Let Kids Be Kids

This blog is not a platform for my political or religious views. It is not a place where I pass judgment on others or talk about my views on family and motherhood. It is a record {mostly for my own self indulgence} of all the creative projects that I like to try.

However, I do have one long term project that I am struggling to get just right.

Is it just me or is raising girls getting harder. I sometimes forget what it was like to be a little girl, I'm too busy trying to be a wife and mother, let alone a woman. In this world where at times I have felt I should be curvier; skinnier; shorter; taller; perkier; sexier; stronger; softer; smoother; browner; fuller; bouncier and prettier, it's natural that I am often drowning in a sea of inadequate. By some miracle {despite fashion magazines, peer pressure and advertising} I made it relatively unscathed through puberty, but now I am a mother. I have babies that are targeted with completely inappropriate products and messages. That is why I am going on the record.






I vote for more of

I am not against pageants, modelling, performing, competition, dancing, dressing up or anything else some girls adore, in fact I've done all those things. But for little girls string bikinis with padding is not ok. Sneakers that tone your legs and bottom are not ok. Spray tanning, teeth whitening and waxing is not ok and lingerie (even when it's called loungerie) is wrong. Absolutely wrong. Let them feel perfectly adequet for a while longer. That's what I say.




(photos: jours-apres-lunes.com; vogue; )

Big Fan Friday

So I think I am one of the last people to find out about this wonder women called Amy Atlas. She took her love of deserts and decorating and styling and put them all together to create custom desert tables, um genius! Why didn't I think of that. She does stunning work and I could drool through her website all day long.  You will be a HUGE fan when you check out the eye candy on her website.

I used her work for inspiration this week for my daughters second birthday. She had a dolly and me tea party, she adores babies, dolls, prams, teddies .... you get it. So I was really impressed with how this table turned out for the amount of work that I put in.

So I have been using this buffet for drinks and other things since I got it and I've used table runners but I have never put material all the way over to cover it completely, in true Amy style.  Makes such a big difference this was $6 a meter and I didn't hem it or anything I just wrapped it around the buffet and stuck it at the back with sticky tape. It hung all the way to the ground and having two girls I know ill use it again. Amy covers each of her tables with linen and always has a custom designed backdrop which I didn't have but I stuck those balloons to the back with sticky tape, another simple idea I got from her.

On the buffet I had these meringue kisses straight from the box and stuck them together with icing straight from a can.  I did that classic doll cake with a $5 doll and I made sure I got one with her hair up. I knew I couldn't do fondant icing though in a moment of insanity I did research it on You Tube before realising it would be so much easier to stick a bit of pretty netting over some buttercream frosting. This netting had silver sparkles all over it so I stuck some conchos on the exposed part of the dress. It was supposed to be pink but because I bought the cheapo butter it wouldn't budge from apricot. Or as I decided to call it, vintage peach. 

How cute are these cupcake wrappers you bake the cake right in there. Chocolate with strawberry creme cheese frosting.  Think I got these from Wheel and Barrow. 

Paige loves marshmallows as demonstrated by her trying to get them every five seconds. That glass jar is from an Op Shop it was $2, the blue bowl in the background is full of milk bottle lollies, also had cherry coconut slice and chocolate covered strawberries. The kids had sandwiches and pink tea with their babies for lunch. So much fun having a girl. 

Not even close to Amy Atlas level but luckily my two year old has never heard of her. This is another attempt but it was a night time dinner for my brother in laws birthday so I also had tea lights everywhere. 

These mini chocolate pots always taste great and look fancy, so easy. You buy the chocolate cups (Coles) and you buy some sort of tub desert like aeros mint chocolate mouse and then fill them up. Sprinkle some chopped up mint slice biscuits on top.  Those 3 glass vases in the background were also from an Op Shop half price sale they were .70 each, bargain. 

Oh Amy what a lovely job you have.