I love being at home with my little man. We had a wonderful day together in the garden. He looked so cute running (well fast walking) around with his waterproof pants on and cute gumboots. I love being a stay at home mum and feel so blessed that I am able to be at home with my little man. We have great fun playing together; we had fun in the garden and had lunch together of homemade bread that Mr Ecochick made for us. He went to work early and I woke up to fresh baked bread. Yummy. Thank you Mr Ecochick for allowing me to be at home to look after our baby, watch him grow and be a huge part of his life.

Clothes rack vegetable trellis

Splashed out yesterday and bought us a Bay Laurel tree, some snow peas and butter beans, some more silverbeet and two more chive plants. Had a super busy day in the garden today clearing an area to plant my new yummies. Large sections of our garden are covered in weeds + pebbles + weed matting = hard work to get garden ready for planting. We moved into our place two years ago and haven’t really touched the garden apart from pruning and general tidying. The garden has been left to its own devices and so the weeds have got a little keen. I’m not really much of a gardener but that doesn’t seem to have affected the wonderful garden we’ve been eating from all winter.

John the gardener; he loves all the tools and playing outside.

So today John and I spent all day in the garden; we had a wonderful time together. John thought it was great to play outside. I spent about two hours clearing a section to grow the snowpeas and butterbeans. Once the area was cleared I used an old clothes drying rack that I had in the garage (have another one there so will use that for tomatoes). So pulled the wash rack apart and lined it up against the wall and tied it with wire – great recycling. Very proud of my handy work today. I can now understand why people get so excited about gardening. 

 Part of the Patchwork Living Blogging Bee

The Wicker Basket

I just love The Wicker Basket! Leanne sells the most amazing products; gypsy cream as we call it. I really have to mention her amazing antiseptic cream. We just love this cream and use truck loads of it and just can’t get enough. Leanne’s products are completely natural and not tested on animals. The antiseptic cream can be used on pretty much anything and everything; I’ve used it on pimples (amazing at zapping those little suckers!) right through to John’s nappy rash. We met Leanne at the Gypsy fair about four years ago and have been using her amazing products ever since. I also love her oils especially the lavender and tea tree and use these for everything and all the time - great in the bath. I buy online from her and it’s great to catch up with her once a year at the annual gypsy fair. Totally worth getting some antiseptic cream or some arnica for those tumbles.

Score

I’m reading a fantastic book at the moment called the Pram Diet by Rebecca Mugridge which I’m loving and have found super inspiring. I have felt so motivated I’ve been going for walks the last few days and feel so much better for it. I went for a walk with a girlfriend yesterday and we went to Savemart. Great store; I picked up some great deals. I spent a whole $19.97 and bought myself a black body warmer, a polar fleece coat and some cute waterproof pants for John. Score!! Such lovely weather today (crazy that it was snowing last week!) so we’ll go for another walk to town to buy a cake tin to make Andy’s mum’s birthday pressie.

One today!!!

Photo by Sarah McGee

Wow my blog is ONE today!!! I can’t believe NZ Ecochick is one!! So very exciting. I’ve just loved blogging – I find it very relaxing, rewarding and very stimulating. I love finding content for NZ Ecochick and find the blog keeps me on the straight and “green” narrow. I’m loving all the new friends I’ve met via NZ Ecochick and love having an active facebook page. Thank you to all my fantastic readers without you NZ Ecochick wouldn’t exist.

Cloth cot rail cover

Man I’m on a sewing roll!! A few days ago we noticed that one certain little baby has taken to biting his cot rail and I mean biting there gashes in this cot now! Just as well I have a super clever brother that will be able to get rid of these. Anyway I thought I should whip up a cover for the rail. Out came the fabric box - I now have a 40L plastic box full of fabric! So google search I did and found Baby Rabies who has a tut on how to make a cover.

In my fabric box I had left over curtain fabric and some backing stuff (I think it’s called quilting fabric?) and sew up a storm I did. John thought it was fantastic when I went into his room to measure the side of his bed. Woohoo a tape measure on my bed thought John. I made 8 ribbons out of curtain fabric and then a long panel of fabric with backing on it. I sewed it all together and there you have a free upcycled cot rail cover!

Roll up chalk mat

My first attempt at sewing all by myself!!! I made a roll up chalk mat for my niece for her birthday. I have to say I am rather happy with my efforts (if you don’t look too closely!). I used tutorials from Maggie Muggins Designs and Thimble. I basically got chalk cloth, some beautiful farmyard fabric, some backing fabric, some ribbon and bias tape then sewed it all together. I bought these super cute little handmade stickers too to put on. If you don’t want to make your own you can buy beautiful ones from Ecomoon. Mine doesn’t really look like the Ecomoon ones but hey I’m only a baby. I’m going to make John one next with the cars fabric I bought.  

Goddies

I had a lovely day out with mum and John yesterday. We went to Pete’s Emporium and Spotlight. I bought some great goodies. The blue animal fabric is super cheap curtain material that I’m going to make bibs out of (when my snaps machine arrives – which should be next week. Exciting), the wool is for making crochet flowers for a friend’s birthday and the cars material (which I’m sure happy with) is for adding to the back of John’s roll up chalk mat that I’m making so one side will be a chalk mat and the other side will be a road for him to play with – two toys in one. The ribbon is for my niece's chalk cloth that I’m making her for her birthday. The yellow bean thing is a pin holder with a magnet in it – my sister in law has one and they are great for not losing pins and if you drop them super easy to pick up!

Me me me....

Michelle did a me me me post so I wanted to do one too…

I love my bed and sleep in whenever I can

I love being a girl and wearing make up – not for a second would I want to be a boy

I love making things pretty and love showing off my home to friends

I love going out with my friends and talking about everything – we have no secrets

I have NO problems talking about anything and everything to pretty much anyone

I was a girl scout and so I am very prepared if you need something chances are I will have it in my bag

I don’t think I deserve Mr Ecochick I always worry that one day he will wake up and realise this

I think I’m a terrible mum and I pray that John will turn out normal and happy

I hate dogs. Period.

I absolutely love anything to do with vampires – books/ movies/ etc, sad I know

I would love to have more land so that we could have chickens and be more self sufficient

I think I am a better sewer than I really am – and get so upset when things don’t work

In my mind I am still a size 6 and HATE looking in the mirror as this is no longer the case

I am a total night owl and would stay up most of the night and sleep most of the day – except sunny days I love sunny days

I pray that the books I read will make me a better mum and wife

Chocolate makes me VERY happy

The complete truth…. I am completely mad!

I love blogging and thank all my wonderful readers and friends for some days I really cannot do without you all.

Amigurumi toy for John

We had a wonderful shared first birthday party for our babies from our antenatal group yesterday. We had lots of yummy food and we all brought along a gift to be handed out. John’s gift was a fantastic amigurumi toy turtle and a cute book (actually I cheated and when I heard it was a gift from Sofia I chose it for John – so naughty). Sofia makes these amazing amigurumi toys and she has tried to teach me (well once only) and I can’t wait to learn and be able to make my own toys and hats, etc. This week we are going to get together so she can help me make some crochet flowers for a friend’s birthday pressie. Loving this handmade buzz I’m on. Nothing like home/ handmade gifts!.

The great dummie debate

September article for the Parents centre newsletter

When I was pregnant I had all these ideas about how things were going to go and what I was and wasn’t going to do. I was really against dummies and said I would never use one. John kept using me as a dummie and one night at midnight I had had enough and the next day we went out and bought a dummie. The dummie really was a huge help in settling John to sleep easily in his own bed. It meant I no longer had to feed him to sleep and we could put him in his bed and he would fall asleep on his own.

John + Monsties = one very happy baby

We used the dummie at night and sometimes during the day if needed – I found it really soothed John and made it easier for him to sleep. Every child is different and some children need to suck constantly to be soothed to sleep and settle more quickly. The ease of putting John to sleep was totally worth using a dummie. Often as a parent you will do things that you said you would never do – a dummie can be a total lifesaver and a great trade off for a decent night's sleep.

At about four months we removed the dummie slowly over a few nights by only giving it to John to help him fall asleep and then taking it away. Now he no longer has a dummie but he loves to suck on a piece of satin cloth with monsters on it. He always goes to bed with his cloth and is so excited when he sees his monsties so I guess we’ve just replaced the dummie for a piece of cloth but whatever helps your child sleep is totally worth it.  

Snow days!!!!

It’s been snowing here for two days!!! So wonderfully exciting. It hasn’t snowed in Wellington for 40 years! I just love snow and never get tired of seeing it fall down. I love playing in the snow and so does John! We went out with my parents, sister in law and my nieces to play in the snow. We had a wonderful time we played with the sledge that we bought when we were in Holland for Christmas and yes we had a wonderful white Christmas. I would just love it if it snowed here every winter I just can’t get enough of it. Once we came home John found his gumboots and brought them to me so that we could go outside and play again. Was so cute! He just loves the snow and didn’t want to come back inside he also loved the sledge and didn’t want to get off to let his cousins have a go. When I woke up this morning the snow has almost melted. I’m sad I hope we get more snow.

Girlfriends

Wow the post boys vs girls stirred things up a bit! Therefore today I wanted to talk about girlfriends. These are the special woman in your life that you share everything with, the ones that cry with you, hold your hand when times are tough, whose heart breaks when yours is too, laugh with you and love you no matter what. I mean the truth is girls are different to boys; we think differently, we act differently, we process emotions and thoughts differently, and we even talk differently; at times it appears to even be a different language! I love Mr Ecochick and I can talk to him about anything and we share everything, he is my best friend but I still need my girlfriends. I really wanted to share about the special woman in my life; a few of my friends have had some terrible things happen recently and my heart has just broken for them and made me realise how much I love and treasure these special woman in my life. So to you amazing woman out there who allow me to be strong, hold my head up high and keep me grounded and sane. Thank you I love you.

New sink

On the renovation kick at the moment; was looking on trade me for a laundry sink and found the sexiest most amazing sink I’ve ever seen. I know that sounds odd but this sink is seriously fantastic!! After a bit of a bidding battle we won this fabulous sink for a steal. It's a German made 80% granite composite sink! Though we won’t be renovating the kitchen till maybe next year or the year after but I really couldn’t let this amazing sink leave my sight. Another amazing trade me bargain.

Have I mentioned how much I love trade me? It’s good for everyone; allows one to save money, one to make money, one to sell off stuff they don’t want anymore and one to start their own business. Win for everyone really. Yes of course you can end up buying stuff you don’t really need as things can be pretty cheap on there but if you only buy what you do need you can save truck loads of money. I also love the fact that this allows items to be reused which may have otherwise gone to the tip.

Boys vs girls!

Little John is OBSESSED with any and all switches and plugs (have to say it drives me a little crazy constantly telling him to leave them alone or taking them off him). So Mr Ecochick made John a new toy - his very own switch. Take one old switch, an off cut of wood, stick together and now you have a wonderful free toy for a very happy little boy. The thing I wonder is are boys and girls born so different or do we make the differences?

John is crazy about plugs and power tools; all tools really (he thinks all his dreams have come at once at the moment with all the bathroom renovations). Is this in his blood? Mr Ecochick and my father are both engineers so maybe this accounts for his electrical tendencies? I certainly haven’t encouraged him to be more of a boy than to play with girly things; so are our kids just born this way? Society definitely defines things into girl and boy categories; just check out any clothing store the boy side is all blue and green and the girl side is all pink and purple. What does this all mean then? Are we in a boy vs girl world? One where only boys use power tools, eat snails and build things and girls cook, clean and play with dolls?

Material depression

In How not to F### them up there is a really good section on material depression with an extract from W R Gove in Sex differences in the epidemiology of mental disorder: evidence and explanations so I thought would share this extract as I think it is so true. One thing to keep in mind this book was written in 1979!!!! How much has changed in our lives and how little!!!

Gove lists six reasons why the social role of modern woman should make them more depressed than men:

First, full time housewife have only one potential area for gratification – the home – compared with men who have their job as well. If a man is unhappy in one area, he can turn to the other area as an alternative source of gratification. This is not an option for a housewife.

Second, for most full time housewives their primary focus is childcare and homemaking but these activities do not require a great deal of skill and are of low status. Women with high educational qualifications and intellectual abilities would find such unprestigious and undemanding work frustrating.

Third, the lack of structure and invisibility of the housewife role makes it easy to let things slide into a brooding, ruminative state which then feeds on itself. There is no workplace to distract the mother from her problems and the work is held to be inherently depressing.

Fourth, for those women who do work, it is usually ill paid and of low status, seen as secondary to that of the man. Coupled with the arduous childcare and housework, these mothers end up working longer hours than their man and yet are accorded less reward then he is.

Fifth, the female role is unclear and contingent compared to that of males. It leaves women feeling uncertain and lacking in control.

Sixth, in the past families were larger and women were responsible for childcare for most of their adults lives. Housework required considerable more skill and the housewife was seen as being an integral part of a family enterprise. With the advent of small families, modern equipment and industrial employment, the homemaking role lost respect.  

Of course I don’t agree with everything that he wrote but I do agree with some of it and I think it is scary that he wrote this in 1979! I do agree with the lack of respect that housewives (such an old fashioned term) get. Being a mum is the freaking hardest thing I’ve ever done and man is it unappreciated in the wider world. Being a mum itself is super rewarding watching the kiddies grow and develop is amazing and I feel so lucky that I can be at home and be a part of everything but that doesn't change the way the world reacts to mums.