Today I'm selfish

and I really don't give a rip.

As the kids came, shivering, out of the pool this morning after swimming lessons, a friend informed me that she was headed to the beach. I hemmed and hawed for about two minutes before wrinkling my nose at the idea and decided to stick with my plan of sewing this afternoon. For once this summer, I wanted to do what I wanted to do and not worry about what the kids wanted to do. (did you follow that?)

I was craving some quality time with my sewing machine. Besides today is on the chilly side so I'll save the beach for a hotter day. I, shamelessly, pawned the older kids off on friends (thanks Amy and Gloria!), put the little kids for their naps and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the afternoon.

My goal for today was visual progress. Mission accomplished!

Yesterday I spent quite a bit of time perfecting a changing pad/diaper pouch. It's something I've wanted to do for a long time and have turned down requests for them because I didn't feel like I had them fine tuned.

Here's what I came up with... The pad is tri-fold with a "pearl" snap closure (I still have to add the snap to this one.) I debated about doing a button closure but realized I prefer snaps over buttons. I'm always scared of buttons falling off, especially in the washer, even if they're sewn on 100 times.

When you open the pad, the inside is minky (although I'll do some with cotton too.). I'm going for comfort here. Most often the mess is contained to the diaper so it's not like you'd have to worry about it getting "goop" on everything. A newborn blow-out is already a mess so I'd feel like I'd have to throw a vinyl pad in the wash anyway. Might as well make baby as comfy as possible as you mutter thru a head to toe wet wipe bath in some strange bathroom.

A handy dandy pocket, perfect to store diapers and wipes in, folds out to one side. Most other changing pads, if they have a pocket, have it attached fully across the pad itself. I pondered this one over and over, debating what to do. I'm the type of person who likes things to be easy to use. If I have to pull out all the diapers and wipes out of the pocket before I can even lay Baby down for a diaper change, then I know I won't use the pad. I'm lazy that way.

The best part? When it gets dirty, toss it in the wash! Easy as pie!

I'm hoping that I'll have the first few changing pads listed tomorrow. We'll see....