Gordy's Girl Wool Soakers

With the Flats Handwashing Challenge coming up next week I wanted to highlight an awesome affordable diaper cover option. If you've been been around the cloth diaper community at all, you've probably heard about how awesome wool covers are. If you have followed through and looked up wool covers you have also probably discovered that they can be very pricey. Well, when I found Gordy's Girl on Etsy, I was really excited to have discovered a wool cover at a reasonable price. Priced between $8 and $14 per cover, these are a fantastic way to try wool affordably. All the products at Gordy's Girl are made by Shannon, a WAHM, and many are up-cycled wool. I love buying up-cycled wool because not only do cloth diapers keep disposables out of the landfills, but up-cycling old sweaters keeps them out of the landfills too!

Shannon sent a heavy wetter soaker in size large for Ava and me to review. The red portion is an up-cycled heavily felted wool and the gray on the waist and legs is a soft merino wool. This soaker doesn't need an extra layer in the wet zone due to the heavy felting on the main portion of it.

We used this on Ava over prefolds, fitteds, flats, and over our bulkiest nighttime solutions and got a really good fit with all of them. My favorite time to use this cover is at night actually! It does really well over nighttime diapers and I have never had a leak with this cover. I have found that since it is a pull over style the waist does stretch out a bit after a week or so of being pulled over a huge nighttime diaper. This has not affected the function for us at all though, and it does regain its snugness when I wash it. You can see in these pictures the nice fit I got on Ava!

Overall this soaker has worked great for us! I highly recommend these if you are looking to try wool for the first time or just want an affordable way to get some awesome up-cycled unique wool. Check out Gordy's Girl on Etsy to see all the adorable cover options she has.

Sweet Slings

So if you are looking to make your kitchen paperless, what products do you need to purchase? Well, most importantly you need some unpaper towels, but a wet bag to place them in when they're dirty is a huge help too. I had the chance to review both items from a shop called Sweet Slings for this post!

Shanna of Sweet Slings sent me this awesome set of six birdseye cotton unpaper towels and a kitchen wet bag to review for Earth Week. The unpaper towels she makes are one layer of unbleached birdseye cotton with serged edges. You can get just simple natural colored edging or you can get a rainbow set.

The unpaper towels Shanna makes are fantastic! I have come to the conclusion that not all birdseye cotton is created equally in this world. I have other cloths and wipes made with birdseye that are not super absorbent. The birdseye cotton that Shanna uses is fabulous though. I prepped the unpaper towels with some new diapers I had gotten, and the first time I tried one of the Sweet Slings unpaper towels to sop up a spill it sucked all the water up in seconds! These unpaper towels are in constant use in my kitchen now. I save my lesser quality ones for dry spills, and I pull out these towels for the big wet spills that I need a lot of absorbency to clean up. I used to be a paper towel addict, and I have to say these unpaper towels sop up messes better than my former favorite brand of paper towels.

I just love the coffee print fabric that Shanna chose for the wet bag she sent me! I am a coffee addict and love decorating with coffee related things in my kitchen, so this goes perfectly in my house. The 13" x 20" size is perfect for fitting a lot of unpaper towels, dish cloths, and hand towels.

I don't know about you, but I really dislike when I wash diaper wet bags and the PUL comes out of the cotton bag and I have to re-stuff it every. single. time. The wet bags from Sweet Slings are sewn to prevent that problem! I know where I will be getting new wet bags for my diaper laundry the next time I need some. One really unique feature about this wet bag that I love is that the PUL doesn't line the top portion of the bag above the zipper. This means that the top of the bag is just breathable fabric, so even if you close the zipper air can still circulate inside. This can help prevent smells and mildew, which is helpful for the times that I am too lazy to make sure I let the unpaper towels dry before I throw them in the bag!

Shanna has a lot of other really neat items in her shops. She sells via both Etsy and Hyenacart, and has slightly different inventories in each. She makes adorable twirly skirts for little girls, aprons for Mama (I've got my eye on this apple one!), diaper wet bags, diaper stackers, Mei Tais, and ring slings in addition to the unpaper towels and kitchen wet bags! The quality of the stitching on the wet bag and towels I received to review is fantastic and I am sure that all of her other products exemplify the same top notch quality. Shanna has created a discount code for Cloth Diaper Addiction readers for 10% off that will work in both her Hyenacart shop and her Etsy shop. The code is CDAFAN, and any purchase that uses the CDAFAN coupon code between now and May 10, 2013 will receive a free gift with their order! Check out her Facebook page and tell her CDA sent you!

Booty Looty Reusable Products

In continuation of our Earth Day focus this month, I have a wonderful WAHM shop to share with you all today. Booty Looty has an awesome selection of reusable products for you, your kids, and your home! Ashlie is the mama behind the shop and sells both via her Facebook page, and via a congo on HyenaCart called Kings of the Castle. Ashlie sent me a set of unpaper towels, a set of wipes, and a set of nursing pads to review.

I love the prints Ashlie uses and I think the little bows for packaging are so cute! The unpaper towels she sent me came in a package of six 12" x 12" towels. They have an adorable pears and apples woven print on the top and a brown terry cloth on the back. Like all unpaper towels I have, I made sure to prep like I would a cloth diaper. Prepping just helps increase the absorbency of the fabric and makes them more effective. Once prepped these still look awesome, and they are so absorbent! I have some other brands that use terry cloth, and the fabric that Ashlie uses is much more absorbent. These have become my go-to cloths for sopping up spills or scrubbing down a counter in my kitchen.

I was so excited when I opened the package and saw that Ashlie chose a cute owl print for the nursing pads. The nursing pads that she makes are about 5 inches in diameter, and I have found that they fit great in all of my nursing bras. She makes them with two layers of flannel and backs them with a layer of fleece for moisture resistance. I am still nursing Ava at fifteen months old, and since she is adding solid foods to her diet her nursing times are very sporadic. I have definitely made use of these to protect my clothes on the days where Ava decides not to nurse much! They work great, and I love how soft they are against my skin.

The set of wipes Ashlie sent me to review are so lovely! They have a flannel print on the top and a bright turquoise organic bamboo velour on the back. The wipes I received are turned and topstitched, but Ashlie also makes serged options so you can choose whichever option you prefer.

These wipes have been really great for diaper changes and wiping noses. I just love velour backed wipes because they maintain their softness for a long time, but still have enough grip to get things clean! I love to keep these wipes in my diaper bag for Ava's nose right now, but they also work so well for wiping up other messes that happen throughout the day. We use cloth for as much as possible in our home and these are a great addition to our cloth options!

I highly recommend the Booty Looty line of reusable products. Ashlie has really affordable pricing, and the quality is just fantastic! Enter in the form below.


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Bees Wrap

Since Earth Day is coming up soon we are featuring some products that will help you go green in your home. Today I am happy to introduce you to a product called Bees Wrap. I was sent the Medium (10"x11") size to review.

Bees Wrap is a really cool product that can help you cut down on your use of plastic wrap, tin foil, and plastic bags. It is made from organic muslin fabric that has been coated with a mixture of beeswax, jojoba oil, and tree resin. This coating gives the Bees Wrap a slightly stiff texture and are what help it to seal to whatever you are using it to store.

Each piece of Bees Wrap has their adorable logo stamped onto it in the corner. In this close up you can kind of see the sheen of the beeswax/oil coating.

Basically to use it you lay it over top of the bowl, cup, or container that you are covering, and then use the heat of your hands to seal it on top. This picture above is of my gigantic coffee mug. I couldn't wait to try the Bees Wrap when I got it, and my mug was the closest thing to me! I got an awesome seal on the edge of the mug. I was a little nervous that it would leave a sticky residue behind like that disposable sticky plastic wrap stuff does, but it doesn't leave much sticky-ness behind. I had a little bit on the edge of my mug that I could feel, but it wiped right off with a warm cloth. (My favorite part of putting it on my mug? The lovely beeswax smell that lingered for a little while after I took it off!)

I mostly have been using the Bees Wrap to cover bowls in my refrigerator. This bowl was a chicken salad that I covered with Bees Wrap to store in my fridge, and it kept the salad so nice and fresh! It does take a little more work to cover the bowl back up if I take it out of the fridge to get food out of it and then want to put it back on. That is only due to the fridge making the Bees Wrap cold, though, so you just need more heat from your hands than normal.

Bees Wrap comes in four sizes: the Bread Wrap (17"x23"), Large (13"x14"), Medium (10"x11"), and Small (7"x8"). The Bread Wrap is big enough to wrap a whole loaf of bread! I found that the Medium I had was big enough for my biggest mixing bowl, but not quite big enough for my largest Pyrex bowl. You can also use Bees Wrap to wrap up sandwiches, cheese, or the cut end of veggies or fruit. The only thing you shouldn't use Bees Wrap for is raw meat for food safety.

I have really enjoyed getting to try Bees Wrap, and am definitely going to be purchasing all the sizes they have! Their prices are so reasonable, and I love that I can cut down on my disposable plastic wrap usage by using this product.

Bees Wrap has generously offered to giveaway a set of three Bees Wraps to one of our readers! Enter in the form below.


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The Sili Squeeze!

The Sili Squeeze-It's not a bottle, It's a squeeze!

The Sili Squeeze is made out of silicone which is BPA-PVC and Phthalate free. It comes with four pieces that assembly together to create a reusable food pouch for your little one to eat from. 

I received the 4 ounce Sili Squeeze with a spill proof nipple as well as a Squeeze with Ease spout.

The pieces are the pouch, the ring which attaches to the nipple/seal and the lid to help prevent leaks when not in use. 

Here it is! 

The lid has a knob in the middle top of it which fits right into the nipple which blocks it from leaking when your little one isn't using it 

The nipple is attached permanently to the seal which screws onto the ring at the mouth of the pouch. I was nervous about not being able to get it completely clean but we have not had any issues.  

The ring has a divot that lines up to the matching spot on the pouch. 

Ta-da! 

(I didn't realize that it had this until I tried to use it once and it kept leaking! Go me!)

The nipple/seal combo screw right on similar to a bottle or sippy cup. It seems tight the first few times that you use it but that is to ensure that it won't leak after continued use. 

This is where we ran into a small issue. While we were trying to tighten the nipple/seal to the ring, the pouch would twist and make the divot not line up. Once you figure out how to hold the ring and pouch together, you can make sure that it doesn't spin. It will also get easier to put the nipple on after a few uses. They make it tight so that you won't have leaking as you use it more often.

Kynlie loves to squeeze it. I love that it doesn't squirt all over!

She kept trying to figure out how it didn't spill out when she would shake it. She loves to make a mess with our "spill proof" cups. We put juice in here too and it never spilled.

Sili Squeeze it great for babies of all ages. My 3 year old and 5 year old each were so happy when they got a turn to use it as well. Their favorite was homemade applesauce that they got to bring in the van!

Sili Squeeze is amazing for purees, sauces, fruits or veggies. We even put homemade pudding in it a few times and it worked great.

They are great for on the go, at home, for a snack or a meal. It helps to build your little ones independence and self feeding.

She gets so excited when I put a treat in her Sili Squeeze! Kynlie's favorites are yogurt and "smoothies".

You can find all sorts of recipes here to use with your Sili Squeeze..

To fill it, we use a couple of different techniques. We used a basic spoon to fill it but that was time consuming although worked well with not any spilling. We also used a basic food funnel. Depending on what type of puree or food you are putting in, this may not work. It really depends on the thickness and consistency. Pudding did not work with the funnel. 

Sili Squeeze come in two sizes (4oz and 6oz) and there are a variety of colors to choose from. You can also choose to get the Squeeze with Ease which has an open end on the nipple so that older kids can enjoy them as well. 

Overall, we loved the Sili Squeeze. The kids still fight over who gets to have a turn with it. Although it was tricky to figure out at first how to get it to not leak and to get to the point where the nipple would screw on easier, we still love it. I love that fact that you can reuse it and make your own foods to put in it. 

You can find Sili Squeeze on Facebook here.

You can purchase Sili Squeeze here.

We would like to say Thank You to Sili Squeeze for sponsoring a giveaway for our 12 Days of Clothmas!

Let us know what you think!

Disclaimer: I received one Sili Squeeze  for review. All opinions are honest and my own. You may have a different experience.