Things I am inspired by + excited about

I love the idea of the year of mornings/evenings. Thanks for sharing your inspirations, as they become some of mine!

Yay for orange!!

Happy Monday. Orange has long been my favorite color and I'm happy to see it being embraced now as a "trend". Orange, red, yellow, and cream will be fantastic as nursery decor.
Inspiration has been lacking as of late, with exception of some projects that I can't wait to start. Card making, item altering, mini-books and decorated paper garland for the holidays will be on my busy schedule. I've felt no inspiration for layouts but tons for other items.

Love the colors you chose for the baby's room!
I am totally inspired by Janet's altered book...I didn't get to do your December album last year, so hopefully I can pull this one together before the holidays are here! Thanks for the inspiration, Ali!

I love everything here! With the exception of the cloth diapers. I have to say that I'm glad my youngest was too old by the time I felt drawn to cloth. I just don't know if I could do it. Kudos to you, though. I LOVE the orange baby blanket!

love your color choices for the baby's room ali! so colorful and stimulating!
I have been inspired by the goodness of Madison's new school - new friends, loving staff and just a really good start to the new year...
and creating - just can't get enough of Designer Digitals and all the goodness I find there. I could scrap all day.
have a fabulous week!

i am so happy you are doing cloth diapers! i went with "bum genius" pocket diapers, which can be folded & snapped & velcroed for all size babies & toddlers. i love them! It's really not hard to cloth diaper. Thanks for going for it. It's so nice to see someone else going for it, and telling everyone on her popular blog! Actually, cloth diapers inspired me to follow thru on my natural parenting beliefs. Art wise, i'm inspired & motivated by a BPS class i'm taking right now. It's not totally my style, and it's really making me branch out!

Yea for cloth diapers! I used them with my son and it was great. I love the feel of cloth and it felt good to go natural. Good for you!

I remember following last year's December daily. Is it already approaching that time again???

Where to begin? Right now I am most inspired by Alabama Chanin (clothes from recycled & organic cotton, so so lovely), Amy Krouse Rosenthal's movie project, and the book Green Clean. (Maybe will make environmentally friendly cleaning solutions in charmingly decorated spray bottles for holiday hostess gifts!)

Love the idea of cloth diapers - I did them with my first for almost two years...then I figured he'd be training soon - how naive was I? He was just turning 4 before we quit diapers. I just saw a Baby Diaper Service truck in our neighborhood the other day, and it made me think of that, how funny. Inspiring? Really, right now, it's the new stuff I got for Wilna Furstenberg's class. A class (and new supplies) always kicks me into high gear.

Flickr! Here's a link to some of my fav's right now...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sharna/favorites/page6

Thank you for the wonderful assortment of inspirations. You've got me thinking more about going the cloth diaper route with my second baby. And I really want to make some fabric gift tags!

Love that idea of turning a book into a binder. I have been trying to come up with an idea for my Grammy's journals that I mentioned the other day and this might be perfect, I like that the hard cover would protect the insides :) Thanks for doing the leg work of finding cool projects!

I love your blog and your CK column. Just wanted to say KUDOS on using the cloth diapers! My son is 13 months old and we've cloth diapered him since he was about 3-4 months old. It's great :) We use Chinese Prefolds w/ covers for the most part, but we also have some All-In-One's that are great for when you have to go out or in the middle of the night, b/c it's just easier :)
Anyway, yay for that and I'm sure you have many resources, but please feel free to message me if you have any questions :)
Also, if you're going to breastfeed, the first few months is the BEST time for cloth diapering b/c you don't have to scoop the poop...lol.

forgot to add--what's inspiring me lately is my son, Caeden, who is so adventurous and is into everything and learning new things and changing every day! SO much to keep up with, and inspirint all at the same time :)

YOU are inspiring me! I am expecting my first and I'm really interested in cloth diapering, but there's so many options that I was beginning to feel overwhelmed! Thanks to your research and advice (from a mom who already knows about cloth diapers) I feel re-energized to commit to cloth!

Ali,
You should check out http://punkykidz.etsy.com. Jennifer makes beautiful & fabulous stuff for kids and she is (fairly) local.

i am so glad you are going to use cloth diapers. we used cloth diapers with both of our children until they were potty trained and only used paper diapers when we went on vacation. have you explored a diaper service? http://www.diapernet.org/locate.htm#Oregon OR http://www.ecototsdiaperservice.com/ - maybe one of these companies would deliver in your area...it would mean less laundry for you! congratulations on the baby!

just wanted to give you a great link for cloth diapers
http://www.diaperdaisy.com/
it is the website of a friend of mine - she is wonderful - and has the best customer service

Yay for you using cloth diapers! I absolutely loved them. I loved Kissaluvs when my DD was tiny, then I switched to Mother-Ease Sandys for the next size, because they seemed more absorbent. Another good website that has a TON of info about cloth is Mothering.com. I have to warn you, though: all the money I saved by nursing and using cloth, I spent by buying the adorable diapers I heard about on Mothering! ;-)

I'd just like to simply say...thank you! You are amazingly generous with your time and sharing of your ideas with all of us. Thanks to you !!

your latest book has inspired me! I picked up the book at CPR San Jose (missed you!) and read it cover to cover immediately. Lovely, pretty albums and ideas.... I spent all of yesterday afternoon working on an album about our summer vacation to SLO and Pismo beach. I am using a clear acrylic album for the first time and just loving the process.
have a lovely day!
Jen

thank for the link! i followed that site all year too, can't wait to get the book. it's such a great idea. And the photographers/friends are masters at making what's ordinary, fascinating.

Great that you are cloth diapering! I use the Thirsties covers and pretty much like them - use with chinese prefolds. Also use lots of the All-In-Ones - one size by Bum Genius. I really love these now that my daughter is 6 months and much bigger. Plus you should check out Target because mine has started to carry the Bum Genius AIO's. I do have to add an additional insert to mine as she is a heavy wetter.