Trello and Scrum and time management

I have been BUSY lately.  The end of summer saw Renaissance Faire rush orders followed by Halloween, then a week off, and then starting in on the holidays, a vacation thrown in there and now some custom dresses and of course the handmade Christmas gifts.  Blogging has obviously taken a back seat as my posting has been non existent.

With the new rapid rate of life, I have sought out a new way to manage time.  I need a system to track my projects, keep a list of projects I'd like to (eventually) do, and work in home and family life on top of it all.  Keeping things in balance is not always easy, so I wanted a system that I could see where my time was going and how much time I was committing myself to so I didn't get over-extended.

Enter my husband.  He is a software engineer and his company recently began using Agile frameworks to keep track of their ongoing business initiatives, etc.  He heard my constant complaining about working hard all day and never getting anything done.  So, he scrummed me.  Yeah, its not what you think.  Scrum is the Agile framework he has been using at work for software development with much success for the last two years or so.  I've been doing this whole thing for about 6 months now and while it doesn't invent time (I still barely blog), I do find myself finishing things a lot more regularly.

Scrum basically helps you plan how much to do in a certain time frame.  I am really oversimplifying a complex system here, but this is how I use it, so bear with me.  It uses numbers to estimate how much work a project is.  You don't estimate time, you estimate difficulty.  They are correlated, but are not the same thing.  You pick a fairly simple task you do frequently or are familiar with and make it equal to a 3.  Then, you go through your list and compare each item to that baseline item.  Is it easier?  Is it harder?  How much?  Is it half as hard?  Twice as hard?  The beauty of this system is that it uses Fibonacci numbers only to assign to tasks.  It can't be a 4.  It can only be a 3 or a 5.  That way you don't get bogged down in the back and forth decisions about how many points something is. 5 represents something that is roughly twice as hard as your baseline 3, and a 1 or 2 is half as hard. Don't worry if you are not sure... things generally balance out, and over time, you will get better. You can use .5, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, and 21 (I rarely use .5 or 2). Generally, items that are bigger than 21 must be broken down into smaller tasks.  These numbers represent how many "points" a task is worth.  Assigning number values seems complicated, but as you go on it gets easier.

From here, you can choose a number of points to do in a time period called a sprint. I use a week since many of my tasks repeat on a weekly basis.  Each week or sprint, you should try to do a certain number of "points".  Doing a number of points rather than a number of tasks helps protect you from the "I only got ONE THING DONE ALL WEEK... I must be lazy" syndrome.  If its a gigantic project, you get mega points for it.  And I feel deep down like I'm playing a video game.  Who doesn't like points?  you determine how many points you can handle by doing a test sprint and guesstimating how many points you can do then seeing what you actually accomplish.   This number (points per sprint) is called your velocity.  Since everyone's baseline (what they consider 3 points) is different, it is important to note that your velocity will be vastly different from mine.  Just because I do about 40 points per sprint and you do 15 doesn't mean I get more done (in fact, it could be the opposite!).  It just means we are working on different scales.  Don't compare apples to oranges!

But how do you organize everything?  Ahh. The best part.  I use Trello to track my work, a free web application.  It is simply a list system in which you can make different boards containing multiple lists, which contain cards which are the individual tasks.  It sounds a bit confusing, but it actually makes a lot of sense.  A board can be a large project (how my husband uses it at work) or a person (how I use it at home).

The main page of Trello shows all your boards. I only have one lonely board.

I only use one board since I want to track how much home stuff I do as well as how much business stuff I do, and it makes no sense to split them apart.  I need one place for everything.  In that board, I have lists.  My lists are: someday, soon, to do, doing, and done.  I use these lists to organize my cards.  Cards are individual tasks that I put into lists.  My lists help me know when I will do certain tasks, or cards.

FYI: I have way too much to do.  And yes, this is my real list.

Individual cards also have things like labels which can further help sort them, and they can contain notes or checklists to keep ideas or track progress of a complicated project, but those are totally optional.  Play around with them once you get comfortable with the general stuff.

Trello by itself is not a Scrum tool, but I use a Scrum for Trello plugin that allows me to assign points to individual cards and then totals up the number of points I have in each list (those are the blue numbers on the cards and the lists).

Okay, so I have points, a sprint, and lists.  But there is more to the mysterious way of Scrum... you still need a process, right?

So here is the deal.  My someday list holds all my projects that are currently tabled.  They may be UFOs (unfinished objects) or just ideas for new products, they may be administrative tasks like taking pictures and getting new listings up, or they may be long term chores like spring cleaning.  Each week, I go through my cards and try to decide what is important and time sensitive.  I usually end up with about 3 times the number of points I can do in a sprint (the lists above are a perfect example of that - I have way too much and need to sort), so some of the stuff goes into the "soon" list which hypothetically will get done in the following sprint.  Like I said, I need to sort.  Badly.

The "To Do" list is the tasks I have taken on for the week.  This is my sprint.  I take tasks from the "to do" list and move them to the "doing" list, and then when complete, they go to "done" so I can keep track of my progress for the week.  At the end of the sprint, I archive all the cards in my "done" list. (I also record my progress week to week, but that's another optional thing.)

Here is the catch, and quite frankly, the best part. You can only have 2 things in your "doing" list at once.  I used to say 1, but practically speaking, I think 2 or sometimes 3 works better.  Why only 1 (or 2 or 3)?  Well, Scrum is focused on getting things done.  If you try to make progress on 30 different things, you will never finish any of them. If you focus all your energy on one (limit yourself, Jennifer!!), you are forced to complete it before moving on to something else.  In my practical life, I usually have to switch between tasks a bit because I cannot sew while baby sleeps or I don't have internet access right now or things like that, hence the 2 or 3 rule.  But the beauty of it is that it gives you focus.  You pull one card at a time, complete it, then move on.  It means you get #$@% done! And we all want that!

I know this is a whole wazoo of confusing to throw at you, but I LOVE this system, and I think it has really helped my creative crazy get a little more defined and easier to manage.  It keeps me from over booking and it shows me how much I really DO accomplish on a regular basis.  It keeps track of all those awesome ideas I have, but never remember when I have time to spare.  And it also helps keep important stuff from falling through the cracks.  If you have questions, please ask, and I will update this post as needed!  Give Trello and Scrum a shot!  After all, its free!

Things they don't tell new moms

Several of my friends are expecting and due very soon or just had babies.  And lots and lots of us have small children and are going through that insanity all together.  I decided I would dedicate a blog post to non-traditional advice.  Here are some of the most useful things I was told, or I seriously wish someone had told me so I didnt feel like an idiot or like a horrible mom.  These are my top 10 pieces of advice for new moms (dads, too, but this is written with moms in mind).

1) Your kid will roll off the bed, couch, or changing table, eat dirt, hit his or her head, swallow a non-food item, bleed on occasion, and otherwise attempt to maim himself/herself.  This is normal.  This does NOT make you a bad parent or neglectful.  Someone once told me that moms in Africa let their babies touch the fire once so they learn not to touch fire.  This is how they learn, and truly, what doesn't kill them makes them stronger.  Babies are built to learn things the hard way.  And you CAN NOT watch them every second.  See also: running fevers, diaper rashes, and throwing huge tantrums in the middle of the store.

2) You will hate your baby from time to time.  Some people feel it more than others, but at some point you will probably be so exhausted, frustrated, confused, and overwhelmed, you will want to give your child away or maybe even be tempted to do something like throw them out the window (my personal feelings on many an occasion when little man would not sleep for love or money).  This is normal.  You aren't a bad mom.  The thoughts are super scary, but you wont hurt your baby (if you think you will, seek counseling - the feelings are still normal but you could probably use some help).  You are totally capable, and you CAN do this, but you need a break.  Go get a friend, dad, your parents, a neighbor, anyone.  Take a few minutes to yourself, and longer if you can.  If no one else is around, put the baby in a safe place like the carseat (inside only please) or crib and take a break.  Go to a place you cannot hear him or her and breathe.  Don't watch the clock, just chill for a little while until you feel better.  You still need a real break later, but that will help get you through.  When you can, take a long shower, go shopping, or do something without baby for a while and focus on you.  You need breaks, and your baby needs to get used to periods where you are unavailable.  (my mom said she wanted to smother me with a pillow once just so I would stop crying... not really maliciously, but still shocking unless you are living it!)

3) You deserve to have a partner for night feedings.  So many moms who are on maternity or stay at home feel that if dad is getting up to go to work, he must sleep undisturbed all night.  WRONG!  If you are bottle feeding, let dad take a shift overnight.  If you are nursing, try what hubs and I did - he woke up and diapered, then I nursed little man back to sleep and put him back in his cosleeper.  The little extra help kept me from waking up totally, so all of us fell asleep faster.  Do what works for you, but just because he is at work does not make dad unavailable at night.

4) Keep an extra outfit in the diaper bag.  Not for the baby; that goes without saying.  I am talking about YOU.  And as soon as you leave it in the trunk of your car someone else will drive.  And there is nothing worse than smelling like poop from a blowout diaper or like vomit from that one last burp at a fun party that you really don't want to leave because its the first one you've been to in weeks.  Wearing your old gym shirt is better.  I promise.

5) You do not need every dang gadget on the face of the planet. Baby manufacturers do not make products to make your life easier.  They exist for one purpose only: to separate you from your money.  Aside from the basics like a crib, carseat, and high chair, stuff that you do need you can probably borrow.  I have a swing up for grabs.  And let other people buy the toys.  If you have any surviving family members they will spoil the heck out of that kid.

6) Ask for help.  You can't possibly do all the laundry, make meals, take care of older kids, blah blah blah, and be superwoman.  Women before us had sisters, mothers, in laws, friends, etc to help them with new babies.  We as modern women need to learn to ask for help.  Chances are all of the above would LOVE a little face time with the new baby while you shower or would love to come over and bring you a lasagna and give a kissy and a snuggle to the bundle of joy.  The flip side of this one is that people are NOT allowed to come see the baby unless they do something for you, ie: bring food, clean something, baby sit, etc.  People will break your door down wanting to visit.  Put those visitors to work!  They probably don't mind and even if they do, that will just ensure they don't come back to bug you.

7)  They will not remember their first birthday.  Or Christmas.  Or Easter, or Valentine's Day, or Groundhog Day, or Arbor day.  Don't panic if you don't pull out all the stops for every holiday.  Sometimes you're just too tired, and that is okay.  A quiet little gathering at home with just you two or three is just fine.  No one will be disappointed.  Promise.  In ten years no one will even remember.

8) No one knows your baby better than you do.  Read all the books you want, listen to the doctors, listen to parents, friends, strangers, but follow your heart.  Your mother's intuition and what you feel is right for you and your baby is almost always the best answer.  I hesitate to say always for fear of the exception trolls, but in my experience, always. Parenting comes with some tough decisions: cosleeping, feeding, discipline, teaching, potty training... Others know what worked for them, what worked for the majority, or what works scientifically, but only you know what works for your family.  With that, ignore any conflicting advice, including the ones listed here as it applies.  Tell pushy advice givers that you will "take that under consideration" to get out of agreeing with them.

9) Your nursery does not need to look like it fell out of the pages of a magazine.  Buy stuff that you can second hand, so long as it is safe, in good condition, and not recalled or anything.  Not everything has to match or follow a theme (or even be gender appropriate colors).  It will be a whole lot easier to dress your baby in a fancy dress that will probably be pooped and spit up on inside of 5 minutes when you only paid $5 and not $50 for it.  It will stress you out much much less when something does get ruined.  Plus, other babies only stay in clothes for about 5 minutes, too, so many used clothes look brand new because they were only worn once!  And trust me, your son doesn't care that he is eating off of bunny rabbit plates and got dried off with a pink towel.  It will not scar him for life.

10) He/She is just a BABY.  Babies don't do naughty or annoying things on purpose.  They don't wait till you are eating to be hungry or wake up 6 times between 1 and 5 AM just to spite you.  It will feel like it.  But when you are at the end of your rope, take a break and tell yourself that he or she is just a helpless little one and that you mean everything to him or her, and that is why he or she wont sleep unless you are right there.  Remember how you looked forward to meeting him or her and relish the sweet moments where you are the center of his or her world.


Well, those are my top 10.  What is your advice for new moms/dads?

Running a household on a budget

Hubby and I just finished taking the Financial Peace University class by Dave Ramsey. I also just discovered the living on $28,000 series from the peaceful mom blog. Needless to say, I've been thinking a lot about money lately.

Now, I'm going to sound arrogant, but bear with me for just a sec. After going through both the class and the blog series, I was a little bitter because I didn't really learn anything new for my day to day budget. I did learn a lot from Ramsey about insurance and investing, but for my household budget it was all stuff I already did. But I didn't always do that, and I figure what if i knew then what I know now? Maybe we wouldn't have spent the last several years unburying ourselves from a mountain of debt.  And I do mean a mountain.  I guess I'm just the wrong audience for this stuff because I learned the hard way.  I did really enjoy both, don't get me wrong.  I just get disappointed when I think I will find some new exciting ways to save, and I come up empty.

So of course, I thought, well maybe I should give my own advice!  I love to save money and Hubby and I have made it a kind of hobby to uberbudget and see how much ahead of our schedule we can get.  I am a stay at home mom, so we are on one income, but thankfully its not too much of a hardship.  Hubby just happens to love a lucrative field, so we are not exactly living on ramen and pork and beans.  But as Dave Ramsey says, there is a difference between being broke and poor, and with all the credit card payments and student loan debt, we were pretty broke.  I don't want to give you the impression we are swimming in money now, because we are still on a very tight budget, but we do have a comfortable income for being a single income household.  That being said, I am still incredibly frugal. :-)

I don't exactly know where to start in sharing my experiences, so I figure I will just add posts as I go that share some of our money saving tips.  But for the first post, I think I will share HOW we started budgeting.

I hated my job when I lived apart from my now husband, then fiance.  When my lease for my apartment came up for renewal, I didn't think I could realistically stay there another year.  Yes, I hated it that much.  I was so depressed and so hopeless, it was all I could do to get out of bed each day.  Needless to say, it killed my husband to see me so upset.  So, we decided to look into moving in together.  Two people can live more cheaply together, and we were saving for a wedding so it seemed prudent.  I always intended to work, but the job market was just so bad, I went on interview after interview and came up with zip, despite always being in the top few candidates.  Now we really had to look at our money.  We had fallen in love with the idea of living together, but with only one income, how could we?  So we started tracking our spending very carefully, took a look at my husband's income, and categorized all of our spending.  We have many categories, such as mortgage, groceries, bad debt (credit cards), student loans, gifts, church (charity, really), and a category of "fun money" for each of us that we use to buy each other gifts, to buy things we want, and generally relieve that pressure from living on a budget.  It also includes a slush fund which we nicknamed the "ice cream cone" fund where extra, unbudgeted money goes (such as tax returns, bonuses, interest on savings accounts, gifts, etc) until we decide what to do with it, like pay off debt, donate something to charity, go out to dinner, take a trip, etc.  We often leave it there for a while until it accumulates enough to do what we want to.  Its also an additional buffer for emergencies or if a budgetary item goes off track because we didn't plan quite right.

Our real budget, minus the numbers

Hubby is a whiz with spreadsheets and we use Google docs so we can collaborate on it.  Each of the pages on the bottom link to our itemized spending for that month, which deducts from this first page automatically.  There are also "plan" spreadsheets for each month so we can account for things like insurance that are not paid monthly, and it also spells out how each paycheck is allocated.  For the most part it is the same each month, but for some things it changes, like around Christmas for the gifts budget we save a little extra.  The first column is the amount in the "bucket", the second is the "plan" amount, or how much we should have there at that point in time to stay on track to pay those irregular bills, especially key since bills are once a month and we are paid twice a month, and the third is the difference between the two - this tells us whether we are on track or not.  Green means we are ahead, light green means we are a little ahead, white is perfectly on track, yellow is a little behind schedule, and red is critically behind.  This first sheet is the snapshot of how we are doing at that exact moment.  It ROCKS.  We can see if we have money to spend on going out, if we have enough to pay our insurance, etc.

We also have spreadsheets further tracking our spending for certain categories, like groceries, baby, and crafts.  These are mostly for tracking purposes, not planning, so we can see where we need to cut back or where we are doing well.  A lot of our money goes into these categories, and it is easier to control our spending if we know what is going on.  I used our baby budget to plan what I would buy for the baby, going from most to least important so we didn't end up with a jogging stroller but no car seat.  So far, we have come in way under on most of our items, but it was indispensable during my pregnancy so I could see what we needed and what was a convenience (we still don't have a jogging stroller by the way haha).

So, I am sure this is about as clear as mud, but its our way of making things work, and I LOVE it.  Every dime we spend is accounted for, and we plan by the year so we can plan for long term expenses and goals more easily.  We even have a plan for buying a new house, although it is a few years off.  But we will be able to do it because we can see our progress and we remember that it is there, needing some income allocated to it.  Without a plan, it is so easy to forget to save for things, and thus, they never happen.  Someday we will add vacations to the list when we can afford it, but for now, this is it!

Baby Ren Faire costume

I know it's only March, but I am SO looking forward to summer.

And if you couldn't tell by previous posts, I am obsessed with the Renaissance Faire. This year I have a new attendee, my son! I did the math (ick scary math) and he will be about 8 months at Faire. I went a-researching on the interwebs and guess what I found? Damn near nothing. It took a whole lot of reading and a lot more looking at historical portraits to figure out a viable period costume for him.

I'm still not totally sure what to make, but at least I have an idea.

Here is what I found (forgive my lack of references please):
Up till about 6 months (or even one year according to some) babies were pretty much constantly swaddled to keep them from plucking out their eyes and to promote straight limbs. This was usually done with strips of linen wound around their bodies. Their heads were covered, but it is unclear whether that would be done by the swaddle or by a separate head covering, like a "bonnet" (coif). There are some paintings that show what looks like a solid piece of material used for the swaddle. Some of them were then wrapped with criss crossing bands to hold it in place.

Since little man will be over 6 months, it will be hot, and I don't want to have to unwind a swaddle for each diaper change, this option was out. But it's simplicity can't be argued with!

The next stage of clothing reminds me of a christening gown. The upper classes would dress babies, male and female, in ruffly dresses that often loosely resembled the mother's attire. Middle and lower classes had more simplistic gowns in class appropriate colors for the time. Some images show small children in just an undershirt or chemise, but this was always in the home, not in public, so I think it was a more casual "snapshot" of life, and nothing that would be seen outside. I mean, we've all run nude through the house as toddlers, right?

Yep thats a boy, although this is from 1610 or so.

Finally, I did see some paintings of babies in what can only be called "mini me" outfits. Typically in portraits, these outfits were worn by princes, princesses, and children of other gentry, and often were exact duplicates of what the parents wore. My assumption is that these were special occasion outfits and weren't your typical everyday clothes any more than your modern Christmas outfit resembles play clothes. However, for the queen on progress I don't think it would be a huge stretch that parents would dress children in their very best, but a full corset and hoops on a little girl or a doublet and ruffs on a little boy may not be all that practical by today's standards.

note the littlest one in a "christening gown" type outfit.  The one with the sword is a boy, not yet breeched

So I think I will make my little man a nice gown :). The upside is that it can be used by either gender. Boys didn't get "breeched" until potty training at the very earliest (some not until nearly 10), so if you make it generously sized, it can last 2 faires or more. And what ease of diaper changing! Of all the ridiculous clothing styles of the Elizabethan period, they sure had a smart idea when it came to children!

Stay tuned for more on this. Not only do I need to sketch and mock up a style for him, I have to figure out a way to breast feed in a corset?! Or do I...?

Read more about this project here and here!

Ordering fabrics and craft supplies online

This is not a how-to post, I know, but I feel like crafters everywhere are struggling with the move to web based shopping.  I know it is something that plagues me.  I have so many items I need for many of my projects, and inevitably, something is out of stock.  Brick and mortar stores used to be the only option, and getting rare or large quantity items was basically impossible.  Well, that is not the case so much with the interwebs, but what things are good to buy online and what things aren't?  Is it okay to buy cut yards, sight unseen?  What about trying to save money?  What if I hate what I have ordered?  What about coupons, sales, etc?  So many questions...  I have tried to tackle some of that here, and most of what I say applies to fabric specifically, but applies to other craft supplies, too.

Delving into the true unknown: internet based retailers.  There are lots of different flavors out there from amazon and ebay sellers that might actually be that crazy lady down the street selling the crap in her garage to true internet-only retailers without a store counterpart, to the website of common chains like Joann's.  Each handles things a little differently, and it is hard to lump them together, but I will do my best to represent all the above.

Pros:
1) Selection and availability.  There are so many options out there for things like fabric, where the quantity of items produced could never possibly be held in a store.  There are specialty fabrics made out of organic cotton, bamboo, and unbleached or untreated fibers, a variety of prints that would swamp any normal retailer, and uncommonly used notions like hook and eye tape, which I discovered a few months ago is basically unfindable.  I love the selection on the internet.  You can find darn near anything!

2) Cost.  Shopping around can really pay off.  Because they do not have the overhead of a brick and mortar store or the hassle of distributors (if you are buying wholesale), online shops can be a whole lot cheaper, and it is so easy to let your keyboard do the shopping.  Especially when you consider buying bulk (usually by the bolt or in large quantities of cut yards), the cost of fabric can come down substantially compared to in store purchases.  Many chain stores run the same sales online as in store, and you can capitalize on that, too.  Also, you can buy things on clearance at drastically reduced prices as they clear warehouses of a particular item that a manufacturer is no longer making or has a defect (usually a minor thing like selvages are messed up or something you can still use).  I have done this several times and been SO glad for it!

3) Quantity.  For large projects, finding an adequate amount of fabric is tough in stores.  Bolts are small, generally under 10 yards each, and rarely do you find a brand new bolt.  But online, you can find large, CONTINUOUS bolts of fabric that don't leave you with 9 yards in one piece and three in another.  I wanted to make 5 bridesmaids dresses.  I ended up getting the fabric at 7 Joann's locations over 4 months of time.  An online purchase of a few bolts of fabric would have been VASTLY easier, if only I had known then what I know now.

Cons:
1) Untouchables.  The most obvious drawback to buying anything online is that you cannot see what you are buying.  This is a major downfall for creative types.  Imagine trying to compare two pieces of lace trim without having them in front of you or being able to lay them across the fabric you are working with?  Tough call.  Many retailers (ones without a brick and mortar store in particular) do a great job combating this with item descriptions and photos, giving examples of projects that are suitable for that kind of fabric and showing a scale when displaying prints to give the buyer an idea of what it looks like in person.  Some even describe the drape and feel of the fabric and/or include a thread count or gram weight when referring to the fabrics.  A select few offer free swatches, and many others offer swatches for a fee that usually includes shipping cost, generally about $1 or so each.

2) Shipping.  Shipping costs can often eat up any sale or price incentive you found to buying online.  Because fabric is both bulky and heavy, it can be a bear to ship.  Some stores offer free shipping for orders over a certain dollar amount or flat rate shipping promotions, but that forces the shoppers hand on how much to buy and when, and if you want to take advantage of something on sale or clearance, well that pretty much NEVER lines up with a free shipping deal.  Also, the ecological impact of shipping has been cited many times in the argument for buying locally.  Now if it isn't manufactured locally, well, that kind of opens a whole new can of worms, but I am not really willing to get into that here... :-)  And of course, if it has to be shipped, you cannot have it immediately for a short deadline.

3) Couponing and promo codes.  Remember the crafter's creed, Never Pay Full Price!  Some stores never offer sales or coupons (most notably for me, dharma trading co.) which means you can never bring down your materials cost.  Others (like joann.com) only allow one coupon or promo code per transaction, which means you can't use a free shipping code with a percent off code.  What gives?!

4) Yardage increments.  Most sellers online will not sell less than 1 yard, and will only cut in increments of 1 yd.  This is hardly an issue for me, since garments almost always use more than 1 yd, but sometimes getting 6 instead of 5 1/8 is a little annoying, especially for those REALLY expensive items like faux furs or silks.  I am sure this is horrible for quilters, though, who commonly need only a fat quarter of something for a project.

5) Returns.  What do I do if I hate it?  Probably the scariest con when combined with #1, not being able to touch the item before you buy.  Return policies vary widely from store to store, as does the quality of the merchandise.  The biggest problem I have with returns is that the .com affiliates of the brick and mortar stores are actually separate entities entirely and I cannot return items to a store (such as joann's and joann.com).  That yanks the security net right out from under me.  (Why they chose that business model is beyond me).  I recently bought from hancockfabrics.com and they sent me 4 yards of defective flannel.  Even though it was their fault the fabric was defective, I had to pay shipping if I wanted to return it.  Shipping was around $11, and the cost of the fabric was about $14, so I opted to keep it so I didn't have to spend $11 and still have no fabric for my project.  I'm certainly not happy with the return policy there!


Bottom line: Buying craft supplies online is a great way to save money, price compare, and find exactly what you are looking for.  However, protect yourself the best you can as a consumer.

1) Do copious research on their return policies BEFORE you buy.  Some will not accept returns at all (especially for cut yardage), some will under certain circumstances but you pay shipping, some are great about returning items, and there is every other shade of grey in between.

2) Have a good idea of what you want before you buy, and if you can, scope it out in person somewhere.  If you are unsure about the look and feel or drape of a fabric, try going to a store and handling similar items.  You can always order a swatch, but make sure you allow yourself enough time to have the swatch shipped and then order the item.  And keep in mind that dye lots may change the appearance slightly from the swatch you receive.

3) Sign up for email coupons for chain stores and newsletters for the online-only retailers to keep up on sales and shipping promotions as well as new products.  Always take a look at the clearance bin before you place your order - you just may find something to love.

4) Only buy from reputable sources you trust.  There are lots of shops out there on the interwebs and not all of them are good.  If a site is questionable, place a small order to "try them out" before going $300 deep on that gorgeous satin you think you want.  Try not to learn costly lessons if you can avoid them!

Happy online shopping!

Wet Bag research

Diapers.  The inevitable, hated part of child-rearing.  You show someone an adorable infant, complete with drooly grin, tiny baby hands, and that "new baby" smell, and at some point someone will mention, "yeah, but I'm not changing it..."

Hubby and I have decided we would like to cloth diaper.  I haven't yet settled on a brand or style of cloth diaper (mostly because its such a huge financial investment and I demand perfection in every product I buy - a completely unrealistic goal), so I am focusing on the diaper pail/wet bag thing for now.

A friend of mine cloth diapered, but when she was out and about with baby, she used disposables.  Totally understandable.  But for me, who goes out only rarely, and even then only short trips to the grandparents for dinner, church on Sunday, or to the grocery store, I would like to try bringing cloth diapers with me.  For longer trips (a full day/many days) without access to a washer and an easy diaper storage solution, I think I may just murder the environment a little, but for those quick couple-of-hour trips to visit a friend or do a little shopping, I would like to give it a good try.  Of course, this begs the question "What the heck am I supposed to do with a few hours worth of dirty diapers that I can't just toss in the garbage?"  The answer?  Wet bags.

Wet bags are waterproof bags with a zipper or drawstring opening that go in a diaper bag and hold all the messies.  The idea is that they 1) contain wetness, 2) contain odor, and 3) are roomy enough to hold a few diapers, but small enough to be portable.  Some have other bells and whistles like hanging straps to snap to a stroller or something, extra pouches for dry items, either zippered or mesh, coordinating paci carriers and other accessories, a zippered bottom for easy emptying into a washer (especially for larger ones that would be sent to daycare or something), the list goes on and on.

In the course of my research, I found that my favorites fell into two distinct categories: 

1) The smallish bags that could hold about 4 diapers and tucked easily into a diaper bag.  They had things like pouches for clean diapers, wipes, a changing pad, and butt cream so it could be an all in one diaper solution, and straps to wrap around a wrist or stroller handle.  They had one opening only and could be either a zipper or a drawstring (usually elastic) and toggle.  I saw this as the ultimate solution for my travel dilemma, as well as an easy alternative to a whole diaper bag for outings where less is more, like theme parks or zoos.  This could easily get tossed into my purse and keep everything I needed for routine changing within easy reach.

2) The oversized bags that were often marketed as diaper pail liners, if not diaper pail alternatives.  They hold 20 some diapers (often even more), usually have two openings, one at the top for putting them in, and a large opening at the bottom for dumping them into the wash, and have handles or hangers to loop over a doorknob, dresser drawer knob, or some other furniture item.  They are somewhat wider than they are long so they hang at about waist height and don't hit the ground, but still have a large enough volume for about 2 days worth of diapers.  They tended to have more zipper openings than drawstrings as the drawstrings cinch closed too tightly when the bag is full and heavy (assuming it is hung by the drawstring).  Some had open tops that just had elastic around it to keep it from flopping open or to keep it snug in a diaper pail as a liner.  I saw this as my ideal nursery dirty diaper storage solution. I have been hating all the diaper pails I have seen because they are not designed for cloth and often have expensive, non biodegradable liners.  The wet bags can be tossed in to the wash along with the diapers (to avoid touching them again - ick) and offer a simpler, cheaper solution to handling those diapers.  Of course, being eco friendly is super important to me, but I am a cheapskate at heart.  After all, that is what this whole blog is about, right? :-)

Both were perfect to suit my needs, albeit very different needs.  There are certain challenges I need to overcome before I endeavor to make them, though.  (Sorry, I appear to be a fan of numbered lists today):

1) How to make them definitively waterproof.  

Even commercial bags often have complaints about leakage.  Some can be chalked up to leaving liquid in the bag, which it isn't always designed to do.  For example, zippers are not made of waterproof material and may leak, and a drawstring closure may not be tight enough to keep in moisture.  I'd like to make mine leakproof enough to hold rinsed poopy diapers, but not necessarily able to hold water.  Many bags reinforce/enclose seams to prevent leaking and wicking.  I think this is a good strategy.

2) What kind of material to use.

PUL is the obvious choice, but even that leaves some wiggle room.  I have some from a local fabric store, but I have read time and again that this is not "real" PUL.  Also, nylon, polyester, and a few other materials were commonly used.  Some bags had a waterproof inner liner and a soft, pretty outer shell.  This would be good for adding pockets, which may wick moisture if sewn into the same side seams, but also makes the items much more time and materials intensive.  Not sure how to tackle that.

3) Which bells and whistles to include and which to leave off.

I liked the idea of a pocket on the small bag, but maybe I will only make one with pocket(s).  I initially thought of this as something to toss into the larger diaper bag, which would make the extra pocket redundant.  However, as a grab and go mini-diaper bag, it would be handy storage.  I also kind of want a snap strap, but I can't for the life of me think why it would be useful since I wouldn't dangle this from my stroller.  Ever.  But the appeal is there... Also, how to make the large bag hang is a concern of mine.  I don't have a lot of nursery furniture (or space) and while I want it to be easy to access, I don't want it in the way on the front of a drawer or something.  On the door is too far away - I'd have to leave baby alone on the changing table and walk across the room to the door.  Unacceptable...  This may take some real thought.  Or a freestanding structure to hold it, similar to a hamper.  Hmmm...

4) What kind of closure(s) to use.

I am pretty much sold on the zippered small bags, but the large bags have me in a tizzy.  The large bags sometimes had no closure at the top  to ease the dropping in of diapers.  I heard that open bags work well for cloth diapering, but I am hesitant to actually try it after being in my friend's nursery which smells like ammonia.  Maybe a drawstring top?  But then putting diapers in will take 2 hands... I think I will have to invent a solution.  Maybe an "open" top that overlaps to prevent airflow but is easy to drop in dirties?  This also may discourage curious toddler hands from pulling out diapers later on...

At any rate, there are lots of things to think about, but I do believe this will be my next major project.  

Also coming up will be some reusable nursing pads.  I think I started leaking yesterday!  Its crazy and weird and embarrassing, but exciting at the same time.  I had a wet spot on my tee shirt right where my right nipple hit when I got up from spooning hubby.  I wasn't wearing a bra because we were just playing video games in the living room on the fold out couch bed, avoiding the rest of the world for Labor day, and there it was, a small dot of moisture.  Its possible it came from somewhere else, but as I was spooning him, I can't imagine how.  My grandmother likes to tell stories about how she sprayed milk in the shower when pregnant and nursing my father.  (She jokes that she didn't know it was unusual since it was her first child.)  I suppose that means I have a genetic predisposition to leakage.  If there is such a thing (genetic predisposition I mean, not leakage).  Using Nana's method of cutting up maxi pads to stuff in a bra doesn't appeal to me, so I will figure out how to make some.  I'm sure I can double up that research with making diaper soakers as the principle is much the same - soak up liquid with as little thickness as possible to do the job.  Look forward to that...