I just finished making another diaper for our son, and the process is getting much easier and faster.  This evening it took me less than a hour from start to finish.  I used a fleece sweatshirt I found at a thrift store for the liner (I should be able to get three more diapers out of that shirt, so for $2.50 it was a good deal), and an old t-shirt with a cool design on it for the outside.  I only make pocket diapers these days, as I find that they dry much faster and I feel like they get cleaner, since the insert and the diaper get washed in two pieces.  I used to make inserts, but I found that I can just fold a prefold diaper into quarters and have an instant liner.  Several people gave us prefold diaper burp cloths when our son was born, and we’ve been using them as all-purpose baby rags.  But now they’ve become diaper inserts, and save me time when I’m making diapers.  I retired one of his smallest diapers this evening, and replaced it with the new one I just made.   The rest of his diapers should last a few more months – I altered them all at the end of the summer, and gave him lots of room to grow, so they’re still working for now.  I’m trying to make a diaper every few weeks so that I can stay on top of the process.  I don’t want to find one day that he’s outgrown everything all at once and have to spend a whole weekend making diapers.

Last week we bought a desk at the thrift store for $15, and I moved it into our guest room as a permanent home for my sewing machine.  The sewing machine is a portable model, and I had been dragging it around the house, using it at my office desk, the dining room table, and the kitchen countertop.  And I had been storing my material and supplies in boxes and bags in the corner of the guest room.  Now everything is neatly housed in the new desk, and it fits perfectly next to my office desk.  The guest room gets used for guests maybe 4 or 5 weeks out of the year.  The rest of the time it’s my office and scrapbook room, and now it’s my sewing room too.  I like making good use of that space – our house is small and we can’t have a room just sitting there waiting for guests to show up.

We had a great day today – the only time we left the house was to go the gym and to take the dog for walks.  No spending, and lots of accomplishing.  Those are the best sort of days.  I did get a chance to do some catching up on my blog reading.  Miss Thrifty hosted the Festival of Frugality, full of great frugal ideas to inspire and encourage you on your journey.  Check it out.

Kristen has a post about a documentary called A Delicate Balance.  I decided I wanted to see this, and as a Christmas present to myself, I shelled out the five bucks and my husband and I watched it together after we put our son to bed on Christmas night.  It is a powerful movie – our motivation to be vegan is stronger than ever now.

In the Frugal Blog Network, Tight Fisted Miser details how he’ll be cutting expenses in 2009.  I love his plan to hike the Appalachain trail (for only $200/month) for a few months.

Kelly at Almost Frugal is on vacation this week, but is reposting some of her greatest hits.  I enjoyed her post about the problems with reselling cloth diapers.   For the people at ebay – what are you thinking?  We got some cloth diapers on Craigs list before our son was born ($3 each) and made the rest from recycled fabric.  We also got three as a gift from Kelly (thank you!)  I’m planning to hold onto mine in case we decide to have another baby someday.  After that, maybe one of my siblings will be ready to have kids, and I’ll be able to pass them on.

Not Made Of Money has some good ideas for a frugal New Year’s Eve party.  I’m just thrilled to have another short work week.

Frugal Zeitgeist has an article about turning 40 and her goals for 2009.  Lots of good stuff here, and I like seeing the high numbers on her savings goals.  That’s what happens when you pay off the mortgage – there’s lots of extra money for savings.

The Frugal Duchess writes about how a good number of us aren’t particularly savvy when it comes to finances (or basic math from the looks of it).

I hope you all had a good week.  Enjoy the last few days of 2008!