Monthly Archives: Mar 2012

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Arm’s Reach Winner

arms reach winner

Arm’s Reach has selected & notified the winner of the Curved Mini Co-Sleeper! Out of 1570 entries, the winning entry was #658, which is Kimberly B.

Congratulations, I hope you love it!

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Friday Giveaway Linky Giveaways Linky

Cloth Diaper Giveaways – Roundup for 3/30/12 (Plus Linky for All Giveaways)

Cloth Diaper Giveaway Roundup

Friday already, and that means another cloth diaper giveaway roundup! Each week, I find and list giveaways for cloth diapers, accessories & baby wearing items.

If you’d like me to list your cloth diaper, accessory, baby wearing (etc.) giveaway next week, send a link and description to maria at change-diapers.com, or Fill out my contact form for readers.

Even if you don’t have a current giveaway right now, send me your blog link. When GFC was removed from non blogger blogs, I lost a lot of the blogs I followed to find & list giveaways. I tried to add them all to my Google reader, but many aren’t appearing. While you’re at it, check your feed & make sure it’s working, I’ve run into some Feedburner feed errors on some people’s blogs lately, and I can’t subscribe if your feed isn’t working!

bumgenius

*My Bumgenius 4.0 giveaway ends 4/3 and is open to the U.S. and Canada RC

The Cloth Diaper Whisperer

*Prizes from Fuzzibunz (no set end date, ends at 25k fans) Entry is through Facebook app, must “like” them on Facebook to enter

*Booty Buns Diaper from Baby Giveaways Galore (ends 3/30) Open to the U.S. and Canada RC

*Fuzzibunz & Rumparooz Lil Joey Diapers from changing Diapers & The Eco Chic (ends 3/30) Open to the U.S. and Canada RC

*$25 Zookies Diapers GC from Zephyr Hill (ends 3/30) Open to the U.S. and Canada RC

*Mimimaestro Diaper from Mama on a Green Mission (ends 3/30) Open to the U.S. and Canada RC

*Sun Baby Diaper from What This Mommy Thinks (ends 3/30) RC

*Tiny Tush Diaper from Padded Tush Stats (ends 3/31) Open to the U.S. and Canada RC

*Sunbaby Diaper from Earth Faerie Momma Mandatory Facebook “like” and vote (ends 3/31) RC

*$25 Squishy Tushy GC from So Easy Being Green (ends 3/31) Open worldwide RC

*GroVia AIO from Buttercup Baby & Daily Mothering (ends 3/31) Open to the U.S. and Canada RC

*Lil Helper Diaper & Wet Bag from Diaperdeals.ca Two mandatory Facebook follows (ends 3/31) Open to the U.S. and Canada RC

Little Green Bean Diaper from Mommy’s Favorite Things (ends 3/31) RC

Booty Buns Package (ends 3/31) Open to the U.S. and Canada RC Multi blog event, one set of entries only

Fuzzibunz Elite from Greenie Beanie Bottoms & Mommy of 1 and Counting Two mandatory Facebook “likes”(ends 3/31)

Thirsties Duo AIOs from the Mom’s Milk Boutique Blog (ends 3/31) RC

*Fuzzibunz Diaper from Snappy Diapers Mandatory GFC follow (ends 4/1) Open to the U.S. and Canada

*Thirsties Duo Diaper from The Anti June Cleaver (ends 4/1) Open to the U.S. and Canada RC

*$20 Kissed by the Moon GC from Baby and the Chis (ends 4/1) RC

*Buns Up Baby Diaper from Cloth Diaper Contests & Giveaways (ends 4/1) Open to the U.S. and Canada

Honey Bums Diaper from Nicki the Eval Gal Mandatory GFC follow (ends 4/1) RC

Red Barn/Nifty Nappy AI2 from Happily Domestic (ends 4/1) Open Worldwide

Palm Tree Cover from Cloth Diaper Outlet & Dibs (ends 4/1) Open to the U.S. and Canada RC

*Planet Wise Wet Bag from Kissed by the Moon and 4 The Love of Sanity Mandatory GFC follow and Facebook “like” (ends 4/2) RC

*Bumgenius Elemental from Cloth Diaper Revival (ends 4/2) RC

*Babee Greens Diaper from Conservamom Two mandatory Facebook “likes” (ends 4/2) RC

*Incredibum Diaper from Mama on a Green Mission (ends 4/3) Open to the U.S. and Canada RC

Cloth Rocks Shirt from Babble’s Baby’s First Year Blog (ends 4/4) RC

*Feeling Lucky for Diapers Sweepstakes from Kelly Wels/Changing Diapers (ends 4/5) Daily entry via Woobox form on Facebook

*Incredibum Wipes from Under the Apple Tree (ends 4/5) Open to the U.S. and Canada RC

*Booty Buns Diaper from Mama Loves Her Bargains (ends 4/6) RC

$20 Diva Diapers GC from Dirty Diaper Laundry (ends 4/6) RC

*Palm Tree Diaper cover from First Time Mom Mandatory Facebook “like” (ends 4/7) RC

$20 Ultimate Green Store GC from Mommy’s Favorite Things (ends 4/7) RC

Lotus Bumz Diaper from Mommy’s Favorite Things (ends 4/7) RC

Sleepy Rump Diaper from Zephyr Hill (ends 4/7) RC

Diaper Rite Diaper from Tales from the Nursery (ends 4/8) Open to the U.S. and Canada RC

*Osocozy Diaper from Clothdiaper.com and Contemplate Cloth Mandatory GFC follow (ends 4/9) Open to the U.S. and Canada RC

Applecheeks Diaper from Formula Mom (ends 4/9) Open to the U.S. and Canada RC

Applecheeks Diaper from Tales from the Nursery (ends 4/9) Open to the U.S. and Canada RC

Fluff Bling from Sisters N Cloth (ends 4/10) Open to the U.S. and Canada RC

GroVia AIO from The Green Nursery and Dirty Diaper Laundry (ends 4/11) RC

Bumgenius Freetime from Bouncing Babies & Daily Mothering (ends 4/14) RC

Onya Baby Carrier from Simple City Life (ends 4/15) Open to the U.S. and Canada RC

Sew is Your Baby Diaper from Baby Giveaways Galore (ends 4/16) Open to the U.S. and Canada RC

Ecopipo Diapers from Contemplate Cloth Mandatory GFC follow (ends 4/16) Open worldwide RC

*giveaways that have been listed in a prior week’s roundup
RC Entries collected via Rafflecopter
GD Entries collected via Google Docs Form

You may enter any “family friendly” giveaway in the linky below. The form Blog name – Giveaway Item – Ending date works well. Please at least include the item and end date, and link directly to the giveaway.

View my where I list my giveaways post, to find more places to link up your giveaways!

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Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Softbums Omni Winner

softbums winner

475 people entered this giveaway, with 863 entries in all. The winning entry is #785, which is Jennifer. Congratulations Jennifer, I’m sending you an email so you can claim your prize!

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Apparel & Accessories Baby Products Giveaway Review

Swaddle Designs Angry Birds Baby Products Review & Giveaway (CLOSED 4/10) US/Canada

swaddledesigns 1

In case you missed my Swaddle Designs review last year, we love their swaddling blankets. They are soft & cozy & plenty big enough for a snug swaddle. We swaddled my son constantly in the first few weeks, at at night until he was nearly 11 weeks old. We had to buy extras so we’d never be without one!

swaddledesigns 2 onesie swaddledesigns 3 onesie bottom
swaddledesigns 4 onesie sleeve and shoulder swaddledesigns 5 onesie design

Swaddle Designs now has adorable Angry Birds Baby Products! They have long & short sleeved bodysuits with a large or small bird, in blue, yellow or red, from 0-3 to 6-12 months. They also have Ultimate Receiving Blankets, Marquisette Blankets, Swaddle Duos, zzZip Me sacks, lovies, burpies and gift sets!

swaddledesigns 6 marquisette blanket

I received the short-sleeved 3″ red bird bodysuit in 3-6 months and the multi-bird marquisette swaddling blanket.

swaddledesigns 7 onesie swaddledesigns 8 onesie close

Even my husband commented about how nice the bodysuit is. It’s nice and thick, well made and sturdy, which I can’t say about a lot of baby clothing.

swaddledesigns 9 onesie and blanket swaddledesigns 10 close

The blanket is cute, soft and lightweight, perfect for swaddling, playtime and covering a stroller in warmer weather!

From Swaddle Designs:

SwaddleDesigns® is introducing the Angry Birds Baby Collection!

Angry Birds have found happiness with SwaddleDesigns baby products! We are honored that Rovio chose SwaddleDesigns to manufacture Angry Birds Baby items based on our high quality products.

Angry Birds by Rovio is a phenomenally popular game. Angry Birds is the fastest growing brand in the world with over 600 million downloads. Boys, girls, men, women, grandmas and grandpas – all love playing Angry Birds. The game is entertaining to people of all ages, genders and geographies.

SwaddleDesigns was founded by Lynette Damir, RN, Designer and Mom in 2002, and SwaddleDesigns was the first company to introduce the large square swaddling blanket to the US and many countries around the world. SwaddleDesigns is known for their premium quality fabric, fabulous colors and prints, decorative edge, and the innovative 123 Swaddle® instructional label that helps new parents master the art of swaddling. SwaddleDesigns blankets come in a variety of weights and are perfect for many uses such as a privacy throw for breastfeeding moms, a tummy time play mat, a cover over the stroller as well as swaddling.

The Ultimate Receiving Blanket® is a lightweight premium cotton flannel blanket – for moderate to cooler environmental temperatures.

The Marquisette Swaddling Blanket® is a very lightweight openweave high quality cotton blanket – for warmer environmental temperatures

Angry Birds by Rovio is a phenomenally popular game. Angry Birds is the fastest growing brand in the world with over 600 million downloads. Little boys and girls, teens, men, women, grandmas and grandpas – all love playing Angry Birds. The game is entertaining to people of all ages, genders and geographies, and is fun for family members to play together during snuggle time

Angry Birds is just one of the many collections SwaddleDesigns offers. We have many new exciting new prints and a variety of blankets and other products for 2012!

Visit SwaddleDesigns.com/how-to-swaddle to view “How to Swaddle” and more information regarding sleeping environments and the benefits of swaddling.

Shop Swaddle Designs, “like” Swaddle Designs on Facebook and follow Swaddle Designs on Twitter.

Sign up for the Swaddle Designs exclusive e-mail club and be the first to hear of Swaddle Designs special, limited-time offers, and receive a promotional code to save 10% off full priced items on your first purchase!

Giveaway: One winner will receive his/her choice of an Angry Birds Marquisette swaddling blanket OR bodysuit in choice of size and bird, subject to availability (ARV $15-20.)


a Rafflecopter giveaway

FTC compliance: I received product samples for review purposes. I was not otherwise compensated for this post, and all opinions are my own.

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Cloth Diapers

Convert My Diapers Cloth Diaper Snap Conversion Service

convert my diapers 1

You may have seen on my Facebook page that I sent some worn out hook & loop diapers off to be converted to snaps. I received them back and wanted to share my experience! As I’ve already said, I really would have preferred to just have the Velcro replaced, but I don’t have a sewing machine, and I was having a hard time finding someone to do it for me. Plus, I knew that Velcro would just need to be replaced again in the future, while snaps would last nearly indefinitely.

I sent a total of 9 diapers to Convert My Diapers: 7 Bumgenius, one Thirsties and one Blueberry. She has a price list for different diapers; some that require additional work are more, but most are around $3.75. She also offers elastic replacement if your diapers need it. The shipping was a pretty large expense, around $10 each way, putting my total close to $55. She does accept Paypal, but you have to cover the fees.

convert my diapers 2 close

It took less than 3 weeks to receive the diapers, and the only issue I had was a little confusion about the status of my diapers. She has a “status” page, but because she works pretty quickly and the page is updated once per week or less, it’s not very helpful. The Paypal payment was also a bit confusing since payment is sent to a different address and name. Here’s a quick timeline to show what I mean:

2/29 I went on her site & selected my ship date as 3/2.
3/1 I had the package ready to ship, printed the label online, selected the check box to notify the recipient via email w/tracking, and paid via Paypal
3/2 The package was picked up by my mail carrier
3/5 Tracking said the package was delivered
3/8 I realized my Paypal payment was showing unclaimed. I contacted Convert My Diapers and she said that the Paypal payments go to a different address, and that they will send invoice when the package is opened
3/15 I’ve been checking the status page regularly and I’m getting worried. The status page hasn’t been updated since 3/4 and at that point, it didn’t even show that she had been notified of the shipment. I still haven’t gotten an invoice, so I was assuming that meant they hadn’t even opened my package yet after 10 days. I was starting to wonder if the package had been mis-delivered and she hadn’t received it at all. I hesitated to send an email because I don’t want to be “that customer” who drives her crazy. I ended up sending an email on 3/15 asking about the status of my order. I didn’t initially receive a reply, but I received an invoice from a different name & email address saying that they were done & ready to ship when paid. I paid right away, then about an hour later, received a reply to my email saying they were done & ready to ship when paid. Later, the status page was updated as of 3/15 saying that my diapers were completed 3/14 and ready to ship when paid.
3/22 I received the diapers in the mail

I think 3 weeks is pretty awesome for shipping them, completing 9 diapers and shipping them back, so I’d almost rather just see an estimated turn around time rather than the updates, since all they did was make me worry! I had to pay $1.61 in Paypal fees, which I didn’t initially realize when I decided to pay by Paypal rather than mail money with the diapers. I also didn’t know that I was supposed to wait for an invoice, or that it would be a different address. I just assumed I needed to pay when I mailed the diapers, since non-Paypal payments are supposed to be included with the diapers.

convert my diapers 3 inside
convert my diapers 4 laundry tabs there tabs removed convert my diapers 5 holes from velcro

The diapers look fantastic. Naturally, you can see where the closures and strip were removed.

convert my diapers 6 converted and oem convert my diapers 7 converted 30 conv 40 oem 40

Above is a converted 3.0, a converted 4.0 and a 4.0 that was purchased with snap closures applied by the manufacturer. Not much difference!

convert my diapers 8 after wash and dry

I went ahead and washed the diapers before using them again, since they were out of my home of course & smelled a little musty after all the shipping. I think I found a couple of animal hairs on the diapers, but I could be mistaken. I don’t see any indication on her site that they have pets. I also put the diapers in the dryer for a bit, since I know the heat can help seal up sewing holes. After that the holes from where the Velcro was removed were much less noticeable.

I would LOVE if Cottonbabies would start offering a Velcro replacement service (I wasn’t the only one who mentioned it during the Jennifer Labit Twitter party!) but otherwise, I would definitely send diapers to CMD again. I do think it’s a little bit pricey after the shipping costs, and it would be really expensive if you also needed all 3 elastic pieces replaced. However, you end up with totally refurbished diapers for the same as or less than a used diaper in similar condition, and you know the diaper’s history (which sounds weird, but I think you KWIM!)

Have you had any diapers converted to snaps? Have you done any yourself?

FTC compliance: I paid normal retail price for this service. I was not asked to write, nor was I compensated for this post, and all opinions are my own.

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