The Arizona heat has us losing our minds!!!

The heat is making us do something crazy – hurry before we come to our senses. For THREE DAYS ONLY buy 3 LolliDoo™ eco-pockets™ and GET ONE FREE.

No coupon code necessary!



***************BONUS****************

Be one of the first to own the new LolliDoo™ eco-pockets™ ELASTIC BUTTON SIZING!

Five Things I Wished Someone Told Me While I Was Pregnant

1. Your doctor/midwife is NOT the absolute authority. If you don't want a procedure, say an induction, you have the right to refuse.

2. Breastfeeding can be challenging in the beginning. There are experts to help you with that called Lactation Consultants. There are also breastfeeding support groups mainly - La Leche League. Also it's normal to have sore cracked and even bloody nipples for the first week - you can and should nurse through it - it will go away quickly.

3. There are so many dangerous foods and health care providers don't always warn you. Make sure to ask what foods to avoid. Your health care provider should have the latest information on bacteria outbreaks and the likes.

4. You DO get a medal if you have natural childbirth. That medal is the health of both you and your baby. Additionally moms who have natural childbirth have almost no recovery time ***BONUS***

5. Newborns don't need all the vaccines that hospitals insist upon. I'm fairly certain that a newborn isn't at risk for Hep B - a disease spread through sex, needles or other bodily fluids. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepatitis_B Do your research and determine a vaccine schedule (or non-schedule) that feels right to you.

The Origin of an Overnight Miracle Diaper

I've heard that out of every failure something better comes along. This has certainly held true for Melissa and I as we created Go Green Sustainable Industries.

Originally a few years back we had a gorgeous diaper. Like the diapers you have today - these were made from recycled and organic textiles. I can't remember the exact name of the recycled fabric we were using but I was in love with it. It was trim, cute and affordable. However after extensive testing we had to ditch the fabric because it leaked. That's an understatement - pee poured out from the front -back - legs and waist.

Melissa and I were understandably crushed.

Three early LolliDoo™ Diapers - then called Go Green Baby!

Out of this failure we discovered Eco-Fleece™ . I wasn't very excited about using a fleece on diapers at first. It was only after testing that I was a believer. You see I thought the fleece would be hot but in actuality it's breathable. In other words, instead of trapping moisture and heat against the baby's skin like plastic will do, fleece allows air to circulate which actually keeps babies drier.

Then we had a happy accident. We discovered that the 300 weight fleece was able to repel copious amounts of moisture without leaking.

Holy Dry Butts Batman!

We finally have a viable diaper that is not only great during the day but offers overnight protection even for heavy wetters.

No more disposables - no more wasting money - no more worrying about leaking!




So there you have it - the background behind LolliDoo™ Overnight eco-pockets™ I am so grateful that the Universe provided what so many parents needed to keep their babies safe and dry all night.

#Operationfluffy Party TONIGHT! 9 PM EST

@TheEcoChic has posted all of the details on her website. She was kind enough to host this party even though it was supposed to be her week off!

Synopsis:

Thursday night we will all be tweeting to @TheEllenShow using the #operationfluffy hashtag. We will send pictures of our adorable babies in cloth diapers and tell her how much better cloth is than “jean” huggies. PUKE!

I did want to add, to make it easier to tweet pictures, use the twitpic.com service. Upload your photos ahead of time to make the party more about tweeting and less about searching for and uploading pictures. The pictures will show up without having to click them if you use Tweetgrid.com for the party. If you need help learning how to do Twitter parties, I have a little tutorial for you.

From Kim Rosas:

If you belong to a cloth diaper board (Cloth Diaper Nation, Diaperswappers, The Bump, Cafemom, BabyCenter, etc…) I would love your help in spreading the word. If you make a post about #operationfluffy’s Twitter party you get (5) extra entries into a giveaway of your choice! I have 2 ending today (Real Nappies and Bravado) so if you want entries in those you should hurry up!) Or, if you have another idea to spread the word give me a shout and I will let you know if it counts towards extra entries!

To get those entries leave a comment with the link on this post and leave (5) comments on the giveaway of your choice also linking to your post. Say something like “Extra Entries #operationfluffy post” and leave your link!

Americans throw away 25,000,000 plastic beverage bottles every hour!

How is this relevant to LolliDoo™ diapers?

I've been asked that question a lot recently and the answer is easy. LolliDoo™ eco-pocket™ diapers and Recycled Outties™ are made from recycled fleece.



Recycled fleece is similar to traditional fleece with one big difference. Instead of using virgin resources to create the Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fabric - recycled fleece takes existing beverage bottles and creates the same fabric.

Did you know:

Most bottled water is consumed away from home, usually at a park, in an office or even while driving — areas where there's usually no recycling.

Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy as burning it in an incinerator.

Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year!

Each LolliDoo™ eco-pocket™ with organic cotton saves at least 6 beverage bottles from the landfill.

Each LolliDoo™ eco-pocket™ with StayDry (also made from recycled beverage bottles) saves at least 8 beverage bottles from the landfill.

Each LolliDoo™ Recycled Outtie™ saves at least 5 beverage bottles from the landfill.

It may not seem like much but it's something.

Our efforts remind me of a story.

The Starfish Story
Original Story by: Loren Eisley

One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed
a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean.

Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?”

The youth replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean.
The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.”

“Son,” the man said, “don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish?
You can’t make a difference!”

After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish,
and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said…”
I made a difference for that one.

Healthy Sweets

As you might know I've recently given up sugar and gluten. I can say that not only is my acid reflux gone but I've lost 7 pounds so far. I feel better, I look better and I'm not starving.

However, Aunt Flow is getting ready to come for a visit and I WANT CHOCOLATE!

I went to the drugstore and against all my principles bought sugar-free turtles. They were sweetened with Malitol which I thought maybe wasn't as bad as Splenda or Aspartame. OK I knew that Malitol wasn't good but I was desperate.


It took maybe 30 minutes to go through my system. I was unpleasantly surprised to find out that my body doesn't like Malitol AT ALL. I had the worst stomach ache. ****TMI WARNING**** I had horrendously smelly, loud and embarrassing gas. It was bad. I think Malitol might also cause anal leakage...just saying.

That was last night.

Today things aren't much better in the craving department. I WANT SUGAR NOW!

This time instead of putting toxins in my body I went to my kitchen to see what I could throw together. I found figs...what could I do with figs?

I put the figs in my Cuisinart and started searching for nuts. I wanted cashews but all I had were peanuts. I dumped some peanuts in the Cuisinart as well. Soon I had a nice dough.

I tasted the dough and it wasn't quite sweet enough. I added a tiny bit of honey (something I haven't eaten since I gave up sugar, and some vanilla because well, everything is better with vanilla. I rolled them into balls and put them in the fridge.

YUM YUM YUM

They turned out so good. I didn't take notes so I can't write the recipe but keep in mind next time you want to give your kids a healthy sweet: figs + nuts + honey + vanilla = yummy goodness.

What can you do with a palette of wood? *lots of photos

Click on the photos to see them in entirety

My husband is an upcycle extraordinaire. His latest passion is rummaging through construction sites for palettes of wood. Let’s see what he has made recently:

Here are the palettes before he breaks them down.

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Check out the work space he has created for himself

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Notice the counter. It was a counter top he found in the dumpster on a construction site. The “shelves” are actually drawers that someone was throwing out.

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Look closely at the containers. They are all re-used glass jars and coffee tins.

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One last look at his ingenuity.

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Moving on to the yard. The first think Chuck made were several garden boxes. He’s been reading square foot gardening…

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Oh doesn’t that squash look wonderful!

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Next he built a compost container that the dogs couldn’t break into.

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Finally a picnic table for the kids. I am told that chairs are next.

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I saved my favorite for last. This cost us less then $30 start to finish. Someone gave us the aquarium years ago and it just sat in our garage. The filter was also a gift. We had three Guppies and I got four Mollys for $4. We had the gravel from an art project I did a few years back. The only thing that we really paid for was the supporting 2x4s.

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So there you have it folks – what to do with a palette in the Manes house.