Black and white and cloth diapers

Clear cellophane is a nice way to show off what’s inside your gift box. Recycled giftbox as shown in previous post.

Place a card with your message on the items before you wrap the box with cellophane. Punch pinpoint holes onto card with a handy pinpoint craft puncher, one of my most used punchers and thread string to secure card in place. Ignore grammatical error and ugly handwriting on card.

More baby talk:

H and I recently decided that we were going to cloth diaper our little one when she came along. I remember cloth diapers vaguely in childhood as my younger two siblings were cloth diapered. I remember them in “plastic pants” or diaper covers which were basically yup, plastic underwear used to waterproof their diapers. As a child I had no recollection of how they look pooped in or how my mom or the Indonesian helper cleaned them.

Cloth diapers popped up when we were out with Husaini one day and he bought a diaper cover for his new baby. Now Husaini may be a serious looking family doctor but H and I know he’s a little loopy and he’s description of cloth diapering was just too strange. I remember asking him how he cleaned the poo off. And he replied he “brushed” it off in the toilet before laundering. This puzzled me greatly. I remember asking H later, what do you mean he brushed it off, like with a toothbrush? My sense of logic couldn’t figure it out, like poo=sticky, brush it off sounds like it was dry? Then again, maybe its a man thing. When he describes how to cook something I always look at him strange too like ..?

Cloth diapers popped into mind again when I remarked to my mother in law how expensive disposable diapers are. She then said that newborns should be cloth diapered as it was better for their skin. I brushed the thought away as I had so many negative ideas about cloth diapering, the largest thought that loomed in my mind was the LAUNDERING. I hate washing up, its one of the things I detest about cooking and the thought of WASHING diapers was even more repellant. Among things that are in capital letters that I dislike are cleaning and ironing.

Then somewhere along the way, I bumped into bumwear on a blog. There’s a detailed article on “why cloth diaper?”. I read the stuff on the site, wasn’t entirely convinced that I could do it and wandered into the store one day. What really really sold me were how incredibly soft the diapers were. If you would choose between cloth or plastic underwear, which would you choose?

I feel that this picture summarizes my diapering plans for the first month. You start with a rectangular cloth thats called a prefold, this is a specially sewn cloth diaper with a three panels, the middle panel being the thickest panel of 8 layers and the side panels of 4 layers of cloth. You then fold it as demonstrated or simply into 3, parallal to the panels so you get a long strip and stuff it into the diaper cover as in the bottom left picture. You then velcro it on the baby and its done.

More diaper covers from Bumwear, we bought white and hot pink:

If you want to just leave the baby in cloth diapers without the diaper covers in the day time, you don’t have to use safety pins to secure the diaper, use a Snappi instead.

If you’re worried about poo, which I am, very worried about (remember all the capital letters above), there are nappy liners:

 These are disposable. thow them away when there’s poo on them. And if they’re just peed on, you can run it in your laundry with the cloth diapers and reuse them.

 We also bought a couple of onesize pocket diapers from Bumwear because the designs were so cute. More about pocket diapers soon.

The total costs after shopping at Bumwear was:

24 white prefolds (these are the cloth diapers shown in the first picture) + 2 free (1 free for every dozen bought)

-S$2.70 x 24= S$64.80

100 sheets Tollyjoy nappyliners

-S$9.90 (i bought 2 boxes in Carrefour later for S$11.90!)

2 diaper covers, hot pink and white

-S$20 x 2 =S$40(I plan to get more of these cheaper here, its S$13 each, not sure of the quality tho so will keep u updated)

2 Snappies in a pack

-S$6.50

2 one size pocket diapers (more on pocket diapers later)

-S$27 x 2= S$54

6 inserts for the pocket diapers

-$7×6=S$42

 

The total cost was S$217.20 which I think can tide us thru the first few months though we still need another 2-4 diaper covers. Considering that using disposables will your baby is potty trained is estimated to be about S$2000 and the investment in cloth diapers is estimated to be about S$700, its still more economical to cloth diaper.

 

Of course being a first time parent, I have no idea if my diapering plans will work out, but I think with a little bit of information, its do-able. I don’t think I would ever have thought myself of being a cloth diapering parent but with the modern cloth diapers available, its easier and more convenient than it was in the past. Even parent who used disposables have made the switch.

 

For my food loving friends, I’m sorry this post has no food in it, but with all the posts on happygrub, its about something I believe in, and would love to share!

More inexpensive gift boxes

Old boxes recycled with sheets of scrapbooking paper. Good for giving food gifts like rows of golden madelines.  Wrap with clear cellophane and a gift tag and you’re good to go.

Box with a handy handle, less than 50 cents from Phoon Huat.

That handy white tag again, this time on a brown faux leather cord used to secure a box wrapped with paper from Prints.

More clear containers. I’m thinking cookies. Linzers in particular. I’m haunted by the combination of hazelnuts, cinnamon and rasberry jam.

lasagne

Recipe from the back of the San Remo lasagne box. I always add a pinch of grated nutmeg into the bechamel sauce, it adds a nice aromatic flavor. This was frozen for H’s weekday lunchbox.

Another cheap gift wrap idea: paper napkins and a twist of red yarn. I wrapped lemongrass massage oil and a box of something else as a hen’s night gift.. SOmeone’s wedding is coming up!

You know you’re friends when..

..you can..

..steal photos from blogs without telling them..

 

I’m looking for a sunny day to photograph what’s in THAT box.

 

And thanks Yati, Liz, Farah for the lovely housewarming gifts!

BBM arrived!

I have been waiting for some sunshine to post about the lovely package I received from Stephanie thru Blogging By Mail

The box came with a little furry mascot

Vanilla syrup for my latte! Yay!

Peppers for pasta..

Chocolate, well, CHOCOLATE!

Vanilla tea from her local teahouse

This is a truly beautiful book. Also included were more chocolate and a lovely novel. Thanks Stephanie being the lovely hostess of the event and for the thoughtful package!

BBM!

I love my package..! I need to wait till the end of the week to have some daylight to photograph the lovely items I received from Stephanie. The dim lights in my room won’t do the items justice.. Thank you Stephanie! I will post all the wonderful gifts in the box soon..

It included chocolate so that’s definitely a winner in my books!

By the way, Have you ever Zeroll-ed?

If you’ve wondered how they scoop perfect balls at the ice cream parlor while you struggle with your frozen tub, wonder no more, its the Zeroll. I bought this over a year ago at Sia Huat, its really handy when scooping for a crowd and you get perfect round scoops. The heat from your hand somehow transmits to the head of the scoop resulting in easy scooping and release of the formed scoops.

I’m envious of this the owner of this beautiful bookmark  handmade by Quizas. I miss you so much!! Study hard.. Unlike me..   but you’ve always been more disciplined!

Here it is!

Baklava is a lot of work. I used Sherry Yard’s recipe and method which is an easier way to assemble this Middle Eastern dessert. It involves opening your filo pastry in a way that resembles reading a book. Its a little long to explain. I halved the quantity of the sugar syrup but it was still very sweet. More later.. I’m supposed to be studying!

Last post on the box of treats.

This will be the last Eid post! Different people celebrate Eid in different ways there are differences across the world too. When I invited someone over for Eid, he remarked that Eid was over! Where he came from, only the first four days were celebrated, people then went about their usual lives after. Here in Singapore, Eid is celebrated by many over the entire month! H and I, both live in households where we have a “great elder” so our houses become the meeting point for the rest of the family. Because of this reason, we hardly go out and usually get to meet everyone just by staying home. I’m really glad both of us have been celebrating this way since we were kids. Eid is peaceful for us this way and it is very enjoyable.

We had some good friends over today with some hummus, shabshouka, pseudo-shawarma and good Indian tea. More later… Meanwhile, I’m trying to clear my laptop of photos so here’s the rest of that box!

An interesting combination of festive cookies, choxolates and local sauces.

A close up of the sauces: chilli crab, sambal belchan paste (beware!) and black pepper sauce.

I think organic chocolates taste the same as non organic chocolate. Please let me know if you beg to differ.

I ate the box recently, well some of it anyway. I loved the raspberry balls. The patterened ones were a almond marzipan, an orange flavoured and a milk chocolate. I have been ravernous lately and have been eating and eating. We had H’s and cousin Nada’s birthday celebration with family today, another barbeque so it really was a whole day of feeding.

 

I’m curious, if you are among those who celebrate Eid, how do you do it?

BBM!

I’m excited to be part of blogging by mail, which is a global swap of care packages. I have been reading the blog of the person I will send a package to and it is a beautiful blog.. I am quite excited. I bought some stuff while I was at Mustafa Center (I’m starting to sound like an ad for them) before knowing who I will be sending it to and I’m glad I stuck to some safe choices. This person who will receive a care package from me likes tea, sweets and Martha! So in a way I think we have a few things in common. I avoided anything with spice, seafood and anything that would be too pungent. I added in some local flavour which have generally likeable tastes so that person would have a little taste of Singapore without having a sensory assault. (read: no shrimp paste or curry powder). Now I just have to hang on till Friday when I go on leave for another stretch to go to the post office and send off the package!

On another note, did you know that expatliving now has a full online version of their magazine? I find it a great resource for home decor and short getaways around the region.

Last weekend was spent looking at curtains. Of course, yesterday was spent on call in the hospital. Speaking of which I am struggling to keep my eyes open right now. Its 3 pm and I had spent the morning preparing for a journal presentation tomorrow. Anyway, it was fun looking at curtains. We also went to the launch of an apartment nearby where H spent 99% of the time sniffling and sneezing as a result of their strong air freshener. He even had to take a break outside for fresh air. More soon..

Day #3

 Day #3 (Friday) started yesterday and ended at 2 am this morning. I have too many photos so here’s a sneak preview and I will post more in the next few days.

A beautiful Eid care package. It included handmade chocolates, various bottled sauces, chocolate sables, chocolate chip cookies shaped like bricks, organic chocolate blocks and pineapple tarts.

The picnic basket Quizas bought me isn’t useful for picnics only, its great for lugging ingredients over to my mom’s while I cooked 8 dishes for a full Indian meal.

My first briyani, thanks to Sheerin for the cooking lesson. My friend Razlyn came by to break the fast with us and pick up a couple of things before she leaves for KL. Hope you’re home safe Raz!

The butter paneer was the favorite dish, among other dishes were meat samosas with a mint chutney, tandoori chicken, masala prawns, chapatis, raita, canna dhal, a potato and long bean curry and the briyani above. It was an 8 hour cooking marathon with 2 other hands (thanks mama and Kak Sal!). I managed to make chocolate chip cookies too, with my tweaked famos amos cookie recipe. I used 1.5 kg of flour and 1 kg of chocolate chips. It was crazy.

I spent today recuperating from the cooking marathon, with a facial from Wayan, greatly recommded. Then something less glamourous, vacuuming and cleaning windows. I sorted out all the Eid packages of money today (remember? I have over 40 cousins and multiple sets of grandparents, grandaunts and granduncles uncles).

  

The young and the elderly receive these gifts from the economically productive generation. I always enjoy this. I’ve spent so many years receiving during Eid, its nice to be on the other end. The cycle of life is such that when I grow old, it will be time to receive again.

I’ve also fulfilled my obligation of zakat or alms, its also great to know that its tax deductable and is automatically included in your annual income tax. I received these lovely empty money packets after making the payment.