the pink princess

Oh it was inevitable really. The first sign was her declaration, some weeks back, that she was going to buy a 'Barbie statue' with her birthday money from Ouma.
(A pretty astute comment as my sister-in-law pointed out, for is Barbie not much more statue looking than traditional dolly?).

The second sign was her asking me, seconds before opening her birthday presents, 'Is there a PRINCESS dress Mum?'
Oh.

As it turns out there wasn't. I'd really not picked up that she wanted one. But she did. And though she showed no disappointment with the gifts she did receive (sweet girl) there was a quiet determination that a pink princess dress would be procured.

So off we went to the Fairy Shop with purse stuffed with Ouma's birthday money (plus Christmas AND last birthday's money too ...), where she spotted The One right away.
And has hardly taken it off since.

 

It seems even the most tom-boyish girl will have a princess-phase. Five is probably the perfect time to indulge it I think.

Not being a particularly 'girly' girl myself I didn't see this one coming. I didn't encourage it and to be truthful, I didn't think I'd really enjoy it. 

But can you see the joy? Can you see it swirling and twirling around inside her and out? Can you see she's still choosing to pair the dress with high-top sneakers?

It's a thing of great beauty.

I think I'll dig out my old Peaches 'n Cream Barbie for her tomorrow ... Feels like it'll kinda suit the theme.

I'll be the one in the concrete shoes

Now hear this. I hate the Two Oceans Aquarium.

1. It's over-priced.
I get that it costs a lot to run but so does the World of Birds and look how much 'cheeper' that is. And with so, so much more on offer.
The Aquarium's tickets are over-priced and so is everything else for sale there. It's a tourist trap, and local or international, we're all being ripped off.

2. It's boring.
Barring a few new fish and the occasional re-arrangement, nothing much has changed there since I first went 4 years ago.
Even the puppet shows operate off a handful of scripts which they rotate haphazardly.
This morning Friday said disparagingly, 'The Nemo tank is boring'. Gasp!

3. It's demographically depressing.
Nothing makes one feel like a white middle-class mother of two like a trip to the Aquarium.

4. It's over-stimulating to them, and severely under-stimulating to me.
They barrel in there full of expectations, I drag behind full of good intentions, chanting 'This will be fun. This will be fun. This will be fun.'
20 minutes later we're all in the same emotional space. Tired, irritated, needing to pee.

5. It has toads.

I succumbed to their pleas and took them to the Aquarium today. It was the first time in about 6 months and as Neptune is my witness it'll be the last for a long, long time.

I'd rather sleep with the fishes than pay exorbitant amounts of money to dash past them chasing my own kids and tripping over everyone else's.

the sticker oke

A while ago I posted about the Sticker Family, and how I think it's kinda naff.

But today I saw this one, and I think I kinda like it.

Not a great photo (with my phone, in the traffic - the light was red okay?), but can you see it in the left hand corner?

Just one dude and his bakkie and his sticker of him braai-ing a big fat steak.

Maybe he's a confirmed bachelor, loving life, meat and the great outdoors.
Maybe he's a dad and this is his ride, asserting his independence from the mini-van full of kids his wife drives.
Or maybe he's lonely, looking for love and would like nothing more than to fill his back window with a sticker lady love, a couple of kids, a budgie and a stupid dog.

Whatever it is, his rear end made me smile today, and for that I thank him.

having a moan: artisan markets

On the weekend we popped in at this market, looking for some supper, a drink and a change from the usual supper/bath/bed (kids)/copious wine/arbing on the internet/bed (us) routine.

Looks pretty hey? It was so pretty - twinkly lights, bunting, a live band, beautiful people, pretty things - a very pretty Cape Town kinda experience.

But, sigh, I'm afraid I left feeling a little underwhelmed.

My intention is not to belittle the creativity of anyone trading their wares, there were very many uniquely lovely things, as well as a good number of pure genius lust-haves, and I'm genuinely respectful and empathetic of anyone who has the balls to put their work out there - craft, writing etc - but the overarching aesthetic was so ... same-y.
By the time we had ambled past all the stalls and back out into the gathering dark the whole market had fallen into one visual folder in my head, with only a few items standing out from the crowd.

This is what that folder looks like:

Stuff:
hessian cloth
stripey ribbon
white
bunnies
birds
brown paper

Words:
organic
vintage-style
signature
gifting
conscious
re-invented

Smells:
coffee
chocolate
pretension

Read together these words evoke a pretty picture, and I feel so very Grinchy finding fault with that. I love living in a city where people create, I love being able to nip out to a market to see what they've been up to.

But I can't help but feel we're missing something when an 'artisan market' becomes predictable.
Predictable is why I avoid malls.

the good, the bad & the downright ugly

So the Baby Expo. I say nothing, but my eyes speak volumes.
And as you can't see my eyes I'll have to elaborate.

Starting from the middle: the bad.

I'm probably going to get slammed for this one but I'm going ahead anyway. I HATE BARNEY.

I try hard not to judge (honestly, I really do) but I hate that purple dinosaur. I don't see any real value in introducing him into one's kid's life, I see no real education, I see nothing but problems (and a bit of sadness) with one's kids becoming so violently brand conscious at such a young age and I spent the weekend seeing so, so many kiddies melting down at the Expo because the Barney show hadn't started yet, or had just ended, or had hyped them into a stupor or hurt their ears.
I'm not just being a hater, I've thought this through. And what I saw (and heard at 1000 decibels), this weekend just confirmed it for me, I hate that guy.

The good.

Some totally gorgeous Cape Town design. I mentioned last week that Skinny laMinx was there. Blossom Creations and The Little Fire Company were two other stands stuffed with simply gorgeous baby, mama and kiddie products.
I saw so much beauty, ingenuity and inspirational local talent. Such confirmation that baby & kiddie products needn't be bedazzled, cartoon-infested or screamingly red, yellow and blue.

But instead,

~ maroon ~ 

baby sling from Blossom Creations

 ~ primrose ~

baby bag from The Little Fire Company

and

~ verdigris ~

smock dress from Skinny laMinx

 

 And as for the downright ugly ...

I was considering using this one for a nice or naff post but the naff-ness was too undeniable. 

Shopping trolley pouches. 

I'm not including images as I don't want to single out any one company here. We're all trying to make a living in this crazy world (shut it Barney, you've made enough dough to be fair game ok?), google it if you really want to have the experience.

The ones I saw this weekend were not particularly attractive at all but the ugly part is actually this, taken from actual marketing material:

'Shopping Trolleys have more germs than toilet seats.'

'Doesn't your child deserve a more Comfortable and Cleaner shopping experience?

Oh because the producers of these monstrosities are just sooooo concerned about your child's health and safety? Because as parents we really need more things to worry about?

By all means view shopping trolleys with suspicion. Keep your baby in a pouch or pram, swab the whole thing down with antiseptic wipes (which btw most big grocery stores offer these days), purchase a trolley pouch or fashion your own, but please, please don't let companies lure you with fear.

That's just ugly.

nice or naff? the sticker family

No doubt you've also been seeing these all over town?

The Sticker Family - 15 options of Mums (shopper, worker, breeder, sporty - not a jelly belly in sight), 15 kinds of Dads (including a Muscle Mary), various kiddies and babies and pets.

I'm not sure how I feel about them really. They've very ... white? Middle-class? Suburban?

If we had a Sticker Family it would've looked like this this morning:

Sticker Dad on bike - looking well-groomed and calm

Sticker Mum in tracksuit with cap over unwashed hair (not pictured) carrying ....

Sticker Big Sister out to the car, crying 'cos she didn't want to go to school, under mistaken impression that if she stayed home her morning would be full of TV and ice-cream cones and devoted mummy-time ...
AND, under the other arm ...
Black plastic motorbike which MUST GO EVERYWHERE WITH US AT PRESENT.

Sticker Little Sister trailing behind happy and bright until she realised she wasn't able to actually sit on black plastic motorbike in car whereupon she screamed and thrashed and planked while Sticker Mum tried to do up her car seat belts and Sticker Big Sister whined on and on and on in the background and Sticker Dad looked cool and Sticker Dog tried to take advantage of general distractedness to escape out the gate to check her wee-mail.

Maybe that's what I've got against the Sticker Family, they all look so damn happy all the time.

What do you think? Nice, or naff?