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As tidy as it gets #2: the living room
In my home
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04 Februari 2012 | 22:52:51
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Parents who will tell you that their children calmly play in their own corner, while the rest of the house tidily remains for mom and dad like it's always been: I have a hard time believing it. Mine is taking over the whole house, every single day again. But oh joy: lucky for us we have each night to tidy up the house again, to make it look like this: as tidy as it gets...
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So much better than my onion suit...
Fashion
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04 Februari 2012 | 21:03:12
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Did I ever mention my notorious onion suit here? Well, probably I didn't and in fact I think I shouldn't, at least if I want to keep some sort of fashionable reputation...
 
You see, once I was an eight year old kid, and I went to a catholic school. In the second grade all kids did their Holy Communion, but we weren't catholic, so I was about the only kid in the whole class who wasn't part of these Holy Communion festivities. It's never a nice thing as a kid when you can't be part of something that everybody else is doing, but to be honest it was another thing that I felt most sad about: the fact that I wouldn't be able to wear one of those fabulous 'little bride' dresses that I had been admiring and dreaming of in our local children's clothing boutique for years.
My parents weren't super sensitive about the fact that this was a difficult situation for me, but apparently my mother did pity me a bit, because a week before my classmates' communion we went to a HEMA department store, where I was allowed to choose some new 'communion clothes'. And I made a glorious choice: I chose an ensemble consisting of a wide white tee and some short leggings, printed all over with onions, carrots and other greens (and I'm afraid it wasn't one of those nice Scandinavian style vegetable prints that you see these days! ;)).
Anyway, to make a long story short: I loved my onion suit to pieces and no, there are no pictures... But the reason why I'm telling you all this is that I recently stumbled upon cool Belgian webshop Pepatino's Holy Communion dresses collection, and oh my, they don't look like little bride's dresses anymore these days! If I were an eight-year-old girl today, I most definitely wouldn't settle for an onion suit anymore... ;)
(by the way these pictures were taken by the amazing Belgian photographer Emilie Vercruysse, I must show you some more of her work later! Or simply check the link!) |
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Tantrum Thursday
About me
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02 Februari 2012 | 21:14:09
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(Oh finally, I have found one too: one of those jolly alliterating-with-the-day-of-the-week blog post titles! ;))
Let's face it: before I had a child myself, I could never quite understand what could be so hard about motherhood, let alone understand what could be difficult about being a so-called 'stay at home mom'. What could be more relaxed and rewarding than spending so much time with the little person that you love best? But on days like these, when it's terribly cold outside while your baby is totally bored inside the house, and you don't have a car within reach, and your girl gets a temper tantrum whenever you try to put her in her stroller, or in her bike seat, or in fact she gets temper tantrums any time you want her to do something that she doesn't want -which is about anything!- or when you try to keep her from doing something that she really wants, such as drinking detergents, tearing all 1000 albums from her father's massive cd rack (we've already given up on the book shelves, that were alphabetically ordered once!) or eating muddy shoes, you realize being a mom can actually be hard sometimes. And exhausting, and frustrating, and maddening, on top of all the joy and sweetness and all the fun.
And when you've followed your baby climbing up the stairs for about the thousandth time that day, feeling more like the living version of a big protective shield for your baby's ridiculously dangerous stunting than like an actual human being with a life of her own, sometimes you can't help but think how easy the daycare days are...
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As tidy as it gets
In my home
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30 Januari 2012 | 17:34:59
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Last week some pictures were taken at my home for a magazine. Of course it's no secret that houses that appear in magazines never look as tidy and organized in real life as in the pictures, partly because everything that disturbs the image is simply put aside or cropped out, and partly because people who know that a photographer is coming usually start cleaning and tidying up like madmen, worried that otherwise the whole magazine-reading-world will discover what messy monsters they really are.
Well, at least that's how I usually feel on the eve of one of those events... (It's crazy: by now I've grown a bit used to interior pictures being taken at our house, and most of the time I even feel way too nonchalant and at ease about it, but the night and morning before the photographer arrives I all of a sudden start panicking and end up cleaning and tidying up like an idiot. And then the stylist comes in and make it 'real life messy' again ;))
Anyway, for about a day or two after the shoot the house remained quite tidy (the fact that Rosa was at daycare the day after was of great help with that!), so I thought I'd take some pictures myself of how our house has been looking lately. Tidied up, that is ;). Here's Rosa's room, I'll show some pictures of other places later this week!
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Boy or girl?
About me
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27 Januari 2012 | 13:13:34
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Here's a little lesson I learnt this week: sometimes you have to be a bit fussy!
You see, about two months ago, when Rosa's hair was starting to cover her eyes, she got her first haircut at a little hairdresser's close to our home. That hairdresser's isn't particularly a posh salon: it's one of those cheap little shops where always tons of young men are hanging around waiting to be shaved and have a haircut. Also, not all the hairdressers who work there speak Dutch very well. But well, the window said 'Men, women and children', and since I only wanted her bangs to be cut, I thought we could give it a try. It was kind of difficult to have Rosa sit still for more than ten seconds, but the result was sort of sweet, and the cost of 5 euro isn't exactly the amount of money that one can be too fussy about.
Rosa after her first haircut, november 2011
But two months later her hair already looked like this again, some sweet but also a wee bit messy girl's hairdo:
I thought now it was time for a real haircut to sort of finetune her girly look a bit: not only some cutting of her bangs, but also a wee bit on the sides and back, so that from this point her hair could grow into more or less of a proper hairdo.
So we went to the neighbourhood hairdresser's again, where we first had to wait for like one hour and a half, because they don't work with appointments and there was a long line of young men before us. Finally, it was Rosa's turn. I took Rosa, who wore a floral dress, a little red coat, white tights and some pink/red dotted shoes, on my lap, and explained a bit of what I had in mind to the hairdresser, who happened not to speak Dutch very well.
So, the guy started cutting, and within a few moments I was already starting to get a bit concerned. This was some rather wild and vigorous cutting he was doing here! Not exactly the subtle way in which I assumed one would cut a little girl's hair... Within just a few moments and some wild cuts, about half of Rosa's hair was gone!
I was feeling a bit uncomfortable, but I didn't want to be too fussy, so I just started mentioning the word 'girl' in my conversation with Rosa a few times. 'Hey, sweet girl, how are you, my girl?'
It took about a minute, but then the guy looked up, slowly pointed at Rosa and sheepishly spoke: 'Boy or girl?'
Ah well, I've been looking like a little boy almost my entire childhood, and it's not that it has ruined me or anything, so I'm sure our little boy Rosa will be okay! ;)
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New plates and teapots in the shop!
Things I make
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27 Januari 2012 | 11:39:15
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I'll be the cargo, you ride the bike
About me
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24 Januari 2012 | 20:36:38
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We bought Rosa a wooden cargo bike for her birthday last december, and so far the gift seems to be well appreciated. Only it took her a while to learn that she not only can be the cargo, but also ride the bike!
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Dublin without a camera
About me
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20 Januari 2012 | 14:13:22
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We went to Dublin last weekend, and I thought that would be a nice opportunity to practice some photography outside the house again for a change... But silly me left my camera in the backseat of the car at the airport parking, clearly within sight, so I was pretty lucky it was still there when we returned after the weekend... So no pics, except for these of Rosa getting ready for check-in ;).
(And a little away-from-home video, because we did bring a little video camera to document Rosa's first overseas trip!) |
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Anyone who wants to give my Pastoe desk a loving home?
In my home
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20 Januari 2012 | 12:56:29
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it's SOLD!
We're currently rearranging our home a bit and due to lack of space, unfortunately my sweet little desk, a wonderful design by Cees Braakman for Pastoe from the 1950s (here you can find some beautiful images of a similar desk design), has to go. Anyone here in the Netherlands who wants to come pick it up and give it a loving new home? Here you can find all the details!
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Mumami
What I like
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11 Januari 2012 | 20:02:34
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A while ago I saw Rosa's little friend, the daughter of my neighbour (hi, Irma! ;)), wear the most fabulous hat. I learnt that the hat was made by Mumami, a Dutch handmade shop filled with the loveliest crochet items. Lots of cool and original hats, but also home decor items and many more things. I'll be saving for a Bubamara coat for Rosa for next winter, but what about this cloud or strawberry coat? Seriously, I don't understand these mothers who already dress their four-month-olds in skinny jeans: why on earth would you do that if your baby or toddler could still be perfectly happy being dressed like a little strawberry? ;)
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