The boys are back in town

Well, the boys and me.  This past week we flew down to Tacoma, where I was shooting a good friend's wedding.  Jack went on his first plane trip (and the nice Alaska Airlines flight attendant gave him his wings!), met his great grandma, and was introduced to all our friends in Tacoma.  It was so wonderful to be back in a city where we feel so loved.  

We are at a crossroads thinking about where we will find ourselves, geographically, this time next year.  We don't really want to stay in Anchorage, even though it's affordable for us, and Jack + I get great healthcare, and my parents are here.  I guess when I put it that way it sounds pretty stupid to leave.  Anchorage just doesn't feel like the right spot for us.  So we're at a crossroads, trying to figure out where to plant our little family.

In the meantime we are back home in our little Alaskan apartment, staying cozy while the snow falls outside our windows.  I snapped these shots of Dan and Jack at our Airbnb in Tacoma last week.  These two dudes are my fav.

Cloth Diapering with Flip Diapers

I knew long before I got pregnant that I wanted to use cloth diapers.  Other than the cost of purchasing disposable diapers every month, I was also concerned about the environmental impact of billions of disposable diapers filling landfills. Since babies typically use 6-8 diapers a day, that puts the number of diapers used before potty training in the thousands. Add in the disposable wipes and that's a luot of trash. Disposable diapers are the 3rd largest consumer item in landfills.  7.6 billion pounds of trash per year. I felt gross throwing away my money on disposable diapers, but more gross about how much trash we'd be producing. We had to use disposable diapers for a couple weeks when Jack was first born because he was too small for the cloth diapers, and I was amazed how quickly our trash can filled up with diapers. 

After doing a little bit of internet research I settled on Flip cloth diapers. Basically, you get the diaper covers (the colorful exterior shells), and then put the absorbent insert inside and snap the cover on, similar to a disposable diaper. After using disposable diapers for a couple weeks I was afraid I might get too used to the ease of disposable, but found that that was largely just a mindset. Cloth diapers aren't any harder to change, the only part that is a bit more labor intensive is laundry. More on that in a bit. 

I also went for cloth wipes as well. Again, same reasons, cost and waste. I also make my own spray to spritz on his bum to clean him up. Not only does it save money but I don't have to worry about weird chemicals being in the wipes. 

Here's my little diaper station. Inserts up top, diaper covers on the left, then my wipe stuff in the white bin- cloth wipes, spray, and diaper rash cream. I also have a little trash can to the right that is my diaper "hamper."  It had a lid and a step opener so it keeps at smell in and I can open it with my foot to toss the dirty diaper in.  I bought a couple wet bags to use for storing dirty diapers in my diaper bag when I'm out and about (one of them is the polka dot bag hanging from my diaper station above, which I put dirty wipes in).

When Jack has a bit of rash starting we use Angel Baby Bottom Balm to soothe it. Also au naturale, which makes me happy.  

In terms of laundry, I do a small load every 1-2 days, which is a lot more often than I used to do laundry, but it hasn't felt overwhelming. I know some people shy away from cloth diapering because they don't have a washer/dryer in their home, or are worried about water/electricity usage. There are some awesome options for small, portable washers that use only a couple gallons of water per load and are the perfect size for washing diapers. There are also centrifugal spin dryers that are small, and both are pretty affordable! The diaper covers must be hung dry anyway. 

I really love cloth diapering.  The only limitation I can see so far is travel.  We'll be traveling next month and I'll do disposable diapers while we're out of town.  Since we won't have a washer/dryer and will be gone for a week, there's not really any way to clean the diapers.  Other than that, I'm super happy with our decision to go with cloth diapers.  We have 17 Flip diaper covers, 18 newborn cloth diaper inserts, and 6 one-size cloth diaper inserts.  We're only using the newborn inserts for now, so I'll probably end up getting more of the one-size inserts once he's grown into those.  But our set up right now works great!  I'd definitely recommend cloth diapering.  It was a few hundred dollars initially to get everything (I found some of my covers on craigslist, so if you're trying to find cloth diapers for less than they cost brand new, consider second hand stores or craigslist), but compared to the thousands I'd spend on disposable diapers and disposable wipes over the next couple years, it made sense to me to make the investment.  Plus, I can use these diapers for any future kids we may have!

Jack's Eclectic Nursery

Jack is 5 weeks old now, so it's about time I shared his nursery!  He actually spends very little time in here right now.  We've got a bassinet set up next to our bed, so he's sleeping in our room for the time being.

I didn't really have a theme in mind when I started working on his room.  I wanted it to be something I would like, since he's not going to remember the room decor anyway, and I'm really not into super gendered decor, so it ended up being a room that, if you take out the crib, could be an office or studio, just another room in the house.

I really love statement walls, and after using WallsNeedLove to do the wood statement wall in our old bedroom, I browsed their selection of wallpaper to see if anything struck my fancy for this room, and I fell in love with this graphic black and white print.  It may be a little crazy and non-traditional for a nursery, but I love it.

I DIY'd quite a few pieces in the room.  The hanging wall shelf is a DIY from my old office.  The succulent print and color spectrum prints I made by just stapling the prints to two pieces of lath and then attaching a string to hang each one from.  The succulent one is actually a photo which I printed as an engineering print at Staples.  The changing table/dresser is a cheap Target dresser with midcentury modern legs added from Pretty Pegs.  The "Be Kind And Brave" banner was made by cutting out letters from black fabric and iron-on backing, then attaching the letters to the white fabric by ironing them on.  Then, I cut a dowel a little longer than the width of the banner, made a channel for the dowel to go through at the top of the banner, and tied a string to the dowel to hang the banner from.  The bunting/prayer flags were DIY too.  Square fabric pieces attached to bias tape using iron on hem tape.  Easy peasy. A fun little artsy DIY was the embroidered b+w photo (the one above the sailor print, next to the succulents).  I want to do more embroidering on photo prints!  This one was an easy starburst design in yellow embroidery thread.

I've had the 5-point paper star lamp since before our wedding. I got it as a possible wedding decoration but never ended up using it.  I've had it sitting around since then and never found a space to hang it until now!  My mom had the other star lamp and also didn't have anywhere to hang it.  We hung them both in the corner before Jack was born.  We hadn't decided on Jack's middle name until mere moments before checking out of the hospital and turning in his birth certificate form, when we finalized his middle name as Polaris.  Polaris is the north star, and is actually a multiple star with the  main star in orbit with a smaller star.  When we brought him home I realized I'd decorated his room with stars before his middle name was even thought of! 

Rug + Curtains + Diaper Cart: Ikea | Chair: Thrifted | Star Lamps: Ikea + Fireworks | Changing Table: Target + Pretty Pegs | Crib: Babyletto | White Shelf: Target via Craigslist | Metal Baskets + B+W basket: Target

Succulent Photo + Winnebago Print + Joshua Tree Photo + Chalkboard Word Bubble + Be Kind and Brave Banner: by me | Tacoma flag + Color Spectrum Print: Stocklist Goods | Pike Place Photo: Charcoal and Ash | Paint by Number: Thrifted | Gospel According to Tacoma Print: Beautiful Angle | I Love My Family print: Beauchamping

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Meet Jack!

It's been almost a month since our little dude joined us, and since the holidays happened right after he arrived and tons of family and friends were in town visiting (not to mention postpartum healing and getting used to newborn life), I haven't had the energy to post an announcement here until now!

I haven't written out his birth story yet, and I'll probably share that eventually, though nothing crazy happened so it's not the most thrilling of birth stories.  For the best birth stories, I will direct you to Indiana Adams who has the best and funniest birth stories of all time and makes us all look bad in the birth stories realm.  Thanks a lot, Indiana.  I jest.  Indiana is hilarious and her birth stories really are the best.  Enough about Indiana, though, this post is about Jack!

Jack Polaris Morrow made his entrance on the morning of December 18th after a pretty quick and relatively easy labor.  He was about a week past his due date, which I thought was going to be the case.  He was always so chill and cozy in the womb, I figured he would want to hang out in there as long as possible.  I tried many a thing to get him to shimmy out.  We went to a hockey game.  We sang karaoke.  We did zumba.  We had a full moon (a supermoon, no less!).  Eventually after a couple membrane sweeps and some castor oil (holy shit, that stuff is no joke.  Talk. About. Cleansed.) I went into labor.  It took some convincing for him to make his way out and I don't blame him, it's cold out here!

Dusty and him are already best buds and if he ever complains that his birthday is too close to Christmas I will take him to a Zumba class and show him how hard I tried to get him to come out sooner.  And if he's still not convinced, I'll feed him some castor oil and see how long it takes before he has to run to the bathroom.  

the (fun) baby wishlist

I say "fun" wishlist because there are certainly plenty of things that I still need that fall into the "practical" and "necessary" camp, but damn if it isn't more fun to shop for the cute things, am I right?  Granted there are some things that are both cute and necessary, like crib sheets, or swaddle blankets, but I probably don't need a fox hat or tiny moccasins.  But, also I totally need them.  I mean, come on.  I have concluded that my child will probably become the most fashionable member of our family because tiny human clothes are super fun to shop for (though I will say I'm looking forward to giving myself a postpartum wardrobe refresh).

I want to keep things pretty minimal and natural for toys and such, especially because a newborn doesn't need a ton of toys.  I'm a big fan of natural textures and avoiding as much bright, ugly, plastic stuff.  I've found myself drawn to toys made of fabric and wood and the graphic designer in me is in total and complete love with these gorgeous typographical blocks by House Industries. Gotta try to instill a love of great typography in this kid from the get-go, you know?  As far as textiles and bedding type stuff goes, I want to have a pretty black and white/neutral color palette, just because a) gender neutrality is my jam for decor in general and b) black and white stuff all matches.  Easy peasy.

Bedding + Toys:  1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Clothing:  1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

Who knew that dressing a tiny human could be so fun?  I mean, I've always known that tiny versions of things are cuter, but tiny outfits are so fun.  Also: apparently dressing your kid like an animal is the pinnacle of cute because I just want all the animal outfits.  But also: I need to get myself a whole drawerful of Freshly Picked moccasins so that me and my child can go around twinning in our moccs (though all my moccs are super basic, Freshly Picked has about a thousand designs that are way cuter than any of my moccs!).   It's gonna be fun having a newborn in the wintertime, I'll get to have all the fuzzy, bundled-up-type things (with animal ears, preferably, duh).

Decor: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

I have my crib (a Babyletto Hudson) and if you follow on instagram, you saw my semi-DIY'd changing table/dresser, and the room is going to be generally graphic/southwest-ish in terms of decor.  I have enough art that I don't need any wall art, really, which is nice!  I'm not really into making a baby nursery that is super baby-ish.   I figure, this kid won't care what the room looks like for a long time, and I'm the person who is going to be spending the most time in there, so I might as well make a room that I love, right?  And I love decorating a room/house more than most things.  This list is definitely more of a wish list simply because I'm going to do my best to work with what I've got to put together the room, but dang if I wouldn't love to be able to put together a room with my dream elements!  The room already has a light, so my dream sputnik chandelier will probably have to wait till a later date, but a girl can dream!