Monday, June 29, 2009

Polyvore Challenge

While I was reading some blogs, I came across a challenge involving a site called Polyvore. Basically you can select any clothing and accessories and put them all together. Of course, this is assuming that price is no option. This site is so much fun, but definitely a time waster. Anyhoo, I decided to take the challenge and since it is winter and winter is my favourite time of year, I put together something suitably wintery.....maybe I have a few too many "winter's" in that sentence...oh well.

The challenge was posted on L-Plates blog and involves a question that came from an article on another blog asking:
"If I asked you to slip on a pair of jeans, a simple top, a pair of flat shoes, and any accessories you liked, what would you come up with? No doubt you'd come out looking vastly different to the next person, but how?"

and this is mine.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

The Princess Drama

I have been thinking about this recently, the drama of the Princess obsession. The reason I have been thinking about this is that there are alot of people who strongly object to young girls playing with Barbie dolls and watching the Disney Princess movies. From what I can understand this has alot to do with the issues of body image and with regards to the princesses, the concern that girls will grow up to believe that they should always be rescued by a handsome prince who will fix all of their problems and they will live happily ever after in some sort of love induced haze. We all know that life is not really like that and I completely understand the need to instill in children, particularly girls, the understanding that life is not a fairy tale, but where do you draw the line, how far do you go and do you still let them have their dreams?

Unlike people who are quite vigilant with the whole Barbie and Princess thing, I have an abundance of them in my house. I just don't get the drama. My girls have all of the Disney Princess movies and like them, but they would much rather watch the Barbie movies or Dora the Explorer. As someone who has watched EVERY SINGLE Barbie movie ever made...not the MyScene Barbie like Barbie Diaries which is too old for my girls, but the Barbie Princess movies and others like Nutcracker and Thumbelina I would prefer they watch them than the Disney ones. I find that the Barbie movies promote courage, loyalty, honesty, friendship and strength. Sure there are the handsome boys that show up along the way, but in every single movie, the girls are the ones who rescue themselves from a situation, figure out who is the "baddie", save everyone and just generally save the day. Often the "handsome prince" shows up to save the day only to find that Barbie's character has already saved herself. Sure she then often ends up living happily ever after, but she does it with the person she loves and wants to be with, not the generic prince charming that she was rescued by.

As a child and young girl, I think I was often like a Disney Princess and it wasn't because I watched the movies when I was little, it is just the way I was. I was waiting for my Prince to come along and sweep me off my feet, we would get married and have children and live happily ever after. It kind of happened, but definitely not the way I was expecting. I do have my Prince Charming, we love each other, but life is not always easy and it certainly isn't a fairy tale. The thing is, I want that for my girls, I want them to experience the love and the relationship that I have. I want them to have the ability to have a partner and a best friend all in one, someone to love them and support them and give them confidence to be the best person they can possibly be because that is what I have and it is amazing.

So that is my prayer for my amazing, beautiful, gorgeous girls, that they will grow up to be amazing, strong, thoughtful and loving women and that they will find the one that makes them complete and the best possible them. And strange as it may seem, I think along with all the things we are trying to teach them, the Barbie movies are helping to instill in them the fact that they need to look out for themselves and each other while still being able to dream.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

The Adventures of Button Bear

Paige's class has a big teddy bear called Button Bear. Each weekend one of the children from the class gets to take Button Bear home for the weekend and then they have to write a story by Button Bear for the rest of the class to read as well as sewing a button onto his t-shirt. This weekend it was our turn. This is his story:

This weekend I went to stay at Paige’s house and I had lots of fun with her family. She has a little sister Charli and her mum and dad are Mel and Judd. Paige also has a cat called Chester; he is nearly the same colour as me.

On Friday night we played Guess Who for a long time. I was helping Paige to play with her mum. Paige won the most games but her mum won some as well. Paige is very good at that game and it was lots of fun. After that we watched High School Musical until bed time. After Paige's mum sent us to bed, we sat up with her dad and watched him play World of Warcraft for a while on his computer, then I slept in bed with Paige and it was snugly and warm.


On Saturday I went out with Paige and her Daddy. We had brunch in a café. Paige had eggs with ham and muffins and she shared it with me, it was very yummy. We made friends with a little girl called Maggie and their dog Abby. I was allowed to feed Abby some of our brunch and she liked it alot.


After brunch we went to the hair dresser. Paige and her Daddy both got their hair cut, but I didn’t. Brooke, the hair dresser, said that my hair was just perfect the way it is and didn’t need anything at all done to it.

On Sunday, we went to the movies to see Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. This is one of Paige’s favourite movies. I thought it was very good, but I was a little bit scared sometimes so Paige and I cuddled together so that we wouldn’t be too scared.

Now I am very tired from having such a busy weekend. I am looking forward to having a big sleep before school tomorrow. Thank you, Paige, for doing lots of fun things with me this weekend. I will see you all very soon.

Love,
Button Bear

So, not only is that Button Bear's story, but it is the story of our weekend....through the eyes of a much loved guest.

The Big Haircut

On Friday Charli and I went to the hairdressers, this was the first time Charli has been back since Paige cut her hair before Christmas. I wanted to get her hair fixed up and sorted out. It is cut in a funky cut now and it took a little while for me to get used to it, but it actually looks really good. I was just so used to her having her hair all in her face that it was a big change.


I also got my hair cut and was just going to get it cut into the same style that it was last time but then at the last minute changed my mind. I love it now, it is much shorter and easier to do. When I came home, it was really straight and flat as it was done with the straightener, but now that I have washed it, it is all wavy and flicky and much better.


Monday, June 15, 2009

Sweet as Honey

On Saturday night we took the girls to the Drive-In, they were very excited to go and loved the movie and the food, basically the whole experience. When we got home, Charli was quite sick with a fever and slept in quite late. Paige got up earlier than everyone else and decided to make herself breakfast. For Paige, breakfast was to be a honey sandwich...the main problem was that she used about a third of a jar of honey between 2 pieces of bread and then proceeded to eat it in the kitchen with no plate. The first I knew of it was Paige announcing to me that she had honey on her. She went into the shower and I went down to the kitchen to clean up. Turns out that the entire kitchen floor was decorated with honey drizzles, it was quite creative really. The only thing, it took me 3 rounds of mopping with hot water and floor cleaner to actually unsticky the floor. The joys of children.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Meh!!

So no post is caused by nothing exciting going on. Been sick with a cold....not the swine. Now Charli and PJ both have it and the boy is on antibiotics. Add all that to a complete lack of sleep and I think I will just take a break for a few more days. I will get back to this shortly.