus we're not using the dryer or the energy it requires, our clothes smell of the great outdoors, and I'm enjoying the very meditative time hanging and... unhanging?... our clothes and dipes.

Oh, and one more thing, it's pretty! Look at our lovely Fuzzi Bunz® dipes, so colorful!

No-Poo update from The Mouse

It's been four months now since I stopped using shampoo and I love it. My hair feels and looks great. There are so many benefits to not using shampoo. The first is the savings. I've been working off the same $6.00 bag of baking soda for the entire four months and still have some left over. Also it's nice not to have all of those plastic bottles to worry about recycling (Our recycling center here in Lawrence only takes a few different numbers of plastic). I also only feel the need to wash my hair about once a week now. This is saving us money on our water bill and limiting my exposure to all the nasty stuff that they put in the water.

The dreadlocks are slowly forming all on their own! This is a much different experience than the last time I got dreadlocks, which included hours of back combing, recruiting lots of friends to help, and back rubs needed to counteract the pain of holding my arms in weirdo positions to get each and every dreadlock. Half the time I couldn't even see what I was doing so I never really new if I was putting hair in the right place. This time around I am letting my hair do all the work. I have to say I've never been so pleased with my hair. Naturally, or at least while using shampoo, my hair was very straight and I would have many bad hair days when I'd have to fight to get my hair into a proper pony tail. Now, I hardly even think of my hair (except when I look in the mirror and say "Hair, you are mighty fine!") all I have to do is throw on a headband or pull it up for work and I'm ready to go.

If you're looking for a change I would highly recommend switching from shampoo to baking soda, and see what your hair wants to do on its own.

Play Silks

For her birthday, Bird's grammy got her some play silks. I just got around to dying them with Kool.Aid (three months later). I thought I'd share the process. Such pretty results! I used the tutorial here and the scarves were purchased here (we got the 30x30" ones).

I should probably apologize for not keeping my pictures in order (i.e. skipping from red to orange to purple), but I'm not going to. Such pretty colors, who cares what order they're in?

First, we soaked the scarves in hot water in the sink, with a splash of vinegar for good measure. I swished them around to make sure they were all saturated and left them until I got the rest of the supplies ready (probably closer to 20 minutes than the 30 recommended in the original tutorial).

While the scarves were soaking I mixed up my dyes. These are cherry, orange and lemonade. I used two packets of colorful beverage mix as opposed to the three recommended (not making a run to the store for more!), 2 cups of water and 1/2 cup of vinegar in each microwave-safe container.

Then I gently put each scarf in its dye bath. I did this gingerly and didn't smoosh them down too much as I wanted them to look mottled and imperfect. You also don't want them too tightly balled up because then the dye won't penetrate to the middle.

I covered each dish with plastic wrap and then the lid from the dish (I'm sure the lid part is optional if you just have plastic wrap). Zap it in the microwave for three minutes, then very very carefully (steam burns hurt just as much as any other type of burn; I had to re-learn that the hard way) peel back the plastic wrap and stir your scarf around with a fork. I flipped them over so the white parts were in the dye, which was diluted by this point.

Pardon the smudgy microwave. Each scarf should be microwaved and stirred a total of three times. I did my scarves in batches of three, so after the first was done I'd pop in the second and stir the first.

The tutorial said to wait until they were cool to handle them. I, however, am horribly impatient. I dumped them into a colander and handled them with rubber gloves, holding on to just the corners (do this at your own risk, I don't want anyone getting burned). They cooled quickly when exposed to the air. Then I wrung them out and put them on the line.

After your first three colors (red/cherry, orange/orange, and yellow/lemonade) are done, repeat the process with the next three colors. I used lemon-lime for green and grape for purple. Note: I purchased tropical punch for blue as it was in a blue pouch. The beverage turned out red. As you can see on the left, I grabbed my handy dandy gel food coloring in blue and put in about a 1/2 teaspoon. That was probably overkill, but you get the idea.

After all of your scarves are done in the dye bath, they're ready for the line. After they're dry, wash them (I did this separately, by hand, with cold water and some dish soap). The red ran pretty significantly, the rest just a tad. Then back to the line until dry and you're ready for play!

So far, daddy has used them for some magic tricks. Bird has loved draping them around her neck or piling them on the floor and running through them. I am simply trying to fight the impulse to constantly rearrange them into Roy G. Biv order (curse you elementary school art class!... not really). An added bonus: when Bird wants to drink this stuff, full of its harmful food dyes and needless sugar, I can point out that "hey, that's probably best left to using for dye! remember your play silks?"