Snip, snip

Do you ever buy six-packs? Of pop, I mean (yes, 'pop,' thank you upper-Midwest). What do you do with that plastic-connector-thingy once you are done enjoying your beverages? 

I'm sure there are an intrepid few amongst us who have brilliant craft projects designed expressly around these rather benign objects of the everyday life. But what about the rest of us? Do you just toss them in the trash? 

May I encourage you to take a quick extra step? Consider cutting the plastic rings apart before throwing away. 

Why? Imagine scavenging animals digging through landfill-bound trash bags. What happens to one of these animals if a ring was to get caught on its snout, clamping its mouth shut?

While I'm positive a host of doctors and my mother would encourage me to stop drinking my body weight in Whole Foods Orange Creme Soda (gah, POP!), I would hate to imagine my sweet tooth ever hurting an animal. 

So, next time you finish off your six pack (of pop), consider grabbing the scissors and quickly snipping all of the rings apart. Not only will you potentially save a raccoon, but you also might discover a good test of hand-eye coordination and reflexes (word of warning, never cut while trying to stop your toddler from putting applesauce in her hair). 

ps. to those creative ladies amongst us, what kind of crafty projects could you do with one or more of these thingys? 

pps. if you know the technical term for the 'thingys' please let me know!

(p^3)s. 'soda,' 'pop' or 'coke?' 

Welcome to the WAHMlight: Double Feature

For this month, the attention shifts to you! (But not to worry, great diapering specials in store for both Black Friday and December's WAHMlight! Stay tuned in the coming days for hints.)

To start off the family focus with a bang, I've got not one, but two great WAHMs to introduce you to! In addition to amazing women, they also make amazing products. If you haven't considered a switch to natural products for yourself and the rest of your family, I highly recommend tipping your toe into this water. I am confident you won't regret it! 

And of course there is a giveaway. More details can be found following the two interviews. 

First up, Mother Moon Pads! 

Itsy Bitsy Bums: Please tell us about yourself and your family. 

Mother Moon: My name is Denelle, and I live in Neenah, WI, with my husband Henry, 3 children, and 1 fur kid. Henry and I have been married 10 years. Gwendolynne is 13, Ezekiel is 3, and Eleanor is 7 months old. Our furry child, Lady Bird, is 8. We are a very close knit family and family means everything to us. 

Mother Moon wingless liners

IBB: Is mama cloth something you grew up using? If not, do you recall when you first learned of it?

MM: I was not fortunate enough to use mama cloth growing up. I didn't learn that such a thing existed until I started cloth diapering my son. There was this sucession of "crunchiness" for me. Everything started with babywearing my first newborn, almost 14 years ago. When I was pregnant with my second child, I knew I wanted to wear him too (although not in the overpadded Nojo I wore my oldest in!). When I found TheBabyWearer, I learned about other natural parenting/living lifestyles, which led me to cloth diapering. Cloth diapering led me to DiaperSwappers, where I learned about mama cloth. 

OBV (Organic Bamboo Velour) topped pads

IBB: How did you decide to start making mama cloth? 

MM: I'm a very do it yourself type of person. I have a hard time purchasing items that I can make. When I convinced myself to try mama cloth, I knew that I could make it myself. Hundreds of tester pads later, I started selling MotherMoonPads under the KeepYourBabyClose name. 

the fabric stash!

IBB: Have you ever considered adding additional products to Mother Moon? What might they be? 

MM: In 2006, I started out in business as KeepYourBabyClose. I made and sold pouch slings, ring slings, linen wraps, nursing covers and mei tais. Over time, I have transitioned to what I truly love making, which is mama cloth. At this time, mama cloth keeps me more than busy, so I will not be offering any additional products. I do occasionally make custom embroidered diapers, or matching newborn diaper and postpartum mama cloth sets. 

I believe that by creating things that make me happy, this in turn makes me a better seller and happier person all around.

Denelle's sewing area is in the dining room

IBB: What tips do you have for WAHMs and WOHMs when it comes to juggling so many things at once (a little birdie told me you are also persuing a degree in accounting)? 

MM: My biggest piece of advice is: Do what you love, love what you do, and accept that you can't do everything. 

I am a WAHM and full time college student. I graduate this December with my BA in Accounting. I very carefully schedule my days and weeks in an attempt to fit everything in. I am fortunate enough to have a husband that is able and willing to assist me when needed. 

Our typical day consists of waking up, making breakfast and getting our oldest off to school and Daddy to work. My younger two love to play together while I start the orders for the day.

We also love to have morning playdates. Every Wednesday is our day off. We love to go to the Children's Museum or have friends over to play & sew. After lunch, my 3 year old lays down to have rest time. I wrap my youngest on my back, and we settle in for nap time (her) and sewing (me).

After nap time, we make supper together, and sit down to eat when Daddy gets home from work. We eat together every night. After supper, I work on homework and have family time. It's a crazy, action filled day, but it seems to work for our family. 

I do, however, have to accept that there are days where my children might need me more than usual and we will accomplish nothing. Those days are okay to have to. After all, my main goal is to keep my family happy and their needs fulfilled. 

Denelle's favorite view of her serger ♥ 

Second, Green Body Basics! 

From the WAHM behind GBB, Kristin - 

'Thank you, Abby, for featuring Green Body Basics as your WAHM business of the month.

'WAHM is one of my many roles. I am a mid twenties, degreeseeking, partner, internet surfing, shopping loving, natural thinking , tea drinking, karma believing, book loving woman.

'But my most important roll is mother, to my daughter as well as to my two black labs. My daughter is 16 months old and the love of my life.  I met her father 3 years ago and it was one of those "love at first sight" kind of stories.  Fast forward to 2 years ago and we discovered we were pregnant. A few weeks later we receive some abnormal results on our APF test and after further investigation discovere that Poppy-Ann has spina bifida.  This was a changing point in my life, as I had never before considered reducing the amount of chemicals I was exposed to, as I lived "healthy enough."  This lead me to finding alternatives to my daily products as well a leading me to live a less waste producing life.

'One product I knew I could not switch was my deodorant, as I had been a clinical/prescription strength user since my teenage years, suffering from what I was lead to believe was hyperhyrosis(over active sweat glands).  Fast forward again, and after many long months of using myself an family as guinea pigs I developed Green Body Basics Naturally effective deodorant, a completely natural an chemical free solution!  GBB has been recognized by Skin Deep's Cosmetic Database with a '0' hazard score for this very reason.  I submitted my product for review and was very happy to receive the feedback as my product has the lowest hazzard rating available, which is an honor.  From this point I continue my filing with PETA as a "cruelty-free" no animal testing company.

'Keeping in line with natural and environmentally friendly, I try my hardest to purchase all my ingredients from companies with honest environment supporting suppliers and practices. This was also reason for a change to remove palm oil from my products a few months after beginning business, as it was not a resource I felt comfortable using due to it's over farming.

'I love trying and creating new products and have been making my own cleaners and soaps for some months as well.  As for the future of what customer may see at GBB only time will tell, I have a few items for next summer lined up as well as some cold/flu season items that I am hoping to perfect here in the next month.'

Thank you Kristin and Denelle, I am so excited to feature both of you this month, in addition to stocking your products at IBB!

Now, for the swag:

• 1 1oz Green Body Basics deodorant in 'Sensual' 
• 4 Green Body Basics scent samples in 'Classic,' 'Immunity,' 'Sporty' and 'Stamina' (one in each scent)
• 1 8" Mother Moon Wingless Pantyliner
• 1 Mother Moon OBV Pantyliner (I pick the length for the OBV pads)
• 1 Mother Moon OBV Normal Flow pad 
• 1 Mother Moon OBV Heavy Flow pad

Typically WAHMlight giveaways are won by sending in action shots. Clearly I won't be asking for action shots this month. LOL.

Instead, you have several easy ways to win: 

• Every order at IBB is automatically entered to win (1 entry per order)
• Grab IBB's button (under 'Share the Love' in the right-hand navigation bar) and display on your blog (5 entries for this! button must remain up for the entire month of November)
• Become a fan of Bitsy Buzz (1 entry)
• Become a fan of IBB on Facebook (1 entry)
• Browse the store, then come back and tell me your favorite item carried by IBB

Please be sure to comment below to enter yourself, including links when applicable. Deadline to enter is November 30th. Winner to be announced by December 3rd on Facebook and this very blog. 

Happy Hunting! 

Trash Talking

I'll admit it, I wish the trash and recycling guys came later in the day. Not that I mind the early pickup, necessarily, but I really just want my trash to sit outside for more of the day. Yup, I want people to eye my trash pile with a curious eye. 

'How on earth do they have so little trash?' I want people to wonder.

Or, 'don't they have a baby, where are all the diapers?'

Or, 'they must drop their trash somewhere else.'

Or, 'wow, their recycling pile is larger than their trash pile.'

I'll admit, on our old street we often drove by a neighbor's house wondering how exactly they managed to put out one small bag of trash a week. Two adults, one plastic bag (the likes of which you'd get at Target) was all that was ever there on trash day. I've since asked them how they do it and they shrugged off my question (aka veiled compliment). Either they truly don't notice their teeny footprint, or, they really are throwing away their trash elsewhere. 

I'm proud to say, we are getting there (notice this week's showcase, photo above). How do we do it? Live that motto you learned in elementary school - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle - very catchy and very true. A few ways we've put those R's into action: 

REDUCE

refillable water bottles - despite being recyclable, plastic bottles are a huge strain

cloth diapers - far fewer diapers needed from birth to potty training

cook from scratch - fewer processed packages to toss/recycle

get off mailing lists once and for all!

REUSE

wax cereal bags make great storage sacks, just roll the top and clip shut

sell or donate used items - make Freecycle and Craig's List your friends

RECYCLE

know your recycling laws inside and out, especially which plastics are accepted

seek out alternate recycling for items such as cork or glass, which are not normally accepted at the curb

compost - my husband has faithfully been feeding our worm composter all summer (and my ferns have never looked more beautiful, thank you worm juice) 

So friends, I challenge you to take a look at your waste come trash day. Are you proud of what you see? I know I am. Although I aspire to one day graduate to my very own Target-sized trash bag!

It's a (Sock) Zoo

Hope everyone is doing well today. It is quite the blustery day in IBBville - fall is definitely in the air! 

In one of my former lives, I was a double major in studio art and art history at the lovely Gustavus Adolphus College (say that 5x fast, it's fun). The love to create and stimulate the imagination never left me, however the time to be crafty certainly has. A very inquisitive and very energetic 14-month-old has left me precious little space to pull out any of my former loves - painting, beading and the like. While I can still take photographs (poor iPhoto is bulging at its proverbial seams), I am feeling restless for another project to keep me entertained on the cool fall nights. 

Well, this morning that project practically fell into my lap (yup, fell, Avalee pushed the laptop while I was checking my email). Check out Boden's sock menagerie! I am so excited. And this gives me a use for those pairs of socks that don't get much love these days. 

Other than imagining Avalee's new family of sock dogs, I've been shipping lots of orders out to families across the country and our northern neighbor as well - love spreading the cloth love! And the approach of one of my favorite seasons (the others being winter and spring, haha) has left me feeling quite generous - mention 'GIFT' at checkout to get a fun surprise with your order! Good through September 22nd.