After a month of illnesses at our place, everyone seems finally to be back on deck. A little tired and worse for wear in some respects, but all the better for the unexpected time together. So with the previously house bound in mind, we headed out the other weekend for Anzac Day on a family picnic.  The weather is just holding off, with sunny days, but chilly winds reminding you to make the most of it while you can.

We packed the basket, filled the thermos with hot tea, grabbed some extra layers to keep warm and a bottle or two of cider to keep the chill at bay. Way back in the day, family picnics were the norm when it came to weekend entertainment. When I was growing up, the whole extended family would meet in a park with baskets and bikes in tow, while Nana filled the blankets with all manner of home made slices, cakes and tea.  I have very strong memories of my Grandmother standing in the middle of the park in her apron, handing out golden Anzac Biscuits from a large tin. Some even had that soft, squishy texture of goodies baked that morning and hastily packed away for the day. I would then spend the day eating egg salad sandwiches under the shade of a large tree, reading with only ants for company until I was compelled to risk the safety of my knees on a little blue bicycle.

These are the sorts of things I’d like for my girls to remember. Not childhood memories filled only with Saturday morning cartoons, but the sorts of adventures they had themselves, exploring, eating, experiencing.

Miss Five in her Tram Conductor’s best

My lovely friend Mistress C.

Outfit Details

Pink Angora Cardigan – Made by Mum circa 1980

Pink knit top – Retrospect’d clothing

High waisted plaid pants – Retrospect’d clothing

Shoes – Keds

Snood – eBay

Flowers – by me

Cherry hairclip worn as brooch – My Little Rockabilly

Bag and scarf – Vintage

Some Daily Outfits give me more challenges than most – especially when children and roller skating are involved! I was invited to take Miss Five on her first skating expedition this week along with a group of mothers and children from her school.  She was SUPER excited about going, wondering if she was supposed to win a gold medal and jump off big stuff! Me, well I used to be a big skater, going a few times a week and carving up the floor…. but that was a very long time ago.  I still had the old skates out away in the cupboard, but the have only been out on the rink about once or twice in the last eleven years.  This presented a whole new wardrobe challenge – just what does one wear when rollerskating with a bunch of five year old children??

I had to think long and hard on this one as my first instincts were to go with some of the outfits I last wore and break out the whole Olivia Newton John in Xanadu tpe of look.  But just in case that may cause the other mothers to shield their children from this crazy woman I decided to go with something a little less theatrical.  There was no way I was going to wear my workout gear for this ,as for me, workout gear belongs only in the gym so I had to think of the next best thing.

After a bit of a rummage around in the depths of the wardrobe I came up with an outfit that I haven’t worn in a while – it was one of my last pregnancy staples!  I have this great skull print jersey dress that has an open, cross over back that I used to wear backwards while I was pregnant with Miss 2. I’d throw this over yoga pants for casual days and it did the trick.  So it was the perfect thing to be both cute and comfortable whilst skating too.

Outfit Details:

Skull Print Dress – Episode    Tank Top – Portmans

Cropped Yogo Pants – Puma   Pewter Ballet Flats – U.B.H

Hair Bow -Bought so long ago I can’t remember!

Skates – Check your local skate store!

Of course it turned out that none of the other parents intended to skate and I ended up the only one over 3 foot tall on the rink!

Today’s Daily Outfit is a special guest appearance by Miss Five.

Styled and directed by Miss Five….

Outfit Details:

Dress & Cardigan – Target

Shoes – Grosby

Mask – Costume shop

Necklace – Candy

Working from home is fraught with danger. Overeating, daytime T.V, believing that Snuggies are fashion…  How do I deal with this workplace minefield?  By watching children’s television in the daytime.  Given, it isn’t that often, but when it gets too quiet here and I need a little something in the background, I tune into Sesame Street and this is why.

Sesame Street does Mad Men!

That poor old horse is being flogged to death again.  Thanks to an article in this weekends news, a “light hearted” piece looking at competition at the school gate of ” Slummy Mummies vs. Yummy Mummies”; we are back to the same old argument being sparked in the comments.  The so often spouted clap trap that if you give a damn what you look like then clearly you have nothing better to worry about in your life.  I’m sorely tempted to just say, “grow a brain people!” and leave it at that,  but clearly the topic deserves more attention or it wouldn’t keep cropping up.

So before you get all indignant and start writing me nasty comments (I say this not to my regular readers who already know what this is all about), let me give you a quick snap shot of my life.

Firstly, I work. I work both in the home and outside the home. I work more than fourty hours a week.  I have two children (2 & 6), whom I dote on, play with, sing with, get dirty with. This blog focuses pretty much solely on fashion related issues as it is my interest; just as gardening, scrap booking or collecting toy trains might be yours. My family didn’t sign up for this blog and so I don’t expose them or other non fashion related things here. And most importantly, I’m not interested in competing with you.  Which brings me back to the heart of the issue…

Don’t make the mistake of assuming that just because someone is “dressed up” that they do it to make you feel worse about yourself.  Yes, there are always those groups who are motivated by being the top of the pile in their social group and use fashion as a means of belittling others.  (Which I believe was the ‘light hearted’ topic the article wished to cover) But it would be unwise to tar everyone you come across with the same brush, no matter how conditioned you may be.  In the simplest sense this can be boiled down to one key problem – ascribing moral values to people based on what they look like. Just as certain ethnic minorities in your city are often targeted as being sinister based on their skin colour or choice of religious dress, the same principle of discrimination is at work here. For myself and many others, we dress up because it is fun and it makes us feel good. It doesn’t come at the expense of  “a life” or a happy family.  Dressing well and having happy kids /rescuing puppies/ or whatever other “better things to worry about”, are not mutually exclusive.

Back to the school gate competition issue.  Yes it does exist, but you have to choose to buy into it or NOT.  It is just another adult version of teen peer pressure and generally those that give in to it were the ones that behaved in the same manner in high school. You’d hope that we would have matured beyond that. When it comes to the big “What to Wear at the School Gate”, it is entirely up to you. Dress up, dress down – but figure out what makes you happier and WHY you are doing it. If it is to make other mothers feel inadequate – just don’t, and by the same token if you deliberately break out the old trackies  as a non verbal form of  “well f#$k you!”; then it is time to take a step back and consider the impact of that attitude on both yourself and others.

It’s only a war if you choose to be in it.

That’s enough pot stirring for a Sunday afternoon.