It's "A Happy Green Life!" {Review/Giveaway}

Image borrowed from the product website.

I have been given the wonderful opportunity by one of my new, favorite all-natural laundry wash creators to review and giveaway their product!

A Happy Green Life was created in 2012 by Kristin Ward & Amanda Wucher-Aller. Amanda & Kristin are two Stay-At-Home-Moms who are on a mission, to "provide you with products that make living a green life easy in the modern world." They also want to "educate people about how easy it is to help the environment and minimize their household budget."

They are working on adding a plethora of green products to their line-up. Most of the products they offer currently are made by them, but there are some that are created by other small businesses across the U.S.

You can find more specific information (including FAQs, Washing Instructions, and Tips & Tricks) and their various products on their website, http://www.ahappygreenlife.com, and tips for living a happy green life at their blog, http://www.ahappygreenlife.blogspot.com.

And now, onto my experience living a more happy, green life, using the all-natural laundry wash.

As many of you may know (or at least my repeat readers, family, and friends), my husband and I decided, before our son Spencer was born in November 2010, that we would use cloth diapers on his little bitty bum. We decided this would be a great saving financially, would be healthier for him, and for the environment, too. We love our cloth diapers (for the record, we only use Mud Butt Cloth Diapers (and she is one of the many retailers of the laundry wash)), despite the fact that of course, they mean you have to wash a couple extra loads of laundry a week. (I know the laundry aspect is a deterrent for some people, but it's not been a bother to us.)

There are so many options out there for cloth diaper "friendly/safe" detergents. We've tried our share, from Rockin' Green, to Charlie's Soap, to Clean B, to Irish Twins, to name a few. Last month, we tried A Happy Green Life. (I say "we," although, usually, I wash the diapers, since I am a SAHM now.)

I was impressed.

I chose to use the scent called "Bite Me" to wash our Mud Butts. According to the AHGL website, Bite Me is describe like this: "fresh citrus notes of lime and orange sparkle with effervescent highlights as they lead to a luscious blend of berry and cherry in this playful scent. Leafy green accents add intensity as a base of vanilla creates sweet tones for the fragrance."

(I haven't mentioned this yet, but just reading their scent list on the website when choosing the scents I would review had me drooling!)

I will guiltily admit that I had neglected diaper laundry for a few extra days before washing them with the Bite Me wash, and they were pretty raunchy smelling when I finally got them into the washer. (For the record, we use an old top loader and hard water, but the all-natural laundry wash can be used in HE machines and soft water, too!) My diaper washing regimine goes as follows:
- one cold/cold wash/rinse cycle to get all the yuckies off. No detergent.

- one hot/cold/cold wash/rinse/extra rinse cycle. I use detergent here.

I know other people's varies, but that's how I've done mine.

Because the weather was kind of cold and icky, and we don't have a clothesline anyway, I then tumbled dried the diapers and covers on no-heat (using two Bouncing Woolies dryer balls).

When the diapers were dry, I took them out and performed the "sniff test." For those who may not cloth diaper (or sniff test), it's simple. I stuck my nose in the clean diapers and sniffed away. Fortunately, there were no ammonia odors, and in fact, they smelled very... fresh. They didn't necessarily have a lingering "Bite Me" scent (to be expected, I presume, since I do an extra rinse), but they definitely did NOT smell foul. They were clean. They felt clean. They looked clean. They smelled clean! The detergent didn't really "suds up" which I liked, because it seems like the more suds, the longer you have to rinse your diapers to get them really clean and completely rinsed (so there is no build-up).

A Happy Green Life passed my Mud Butt cleansing test! Yes!!

I also had the liberty of choosing a second scent to test out. I chose "Manly Man," and decided to use it for my husband's work clothes. He's a Schwan's man, and while it's not a "dirty" job, he sweats, he meets tons of dogs, and gets dirty sometimes, being in and out of the truck, the outdoors, and homes, for 14 or more hours a day, 4 to 5 days a week. I figured his clothes were a great test subject, right? Manly Man, on the website, is described as: Energizing citrus notes mixed with subtle touches of clean, classic rose petals, infused with smoldering notes of frankincense and myrrh. Cashmere woods, sandalwood, and sensual musks bring this rugged creation to a finish with a soft powdery, dry, down." Now, don't freak when you read "rose petals." It did NOT smell girly. In fact, I thought it smelled so excellent that I kind of wanted to surprise my husband and just throw it on him so I could sniff him a while.

Alas, I decided not to "waste" the detergent that way, and proceeded to wash the Schwan's clothes. I did a normal "warm/warm" wash/rinse with the sample packet of Manly Man. I dried on low-heat with the Bouncing Woolies, and I sniffed. There were some lingering notes of the detergent (yay!) but hardly enough to be overpowering or even really noticeable if you weren't looking for them. My husband approved of the clean work clothes, though he didn't say anything about the scent (because I honestly forgot to ask, dangit). But, A Happy Green Life passed the working man's clothing test! Yes!

I was a lucky lady and won another sample pack from Mud Butt Cloth Diapers, and they came in the mail yesterday. I haven't used them yet, but golly, they smell great, and I can't wait to wash again!

Now, would you like to win? I bet you would. I would if I wasn't hosting!

The prize: A 3-Scent Sample Pack of All-Natural Laundry Wash!

Here's what you MUST DO to enter:

Comment on this blog entry, ALL IN ONE COMMENT SPACE with

1. First Name
2. Email Address
3. 3 Scents you'd choose if you won the sample pack
4. "Like" their Facebook Page and tell them "Handkerchief Confessions" sent you. I'll be checking!
5. AND answer the following, "What's your least favorite laundry-related chore?"

Please do NOT comment more than once. Multiple entries will be deleted. So, make certain you have all five parts in your reply. It might help to number them!

I will choose a winner via random.org next Sunday after I get home from church. Entries posted after 12:00pm CST on Sunday, March 25, will NOT count.

Contest open to U.S. and Canadian residents.

Scents list is found here: http://ahappygreenlife.com/Scents.html

You don't have to like or follow my blog (Handkerchief Confessions), but if you feel like you want to, there's a link to the right for my blog's Facebook page.

Giveaway starts NOW, and ends promptly at 12:01am one week from today.

Good luck!!

Someone just won a MUD BUTT!

Let's just say a few things before I announce the winner... partially to fill ya'll with total suspense (because I have a slightly evil side, obviously), and also to point out a few thoughts I have following the review and giveaway week!

First, I can hardly believe the amount of people who visited my blog. Over 400 visitors before I posted the blog entry after the review (I have two between the review and this winner announcement, if you're not a follower)! That blew my mind.

Second, I have a lot of friends (that I know personally) that are into cloth diapering! I didn't really realize that until I went through and read all the entries. That's SO AWESOME.

Third, I loved all the creativity that was shared with the creation of your "custom" diaper and the naming of the product. Most people went for "edible" names, but some didn't. Didn't matter either way, it was just fun to read!

Fourth, I found a common theme in people's responses to cloth diapering, which I'm sure many are avidly aware of, such as (and I'm paraphrasing)... "Ew! Poop! What do you do with it?!" or "Isn't that a lot of work?" as well as "Cloth diapers nowadays are SO MUCH MORE AWESOME than they used to be! You don't have to stab at a baby anymore!" Haha. I've personally heard all of those sorts. I hadn't heard, unlike some entrant, anything about people refusing to watch my baby! You poor thing!

Fifth, there sure are a lot of M&M Butt Fans out there! I'm glad ya'll like my creation!

Anyway... onto the winner announcement.

I had FOURTY entries. 40! WOW! In one week even! Woohooo!

1. Rachel F.

2. Jessica

3. Abbie E.

4. Gina

5. Cathy

6. Ashley W.

7. Courtney

8. Rosie H.

9. Christi H.

10. Stephanie

11. Christina

12. Kate B.

13. Katie F.

14. Audra

15. Aleia

16. Boise W.

17. Randi H.

18. Mary T.

19. Jessica C.

20. Mandy R.

21. Naomi C.

22. Cassie B.

23. Rachel N.

24. Amanda B.

25. Niki L.

26. Ashley S.

27. Rachel

28. Jill

29. JaTon L.

30. Jenn E.

31. Lisa H.

32. Jaimie K.

33. Jodi

34. Krystal M.

35. Lauren

36. Samantha H.

37. Kami Q.

38. Narelle G.

39. Devin R.

40. Sandy S.

So, here's how I chose the winner (still stalling, I know...):

I copied that list and pasted it in the List Randomizer at Random.org.

See that here:

Then, I clicked "Randomize."

I got this list....

(If you click on those, you can probably see the bigger versions, which means you'd be able to read the entire list and the order in which people "would win" if there were "places" for the contest.)

Which means...

ASHLEY WHIPKEY!
You win!! Congratulations!
Ashley's design was Dark Brown PUL with Lime Green and Orange Snaps.
She calls it.... "Fin Spin," after her son, Finley!

I'll be sending Carrie at Mud Butt Cloth Diapers your entry right now!

Thanks for participating, everyone, and I hope you had fun flexing your creative muscle! And, don't be discouraged. If you're a "liker" of Mud Butt Cloth Diapers on Facebook, chances are you'll be able to participate in another giveaway in not "too long" a time-frame! Or, you could just save up for a week and buy one. Trust me, I really don't think you'll be disappointed!

We love Mud Butts!

It's official. We have a favorite cloth diaper in our family, and it won with a unanimous vote (we count Spencer as agreeing with us, of course, since he can't really "talk back" yet (and hope he never does, but that's wishful thinking, I'm sure)). Jake exclaimed it to me from Spencer's room at 1:14 this morning, "It's official, the Mud Butts are my favorite!"

MUD BUTT CLOTH DIAPERS WIN!

Yeah, this post is about cloth diapers.

Mud Butt Cloth Diapers are made by a Work at Home Mom (WAHM) in Minnesota. Here's her website. Feel free to order some for us. Haha.

Anyway, here's why we love the diaper:

• You can design your own, it's custom! You pick the diaper color, and the snap color. FUN!

• You can order a pocket or an All-in-Two (AI2). We order the AI2. It's super cool. You can use it as a typical pocket diaper and stuff it with an insert, which is stellar, but the primo option is the snap-in inserts. When your baby wets, you can just yank that right out (well, gently, of course) and toss it in the laundry, and then snap a fresh, dry one in it's place. You can order the inserts separate too. We've been able to use ONE diaper up to 3 times (because we can use it with two snap-ins, and sometimes I stuff a pocket insert in there too, for the third time. It's rare, but I've done it).

• It's very absorbent. Due to the fact you can customize the stuffing so wonderfully, we've never had a leak problem and he's worn it overnight for up to 8 hours when we forgot to change him. Yeah, we're bad parents sometimes. But they were so absorbent that it didn't even bother his cute little tushy.

• They're really easy to wash, like most cloth diapers, of course. Toss them in the laundry and throw them in the washer, and wash and dry as usual!

• They're trim. His butt doesn't look totally bulky, even when they're snapped to the smallest settings, he doesn't get a fluffy rear. Fantastic!

• They're affordable!

• Customer service is EXCELLENT. Seriously. Probably one of the nicest sellers out there. I'm not saying that to suck up. I didn't know her at all before I purchased a diaper, and she was there to help me through technical difficulties with internet on my phone, answers questions about anything I come up with cloth diaper related, and has all sorts of tips. And she works hard and quickly, and your diapers come in a very timely fashion!

• Thigh savers. This is the only cloth diaper I have found that comes with extra snap-on circles for the inside snaps on the diaper. When your baby grows, the inside snaps can press into his/her thighs, and this prevents red marks and welts or what have you that other diapers can leave from the exposed snaps digging into baby's thigh. Genius!

I honestly can't think of a reason I don't love these diapers.

We have four brands that we're using now that we've purged out those I don't like as much: Fuzzi Bunz, Thirsties Duo, and Charlie Banana. I like them all too, but I love the Mud Butts the most!

(Even our doctor commented this morning how awesome these diapers were, they're SO cute!)

I'll just wash the poop away!

Baby poop doesn't bother me. Adult poop... disgusts me. Dog poop... makes me want to lose my lunch. But baby/toddler poop, I can deal with.

Before Jake and I even conceived our child, we decided (many thanks to our dear friend Randi, for helping make this decision) that we were going to use cloth diapers for our children. A lot of the time, when I would tell people that, especially those who are older than me (like, my parents age), they would look at me like I was crazy. Sometimes, we'd find a gem here or there that would support us and ask questions, but generally, people assumed that the only kind of cloth diapers there were are the fold and pin and try not to skew your infant style ones that existed so long ago.

Boy, were they wrong. Cloth diapers today are much more awesome. I told someone recently they're a cross between regular disposable diapers and underwear, at least in terms of function. They're even pretty cute!

Recently, Jake and I started looking into our actual options for cloth diapers. I was quickly overwhelmed with the variety that are available.

I won't bore everyone with all of the details, but after visiting a local store and getting a quick "seminar" on options, we left feeling even more excited and confident in our decision.

People wonder why we decided to go with cloth diapers. Part of it (and Jake really appreciates this decision, seeing as he's more finance-minded than I), is that you save a lot of money using cloth. Upfront, it sounds and looks pretty scary, when you can spend around $20 PER diaper, and you need, from what we've learned, around 20-30 if you don't want to do laundry every day. So, potentially, that's $400 in diapers. But then, you actually research and compare costs, and you realize, you're saving around... $1,000 - $2,000 just by using cloth. More, if you have multiple children I researched this online, as well as with some of the hand-outs we received with our lesson. And, the resources used for washing are pretty minimal, compared to my next point...

I also like how cloth diapers are much more eco-friendly than disposables. It can take up to 500 years for one diaper to break down! That is CRAZY. According to the handout received from Thirsties (a company/brand of diapers), 25 million trees are made into disposable diapers yearly. That's just not cool.

Cloth diapers are also "chemical-free," unlike disposables that contain gel-like agents and various toxins that absorb into a baby's bottom.

There's also found to be less instances of diaper rash with cloth diapers if you launder them correctly!

So yeah, sure, we're going to have to scrape poop off the diapers into the toilet, and do some extra laundry. Big deal.

Really, most diaper brands have fine print on them that say you're supposed to scrape the poop off into the toilet anyway and most people just don't follow it. Instead, there's a crap-ton (haha) of poop in landfills that seeps into our water supply and breeds viruses and bacteria. Stellar.

Anyway, as luck would have it, the other evening I realized I still had some cash left in my paypal account from when I used to sell photography on etsy, and after being directed to a "lesser known brand" of cloth diapers, called Nubunz (which are basically the same thing as the ever popular Fuzzibunz), I was able to purchase two. They arrived yesterday! I won't lie, I was beyond excited to receive the package, open them, see how they work, and put them on the shelf for our little Ninja to use once he's born and big enough!

Here they are, because I obviously was so excited I needed to photo document the occasion.

We put together a cloth diaper online registry, thinking maybe people would be interested in helping us get to our 20-30 goal, but we'll see how much support we really receive. Most people are more interested in buying outfits and toys, I figure (not that we don't appreciate or need those things, too).