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Miz D got to gloat about her stunning amber bobble and now that I have pictures I reckon it’s my turn.
Historically my romantic interests have been in one of two camps when it comes to buying me jewelery: those who hem and haw and ponder and fret only to drop the idea in favour of a gift certificate out of intimidation of the gusband’s brilliant (dude has amazing taste) successes in finding me lovelies, or those who take the leap and fail miserably. I have a stash of expensive shiney things too fugly to pawn. Does that make me sound spoiled?
This year the mister tried* and passed with flying colours with this number:

Here’s why he wins:
1. It’s not a ring! Rings are too personal (and scary – remember I cling tightly to my matrimonial prophylactic) and unless it was one he’d seen me oggling over at my favourite silver shop, which I almost never do and when I do I almost always make the purchase myself, it’s not going to be right.
2. It’s not gold. Dude pays attention. I’m a well-pierced, well-adorned chica and all of my shinies are silver which gold refuses to play nice with. I’m not going to wear something if it takes me 18h to take out every bit of silver in my bod to replace them all with stuff from the stash of gold fuglies.
3. It’s not a bracelet or earrings, which are what the gusband generally buys. By opting out of at least that part of the competition he levelled the playing field.
4. It’s the perfect length, sitting nicely between my collar bones and creating a flattering line which leads the eyes up the neck. Sometimes I think guys buy necklaces just so they can go dipping into cleavageland to fish them out. Guess what? I’m onto that. I only wear long necklaces with turtle neck sweaters and I stopped wearing those in the mid-nineties.
5. It’s not amber in one of those overly ornate & whimsical settings with fairies and leaves and curlyques. Nice, simple, curvy lines are another favourite.
6. It’s slightly asymmetrical. I love me some asymmetry.
7. It’s amber. I adore amber. It’s my favourite even before my beloved garnets and opals. Admitedly he’s seen me swoon over the oodles of amber pieces immediately inside the doors at the gemboree each year, so maybe it’s kind of the easy choice. He noticed and that’s all that matters.
*He also gave me a lovely pair of earrings which I love last year, but they’re just not in the same ball park and I kind of picked them out.
Being of the thick, long, dry, curly haired variety, taming my tresses is always on my list of things which must absolutely happen before I leave the house. Right after finding my keys and right before putting on some kind of lip lube. The hair bits usually entail some kind of heavy chemicals and some sort of follicular strap-on device. This morning the chemical component of the formula was missing (I blame the kids) and me not being the shy type when it comes to trying anything to wrangle my hairs I reached for the first cream-laden substance available and it happened to be Palmer’s Bottom Butter. I came to this product late in my parenting life but quickly realized it’s value in everything from keeping razor burn at bay to getting bubble gum out of hair and my ad hoc application this morning was no less successful. It provided the weight I needed to keep things reasonably in order and didn’t come out greasy and gross after drying AND it makes me and my hairs smell like cake. I might even try it as a pre-straightening treatment, it’s just that good and I’ve yet to find one which really works. It also happens to work really well on baby bums. It’s also dirt cheap.
I never used to be a purse girl. I carried a diaper bag while my kids were little but beyond that I’ve always been about the bank card, the ID and a little bit of cash in a jacket pocket. Possibly in a wee clutch if I was going to a formal event. I’ve since learned the love of a good handbag and have added to the list of necessities.
As it was a slowish day at the market today my partner and I ended up having a brief conversation about essential carry-alongs. She divulged the number of her sewing kit collection, spread out about many bags. I admitted to needing my tape measure everywhere I go.
Upon returning home I thought I’d have a better look into this. I emptied my bag and found the following items:
wallet
cellphone
old receipts
AA batteries
a hot wheels car
my measuring tape
my jack knife
4 lipsticks in different colours
1 pot of lip balm
2 tubes of skin moisturizer
my passport
wet wipes
tissues (new and used)
my notebook
4 sharpies
ballpoint pen
3 safety pins
sewing kit
dental floss
keys
Is everyone else’s bag the dumping ground mine is? What’s in yours? Is there some age/bag size correlation? Who’s got a great system for staying more organized?
By the way, the bags in the pic above are made by Jeanne Bayol and I adore them. Were anyone to get one for me I would happily be your sex slave for 3 years.
from etsy!
Love these colours for houndstooth. It’s on such a great scale for this application too, don’t you think?
from minniekins.
Crinkly leather jobbies:
from ashes & empires.
Knitted lovelies:
from corpse knit.
Tapestry:
from maria pozo design.
I think they’re kind of magical. They turn shoes into boots. Pretty, colourful, dramatic boots. Those are my favourite kind. Though I haven’t seen anybody in my city sporting them, there does seem to be a trend toward their revival though I daresay it’s probably limited to the really rock ‘n roll among us. Someday I’ll make myself a pair. I’m not equipped with the skills to make as clever a pair as the ones in the picture, but I’ll figure something out.
Would any of you wear spats? What are your thoughts?
via little woods atelier.
via freebird shears.
I love me some scissors. I’ve got over 18 pairs in my studio. I don’t have these though. It’s a shame I don’t cut hair.
I know, I know. I exploit the son far too much, but he’s such a willing model and this scarf looks so good on him.
This weekend has been lovely so far. Yesterday was our last day at market which is nice but sad to think about. After hounding her for months the farmer’s market co-ordinator has still not given us an answer as to whether or not there’s space there for us through the winter, which is a shame because that’s sort of where we need to be. I think we’ll just show up and be persistent and give her puppy dog eyes until she succumbs. I’ll even bring the puggle if I need to.
Yesterday was also the Arts in the Park event put on by the PAU. It was great to actually meet the lovely, talented and rather foxy Jen of Almost Famous and Lucky Jackson even if she wouldn’t tell me where her blog lives lest I stalk it. I also finally got to shake hands with Victoria of the Victory Art Supplies duo. If you’re an artist and are reading this and need supplies, please visit their shop. It smells like art even before you enter the door and their massive amounts of stock is so well organized for the creative mind it makes me weep. You can’t get that at Michael’s. I was stalked through the day by the delightful and oh-so-pregnant Miz K (yeah, I noticed.) Happily so as I’m rather opportunistically hoping she has fun pics of ‘Zzini & Gracie playing.
It makes me happy that we have such events in our fair city and it was great to so many more than the usual faces represented. Today won’t be quite as exciting – it’s all cleaning the kids’ rooms (which are complete disaster zones) and making spaghetti sauce. For real. Without the assistance of my mum or sister. And it’s going to NOT suck, dammit.




















