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"!
I am always excited to support the Real Diaper Association (RDA) and their mission to help put more babies in fluff!!! I need your help with raising money for their campaign. I am giving away a
Your choice of colors and closures!! In order to be entered into this giveaway, you must do one option below (remember every option is tax-deductible):
Giveaway ends August 11th at 11:59 EST! At the end of the Contest I will randomly pick winner with the help from random.org. I will contact the winner and ask for receipt or confirmation of donation before prize is handed out! Thank You.
Are you a memeber of the Real Diaper Associtation (RDA)? Do you know what/who RDA is all about? The RDA is a non-profit organization on a quest to change “diapers”, literally one baby at a time! Right now RDA is trying to raise $3500 by August 11! Please help us by making a donation or even better, become a member! The money will help RDA advocate to get more babies in cloth!
FROM RDA:
We come here to you with a request. RDA continues to play a leading role in the cloth diaper movement, training and supporting grassroots advocates to lead local Real Diaper Circles, compiling and distributing research on the subject, working with the media and other businesses and organizations to increase awareness about cloth diapers, and providing direct reliable, unbiased support for consumers. We do all of this with the support of our member donors. If you haven’t contributed to our efforts before, please join us as a member today-annual individual membership is still only $25. Your donation is tax-deductible, and membership ensures that you’ll be kept up-to-date with our work via our quarterly print newsletter. www.realdiaperassociation.org/directory/signup.php
Because we’ve had the good luck to employ an Executive Director over the past year, we’ve been able to accomplish a lot recently . Explore the archives of our blog atwww.realdiaperevents.org for stories about some of most recent accomplishments, such as:
the launch of a cloth-diaper-friendly daycare directory and publication of a tip sheet on using cloth diapers in daycare ,
a blog carnival focused on Real Diaper Facts that highlighted some of the most useful research out there on the benefits of cloth diapers, and
the ongoing 100% reusable cloth diapers campaign to support people and choosing and using real diapers in any situation.
Additionally, there are 15 active Real Diaper Circles and nearly 100 volunteers in training to become Leaders across the U.S. and Canada.
We are convinced that we made the right decision in hiring our Executive Director, and have plans for how to accomplish more in the coming year. In order to do so, we need to continue to fund the Executive Director position and ensure that we have someone in place to push all our efforts forward.
This is the time for cloth diapers for a number of great reasons. You have been supportive in individual advocacy, spreading the message time and again to your friends and acquaintances. Join together with us now and take a larger role in the overall cloth diaper movement. Become a member of the Real Diaper Association today atwww.realdiaperassociation.org/directory/signup.php .
If you can’t become a member, would you please consider giving just a little to help our efforts? We need to raise $3500 in 35 days before our 6th Anniversary on August 11, 2010! We’re confident we can do it. Please help, then spread the word to the other cloth diaperers you know. These contributions, like membership donations, are tax-deductible.
Thank you for all you do on behalf of cloth diapers.
As you may know GGB is located on the Gulf Coast, we are between Pensacola and Destin. We have been seeing oil wash up onto our beautiful white sand and emerald shores everyday,and everyday it seems to get worse. It is so sad what is happening to our beaches, I believe this will even get larger and spread to other parts of Florida’s coastline. I know the Cloth Diaper Community islarge and I wanted to keep you posted on how you can help with the oil clean up!
It is called “Cloth for the Coast” started by the creator and manufacturer of FuzziBunz, Tereson Dupuy. She is located in New Orleans and reaching out to all the families in the cloth diaper community to help! About two weeks ago she made the connection that microfiber inserts could aid in wildlife clean up, how exciting is this? Cloth for the Coast is accepting donations of old cloth diapers (prefolds or contours w/o snaps) and any type of diaper inserts – as well as baby blankets, receiving blankets, burp cloths and other cloth items that could be used to clean up our increasingly damaged wildlife.
I also would like to ask for local North West Florida families to bring their donations by our office, 2709 Gulf Breeze Pkwy Gulf Breeze, FL on July 10 from 10-2. I will also set up a “donation station” so you can drop them off in case we are not there, local donations can help our local relief efforts like Destin Wildlife Refuge.
Please “like” them on Face Book to keep up with their relief efforts!
If you are not local, please send donations to:
FuzziBunz Diapers
Attn: CFC
315 Weeks St
New Iberia, LA 70560
So if you have wondering how you can help, the time is NOW!!!!!! We CAN make a difference!
For all the bumGenius fans out there, waiting on the edge of their seat….refreshing their youtube video site….It is finally here! Their announcment of their new and imporved diaper, the 4.0! Here are some of the new features:
Changes in the new bumGenius 4.0 One-Size Cloth Diaper:
1. Now accommodates even larger babies! Better yet, the diaper still fits small babies too.
2. All new hook & loop closures (also available in refresher kits)
3. Accessible, easily replaceable elastic. All elastic tack-points are now visible from the inside of the diaper. To replace elastic, turn the diaper inside out, thread new elastic through the casing and stitch it down at each end.
4. Three new colors. Bubble (light lavendar), Noodle (light cream) and Sweet (light green). We are waiting on shipments to arrive from Egypt and anticipate being able to ship the new colors in all of our other products soon (details to come via the Updates page on the wholesale website).
5. And my favorite new feature… you now have your choice of closures (snaps or hook & loop).
How to Preorder:
Visit our site and order color/clousre/quanitity of your choice.
Please select “Local Pick Up” and “check” at checkout! You will receive free shipping and will not be charged!
Once stock arrives, I will contact everybody and make arrangements for payment!
Thank You!!!! Stock from Cottonbabies will be shipping July 14th.
I thought we should have another fun giveaway! So here it is, this giveaway is for a Thirsties Duo Diaper, color and size of your Thirsties, Inc is one of my favorite companies and I absolutely love their quality made products. I love their “green” business ethics and what they are doing for our environment!
Their new Duo Diaper is a fabulous “sleeve” diaper. It does have the “pocket” diaper quality, but it has 2 “pockets” so it is more like a sleeve. The sleeve allows for the insert to come out during the wash! It really does work, I was very skeptical at first but it works! It is nice not to have to pull out a dirty insert, your hands really do stay clean! The Duo Diapers comes in two perfect sizes! Size one fits babies from 6 lbs to 18 lbs. Size Two fits babies from 18 lbs to 40 lbs. You can get 6 different sizes from the two sized diapers, it really does grow with your baby! Another feature that I absolutely love about this diaper is the gusset action! The gussets prevent leaks and major blowouts, they are pretty amazing! There are two inserts included with the diaper, a microbfiber insert and a hemp insert which snap together at the ends! I am so surprised at the absorbency, I have been able to get away with just using the two inserts for overnight and no leaks! Usually with a pocket, I have to use a special insert just for overnight! So, safe to safe their inserts impressed me ! I am so happy to offer this giveaway to our readers! Good Luck!!!!
How to enter (please leave a comment for every method of entry)
Mandatory Entry:
Visit Growing Green Bums store and share your favorite color/print of Thirsites Duo Diaper! Leave a comment.
For Extra entries:
Visit Thirsties, Inc.and tell me something you learned! Leave a comment.
Follow @GrowinGreenBums on twitter and tweet this giveaway. Please tweet, Win a Thirsties Duo Diaper from @GrowinGreenBums http://bit.ly/9i0q5L #clothdiapers Leave a comment with your status.
You can tweet once a day, leave a comment with your status for each tweet.
Follow me through Google Friend Connect. Leave a comment
Subscribe to my blog via email through feedburner. Leave a comment.
Grab my button and post it on your blog. Leave a comment.
Blog about this giveaway. Post a link in the comment.
At the beginning of the month I took a trip to San Antonio, TX. On my list of things to do was to visit with the creator of Rockin’ Green Cloth Diaper Detergent, Kim Webb. I was fortunate enough to meet and interview her! I even got to tour the Rockin’ Green headquarters. I was so excited to meet Kim after months and months of chatting wither her via Twitter and Facebook, I was able to meet her in real life. We had a great time chatting about detergent and fluff. We first toured the office and I got to meet one of her son’s and an employee! After the tour, we sat down and I asked her a few questions. I would love to share with all my readers the pictures of her office and her answers to my questions! I hope you enjoy!
Q (Marissa): Why did you create Rockin’ Green?
A (Kim): I cloth diapered my oldest, who is 4 now, and was stripping every 2 weeks. In Texas, we have hard water and I even blew up one washing machine. I also converted all my friends to cloth, I was involved in a large playgroup. My friends came to me asking “I can’t get this to work?” and I felt really bad because I couldn’t help them and I couldn’t even get the stink out of my diapers. That was a big draw back to cloth diapering because I couldn’t help them wash. I was so tired of not being able to wash stuff right, my kids would get rashes from everything and I could not find anything that would work at the grocery stores. I then started researching about all the chemicals in laundry detergents and I started tinkering around and basically made my son’s own soap for months and months. I first started selling my detergent along with GAD diapers to see how it would do. And well, it took off and now all I sell is Rockin’ Green.
Q (Marissa): What is a typical day like to work for Rockin’ Green?
side note: extremely kid friendly, you can bring your kids to work! How cool is that?
A (Kim): It is pretty laid back, show up around 9, kids running around, my oldest, Jackson, is always playing…. my youngest, Zachary, thinks he is the foreman and will boss people around. The soap is now made in a larger facility, we could not keep up with demand, so it is made and packaged in a local facility. Then it comes back to us and we ship it out. We go through about 7,000 lbs of detergent a week, the facility is in San Antonio and we just got a bagging machine!
Warehouse
~Long Pause~ Potty Crew!
Q (Marissa): Can you tell me how your company makes environmentally friendly choices?
A (Kim): Packaging is very important, before we were using double bags a plastic bag to protect the soap and then a cloth bag to make it pretty. But it was a lot of waste, people would end up with 20 bags and it was adding up too much. We decided to go with the new bags, they are one piece and recyclable, they take up less to transport compared to a box of detergent. The bags allow for easy shipping. We wanted something to fit in a flat rate envelope which are already made by the post office so therefore reducing waste. Our soap is also biodegradable and you only need to use about 2 tbs. which creates less waste and run off!
Q (Marissa): With the launch of all the new scents and formula, can you tell me how the they differ from the original Rockin’ Green?
A (Kim): In my quest to make Hard Rock, it was about a year project, I did a lot of researching and discovered ways to make Soft Rock and Classic Rock even better. When we did our product testing, it was all people who were previously using Classic or Soft Rock, we found some really cool things along the way to make it superior.
Q (Marissa): What is your best washing tip to other cloth diapering families?
A (Kim): Don’t skimp on the water!!!!! If you have a front loader, replace the word “Rinse” with “Wash”. For example, if you have a top loader, you normally do a rinse, a wash, and a rinse. For a front loader, I would suggest a wash, a wash, and a wash. You are still not going to be using the same amount of water as the top loader folks, but you really need to have the water because that is where the ammonia buildup comes up for the most part. For example, if you are washing 15 pocket diapers in a front loader, each insert will hold about 8 oz sometimes 15 oz, and if you think about it that is a lot of urine in each insert. Let’s say each of the 15 inserts holds about a cup of pee, you put the diapers in and your inserts in the front loader a lot of times the front loader does not put that much water in, so you are washing with a 50/50 mix of water and urine. That will not be rinsed out all the way, so if you do the 3 washes you will be more likely to get the urine flushed out. So, Wash Cold (no detergent), Wash hot (w/ detergent) and Wash Cold (no detergent). The first wash will get most of the urine, so your next wash you will be washing in clean water. This is what I suggest when someone is having stink issues with a front loader, I believe to attack it at the front and not the end.
Wash Routine!
A short bio of Kim:
She and her husband of 9 years have 2 boys, Jackson 4 and Zachary 18 months. They currently reside in San Antonio, TX. Her hubby was a Marine and aircraft mechanic, but now works full time at Rockin’ Green!
Ms. Kim Webb and Son, Zachary
To celebrate the new formula and scents one of our lucky Readers will win a bag of Rockin’ Green Hard Rock!
How to enter (please leave a comment for every method of entry)
Mandatory Entry:
Visit Growing Green Bums store and tell me your favorite item, besides Rockin’ Green!
Become of a fan of Rockin’ Green on Facebook. Leave a comment.
Follow @GrowinGreenBums on twitter and tweet this giveaway. Please tweet, Win Rockin’ Green Hard Rock from @GrowinGreenBums http://bit.ly/aBrxIA #clothdiapers Leave a comment with your status.
You can tweet once a day, leave a comment with your status for each tweet.
Follow me through Google Friend Connect. Leave a comment
Subscribe to my blog via email through feedburner. Leave a comment.
Grab my button and post it on your blog. Leave a comment.
Blog about this giveaway. Post a link in the comment.
I am a brand new Cloth Diapering momma. And have to say, it is WONDERFUL. One of the reasons why I wanted to make the switch to cloth was cost savings. My first purchase were bumGenius 3.0 Pocket Diapers. I LOVE them! The pocket style is so easy to use and keeps my 8 week old son’s bum dry. The feature that I like best about the bumGenius is the wicking power, bumGenius has a stay dry layer which allows moisture to go through and keeps my son’s bum dry!! It works wonders! And because they are one size, I am also using them for my 23 month old daughter at night and adding one microfiber booster to the diaper. It keeps her dry all night which is fantastic because she sleeps 12 hours or longer.
I have also recently purchased the Flip Stay Dry System and I cannot say enough good things about these diapers. The reusable one size covers are awesome and so easy to use. As long as my son doesn’t have a blowout, the cover is used over and over. I have gotten 4 diaper changes out of just one cover. But even with a blowout, he has never had a leak. I can also use these for my daughter! I never in a million years thought I would use cloth diapers, but now that I am, I couldn’t imagine going back to disposables! They are easy to use, easy to wash, and GREAT for my kids. I have already talked two of my disposable using friends into cloth diapering their kids.
Another leap I have taken in the cloth diaper world is switching to reusable cloth wipes! I have been making my wipes solution using Booty Cubes. You simply dissolve a couple of cubes in water and they smell great! There are so many different fragrances yet very very gentle on my children’s bottoms and faces. I will recommend cloth diapering to all my friends and hope that people ask me about the cute covers while out, so I can share in my new hobby! Happy diapering!
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!!!
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.
I am always excited to support the Real Diaper Association (RDA) and their mission to help put more babies in fluff!!! I need your help with raising money for their campaign. I am giving away a
! I am so happy to offer this giveaway to our readers! Good Luck!!!!
How to enter (please leave a comment for every method of entry)
