Jikana Damaru

Do you have a look?

I was surprised to learn last Friday (at an impromptu 'yay we survived the first week back at school' pool party) that apparently I have 'a look'.

Me. A look.

I've never considered that this could be the case, but I was assured by a very stylish (all the School Mums I hang with are very stylish) friend that she "liked my look".

"Really?" I said, rather shocked. "What look is that?"

Apparently I have a "smart neutrals with a bit of a quirky boho" thing going on. Who knew?

I've improved a lot over the years, but I'm definitely more of an 'Avoider' shopper than a 'Selector'. When forced away from the shoes, handbags and jewllery (ie. fun) part of shopping, every garment I purchase answers 'no' to the following questions:

Is it fattening?
Is it restricting?
Does it highlight the fact that I have a footballers' neck?
Does it require ironing?
Is it faddish?
Do I look like mutton?
Does it look like mutton?
Do I already own 5 just like it?

Who would have thought that an Avoider Shopper could develop a unique and admired (oh, okay admired that one time) look? I'm joyous! So joyous, in fact, that I just went right ahead and created the above outfit using Polyvore. How very Fashion(ish) forward(ish) of me!

Are you a Selector or an Avoider dresser? How would you describe your own 'look'?

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Edit 11.17 am 10/2

I've been reading through the comments (fab!) and I just had to pop back here to emphasise that this combo is skinny pants and a DRESS. There is no way I would ever, could ever wear skinny pants without a dress! Just so we're clear. The only problem with my new best friend Polydore is that all the clothes are skinny people sizes and the bodies are skinny people bodies. I am not a skinny person, a fact you can read about on my weight-loss blog 40 Skinny Street if you felt the urge to torture yourself through boredom.

The extra-curricular child

Mrs Woog wrote a great post today about the cost of raising children and the extra-cost of raising extra-curricular children. Hear hear, Woogsy!

The pressure on children and ourselves to be all singing, all dancing, all languages, all sporty, all musical, ‘all rounded’ uber-people is just incredible these days. I have always been very good at bypassing the kindergyming, jumping jacking, bee bop a wop bop todder classes. I just turned a blind eye to those sweet little ballerinas and the cute little boys with footy socks up to their armpits. But when the Tsunamis started school this year I found myself planning the following timetable:

Breathe in.

Mondays – (Maxi) Italian, 3.30pm at school.
Wednesdays – (The Badoo) Kinder dance, 10am / (Maxi) soceer training, 3.30pm at school
Thursdays – (Cappers) Jazz Ballet, 3.30pm at school
Fridays – (Cappers and Maxi) Brightsparks drama and dance, 3.30pm at school
Saturdays – (All) Swimming, 10 am at home / (Maxi and Cappers) Karate, 12 noon up the road / Soccer match, whenever, wherever

I kid you not, I'd even filled out the necessary 28 pages of enrolment forms I was that serious! I quickly came to my senses and talked to the children about what they really, really wanted to do. This eliminated soccer for Maxi before I even finished my sentence. Okay, so we won’t worry about pushing him into the ‘team sports’ thing for the third year in a row. Then I red penned the rest indiscriminately, arriving at the actual Term 1 2011 timetable.

Fridays – (Cappers and Maxi) Brightsparks drama and dance, 3.30pm at school.
Saturdays – (All) Swimming, 10 am at home / (Maxi and Cappers) Karate, 12 noon up the road

Breathe out!

How do you feel about all the extra-curricular activities available these days? Do you put a limit on your children’s activities? How's our taxi driving job working for you?

[Image via weheartit, please let me know if you know the original source.]

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Edit: I wrote this post this morning to publish later in the week; read Woogsy's post in the arvo; edited my post to include a link to her; and then hit 'Publish' instead of 'Draft'. Have you ever done that? So here we are with two posts in a day! And you will note from the date at the top that Blogger thinks it's 9/2 so what's that all about anyway! Ah well, enjoy! x

Sparkle

Nothing reminds me more of Valentines Day than something that sparkles - here are a few lovely images to get me (and hopefully you) inspired for Valentines Day next week!

wordless Wednesday

I would love you to join in with your wordless blog post

instead of using the 'linky tools' which you now need to pay for

please leave a link to your blog post in the comments

sorry I haven't been to visit all the entries from last week but I have been settling my grown up school girl into her new routine & also my internet connection is not co-operating!

happy wednesday to you all ♥

Camera Love Necklace

I was lucky enough to win a giveaway off of The Paper Mama's blog! What did I win? A "Camera Love Necklace" from Pamela Topping and $25 towards their actions! Talk about ecstatic! I'm already loving the actions I got- Rockstar package and the necklace is perfect!

Garden Trading

This week for my 'shops i love' page, I bring you another brand I saw at Top Drawer. Garden Trading is a brand whose focus is stylish, well designed, functional products that stand the test of time. They have a large range of products including accessories and lighting for kitchens, gardens, potting sheds and laundry rooms. Everything comes in lovely muted colours with a hint of vintage charm.

I am loving their ceramic lid jars in sage green and there taupe laundry room accessories.

To see more of my pics from Top Drawer check out my Flickr set, Top Drawer.

Have a sweet day!

Inspirational Pins - Love Hearts

Today in my series of posts, "Inspirational Pins", I bring you gorgeous Valentine's ideas from Martha Stewart, inspired by my Sweet Valentine inspirational board.

Have a sweet day!