WTFF: Winter Roses

Hello my lovely people out there in interweb land!  Remember me??  Your (not so) trusty blog friend?  I've had a little blogging vacation for one reason or another but you can stop frantically checking your inboxes and refreshing your browsers because I'm back.

And I'm back with a frock.  How apt.  This is a wee bit of a cheat, this dress.  It is a dress.  I did wear it on a What the Frock Friday.  In fact I wore it on two.  So it's last week's frock and this week's frock.  Wearing the same outfit twice??  *gasp*.  I can live with it this time as I wore it in two different cities.  And Oamaru (not a city, in case your lower South Island of New Zealand geography is a little sketchy.  But a lovely town none the less).  So those of you who saw me in it last Friday in Wellington get to relive the experience, and those who saw me in it this Friday in Dunedin will be reading Frock Friday as normal.  Only Phil, Edie and I have seen the frock twice in a week and I'm sure they barely noticed or cared.  But I just had to get that confession off my chest.  It's just as well really as I was hoping to increase my frock wardrobe while in Wellington, but didn't buy a single one for me, only two for Edie (one bought by Nana).  I can't help but feel this is a developing trend.  Dresses for her are so much cheaper.  I hope I don't have to slowly descend from What the Frock Fridays to Jeans & t-shirt Tuesdays to Trackie Thursdays.  I don't really see myself ever being that unselfish actually, so you (and I) should be fine.

This is another old Voon frock and I felt it fitting that I wear it while in Wellington.  Unfortunately we didn't take the camera to get photos of the frock in Wellington and I didn't really get the chance to write about it either.  So it was fitting, and then it was just sensible to wear it again so I could get some snaps and write about it.  The fabric of the dress is interesting.  I've always loved the burnished gold of the leaves with the deep red of the roses, it's like lovely old lady's furniture.  A big inner-sprung couch.  That kind of thing.  And the material itself has a furnituresque (good word huh?) quality to it; it's more like curtain or upholstery fabric than dress material.  In fact the reverse is bright gold. I wish it was able to be see more somehow without me having to do a flasher number.  As a result, it's quite firm by which I mean, it doesn't have much drape.  This makes it a bit odd to wear as it doesn't "pull in" to you as you might expect.  It feels almost like it could be a coat or a robe instead of a dress.  But I love the pattern so much and it speaks so much of winter warmth that I have adjusted to this odd feeling.  The wrap around style of the dress allows you to give it some shape and an advantage of the stiffness of the material is that it hides all your lumps and bumps (the undesirable ones).

In keeping with gold and roses I wore ceramic gold earrings given to me by my sister (I thought I'd worn them before so I didn't take any pics), and a necklace given to me by Aja and Bianca for my 30th birthday.  I wear it a lot as the colours make it a chameleon - it works with a lot of different outfits, and I find the length suits the neckline of a lot of my clothes.  I love the little tree and the quirky charms that hang off it.  It's a bit different which suits me just fine.

Yesterday Edie wore a new dress from Nana.  Mum found this on sale and knew I was running low on frocks for Edie (the situation has been well and truly addressed in the last few weeks) so snaffled it up.  I'm pretty sure it cost the princely sum of $15.  It's a knit so gives a bit of extra warmth while the sun still tries to find its way down to the bottom of the world.  The denim colour looks cute on Edie and I think the little flower on the lapel is a nice detail.  The cardi was knitted for Edie by our older neighbour.  It's lovely and so is she.  Unfortunately, Edie is yet to appreciate this fact and she is the one person who Edie reacts violently against.  I have no idea why as she is so kind.  It's quite embarrassing having your child scream and recoil in horror when someone approaches them.
Edie's tights have a wee daisy on the bum which is very cute but I didn't feel right making my child bend over on cue to take photos of her bottom so you don't see it here.  The shoes are hand me downs from her big cousin, Hamish.  Boys clothing on girls is so much more socially acceptable than the other way round which is sad, but Edie is on the right side of the equation.  The necklace is mine.  Selected and styled by Edie.
Edie is obsessed with steps ("sep") and going up and down them.  Fortunately for her, and unfortunately for her parents, we live down a whole raft of them so that's why our photos are taken in this spot.  I thought it might mean she would pose nicely.  Clearly this was a foolish assumption as she was far more intent on scaling the stairs than posing for photos.  Photos with Child Fail #83.

So there you are peeps, What the Frock Friday on it's return.  More to come soon on lessons learnt while travelling with a child.  It's scintillating stuff I tell you...

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.

WTFF: Patriotic Pretty

It's taken me the better part of a week to get this post to you but I couldn't let it slide.  I'm committed to the frock and I am gathering a loyal following of fellow frockers who I need to pay tribute to.  So late or not, here's Friday's frock.

I have absolutely no claim to any American heritage or anything to do with America.  The best I can say is that I've been there a couple of times and I have a couple of good friends who are American or live in the States.  Oh, and I LOVE Disneyland.  Actually the happiest place on earth.  But I am always up for a good party and you've got to celebrate when the chance is offered.  The chance was offered this week with Independence Day, so my frock this week says, "Hooray for America and Independence".  Just because it's fun and I can.  And you can say all the bad stuff you like about America, but they sure know how to do a good party.

I tried to further the party spirit by hosting an afternoon tea for my Mummy group.  I decided to be the Frock Police and insist that my guests wear a frock.  My ladies really came to the party.  In every sense.      It was a frock success - we all looked gaw-jus and there were more than a few remarks made about how comfy a dress actually is.  See, frocks aren't just impractical fluff.

My ladies rockin' their frocks.  Floral was the order of the day!

My Nana bought me this dress not long after I became pregnant.  I don't know if she really intended it as a maternity dress, I don't think she did, and it's just as well as I don't think I wore it once when I was pregnant.  It's so voluminous, it just made me look like the main attraction inside the big top.  But now that I'm not knocked up, I really like the fullness of it.  It's quite sheer so I have to wear a slip with it.  I mostly wear this dress with something to draw it in at the waist, but when I really feel like indulging my Peter Pan complex, I wear it without.  I don't know if the photos capture it, but there is a silver stripe that runs through it which is rather lovely.  Also it has buttons down the bodice so I can breastfeed in it without having to undress myself (something I have actually done in order to wear some of my other dresses).  And it has pockets - SOLD.

Today I wore it with a cardi I bought in Balmain in Sydney.  It's a summery cardi really: it's cotton, it has 3/4 sleeves... but it's about the only blue thing I own that could be used for my Independence Day theme.  And it's such a happy blue (if there can be such a thing) that I couldn't resist.

The 'belt' is a hair ribbon.  The hair ribbon used to be on a present.  So it's a bit of wrapping really but I loved the stripes so I kept it.  Again, it fit nicely with my theme.  I only wished it was it a little wider so it made more of an impact.

The shoes were a last minute buy from Overland on the day of my brother's wedding.  I had an outfit all planned of course but I wasn't really happy with the shoes.  I bought these and changed the rest of the outfit to match.  I love the ruffle detail on the toe and the wedge heel.  You might think that the wedge makes these shoes comfy, but it doesn't.  It's a commonly held myth that heel height and width is the crux when it comes to comfy shoes but it's all about physics - weight distribution, angles... these don't tick the physics box but they do look lovely.

The earrings and the ring were also a wedding number, this time my sister's.  I was her only bridesmaid so was given free reign on outfit choice, just make it some sort of red.  I wore a beautiful top and skirt combo and these were the accessories.  I do love a good bit of red.  It suits me well as long as I don't have a face full of zits to match.  Too much information?  Sorry.  We (Mum and I) got this jewellery at Flying Saucer which used to be at Shore City Mall in Takapuna and Auckland Airport but I have a feeling they've closed.  Sad as they used to have interesting things.

Slap a hint of red lippy on there, and there you have it, America the brave!  Alternatively, it's now close enough to Bastille Day that I could say Vive la France instead.  You choose.

On Friday Edie wore a gorgeous little corduroy smock from Boden that she has worn a lot and I just love it.  Aunty Natalie helped me pick this one as there was so much cuteness to choose from, I was overwhelmed.  I love that it has so many colours in it so it's easy to accessorise.  I'm not sure which nation sports all those colours though so she's not in on the patriotic theme.  On Friday Edie wore the dress with a organic cotton onesie from Frugi, Marks & Spencer tights, and her See Kai Run Smaller boots that were bought from Miracle to match her glasses of course!

Favourite job: 'loading' the dishwasher

Added bonus: icing from the beater.

And this is what happens when mummies leave their babies for 1 minute to pose for a photo.  Baby chaos!

Top 5 Floor Filth: Why I Need to Vacuum Every Day

It's no secret that I am not a neat freak.  Most people seem to emerge from their teenage years of filth and squalor with a newly acquired need for cleanliness.  This level of this need varies from person to person but it for some reason it often seems that females are more needy in this sense - they require a level of 'clean and tidy' - a Level of Cleanliness - to feel comfortable that exceeds that of their male counterparts.  This Level increases with certain milestones in one's life, for example, when you buy your first house.  There's something about suddenly being financially wholly responsible for a property that makes a person want to keep it spick and span.  Another Level changer seems to be having a child.  Suddenly you're aware that your pride and joy can't be rolling round in what might previously have been an acceptable Level of mess.  The sad oxymoron to this is that the child creates whole new layers of mess and dirt that you suddenly have lower tolerance for.
It has been the subject of much envy and conversation amongst my friends that I struck it lucky with Phil.  Not only is he neat and clean-aware, he is proactive and requires things to be tidy before he can relax.  I don't think blokes really talk about this sort of thing, but if they did, Phil would experience the opposite reaction from his mates - they would feel sorry for him that he ended up with a wife who is, honestly, a crap housekeeper and who leaves the majority of the housework to him.  It's not that I don't have any Level of Cleanliness and I want to sit amidst empty pizza boxes and dust bunnies, it's just that my Level isn't as high as is commonly acceptable.
Now as mentioned, there are life events that have escalated my Level of Cleanliness but it seems that in the last few months one of two things has happened.
a) My Level of Cleanliness has suddenly had a massive growth-spurt and I am finally hitting my post-adolescent need for clean (my Mum will be so relieved); or
b) There has been an on-going, almighty shit storm in and around my house that suddenly means that I am dealing with an unprecedented level of filth on our carpets and lino, resulting in the need for vigorous vacuuming.

I find it hard to believe that it's taken until my 30s to discover 'clean', so below I outline the Top 5 things that have come together to form the perfect floor maelstrom.

1. Cat fur.  This is not new, Albert has lived with us for over 5 years now.  In fact, we're down to one cat from two, so in theory there should be less cat fluff.  And it's winter so surely he wants all the fluff he can hold onto.  But I think the cat has formulated a cunning plan.  A silent protest if you will.  He is staging a fluff-in.  What is a fluff-in?  A fluff-in is Bertie objecting to the invasion of his domain by a two legged, grabby thing.  Namely Edie.  I think it's a domestic cat evolutionary development - they can shed at will just to really piss you off.

2. Bird Feathers and Mouse Poo.  Not content with restricting the protest to fur, Albert also brings in a stream of innocent small creatures.  This serves two purposes.  The first is to really piss me off by having to chase the creatures out, or pick up the remnants left in the hallway, or track down their petrified bodies behind appliances.  The second is to scare the creature into roaming around the house as much as possible, leaving their filth behind them (Bertie's probably dropping fur as this happens just get double coverage).  Yesterday I had two birds in the one day.  That was a lot of feathers.  There also may or may not be a rodent of some sort living under our dishwasher.  Or is it behind the entertainment centre? Either way, it's probably spreading filth on the floor.

3. Rice Crackers.  Why is it that snacks designed for babies and children are so freaking messy?  If you don't have kids, you've probably never seen a rice cracker half masticated and spat up again so let me tell you aaaall about about.  They are like gooey snot when they're still wet, all thick and gluggy.  Then when they dry they're like concrete.  So I stopped giving Edie those and buy her those little rice cake things.  Problem solved.  Though now I have a new problem.  These crackers crumble.  It's like she's worried she'll get lost from the kitchen to the bedroom so leaves a trail of rice crumbs.  On the plus side, I can always find her.

4. Paper.  Ah, kids and paper.  Today Edie got a late 1st birthday present.  It was lovely.  She barely registered what it was but she did clock the wrapping paper.  She almost burst out of her skin trying to bust free of the high chair so she could attack the paper.  She proceeded to tear said wrapping paper into a multitude of tiny paper pieces (perhaps she wants to wrap some small gifts for the mouse under the dishwasher?).  Let her at a circular, an old envelope, a magazine... anything that is paper, and she will destroy it.  She rips until the pieces are so small, it's not worth picking up by hand, the vacuum is needed.  We could make a nice nest for rats or gerbils at our house.

5. Onion Skins and Dirt (that one took you by surprise didn't it?).  At least that's what it was today but really I mean any number of things that you didn't intend for the floor but somehow ended up there.  Like the rolled oats I mentioned in Baking - an Expose.  Things that you foolishly leave somewhere small hands can reach.  Or maybe you knew they were in reach and you watched the small hands sprinkle the filth all over the house with gay abandon but were too apathetic about what was going on to disrupt their enjoyment.  Edie found the bucket of shallots that Phil had harvested from the garden.  It was about half full but a lot of the contents was dirt, onion skins, and other garden material.  Edie began by scattering the odd onion skin around the house (she kindly took some to our bedroom and left it beside our bed), then slowly extended her distribution until the whole bucket was upended and she was literally rolling in the dirt and shallots.  It looked quite fun actually so I left her to it.  But clearly I needed to address the chaos at some stage and in another Top Mum moment, left the vacuuming until she was over-tired and just followed me and the vacuum cleaner around the house grizzling, periodically lying in front of the machine like she was sacrificing herself to the gods of vacuuming.

I have not even begun to talk about all the 'things' that litter the filthy floor and must be picked up several times a day.

So really, I think it's clear that a quick vacuum every day is the least one could do with all this foulness around them.  And I don't even achieve that most days.  Sorry Mum (and Phil), it would seem I still have a very low Level of Cleanliness, it's just that I live in a whole lot more filth.

Edie in shallot and dirt nirvana

Cool Shit Monday: Childhood Fantasies

image: thefrenchpear via all the pretty pretties

I saw this tree house the other day and had one of those Swiss Family Robinson flashbacks.  No, I don't mean a flashback to the time I was stranded on a desert island with my family (that's a whole other story...), I mean to watching that quaint 60s Disney movie of the book where they build that incredible home.  When I was a kid, that totally seemed like the sweetest place anyone could ever hope to live.  There's something about a system of levers and pulleys to help run a household in completely unnecessary yet totally cool way that just floats my boat.  I think it's the lingering impression left by those awesome sequences in Sesame St where they show you things like the processes at a peanut butter factory.  Anyway, a tree house (a fancy one) still seems like a pretty cool idea.  So here are some other cool things that I might either put in my tree house or appeal the child in me.

And all the animals were their friends.  Aww...

You've probably seen this staircase.  It's been doing the rounds on Pinterest and facey.  But it would be a treat in my tree house.  I once did a school project when I was 8 in which I had to come up with a creative way to get to and from school.  I had to walk up and down a couple of hills so I decided that I would like to take a gondola (the aerial kind, not the boating kind) to the top of the hills, and a hydro slide down.  I still like this idea (yes, yes, I know there are many logical reasons why it would actually be crap) and this staircase puts me in mind of it.

I think it was my 7th birthday party where I had the Sweet Shop cake.  If you grew up in New Zealand or Australia, you know THE BOOK of birthday cakes that every home seemed to have.  I'm pretty sure it was a Woman's Weekly number.  I spent hours poring over that book, planning which cake I would have for an upcoming imaginary party.  There is a classic photo of me leaning on the table in front of the sweet cake and I look so stoked (in the same photo, one of my party friends is throwing a wobbly - also quite funny).  As soon as I saw this site and their beautiful creations, I was put in mind of that cake.  I don't know which of all these beautiful set ups I want.  I may just spend hours poring over them creating imaginary parties...

Bunks: a dorky hassle when you have to live in the same room in your brother because your big sister brings home an exchange student who stays for the better part of the year (clearly one of my life experiences), or the perfect excuse to share the fun and avoid sleep (remember that as a kid you didn't want to sleep.  Oh how things change)?  With these kick-arse bunks, there is no doubt it's the latter.  There are so many amazing kids beds out there to choose from I had trouble picking ones to show you.

Wonderland beds

Source: d'Home interiors

I think it's a compulsory that my childhood fantasy tree house has a cool reading room.  And it's very handy that Kid's Republic Bookstore in Beijing has created something pretty darn close to perfection.  I want to go here.  Now.  I wish to curl up on/in one of these shelves and read Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton.

I miss the limitless, logic-defying ideas of childhood!  Who wouldn't prefer a Swiss Family Robinson-style stranding to the Tom Hanks grown-ups version?  The rope swings and friendly elephants beat a bloodied volleyball and rampant facial hair any day.

WTFF: Pastoral Pretty

Today I felt very smug about the fact that I bought local, whole produce and I actually made some sort of effort beyond picking up a product with a "locally grown" sticker at the supermarket.  Terry (of Meet the Foodies fame) and I took our kiddies and went for a drive out to a little dairy out by Port Chalmers (we even car pooled so I we can feel smug about being environmentally conscious).  I'll take some photos the next time I go as it's really very cute and worth a story of its own.  Plus Phil plans to make cheese with the milk I bought so hopefully that's story-worthy too.

But what has all this to do with What the Frock Friday?  Not much actually but I'm stretching it so it does.  The dress I'm wearing today is another Voon number, appropriately called the Meadow dress.  Get it?  Meadow, cows, milk, pasture... I'm really clever ay?  Ahem.  I actually think this dress is a perfect Spring dress - floral, short-sleeved, mid-length, wool.  All excellent things in Spring.  But it's not Spring, it's the middle of Winter.  The Winter Solstice actually.  So today I paired it with some tights (not my ideal tights/dress combo but they were what I had in the draw.  I mentioned the tights shortage in last week's WTFF), and a cute wool blazer just to make a little more Winter-friendly.

The Meadow dress.  This dress is a work horse (did you like that one Harriet & Sam??).  By this odd turn of phrase, I mean to tell you that I bring it out over and over again and I still love it, it's still in great nick, and it keeps looking good.  It's the dress that keeps on giving.  As mentioned, it's woolen so is perfect for Dunedin's chilly climes.  I like the innocence of it - the high scoop neck, the short sleeves, the mid-length skirt, and of course the demure satin bow at the neck.  I think it all suits the beautiful floral perfectly.  The colours in this dress have always appealed to me.  The coral red of the roses with the golden yellow flowers and deep blue background.  Classic colouring that works well on me (not that you can tell it by the time we took the photos at 6pm in our crap lighting).  As the wool has stretch, the dress is obviously fitted, but the texture and pattern of the material mean it's forgiving.

A much better representation of the material

The coat is also a Voon number (can you tell I loved that store??) and I'm pretty sure was called the Cotton Candy Jacket.  It also came in a fuschia pink and black too I think.  I always loved the classic cut of this blazer and the cute collar (it looks great done up).  And true to Sophie's impeccable styling it is adorned with gorgeous buttons.  Should this jacket ever give up the ghost (no sign of that yet) I will definitely be salvaging those buttons.  Sadly, this little jacket doesn't fit me as well as it once did and it's a bit big in places (it hasn't stretched, I have).  If I was to be picky, I would say that as a result, the shape of the jacket doesn't allow the shape of the dress to work it's magic.  Compare the pics with and without and decide for yourself.  However, I've always liked picking out the red in this dress and the jacket obviously does a great job.  Since that mustard colour has come back into fashion I've had a few more options with warm layers but I'm sticking with the demure jacket today - I think it fits my pastoral/fairy tale idea better.  It's like a Little Red Riding Hood outfit.  For an adult.  With no hood.  You know what I'm getting at...

Tights.  Don't want to bang on about it, but if I were to style this ideally, I would probably go for no tights (the Spring thing comes back again) as I feel it suits the simplicity of the dress more.  And failing that, I think block colour tights would be best so as not to detract from the pattern of the dress and also compliment the block colour of the other accessories.  But these tights will do today.

The shoes are an old I Love Billy pair that I have trashed but I love the colour and the pattern of the material.  With a skirt of this length, I would generally opt for heels of some sort to balance my proportions better but something in this dress often makes me head to my flats.  I think it's something to do with themes previously mentioned - youth, innocence, fairy tales...  Am I sounding a bit mental?  I sound like I've tried to pretend I'm 12 by putting on a flowery frock.  I hope you're following my thinking here.

My shoes and Edie's shoes (in case you thought I have a bound right foot)

Aaaand just to compound the issue, we'll move onto the hair ribbon. I put it in because, well, it's young, fresh, innocent... I'm not having a mid-life crisis I swear.  I went through a phase in my early 20s of wearing hair ribbons often.  I don't do it as much any more as my hair is short and I don't think my hair cut always works with a ribbon in (it's longer than it's been for ages).  Plus I can't be bothered.  I also harbour a fear that I will turn around and find out that I'm a 65 year old woman with loooong greying hair who wears hair ribbons.  It's just not right.  But I'm not there yet so today I went with a ribbon.

This dress is not the one to wear a necklace with (neckline and ribbon - don't need a necklace in there over-crowding things do we?) so today I added some earrings.  A good option also as the ribbon means they are seen a bit more.  These gorgeous specimens were given to me by my sister.  I have a feeling she bought them in Scotland.  And yes, they have real daisies in them.  Cute, huh?  And very in theme.

And there we have my Pastoral fantasy.  I just needed to be carrying some of the milk I bought today in pails, or taking a basket of baked goods to Grandma's house.  But that's all a little much when also carrying your child.

Today Edie was also wearing a dress meant for another season: Summer.  I'm not a totally neglectful parent, I did "Winter" it up for her.  The dress came from Pumpkin Patch and she wore it to Bianca's wedding and not again.  It was really a little too big for her at the wedding and there hasn't been another occasion since that I could bring it out for.  So if she was ever to wear it, I needed to do some serious layering.  I put her in a white long-sleeved onesie from Frugi and some white tights.  She has some cute little slipper mary janes from Pumpkin Patch also, so I put those on them picked up the red by giving her a red hair-clip and little flower brooch I made using red ribbon and some broderie anglaise (super easy - just used a gathering stitch around a long edge, pulled the cotton tight and voila - flower).
Of course she also had her ultimate accessory, her glasses.  I need to get some more purple things to match them.  Just bought her a cute pair of purple boots today so that's a start.

Edie and Charlotte - straight out of a fairy tale and onto your computer.

The Spectacular Unveiling: Top 5 Things I Have Learnt About Children and Glasses

Edie got her glasses today (it's only taken a month.  Geesh!) and so far, she's only pulled them off and biffed them across the room a couple of dozen times.  Not too bad.  She's yanked them off and bent them at odd angles another few dozen times, smeared banana on the lenses, and possibly made her first scratch in the 'scratch resistant' lenses, but what do expect from a one year old?

In positive news, she has also tried to put them back on herself at least twice.  Once she almost garroted herself but the other time she got them over her eyes.  They were just upside down.  Still, you could see she felt pretty pleased with her bad self.
Lesson to be taken from all this:

1. Glasses only make you look smart.

I am already having to do some deep breaths so I also don't hiff the glasses across the room.  Phil reckons we're going for the "do it so many times til it bores the shit out of her" approach.  She takes glasses off, we put glasses back on.  She takes glasses off, we put glasses back on.  And repeat.  Ad infinitum.
Lesson to be taken from this:

2. All advice about "never enter a battle of wills with your child" applies to everything except eyewear.

I caught myself saying, "Come here, Goggy" after she'd had the glasses for less than an hour.  Clearly this practice will have to cease if I am to have any hope of building my child's positive self-image.  Calling her or her glasses 'gogs' or 'goggy' may not be entirely constructive behaviour.  Also, other people may give me The Look that strangers give to people they believe are unfit parents.  I hate this look and wish to avoid the judgement of strangers where possible.
Lesson learnt from this:

3. Refer to glasses as... well... glasses.

In order to not only make neutral glasses references, but positive ones, I seem to be employing the "Awww... Pretty" Parenting Technique.  This is used when you are making your child wear something they don't want to.  If you have a boy, you may call it the "Awww... Handsome" Technique but either or.  I'm sure that if I tell her often enough, she will agree that her glasses are indeed pretty.  It would be helpful though if I stopped following this affirmation with snickering.  I know, you're all giving me The Look right now down your internet connections.  I'm not actually laughing at her because I think she doesn't look pretty with glasses, it's just that she looks so damn comically cute that I can't help myself.  But she doesn't understand this nuance so I shall have to be more careful with my reactions.
Lesson learnt from this:

4.  Be sincere in all positive affirmations and do not follow with guffaws, snickers, or any other behaviour that could be construed as undermining the positive feeling you just tried to engender.

Glasses cost a lot of money.  Did you know this?  I was vaguely aware of this but as I don't, nor ever have worn glasses (and the same can be said for Phil), I have never truly appreciated just how freakin' expensive they are.  Until today.  Also, I assumed there'd be some sort of tiered costing system.  Edie is approximately an eight of the size of an average adult, therefore her glasses would be an eighth of the cost, give or take a fraction or two.  Oh no, my fine friends, not so!  Being small is of no advantage when it comes to discounting glasses.  And if it is, Edie will be getting a part time job when she's 5 to start saving for the glasses she may need when she's 15.  So just how much were these little masterpieces of visual correction?  I won't give you the exact figure, but it was over $400 for these fine spec-imens.  The optometrist (who is lovely and in no way seems like a rip off artist, just in case you think we were had) assures me that these glasses should last her for a couple of years and they darn well better!  Given the treatment they have received today, I am nervous to say the least.
Lesson learnt from this:

5. Make sure my uterus forms the eyeballs of any subsequent children a lot better than it did last time round.  You're on notice, uterus.  There's a nasty alternative for malfunctioning uterus' (interesting plural...): it begins with 'h' and ends with 'ysterectomy'.  I'm sure as you seem to have done a fine job in all other aspects it won't come to this, but just so you know...


So apart from my 5 swiftly-learnt life lessons today, I'm feeling quite positive about the glasses.  The magnification is pretty big like we expected (having to seriously restrain myself from making Furby jokes here), and there will definitely be some struggles keeping them on, but she doesn't seem to hate them and neither do I.
She's my baby anyway - she'd make even the dorkiest gogs look cool.
Love you Edie xxxooo

Taken with Papa's iPhone at lunchtime

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