Winner of the Five in a Row Baby Leggies!

Apr 18,2010 / By Maria / 2 Comments

Congratulations to the winner of the Five in a Row Baby Leggies.

The lucky # is 27.

Congrats SAPsMaMa!

Natural and Organic Food Review

Ricemellow Fluffernutter

Apr 17,2010 / By Maria / 6 Comments

Go ahead and make a corny joke about this being “fluff” in my blog. However, this fluff is anything but “corny.” In fat, it has no corn syrup at all!

Regular marshmallow fluff contains: corn syrup, sugar syrup, dried egg whites and vanillin or Corn Syrup, Sugar, Water, Egg Whites, Artificial Flavor, Cream of Tartar, Xanthan Gum, Artificial Color (Contains Blue 1), depending on brand.

I found this 10 oz package of Ricemellow Creme by Suzanne’s Specialties at my grocery store, for just under 5 bucks. Outrageous compared to regular fluff I know, but it contains only brown rice syrup, soy protein, natural gums and natural flavors.

The only sweetener is the brown rice syrup, there’s no corn syrup, no cane sweeteners, no refined sugars. There’s also no gluten, no animal products (it’s vegan), no fat, cholesterol, added salt, preservatives or artificial additives.

Despite the lack of preservatives, the jar is good until August.

To be honest, with all that, I didn’t have high hopes for it’s taste!

A two tablespoon serving has about the same nutrition facts as it’s corn syrup-y cousin.

When I opened it up, it wasn’t what I expected to see and I was thinking I was going to end up throwing away this $5 experiment.

I cautiously gave it a sniff. Hmm…smells pretty good. Sweet. *sniff* Almost like a melted marshmallow. Reminds me of something I can’t put my finger on.

I put a teeny bit on a spoon and gave it a taste. It was pretty good! Sweet, a bit like fluff, but much lighter and airier. I had hubby taste it, and my daughter too. Both liked it.

They both thought it had a consistency more like whipped cream than fluff. My daughter said “It’s TOO YUMMY.” She also hugged it to herself and said “It’s mine and I’m going to eat it ALL UP because I love it SO MUCH.” She also told me she liked it better than regular fluff, but later told me she wasn’t sure.

I made a ricemellow creme fluffernutter. (It’s a little messy since I didn’t use a clean knife to cut it)

It was definitely lighter and easier to spread than regular fluff. My daughter gobbled her half of the sandwich. I did too, and while it was tasty, it just didn’t have that gooey, gloppy meld-with-the-peanut butter texture that I love in a fluffernutter.

I will definitely continue to buy this for my daughter, but I will probably still buy the old fashioned stuff every now and again, when I get in the mood for some gooey goodness!

On another note, I ended up buying some brown rice syrup to try to use in place of corn syrup. I found a great recipe for home made marshmallows I want to try (though I’m going to try them with corn syrup first to work out kinks, the brown rice syrup was expensive!!)

Cloth Diapers Fitted Diapers Made in the USA One Size Diapers Review WAHM made

Licorice Lane Fitted Tester Diaper

Apr 16,2010 / By Maria / 9 Comments

I recently got to test a sized, fitted diaper for Licorice Lane.

The owner makes baby leggings, blankets, hats, booties and lounge pants, but has just recently gotten into diaper making. She used them on her own child, as well as friend’s children, but needed feedback from more mamas with different age babies, different sizes, wetting habits and so forth.

What made testing for Licorice Lane especially fun was that she was truly looking for honest feedback to make a better product that would work for more families. She wasn’t just looking for pats on the back!

I paid a small sum (as did all testers) to cover shipping, and a portion of the materials. The diaper came quickly.

This is a sized, medium diaper, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that it also had a fold down rise with an extra set of snaps.

The mediums are supposed to fit 15-25 pounds, but I imagine they could fit a much smaller baby with the fold down rise.

The diaper is made with a cotton flannel outer, a hidden layer of French terry, and a cotton velour inner.

She is working on a few soaker styles, so testers received different ones. Mine was 2 layers of French terry and 2 layers of cotton velour.

Overall, the quality of construction and stitching were good.

I had to really scrutinize it to find a couple places where the stitching could potentially be a smidge straighter. Still much better than many WAHM products I’ve seen.

My personal preference would be to have the overall diaper be a bit larger. Slightly longer wings, slightly wider crotch and slightly larger diaper overall. However, I realize that I’m just trying to turn it into a one size fitted, LOL. She did say that she may work on a one size in the future.

Here is the Licorice Lane medium in comparison to my favorite one size fitted.

I felt the soaker was a tiny bit wide for the diaper, but she was trying several soaker styles in her testers.

My son really could still wear the diaper on the smaller rise setting. (16.5 lbs, 27.5 inches)

I prefer it hit him a bit higher on the belly. Just what I’m used to I suppose.

If you notice the gap at his right thigh, I had a bit of trouble fitting the diaper. It’s as if I needed snaps where there weren’t any. Pulling the diaper to the overlap snap was too tight.

If I got the outer snaps where they needed to be to make the diaper snug, there was one snap just hanging out.

I ended up just leaving the middle snap of that wing undone, and it worked just fine.

One reason I really enjoyed testing for Licorice Lane is that Brooke looked at the pictures, thought it over and tried to come up with ways to solve this. I think I just needed a snap where there wasn’t one. Or, it could just be operator error. Wouldn’t be the first time!

It fit nicely.

Babyish prints aren’t really my favorite, but this was very cute.

This is a fitted diaper, so the whole diaper is absorbent, and it needs a cover to be waterproof. I know from experience that this soaker style (especially a single with no doubler) doesn’t work well for us coverless. Still, I wanted to test it out.

As I expected, when he wet it, it was soaked right though. When I tried it again with our Flip Cover over it, it worked wonderfully, The diaper was able to absorb more throughout, instead of just soaking through the wetzone.

I do still prefer a 2 petal style soaker with an added doubler. I realize that I am comparing/trying to turn this into my favorite fitted, but really, if I am buying/shopping for a fitted, that’s what I am going to be using as my benchmark!

Licorice Lane was just wonderful to test for. She was receptive to my suggestions and preferences, summarized to make sure she understood all of my input, and sincerely thanked me.

As a tester, I know that other Mamas may have other ideas and preferences, and she can’t please everyone. Therefore, her fitteds might not end up being what works for me. However, the feeling I got from testing for her makes me very willing to try another diaper after tweaks, or any other products from Licorice Lane!

Right now, the Licorice Lane store is set to open on May 1st, though that may change!

Edit August 2010: Since fitted diapers aren’t my favorite, I passed this along to someone who could better use it.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Winner chosen! Lil’ Outlaws, Almost Heaven Diaper Company & FuzziBunz Changing Set Giveaway

Apr 16,2010 / By Maria / No Comment

I’ve used random.org’s true random number generator to choose a winner for the Lil’ Outlaws, Almost Heaven Diaper Company & FuzziBunz Changing Set Giveaway.

The lucky winner is fancygrlnancy!

Congratulations!!

Cloth Diapers Diaper Covers Made in the USA Overnight Diapering Solutions Review Sized Diapers WAHM made Wool

Mobums Wool Interlock “Night Night” Soaker

Apr 15,2010 / By Maria / 6 Comments

I really like my Kissaluvs wool cover, but I wanted a spare for when it was being washed. I also wanted to get a medium, since the large was a bit, well, large.

I managed to win an auction for a mobums “night-night” wool interlock soaker, for about half the price of the Kissaluvs. The night night soaker has a double layer of wool through the whole soaker body, wider waist and leg bands, and all seams are serged for durability.

The size medium I purchased fits a 17″ rise, 15-17″ waist and 9-10″ thighs.

Monique at mobums ended up refunding my shipping (all of it) because there was a slight delay in shipping my soaker out. I didn’t even notice a delay; it came in about a week. Still, that was my first hint that mobums has excellent customer service and really values their customers.

The soaker was shipped lanolized with cucumber melon scented lanolin. I’ve become very sensitive to smells lately and this was a little strong for me. I contacted Monique and got help washing the scent out. She was very apologetic, receptive and sweet. This was nice, since she had no way to know the scent would bother me.

I thought this would be a good opportunity to show you my wool washing routine!

I fill my utility sink with some lukewarm water and a teaspoon or so of Eucalan, then swish it around before adding the wool.

I squeeze the suds into the wool a bit, then let it soak for 15 minutes or so.

In the meantime, I get four towels out, and stack them in sets of two.

When the wool has finished it’s soak, I drain the water, then gently squeeze some of the water out of the wool. Then I lay it on top of a set of towels.

I roll the soaker up inside the towels.

squeeze

unroll

Then move to the next set of towels.

roll

squeeze

unroll

then lay flat to dry. Mobums soakers can be tumbled dry on low, but I’d rather just let it air dry. I’m afraid one day I will accidentally dry it on high and ruin it!

Here’s a close up of the leg openings

and the seams inside the soaker

Here the mobums medium is on top and the Kissaluvs large is on the bottom.

another angle

The Kissaluvs has that extra, extra wide waistband to fold over and cover higher waist diapers etc.

The night night soaker actually has quite a bit of stretch to it.

It fit snugly, without being tight.

It fit over that super fluffy booty!

I topped the soaker off with fleece pants. In the morning, I could feel a bit of dampness on the outside of the soaker. It doesn’t surprise me, and in my opinion, it isn’t a reflection on the quality of the soaker. My son manages to completely saturate an outrageously absorbent fitted, so the fact that the wool (which is breathable remember) was damp where his tush was compressing it all night, doesn’t concern me!

In the end, this is a great product and the fact that it comes with even better service behind it, makes it worth much more than the price I paid!!

August 2010: Still in our regular night time rotation!

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Winner of the Five in a Row Baby Leggies!

Ricemellow Fluffernutter

Licorice Lane Fitted Tester Diaper

Winner chosen! Lil’ Outlaws, Almost Heaven Diaper Company & FuzziBunz Changing Set Giveaway

Mobums Wool Interlock “Night Night” Soaker

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