Did I mention how over being pregnant I am.. Not like I’m going to be asked to be induced… I’m too much of a hardcore babies rights advocate.
All said and done though… Get out of me kid. Or stay in but stay off my bladder and out of my lung space…. PLEASE…
Oh glamorous pregnancy… And joyful motherhood….
Yes yes that was vitriol..
Sorry I can’t always be sweet..
We are in the middle of some rather large adjustments about here.
In support of me for the birth of baby2 and as part of emancipating herself from her rather lackluster ex my sister has come to stay with us in Germany for the next 7 months. She has her 3 and a half year old son.
Our house has grown from 2 adults one toddler and a big cumbersome belly.. To 3 adults, a sometimes precocious, breakdancing, ‘poo-poo bum bum head sandwich eating three and a hit year old, a trilingual 20month old and previously mentioned cumbersome belly.
I’m 36 weeks and so over being pregnant… Oh wait.., that is a different post…
My sister has wanted to visit for a long time, but once I announced this pregnancy she started saving. A few minor snaggles with getting her European citizenship and the general uselessness of her ex, but despite it all she arrived here safely at 6:45am on the 6th of March.. Until I saw here I didn’t believe she was coming..
I know this is kinda long winded. I am getting to the point.. It’s not the preggo hormones I have to always give a background… Something my family find tiresome.. Lol
So the point is the kids haven’t seen each other for a year.. Practically a lifetime for a 2 and 3 year old. My daughter is very friendly but does need a warming up period.. Apparently that doesn’t apply to family. From the first hour she has cuddled and kissed and played and snuggled with her Aunty. Whenever her cousin leaves the room, she calls after him and follows. And he birth dotes and tortures her in a way one only can with siblings.. Or family.
Why is this so impressive to me??? My husbands cousin has kids and the girls have pretty regular contact… But that ‘familiarity’ is just not there..
My nephew and daughter are obviously comforted that their mothers and aunts play the same silly games, butter bread the same way and use the same ‘warning all hell is about to break loose’ tone when setting boundaries.. Or enforcing them.
So although I am so over being pregnant, and I have a horrible sinus infection and I feel as jet lagged as my sister after getting up at 3 am to pick her up… I feel an indescribable security, comfort and ‘famil’arity since she has arrived.
I’m sure we will all have our days, and moments. I know there will be tears and tantrums and door slamming.. No only from the kids. But no matter.. We are family and that familiarity will always be there.
Ok enough of the sentimentality… I’m beginning to make myself sick.
Back to your regularly scheduled analytical programming..
Both my grandmothers were war babies.
Nanna Roberts, born in 1939 has strong recollections of the bomb raids in England.
While my Austrian Omi Helga, born in 1943 experienced much less of the hell of war, she battled through the food shortages and general sad and admonishing disposition of the general populous in the aftermath..
They both experienced the rebuilding of their nations, feminist revolution and both immigrated with their children to Australia.
Omi arrived in 1964 at 21 with her illegitimate 3 year old daughter my amazing mother.
Nanna arrived with her husband and four sons in 1968 at the age of 29.
I will get to Omi another time. Safe to say she has left some big impressions on me.
Nanna is our subject for now. Nanna is one of a kind. Forgiving, kind, gentle, well mannered, fierce, sage, stubborn, self sufficient, and by her own description lazy.
She has a philosophy which to this day I stand by. She declared to me once, “if you want the job done right the first time, then assign the task to the laziest person. They may take a little more time to do the work, BUT it will be done well and hopefully only once.” She continued by saying “I my girl, am a lazy person”.
The inherent truth in this philosophy is that the more work you do with your head, the less you need to do with your actions, and the more likely it is you will achieve your goal first time around.
It fits in nicely with the saying measure twice cut once.
Not in the sense of taking from here and there and everywhere.. Though perhaps that is elementally there.
In the sense that I prefer natural fibers over synthetic, recycled and repurposed over new, hand worked, crafted over machine processed… BUT and here is the but, I will break all those rules in certain situations..
In the height of my battle with Hyperemesis Gravidarum and Hypothyroidism this pregnancy I chose to buy my daughter not one but two 100% polyester snow suits, from Aldi. Basically throwing my personally ideas about fibres, industry, multinational companies, not to mention style out of the window for the sake of saving money and having something that worked when we needed it. I did choose fairly gender neutral colours so if bub no 2 is a boy they can be easily used again. Not that there is anything wrong with boys wearing pink at ALL..
So that is my point. It is fine to have ideals, goals, and a philosophy on which to base your life choices, but occasionally that has to be thrown out the window for mere practically in this complicated age we live in.
If we get down to the construction elements of clothing I favour a few things.
Multipurpose items – a jacket that converts to a vest.
Reversible items – two for the space of one.
Comfort – clothes that hang comfortable off the body
Durability – French seams, serged edges, high quality materials, reinforced stitching etc
Quality over quantity – I hate finding an item that has been outgrown and still looks brand new. I want clothes that age well, but fit all the other criteria so I get a proper lifespan out of them,
Longevity – items that grow or can be easily converted to something else, or reused for another child or person
Classic lines – swing jackets, trench coats and bomber jackets have all stood and restored the test of time.
Edgy details – pin tucks, two way zippers, funky collars, patches, suspenders, cuffs, Shirring, pockets
Ease of care – items that can be dried wrinkled and it enhances the look.. Items that wash easily.
Ease of dressing – my nearly two year old wants to be able to dress herself, a butt to neck zipper in the back is impossible for her to do herself. That said I don’t want clothes that she is constantly fiddling with the fastenings cause they are so fun to play with.
Modesty – clothes don’t need to be form fitting to be cute, flattering, fun and classy. Though Audrey Hepburn is to this day an amazing style icon! there are so many examples where her style is more refined in a more modest outfit than one with shorter hemlines or a more tailored fit.
So folks.. What do you say?? My signature style is perhaps anything less than the simple I professed in my previous post… But it works for me. In the sense that while I absolutely overthink things I do endevour to base my decisions on the simplest, most uncomplicated, but also most wholesome choice available.
Simplicity is something I aim for in life.
Simple living, higher thinking.. A life philosophy proposed by world renowned Indian monk Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja, know by his students affectionately as Prabhupada…
We live in an age where simplicity is undervalued, under appreciated and sadly extremely hard to achieve.
A world of compounds, and derivatives. Preservatives, flavor enhances, rising agents, gelling agents, foaming agents, and those just in our food. Our homes are filler with polymers, synthetics not to mention the electro magnetic fields, radio, television, blue tooth, wifi and other waves…
Short of buying or finding an abandoned island hundreds of miles away from the closest land mass we have very little ability to control what we are exposed to.
Simplicity is hard to come by. Whole foods, grown traditionally without chemicals or genetic alteration. Slow cooked, without microwave, or pressure. Unrefined oils, unprocessed foods etc all of these things cost at least twice as much in both time to find and money to buy as the mainstream but complicated counter parts…
This adulteration is not only limited to food, but also our textiles. Naturopaths describe skin as our third kidney. The biggest organ of our body, our skin performs osmosis all day long to excrete waste and toxinsand absorb nutrients. And our skin is very often covered in acrylic, polyester, and other petroleum based fibres..
In this age we are perhaps more focused (obsessed) with hygiene and cleanliness than in recorded history. We have chemicals for cleaning and disinfecting our homes, surfaces, laundry, eating utensils. Not to mention the myriad of personal hygiene products, feminine hygiene, cleansers, hydrates, toners, conditioners, shampoos, soaps etc…
What is my point??? My signature style extends from my endevours to simplify my life and lifestyle. While I am by no means an exemplary subject in this endevour I continue to strive daily to reduce our waste, reduce our consumption, reduce our exposure to chemicals, eliminate our consumption of processed foods etc etc etc.
Simplicity to me means going back to nature. Eating, wearing, cleaning and otherwise consuming things that have as little processing as possible.
Though I dream of a solar powered homestead with water collections, orchards and a totally self sustainable life where I purchase my vitamix through barter… That kind of extremity is somewhat far fetched and though enviable and ideal… Really it defeats the purpose of simplicity.
My take is utilize the resources on hand. Re purpose, reduce, reuse, up cycle, recreate, dual purpose etc etc etc… Have ideals and stick to the ones that you deem are most important, but leave area for movement, adaptability adjustability and flexibility.
How does this relate to sewing???? Click here to read my next post.
My mother is a former DJ turned fashion designer, come interior decorator, intense philosopher and now she focuses heavily on repurposed, up cycled boutique jewelry and accessories for the high end market.
She started designing outfits for her Barbie dolls at six, hand stitching and eventually learned how to use a sewing machine. While pregnant with my brother she and a friend began the first co-ordinated kids clothing line in Australia… Way back in 1986.
She had the design flair and her partner taught her all about cutting, piecing, appliqué, top stitching, overlooking, etc etc..
As our family grew my mothers involvement in fashion changed. She and her original partner went into business with an artist creating leisure wear come souvenirs for Australian tourists.. Exactly when the business was starting to really take off said artist made some really bad investments with business funds and ‘Anoriginals’ went out of business.
With her third child on the way and committed to a struggling musician my mothers life as a business woman in the textile industry was put on the back burner…
I was forever moved by the sound of her scissors cutting fabric and the whir of the sewing machine pumping out stitches turning flat cloth into dynamic, cutting edge and extremely beautiful clothing both for herself, us and also very fine detailed handwork to cloth the deities at our local temple.
My fathers mother is the other half to my inspiration. She is what you might call the original independent woman. Widowed with four sons at 38?? She was not only the sole income earner but the handy (wo)man, homemaker and ever the crafter. Sewing, cross stitch, knitting and occasionally crochet.
These two women found a home and refuge in their adopted land Australia. These two women carefully balanced motherhood and their passion for creating. These two women are unquestionably talented.
From my mother I have the great fortune of spontaneity, improvisation, hospitality and an ability or at least desire to be self reflective for greater spiritual development.
From Nanna I have respect and even adoration for technical processes, learning from observation, the advantage of inherent laziness (read about her philosophy on that here) and a competent knowledge of power tools..
Englisch lernen leicht gemacht
Simple Living, Higher Thinking
Evidence Based Advice for Mothers and Families
An Original Gypsy 