Short Skirts, Knee High Boots & Jodie B

I grew up in a small country town.
The sort of place that is too big to be quaint and too small to be of any real interest.

Kind of stuck in the middle with very few redeeming qualities from either side. It really is one of those places you pass on the way to somewhere greater.
Unless of course, your into roses. In which case, settle in, take a load off and walk through the award winning rose gardens.
Huh? No, I'm not being sarcastic.
Where I grew up really does have rose gardens, it's the only thing that even allows our litle backwater to make it into any of the tourist handbooks.
They're fantastic and the scene of many important events in my life.
Seeing the bottom of my first bottle of bourbon and the time that....Oh, Hi Mum...Rose gardens? What rose gardens?

I got side tracked again. Sorry!
Like I was saying....

There are a few things you should probably understand about living in a small town if you've never had the pleasure...

1. Everyone knows everyone else.
2. Everyone has an opinion on everyone else - whether grounded in reality or fiction and will most likely have no compunction with sharing said opinion.
3. Never let the truth get in the way of a good gossip.

In my young, impressionable mind our town seemed to be broken into three main female social groups. Nothing like youth for a truly black & white view on things...

The Matrons - Older, upper middle class women who wore pearls, Diana Ferrari flats and were never seen out in public without a full face of makeup. They were on the school, art gallery, council board and just generally stuck their nose in everywhere and everything.

The Mothers - Middle class women who wore trackpants and runners just about everywhere. Very rarely wore makeup and generally look like they are on the way to the footy, gym or to play tennis. Are normally involved in the netball/basketball/ footy club and for some bizarre reason short hair or perms featured heavily.
Every now and then, they may break out their jeans....but only on special occasions and never with heels.

Bronx Warriors - A different social group entirely. Separated from the rest of the town by the freeway, none of the above rules applied.

There is one factor that all three groups have in common. They all snipe about each other!

As an adolescent growing up in this environment it scared the jeepers out of me - because I didn't want to be like any of these women. But there didn't seem to be much else to choose from.....

That is until I met Jodie Brilliant, the complete antithesis of them all.
She wore short skirts, knee high boots and makeup - while pushing her babies' pram down the street.
Jodie always looked funky and fresh and made me realise that you can still be sexy and you even when you are a wife and mother.
She was responsible for the purchase of a short, tartan skirt (and the following world war 3 with my mother) in my teen years because, you guessed it, she used to wear one.

I wonder if I can lay the blame for my shoe obsession there too? What do you think? Doable?

So imagine my suprise and excitement when we crossed paths again - thanks to social networking and the lovely land of Facebook.
I have to admit, I was nervous.
What if this icon of my youth let me down?
What if she wasn't really as cool as I remember her?
What if she had joined ranks with The Mothers?  or ever worse The Matrons... I don't think my poor heart could take it.

Drum roll please........

Meet Jodie Brilliant.
Graphic Designer, Photographer, Artist, Sculptor. Unwitting role model & style icon.

Jodie runs one of my favourite websites Wicked Monkey. An amazing collection of her photography and art work.

I honestly am in love with her creations and I'm waiting to be able to purchase some for my home.

If I didn't have to save up to send my son to university I'd be set. But sadly, sometimes these things have to wait....That reminds me I really need to ask her about layby...

As if she is not already busy enough, working as a graphic designer, she is also creating her own lifestyle magazine, as she realised there was nothing out there  "linking home, lifestyle, arts, music, culture and people with funky, classy, witty, clever content"

I can't wait til it's ready to share with you all!

Did I mention you'll be able to find little old me there too - just in case I don't already ear bash you enough   :-)

So here is a big shout out to unwitting and unaware role models.

After all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and I mean that in a strictly non Single White Female kinda way.

Oh, and thankfully, neither of us has joined ranks with The Matrons or The Mothers, although I think I rock my maternity yoga pants with the hole in the knee. Maybe I'll start a new trend.

Grunge Mummy.

Think it'll take off?

Thanks for stopping by

Hugs

Dee

And he's off!

Well, the day has finally come...

It's time for me to spend the day crawling around my home on my hands and knees to see it from the same perspective as my little adventurer and try and Blue proof the house.

Why is it that children age you so quickly? I didn't have gray hairs before having my son.
Well, maybe just a couple but they were from his father, who thought it was funny until he saw my hairdressers bill. Then he stopped giggling.

But anyhoo I digress...

My child might be the singularly most determined child on the planet. Once he fixates on something, come hell or high water as long as it's there he will continue to try and get it.
I wonder whose gene's he gets that from....

He particularly loves electrical cords.

Blue's been rolling and commando crawling his way around the lounge room for a while now, but hasn't quite gotten onto his hands and knees and started properly crawling.

Or so I thought.

A little while ago we collected all the misc. electrical cords on the floor and put them in a box and stored them in the tiny corner between the tv unit and one of our armchairs. Blue watched us the whole time...we thought nothing of it.

This morning after a bit of a rough night I put Blue on the floor with his toys and Yo Gabba Gabba and bolted into the kitchen for a much needed caffeine fix and when I came back....not a Blue to be seen.

Now, if you've got kids you'll know the feeling you get when you realise that no-one has come and taken your child but your heart jumps into your throat all the same...

So here I am, calmly trying to workout where my son could possibly have gone when I hear rustling and giggling coming from the corner of the lounge room....

Found him!

Here he is, in baby Nirvana surrounded by the upturned box of electrical cords, having an absolute ball.
That is, until he realised I'd found him.

I tell ya, I just saw a face I am sure that I will see quite a great deal in the next 18 years or so...I swear I could actually see his thought process. It went something like this...

"CRAP! She caught me. Ok, damage control time. Must....look....adorable. Nope, she still looks not happy. Time for plan B ...MUMMY LOOK WHAT I CAN DO!"

This is the point where he scooted his little bum around, got up on hands and knees and calmly crawled out of there. TA DA!

So now I can't help but wonder....
Is my child a mastermind? Does he get up in the middle of the night, push his little high chair to the computer and compete in chess competitions or write essays on Shakespeare?

Am I getting conned into changing all these nappies? Is he laughing at me the whole time?

Ooops lack of sleep is finally causing paranoia.
Who would want to write essays on Shakespeare??

Oh well, better go and get started...bet you Rusty can't open the child catches on the doors when he comes home.
Should be worth a giggle...

Now how shall I keep Blue entertained today? A walk, visit friends? Oh I know....
Did anyone see where I put the chess board?

Thanks for stopping by!
Hugs
Dee

Cast of Characters Part 1. Meeting my boys!

I am lucky enough to have a lot of very special and important people in my life.

People who bring me joy, sadness, love and some days downright blinding honesty.

These three are usually the ones causing all of the above.

Meet Rusty.

My love, my other half, the yin to my yang, the father of my child and occasionally the recipient of my boot to the nether regions.

After 6 years he still makes my heart beat faster whenever he is around. Whether that is from lust or fury really depends on how much of a pest he is being at the time.

Rusty is incredibly, bluntly honest.

I learned a long time ago not to ask questions I don't really want to know the answer to.

Like, does my bum look big in this? Or did you just put your toenails behind the couch?

Y'know stuff like that.....

We met at a country pub. I was bored, he was tanked. He tried to convince me that his Toyota Lexcen was a Commodore. I told him he was a moron, he stalked me and 6 weeks later we were engaged.....

I wish I could tell you that since then we've been walking into the sunset but unfortunately my house isn't a movie set and the credits didn't start rolling straight after he said yes.

But it's been fun and there has never been a dull moment....

Rusty is very manly and works with timber all day, he also drives trucks and crushes beer cans on his forehead.

Ok, maybe not the beer cans but he does come home smelling like fresh sawdust which I think is one of the nicest smells on earth!

But enough about him.....

How cute is this little guy???

This is Blue.

He's 7 months old and is the end result of 42 weeks baking, a 50 hour labour and an emergency C section.

Something you never want to hear when you are on an operating table.

"OMG......get a look at it......this kid is gonna drive his parents home from the hospital!!!"

Not quite, but at 10.5lb's he wasn't far from it!

Did I mention that I am 5'1??

That'll teach me for procreating with a giant. Rusty is 6'4....we get funny looks on the street.

It makes me giggle.

Blue has an impeccable sense of timing.
I'm sure everyone remembers the Black Saturday bushfires that Victoria experienced in Feb 09?

Well Blue thought that at 10 days overdue, it would be a fantastic time to make his entrance into the world. Nothing like labouring through armaggedon with ash raining down around the hospital to put you in a calm state of mind...

Maybe I should have named him Ash.

Is it too late to change it by deedpoll?

Blue is a snuggle bug, an adrenalin junkie, a little boy with a serious boob addiction (we're holding off seeking treatment) and an adventurer crawling into every nook and cranny to make sure there isn't any hidden treasure there.

He is my world!

And last but definately not least...

This is Oscar aka PuppleDog...

Don't ask me where that came from, Rusty is inventing his own language.

We expect it to be added to the Oxford dictionary any day now.

Oscar has been our first baby for 4 years now. We adopted him from the RSPCA when he was 10 months old.

Turns out 2 silly people before us never took the time to see what a gorgeous boy he is.

This is the most loyal dog in the world.

He is a puppy gourmet, loves fluffy toys which he carries around like a toddler before randomly deciding to hand down the death sentence and tearing them to shreds.

Has a wicked bark but is a complete sook.

He loves me when I'm cranky, smelly and having a bad hair day.

Can't ask for much more than that!

Oh....and this is the three of us together.

I look so mellow because I am still on pain meds...

These days I look more like this

Thanks for stopping by!

Hugs

Dee