Did I say ... mocktails and door prizes?

First things first, eLeMeNO-Pee has yet another exciting event coming up this Friday (May 2nd)! We will be hosting a come and go Matilda Jane trunk show from 2-6pm! There will be mocktails and finger foods, random door prize drawings, and a BIG, in-store only sale announced the  day of the trunk show!  We are located at 1513 W McNeese St (Suite B) in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

If you're not familiar with Matilda Jane, it is a line of adorable boutique clothing and accessories for both   girls AND women! The new Spring catalog was just released *today* so be sure to come in and see all the fun, new things they have to offer.  It is going to be a lot of fun and we hope to see you there!












We would also like to thank all of the participants that joined us for this year's Great Cloth Diaper Change! It was a wonderful event and we had a lot of fun!  We didn't end up qualifying as part of the Guinness World record but it was still a fun, memorable event regardless. We still had sixteen participating diaper changer+baby combos and as you can see, it was still a store full of people and fun!
 





We are also proud to share how AWESOME our customers are when it came to their charitable giving! We may have had a smaller gathering than some locations, but that didn't affect our donations for the two cloth diaper bank charities! Check out what our participants helped us gather for those in need:

This image was shared by Giving Diapers, Giving Hope 

The Great Cloth Diaper Change is just ONE DAY away!

The time is finally here! eLeMeNO-Pee is so pleased to be hosting The Great Cloth Diaper Change event again this year (after taking a one year break) and we are hoping you will join us tomorrow morning!

The event is *TOMORROW*, Saturday, April 26th and begins at 10am so we can get everyone checked in and prepared for the main event. The actual diaper-changing Guinness World Record Attempt will begin at 11am sharp according to the Guinness rulebook.We are located at 1513 W McNeese St (Suite B) in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Last year, they broke another record! The new world record is 8,301 cloth diapers changed at one time at 182 qualifying locations in 15 countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Switzerland, Chile, Germany, Spain, Finland, Great Britain, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Malaysia, Netherlands, United States! How awesome is that?!



eLeMeNO-Pee will be giving away door prizes, we're doing raffles, goodie bags, and BIG sales that are only available in-store! We would absolutely love to see you and help us attempt another new world record. We will also be accepting donations for two cloth diaper charities (Giving Diapers, Giving Hope  and the Real Diaper Association). If you have any cloth diapers you don't need and would like to pass them on to a worthy cause, please bring them with you tomorrow!


 




What you need to know for tomorrow's event:

2014 Guinness Requirements

Here’s a summary of the requirements for participating in setting the new world record. All requirements must be met in order to qualify for the Guinness World Record.

• Each participant must be 18 years of age or older.

• Baby being diapered must be 39” tall or shorter.

• The clean diaper must be 100% reusable and commercially available.

• The event location must be accessible to the public.

• Each change must take place at 11:00am local time.

.So, what do you say? Are you coming? We hope you'll join us!

Six ways to celebrate this Earth Day!

When Earth Day was first celebrated in 1969, the organizers may as well have called it "Hippie-Dippy Day." In the early days of this celebration, metropolis-dwellers, ecologists, activists, and university students gathered for annual "environmental teach-ins." Your average American housewife? Was probably celebrating her daily cook-and-clean-in.

But today, after decades of our nation collectively spiraling further and further into consumerist habits that made our landfills look like Everest, even the most corn-fed, countrified, heartland family is taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint (or would that be "feetprint"?).

Here's our list of six simple steps you can take to green your family's lifestyle AND be a positive influence on your community :

1. Celebrate Real Diaper Week. It's your opportunity to share your reasons for cloth diapering with everyone from your pediatrician to your mailman! Show your cutest cloth diapers off in public, refer someone to your local cloth diaper retailer, get your friends together and ask your favorite baby boutique to carry cloth diapers. Let everyone know that cloth diapers are a real option for real families! The official "rules" are here.  

2. Recycle. If you're here in Lake Charles, where our home office is, you know that we don't have curbside recycling... yet. But we do have a drop-off location that's open every day of the week! It's located off Nelson Rd. near the soccer fields--signs lead the way.

What my little family did this year was pick a location in our house (our computer/music room) and put stackable, clear plastic bins with lids, labeled "Aluminum," "Plastics," and "Paper," in a corner. When a bin is full, I empty it into the required garbage bag, load the kids into the minivan, and head to the drop-off point. That's it! No trying to find out where the Team Green truck is. 

If you're lucky enough to live in a locale with curbside pick-up, your challenge is to write to your city council and thank them for their efforts to keep your city clean and green! Let them know that you recycle, and that the city's recycling program represents tax dollars well spent.

3. Upcycle! Upcycling is reusing with style... and it's a Pinterest-addict's dream come true! There's an old World War II-era saying that our friends at the Sulphur, La.-based business America Make Do have adopted as their inspirational tag line: Use it up. Wear it out. Make it do. 

But wearing it out doesn't have to mean letting your household goods go ugly or threadbare. Slightly holey blue jeans become custom baby bibs and junior handbags. Dad's worn-at-the-hem dress shirts become tiny dresses. With the help of a pair of scissors, a serger, and some pretty thread, old curtains become heavy-duty napkins, frayed towels become a new set of dishrags, and old t-shirts become baby wipes. Why create waste by throwing any perfectly useable piece of cloth (or glass, or aluminum, or, well, anything) out?  

Compost bucket with filtered lid.

4. Compost. You'll decrease your food waste immediately! Collect your fruit and vegetable peels, egg shells, and coffee grinds in a bucket or bowl to start your compost. Composting is a great way to create rich soil for your flower beds or vegetable garden, and it makes for significantly less trash in your house. In fact, if you're recycling, upcycling, cloth diapering, and composting, you may find that you have almost NO household trash! 

Our compost, ready to be turned.

5. Cut down on excess packaging. Make the choice in the grocery store to buy the brand that's both affordable and uses minimal packaging. Buying in bulk usually costs less per unit and involves less excess plastic and cardboard. Buy as much as you can from local growers, and bring your own reusable containers (think Tupperware) to the farmer's market to store rice, oats, and flour in. Finally, e-mail your favorite brands, or find their Facebook pages, and request that they eliminate excess packaging!

6. Speaking of groceries... BYOB! Bring your own bags, that is! This is a simple and convenient way to keep plastic out of landfills. Reusable cloth bags can (and should!) be washed and dried with your clothes or towels to keep them clean and free of bacterial contaminants. Woven string bags can expand to hold up to 40 lbs. of goods, and simple canvas totes can come in all your favorite colors and fun prints! In fact...

If you're one of the first 25 participants to make your way to the Great Cloth Diaper Change - Lake Charles, you'll receive a FREE one, full of swag, compliments of eLeMeNO-Pee!

Chances are you're already doing at least one of these things. As part of Real Diaper Week and leading up to Earth Day, won't you share this on your Facebook wall, and tell your friends how many of the listed items you can check off! You just may inspire someone to green up their household.

Six Ways Cloth Diapers Can Change Your Life this Spring

For many families all over the world, today is Ash Wednesday: the first day of Lent. Now, we’re a Louisiana-based company, and maybe you didn’t know it, but Lent is A Big Deal here.

(Public domain image.)

But even if you don’t observe Lent, Spring is the time of year for change and renewal cross-culturally. And springtime, believe it or not, always has me a little bit focused on cloth diapers.

Maybe it’s because it’s the time of year I became aware of modern cloth diapers after my first child was born. It’s also the time of year that we found out our second child was a girl, and I got my hands on a “retired” daisy print FuzziBunz, the “gateway” diaper in my collection of fun and interesting prints.

It's no secret that cloth diapers changed my life! Switching to cloth first provided us with money-savings, and then it gave me my career, first as a local eLeMeNO-Pee rep and now as the home office's resident social media gal. Beyond any of that, it's connected my family to families all over Louisiana. I met my best friend because she dropped me a link on Facebook about how easy modern cloth diapers can be!

Here are six things you can do with cloth diapers this spring that will change your life and your practices:

1) Switch to cloth. You knew this would be first on the list! But seriously--if you’ve had your eye on cloth diapers for awhile but haven’t yet taken the plunge, this is the perfect time of year. For many families, it’s tax refund time, and that means the funds are available to purchase 12-15 cloth diapers and the necessary accessories to cloth diaper full-time, which is the easiest way to get started and find success! If you’ve hesitated because you’re not a “laundry person,” and you think cloth will be extra work, Lent is an ideal time to embark on a sacrificial adventure for your baby, your family’s finances, and the earth. I have a hunch that by Easter, “doing cloth” will be so routine that you won’t think of it as a sacrifice any more.
 
2) Line-dry your cloth diapers. Mount a clothesline, like this retractable line available at any major hardware store, to your fence or back porch posts and enjoy the energy (and cost!)-saving and natural bleaching powers of the spring sun’s rays! If you’re an observer of Lent, you can take on this chore as a sacrifice and even use the alone time to focus on Lenten prayers.
  
3) If you’re a “cloth diaper collector” like I am, don’t add to your stash right now. (See #4.)


4)  Buy diapers to donate to a family in need. I know I love to check my mail and find a package with that familiar eLeMeNO-Pee label or to get a phone call from the home office, now that it’s local to me, saying my fluffy items are ready to be picked up. But one thing I’ve learned is that receiving “fluffy mail” is just as thrilling when I’m not keeping the items! There are so many good reasons to donate cloth diapers, and there are many venues through which to donate—either directly to a family you know or through an organization like Giving Diapers, Giving Hope.
 
5) Let your love for cloth inspire. Tell your friends about cloth diapers, and refer them to their local eLeMeNO-Pee representative, especially if you’re a busy mama (aren’t we all?) and you know they’ll have lots of questions. You might also let your love for cloth diapers become a love for a “cloth life” in general—use this time to explore other cloth options like mama cloth, unpaper towels, and even cloth that replaces tissues and toilet paper. These will benefit your family’s health and finances and reduce your carbon footprint. Again, if you’re observing Lent, allow the adjustment period—when you’re adding a couple loads of extra laundry to your weekly routine—to be part of your Lenten sacrifice!




6) Participate in the Great Cloth Diaper Change. This annual springtime event, which is timed to coincide with Earth Day, is a Guinness World Records event with locations all over the world. It’s a great opportunity for you to join other cloth diapering families in solidarity to inspire others to jump in for the betterment of the earth by… changing your baby's diaper! The idea is that cloth skeptics might see just how simple modern cloth diapers are and be inspired to join the revolution. Many major cloth diaper manufacturers are sponsors of the event, and they donate door prizes and free gifts to the retailers who host locations! This year, the event falls on April 21^st at 10 am central. eLeMeNO-Pee is proudly hosting the Lake Charles location.