Homeschool

Okay so here is why I homeschool! Not just because I like them, but because they have a chance at real life experience. Not many kids get to learn their parents trade. My kids help with drywalling, they know what tools to get for daddy, how to unlock the shed to get the tools. My son knows where to get them from in the tool chest! Even I don't know that... They know how engines work- in part. They can both sew, and now Tad can make inserts for the diapers on the serger. I have an attic full of fabric bales and bins now, we organized yesterday. My children can stock bins, pick fabric by style i.e., go get some flannel print in a girl color. Nathalie will bring down as many choices as she can carry. Tad knows the difference in hemp fleece and cotton fleece, by the weight, the feel of the fabric.

I learned long ago that I sew not only because I know how but because I listen. I know thats crazy, but this is my blog thus my crazy spot. I hear fabric, I dont just feel it. I can listen to it, know how to pull and push it, when to let the machine take it so it doesnt get too stretched out. I cant teach someone to listen, I can only hope they hear. As children, we all heard. My children do hear, I dont have to explain it. I try and they can tell me what I mean, what I am trying to say. They understand, dont worry mommy. I know what you mean.

This is my greatest advocacy for homeschool. My children understand herbs from nikki, nursing from nana, cars and houses from daddy, sewing from mommy. And they can read, write, do arithmatic and know who hitler was. And who American Indians are, and how many continents there are, and the order of the planets in the solar system, and why the moon follows us at night...

Stocking!

We are still working on stocking the website! I know it seems like it wouldnt be hard, but for me the sewing can be time consuming. For Nikki of Kat's Naturals, she is still researching. We have have some wonderful products, but they do take research. As with all things, we have to use them ourselves and give samples to local customers and obtain feedback. Some things such as laundry detergent and wipe spray have been used by us for some time. We love these products and they work great! But every product takes tweaking and time. Some of the things that we have made and ready to go still need some research.

As for time, I have this thing called kids... They seem to need and like me! I am pleased that they like me and love that they need me. My son is walking in a circle behind me right now talking about something concerning going into the snow without clothes. Something about how he would survive through any temperature! They provide me with humor often. They are time consuming though, especially because they are homeschooled. While it takes them less time to complete the task, it takes me time that would otherwise be free. I wouldnt give up this job for the world, but its why stocking is slow!

Then I have a husband, I like him to! We do spend as much time together as possible since he is going to a military school for about 6 monthes and he leaves in november. I will miss him and would rather be with him than stocking some evenings. I feel like I will have much time to fill during that 6 monthes and can get lots of stocking done.

I did get some done today, small all in ones will be well stocked as soon as I get pictures up. I think we are good for pockets with most sizes and medium all in ones are getting there. Large all in ones and newborns in all in ones and pockets are lacking. Large is my best seller and nb is my lowest. Pull ups look good right now and I have lowered the price on those. Pockets will have to go up, I cant keep them this low anymore. I am really losing on those!

Lots of 2nd quality pads coming up, I am practicing with the serger and am getting better. However, I have some cut outs from my old pattern which was too curvy to serge. I am serging them anyways, but they are not great! I have 3 sets on auction and some in the store right now. More updates later!

Set of pads on ebay auction!

Work work work!

A piece of our day! The daddy is drywalling, Tad is serging inserts and Nathalie is thinking of napping after we read her new books. She is sporting her new wooly pants that I made and lasts years dress. The dress that I mastered arm cuffs on!

Tad is wearing the long sleeve camo shirt I made, along with his new pants that he helped cut and pin. These pants total 16 pcs when cut out, a topstitching masterpiece!

I made a lot of headway on mama pads today. I have a large pile of pad tops that were cut out before I bought the serger. I was using a machine interlock stitch then. I use the serger now, but the pattern had to be larger and slightly less curvy so now I have all of these leftover tops! I can serge them but they are tough around the curves so they are all 2nds. I am and will continue listing them on ebay auctions and as pkg deals on my website. I need to move them out for the new pattern!

Hidden Smile

These are pictures I took of my God daughter. Nikki and I were sewing, making winter clothes for her 4 and my 2. Faith is wearing a new wool interlock dress and wanted something to wear on her head, Nikki wrapped her head in a piece of marroon fabric. Her eyes are stunning showing through the space, and yet you cannot see the child that she is through it, her smile is all but lost here. I do not mean for these pictures to be offensive to those of a religion that requires such attire, I was simply stunned by how different she was with a simple head wrap.

Finally a post...

So much to say! One of my best friends in Cali posts to her blog regularly. I know she has no more time than I do. She has a house similarly sized, 2 children just like me and a cloth diapers business. Her store is more full than mine and her blog is wicked amazing! I love going and reading it and I cant read fast enough. She has posts I have never read... I should post more, there are people who ask me to so that they can apprise themselves of my going ons and yet here I sit acting busy!

--This was my morning job before we started school.

I am putting up some pictures from this mornings work, the kids helped me with this by sorting fabric into piles of tops and waterproof bottoms and then Tad can now pick which pcs are wide enough for pads and which bits have to be piled up for mini wet bags and pad soakers. So I cut out while they sort and hand me pcs. Now we have small piles of mini, regular and super cuts for tops and bottoms and a small pile of soakers. The leftover waterproof pcs will be cut into squares for mini pad bags and the pcs of micro/flannel that are long enough for soaker tops will be used for that instead of being cut into pad soakers. I need an avg of 8 inches wide to make a pad top/bottom because of the wings.

I have recently learned to serge my pads, they were taking so much of my time on the machine. I was using a machine interlock stitch that looked similar to a serge stitch but I can serge 7 in the time it took to sew 1. I dont want to stitch and turn pads as then they have a bulky seam all around the edges which does show through well fitting pants-quite embarrassing! I am serging them, yet I am not great at it! We are going to have a huge pads seconds sale on my website. All prices will be slashed on pads to sell out the ones made on the machine and the prices will stay low while I become more practiced at serging so look out for pkg sales on my site!

In other news, I think I may have found an employee! A local mom from my home school group spent Friday with us learning about what I do. She did some cutting and I learned that I was correct in thinking she pays attention to detail. She learns fast, I think it helps that she already knows how to sew. I am looking forward to working with her again on Friday, I think she will be great for this business. I am including a picture of what we are working on Friday, this table is filled by pad cuts and that was just this morning. This bin is full of scraps that must be cut into pads. Also is a picture of my trash pile, that pile would include all on my table and all in that bin if I didn't make pads and mini bags! The poor earth is already too full of trash, I am glad that I can find a way to use these pcs.

This is about 6 wks of scraps- leftover pcs from diaper and pull up cutting!

My friend in California has also found a good use for her larger scraps, she sends them to me! We are exchanging this wk, she is sending her large piles of usable scraps and I am sending her some windpro that I was able to obtain on sale. Malden Mills had a huge sale on fabric before they stopped selling wholesale, thanks to my mom I was able to buy a pretty large quantity. My friend Amanda also buys in wholesale, but neither of us can afford all we would like so we use a trade system to share the colors! She will be putting out some great diapers and covers in oat colored heavy weight windpro and I will have extra cutting for Angela and some really cute pads for some of you! Thanks Amanda for a great trade...

I have more to post later, made some really cute winter clothes for the kids which they kindly modeled.

Too busy!

Still on vacation and so ready to be home! We have spent 2 wks visiting family, some of them my husband has not seen for 2 years. His time on the trail as a drill sergeant has been tough. He is now off the trail and preparing for Warrant Officer school. This will be at Ft Rucker Alabama and then Aberdeen Proving Ground Md. He will be gone several months...

With this in mind, I am attempting to get caught up on work and have the kids a little ahead in homeschool so that we can visit daddy often. These 2 jobs are not, I repeat not, going as planned! This 2 wks has put us behind a bit in school though both kids were ahead so maybe we will be okay. I have not met my goals for sure, I have to finish listing in my store on Monday, Nikki's products are not uploaded. Also I have to finish stocking all other areas of Joli's Diaper Art. My poor sister, manager and goal planner is probably quite frustrated! As it turns out, I overextend myself and simply cannot accomplish things as I hope. The kids have to come first and sometimes there isn't a lot left over for work.

So just a blog post to update you on my crazy life and why work is so behind! Hopefully this next week will be open enough to have everything updated and going.

Back in town!

I have been out of town and am back now! Lots of work piled up in my absence, for those of you waiting on orders, I am working as fast as possible.
I have some great pictures to put up soon, my advocacy for home school continues. Watching my children and God children playing out in the country makes me happier than ever that I chose this path. My best friend and business partner has a large piece of land equipped with a swimming pool, tire swing, tree house, wood shop, large school and sewing room, wooded trails and a large house for playing in. She and her husband purchased a broken home and have been fixing it up since then. They have made it into a wonderful place to be! My kids love being there so much, they miss their friends terribly each time we leave.
While at Nikki's house I continued to research diaper art. Willow, Nikki's youngest, is 14 months old and in a large diaper. She can go about 4 hrs in my day diapers, either a pocket or snap in AIO with 4 layers hemp fleece or 6 of jersey. During the night, she successfully stays dry all night long with a fitted lite and snap in hemp soaker and a 200 wt fleece soaker. I am glad to see no changes need to be made with diapering as Willow enters a new size.
Changes to my website continue to occur, my sister and business partner is starting a new job and has been working very hard to get my site up and running before she starts. She has done a beautiful job! I love the site far more than I would have if had done it myself, its something she excels at for sure. She has instructed me in uploading products so I will continue to get more things up for your shopping pleasure!
More later, off to educate my small people...