Where in the world is . . . . ??

Oh wait . . .here I am!!  

Sorry I have been MIA.  

I blame these people

Can I say that having 6 kids has kicked my butt?  I mean seriously.  I have started maybe 1/2 dozen blog posts (and have like another couple dozen topics I want to cover) and I get online to work on one and I either have e-mails I have to answer or some child is hungry, or needs to nurse, or needs to be wiped or is hurt (or is hurting someone else) or is standing on the counter (sometimes standing on the counter AND needing to be wiped) or is getting in to the fridge . . . or getting into the fridge and dumping food on the floor, and often it is multiples of these happening at the same time!

I know I don't have to tell you, anyone with little ones knows what I am talking about.  And then in the evening after they are asleep (which is actually when I usually get any real computer stuff done) I often have stuff to clean, or I get called back to bed by a crying baby or dh wants my attention (that is our "alone" time ya know) or I am just mentally ready to veg out infront of some mindless show with ice cream!  Yes I love my ice cream!!  I love it so much I try to spend some time with it every evening!  And we had been rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer recently (it is amazing how much you can forget it 10 yrs) and now that we finished it, we are rewatching Angel.  Fun times!!  Ice cream and Vampires . . . does it get better than that . . . maybe zombies?  (actually I just really like watching Spike . . . those of you who have seen Buffy know what I am talking about ;0)  And for those who don't . . . . here is a photo . . .

Yes, I just put a photo of Spike from Buffy on my blog, LOL!!

 So our summer this year was not nearly as busy as our summer last year (when we went to the BW conference in Idaho and to the beach in FL and OBX).  And last year I had morning sickness most of the summer . . . but I still think having baby #6 here has made it a bit harder to keep up.  Since I last checked in here we have
 ............................made a trip to Hershey Park in May, made a trip to GA to see my gorgeous niece Olive who was born (in a natural hospital waterbirth) to my little sister Karla in June (her first baby).

Me and newborn Olive

Olive and 12 wk old Dagyn

We also got some baby chicks, painted the front porch (yes, the kids and I spent 2 wks painting all the railings, it was a bit crazy but it turned out great) we had a big birthday party, we had some pets pass away, We got a trampoline . .

In the morning (as you see they are in their PJ's).  They couldn't wait, this is right after we put it up, before we could level it and put up the net and padding

 . . .we had a fun long weekend with family in Lynchburg, built and tiled a shower in the upstairs bathroom (that actually used to be a closet, we are just finishing it up now, just a bit more grouting to do) we got more baby chicks and have spent several days at the lake and with friends.  But I don't think anyone has been doing as much work this summer as this little guy . . .

Dagyn 5mo . . . growing, and growing, and growing . . .

 But I promise.  I am going to try desperately to get back to the habit of blogging, because I always have so much on my mind to share.

Low Water Immersion dying (tie-dye look) with Dylon

 I posted a few weeks ago HERE about how I was taking all my stained baby clothes and dying them.  Duh, I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before (especially considering that my brain functions so well most days).  I did the baby onsies, t-shirts, and then the kids tees and some prefolds too.

So as promised, I am sharing how I did it.  It was super easy really.  The look is that of tie dye, but it isn't technically I don't think.  It is called low water immersion dying or LWI (detailed instructions below).

Those of you who are reading and dye clothes often (or even to sell) know that Dharma and other fiber reactive dyes you get online are superior to anything you can find in the store.  But I was looking for something that I could just run out to the store to buy. Actually I was trying to keep from having to spend too much money all at once, and I could pick up a few colors here and there as needed.

I used Dylon.  You can get it at craft stores like JoAnns (that is where I got mine).  Stay away from Rit, it is a different type of dye and will bleed with every washing . . . no good.  After a couple washes Dylon doesn't bleed and so far the colors have held up and still look great after several washings! 

There are 6 basic steps

1. Wet your fabric (or if it is new wash and leave damp)
2. Scrunch in a small container
3. Mix up dye/salt etc.
4. Pour on dye
5. Wait
6. Rinse/wash

What is Low Water Immersion Dying?

It's easy . . .basically you are dying your fabric using much less water than instructions call for and the fabric doesn't free flow in the dye bath, rather you pour it straight on the clothes in a more concentrated form.  In order to get the contrast in colors/shades with LWI dying you take your fabric and scrunch it up and stuff it into a small container, something that leaves little room for the fabric to move around.  Then when you pour on your dye it soaks into fabric at different intensities since it is all bunched up.  Some fabric will get a direct hit with full strength dye, the crevices and folds will just get a hint of the dye and will be much less intense.  If you use 2 colors poured on separately they will blend where they touch each other making wonderful variations in color and contrast. And best of all . . . did I say it was easy?

Choosing colors

With LWI you can use just 1 color if you like.  If you choose 1 color you will get the same look, with a lot of contrast and swirly patterns, but with, well,  just 1 color (so you will have lighter and darker shades of the same color). I have done it with wonderful results, but unfortunately I didn't get a picture of it (it was a gift for my sister).  If you choose 2 or even 3 colors you will get beautiful contrast and mixing of colors where they meet each other.  You want to choose colors that will complement each other.  For example the first one I did was red and blue.  In the areas where the colors combine they will mix together, so my final product looked like it had 3 colors . . . red, blue and purple. I have also done 2 of the same color (light and dark blue) which was Ever's idea and I loved it!  And some combos (pink and green) didn't turn out that hot.

Some examples 
(click any picture to view it larger)

Red and blue

blue and yellow

prefolds, one with green and pink (not so hot together) the other 2 shades of blue (much better)

When doing black with any color remember that the black is so dark that it will completely cover any other color you add.  I used the same amount of the black and red (1 cup each).  Some of the shirts turned out great, with great contrast, but others in that batch were mostly black.  It just depends on how much of the black got to them.  So next time I'll probably use more color and about 1/2 the amount of black.

Black and Red

But enough of my blabbing on about it lets get to the specifics 
Lets Go Step by Step 

(so you won't have any excuses not to try it, because it is SO easy!!)

1. Wet or wash your fabric

Follow the directions on the back of your Dylon dye packet (as to washing and the type of fabrics recommended).  I mostly used old/used shirts so I didn't need to wash them, they were clean and had been washed MANY times.  I just wet them and rang them out.

2. Scrunch your fabric into a small container.

The idea is to get the fabric as scrunched as possible, so considering what you are dying, try to choose a container where the fabric, when scrunched, takes up the whole bottom surface.  If you are doing just 1 small shirt then you may be able to use a small bowl or even a cup for a baby shirt.  I was doing several small shirts/onsies etc. so I used glass baking dishes.

wet fabric, scrunched into a baking dish and ready to dye, this is several baby t's and onsies

3. Mix up your dye
(First, be mindful that if you spill any of this on your clothes, it will dye them)

This is where it gets a bit tricky (though I have done all calculations, so it should be easier for you).  1 pack of Dylon is supposed to do 1/2 lb (8oz) of fabric.  Yes, I do have a postage scale, no I am not taking the time to weigh all my fabric.  They say that 1 adult T-shirt is approx 1/2 lb, and I figure that what I am dying in this batch (onsies, kids t's etc.) probably equals 1/2 of an adult shirt, so I am going to want to use approx 1/2 a pack of dye.  I am winging it here (no worries, they turned out great).

I want to mix 2 colors so I am going to use 1/4 pack of dye for each color.  The instructions say to mix 1 pack of dye with 4 T. salt and 4 cups of water.  I measured the dye and each packet has approx 4 T. of dye.  So that means that when dying with Dylon, per packet, you will have 4T. of dye, per 4T. of salt, per 4 cups of water.   So you decide how much of each color you want to use. 

Not to get too crazy, but since there are 3t. in 1T if you were doing something smaller, like just 1-2 onsies, and you wanted to use 2-3 colors . . . you could go as small as 1t. dye, 1t. salt per 1/3 cup of water (you get the way it works).  You'd also probably be using a much smaller bowl or a cup even to scrunch them in.

So when doing LWI with Dylon, for the amount of clothes I am dying in these pictures (approx 1/4 lb, give or take) I am using 1 cup of dye per color (each cup containing 1T dye and 1T salt).  That is pretty much the formula I use.  If you are doing more than I am here, and want to use 2 colors, you may want to do 1/2 packet per color (2 cups per color, each containing 2T dye and 2T salt).  So, is that as clear as mud?

I am cheap so I wanted to use as little dye as possible, and though I am pretty sure I used less than recommended for the weight of the fabric they still had vibrant color, I think in part because I was just pouring it straight on.

I mixed my salt directly in my water, and I use HOT water. Once the salt is mixed I added the dye.  MIX WELL, sometimes the dye doesn't dissolve well and if that happens and you pour it on your clothes it will leave speckles (ask me how I know ;0)

Note . . .the packet says to add your cup of dye to a basin of water, but just skip that part, we are pouring the dye directly on the clothes we do NOT want to dilute it further because we are not dying the whole article 1 even color (and that is what the instructions on the packet are for).

So to recap this step
(since I am so long winded above and probably confusing you)

• Choose your colors and how much dye you think you need for the fabric you are dying
  
• Depending on the amount of fabric you are dying and number of colors you want to use, mix 1T dye and 1T salt per 1cup of hot water

See, simple when you put it in just a few words ;0)

dyed baby tee and prefold

4. Pour on your dye

If you are doing only 1 color cover all the fabric, if you are doing 2 or 3 colors you want to pour them on 1 at a time, leaving some white areas for the next color (so that each color hits the fabric directly, and they can then blend where they overlap).  

When doing 2 colors, I do the lighter color first, then the dark.

Red dye first

then I added the blue

Yellow dye

yellow with blue added

For the batch above I did more shirts, so I used a larger container and 3 cups of dye, a different color each (1T of dye and 1T of salt per 1 cup of water for each color).  I used 2 blues and a green.

You want to make sure the fabric is completely covered with dye, and no white showing. There should be plenty of excess dye water surrounding the fabric (it won't soak up all the dye, it should be mostly submerged in it).  I liked using glass because I could look underneath to make sure the dye got all the way to the bottom and that the fabric soaked it up well.  If you feel that you haven't used enough dye to completely soak into all the fabric, then you can either add more dye or add a little water to mix with the existing dye in there and get your fabric submerged a bit more (I have done both and they worked just fine).

Most people recommend not moving the fabric much at all, so that the colors don't mix too much and you get more contrast.  However, I noticed that some of my fabric had white spots where the dye didn't reach it at all, and I didn't want that.  So now I will poke the fabric down into the dye and even maybe lift it up just a tad and drop it back down, to help the dye get into the folds a bit better.  This is something you have to just experiment with.  You have no guarantee how it will come out, you just have to wait and see.

Which brings us to our next step . . .

5.  Wait

When leaving the dye to sit in the dye water, I put a weight over the fabric to submerge it, most anything that fits inside your container will work. I used a pie plate that fit inside the baking dishes and then I put something heavy on it.  That pushed the fabric down in the dye more.  I think it would still work fine if you didn't do this, but a lot of people recommend it. 

My fabric being weighed down, and that is a jar of kefir brewing on top ;0)

 I like to let it sit like 4-6 hrs.  I have not experimented much with the time and the results but I figure longer won't hurt. If I couldn't leave it as long I would probably microwave it in like 30 sec increments for a couple minutes, just to make sure that the dye took well.  I did it for one batch that I did before bed so it only sat for an hour or so, and the results were fine. I figure it can't hurt.  Well actually it could hurt if your fabric was dry.  Make sure to only microwave WET fabric!!

6. Rinse

After you let it sit for the length of time you decide, it is time to see the final results!!  Just follow the directions on the Dylon package.  Rinse, rinse, rinse . . . wash and voila! A tie dye look that only took a few minutes to do (seriously, I am long winded when typing but once you get down to doing it, it is super quick and easy)

The results from the above pictures

My first batch, red and dark blue, just rinsed

The blue and yellow

After washing and drying

Washed and dried

So, to recap . . Wet, Scrunch, Mix, Pour, Wait, Rinse

And your done!! 

And you have now saved all those stained t-shirts that would have otherwise been thrown away (or used as rags) and THAT saves money!!  OR you can dye your diapers, cloth napkins, slings or carriers, curtains, sheets or pillowcases. Let the kids design their own clothes (if they are like mine they are particular about the colors they want) or do matching shirts for the kids or family.  We like to wear the same color shirts when going to like an amusement park, to help us keep up with each other, and I try to dress the kids in bright colors at the park so I can find them amongst all the kids easier.

If you end up trying this out, feel free to send me the pictures (spiraldane@yahoo.com) and I'll post them here!!

Some random kids . . . no clue what their deal is but they look like trouble to me!!

Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs

Yes, I know Easter was several days ago.  Yes, we did dye these eggs over a week ago.  And YES I am just now getting this info up.  Hey, I try.  And I figure if I do it now then I can re-post this link before next Easter ;0)

Since I gravitate towards all things natural using natural dyes is something I have been wanting to do for a while . . . I just never found the time. You can search the internet, there are many websites that talk about using natural dyes for Easter Eggs so a quick search should provide you with a lot of info.  The best site I found was Peaceful Parenting I like everything else she talks about so of course her natural dye info is my favorite.  She also tells you what items will make what colors so it gives a lot of great ideas.

I didn't want to have to buy anything special, I wanted to use what we had on hand.  So I found some frozen Raspberries, Paprika, Grape Juice, Chlorophyll, Red Cabbage, Orange Peels and Carrots.  I also found some Canned Beets that apparently my Mother In Law had bought and left in our cabinets.

One thing to remember when using natural dyes . . . they are not for kids who like instant gratification.  It takes time for the eggs to take the color of the natural dyes, I mean like hours.  So if your kids want to be able to dunk 1/2 an egg in one color and the other 1/2 in another color then they may not like natural dyes so much.  My kids got a kick out of making the dyes and didn't mind waiting for the colors.
An idea, if you have a kid who wants immediate results, is to mash up some frozen fruit (raspberry, blueberry etc) give them a little paintbrush and let them paint their eggs.  I think we'll try that too next time.
For a change we did try to write on a few of the eggs with some wax before dying, but it didn't really work well.

The first thing we did was wash the boiled eggs in soapy water to get off any residue that may prevent the egg from taking the dye.

Next I shredded up the red cabbage and carrots, in hopes that that would help them release dye in the water better.

Then I boiled the carrots, orange peels, paprika, red cabbage and frozen raspberries in water.  I used a couple cups of water but didn't really measure how of the natural material I used, I mostly just guessed what I thought would be a good amount.  I brought the water to a boil then simmered it for 20min or so, till the water was full of color.  The orange and carrots made water that was only slightly colored so I let them sit longer.  Eventually I got tired of waiting and just strained them out and used the water anyway.

the lids were vital in case they got knocked over, which seems to always happen around here

I filled jars with a cup or 2 of the colored water.  For the grape juice I added straight juice.  With the chlorophyll I added like 1tbsp per cup of water (I am cheap and didn't want to use too much, but more would have worked better) and for the canned beats I just strained the liquid straight from the can into my jar.  

I then added about 1-2 tbsp of white vinegar to each jar (about 1tbsp or I think I did a bit more than that per cup) and after each kid had chosen what colors they wanted, we added the eggs.

Now comes the wait.  

I checked them after an hour or so but they weren't very colored.  I think we let them sit somewhere between 4-6 hrs.  But you can leave them overnight if wanted (just stick them in the fridge).  They didn't seem very dark but we were impatient and went ahead and pulled them out. 

Make sure you don't touch them too much as they dry or the color can rub off some.

 When I pulled them out of the dye the color was quite subtle, but as they sat out to dry, and we came back to look at them, I swear the color seemed richer and darker.  

I think the canned beet juice gave the quickest and richest color.  Raspberry wasn't red, it was more of a dirty plumb and the red cabbage dried to a nice blue.  The Paprika was a brownish orange and the chlorophyll would have been darker had I used more, but it had nice green speckling.  The carrot and orange peel actually made a nice light orange/yellow color which was surprising because the dye water for those 2 was really light.

What I found interesting was that the eggs that were put in the fruit juice, the Raspberry and Grape Juice, had this film on them . . . like grainy and almost bubbly as I pulled them out of the dye water.  I am not sure why, but I didn't rub it off, just let it dry (see below).  If I had wiped it off the color would not have been as dark, but equally pretty I think.

clockwise from the top, beet, red cabbage, paprika, raspberry, grape juice, chlorophyll

Overall the kids enjoyed it, and I enjoyed that it was natural and cheap and something we could just do ourselves.

Thrace

I really loved the subtle, beautiful, natural colors, and I didn't cringe as the kids peeled the shells off and the egg inside was dyed too . . . like I do with the artificial dyes. So I think we will definitely make this a regular part of our Easter decorating.

Xian and Piper

Happy Easter!!

Love, love, love me some Phil Wickham!!  This song is amazing and fitting for today.  Enjoy!

Hallelujah!!

How to fix those stained white baby clothes

So I was going through the baby clothes and I realized that after 5 babies that spit up a lot, I didn't really have any white onsies or t-shirts.  I LOVE those baby t's and the long sleeve shirts with newborns. White never stays white (those of you with kids KNOW this is a fact, LOL).  

Being the thrifty (downright cheap) person that I am, and refusing to just throw them away, I was thinking . . . what can I do with these things?  And this is what I came up with.

Dagyn 3 wks

4 weeks

4 weeks

It was SO easy and they turned out so well that I figured . . . why not do all the kids stained white T's (because we have plenty of them)

My crazy kids, Ever (4) Piper (8) holding Dagyn (4 wks) Arah (6) and Xian (10) holding a fussy Thrace (22mo)

I'll put up a instructions soon.  

I had to search around the internet for instructions and nothing I found fit the dye I was using so I had to experiment a bit.  But like I said, super easy!  I have been dying some prefolds too and had I known it was this easy I would have done it years ago (it has always been on my list of things to do that I never get around to).

Wearing newborn Dagyn

1 week old in a wrapsody

 I like to try to take as many babywearing pictures as I can, especially when the kids are newborns, just because they grow so quickly.  I am working on a blog post showing different ways to wear newborns (need to find some pictures taken over the years) but for now I wanted to share some of the ways I have been wearing Dagyn since he was born (5 wks ago if you can believe it!!).

1 week old, nursing in the Kozy

3 wks in the Maya lightly padded

I have recruited Xian (10) and Piper (8) to take pictures of us, as Charlie is often either not here or not in the mood to take pictures for the 100th time.  So many of these were taken by the kids.  I have been so determined to document everything that I have even had them take pictures of me sans make up (I know, shocking right?)

That is a Kozy baby!

 There is nothing better than newborn babywearing!  I mean that sweet little tiny baby cuddled up on your chest, mmmmm, I LOVE it!

Some people have expressed surprise that I use slings other than my Kozys, and it is true that I honestly do use my Kozys like 90% of the time when they are older (because I LOVE them) and I find them easiest to nurse in at any age.  But as newborns, I really like to use a variety of slings and carriers.  And there is nothing like wrapping a newborn!!

2 wks old in a wrapsody stretch at the park

I have really been wearing Dagyn on my back a lot.  It seems more than I did with the last few kids.  He takes to it well and it is just easier when I have things to do around here like dishes or mopping where a back carry is easier.

1 wk old, smiling in a Girasol

2 wks in the Didy

2 wks in Kozy

3 wks, in wrapsody

Doing dishes with 2 wk old Dagyn on my back in the Kozy

Hands free nursing (with his little leg hanging out) in the wrapsody stretch @2 wks old (we were at Lowes shopping)

8 yr old Piper, wearing 3 wk old Dagyn in a Kozy

Mmmmm, SO sweet!!