The other day I miraculously managed to get showered and dressed in something that wasn't my p'jammies! Shane remarked on how good I looked and suggested a potential wardrobe remix photo. I gave him an affectionate smile and told him that the only reason he thought my appearance looked so worthy was because I was out of my baby snot covered sweats and had managed to pull my hair out of it's 3 day ponytail. Remarkable it may be, but photo worthy twas not.

I can feel the severity of the first trimester beginning to leave me now and am starting to feel a little more like 'myself' (whatever that means). I take one little nap in the afternoon and the rest of the day I feel rather normal, as opposed to feeling that a weeks constant sleeping would not satisfy my insatiable fatigue! Whilst I have enjoyed the endless sofa snuggling with ms molly, I am happy to be over the hump of it all:

a family of four

well folks, i'm still alive and just wanted to inform you all that i've been rather busy this last 3 months GROWING A BABY!

We are super super excited about being a family of four this July (and a wee bit terrified too!). I'm so tired, I had forgotten how exhausting the first trimester is. All I have to do is walk up the stairs from our basement and I just want to burst into tears. So I'm feeling pretty pathetic, but miss molly is keeping me on my toes!

I've been having a wee think about this blog and I think I need to stop fighting the urge to turn it into a bit of a mommy blog. After all this IS just the stage I'm at, n0 need to hide it. I'm sure I will be posting about fashion, interiors and handmade delights too, but the majority of the time, my most interesting contribution is a few photos of molly and a funny story (funny to me at least!) about my adventures in parenting that day.

These last few months I've been so tired, and SO behind in laundry, that I have been quite possibly the least fashionable person ever. I am however looking forward to flaunting my 3rd trimester bump this summer. Being heavily preggo in winter wasn't a whole lot of fun last year, coats don't button up and I get so bored of wearing UGG's (or cheap knock off) with everything. This time around, I hope to have a little more fun with some summer dresses. Molly's but has been stinking the whole time I've been writing this post, I really should attend to that!!

basement begins

These last few months I have been heavily engrossed in basement rennovations. The whole place was gutted and built from new. With much help from a good friend I laid all the click flooring myself! For me, this deserves an exclamation point, I'm normally the least DIY person ever. But with oodles of inspiration from Design Sponge, I am really enjoying my dabbling in the 'handy' world. I'm obsessed with home decor lately and can't pass a decorating magazine without snooping through it.

Coming from the UK, I'm continually surprised by basements. I can't believe how massive our house feels now, just a few months ago it felt cramped and crowded by all my junk. We now have our master bedroom in the basement, I couldn't resist moving our bed down here, we have enough space for a little sitting area, a little sink vanity and GET THIS PEOPLE, a Walk. In. Closet. YES, my dreams have come true!!!

I scored some lovely second hand couches and moved our tv down to the, herby named, family room, with plenty of room for Molly to crawl about (yes, she is now crawling!)

Everything is still in transition, I have a bit more painting to do and a lot of organizing. Until then..

Lebowski Fest 2009

Taking Quispamsis by storm. All 4.5 of us.

On Friday night we (us and two of our good friends) got together to celebrate our 2nd Lebowski Fest (Here is last years effort). We donned ourselves in our Lebowski garb and roamed the local bowling alley (and a rather embarrassing trip to the corner store) discussing superbly nerdy lebowski trivia and debating our favourite Dude-ism's

I chose to incarnate myself as Gutterball Maude. Here is what the real thing looks like:

And here is what I looked like.

How did you achieve such a costume? I hear you cry. Well, there was a LOT of gold spray paint involved. The fork was the easiest part, it's just a devil fork sprayed gold. The skirt was made from a plastic tablecloth, duct tape and lots of scissor work. For the bowling ball brazier I cut some floral foam in half, made some suitable dents with a wooden spoon, went mad with spray paint which made the foam sizzle somewhat worryingly...

** At which point I called into Shane from the deck "my boobs are disintegrating!", which, after nearly 9 months of Breast feeding, is probably closer to the truth than I care to share! **

Eventually the sizzling ceased and I strung 'em together with some gold ribbon and tada - a bowling ball brazier of maude-esque awesomeness! To top it of I spent two days hunting everywhere for a Viking hat and right up until the last minute I didn't know if I had one available to hire or not. So in a panic I grabbed myself a margarine tub, newspaper, duct tape and, yes, some gold spray paint and fashioned myself a viking hat.

By the end of the night my whole costume was looking a little tired. I think most of that had to do with the gold paint compromising the stickyness of the duct tape. But I soldiered on.

My other duty was to find something good for Molly. I decided to make her a Nihilist. You may not realize but it is reallllly hard to find a black baby onesie. So I ended up dying one of her pink ones (I am always happy to reduce the amount of pink in Mollypop's wardrobe!) and labelling her a nihilist with some fabric paint.

I plan on having a lot more fun with fabric paint in the future. Hopefully with a potato stamp next time like this:

from Bits and Bobbins

For those of you who haven't already watched and re-watched the wonderfully brilliant The Big Lebowski: Stop being silly, go away right now and watch it!

Thrifty DecorBaby

Here is a little sneak peek at Molly's room. I plan on getting it all properly photographed and I DREAM of having it featured on Odeedoh. I won't hold my breath, but a girl can dream. It is mostly filled with thrifted finds, and, unintentionally, there is a lot of Dollar Store content in there too. I love to see what can be created on a teeny-tiny budget.

• 'M' plushie - made with Dollar Store felt
• Origami star - made with D S paper
• Frame - thrited for $1 at a yard sale
• Vintage dress on pink hanger - a gift from my MIL (aka Molly's Gran), who spied it at a Spanish market
• Dress on yellow hanger - found this for $2 at Frenchy's (I think it's supposed to be a doll dress!)
• Dress on green hanger - a gorgeous little denim number, gifted from a friend.

I splurged a bit for the hangers themselves. Couldn't resist.

Thanks

Steenink.

Zombies!

This was me headed out to a friends house to see the movie Rec. Or so i thought, there was too much fun being had, so we never got round to the movie. we did have some pretty in depth conversations about zombie related scenarios. In all seriousness, I obsess over what i'd do in the advent of a zombie attack. zombies are not a laughing matter people!!

jeans - tk maxx - ralph lauren (i've considered picking off the label but haven't ever bothered. i'm not a big fan of being branded)

slip - thrifted at value village, it's really long and opaque at the sides.

braided belt - winners waistcoat - topshop - it was a gift, it's pretty snug!

necklace - salvaged from a broken brooch of mum's hair pin - made by me.

summertime and the living is easy

We have had some shiny-shiny-sunshine these last few days. Thus we have been happily lounging on the beach and swimming. We have a public beach just five minutes from our house. It's been so nice to pack up a bag and go hang out under a shady tree, away from the housework, the renovations, the computer... I find we focus so much more on molly when we are all hanging out on a picnic blanket, we can bask in her laughter and marvel at every little expression. She's become a real pro and sitting up by herself, she has been able to do it in brief bouts for a few weeks, but now she is a total pro. It looks so grown up! TOO grown up!

As promised, I got some photos of the other dress I made. It is made from salvaged material. The flower embellishment is from a vintage handkerchief.

"The revolution will be accessorized"

I happened upon a wonderful thing called the Uniform Project. The lovely Sheena Matheiken has challenged herself to wear the same simple black dress everyday for a year. Her purpose is two fold, raising funds for education in India (you can donate via the site) and to play around with the idea of uniform. She describes it much better than I could:

I was raised and schooled in India where uniforms were a mandate in most public schools. Despite the imposed conformity, kids always found a way to bend the rules and flaunt a little personality. Boys rolled up their sleeves, wore over-sized swatches, and hiked up their pants to show off their high-tops. Girls obsessed over bangles, bindis and bad hairdos. Peaking through the sea of uniforms were the idiosyncrasies of teen style and individual flare. I now want to put the same rules to test again, only this time I'm trading in the catholic school fervor for an eBay addiction and relocating the school walls to this wonderful place called the internet.

Everyone seems to have their own opinion on school uniforms. Having been clad in a school uniform myself for 14 years, I do to. I love that a uniform equalizes the financial disparity among students. And yes, I am well aware that it is possible to tell a rich student form a poor one by the brand of shoes or school bag, still, inarguably a uniform levels the playing field somewhat.

Personally, however, I can't help but feel my adolescent life would have been made a whole lot easier if I'd been able to wear what I wanted. I looked SO bad in my school uniform. This was frustrating since I've always drawn a lot of my confidence from how I dress. Disabling my fashion sense therefore disabled much of my confidence. In fact, just this week someone tagged me on facebook in an old school photograph and I did the unforgivable... I removed the tag! I 'did my time' in that horrible suit of royal blue nylon and I no longer want to be known or remembered that way!

Not only that, but unlike most of my friends, I went to a pretty crappy school. Whenever we'd hang out or bump into each other in our uniforms I'd feel like I was wearing a big dunce hat. Maybe I was/am just too proud. But It would have been nice to have felt on par.

But at the end of the day, I am a mad raving socialist. So bring on the uniforms, stuff a copy of the Communist Manifesto in every pocket, and when we feel our confidence sag, let's just look to Sheena Matheiken of the Uniform Project for inspiration.

In no particular order, here are my top 10 favourites from the Uniform Project:

(I believe I may be pining for fall. Many of my choices are very autumnal.) I love these boots and the teal and dusky rose colour together is perfect:

I need these ankle boots :

The colours and the layering of the tights and the stockings are soooo great here:

floaty, summery, lovely :

BOWS! :

plums and pinks - yes please :

She looks so cute here. Very Audrey Hepburn. The little leggings are lovely.

The side parting, the mustard vest, the bow tie, the socks!

Loving the boots and the layering of tights, stockings and leggings!! I must do this! :

The necklace is very sweet and the little black dress looks entirely different in this one :

Pillowcase dress

I've been wanting to try out the classic pillowcase dress for a while now and the other night I finally got round to it. I didn't actually make it out of a pillowcase as I thought molly is probably still a bit too teeny for that. But, I delved deep into my stash and found some cute blue and white fabric along with a scrap of faux bois for the bottom and the picot edged bias tape was perfect for the arm holes and ties. I was so pleased with this one that I made a second one the next night. I might get it photographed tomorrow if the weather permits. I'm about to embark on my 3rd one just to see how I can vary the shape of it for the best fit. If I find the perfect design I may get some up on Etsy sometime.

something from the photo booth to signify life!

We are going through some pretty gigantic transitions here in the Magee household, and that isn't even counting the wee wonder that is our 'growin-like-a-weed' Mollster. I hope to be able to divulge them here in the next week or so (and NO it isn't another pregnancy announcement!).

Until then, here is a little peek into my regular ol' day to day...

(Due to the superbly wonderful photo booth feature on my mac (aka 'my precious') I am able to snap the little parts of life that occur when we are sitting at the computer. )

much story telling (this board book is from the creative genius Nikki McClure)

there has been much post bath snugglin'

some pretty heavy renovations (this isn't our house, it's just our barn)

Excuse the almost-nudity but I wouldn't be accurately portraying the 'day-to-day' If I didn't have a shot in here like this. In the last few weeks Molly has started taking some occasional 'solids' (not really solid at all, more 'mushy'). Up until this I had been spending most of my days semi clad, always at the ready for the next feeding. During my whole pregnancy I was totally freaked out about the idea of Breast feeding. I knew I was going to do it as I was and am entirely convinced it is what is best for the baby, but the idea of having a baby 'suckin on ma boob' totally grossed me out. Ewww.

8 months on and I am so very glad I chose to, and persisted in, feeding her myself. It's much handier than bothering with a bottle and sterilizing, It's cheaper, it burns calories, it shrinks your uterus right back to size in no time and something very near and dear to my heart, In the mornings I bring her into bed with me and feed her WHILST I SNOOZE (I am a great lover of 'the sleep'). The benefits go on and on... I don't intend to preach, but BF has taken up a large portion of my life for the last 8 months and I am more proud of myself for this than anything else I've done so far....So what else has been going on?

there's been lots of face pulling

late night moments of 'chillllld why are you not asleeeep!'

much giggling

and even some snuggling with the hubby in front of our favourite movies and shows

There have indeed been creative endeavours too, but that's for later...

unique moments

The other night I settled down to revisit Garden State. It is a sweet little film but I still despise the last 15 minutes. I don't understand why it seems to lose all of it's self awareness at the end. It feels like I accidentally changed channels and got stuck watching some corny Hallmark film.

My favourite part is this:

Tonight me and Shane have been having fun making some silly unique moments ourselves.

Thanks so much for your comments on the previous post, good to know you are still out there! Milla, I am tres excited about the possibility of swapping lovelies with you!

a little needy

Oh my goodness me! How neglected this little blog has been. I doubt there is ANYONE left to read it. If anyone is out there, hello, how've ya been?

Molly is growing and growing and growing, it is hard to believe that it's all happening on breast milk! She captures my heart more and more every day and I regularly well up with emotion at just how much I love and adore her. Who would have thought but being a mum has made me unbelievably happy.

Though life is not a bed of roses exactly. Shane works horrible, anti social shifts in a job he absolutely loathes. So I spend around 60% of my week feeling like a single mum, stuck in the boonies with no transport, refreshing facebook a million times a second so I can receive some form of communication a little more sophisticated than the 'please change my diaper' cry or the 'feed me NOW woman!' cry.

Needless to say, I feel a little needy.

When Shane arrives home (on the occasions he is home for more than 6 hours sleep before he is back into 'hell' again) I am unbelievable relieved. It surprises me how much better I feel having another set of hands around to pass molly to or help clean up. I guess sometimes It just takes three.

I could go on, but it would probably just become one of those blogs that looks intimidatingly long and is never actually read.

So I've started to get into twitter. The isolation of being a brand new stay at home mum can be overwhelming at times and the internet really does keep me sane. Especially with nursing as i'm rooted to one spot unable to do much but surf the 'interweb'. 

So feel free to follow me on twitter (my username is steenink) and let me know if you are a fellow twitterer yourself. 

One of the people I am following is Stephen Fry, the Magee household are big big fans of "the fry". He has been twittering lately about this campaign.  It is abhorrent to me that the New Zealand government feel they can deem someone guilty of copyright infringement simply upon accusation, with no evidence and no trial.

But I started to argue with myself over the possible success of this campaign. It has a great premise, but I ask you, can we really make a difference by changing our profile pics and status? 

For now, I have decided that trying doesn't hurt. And the least that can happen is that the people who pursue my status and read up on it are more informed and perhaps impassioned about human rights and angered about it's violation. 

Is accessibility to the internet a human right? maybe not, but the right to trial is. 

let me know what you think? 

these things, i love

Mette Linderberg of the Asteroids Galaxy Tour, has there ever been anyone cuter?! I discovered her when catching up on Never Mind the Buzzcocks episodes last night. It turns out they have found their fame by being featured in an ipod shuffle ad, something i've missed as we opt out of the whole television thing.  I can only get my hands on a few of their songs (I guess that's the curse of attaining fame before you're ready) but i'm hooked.  AND her bangs have got me wondering wether I need to take another trip down that lane again...hmm, it is a perpetual conundrum for me. 

Gimmie! Loving this gorgeous piece of jewellery by Norwegian Wood over at Etsy:
I need a vintage/bright plate collection for above my kitchen window!:
Banksy - you are a genius:
indeed: