WTFF: Going for Gold

I apologise for my slightly misleading title of today's frocky post.  I am not wearing a gold dress.  It has a wee bit of gold in it.  And I'm in the historical gold mine area of New Zealand.  But that's about it.  I am, however, completely obsessed with the Olympics and will probably go into post-Olympic withdrawl when it ends this weekend.  I really did want to pick a dress that was "Olympic" themed and it just goes to show how desperate I was to meet this end that I tried to make this dress my Olympic tribute.  Would you like to hear my tenuous reasoning for this being an Olympic homage?  Of course you would!  So... New Zealand's traditional team colours are black and silver.  This dress is black(ish.  More like charcoal actually but tomaytoes/tomahtoes) with silver through it.  It also has gold because... well I don't really have to explain the relevance of gold to the Olympics do I?  Perhaps I could make it some lame metaphor for New Zealand winning some gold medals.  Yeah, that sounds awesome.  I also wore a nice piece of New Zealand jewellery to continue the patriotic fervour.  My earrings are the closest I could get to Olympic rings.  They're not rings, they're ringlets but let's not get technical.  I think if Grasping at Straws were an Olympic sport then I would be in with a shot at a medal.

Clothes swaps.  If you've never done one, it's worth a go.  The good old adage, "your trash is someone else's treasure" never had a better platform.  This dress/tunic belonged to my friend Helen and it found a new home with me after Helen and I organised a clothes swap at work one afternoon.  I have worn it a lot although hardly at all since Edie was born (breastfeeding again.  Sorry to bang on about it).  It's just a bit different in both the sense that there's not much around like it, and it's unlike things I normally have in my wardrobe.  I like the middle panel on it which actually acts like a big pocket.  Not that I would put anything in it as it might make me look like I had a massive apron of fat or worse.  The silver and the gold means it's versatile in terms of accessories although I've never tried to add a splash of colour so maybe I should try that the next time I wear it.

We've seen the cardi before with this frock but it's returned to it's home, Queenstown.  I like how the dark dress underneath allows the pattern of knit to show when worn with the tunic.

The boots I bought a few years ago (they look a little worse for wear) and I love that they remind me of Puss in Boots.  I think I had a book with that story in as a child in which Puss wore boots similar to these with the fold over top.  The gumboot fear of flat boots was first overcome with these boots, so they hold a special place in my heart.

Phil bought me this necklace a few years ago.  It's a Boh Runga piece of jewellery and like all of the pieces from that range, has a feathered theme.  I like both the weight and delicacy of the wing pendant and it's the only long pendant I own.  I don't seem to wear necklaces that much any more but this is one I do go back to.  The earring my mum bought for me years ago, I think possibly because they reminded her of my curly hair (it used to be long so lots of ringlets).  They're not quite silver or gold which I like as it means they can be worn either way.

Phil, Edie & I have come to Queenstown this weekend for a winter weekend and so gloves and hats are compulsory items.  My beret and fingerless gloves were bought for me by Mum (I'm worried Mum is going to start picking up on how often I write those words and tone down the gift-giving) and come from Forever New.  We don't have a Forever New in Dunedin which I am both sad and glad about.  Sad because they have really cool stuff at chain store prices, and glad because they have really cool stuff at chain store prices.  And I don't have money to spend even at chain store prices.  The same day you last saw me wear the cardi, I also wore the coat.  Love it like a child.  Ok, not quite as much as I love Edie but it's possibly super-ceding the cat in my affections...

Edie had a cute Frugi dress on today but the coat was the feature of the day as we travelled closer to the snow.  The coat comes from Miracle and is a New Zealand made number from a company called Lone Moose.  They use recycled and reclaimed materials as well as new fabrics to make their very cool creations.  I had a hard time choosing between this colour for the coat, or a gorgeous peacock/teal colour.  Perhaps we'll have teal next time.  I love the pixie hood and the cute lining which can actually be worn on the outside as the domes are double sided.  She's wearing a little neckerchief because it looks cute, like a wee polka dot cow wrangler, but also because she is dribbling like a fox at the moment and she's not normally a dribbly kid at all.  Perhaps the next lot of teeth are on their way.  Whatever the reason, Edie gets to rock Aunty Natalie's bandana so it has its upsides.  Also worth noting are the cute purple See Kai Run boots that match the glasses of course.

Right, back to enjoying my Olympics on a fuzzy old TV in a good old Kiwi bach.  All I need is a cup of Bell tea and I'll be a lovely blast from the past cliche.

Cool Shit Monday: Kiddy Kool

Not all of you have kids so I have avoided putting too many child-related items into CSM.  Just the odd sprinkle here and there.  But the reality is, I do have a kid and so I can't help but find cool shit that is kiddy-centric.  So today I am indulging the mummy shopaholic in me and showing you some Kiddy Kool.  If you don't have a kid, you could just peruse the items, appreciate their cuteness, then purge them from your memory as useless trinkets.  Or perhaps you could use some of this on pets or sprogs of people you know.  If you do have sprogs, prepare to get your wallets ready and your 'awww' faces prepped.

Lou Clifton is a Dunedin lass who has been designing and making children's shoes for several years under the banner, Lou's Shoes.  She has always made totally fantastic shoes but she recently took a break from her children's line to go to Australia and develop her shoemaking skills.  She went and worked with a variety of bespoke shoemakers and came home to Dunedin with an adult shoe range in her sights.  I'm not sure if she's released the big people shoes yet, but she has released a new line of kiddies shoes and they are to. die. for.  If the adults shoes are anywhere near as cool as her baby shoes, I'll be looking at some serious shoe-debt.  In the mean time, I am just trying to decide what shoes need to make it into Edie's wardrobe.

I think these Pierrot ones will be on the shopping list

Another lovely Dunedin lady showing her talents is Rachel Owen.  After Rachel had her son, she asked her mother to teach her all her crafty secrets.  She passed over quilting, decided knitting wasn't for her, but crochet was just her cup of tea and away she went.  Once she'd crocheted entire wardrobes of clothes for her own child, she decided it was probably time to share the love and started to sell her creations.  And so Kid Lidz was born.  Edie was lucky enough to be given one such creation for her first birthday - an owl hat - and we get so many comments about it.  And you no-kiddy people are in luck.  She makes them in big people sizes too...

Edie jazzed to have an owl on her head.

Well this is turning into a Dunedin love-fest as I'm now about to rave on about Helen Riley-Duddin who is the brains behind Tinch Design.  She designs restickable wallscapes for kidlets (and big people too).  Now this idea is not new.  When I went to decorate Edie's room before she arrived, I found a bizillion cute wall stickies I could have put on her wall.  In the end, I chose two different designs that were not Helen's work.  They're cute.  I like them.  But Helen's are cool so I was stoked when Harriet gave us one after Edie was born. What makes them different?  She uses upcycled textiles (mainly wallpaper and fabric) to make them so they just look... funky.  Helen describes them as "half way between play and art" and the lady knows what she is talking about.  Plus on a practical note, they are restickable.  Really.  Not like those stickers that stuck ok at first but after you moved them, seemed to attract fluff from your carpet, your cat, and the back of the refrigerator, and have started to peel off the wall.  But if you were still worried about the fluff, you can get magnetic backing instead.  You'd happily have them on the walls of your house, unlike massive Dora or Spiderman decals that I would begrudgingly accept if Edie really wanted them and they would certainly not appear in any non-kiddy-zone room.  They have become my new 'go to gift'.

Edie's wallscape.  Edie points to it and says, "hooo! hooo!"

And just to prove this isn't all about Dunedin, here is one of my favourite online kiddy stores - Frugi.  There is so much to love about this stuff.  It's organic, it's ethical, it's made with cloth nappy bums in mind (they're fat and therefore can be tricky to fit into normal trousers in case you were wondering), and it's totally cute.  The people are awesome too, which helps.  They have such a cool wee community going (they call it Planet Frugi) and they truly seem to 'get it' - they are in touch with their customers who they treat more like friends than dollar signs, and they truly love their product.  They do ship to New Zealand (postage is usually around 12 pound) so there's no stopping you.  Or at least there's no stopping me as Phil can attest to.  But Edie clearly needs cute stuff to match her own cuteness.

So there you have it peeps - some of the kiddy stuff I've been fixating on.  The list is long however so I may need to slip the odd bit of kiddy kool into other posts but I'm sure you'll forgive me.  After all, we'd all like a wolf t-shirt and white leather pom pom boots at heart.

PS.  You can get the Tinch designs and Kid Lidz at Miracle (of this post) but I wrote about them because I think they're truly cool, not to be a cheer leader for that business.  It is, however, no coincidence that Miracle stocks cool shit.

Miraculous Happenings

I made some vague excuse last week about being tardy with WTFF.  I also promised I would post photos of the vague excuse.  I'm going to do better than that, I'm going to write a whole post about it.

One of my besties, Harriet, had a wild and wonderful idea a few years ago to start a baby store in Dunedin.  There was a massive hole in the market here.  You could go to the Baby Factory for basics, or TNT if you wanted your child to be highly flammable, or Arthur Barnetts if you could get past the smell of old ladies and cona coffee, and that was about it.  The magical internet was available of course, but sometimes you just want to go into a store and buy something.  Harriet was working in an incredibly unsatisfying job where her fabulous ideas and talents were not appreciated.  In search of retail-salvation, she started a new job as Assistant Manager in a business that was just starting up in Dunedin.  Her manager was an affable young lady named Sam.  Sam and Harriet quickly discovered that they shared the dream of opening a decent children's store in Dunedin.  They also quickly discovered that they didn't hate each other's guts (quite rare for retail work colleagues) and actually, they could handle seeing each other day in, day out indefinitely.  And they could make sensible decisions that the other didn't completely disagree with.  Sounds like the recipe for a good marriage, doesn't it?  And it was - A business marriage.  Harriet & Sam bit the bullet, took the leap of faith, and other cliches, and started Miracle.

Opening morning - Sam and Harriet lacking sleep but still smiling!

That was four years ago.  They have, as one might expect from any new business, their fair share of ups and downs but the heart of the matter remains: they have a good business idea, and they have the brains to implement it.  And so it was that at the beginning of the year they found themselves in a temporary store.  It was a pretty big challenge that they weren't entirely expecting to face but like so many of these serendipitous twists and turns life throws you, it's been an awesome clarifier for them - an unexpected boon.  The change from a massive store space to a much smaller one has focussed their business objectives and allowed them to make some changes they had been wanting to make for a while, and also discover some new successes they didn't know existed.  And through their temporary store, the metaphoric door has opened to their new permanent location.

It was this location that we worked hard to pull together on Friday, ready for the grand opening on Saturday.  It's like moving house except it all happens in a tight time frame and then you have to be ready to have an open home the following morning.  It's pretty full on!  Thankfully they were only moving down the corridor this time, but there's still a lot to do when you move a whole store of stock.  Stress levels were fairly high, people were tired, there were up to 10 of us all trying to work in a small space, not including the various off-spring roaming around or screaming the house down... it was chaotic to put it mildly.

But shit these ladies are funny.  As the hours ticked by and the bags under the eyes started to get darker, the jokes became more and more inappropriate and the laughter turned to giggling and cackling (most females are prone to the odd cackle when they're overtired).  Most amazing of all, the shop started to look good.  Really good.  Despite all the bossing (thanks Micaela), dithering, screaming babies (what would a baby store be without them?), and generally flummoxing, we pulled it together.

The result is a store that looks like a a delicious cupcake - beautiful quality ingredients topped with lots of colourful sprinkles.  The quality shoes, the cloth nappies, the beautiful merino clothing, and then bowlfuls of bright toys, and puzzles.  These girls have always known what they wanted, they have known what they needed to do, and with the new store they have taken another step towards their retail dream.  It's so awesome to watch.  It seems other people agree.  When 10am rolled around on Saturday morning, Harriet and Sam had more than just lack of sleep to deal with, they had a queue down the street waiting for the doors to open.

I'm happy to say I'll be doing a little more than just watch their success as I am about rediscover my retail feet and be their Monday Girl.  They've also got me looking after some of their online content too so I am slowly wheedling my way into the business.  A little Miracle with jam and cream?  I think I like that combination.

www.miracle.net.nz