Kreativ blog meme.

OK, first, I apologise for the K in creative and the lack of an E on the end.  That’s how the meme came to me. Alright then, OCD moment over.

Thank you  to the lovely Ami from Puff Pieces,  Alison from Melbourne Mumma and Jade from Lala London for awarding me the Kreative Blogger Meme!

So, here are the rules:

1. Copy the award to your blog
2. Insert a link to the person who nominated you
3. Share seven things about yourself that you haven’t told us before
4. Nominate other bloggers for the award – share the love
5. Link to their blogs
6. Tell the nominees about their award

Right then, without further ado…

1. I have a least three different handwriting styles.  One just for work, one when I’m thinking faster than I can write (this comes with my own invented short hand) and one for writing lists and cards.  Sometimes they cross over into each other, depending on my mood.
2. My two front teeth are not real.  As a child I smashed them out.  Chip is not a big enough word.  So what you see is really two big fillings.  They are screwed into my gum.  Noice. They need to be redone every few years as they stain from tea and red wine.  There is not enough original tooth for more permanent crowns.
3. I am (as many of you know) TERRIBLE at responding to these awards… partly because they fall into the category of something I have to do, even though it’s something I want to do! I apologise. It’s not that I don’t appreciate them, I am just slack, and well… this brings me to number four on the list.
4. I HATE being told what to do.  It’s like fingernails on a chalk board.  Even if something is good for me, even if I may actually want to do it, or have been thinking of doing it, a sure fire way of making sure I don’t do it is to tell me to.  Some may see this as a personality flaw, I like to think of it as a quirky charm… Ok that may be pushing it a bit too far!
5. I love clothes, no big secret there.  I have always loved them. They have an effect on my mood.  When I was about 5 in the rocking 1970’s, my favourite outfit was a pair of purple flares, teamed with a purple ribbed T shirt with a V neck and a brown belt. Funky yes? When I was in trouble (which given my hate of being told what to do may have been a bit) I would crawl under my bed and change into said ensemble.  Nothing could cheer me up like my funky purple outfit.
6. I stepped up my toilet roll OCD-ed-ness (is too a word) and will change the roll so it goes OVER the top (the only way it should go obviously) at work.  I am sure friend’s homes are next, *ahem*
7. I am sarcastic.  It’s a way of life.  I used to explain to bewildered looking people that I was being sarcastic. But where’s the fun in that?  Now I think – get with the programme or get out.  Nah, only joking!… or am I?

Now to pass this on to some other bloggers…

Melissa from The Things I’d Tell You...

Lucy from Diminishing Lucy

Brenda from Mummy Time

Kallie from I am a Real Mum

So, there you have it! Go forth and er, be kreativ… what ever that is, or, y’know not… we all know how good I am at responding to these awards! *ahem*

Tags: Clothes, Meme, tattoo

Goodbye Winter, hello Spring.

Today is the last day of Winter. This makes me happy. Very happy.

Every year I excitedly anticipate the arrival of Winter.  I lovingly look at my winter clothing and can not wait to wear it. Buy by about one month in I am craving sunshine and warmth and a lack of umpteen dozen layers. And coat. And scarf. And long boots.  And the need to put on and take off said layers each time I go form outdoors to indoors and back again, which as a Kinder teacher can be a lot.

Here in the hills Winter can be beautiful.  Mist and cloud rolling in enveloping the tall gum trees.  The chance to rug up and walk briskly to a local cafe to sit in warmth with food and drink. The ever present glass of red wine and heart warming winter cooking.

But it also brings with it a lack of sun, and no sun means no vitamin D.  I like the sun,  I need the vitamin D. It makes me happy.  It helps my bones to not hurt, and in monitored doses it makes me look less pasty.

There has been a definite lack of sunshine this Winter.  There has been a lot of rain here in Victoria… and while I am among the first to welcome the rain and it’s reservoir filling ways, the grey clouds have been hanging heavily overhead for too long. Spring will be a very welcome addition to the year, that’s for sure.

Spring brings warmth and the promise of sun kissed days to come.  I begin to lean more towards white wine. Clothes that have been tucked away come back to mind.  Sandals and thongs (flip flops not underwear) come out and so do sun hats.  I begin to think about outdoor gatherings with friends… and the days seem lighter.

The sun makes me happy.  So does it’s warmth.  It lifts my spirit.  So Spring, nice to see you, put your feet up and stay a while xxx

Image

Tags: arthritis, Clothes, freindship, weather, wellbeing

When enough is enough.

I know this is going to come back and bite me. I know when I am running 15 5 minutes late and yelling asking where my black top is my Husband is going to remind me of this post.  But I think I have too much black clothing. Tops in particular.

Exhibit a. My top drawer, as in the drawer I keep my tops in, (Ms Pedantic-Pants is my middle name)  is full to over flowing with black, and remember, we’re judging me for my amount of black clothing, not the unkempt nature of said drawer… OK? Be kind.

If, in a hurry to get out the door to work I ask Hubby to get me a black top, he is in real danger of a being witness again to a full on stabby tanty pout small whine where I lament, noooo not that one! The other long sleeved one! Of which there are at least three…  thousand and seventy five. No, not really,  only about three.  It’s the mid-length sleeved ones that I have the most of.  Then there are the T-shirts, the singlet tops, the jackets, the dresses, the jeans, the skirts, the leggings and tights.

Look, I make an effort to add colour… I have grey tops too, and even some with stripes… admittedly grey and black stripes, but it’s a start.

Sometimes I even make the same mistake as Hubby and pull out the wrong top and, adding to my slight tendency to be running a bit behind schedule,  put it on, only to realise just as I am heading out the door thus needing to change it.  Now I know what you’re thinking… if it’s all black, what does it matter if it’s not the top you thought it was?

Did you hear that? That was the collective sigh of wearers of black lamenting this misguided rookies mistake.  You see, the trick with the all black ensemble is the different textures, the different layers and characteristics of the fabric…  and the black bespoke (waves to Lucy, that word’s for you)  beads I bought at the NGV just do not go with the black smock top.

So, as you can see, my wardrobe problems are difficult.  I am dealing with weight of fabric, texture, layering… perhaps if I added colour I wouldn’t have this problem… But then again, now I think about it, if I start introducing colour I’ll have to buy a lot of it… because black only goes with black and a bit of grey, it’s my rule for how I dress*  and Hubby and I have made a pact to spend less, and that includes eBay! … so ah, scrap that.  Black is back, and here to stay!

*except for very dark, indigo denim, and that black background, green leaf print sun dress…

Tags: bespoke, Clothes, Ms Pedantic-Pants

Seven Deadly Sins

A lovely blogging friend Jade tagged me in this.  (Jade is also the one who sourced the image I have used in this post.  I did look for others, but this was the best image! Call it a little but of envy & sloth mixed together… well, it is a post about the seven deadly sins after all.)

All I have to do is share with you all my seven deadly sin temptations. So here then is a little insight into me!

Gluttony. What can’t you get enough of, even though it’s bad for you?

Chips, plain chips.  Really I could eat them all. the. time.  Put a bowlful near me and look out. Munch, munch, munch.

Lust. What does it for you?

Forearms.  Seriously underrated body part.  Also, a well dressed suit man… or a scruffy dreadlocked guy.  But, if I’m being really honest the thing that does it for me? A really good flirt.

Wrath. What makes you cranky?

Down right rudeness.  Blatant line pushing, ignoring merging traffic, shoving past people… seriously, are you so much more important than the rest of us?

Envy. What makes you green?

People with on tap child minders.

Sloth. How do you relax?

Sitting on my bed with a good book for a whole day, ignoring everyone and everything.

Pride. What are you inordinately proud of?

My Blue Eyed Boy and my Green Eyed Girl.

Greed. What do you get greedy for?

Clothes, clothes, clothes… and shoes, shoes, shoes… and some accessories.

Now it’s my turn to tag three people.

Megan from Writing out Loud

Emily from emlykd the strange

Lucy from Diminishing Lucy

Image Source

Tags: children, Clothes, green eyed girl, Meme, shoes

A well loved vintage

I have in my wardrobe a well worn black velvet blazer. I have had it since I was 18 and still wear it every year, that’s 20 years of wearing it. It was second hand when it came to me. My best friend bought it for 50 cents in Vinnies. She gave it to me, as she is tall, and it didn’t fit her lovely long, lean limbs for long.

When we were in uni, I covered the silver buttons with velvet, this is the only change I’ve made.  The pockets are just the right size for lipstick, and a small credit card plastic slip cover that also fits my license – I used to need it for ID, now I take it incase I’m in an accident.

The blazer is timeless, it still fits me like a glove.  It has a well worn feel, and a softness to it.  When I put it on I always feel great.  It’s like coming home. That’s what it feels like when I see my friend.  Home.  It is home.  She is home.

We have been friends since primary school.  We have had the same, now very cringe worthy, boy crushes.  We have roller skated in disco glory, sang with hair brushes to Wham! Worn gumboots and thrown fire crackers into puddles at just the right moment for them to explode in a flurry of mud and water and smoke… we have been wearing each others clothes for what seems like forever.  Say the words ‘burger rings’ and we’ll both smile.  We started our teaching careers at the same school.  We have been through heartbreak, relationships, pregnancy, child birth.

I know how incredibly lucky I am to have her as a friend… have her as part of my life for so long.   She knows me better than I know myself most likely.  We are separated now by a state and a sea.  We have facebook, and twitter and texts and the phone.  We have planes, and the ability to slip into each others houses without the need to ask if it’s convenient.

And when we are not near, I miss her.  But, I have a black velvet blazer with black satin lining, material full of memories and friendship and love.  I wear it for style, and warmth.  But mostly I wear it for the way her life and mine are woven into the weft and the warp of the cloth.  

Tags: Best Pam, Clothes, freindship, vintage, wrapped in love

Tagged – 10 things that make me happy.

Thea over at Do I Really Wanna Blog? Tagged me after she wrote about her 10 things that make her happy… so now it’s my turn, here goes!

1. 1. The beach and the sea.  I love to dive into the  cool salty water and have it take my breath away.  I love the salty sun dried feeling it leaves on my skin and hair.
2. 2.  Feathers.  I love them.  I have them all over the house…. I collect them, they are beautiful.
3. 3. Shoes… they send me into happy head spins.
4. Clothes.  I am a clothes-a-holic more than a shoe-a-holic…. they really make me happy… they promise so many different things… in another life I’d work in fashion.

5.  Cooking and baking… I love planning and cooking meals for family and friends it’s a real joy for me.  Baking is a sub category, I can lose my self in biscotti making.

6.  Music speaks to my heart.  My taste is eclectic… I love to see performers live too when I get the chance, I find music emotional and soul nourishing.

7.  My job.  Most days I love doing what I do… it makes me happy to be a part of so many little ones lives.

8.  Photos.  I love taking photos and looking back at them all…

9.  My family – for me family is more than just blood… so you know when I say family I mean my friends as well.  With out family I am lost.

10.  My Hubby and my kids – my blue eyed boy and my green eyed girl, who I look at every day well, most days and think, I did that… I made them…

So, there is my 10.  Thanks Thea that was great! Now the fun part… I get to tag ten more people to do their ten too

emlykd the strange

She is Jade

lifeslightlyused’s blog

Oh, the possibilities!

Everyone wants this

Mummy Mayhem

Fat mum slim

Puff Pieces

She Will Have Her Way

Diary of a teenage nobody (this is not a cop out… I really would like some more insight into our anonymous friend)

Image from DryIcons.com

Tags: children, Clothes, parenting, shoes

Living in the 80’s!

Last week on twitter there was a bit of an 8o’s theme, with a lot of reminiscing about the wonderful fashions.  Jodie over at Mummy Mayhem, after posting some wonderful photos of her own 8O’s style issued a challenge to add photos of our own.  Thea from Do I Really Wanna Blog? answered the call with her own post, and now so am I.

I don’t have as many photos, as most of them are in another state, but with the help of facebook, and some friends who so kindly posted 8O’s photos, I have at least some!

Along with a lot of other people, I had the body wave perm – always a good look with extra thick hair.  Mind you it lasted so long I think I only got rid of it by cutting it off! I had a number of looks in that decade, rah rah skirts featured, as did chambray shirts, apricot and khaki combinations, drop waisted skirts, patch pockets, and roller skates.  White court shoes were also often seen on my feet – well they went so well with white stockings.  Double wrapped belts, mesh tops and fingerless gloves were essential.  I wanted to be Cyndi Lauper…  and I had a major crush on the guy from Goonies.  Pleated high waisted pants were a must… and were so flattering on my 5 foot nothing frame!  Lemon was another key colour… as was a room plastered in Bon Jovi posters (cringe), and shimmery pink lipstick ah la Wendy James from Transvision Vamp style (double cringe)

What has remained the same for me since the 1980’s is some of my friends, and for that, I am very grateful.  Some of them feature in these very photos.  Luckily for us, we have moved on from the fashions, but not from each other.

This is my school uniform, I have included the photo so you can see the yellow Swatch watch, and the non regulation white dance style shoes, tré chick! Also note the thick tube socks, stylish.

Photo taken at my then & now best friends place... we had access to a dark room. We were SO artistic! Rocking the double denim here! Also one of my many hairstyle changes... was growing out a short cut with (shudder) a rats tail. Note how I still manage to get a good amount of 80's volume in my hair!

Year 10 leavers dinner. I was heavily into my Miranda from Picnic at Hanging Rock phase. I went to the hair salon to have my permed locks braided... with Gypsophila AKA baby's breath in the braid... Kath & Kim learnt it all from moi! The gorgeous gal in the baby pink strapless number Don... we've swapped 80's glamour for PJ sing star while slightly tipsy style now!

Hippy surfer chic phase. Out for Chinese food... the pinnacle of 80's fine dining. My fringe is nice and high. My perm is good and curly. My serviette hat is unnecessary.

Off to a year 11 (or 12?) disco. I CRINGE not only at the terrible photo, but at the fact I left the house with a brown belt and black shoes on. Never mind the fact I look like a waiter. Pleats and tapered legs are not the short girls friend. The lovely Pam beside me, is however still my friend. Luckily we have seen the error of our bad perm ways... and the error of our bogan boy crushes.

Tags: Clothes, facebook, night out, shoes, twitter

plans, preperations, planes & panadol

In just over a week, I will be heading to Tasmania for a big weekend. Having spent a good deal of my childhood and adult life there, I have some life long friendships that a little thing like The Bass Strait isn’t going to ruin.  A few times a year I head down to see family and friends, sometimes there is a reason, sometimes there is not – there is always a girls night out.

These nights out for a group of friends have become somewhat of a tradition, as have the planning before hand.  Some of us have been going on nights on the town together for longer than we care to admit!  Some of us are sisters, some of us are old friends, some of us are new friends.  For a number of reasons, over the years, we have found our way to each other… we are the family that was made.

So, usually the planning goes like this – I book a flight, and announce it to one and all through the technological marvels of text, facebook and twitter- then the fun really begins… dress ideas, shoes, hair, accessories…. we photograph dresses to see who might like to sawp, send links to the latest dress must haves on ebay, ask advice on shoes, give advice on shoes… obsess over where, when, how… some messages on facebook have more threads than I can count… but you know this is important stuff.  People will see us, in our finest garb, photos will be posted… young waiters will be flirted with… we have to get it right.

There have been a number of reasons for these giggling, gleeful get togethers, and each night is given it’s very own name.  My sister’s and another friends birthday was Frocking Frivolities.  A night out mid winter was ‘Puppies or Pins’…  Sometimes we go out to weather a storm, and hold tight amidst sadness and loss.  The next one is a very  special event  The Little Footprints Dinner – that’s a post in it’s own right.

We have established little rituals and traditions over time.  We all meet at my middle sisters house to get ready… she is the most centrally located to our haunts, and has the biggest mirror.  Being a fine arts gal she also has a winning way with hair! We bow to her powers with the ghd, hairspray and bobby pins.  

Baby sis usually arrives (when she’s in the country.. and when she’s not we toast her) and begins to pour us all bubbly… thankfully Middle sis has enough bathroom bench space to accommodate it! 

There are some rules that must be followed too on these night out – and they are as follows

1. Always take cameras, for who knows what hilarious (to us) event may take place? Also remember that photos must be taken from certain angles only or deleted IMMEDIATELY.  In case anyone is wondering, the correct way to take a photo is to hold camera above and in front of heads, squish in tight, take photo, continue screeching, laughing, drinking, and general merriment.

2.  Shoes are key.  Look, comment and photograph them in their own right. 

3.  Cameras can also be used to check hair, and lippy… thank goodness for the digital age… how did we survive before?

4.  There must be souvenirs from the night… er … at this point I shall plead innocence and look doe eyed at you all… 

5.  There must be dancing.

6.  The words YIPPY SKIPPY must be uttered – this tradition has a rather long history… lets just say in a time before mobile phones, when drunken texting had never been heard of, it was easier to stumble with stealth like drunkenness to a sleeping friends window at say, 3am and just yell YIPPY SKIPPY!

The thing with these night out, is this… no matter what is happening in our lives, we have each other… and together we are a force of nature.  We are held together through sisterhood, friendship, honesty and love.

… and as Carrie said… The most important thing in life is your family. There are days you love them, and others you don’t. But, in the end, they’re the people you always come home to. Sometimes it’s the family you’re born into and sometimes it’s the one you make for yourself. 

We are the family that was made.  We are loud, we are drunk, we are together.  So watch out! 

You may also like My tribute to Where the Wild Things Are … and my friends, the family that was made

Tags: Clothes, dress, Drinking, facebook, night out, parenting, shoes

Dear weather…

Last week I updated my facebok status with the words ‘Dear weather, have you forgotten something? Like it’s SPRING?!?’  Because I think it has.  I’m a warm weather kinda gal… I like to be toasty warm… I like bare feet, and singlet tops, and summer dresses… and the promise of blue sky, warm sun and a swim.  I like to sit in the fading afternoon light sipping pinot gris, I not I’m asking too much am I?

Towards the end of each winter, as the new season clothes begin to arrive in stores, my mind turns to the warm days ahead… I have a new vigor as I begin to plan my Spring/Summer clothing essentials.  I can’t help it, clothes are one of my true loves, we have been together for a long time now, it’s a real love, a true love, and true love lasts a life time.

Sure I love winter clothes too… and I have some very nice new favourites this year, and some older loves… especially my vintage velvet blazer, given to me by a dear friend when we were about 18… I still wear it every winter, (thanks Best Pam, was the best 50c thing you ever gave me!) But after a long, cold winter I’m over my black, over my boots I loved so much, over that great short denim skirt I just had to have, and my black skinny jeans… I’m even over black leggings*… ENOUGH already!

I have some new Summer loves, still with tags, and a soft, cottony promise of picnics, and beaches… they hang in my wardrobe with a heavy sigh. I have some fabulous new singlet tops that really need a day out… and I’m on the hunt for the perfect new silver flat sandals… as well as some new thongs…  then there’s my favourite skirt, that the kids gave me for Christmas, made of vintage tablecloth pieces,  form my favourite eco store… hmm, must get there again soon… I’m even missing my sunhat, with retro flower print, from same eco friendly shopping haven.

I just want to wear jeans, without boots and knee high socks underneath to keep me warm… that oh so cute beanie bought from a stall at a music festival late last year… I’m sick of the sight of it!  I want to put away the down filled puffer jacket, and the scarves I loved all Winter long, and I don’t want to see another layer of Metalicus for at least 2 weeks!

So, as I gaze out the window at the grey sky… I wait, I watch, and I hope that indeed the weather has not forgotten Spring, but is, perhaps, just sleeping in, and has pressed the snooze button for just 10 minutes more.

*please note leggings are always worn under something… they are not, under any circumstances to be worn as pants in their own right… EVER!

Tags: Clothes, facebook