Previously Posted Family Photos

Samuel just took peek-a-boo to the next level.
He's discovered hide-and-seek.
Without any prompting I founding him patiently waiting in the broom closet
for me to find him. I'm glad I found him quick;
he never told me he was gonna start playing!

Unloading the new mower with Daddy.
He was freezing, but he still enjoyed the rain.

Hanging out in the office.

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Samweli got a play castle from Lolly and Pop.
Noe turned it into a water park on it's first day in our yard.

At Grandma and Papa's for Mother's Day

Samweli thinks that the skimmer tank is his personal kiddie pool.

Umm...is that your son? Because he sleeps JUST like you!

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Easter!!! I know that he looks like he's in a suit from the 70's, but his neck was just too thick to get the shirt buttoned to the top! Like father, like son. He had a super-cute little clip-on tie too, but it just didn't make it. LOL!

He went down for a nap before the egg hunt, so he's a little 

"under-clothed" in these pictures. :)

"Where are the rest of the eggs, Mom?"

He LOVED opening up the eggs to see what was inside
- too bad he didn't get to eat any of it. Bahaha.

(I'm not really a mean mom. Samweli had special eggs
just for him that had his snacks in them.)

Samweli's first sidewalk chalk art. And in case you didn't know, 

his rainbow is the one in the bottom of the photo. :)

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"Gimme the camera!"

"Playing in the middle of the night is so much FUN!"

Playing before bedtime

Going for a walk

I Want to "Do it All"

I just can't, or maybe I can, but then I probably wouldn't be anywhere close to sane. There are so many things I want to be doing!!! I'm sure every mother, wife, and woman feels this way, but I just wanted to put it out there - I feel this way too! I really want to be able to do it "all". Although most of us feel like this, I'm sure our "all" is very different from person to person. Part of my reason for putting this post out here is just so that I can make a list of all the things that I would like to start accomplishing. It may take the next decade to be able to do all of this on a continual basis, but I will:

- coupon well
      Maybe not ever "extreme" couponing, but I at least want to coupon better
      than I do now (not to mention get them all organized and share how I'm
      doing it on my blog).

- write tutorials
      I'd love to share some of the projects I'm doing with all you wonderful
      people, BUT I insist on doing it with pictures which means it's not happening
      anytime soon, because I just can't seem to find time to do my projects AND
      take pictures all along the way!

- be completely eco-friendly
      I feel like I'm definitely on my way with this one, but it's like every time I
      turn around there's some other way to "go green" that I hadn't even thought
      about. My list is already super-long of the things I want to start doing to take
      small steps to feeling like I can officially bear this title.

Well, there's more to add to this list, but considering that my husband just walked in the door and is already asking me to do stuff, I guess I better be grateful for my short opportunity to pop up a post while he was out and baby was down. <-----talk about a run-on sentence, huh?

Ya'll enjoy the rest of your week and feel free to share some of the things that would make you feel like your finally "doing it all" (maybe I'll find a few more things to add to mine, hehe).

Laughing Boy!

Here's the video I wanted to share in my last post!

My Baby Is a Monkey

Yesterday Samweli turned 8 months old. Now that doesn't make him a monkey, but (even though he's not walking) he also CLIMBED into his stroller and turned himself around yesterday. See the picture below? No "seatbelt" on because I didn't put him there! Why would I let him do this? I...ummm...had stepped into the other room for a moment. Ahem. I guess I'll be more careful from now on. :) I'm just amazed he didn't lose his footing and fall, although he did this morning when I was trying to video him doing it on his own again. Haha.

Yup, he climbed right up in there all by himself and then
turned himself around. You think he wanted to go for a
walk or what?

In the past few days Samweli has also reached some other exciting milestones. He clapped for the first time during praise and worship Sunday morning. :) He also crawled a few feet yesterday (which I think he's been capable of doing for a long time, he just doesn't seem to care to do it unless he's on a hard floor). He has also started sleeping in his own room through the night, and much to my dismay, won't sleep in with me anymore in the morning, even when I bring him into my own bed.

Since he's sleeping so much better on his own now, Noe and I decided to make some cookies after he went to bed the other night. Normally there is NO cooking happening when Samuel sleeps. Pots clanking, chip bags opening, and breaking ice out of their molds have always been sure-fire ways to wake up our sleeping baby. We quietly set to work mixing all the ingredients. That's right, we didn't even use a packaged mix - we did it from scratch. :) Unfortunately we accidentally used the tablespoon instead of the teaspoon for the baking soda and salt, so our cookies tasted kinda "saltine cracker-y". What I loved more was that Noe wanted to make mega-sized cookies so he put huge scoops of dough onto the cookie sheet. Our cookies came out looking like cow patties. Look:

Yum yum!

And to celebrate Samweli's 8 month old birthday, if you can call it that, I got a new serger! NO, the serger's not for me, it's for him, really! He will now be pooping on things that are much more finished around the edges. Haha. My gifted serger was giving me quite a few issues when I sewed the soakers for Samweli's diapers - not catching all the material and all - and this one seems to work like a beauty. I'm so excited! Below is my serger and my most recent diaper.

It's pink and cream colored! How cute!

Camo cotton outer - hidden PUL - suedecloth inner

In my next post, I'll show you how to cut your clothes drying time and save money with a super-easy, kid-friendly project! Of course, I have to finish doing it myself first so I can test out that theory. Hehe. I also have a funny video of Samweli, but had trouble uploading it, so maybe I can get it up in my next post.

Didn't get enough of my kid yet? I've uploaded a few new pictures in the Family Photos section of my blog (click on the tab under the blog title at the top of the page).

Following and Comments - Fixed

I'm so excited because I have 2 followers...that's right T-W-O! Haha. I'm laughing at myself right now, but it's kind of exciting. I'm closing in on Lady Gaga (you know she IS the most famous celebrity right now). Compared to her twitter account, I only have 9,999,998 to go before I catch up with her! We can do it, you can help! Woohoo!

In all seriousness though, I know that some of you "follow by email", which is cool, but it's just that I don't know that you're reading my blog, because there's no way to track who has signed up to get email updates of my posts with Blogger. What Blogger does do is tracks how many times my page has been pulled up. Now get ready, this is getting exciting - I've almost reached 500 page views. Honestly, this is actually exciting to me.

Did I mention that one of my two followers is a random blogger lady who was helping me troubleshoot my followers/commenting issues? :) I'm just pointing that out because I found out that some of you have tried to "follow" or "comment" on my blog and have had trouble doing it. I think the problems are fixed. *fingers crossed* If you try to do either/or and it doesn't work, please let me know via my facebook page. I think it's easier to do everything if you have a google account you can sign into, which is why I chose blogger in the first place (because I do - have a gmail account). But I'd love to know if you tried to leave a comment and couldn't.

To all of you who have (or at least have tried), thank you!

I just want you to know that as I finish typing this post, the 4 o'clock news is reporting how Lady Gaga's fans were told to stay home because of blah, blah, blah, something I didn't finish listening to. I get that she's popular, but seriously - do her concerts/cancellations really qualify as news?

I Can Sew...Really, I Can!

My sister asked me the other day, "Becky, have you always been this creative and we just didn't know it?" My answer - I guess so! I have spent the last week just sewing my little heart out - seriously! I've been staying up until 2am cutting and sewing and thinking about what I'm going to sew the next day - I just can't seem to help myself. The funny thing is, I think I'm actually pretty good at it. Who knew sewing could be so much fun? You seriously need to try it! Here are some of the more recent things I've sewn for the ladies going to Tanzania this month:

Wetbag for beach days

Jewelry Pouch

Jewelry pouch opened - this turned out AWESOME!

Bedside Organizer

Bedside organizer "in use" (a different pattern, obviously)

On another note - my baby sister, Laura, left for Tanzania this week, so I want to spend a little time reminiscing about how absolutely amazing she is. I can't express how proud I am of her. She's got such a quality about her. I can't describe it, but I think that means that it's just the glory of God shining through her life. Laura will be spending the next month serving the Lord on the mission field. She worked so hard to make this trip possible. She sent out letters (which seems to be the most popular way to raise money these days), but didn't stop there. She handcrafted cards and sold them at our local market (if she were to calculate her time she probably would have made maybe $.50 an hour working on them), she put flamingos in peoples' yards for almost a month, and worked all year to put some of her own money toward her trip. When did my little sister grow up? All of a sudden she's a mature young woman!!! And very beautiful too, may I add. She didn't even quit working until right before she left, and she's only going to be home for a weekend before she heads off to college (where's the selfishness in that, right?). God has blessed me with an awesome sister, and I am so looking forward to all the ways He is going to use her as His vessel in the future.

Samweli and Auntie Laura, the night before she left

And COMING SOON: You may have noticed the new tabs below my blog title. These tabs work, but for now they go to pages with nothing. Eventually, I'll be getting my project pictures and cute photos of Samweli posted under these headings so even if you miss a couple blogs you can catch up that way. Or you may just want to show off my cute baby to your friends and it will be an easy way to do it (I don't like facebook's new picture viewer, ick). OR - and this is a big OR - you MIGHT see something that I made that interested you and want to go look at it again so you can try to make it yourself! Like I said, eventually, that will get posted. Haha.

Here's a few new pictures of Samweli to keep you tied over until then:

Too Many Milestones

It's been a couple weeks since I've posted - I just can't seem to find the time as I try to take care of my crazy kid! This month has been a blur of firsts for Samweli - first tooth, first sickness, first time to pull himself up - along with starting to sit up, scoot, baby talk, take a pacifier (finally), and really get into the whole baby food thing. It wears me out just thinking about how much he's grown up this month. And as I see him getting stronger everyday, I feel like I'm counting down the seconds until he takes his first steps and stops being my tiny little baby that I brought home just a few months ago. When I actually think about it, I can't believe that in less than half a year, he'll be 1...1...1 <---(insert dramatic echo here) Can you believe it? I can't go there emotionally...let's move on.

Besides all of Samweli's firsts, we've had lots more going on. During the past month, Noe's cousin and her family from Minnesota came for a visit, we got a new/used car for me (yay for a bigger vehicle to change poopy diapers in), and we celebrated Noe's first Father's Day. Now, if we could just sleep through the night!

For Father's Day we took Noe to Buffalo Wild Wings for endless wings and then spent the afternoon at Bass Pro Shop where he - I mean we - enjoyed hours of shopping. He came home with lots of goodies for Buck, our dog, and on Sunday we surprised him with this bag for his training decoys:

I used a really simple online tutorial to make this. Samweli really enjoyed playing
with the strap while I sewed it up. I actually impressed myself by adding
lining AND pockets. 

Here's a little bit of diaper fluff:

From left: Guitar print diaper I received for a swap;
Fitted diaper made from Noe's old work vests;
Blue flame diaper made for a swap; and
ruffled and serged diaper that is super-cute...
and maybe a little girly - just don't tell my son

Where Do You Stand?

This week/weekend has kept me busy - and away from my blog. Yes, I've sewn a little, (and you'll get to see the fluff later) but first I want to write a little about what God's been doing in my mind and heart lately.


I don't always get to go to small group during the week (it's no fun to hear my kid screaming the whole ride home because I've kept him up too late), but this week we made it. :) Our discussion was on a prevalent mindset that, until those divine moments, I didn't realize was ruling my perception of my relationship with God. Do you think that God is ever pleased with you? displeased? happy? mad? Until Wednesday night, I sure did.


In the Old Testament, God worked with people groups - his chosen ones and the heathen nations. He showed His range of emotion when He would wipe out whole nations because of their ungodliness. So yes, God can get angry - and definitely displeased. But with His new promise and covenant, Jesus Christ, we get to experience God in a different way - as individuals. Even more than that, we get to experience Him through His Son, who is perfect. What does this mean? He sees us through Christ. If you look through a tinted glass, everything is tinted - when God looks through Christ's perfection to us, that's what He sees - perfection.


Because of this we are always loved, always received and ever-pleasing to God, our Father. Can we do things that cause Him to have a heavy heart? Yes, but that doesn't change the pleasure He finds with you, because you are His creation saved through His grace.


In my whirlwind of a weekend, I found myself wondering how some of my old friends were faring in their relationships with God. If asked to answer the question, they would probably consider how often they are going to church, reading their Bibles, and praying a thoughtful prayer. The heart of our Heavenly Father is much simpler. Forget about the things that you think you need to do or not do in order to please God; just say, "God, change me." Through these simple words you recognize that God is the one who does the changing - you're just the end result of His work. 


You, in your sinful nature, with all your imperfections, are pleasing to God, who sees you through the perfect One, His Son, Jesus Christ - AT ALL TIMES AND IN ALL SEASONS OF YOUR LIFE.


*I know that someone reading this may see my theology as flawed (and you're free to comment with your own thoughts about this), but since this is my blog, I get to share my revelation as I understand it now. 
1 Corinthians 13:12 - Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.


Since I'm on the topic of God, I would like to take a few lines to thank Him for my amazing little sister who graduated from high school this weekend:  God, you have transformed her into such a spiritual influence among her peers and made her a role model for others to follow - if you can work such miracles with her, there's hope for us all. ;) I love you, sis! Congratulations!


And now for the fluff...let's recap a partial list of the projects that I listed the other day:
Zorb 2 soakers - done
Pillow case - done
Serged cd with ruffled legs (but not with practice materials) - done and ghetto!
QSFW with zorb 2 - holding off for more materials
QSFW converted to fitted  - done and I'm in love!

The pillowcase and Zorb 2 soakers (same day=shared picture)

My serged diaper looks pretty good from here!

And in this close up you can see how terrible it is...
I just thought if I kept going over and over and over it,
it would get better...but it didn't.

Below are pictures of the QSFW flat diaper I made into a fitted by adding elastic:

And these pictures are just because my son is so cool:

He's getting an early start on music recording. 

"Sorry Mom, I didn't mean to get up so early."
He laid there for about 15 minutes after we got up.

Project #1 - Cloth Wipes

A couple nights ago I made a list of all the sewing projects I want to finish. Last night and today I got to work on my #1 project - making cloth wipes. It makes no sense to me why I should use cloth diapers, but then have to keep another trash can in Samweli's room to throw disposable wipes into. 

I finally decided to cut up his receiving blankets to upcycle instead of buying new flannel. I also upcycled a pair of old corduroy pants that I had sitting around that I will probably never fit into again. (Selling them at a garage sale, I might get $2. Buying a 1/2 yard of corduroy = $5 + tax. I think I made the right choice.) The before pictures are below:

I ended up using only the receiving blankets with white backgrounds.
I didn't need all of them, so I'll save the others for another project.

I was so excited about how these turned out. I've heard some great things about corduroy getting poop off babies' bums so I'm looking forward to testing it out for myself. This project also meant that I got to use my new serger! Well, it's new to me at least. It makes me want to serge everything! You can't possibly imagine how much fun it is until you do it...I'm not kidding. :) Pictured below are my super-cute cloth wipes:

You can see that the wipes fit into a normal dispenser and, when folded correctly, even pop up as you pull them out!

Here's a list of my projects still to come:

• Zorb 2 soakers (absorbent inserts for my cloth diapers)
• Pillow case (for my sister's friend)
• CD for the diaper swap
• Serged cd with ruffled legs (with practice materials)
• QSFW flat made with Zorb 2 (to try out as an overnight diaper)
• Diaper cover (to go over his overnight diaper)
• Wetbag (can be used to transport anything wet - diapers, swimsuits, etc.)

Just for the record, I am hoping that this blog doesn't turn out to be ONLY about my sewing projects, but for now, that's just what's keeping me busy! I hope you have an amazing Memorial Day. While you're enjoying your holiday, spend some time reflecting on the lives that have been sacrificed so that we could live the way we do today - those of our veterans and the greatest sacrifice of our Lord, Jesus Christ!

About my Blog

Today I want to share a little bit more about what you might find on my blog. I titled my blog Fluff and Other Stuff because I have recently fallen in love with sewing - actually I've fallen in love with sewing cloth diapers. And for those of you who aren't around me much and don't know - I've become quite addicted to it. So that is where the "fluff" comes in. Besides that I just wanted my blog to have a cutesy title that rhymed. And there you have - Fluff and Other Stuff. (The "stuff" part will cover pretty much anything else I could possibly think of blogging about so I went with it.)

Here's a little bit more about how I got started in sewing and CDing (that's cloth-diapering for those of you who don't know my special lingo...haha). I got a great deal on gDiapers - a hybrid diapering system (you can use cloth or disposable, but earth-friendly inserts) - but they unfortunately didn't fit very good on Samweli. So I decided to try and sew a cloth diaper - because CDs are so stinking expensive! How hard could it really be to put a few stitches into a piece of fabric, right? Well, that brought me to now. With the help of my mom and a friend, I think I've become a pretty good beginner seamstress. Now, I want to sew anything green (earth friendly, that is) - unpaper towels (it's the modern name for cloth towels), cloth napkins, cloth diapers, cloth wipes, cloth clothes (hehe), cloth anything! You will probably see lots of pictures of my ventures in sewing, as I am very proud that I can even sew a stitch.

For now, here are the pictures of Samweli "helping" me do the laundry...which, yes, I did eventually get around to doing the other day :)

Safety Note: If you decide to let your 6 month old play in a
laundry basket, be sure he's not on anything elevated and
that he's surrounded by soft things. That way when he falls
over and bonks his head, it will be on something soft. :)

My First Post

As my house gets messier, I keep looking for ways to procrastinate having to do the chores...hence, the beginning of my blog. I know you're probably thinking, "the last thing I need is another blog about someone's random thoughts to read," but then again, here you are - reading. You're probably just putting off your housework too. I have no clue what this blog will grow into, if anything. As a matter of fact, I'm not even planning on sharing it with anyone at this point, but I need somewhere to write down all the ideas that keep running through my head, keeping me up at night, so I'm starting here. Hopefully, I'll eventually get an "about me" tab up (although I have no idea how to do that) and then you can read a short blurb about my positively blessed life. And now my baby woke up so I'm going to post this for now and go on with the rest of my day. Hope you enjoy what's to come (if anything ever does, that is).