Marissa, is a stay at home mommy to Hudson and loving wife to an Air Force man! She has a passion for the environment and the art of living simply, naturally and consciously. She is the owner of Growing Green Bums, a natural parenting store. she loves organic/whole food eats, nature, gardening and living "green"!
“Your Emerald Coast resource for Eco-Friendly baby products! Growing Green Bums is a home based business working to provide quality baby products and cloth diapering education services along the Emerald Coast, we extend our outreach to other areas via our website!”
As Miracle Diapers has grown so has the number of families they assist. In 2009, they helped over 450 babies directly, more than 100 babies through sponsorship and local distribution, and assisted other charities with the same mission as well!
To better serve those families Miracle Diapers reaccessed it’s structure and practices. They have:
• New leadership with Roxanna Jolly—CEO and Lisa Johnston—Operations Manager and Board Chair
• Relocated their headquarters to Katy, Texas
• Restructured how they process and accept applications
• Welcomed several new board members from the cloth diapering industry
In it’s fifth year Miracle Diapers wants to continue moving forward and has decided to take on a new name that better describes the organization and it’s mission.
“We felt that a more appropriate name would help the community have a better understanding of who we are, as we have often been mistaken for a diaper manufacturer. Our desire to move forward and build a legacy of support for the cloth diapering community will be reflected in our new name: The Cloth Diaper Foundation.”
Monetary donations fell last year do to the economy. Which means there are more families out there for The Cloth Diaper Foundation to help! While diaper donations are always appreciated, we must be able to financially support organizational growth.
To assist in fund raising efforts, in the month of February, Tracy Whittemore and Lisa Adkins from The Cloth Diaper Company have so graciously offered to match, product for product, each Cloth Diaper Company product sold (Drybees, Wahmies, Rocky Mountain Diapers) in The Cloth Diaper Foundation Retail Store with an equal donation to our organization. (Example – Purchase a Rocky Mountain Diapers OS Pocket, CDC will donate our organization a RMD OS Pocket, Drybees for Drybees, etc.)
Let’s make this happen together and spread the CD love. Visit http://clothdiaperfoundation.org today to find out how you can help!
I am proud to announce that I have received my accreditation from the Real Diaper Association to become The Emerald Coast’s Real Diaper Circle Leader. I am looking forward to starting our circle and connect families with all levels of experience in cloth diapering! Our first meeting will be held on March 8 at 10 am at Ever’mans in Pensacola. I will keep you posted if the date changes! Please join us if you are interested in discovering how to use and care for cloth diapers, review different reusable cloth diapering systems, meet other families who cloth diaper and learn about issues of diaper usage. You can also join our Yahoo group to post helpful information pertaining to cloth diapering, tackling questions on troubleshooting and any hints you have discovered during your cloth diaper Journey!
The Real Diaper Association is a wonderful non-profit organization focusing on education and support for cloth diapering families across the United States. Recently they have implemented a great campaign for cloth diaper use in daycares. They teamed together with the Real Diaper Industry Association to create “Cloth Diapers in Daycare“. After a year of planning and surveys, they created a cloth diaper friendly daycare directory and materials to distribute to educate daycares about cloth diapers! What a great organization!!!! RDA’s new campaign is “100% Cloth Diapers Every Time”. This is a brand new campaign and you can learn more here: htttp://www.realdiaperevents.org I support 100% reusable cloth diapers for all babies! The first focus of this campaign is using cloth diapers all night with your baby! You can participate in the campaign by sharing your insights on what works for you during nighttime diapering!
Thank you again for all your support during this time! I hope you will be able to join us at our first meeting!!!
President Barack Obama: “In the tragic aftermath of Haiti’s 7.0 earthquake, images of the disaster break our hearts and remind of the fragility of life. What America must do now-and why.”
We must do something now, what can I do to help? I kept asking that to myself over and over. A little light bulb flashed on, yes I can do something now. January 13th, I decided to take action! Growing Green Bums will be donating our profits thru January 31st to Yéle Haiti.
Yéle Haiti:
Yéle Haiti was founded in 2005 by Grammy Award musician, humanitarian and Goodwill Ambassador to Haiti, Wyclef Jean. The grassroots movenment has built global awareness for Haiti, while helping to transform the country through programs in education, sports, the arts and environment. Yele’s community service programs include food distribution and mobilizing emergency relief.
Yéle Haiti Launches Earthquake Alliance:
On January 15th Yéle Haiti pulled together a group of like minded organizations and first responders in order to help coordinate the delivery of emergency services and materials needed by victims of the earthquake in Haiti. Each or the organizations will undertake their own fundraising and on-the-ground operations, but have agreed to share resources, collaborate when it makes sense and avoid duplication.
The members of this new Haiti Earthquake Alliance are:
The Alliance has already pulled together four airlifts of medical supplies, food and other emergency supplies – along with teams of doctors. These airlifts will go out beginning Saturday. Keep checking back to this website for details.
What can you do?
Any amount of donation helps for disaster relief! You can Text YELE to 501501 to donate $5.00.
Growing Green Bums UPDATED Relief fund: $626.02 total donation as of 1/31/2010 (awesome!!!)
UPDATE: Thank you for all the generous orders!! The total donation that was sent to Yele Haiti was $626.02! Thank you!
I was so surprised at some of the gifts we received. Many family members know how “green” I try to keep our house and family! So, I was very excited to receive some heart felt gifts! One of our favorite gifts we received from family in Chicago were Bird-E Towels, Reusable, Washable Eco Friendly paper towel replacements! I don’t use paper towels, I normally just use old prefold diapers or knitted towels my husband’s grandmother made for us. But it was really nice to receive some great reusable towels! They are a great towel for cleaning up and I am throughly enjoying them! And not only does she make some great reusable towels, but she also has some rockin’ Tie Dye clothing items!!!
Bird-E Towels are reusable towels made by hand in Florida. As the name suggests, these are paper towel replacements. Whatever you might use a paper towel for, you can use these cloths. Dry your hands, wipe up spills, clean the dining room table, dinner napkins, etc, etc. Even better then paper towels, you can actually clean glass and mirrors without leaving linty bits like paper towels and other cloths can do. What’s the problem with paper towels?? The main problem is that the paper towels that most people use are made from virgin tree pulp. That means that trees are cut down and harvested for something that you are going to use ONE time. And then it gets thrown away…adding to the landfill problem. Oh and to make it even worse for the environment, they bleach the pulp releasing toxic chemicals into our environment. (For something that is used one time?!?) I use unbleached cotton to avoid that aspect of manufacturing. Whenever you get a chance, choose unbleached for a healthier earth. So, cloth is better in so many ways. You can expect years of use from these cloths. And considering that you can toss these small cloths in with laundry that you already have to do…it doesn’t really have much environmental impact once you get them home.
Another great eco-gift we received was from family in Wisconsin! They searched their local markets for some “local” handmade items! One of our favorite gifts was from Dragonfly Soaps out of Spooner, WI! We received a number of different soaps, one of our favorites is the Gardener’s Friend Soap: Lemon juice, sand and pumice make this bar an excellent cleanser for people who work with their hands (only for use on hands). We also received some dog shampoo, which I am excited to give that a try for our dog!
I couldn’t find information on them online, but I do have a contact address! I do have some information on homemade hand milled soaps! This information was included in the gift: “Most of the soaps and shampoos we buy in stores are not soap, but detergents made from petroleum distillates. Soaps are made with animal and/or vegetable fats, lye and water in a process known as saponification. We use beef tallow, olive oil, cocoa butter, ly and water as main ingredients for our basic soap. Hand milled soaps are cured basic soap which has been grated, remelted with a variety of skin friendly additives and molded. Though they take longer to make, they are harder and last longer. This process also protects the additives as the soap is no longer caustic when milled.”
I hope everyone of you had a wonderful, peaceful Christmas! Thank so much for your support in 2009 and looking forward to the opportunities 2010 holds!
Twitter is such a great social networking site! I have been so surprised about the community of natural mamas out there! It is wonderful place and twitter is a great way to connect all of us! Not only can you chat with other natural mamas, but you can chat with other Retailers, Manufacturers, Celebrities, etc. You will also learn about sales and giveaways!!
TWITTER BASICS:
What is Twitter?
Twitter is a service for friends, family and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?
Terminology:
Following: Same idea as adding a “friend” on Facebook, except that if they do not follow you back they will not see your updates.
Tweets: These will appear in your “timeline” or Twitter Feed. Your tweet has 140 character limit. Here is an example tweet: “Finishing up hanging my #clothdiapers out on the clothesline”.
Retweet or RT: This is a process in which you repost someone else’s Twitter status on your feed. Here is an example “RT #username “text of the tweet you are reposting”.
Hashtags: The hash “#” sign is used to mark a word as a keyword. For example adding #clothdiapers hashtag allows others to view your tweet that are following that keyword in case they are not following you!
@ (Mentions or Replies): The @ sign is used to indate that your are replying to a specific username. For example, if I wanted to ask Tiny Tush a question about their diapers, I would tweet: @TinyTush “text/question”. Remember that @reply is visible to everyone, so if you need to discuss something privately use Direct Message.
Direct Message (DM): Direct Messages are the twitter equivalent to email. You may only send direct messages to those following you.
#Clothdiapers Chat
Every Monday night at 8:00 pm EST a cloth diaper community comes together and chats all about “fluff”. To chat along with the group, it is pretty simple adding a hashtag at the end of your tweet #clothdiapers.
There are a couple of different ways to join in on the chat, but here is one simple way to chat
3. Once you are at Tweetgird, look at the top of the page and you will find a search button. Please click “search”. Enter in “clothdiapers” (one word)
4. Enter the hashtag box with #clothdiapers, enter your Twitter Username and Password and click “Tweet”.
Now you are all set to chat! Tweet Grid is nice beacause it will automatically update. Yes, it gets very busy and it is hard to keep up with the chatter, but you will get the hang of it! This really is a great forum to connect with other cloth diapers families, retailers, and manufacturers. You can ask questions about cloth diaper care, cloth diaper sizing, cloth diaper troubleshooting and so much more!
Make sure to sign up for a twitter account and follow @GrowinGreenBums Learn about sales, ask questions and just chat with us!
The wonderful Kim Rosas from Dirty Diaper Laundry (aka DDL) is bringing a Fluffy Christmas to families in need! Kim has been working tirelessly to bring a family in need a “jump” at cloth diapering. I cannot believe the support she has received! It is pretty amazing at what she has done. I am overwhelmed by happiness for her and the happiness she will bring to other families. Her dream of giving has come to fruition with her hard work and dedication. She has contacted numerous cloth diapering companies about donations and the response has been overwhelming. Major brands like Tiny Tush, Bummis, Thirsties, Snap-EZ, AMP, Happy Heineys, Bella Bottoms, Jamtots, Bagshot Row Bamboo and many more have made generous donations.
DDL is now accepting applications for Fluffy Christmas. Please click this link and check it out! If you can, post or share this in any forum, blog, facebook, twitter or any other website to help spread the word. So far, Kim has enough cloth diapers/accessories to help about 3 to 4 baskets (there could be more)! One family will be selected byMiracle Diapers, Kim Rosas from DDL, Charlene from Tiny Tush , and Growing Green Bums (me). Please remember to only apply if you are TRULY in need of cloth diapers.
Growing Green Bums is now a proud supporter of Miracle Diapers, Inc.. Yesterday, Growing Green Bums became a Lifetime Member of Miracle Diapers! I have (for a very long time) been wanting to be a part of Miracle Diapers in some way! Well, I guess it was meant to be, I recently entered into a contest for a discount on Business Memberships and I won! I am so happy to help Miracle Diapers!
Miracle Diapers is a wonderful cloth diaper charity. They are a non-profit organization dedicated to helping qualifying families across the United States to get babies in cloth! If you would like to learn more about them click here! They have also set up new age/size/shipping/replacement guildelines. To apply, you must follow a few steps and be less than 2 months away from your due date with the only child in need of cloth diapers. If you have an older child in cloth diapers, you are still able to apply! Your child also must be under 36 months and 35 pounds.
Complete Application (only will receive your application once reservation is made)
Initial Application Screening
Required Documentation
eAgreement and Fee (shipping to you and from you)
If you are not in need on any cloth diapers, there are also other ways to support Miracle Diapers, Inc. You can donate your used diapers, must be in usuable condition. If you have diapers, but are not sure if Miracle Diapers will accept, check here for a list of items they do and do not accept! Another way you can support Miracle Diapers is by becoming a member, they offer business and family memberships! Because Miracle Diapers, Inc. is a 501 (c) (3) non profit charitable organization, if you choose you can receipt for tax purposes! I hope you will join and contribute to a great cause!!
For those families that do sign up for a membership, Growing Green Bums will offer special discounts! Please contact us for details! We are also proud to help Miracle Diapers in a “local” way! Growing Green Bums will be a donation center for Northwest Florida. GGB will accept used cloth diaper donations by appointment! If you have any used diapers laying around, please contact us!!
Welcome to my new blog! I have to admit, this is my first ever blog post EVER! I am very excited to share my information and knowledge about all things “cloth”! First I would like to dedicate this blog and my journey through the cloth diaper world to my beautiful son, Hudson. He brings me joy, love, peace and so much more. His birth afforded me the opportunity to carry out my passion and commitment of working and educating families about greener diaper alternatives. Secondly, to my husband, thank you for being my best friend, husband and creating a beautiful child with me. Lastly, I want to thank all of my family and friends who have supported my journey through parenthood and beyond!
I hope to provide you with up to date information and reviews about different cloth diaper systems, how to use cloth diapers, how to care and wash cloth diapers, how to maximize the use of cloth diaper accessories, basically anything and everything to do with cloth! Once in a while I will throw in a good recipe or two and maybe a tip or two on how to live a greener lifestyle. If you are interested in learning about cloth diapers, this is the place to be!
I am looking forward to chatting with you and answering any questions or concerns. I am also looking forward to reading your comments and I want to know what YOU want to read about.
