Nearing the End of Summer...

It's hard to believe that the end of August is upon us, isn't it? A year ago at this time, I had just started this blog. I was still pregnant, waiting excitedly for Jadon's arrival.

Our friend Laura did a fantastic job on Jadon's one year pictures! Check out her website!

These days, my baby is a baby no longer! Jadon RUNS everywhere, climbs couches, and loves to find me when I hide. He signs "more," "please," "milk," and "all done,"  and eats anything I put in front of him. He waves to everyone we pass in stores, and often adds an enthusiastic "Hi!" at the end. Jadon likes to imitate me by pretending to water my tomato plants, stir empty bowls, or sweep under his highchair. He still sleeps in our room, but on a small mattress on the floor next to our bed. His favorite things include baths, books, walks, books, kids, and did I say books? He will sit on my lap and listen to me read for as long as I'll stay on the floor (often crying dramatically when I stop).

Life with a one-year old keeps me busy, but I always find time for other tasks. Here's just a few summer project updates:

New and improved cloth wipes. I'm working on several sets of cloth wipes and a new tutorial to go along with them. My original tutorial has been one of my most popular posts this year (thanks to Pinterest!).

Kombucha. My original scoby has multiplied itself several times over by now. Halfway though the summer, I even had enough of a culture to have two jars of kombucha brewing at once! If you want to make kombucha for yourself, check out my tutorial.

 

Chevron Crocheted Blanket. My little sister got married this month! I snooped on her Pinterest boards for some homemade gift ideas, and got a lot of inspiration from some of her favorite color combinations, and the many chevron patterned items. I finally decided upon crocheting a chevron blanket for their new living room. I figured out the pattern all on my own, so I'm pretty proud of the way it turned out.

Cloth Diapering, etc. I couldn't resist adding another meme! I know that this isn't really a project, but cloth diapers continue to need washing every couple of days! I also started drying them on a line this summer since sunning diapers helps get stains out. I'm actually in the process of stripping my diapers right now since they were starting to have a lingering smell. Stripping gets out any lingering detergent that might not get rinsed out in the regular wash routine. Click here for more cloth diaper laughs.

And finally...

Jadon's birthday video. We're celebrating Jadon's birthday with family and friends in just a few days. I wanted to put together a 10-15 minute video of clips from the past year for everyone to watch. I figured I would average about a minute per month. However, this goal was a lot harder than expected due to the hours of video we've taken of Jadon in the past year! All the clips I ended up including are mostly between 5 and 10 seconds in length, but the video is still about 17 minutes long! I need to finalize it this weekend, and hope to share it soon!