My how the tables have turned...

This certainly provides some food for thought... literally!!

Vintage Women’s Weight Gainer Ad

School holidays....

Well, Jack is on school holidays now for the next two weeks so now comes the challenge of trying to keep both him and Ebony amused, and therefore not trying to kill each other!

Day 1 - Jack woke up at 7.30am and within 15 minutes had already asked if he could play on the Nintendo Wii. When I told him "no", he responded with "what about my D.S?". When that requested was also greeted with a resounding "NO!" he asked the inevitable..."why?"

I told him that it was not even 8am, he was still in his PJ's and hadn't even had breakfast! Besides that, there was plenty of time for him to be able to play on the Nintendo during the next two weeks, and he better not think that he is going to be spending the entire holidays playing computer games!

He sulked off, and eventually went and got dressed and made himself some breakfast.

An hour later (at 8.45am) he sulked up to me once again, this time declaring the infamous words that all mothers dread when it comes to school holidays...

"I'M BORED!"

You can imagine how thrilled I was to hear this! 8.45am on the first day of school holidays and already the "I'm bored" syndrome has kicked in... YIPPEEE!!! 

Is this a sign of things to come? I seriously hope not... otherwise I may need to drag out my pink diamonte encrusted straight jacket from the depths of my wardrobe, find a nice quiet corner somewhere, curl up into the foetal position, hands over my ears, and start singing "LA LA LA LA" at the top of my lungs!

50 Ways To Cope With Stress

Guess Who's Turning 3!

 

Three bright candles on your cake

Two proud parents your day to make

One and only birthday girl

Fairy princess give a twirl

Bright as a button, cute and belle,

Fairy princess weave your spell.

Here's wishing you the most happy day
Perfect and magical in every way
For you our love and biggest kiss
This day we surely would not miss
With one wave of your magic wand
Happy Birthday...and all days beyond.

Happy 3rd Birthday Ebony!

XXXX

Time to freshen up...

For those who often frequent the pages of my blog, you will notice that there has been a bit of a face lift going on.

With the declutter bug kicking in, I realised that my blog was also beginning to look rather crowded and messy. There was just far too much going on. I decided it could do with a fresher and lighter and less cluttered appearance...

Please let me know what you think :)

Laundry Declutter

After signing up for the  'Trash It, Or Treasure It' challenge on Brocante Home, I was inspired to take one of the steps for the first week of the 26 day challenge a little further.

The step was simply to clear out all washing from the laundry so that the bottom of the basket was empty, and that all clean washing was put away. Well, with 2 loads of washing waiting to be done, I decided I would give the entire laundry a clean whilst I was at it. 

I decided to take some before and after photos so that I could see the evidence of my hard work once it was completed.

Before - view looking in from laundry door

After - view looking in from laundry door

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Before - under the laundry sink

After - under the laundry sink

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Before - inside laundry cupboard

After - inside laundry cupboard

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I have to say, it did not really require all that much effort, and I was able to declutter quite a bit of unnecessary rubbish which was hiding in the cupboards for no apparent reason! I'm rather happy with the end result too... now the room I use to keep everything clean for my family is now sparkling clean too... which makes it a much more pleasant place to be :)

Fingers crossed I can keep it this way!

Join with me and embrace your inner Vintage Housekeeper!!!

With thanks to the wonderful Alison May from the site Brocante Home, I am happy to say that I'm....

Since discovering this site, I have found the courage to be able to embrace the vintage housekeeper who has always dwelled deep inside of me, but was too embarrassed to show herself in public for fear of being ridiculed.

Well NOT ANYMORE!!!!!!

I will wear my apron, and my pretty vintage dresses in public (although I may leave the apron wearing for inside the house!)

I will no longer save my perfume for special occasions, but will lovingly apply it everyday, as everyday has the potential to be a special.

I will not be embarrassed to admit that my home contains a real china teapot, with matching sugar pot and milk jug, and doilies and all sorts of other pretty little knick knacks which remind me of wonderful afternoons spent with my Nanny. 

Nor will I be embarrassed to admit that yes, I do knit (even if I am only a beginner) and that I love to bake biscuits and cakes and lots of other scrumptious treats for my loved ones.

So, if you too feel as if you were born in the wrong era, and long to live your life as your mother or grandmother did, then join with me and be brave and shout out loud and proud....

"I'M A VINTAGE HOUSEKEEPER AND I LOVE MY LIFE!"

Spoilt? Or the victim of over-consumerism and commercialization??

It was my son's 7th birthday on Friday and I discovered 2 things about him, and also myself and our spending habits.

I had spent a fair bit of time trawling around the shops trying to find him something. I eventually settled on a large Meccano set of a remote controlled car which you build that has lights and music - not exactly a cheap present (approx $80).

After waiting patiently all day for my husband to get home from work, Jack eagerly ripped off the wrapping paper on his birthday present. The look on his face showed that he wasn't really all that thrilled by his present, but what I found even more disappointing was to hear "where are my other presents?"

I explained that this was his present and that it had cost a lot of money. "Oh..." came the reply.

All over the world, there are far less fortunate children who would be delighted with the most simplest of toys. Yet, here was my child, who when clearly disappointed with my offerings, sat there and without batting an eyelid asked for more. Is my son really that spoilt? Surely not...

I sat down and thought about this. I then remembered all the conversations I had had with friends and family members asking what they should get him for his birthday. Each time I was asked I had answered "I don't know. I had enough trouble trying to find something for him myself!" 

Every suggestion of more Transformers figurines, Lego, computer games for his Nintendo DS or the Nintendo Wii were met with "he already has heaps of those. He doesn't really need anything. In fact, half of the toys he has he never plays with anyway".

I realised that yes, in some ways my son is spoilt. He has pretty much everything a modern child could want, which is far more than what he actually needs. 

There is so much pressure to buy these new fan-dangled toys because you get bombarded with phrases like "but Matthew's got it" and "I'm the only kid in my class who hasn't got one", or my personal favourite "this is the only toy I want" yet when they get it, it sits in the corner gathering dust.

I hold myself at fault for caving in to this, but at the same time, a lot has to be said for marketing and society in general these days for helping to contribute to this. It is very hard in our modern day society to find toys for children which cost less than $30. No sooner have you been suckered into buying the newest and latest thing, than something else has come out to replace it.

Nowadays, the majority of toys do not really allow for children to actually PLAY with them. They have buttons that you push and they move/make noise/flash lights on their own. Children are very limited in what they can actually use their imagination for when it comes to playing with these toys as they are already preprogrammed to do everything with the simple push of a button, leaving the child to simply sit there and watch. 

The most common phrase to come out of his mouth is "I'm bored!" How could he possibly be bored when he has a room filled to the brim with toys? The answer is that there is only so much watching a toy that a child can do before they get bored... which then leads them to want something new to 'play' with.

Also, everything these days is associated with characters from movies, TV shows, sports stars, celebrities etc. The price of toys and even normal everyday items such as toothpaste, clothes, even breakfast cereal is increased dramatically simply because it has a picture of the childs favourite character or celebrity on it.

I came across a documentary called 'Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood' which is a real eye opener.

"Consuming Kids throws desperately needed light on the practices of a relentless multi-billion dollar marketing machine that now sells kids and their parents everything from junk food and violent video games to bogus educational products and the family car.

Drawing on the insights of health care professionals, children’s advocates, and industry insiders, the film focuses on the explosive growth of child marketing in the wake of deregulation, showing how youth marketers have used the latest advances in psychology, anthropology, and neuroscience to transform American children into one of the most powerful and profitable consumer demographics in the world.

Consuming Kids pushes back against the wholesale commercialization of childhood, raising urgent questions about the ethics of children’s marketing and its impact on the health and well-being of kids."

To watch this documentary, simply click on the links below:

Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood (Part 1)

Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood (Part 2)

Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood (Part 3)

This documentary has really given me a lot of food for thought about what my children are watching, and what part I can play as their parent in limiting the amount of exposure they have to this sort of subliminal marketing.

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, bake... WE CAN!

I've invited some friends around tomorrow so we can have a baking day together. What better way to pass the day than cooking up a storm with some good friends whilst sharing some laughs, some gossip, and relaxing afterwards to enjoy some of our freshly baked masterpieces with a nice cuppa!

I'll even get to show off my gorgeous new cake stand and put it to good use!

Best of all, because we'll all choose different things to make, and it will all be shared out at the end, we each end up a much more exciting bounty of  goodies at the end instead of just a single batch of biscuits.

Now I just need to get my thinking cap on to work out what naughty treats to make! Time to pull out my cook books and try and find something new and fabulous to create instead of the usual things, which although yummy, tend to become a bit boring to make over and over again.

Who knows, I may even learn some wonderful new recipes from my friends :)

Just for laughs...

I came across a website called AllPosters.com and found these rather amusing signs.. thought I'd share them with you so you could have a chuckle too!

Retail therapy that doesn't break the bank

I have come to believe that deep inside me dwells a glamorous 1940's housewife who every now and then tries to escape. There is just something about this era that appeals to me. It may be the simplicity of life back then, or the focus on families spending time together doing simple things like playing board games, going for bike rides and picnics in the park... or how 'together' the mothers always seem to be.

I'm not 100% sure what it is to tell you the truth... perhaps some distant memory of a past life. All I know is that whenever I see things to do with that era, whether it be a movie, tv program, book or picture, something stirs in me that makes me wish I could live life back then.

After browsing around on on of my favorite blogs Brocante Home and gazing longingly at all the pretty vintage homewares and decorations, I was struck with the overwhelming urge to uncover some pretty trinkets to redecorate my home with.

I headed to my local op shop determined to find some lovely things to bring home, and was quite happy with what I found.

I picked up this absolutely gorgeous tea cake stand for $8. It is simply made by gluing together 3 pretty plates using an upside down egg cup and tea cup.

This is such a clever way to reuse items which can be picked up relatively cheaply at op shops and garage sales, or even odd pieces of china from an incomplete set at home.

I served my kids some biscuits for afternoon tea on this and they thought it was great!

Next I found this delightful wall hanging for my kitchen for a tiny $2!

This would also be something fairly easy to make. It is simply half a terracotta pot which has been glued to a wooden board, surrounded by a wooden frame, and then decorate using dried flowers and rafetta.

As the benches in my kitchen are a mahogany colour and the wooden cupboards are reminiscent of those you'd find in a country kitchen, this wall hanging matches my kitchen decor perfectly!

I also already have a terracotta jug with very similar dried flowers already  in my kitchen so this wall hanging goes very well with that.

Another rather cute item I came across was this photo frame, which doubles as a key and letter holder.

This is not the best photo of it, but it was hard to take a nice photo as the camera flash kept reflecting off the glass in the frame.

There is a little cupboard behind the picture frame which has 8 hooks for holding keys. Unfortunately, I won't be able to use it for this purpose as the width would only really allow storage for single keys, and well my big bunch of car and house keys is just too big!

All in all I spent $50 at my local op shop, which included 2 novels, 1 hardcover book of knitting and crochet patterns, 3 gorgeous tops and 2 very pretty skirts, a photo frame and the 3 items I have pictured above. Not a bad days shopping!