Snaps & Blabs » Green tinge

Jackess of all trades

Snapping Blabber — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 18:10:29 +0000

With titles like that its no wonder I am not getting any traffic thanks to SEO (search engine optimization).

Its the truth though, I will attempt just about anything. You wont find me hiding in a corner, biting my fingers about how I will be terrible at something. I may very well be terrible at it, but I will at least give it a go and find out for myself. Call me a skeptic, thats me.

So awhile ago when Mr.Blab jokingly asked me to cut his hair, cause he was too lazy to go to the hairdresser, I said “Sure, dude, have a seat and hand me those meat scissors over there”. I said it jokingly too, but he turned out to be even crazier than me, because he handed his mane to my completely lost for words hands and the rest is history.

I have had my hair cut, I have watched other people do it, many times; I knew the proper technique to hold the hair, and who doesnt know how to use scissors?! It cant be that hard. And the truth is that even after I was done with him, he was safe for public viewing and didnt miss a day off work, to both of our surprise.

I still have no clear idea what I am doing when I grab the scissors, which now are proper hair-cutting ones and I even have thinning blades to complete my professional tool set.

Yours truly is now the official family hairdresser, which not only makes my man unappealing to other females, but also saves us not a negligible amount of money. (The kids get good doos, because of the blood connection)

My problem is that after every time I cut Mr.Blab’s hair, I forget how hard it is and next time he asks me, which is usually right before he looks like Big Foot, I agree to do it. And as soon as I stand there with my comb and scissors and try to moisten that mountain of hair, I feel half of my life run past me. The dread overcomes me, because ladies and gentlemen, he has way too much hair; I am certain, in fact, that he is the reason so many other men are bаld around the world.

I snap with the scissors and nothing seems to change. I have no idea what I am doing is what comes out of my mouth every once in a while with a nervous laugh. Its ok, as long as I have some hair – calmly responds my client and we usually laugh a lot. He pretends to be scared sometimes and is not appreciative of my assistant/s, which might be spraying him with a bottle or piling his cut hair on his pants, for example – what is this place?!

Oh, no worry, mistur, its all in bill…oups, that your ear?

By the end of it, my hands are falling off, and I am sure I patch up the last bits barely, barely. But he is always happy, bless his lazy heart.

Dodman, approved my work too.

And that is all that matters sometimes.

And then he is put to work.

I wonder who can make a blanket from all of that cut hair.

Or two.

©Snaps & Blabs, 2010. | Permalink | Still a monologue | Add to del.icio.us
Green tinge, Homemade, Life with loved ones Post tags: fun, homemade, skills

Home made gifts bounty

Snapping Blabber — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:47:34 +0000

Here are the things that have kept me busy the last week or so. Miss Fab and I have been creative to bits, working on making some surprises for Little B’s birthday. It has been fun and I have learned a few new things too. So I will share, cause I am nice that way.

I will start with KravA-pA! This is the name the birthday girl gave to one of the dolls in my handmade toys book. Not just that. The girls would say the name, after looking at the page, and then crack up like there is nothing funnier out there. And then again…KravA-pA! Muahahahaha.

So, I had to make her.

Big sister joined in too. She weaved two friendship bracelets.

She made these two lovely fellas.
She chose the fabrics, the colours. She stitched up on the machine and did the hand stitch on the faces too.

The packaging too, of course.

I have been discovering crocheting. I have never done it before, even though it seemed interesting and I think I enjoyed the idea of its versatility. I don tknow why, but I thought it will be a good idea to delve into it now.

It was not hard at all. In a night I had a grasp of it. And the second night I crocheted half a hat. Not planned that way, but my wool ran out, so it ended up a tiny little hat. I finished it up with a handle, cause I thought it will look nice as a soft basket of some kind. Then I left it around until I figure out if I want to keep it or not.

Next I was ready to follow a pattern. You think there is nothing to it, but I beg to differ. Patterns look like alien language in code and then scrambled with eggs.

Example:

3ch, 2tr into the ring, (2ch, 3tr into the ring) 3 times, 2ch, sl st into
the 3rd ch of the beginning 3ch. (4 groups of 3tr separated by 2ch)

But yours truly did it without a hitch. Thank you, thank you:

What am I doing with this beauty? With these wonderfully fancy stitches?
I am eliminating them, thats what I am doing.

I am felting, babeeey!

I stitched two of those squares and a big thread and the whole thing went in the washing machine.

And then I had a beautiful fluffy puffy bag (and the gift wrapping for it)

I was hooked!

Hooked I tell ya. Even Mr.Blab was impressed.

My eyes were scanning anything in my field of vision that will be suitable for felting.

Voila! My half hat turns into a basket:

This one went into a simple paper wrap, but I made a custom bow for it.

Those are wonderful. Next time I will try the recycling version
(if you are keen, get the instructions from How About Orange)

Just in case our newly five year old is not impressed with our handicrafts, we had Mr.Blab get her a scooter and he ordered her a bunch of “Lego guys”, the latest being the favorite play buddies lately.

Now to the most anticipated part – the cake.

The order went something like that:
Chocolate cake with hmmm…white top…colorful, rainbow frosting!

Right.

Luckily I had some volunteering help:

I admit, I was not excited when she expressed enthusiasm to “help” me, but I handed her the tools and held my breath. Maybe even my eyes were closed, I am not sure.

She did the flowers.

She did not disappoint. Not even a bit.

The swoosh is just a defect in the way the cake baked. It is a wonky cake.

At first I thought we will make a hilly cake, then while we were working, we thought we will make a path in the big crack…then Miss Fab suggested bushes. I did bushes and then decided to just fill it up with grass.

And we ended up with 5 fairies somehow.

Couldnt have been more perfect.

Ok, I am tired now.

And I am getting a cold.

And we are off to celebrate a birthday…

©Snaps & Blabs, 2010. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Green tinge, Homemade, Life with loved ones Post tags: cake, gift, handmade, party

The diaper fairy

Snapping Blabber — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 13:01:05 +0000

This has nothing to do with diaper poops and gifts of the kind. Well, maybe it does, but not in a direct kind of way. This is about a friend that started making cloth diapers, something I have been meaning to do for awhile now, but just dont get to it, so I am quite jealous in a way, there is a bit of envy in me, a bit of grinding of the teeth, a bit of “I wish I had done this”..well, you get the picture, but she actually did it. And not only that, but now she is trying a little business going, as her kids cant take any more diapers, even if she stuffs them in their clothes as safety padding.

And because she had so many and she has one of those warm kind hearts, can you frikin believe it, she sent me not one, but two absolutely free diapers for Caramel Popcorn. Yeah, she even paid the shipping from the other end of the world. So I am getting this package, and the two jewels pop out and melt in my hands. Only other cloth diaper freaks can appreciate this, so dont shake your head in disbelief if you are not one of them.

Sofness, squishiness, warmth and fluffiness.

Mmmm….

So, I thought the least I could do is give her some blog props and show off her wonderful work and if any of you are in search of a cloth diaper check her out. I dont know how they will stand up over time, but my initial reaction is glee. Hurry, before she gets big and her prices get unreasonable, cause isnt that what always seems to happen.

KatyBird Diapers

Thank you, my friend!
And good luck.

©Snaps & Blabs, 2009. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Green tinge, Homemade Post tags:

Life without stuff

Snapping Blabber — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 14:55:38 +0000

I wanna get off. This train is not taking me anywhere nice. Feels like its running in circles and we are seeing the same scenery over and over and over and over…OH! And over.

Our feet are on the way out, dangling over the edge of the door, being cooled down by the gentle breeze of the freedom beyond the train. But I want more. We want more. We are dreaming of building our own house by ourselves. Not your average mainstream house…our own. Earth and human friendly, non toxic, random and imperfect, but touched with love and attention only the way one can do themselves. Wild and free, beautiful and friendly…a place where all the things inside are meaningful and treasured, no cheap disposable plastic and stuff that exists only because someone somewhere wants to pay their mortgage and own a yacht.

Oh, the dreams.

But back to the topic – stuff.

Recently I stumbled upon a little fun presentation called “The Story of Stuff”. A wonderful succinct way of describing why the consumerism culture is not as good as we have been led to believe.

Watch it:
Its own website
OR
Youtube

Can you see through the emptiness of the things that surround you? Or do they really bring you the happiness and joy that was promised when they were sold to you? I am curious to hear your views, not just fishing for some comments

©Snaps & Blabs, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Green tinge, Health, Thoughts Post tags:

About cloth nappies

Snapping Blabber — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:59:21 +0000

I have been getting a few questions about this, so here is the scoop.

Cloth nappies are not your grandma’s nappies anymore. The choices are wide and varied – small, big, easy, organic, in pieces and not, with folding and not, quick drying and not so, with cover or without… something for everyone.

In short though, a nappy needs two things: absorbency and waterproofing and here are the main types according to the way those two points are taken care of:

Flat or prefolds – (ok, these are kind of like your grandma’s nappies, but not quite. I dont think many people use muslin squares anymore and if they do…stop!)
These are just rectangular pieces of cloth. Prefolds are sewn in three sections and the middle has more layers – 4x6x4 means that it is 4 layers, then 6 in the middle, and 4 layers again.
Those are great because they dry quickly and are the cheapest option, but they do need some folding.
They are the absorption, so you need a cover. (pics bellow)

Fitted – these are like padded absorbent pants with snaps or velcro (fitted to the body, so no need for folding). The variety here is mind boggling. Very convenient for use, but usually take longer to dry and are considerably more expensive to buy. One of those can be up to US$35, while a dozen organic prefolds are usually less than that.
Again, they need a cover too. (pics bellow)

All in Ones – these are the cloth equivalent to a disposable nappy, without the tossing. No folding, no cover, its just one piece of nappy that has the waterproof top layer already sewn in the fitted absorbent nappy. They take the longest to dry and are usually quite expensive.

Pockets – here we are talking about the waterproof pants, but with a pocket to put in the absorbent part. The idea is that you just change the pad unless the pants are soiled with poop. I would think they are the quick drying alternative of the all in one, as the inner section can be any piece of absorbent fabric, which could be folded. Lots of people use prefolds in pocket nappies.

Now, what do I use, you ask in eager excitement (you do!).

With my first I used plain ole towel squares. Huge, bulky and horrible absorbency. Then I found out that the times have changed and read all about whats going on. I liked the idea of prefolds, as the fitteds I tried didnt impress me, maybe because they were some store bought brand.

So I moved on to unbleached prefolds and loved them.

The fold I use, makes this neat little pocket/safety catch for poo escapes

You can also see they are starting to fall apart a bit…I do love them, no joke.

Recently I stumbled on a stack of second hand bamboo fitteds and, my prefolds took a back stage. The bamboo is more absorbent and at home I dont use a cover at all. While the prefold would seep, the new ones get just damp, unless a huge pee or double whammy hits.

Plus, they are just plush and squishy and fit my plush squishy man

This is bamboo velour.

For covers I use Bummis Super Whisper Wraps and wool. Love wool! It took me awhile to get past the feeling of heat and scratchy surface, but once I did and bought a few I was sold. They breathe and are stretchy and just plain fantastic. The not so great part is that they need more attetion when washing – done by hand and need regular lanolising to keep them water resistent.

An excellent place for further research and to delve into the vast world of cloth diapering is Diaper Pin , a US site offering great reviews of a pile of nappies, covers and accessories, as well as of the shops that sell them. Heaps of information about what how and why to do anything on this issue. In Australia there is Nappycino , OzClothNappies and a few more. All good places to start.

Thats all folks. I love, enjoy, support and recommend cloth for all little bums. Keep the plastic for the…tupperware.

Reusable shopping bags

Snapping Blabber — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 03:03:51 +0000

Spinning from the previous post, here is what I found in my search for a bag.

First a few words on plastic bags – a complete and utterly unnecessery waste that makes a mess of one’s house and worst (and if you care), of our environment.
Coming home with just a few bags and not having to work through a pile of crumbly, noisy pile of bags is like a breath of fresh air. Eliminating the plastic in your grocery shopping is easy and now it can be trendy too.

So, what are your choices?
The easiest and cheapest is to use the store branded ones. I am sure most of us have access to those.

If I can avoid being a walking free billboard for a big corporation (yeah, people think they are so cool displaying their high market brands around…in reality they have paid to be promoting the label…muahahaha…), I do my best not to do it. So we pay a few more bucks to get ad free bags.

Here are the few ones I have found:

Envirotrend bags (Aus)

from AU$ 4.25 / zip bags, gift bags, big bags / great graphic designs

Bang Bags (Aus) also sells Envirosax

AU$10.95 / jute, not plastic / same size as supermarket bags / biodegradable

Envirosax (US) and (Aus)

from US$8.50 (AU$8.14) / foldable / soft structure / lightweight / best design range

If you know of any other sites that sell bags, let me know. I can adjust this list as needed.