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Burp Cloth Tutorial

I love these. I wish I'd had them for my first two babies. I just used folded-over flannelette nappies with them and they just didn't cut it with my spewy babies! I'm in the process of making a pile for our new bubba.

The main idea came from my husband's cousin's wife (got all that?), one of several wonderfully crafty girls in his family, who posted some pictures of some she'd made on facebook. She used two hand towels sewn together with a section of pretty fabric at the top. I wanted something less bulky but still absorbent so I adapted them a little.

You will need (for a set of 2):

* 2 hand towels. I picked mine up from Kmart for $1 each. You can also use terry towelling or chenille cut to size, but I like the range of colours hand towels come in and I'm up for anything that makes life easier - no measuring and cutting to size!  

*Fabric. I bought 60cm of 112cm wide fabric, which was exactly enough for 2 burp cloths and the decorative strips. 


1. Lay your hand towels side by side on the fabric, put a few pins in them to hold them in place then cut around them.

2. Cut the strip of leftover fabric into four equal strips lengthways.


3. Take one strip, turn the long edges under about 1/4 inch and press. Do the same with the other three strips.

4. Take a hand towel and position two of the strips where you want them. Pin into place, and then do the same with the other hand towel.

5. Top stitch down each side of each strip, and do the same to the other towel.

6. Now lay your hand towel back on your fabric, right sides together and pin around the edges 

7. Stitch all the way around the edge, leaving an opening at one end so you can turn your burp cloth right side out later. In the picture above, I've marked where my opening is going to be with pins (at the bottom end) so I wouldn't forget to leave it open!


The seams will lay flatter and be easier to top stitch later if you stitch alongside the binding, like this...

Instead of ON the binding like this...

7. Trim away the excess fabric and clip the corners (want to know what clipping corners means and why to do it? See Make it and Love It and click here)

,8. Turn your burp cloth right side out and top stitch all the way around the edges.

 

And voila, a very handy set of burp cloths that can be used as change mats, to put under baby on the floor or whatever else you need them for.

 You can also use a waterproof material like PUL, polyurethane or even a recycled shower curtain instead of the fabric, or sandwich it between the fabric and the towel. Just cut the waterproof fabric to size, then at Step 6 lay it down first, then lay the fabric and towel with their right sides together on top and continue. You could also try appliqueing cute shapes or letters to the towel instead of the plain strips.

Maidservice? That would be.... me.

I am incredibly forgetful, scatterbrained and disorganized at the best of times. Like the time I locked myself out of the house. Twice. In the same hour. Only the second time, I didn't have an agile five year-old to squeeze through the bathroom window.

Unfortunately, this also means I spend a lot of time trying not to be scatter brained and forgetful. I spend a lot of time "planning", writing lists and notes to try and organize myself (and my brain). Yep, basically I spend a lot of time wasting time and complaining that I never have enough time. Sigh. And I can't help writing lists, I love writing lists because they always make me feel like I'm accomplishing something, even when I'm not.

I'm also pregnant (baby-brain combined with the scatterbrain not much help at all), have two extremely active children and a husband who likes to have a finger in every pie but tends to have too many pies and not enough fingers, and I'm currently working 30 hours a week. I have two days off, which doesn't necessarily mean I have two days off work, it just means I'm working somewhere else - usually cleaning or running errands at/from home. And I've been finding that everything (particularly the house) has been overwhelming my already-emotionally-fragile, hormone-riddled body.

So I came up with a "plan". Haha. To try and organize the biggest problem, the never-ending housework. Actually, I came up with a complicated and impractical (for me, anyway) Plan A, scrapped that and came up with a Plan B, and may have to find a Plan C.

Yeah (somewhat sheepish). I wrote another list. Several of them.

Here's my confusing and complicated Plan A.

The first thing I did was write down all the chores that needed to be done regularly and sort them into categories according to how often they needed to be done: 

                                                                                                                                                                

Daily Chores                                                 Twice A Week
Dishes                                                            Wipe down kitchen cupboards
Disinfect dish cloths/sponges                         Clean bathroom         
Sweep floors                                                   Laundry
Clean toilet                                                      Dusting
Disinfect door handles                                    Vacuuming
Make beds                                                      Mop floors
General tidy up of all rooms                            Wipe down fridge

Weekly                                                            Monthly
Clean and tidy laundry room                           Vacuum blinds and flyscreens
Clean piano                                                     Clean out pantry
Sort through all papers                                    Clean out entertainment unit
Wipe down all window sills                              Clear out junk accumulating areas
Clean out fridge                                               
Vacuum couches
Clean coffee table

Spring Cleaning                                                As Needed/Each Use
Wash windows                                                   Clean stove and oven
Scrub carpets                                                    Clean appliances (toaster, etc)
Wash walls                                                         Clean sink and benches
Clean out all cupboards
Clean under fridge and stove
Clean out linen cupboard
Clean out craft boxes/files
Clean out under beds and other storage areas.

                                                                                                                                                    

Then I wrote down the days of the week, Monday to Saturday and allocated each chore to a day. The I thought I would print out copies and laminate them and put one copy on the fridge so i can mark off when the chores are done with a whiteboard marker and keep another copy in my house file. 

But when I printed them the next day, I decided it was a bit pedantic, control-freakish and too confusing for me. Mistake. See how good I am at wasting time and doing things the hard way? I'm a pro.  And why would I want to print out and laminate extra copies? That's just creating more work! I then realized what a waste of time it was doing all that because I never have a problem with remembering the chores, I have a problem with actually DOING them. Don't we all (please tell me you do too)!!

So I scrapped "Plan A" and came up with "Plan B". Instead of allocating all the different chores to a day each week, I allocated a whole room to each day:

MONDAY - Laundry Room

TUESDAY - Bathroom

WEDNESDAY - Kitchen

THURSDAY -Kid's Room

FRIDAY - Lounge Room

SATURDAY -  Bedroom

Much simpler (because I need simple). And it only took me a minute to sort out that list. And it's much easier for me to remember whether I did or didn't do a particular room that day than it is to remember a whole list of chores!

Hubby takes care of his office (hopefully) and I can do other big chores as I get time, like cleaning out the linen cupboard or washing the walls.... but lets face it, they're not that high on my priority list and I probably won't get around to those ones for a long time...

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Cumoram playing footy.

Kembry

 

 Cumoram (left) and his cousin, trying on Kembry's glasses.

 Looking for something to feed the birdies...

 "I am strongest man!".... "Me too!".... "And me!"

 Through the window...

 Ready, set, jump!

 Here, you have it.

 Class trip to the museum and the art gallery... here are the future Picasso's creating their masterpieces.

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Father's Day 2010

I am a very lucky girl. I was blessed with a wonderful dad, and my husband is both a great husband and a fantastic father. And by fantastic, I mean I have never had to get up with any of our children during the night. Ever. He's forever playing games with them, reading to them, helping them with their talking (our son has a stutter and has speech therapy exercises to do every day), taking them to footy or basketball or even just to the park for a bit to give me some time out. Like I said, I am blessed.

My beautiful little family

My hubby doesn't like presents. He doesn't like the fact that people feel compelled to buy presents because it's Christmas or Father's Day, or whatever. He would rather people were just nice all year long. And that's a very good point (I would like to have my cake and eat it too. I love presents, and love having an excuse to give presents).

So instead of buying him presents, the last couple of years I've been trying to find cute, fun, meaningful and inexpensive (because I know he'd rather I didn't spend a lot of money) ways to show our appreciation for him. Besides, Hubby is a professional photographer, and all the stuff he'd like for presents would be impossible for me to get without his help! I wouldn't have a clue how to pick out equipment for him, and the thought of trying just scares me to death. Plus, I'm sure he'd have a clue when he noticed a fat chunk missing from our bank account!

Last year, we did a "Heart Attack". It was a favourite service project in my church's youth group when I was growing up. Basically you make a whole bunch of hearts from paper, write on each one something nice about the person you are giving the "Attack" to, then secretly stick them to their front door. We used to also leave a plate of cookies.

On Father's Day last year, I'd planned to get up early and set up our surprise. But my hubby had other ideas, and he got up extra early and drove to his dad's house to surprise him by cooking him pancakes for breakfast. Isn't that sweet? Well, I did it for him while he was gone. You'll have to forgive the crappy pictures, the only ones I got were on my phone! 

I did circles, because it was easier (lazy of me!) and after consulting with the kids, I wrote on each circle something that we love about daddy. Then I plastered them across the wall. He loved it so much he wouldn't let me take it down! It was around March this year that I finally took them down (while he was out) because the kids kept ripping and pulling them off.

 This year, I came across this cute little idea, Rainbow of Love on Love, Actually I LOVE this blog! (I couldn't find the actual post, but once I do I will come back and put the link up for that) I thought it was insanely cute, and easy to do. Unfortunately, the lollies and chocolates didn't last long enough for a photo, so there's an empty bowl in the picture (and of course, hers was better!) but you get the idea!

The message says, "To Our Dearest Daddy, thankyou for being the pot of gold at the end of our rainbow". Then there's a rainbow (but actually it turned out to be only a quarter of a rainbow) of hearts and at the bottom of the rainbow a "pot" that was filled with lollies and then on top gold-wrapped chocolates (like Ferrero Rochers, Rolo's, chocolate coins or any other candy with a gold wrapper) to make our Pot of Gold.

My helpful little boy got up early with me and together we set up daddy's little surprise. He could hardly contain his excitement when we went to wake Brook up for church, and he blurted out "Wait til you see your surprise dad!". And yes, I think it went down well :)

A Place For Me

Hi! My name is Mesha, and this is my very first blog post! 

I'm both excited and nervous about this.

Having been an avid blog stalker for...well, long enough, I've seen so many wonderfully inspiring ideas and creative blogs. Blogs about family life, motherhood, marriage, love and children. Blogs about crafting, sewing and DIY, blogs about food (because I am a definite lover of food), and about so many other things that I love.

Finally, I thought about doing my own blog. The idea was there in the back of my mind for a while, I was just too scared to push it to the front and do something about it! Yes, I thought about doing a blog and chickened out. Self doubt is one of my specialties. And I'm such a procrastinator.  Was I really creative and motivated enough to do a blog? Did I have enough ideas? Because at first, it was going to be a blog about crafting and DIY. But then I decided it was just going to be a blog about all the things I love. And that's when I bit the bullet and signed up. 

So this is it. I have a place where I can share my ideas and my goals, tell people about my projects and write about the things that inspire me and the people that I love. 

And well, if I'm the only one who reads this, so be it. I'm sure I will get a lot out of it, if no one else does!