The concrete season starts today. We started on a couple of work orders this afternoon.

That means I will be busy at work. Which means there won't be enough spare time to suit me so I can sew.

Oh well. A steady income is nice, too.

I finished plain PUL diaper covers tonight for a customer. No outer fabric. Just PUL fabric, with coordinating elastics and snaps. I'll wash and mail them tomorrow.

I have several things on my list to make this week. I'd like to cut several fitted diapers and sew them. I'd like to cut and sew several cloth pads for myself, using the new pattern that I came up with. I need to replace several of the original ones I made because they're bunching up inside. The good thing about the new pattern is that all the layers of the pad are the same size. They're all sewn together. There'll be less chance of inner layers bunching up. Unless they are torn up.

These will have to be spread out throughout the week and into the weekend. We are probably going to be outside on Saturday, working in the yard. Yet another thing that is pushing sewing aside.

Then on Sunday, we are hoping to get together with a good friend of ours for dinner. She is having a hard time health wise. It'd be good to visit with her.

I'll gladly set aside my sewing for this.

I finished these yesterday.




I also made two more pads for myself. An upgrade. Sleeker design, so to speak. :)

We headed to Home Depot this morning and picked up several yard things. Yesterday, we ordered the greenhouse mini tower and several seeds packets from a small, family owned company. Today, we got several more packets, seed trays, a raspberry and a blueberry bushes.

Hubby had already planted the bushes in the yard. The raspberry by the back fence, the blueberry next to house, by the south facing wall.

After he was done digging, my son palyed with the sod that was torn out. For a while, there was soil shower wherever my son was. :D

We just had lunch. It's quiet time. I think I'll sew a couple more diapers. I cut a few last night and finished one. I can sew the rest now.

I got the diaper covers done, with extra 3 large size covers. They are all PUL covers with a printed fabric covering the PUL. It's for a purely cosmetic reason. It's much nicer to look at cute prints on the fabric than looking at blank colored PULs. :D




Small covers


Medium covers


Large covers

The small and medium are for a customer. I'll list the large covers later.

I have cut the five covers. I am still waiting for the fabric to arrive.

I have started sewing on all five. I have completed two. I have sewn the labels and attached the waterproof fabric to the outer layer fabrics. I have three to finish tomorrow morning and I will be done with those.

After that, I am planning on cutting more fitted diapers to sell.

I am out on several colors of fold over elastics and snaps. I'll replenish my stock on Friday. I bought 10 yaerds of T-shirt knit fabric for..... $5.50! How sweet is that?? When that comes, I will have 30 yards of liners, inserts and inner layers fabrics. That should be good and will last me for a couple of months. :D

Maybe now that the conference is over, I can go back to my regular schedule. No need to drive to Pontiac tomorrow! Hooray!

Not much sewing was done the past two days. I did sew a cushion cover for myself tonight. It's a quick 5 minutes project. It doesn't count as something major.

I need to finish sewing 5 diaper covers by Thursday. This is for a custom order. I am also waiting for a fabric from a customer to arrive in the mail. She wants me to make a custom diaper covers with this fabric to match her daughter's dress. It's for her birthday party mid of next month.

We have a large pot of Meloukhia and rice for lunch and dinner today. It's soupy, so it's perfect for the cold weather. It's 90% veggies with a tiny bit of shredded chicken, so it's healthy. It's filling and satisfying to our taste buds.

I finally got my order of 10 yards of stretch terry cotton fabric today. It's a small roll of fabric.

A roll. Heh.

And you know what? I had forgotten about this fabric because it took them a while to ship it. I was out of inner layer fabric so I ordered another 10 yards of organic bamboo velour from one of the coops I joined.

So now I'll have 20 yards, 2 rolls of white fabric for inner layer. That should last me a while. Cool!

I've went out to exercise with the man and the kids this evening. So I won't need to hit the gym. I'll be sewing more diapers and maybe diaper wipes. The eleven diapers and covers I listed are down to five.

I've met the same number of diapers sold as last week. 15 this week.

It hasn't gotten old, yet. :)

Fitted diapers:



Both size small.

PUL diaper covers




Two newborn covers

One small cover.

I've sold 9 so far this week. We'll see if we can break last week's record.

Here are the newborn fitted diapers that I finished today.













I just got done putting them up for sale.

I've sewn the diaper covers and five out of ten fitted diapers that I cut last night.

I am a bit sleepy. It's sunny outside though, so maybe we'll hang out outside.

I've cut 10 newborn size reversible fitted diapers and three waterproof diaper covers.

That is the slow part of the whole thing. Cutting. Arranging the fabric just so, pin the pattern over the fabric, and cut. And cut. Repeat the process.

Oh well.

Anyhow, out of ten diapers, four are girl prints, four boy prints and two neutral. As for the diaper covers, two are gender neutral and one very girly cover. Unless you want your son to wear a bright red cover with big pink, red and white hearts all over it. :D There's nothing wrong with that, to me.

We have a beautiful spring-like day today. It's 63F outside now. The kids and I are taking advantage of the weather.

Since I like the smell of fresh and clean on my laundry and the fact I'd save some on electricity, the clothesline went up this morning. The blankets load is already dry and put away. Now I have a load of cloth diapers on the line.


Doesn't it look nice, and bright? Wonderful.

I am sitting on the patio bench on the back deck at the moment. The kids are riding their bike/trike and painting on the driveway. They already had their ice cream treats.



As I am sitting here and typing this entry, the smell of burning coals is pretty strong in the air. I notice my neighbor to the left and the back of the house are having their grills on.That's what I am planning on doing in about half an hour or so.

We're having grilled kabobs with corn pudding and salad for dinner. The kids will have chicken hot dogs and the pudding. The pudding is already in the oven and smelling good.

I was stumped on what to make for dinner tonight. I made Malaysian fried noodles for the weekend. So, I don't want to have more pasta for tonight.

We had a packet of turkey smoked sausage in the fridge. Something easy and warm for this nippy weather.

Lentil soup it is. With chopped turkey sausage and chopped carrots.

Served with pita bread. With ice creams for afters. Well, for some people, at least.

Moving on.

Yesterday, I listed six fitted diapers. Tonight, sold five out of six. Which makes this week's sales total is six!

I finally had a sale to someone in Michigan. In Garden City, as a matter of fact. :D All these time, my diapers have gone to all other states or countries, but never Michigan.

Earlier tonight, a mama from the cloth diaper forum saw the diaper covers I made for another mama over there. She wanted one with a possibility of more for her new baby. She's expecing and will find out the baby's gender within the next week or so. She'll let me know after that.

This is what she ordered:

Not much was happening this weekend. That is a great thing. :D

I finished sewing the diapers that were already sold, and I have listed six more for sale. I am not going to bother putting them on my website for now. That is not where I get my sales from.

I have these listed for sale:



I am thinking that I am going to cut a few PUL diaper covers to sew later. Maybe I'll cut several pockets and several fitted, too, while I am at it.

Where to start?

1) Moving to new bedroom. Finally. We were busy hauling and arranging stuff over to the new bedroom and finishing it last night. I went and got another 50ft coil of tv cable to run it along the wall to the old room. So I while I was busy hammering in those cord clips, I figured I might as well hang up the photo frames and other wall decorations.

So I got my strength exercises from hauling furnitures and hammering. Hah!

2) Diapers. Oh, my. Business has been going great! I received several custom orders this week. I made several sets of fitted diapers and a set of PUL diaper covers since the last time I updated about sales.

Diaper covers:



A few sets of these:



I still have to make a few more fitted diapers for sale. I'd like to get some in stock but I am not complaining. It's going great! I have made enough last month to pay off the sewing machine. Both hubby and I are happy about that!

3) Gardening. We'll be starting gathering stuff to put in the garden this weekend.

So far for this week, I have sold



and 2 of this

for a custom order.

I am taking a break from making 3 diapers covers for a customer.

8 so far this week.

Wow.

I need to take pictures of the fabrics that I have. A new customer wants to order custom diaper covers and she'd like to pick her own fabric. I have to have the album updated by tonight.

So I will have several diaper covers and a couple of fitted diapers sold tonight. How nice!

Spring is coming. The flowers bulbs my daughter and I planted last fall are sprouting. It looks like most of the sprouted. We will have a colorful front porch!

My free time is taken up by sewing and trying to go exercising. Now that it is warmer outside, I can take 15 to 20 minutes in the afternoon and go for a walk with the kids. I get some exercise then. However, I do miss the gym. Gym time gives me a feeling that I actually do some hard exercise.

So, I think I am going to rearrange my free time. It is harder now that the diaper sale is going on steadily.

What I am going to have to do is alternate the nights. One night sewing, the other gym. Besides, it'll give my muscles a night's break if I do it this way.

That's do-able. Unless we all get sick again. Heaven forbid!

I sew two small size pocket and one fitted diapers tonight. I've listed them for sale. I have five diapers up for sale at the moment. I will cut a couple more soon and will sew them later.





Made one more of this:


Now, it's bedtime.

The kids and I got up at 6:30AM today. I hit the floor running because my daughter was having several friends over for her sixth birthday.

First thing I did was baking her cake. I used a 12x12 pan but when the cake cooled and I transfered it to a cake board, one side of the cake split. I ended up just cutting the cakes into rectangles and formed a number six. I made chocolate whipped cream frosting with only a little bit of sugar. It wasn't sweet. It was awesome! It turned out light, too.


After the sealing layer of frosting.


After final layer of frosting.


She wanted a simple cake this year. Relief!

It didn't occur to me then but this cake is similar to my 6th birthday cake that my mother made for me. Same number (obviously) only the frostings were cream and yellow. No writing on mine. My mother's cake and frosting tasted 100 times better than mine, too.

Anyways.

Last night, I sew this fitted diaper:

I have two of these made.

The kids and I woke up at 6am. It's okay because I am currently enjoying the sunrise, shining right into my bedroom. What a beautiful sight.

We'll have a busy weekend.
1) Clean the house for tomorrow's gathering.
2) Make a birthday cake. Thank God her request is simple this year. She just wants hearts on her cake. It'll be a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting (whipped cream frosting, not too sweet) with hearts. So simple!
3) Dinner for tonight and possibly tomorrow night is oven roast beef with potatoes and veggies. Maybe I'll make lentil soup, too.
4) Sew more diapers and list them for sale.
5) Maybe attempt to make another dress for my daughter and a skirty soaker to sell.

I will have to get number 1, 2 and 3 done for sure. As for the other two, we'll see.

I had seven diapers to sell this week and tonight, I sold all of them!





Gotta make more!

I woke up to good news. Both sets of pocket diapers were sold last night. Hooray!

It's Friday. The kids are already busy playing.

It's another sunny day. It reminds me that I need to do something about starting the seeds. I am going to get one of those small greenhouse shelves and will it on the deck outside of our bedroom.

I was playing with my patterns for the newborn and Rita Rump's diapers (a very kind lady who let people use her pattern to make diapers to sell).
I made these yesterday:



If you flip the diapers, you'll get these:




These have sewn in soakers so they are just like prefolds; only cut and fitted for easier use. I am not putting on snaps or hook and loop tape on these. They're snappy-able or you can use pin to secure.

I think these are my favorite to sew so far. I have 2 more cuts of these to sew but not tonight. Tonight, I rest.

Homemade food
I made shredded beef Punjabi rice pilaf tonight. I used a premix spice package so I cheated a bit. Eh... it tastes good.

I now have two sets of pocket diapers to sell; a pair of newborn size and a pair of small size. I hope these will go fast.

Newborn diapers


Small diapers


I like the new french terry fabric thatI received today. I used it for the newborn dipes inner fabric. It looks and feels great. Neat and soft. It has better price than bamboo velour, too.

I am slowly building up cut outs to sew. I have four diaper cut outs to sew and one bedsheet for my son.


These are newborn size pockets. I have two small size pockets cut and ready.

I received more packages today. Both of them are fabrics; PUL, knit, french terry and flannel. They are from a couple of coops. So, cheap but good fabrics.

My craft closet is filling up nicely. :D

I am working in the upstairs room this morning. I am working next to this:



It's so bright and sunny. The birds are chirping. Spring is coming.

Which means, we have to get busy starting the veggie seeds soon.