The Moses Basket is Fashionable

If you went to church or Sunday school and studied the Bible  then you know what a Moses basket is . The name refers to the makeshift boat  that Moses from the Old Testament was set afloat in when he was an infant. His mother pushed him out into the Nile River in a basket made of reeds where he was eventually found and raised by the servants of an Egyptian Queen.
However don't get the impression that a Moses basket  is a boat. It is just a basket for holding a baby and the hippest versions are made of hemp.

Women have been carting babies around in baskets for eons. However given our love of ecologically correct things lately we are now wild again about the idea of something that is made out of plant fibers. Of course these Moses baskets do fit that bill. They are made out of 100% natural fibers unless you buy one made out plastic. You can probably get one made out of recycled skipping rope somewhere on the web!

In recent decades we have been carting our babies around in similar baskets only they are not made of reeds. They are made of organic materials such as hemp, willow, corn and other gentle pliable and recyclable materials. These types of baby baskets are back in style again because they are an excellent green choice and one hundred percent organic. They are not toxic at all to the baby like a plastic carrier could potentially be.
The other thing about a Moses basket is that it is ecologically correct. They are also recyclable for the most part. They do not sit in a waste dump and refuse to degrade for a million years like a plastic crib or baby carrier of some kind.

For such a humble item they have also become very posh. Who knew a simple basket could cost so much? Many of the designer ones cost well over a hundred dollar

s.
If you are looking for a good place to buy them online then you can try New Baby Products and similar stores. They sell a really large selection of these baskets online as well as the cotton liners to go with them. The liners can be very pretty and frilly contemporary looking fabric patterns.
You can also get these vintage look Moses baskets that have been made into Victorian style baby carriages as well.
If you do not want to spend a lot of money on fashion I highly recommend that you buy a cheaper basket from Wal-Mart or someplace like that and outfit it with your own special padding or fabric. This could save you a lot of money. Just look in the laundry aisle of a chain style furniture store. Ikea has also been known to have these wicker style baskets as well. Look for one with a handle as that will be the easiest one for you to tote around. Keep in mind too that whatever this basket is made of it must be strong enough to support the weight of your little one.  Read the tags on the basket to seehow much weight it will hold before you buy it.

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Line Drying Your Clothing

After watching the Al Gore documentary I have been conscientious about being a green mommy. My latest endeavor is to go back to drying my laundry the old way – on a clothes line.

I must say though the one thing that I am missing is the dryer sheets. Clothes are a little wrinkly and is it wrong to admit that I actually love the smell of those scented dryer sheets. I love the vanilla varieties and also the lavender types too. However I am not as fond of the scent of the great outdoors around where I live.

However with some clothespins and a clothesline I intend to save a lot of money and achieve that scent that every laundry detergent company has been trying to capture called the Fresh Outdoors. The key though is to hang it out on a day where there is no smog or you will not get that result that you are looking for.

Another caveat is the subdivision. It is important to make sure that you are even allowed to put up clothesline. Same if you live in an apartment building. Many find them unsightly. A clothesline may be against some local regulation or law.

Of course for your clothes to dry well you will need a good quality line. It need to pulled very tight and not sag as the saggier the line is, the less chance it has of drying the clothes in a way that helps them keep their shape.

Drying clothes on a line doesn't cost a lot. All you need to do is hang them out. I wipe down the line itself every now and then with a damp rag to make sure that it is clean so the clothes or clothespins don't become marked in any way. It is a guarantee to me that the clothes will not get marked up in any way.

Clothespins are also essential and they come in several different types. There are plastic ones that stay clean and undamaged. The wooden ones tend to swell up in the rain. Whether you use plastic or wood you should store them where they will keep clean and dry anyway. I use a small plastic bag that I just hang from the clothesline as well.

Another reason to line dry instead of throwing them in the dryer is it is just that much easier on the clothes. They will simply last a lot longer than if you just threw them in the dryer. Lint, after all, is actually worn away fabric that is floating around in your dryer. It is usually hardware, like zippers, scraping away against clothing that causes this.

You can also save yourself some money by not using your electric dryer. The electric dryer costs more energy then just about any other appliance in the home. By being this conscientious about energy you will be making Al Gore feel proud.

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