The Ventura County Great Cloth Diaper Change 2012

What an amazing event! Things went very well for our location. We had a community that came together with so many donations that EVERYONE that participated won a prize on top of getting a swag bag. (I even have a few swag bags left over for circle members that didn’t attend GCDC and show up to circle meetings!) I’m exhausted both physically and mentally so this will be more of a photo montage than my usual posts. I think you will enjoy it none the less!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can’t thank everyone involved in today’s event enough. I really can’t. The participants were troopers! Even waiting around for all the prizes to be drawn was a feat since the community was so generous! Keep in touch & join the Cloth Diaper Circle for Ventura County whenever you can!

Real Simple Real Diapers Outreach – Cloth Diapering 101

I have been teaching Cloth Diapering 101 Workshops for a few months now and I am loving it. I apologize for not having made my own cloth diapering 101 video yet – it’s in the works! I have loved sharing the benefits of cloth diapering with anyone that is interested. Because there are so many parents out there that have never considered cloth diapers, either because they consider them archaic, don’t know that they still exist, or for other reasons, it is important to share your love. I wear an “Ask Me About Cloth Dipaers!” pin on my diaper bag at all times. Whenever diapers come up in conversation I offer a cloth solution or option.

You may think that you could never hold workshops or be a cloth diaper circle leader. I have to say, you – the lover of cloth diapers – just may be the perfect cloth diaper circle leader for your area. It’s the parents who love the freedom that cloth diapers give us that make experts. We deal with any challenges that arise and overcome them. I had to find all my own answers online or through manufacturers because I didn’t have any local resources. It was this struggle to find answers (with no local cloth diaper resources or stores) that led me to becoming a cloth diaper circle leader myself. I reached out to the amazing cloth diapering community online,  learned so much and got endless support! I have reached out to local childrens’ stores and have held cloth diaper circle meetings and 101 workshops at their stores! I didn’t need to put out money to rent a location. I brought in a some business and am helping to educate the community. The business I have worked with have been very helpful and supportive.

If you want to be a cloth diaper circle leader, and want to help your local community find the support and encouragement they may need to cloth diaper or to get started cloth diapering, click HERE to find out what is required and how to get started!

Before I kick off the MommaWords Real Diaper Week Celebration with a GIVEAWAY, I want to share a video my fellow Cloth Diaper Circle Leader, Heather B., put together. It’s a cloth diapering 101 video with an ASL translation. Kudos to you and your circle Heather! Great job!

MommaWords is GIVING AWAY a copy of the book “Changing Diapers: A Hip Mom’s Guide to Modern Cloth Diapering”! What am I doing for day 1 of Real Diaper Week? I’m holding a CD 101 Workshop at a local preschool! And…. giving away this book to help educate you! If you win, don’t forget to lend out your copy and share the love!

 

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Prizes from our Great Cloth Diaper Change sponsors!

We have been working our tails off to make this event awesome! It is paying off friends! I wanted to give you an update as to what our Ventura County Great Cloth Diaper Change is looking like! I have been overwhelmed with all of the support and donations we have gotten from the local community! The Great Cloth Diaper Change is nearing and I want to make sure all of you who want to participate can! If you don’t currently use cloth diapers and you would like to participate, email me and I will reserve a cloth diaper for you to use at our event.

The first 50 participants to arrive will get a swag bag full of goodies! If we get more than 50 pre-registrations we will work as hard as we can to get more swag bags made for the event. In order for us to supply you all with swag goodies, it is important for you to preregister. That however, is not the only incentive to preregister! The Ventura County Great Cloth Diaper Change will be having some pretty awesome giveaways for participants. Every participant will be given a certain number of “raffle” tickets so that they may choose the prizes they most want to win. All preregistered participants will receive an extra ticket to increase their chances of winning! So preregister HERE now to help make sure everyone gets some great free stuff!

Prizes include:

A Lactating Mother’s basket full of wonderful supplies from Lassen’s

A basket of baby care supplies like lotion and shampoo from Lassen’s

Coconut oil (great for diaper rash cream) from Trader Joe’s

A baby carrier cover from Baby Bella Maya

A $25 Gift Certificate & 2 beanie baby bears from Kids Club in the Jann’s Shopping Center

Burn balm (great for healing ammonia burns) from Blue Jasmine Acupuncture and Herbs

Diaper Balm and Hand Sanitizer from The Balm

Detergent from Eco Sprouts

Detergent from Eco Nuts

A large wet bag from Incredibum

A Fuzzi Bunz Elite Cloth is Cool Diaper from Sandbox Lane

A Boba baby carrier and baby wearing evaluation from HipMommy

A Boba pack from Boba

A doTERRA trio kit of essential oils from Jenna & Damian Fante

A cloth diaper from Ana of Lollipop Baby

The book, Changing Diapers: The Hip Mom’s Guide To Modern Cloth Diapering from MommaWords.com

And we’re working on more! If you want to increase your chances of winning these prizes, preregister now! All participants will leave with some goodies!

We are still looking for some volunteers. We need a couple people to volunteer as witnesses so that we can abide by Guinness rules. Guinness witnesses may not receive anything in return for their help and may not be participating in the event. If you or anyone you know is not affiliated with this event, doesn’t typically associate with me, and is willing to donate their Saturday morning, we would love to hear from you/them! Comment on this post or email me for information on sponsoring this event or donating your time to help.

If you are looking for a Great Cloth Diaper Change Event near you click HERE. As of right now, the closest locations near Ventura County are Anaheim to the south and San Louis Obispo to the north.

We have many more sponsors that have donated to the swag bags and lots of vendors that will be at our event to show you their latest and greatest items and services! We will have limited refreshments, and a FREE Kindermusik class after the change is over. Bring your unwanted cloth diapers to swap with others or donate to a needy family!

We hope to see you there!

Diaper Sprayer Review and GIVEAWAY!

The infamous diaper sprayer is a point of discussion for many cloth diaper users. Some will argue that it is completely unnecessary and others will argue that they couldn’t cloth diaper without one. What is a diaper sprayer for? Why use one? Diaper sprayers attach to the plumbing that fills your toilet with water. It is used to spray poo off of your diapers and into your toilet. Yes, you could technically avoid this process by using a biodegradable diaper liner in your diaper with every diaper change. The drawback to that method is that while you can get some pretty good deals on diaper liners, you still have to buy them repeatedly and they are added waste going into our sewer or landfills. A diaper sprayer is a one time purchase and you might be surprised as to how many uses you can find for it!

I happen to fall into the “I can’t live without my diaper sprayer” category. I started with a BumGenius Diaper sprayer. It lasted two years. They warn you on the package to turn it off with every use – mind this warning. If you forget to turn it off at the shut off valve it will start to leak. It get slowly worse every time you forget to turn it off. The on button on our sprayer had started to stick and that made it a bit more difficult to use after a while as well. On the plus side, this sprayer is easy to install with a wrench. I installed it myself in about 15 minutes from start to finish. You can adjust pressure with this sprayer by turning the water valve that comes out of the wall to your toilet more open or closed. This diaper sprayer runs about $45.

When my first diaper sprayer began to leak uncontrollably (if this happens to you just shut off the water at the valve that comes out of the wall) I uninstalled it and ordered another. I thought it would be nice to order a different brand so that I would have a comparison for you and would be able to give a better review. This time I ordered a Fuzzibunz diaper sprayer. I happen to get one that leaked when I installed it, but I’m glad that I did. Because I got one that was missing a rubber valve, I got the opportunity to work with customer service at Fuzzibunz. They were helpful and got a new diaper sprayer out to me quickly. I installed the replacement sprayer quickly (10minutes?) with no leaks. This sprayer does not require that you turn it off after each use. It also has a separate pressure valve that you turn to increase or decrease pressure. I have to say that I like this design a bit better. The handle is made so that it won’t stick the way that the BumGenius one did.

So. I am happy to announce that I am giving away a FuzziBunz Diaper Sprayer! I have found that even into potty training this sprayer has been more than helpful. I can spray out training potties with ease. I have also used the diaper sprayer to rinse off many larger items in the shower right next to our toilet. If there is a dirty job, my diaper sprayer has helped me with it! I love the versatility of so many components of cloth diapering. Prefolds can be used for burp rags, to clean runny noses during colds, and when your kids are out of diapers, they make great rags for cleaning, and towels for drying your car.

Good Luck! PS Please note that this giveaway is in EST time. I will post the winner here via the Rafflecopter widget below. The winner will also receive email notification.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Contest for your artistic children

The other day I got an email from Brynne of HandmadebyBrynne.com. She asked that I share with you a contest she is currently running through March 30th. I thought it was a wonderful contest and wanted to share her craftiness with you. Brynne makes all kinds of crafts and sells hand felted woolys on her Etsy page. They are adorable and I found it quite ironic that she emailed me. DD has been OBSESSED with acorns. She pretends that everything is an acorn (no, I don’t know where this came from – maybe she was a squirrel a past life) AND Byrnne has a bunch of oh so cute felted acorns. Another path crossed that was meant to be!

Brynne would like for you to submit one of your child’s drawings to be brought to life as a felted wooly! What a cute idea, right? So check out her site HERE and check out the details. I think my little ones are a bit too young to make their drawings  decipherable but I can’t wait to see the wooly someones child envisions! Good luck!