A photo for today: Zoe (of course!)

This is how she looks most mornings when she wakes too early for my liking and I plonk her in bed beside me after J has left for work. She loves looking outside at the trees and always looks extra cute first thing in the morning. Love love love!

We are off to a teddy bear's picnic today, full report later...

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The adventures of FaerySarah and her day off...

I posted previously about how my Mum was coming up to babysit while I had the day to myself to do anything I wanted for the first time in 6 months. Well, here is the post that tells you all about how it went...

I had planned a few things, and couldn't make my mind up on any of the ideas in my previous post (thanks to all who suggested those wonderful things to do) so I thought I would see how the day went and just wing it. Mum and Dad came up in the morning so I jumped in the car (sang very loudly along to Florence and the Machine) and did the groceries. Yay! Yeah right. I know! Not a great start, but it was nice to roll into the supermarket, grab a big trolley without a stupid baby seat stuck to it and make my way around the supermarket. Such a boring thing to do, yet so wonderful to do it by myself. I spent way too much and then came home, all without an impatient tired or hungry baby.

After having lunch with my folks, there was only the afternoon left and I'd missed the movie times for Alice in Wonderland so I headed to the mall for a meander. It was great! Got a hot choccy, walked around a little aimlessly, found myself texting J about my moment of freedom and then I felt all funny...

I felt good, but a bit lonely - or maybe a bit useless. It was like my purpose had gone, there was no reason to be where I was and no one to look after or worry about. It was silly, BUT it made me realise that I really appreciate my new role as a mother and I really enjoy it. I'm glad I'm not working or walking aimlessly through life without this wonderful little person to run around after. I liked having time to myself, but I LOVE being a mum to Zoe.

Then I got over it and continued on around the shops. I grabbed a couple of simple things for myself, some presents for birthdays coming up and ran some small errands. I dropped into Pumpkin Patch and got the free tee with my coupon from my Persil pack and was shocked at how good the tee was and how long the promo goes for - so I can get some more! (it goes till July)

I went into Smiggle for the first time and LOVED it, I can't believe it has taken me this long to get in there - so cool! Whitcoulls had a sale, and I spent ages in there and then grabbed myself a juice. Again so simple, yet all soooooo good.

It all went really quick and then I realised I had to be back on the motorway before traffic went crazy so I boosted it home. It was only a short time away in the end, but it was really good all the same. It was nice to be there for Zoe for her feeds, and enjoy cuddles when I got home.

I think next time I would like time off one night or on the weekend to have a coffee or drink with a friend... on my own was nice but someone to yak to would have been great too!

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Guest Post by Aunty Debra: Question of the week No.2

Question of the week - How do killer bees kill people?

Once again Jonathan's answer to Jessica's question focussed on bees and had one sentence about killer bees being a bee that got angry easily. I made a balloon bee with the girls which had a piece of string around its neck so that they could make it 'fly'. One day we made cheese and date bees and had them as part of our tea. As I mentioned Jonathan prints off the information at work and then we stick it into a scrapbook. I have been getting Jessica to do a bit of colour on the page before we stick them to brighten up the page - this time we used yellow paint and painted some poppy bubble wrap and pressed it onto the page which gives the impression of a hive. We also take a photo of our creations and include them on the scrapbook page. To involve Amy I included her in the balloon bee photo I had Jessica, Amy and the bee sitting on the couch.

Check out more of Debra's posts here

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A Creation a Week for a Year: No.12

Wow, still going strong with this weekly creation thing... this week I made a BobbyRobin tee.

I bought some cheap tees from as colour the other week, including this baby blue tee on sale for only $4. I love as colour because they sell plain stuff and their hoodies are super snuggly and warm for winter. I have 4 of their etch zip hoodies and 4 of their women's sketch tees and I call them my 'plain mummy clothes' but I secretly think they are awesome and not plain at all. The coolest thing about as colour is that they don't only sell to wholesalers wanting large quantities for screen printing, they sell 3 or 4 units to crazy people like me which is great!

I had an old tee of which I made the BobbyRobin bodies out of, made from the same jersey knit tee fabric. I thought this would work well since ye ole Bobbies need to do a bit of stretching with my body... I sewed them on with the trusty sewing machine and hand sewed the eyes on after.

I'm stoked it worked out well AND survived the first wash!

Check out more of my weekly creations here.

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On becoming less beige...

So I posted recently about how I was feeling a tad on the beige side, and since it has been about a week I thought I would post an update. Thank-you for all your lovely thoughts and comments by-the-way, I really didn't expect so many lovely words :-).

This week I am feeling more on the brighter side so I'm not falling into some deep dark pit of despair, don't you worry. I'm really looking forward to my Mum coming on Friday to look after Zoe while I go out for some 'ME' time. I'm itching all over just thinking about it. When you aren't a Mum, you really have no idea how much freedom you have and how selfish your life is. Selfish in a good way, I mean come on, you have no one else to look after really. So I'm getting me some of that selfish on and having a day out and about doing my own thing just for me. Totally STOKED!

Now I've already started the festivities by buying some boots last weekend (not all shopping was for miss zo!), I could have waited until Friday, but they called to me and I gave in... willingly.

Now as many of you may know, I LOVE BOOTS, but... I've been struggling to find the pair that are perfect for me. I've tried lower ones, and black ones, ones with small heels but all I really wanted was a flat pair of kick around boots that I felt good in. Enter the below photograph...

...another thanks to my Mum for investing in part of this purchase also. It was a team effort.

So now I have my footwear, what should I do with my 'freedom' day? I would love to hear your ideas. Here are some of mine so far (don't laugh!)

• Go out for a coffee
• Go see Alice in Wonderland
• Go buy some jeans (mmm limited funds left because of the above so this is less likely)
• Go buy a Ukulele (less likely yet again)
• Go for a run
• Go to the library
• Die my hair
• Go to that cute little 2nd hand bookstore that Zoe's buggy can't fit in
• Go for a walk down K'rd and visit Iko Iko, Miss Illicit and Buana Satu for the first time in AGES
• Go grocery shopping and take my time
• Go to Borders and lurk in the design section, reading with no intention to buy...

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Shopping with Grandma G

J's mum (Grandma G) took Zoe and I shopping last week, well, I went along but all our moolah was spent on The Zo as she needs a winter wardrobe! Oh yes, it sounds flash but it isn't. Zoe grows out of her clothes super quick and last time I looked she only owned 3 long sleeved cotton things for winter. eeek. Grandma G was kind enough to take us on a splurge and here is what the lucky little Zo-monster got:

You can see why I bolded 'lucky' now huh. She is definitely sorted! The smaller pics are my favourites of the shop; denim dress, green cord dress, hat and jacket. Of course not all of this was bought by Grandma, I grabbed a few things above too.

I was really impressed actually, other than the usual Pumpkin Patch and Cotton On Kids purchases, we found the denim dress and the green dress at JK-Kids and the red dress, and long sleeve tops from the Warehouse. I'd never found anything good at the warehouse so was impressed at Grandma G's talent at ferreting out the nicer pieces on offer. And when they are only $7.99 how could you go wrong? Especially since Zoe will out grow them in 5mins anyway, thanks Grandma G!

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Swaddle me this... Vol.5 : Success!

I have come to the end of my swaddling series because I have some news...

Zoe now sleeps UNSWADDLED! I have been dying to post about it earlier but didn't want to jinx it and so I waited 2 weeks to write this.

The first week of 'sleeping bag only' sleeping was only half successful as Zoe decided to stay awake longer and pretty much eliminate her 4th nap during the day. Of course she has no way of telling me all this and it took three days of wondering why she wouldn't sleep and grizzle for who knows how long until I got her up again. Only to find as soon as I'd had her up half an hour longer she was ready to go down and was out like a light. I was going more on time than tired signs as I have for the last 5 and half months without any trouble. So now I'm following those tired signs and settling has been a breeze.. If only I was telepathic or Zoe could talk!

So that made the sleeping unswaddled a bit hard but this past week has been completely fine, normal and easy... oh except Zoe decided to get both her first two teeth 1 day apart this week which has made her grumpy and wake up more but otherwise the lack of wrapping hasn't factored into it.

It is now so easy to put her to bed with both the wrapping and settling mastered (for now) yay!

Also if you'd like more info on her sleeping bag, I got it from The Sleep Store here. It has been great at keeping her warm and has been a good sleep association and she likes the zip noise too, haha.

Swaddle me this... Vol.1, Swaddle me this... Vol.2, Swaddle me this... Vol.3 Swaddle me this... Vol.4

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Guest Post by Aunty Debra: Question of the week

Question of the week

When my husband was growing up his Dad would let him ask a question a week and the answer was given using the blackboard as an aid. Jonathan has started this with Jessica (3.5 yrs) this week but rather than the blackboard he is going to put the findings into a scrapbook. Her question this week is, ‘How do crocodiles eat people?’ .. Jono’s answer is more about crocodiles than eating people although he does say they have sharp teeth. So to fit in with that the girls made an egg carton crocodile and we had a crocodile cucumber for tea (salad) and happened to find a crocodile book at the library.

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A Creation a Week for a Year: No.11

After seeing this post on lil'magoolie about a 'crinkle square' or 'taggy' tutorial, I had to make one myself. Coolest part is I managed to scrounge up all these odd bits and pieces of ribbon I'd collected for what seems like years and years to create it. I made it a rectangle shape instead of a square and lets just say after sewing over heaps of bumpy ribbons it looks very.. er... rustic! I think it worked out really well, the colours look great and Zoe LOVES it.

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Rose Hair Clips

Yay! I won these last week from Blendy and they arrived yesterday. They are a gorgeous pair of vintage style rose hair clips by Songbird Designs. I LOVE winning stuff, especially when it is so cool!

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Cosmic Love

After feeling a little beige yesterday, I've definitely been feeling better today, thank-you for all your lovely emails and comments. Another thing that happens when I feel like that is I really turn to music. I finally played through my latest CD, Florence & The Machine : Lungs and have stopped and repeated 'Cosmic Love' over and over again. It's a beautiful song with beautiful lyrics and I just love the way she belts it out with so much emotion - especially in some of the other live recordings on YouTube. She has red hair too so that makes her even more awesome of course.

It's one of those songs that just makes me go 'oh yeaaaaaaah' and sing along to it belting it out in my own twisted way. I may have even jumped up and down and made a few fist-pumps, haha! I even did a strangely old school thing and looked up the lyrics and chords, hand-wrote them down in my journal, got my gee-tar out and had a crack. A crack is probably a good way to describe how it all sounded but I had fun and it made me happy. I always forget how much better I feel when I get my guitar out. Even if it is just to pick out the same old Jewel song I learnt years ago when I first got the instrument that fine day in Tauranga. Now to keep it out and keep playing.

Does anyone have a song like that? I'd love to jump up and down to a whole album of fist-pump-worthy songs! We could make a compilation!

A falling star fell from your heart and landed in my eyes

I screamed aloud, as it tore through them, and now it's left me blind

The stars, the moon, they have all been blown out

You left me in the dark

No dawn, no day, I'm always in this twilight

In the shadow of your heart...

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500th Post Giveaway: winner!

And the winner is: KELLY

Congratulations! I'll be in touch soon for your postal details so that I can get this little cutie out to you :-)

Thanks to everyone who entered and left all the kind comments on my 500th post. I may have to do another one soon as I enjoyed the love!

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I feel beige.

Ok so I'm not one for SUPER personal posts about my life, as I'm quite happy editing out the sweet moments and displaying them here. But it's not all peachy-keen and zoe-kisses in my REAL world all the time.

I feel beige. I'm pretty sure I feel like this about every year or so. I'm not sure if it's at exactly the same time of the year, whether it's because I can feel summer ending or it's just a random phase. But I get into this droop. This big fat rutty beige DROOP.

What is a big fat rutty beige droop you ask? Well basically I spend a week not feeling like myself, like I'm some faceless shell floating through my day. I currently feel like I don't know myself, like I have no identity. I go through my wardrobe and cringe at my 'style' if you could even use that word. I look through my make-up case and wish there was a brand new colour or look I could sport that would make me feel happy. I frown at my hair in the mirror, hating everything about it, wondering how I could tame it into something remotely funky. I wonder if I should be playing my guitar more (or at all), listening to better music, reading my bible, praying more, being a better wife, a better mother, a better sister or daughter, cleaning and tidying more, catching up with friends more... ah!!!! like I have the time! I feel bleh, I feel useless, I feel plain and I feel beige.

I've always thought that I would like to look and be different to everyone else, stand out from the crowd. Wear strange stuff, do things differently, be myself and true to my creative, crazy personality. Be straight up, tell it like it is and be true to myself. BUT when it comes down to it, I am completely worried and swayed by what others think of me. EVEN WORSE, I am often defined by what I think, people think of me. How deluded is that. Who cares?!

All this comes around in a circle upon itself, I feel crap for a week, buy some hair dye, re-die the purpley-red stripe in my hair, wake up the next morning and feel better about myself... but not quite whole. Here's to another year.

Physical appearance shouldn't mean this much to me, but it really does. I really wish it didn't! I have these ideas of these different ways to wear my clothes, to splash out and just wear things a tad differently. I put an outfit on in the morning- happy at first, catch myself in the mirror, chicken out and re-dress in 'safe' choices for the day... then go all droopy again because I didn't have the courage. Slumpy McShoulderson.

Its not just about the way I look, its all those other things... they all come into the droop. I'm hoping it doesn't last too long, I do already have the hair dye - maybe I should use it asap and come out the other side of this faster. I want to be a confident, happy person, stable and secure in my self image and with who I am, but this consumes me.

Now I'm contemplating deleting all this and putting something else up instead of posting all this crud.... or I'll delete this once live as I read it through again and cringe! Or even in a couple of days. I guess everyone has to have a 'look at me, I feel crap' post. My husband will think I'm nuts. (maybe I am!).

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Guest Post by Aunty Debra: Wax Creations

Jessica thoroughly enjoyed doing these wax crafts. Each was made by grating old crayons and putting the shavings between waxed paper, then ironing on a low heat. She made the mobile, with her Dad, first and then made the stained glass windows with me some days later. She has the mobile hanging in the lounge and the stained glass windows on her bedroom window.

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My Little Pudding...

Went to Plunket yesterday, Zoe is now 8.73kg and 68cm in length... at just over 5 months! ee!

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This makes me so happy, inspired and gooey inside...

This chicky is brilliant, so fresh, so simple... and now I have a major girl-crush! The best part of her clips is the little bits of talking she does, or simply the way she turns the camera on and sets up - she's just so adorable. I want to learn the ukulele now - I'll have to add it to my small but growing list of instruments that I'd like to learn before I die (tin whistle, harmonica...)

Thanks to Ryan over at Pacing the Panic Room for posting this lovely lady so that I could read it and fall in love! haha

And she's singing Adele! eeeeeeeeeee! LOVE!

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What's in your photo booth?

These are all the pictures left saved in my photo-booth on my mac. (pictures taken by my webcam on the computer)... they look quite cool all together like this. They start from July 2008, as you can see - I'm a total nutcase! What's in your photo-booth?

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500th Post Giveaway: this week's cute creation

Wow, can you believe it? this is my 500th post. I haven't been blogging for that long, so this came up really quick. I guess I have a lot of stuff to say to the world via bobbyrobin.co.nz! I've loved all your comments and feedback on my posts and have loved meeting and making new friends through blogland. Thank-you to all my readers and followers, I hope you carry on enjoying what I have to say and the pretty things I like to make. :-)

To celebrate this milestone I've decided to giveaway my creation for the week, Creation No.10. After my softie in Creation No.7 got such great feedback, I decided to make another one... for you!

As you can see above, it's another Bobby & Robin, but this time she is green and has a little bell on her hat. She is made from old and new up-cycled fabrics and is both machine and hand-sewn. The photos hopefully show how big she is and what she is like with No.7 in their natural habitat (my bookshelf) haha.

Giveaway Details:

1. Giveaway is open to New Zealand readers only, sorry. (NB: I will take bribes)
2. All you have to do is comment on this post, I don't mind what you say - just give me some love!
3. Make sure I can contact you, whether through your username or blog link, or adding your email address - as I'll need to get your postal details.
4. The giveaway will run for a week and close midnight Sunday 14th March. The winner will be drawn at random, announced and posted on the Monday.

Remember ANYONE can comment on my blog, not just other bloggers or people with google accounts, so get cracking! Good luck, Bobby and her Robin would love a new home.

NB: sometimes blogger is a pain and will tell you that your comment hasn't worked, just submit it again and it should go through. :-)

*This giveaway is now closed*

Check out Kelly's post about receiving the prize here!

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Lost Things

Check out this GORGEOUS stop-motion short film my matey posted on FB... so cute! Written and directed by Angela Kohler, her photography is awesome too! (website here).

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A Creation a Week for a Year: No.9

Here is this week's creation, although I may have cheated and made him 2 weeks ago - but couldn't post him up until now. He was a gift for my sister and I didn't want her to see him on here before he arrived on her doorstep in Australia.

What did you call him Gina? Picking a name is the best part!

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Zoe is 5 months old today!

Zoe has been a wonderful addition to our lives, she has kept us busy and pre-occupied and sometimes a little insane - but it's been great!

• We have had a few rolls from tummy to back this month, all of which daddy has missed!
• Zoe has her next Plunket visit and weigh in next week, and at last weigh was about 8.2kg, she is nice and plump and is giving my arm muscles a fantastic daily workout.
• As I have written in a previous post, we have had some success with sleeping and weaning Zoe out of swaddling. Slowly but surely we are getting there, I hope to start her sleeping in her sleeping bag in the next couple of weeks (fingers crossed). I started dream feeding her right before our bedtime at 10.30pm, she then wakes for a feed at 3am and then lately has slept in and wakes at 7am to see Daddy before he heads off to work. This is much better than 6pm, 11pm, 3am and 6am feeds (yup, no wonder she is a chubba) as it's like I'm only getting up the once.
• The dummy is being rejected 9 times out of 10, and then used as a chew toy anyway... so much for my dummy-for-the-rest-of-my-child's-life worries.
• Zoe has more hair, much to my delight! Her cradle cap is almost gone and her honey coloured hair is slowly making an appearance. She isn't ginger and isn't blonde, kind of a light in-between colour.
• We have started to introduce solids into Zoe's diet, it started as just a taste here and there and is now one tiny meal a day. I'm not sure when to make it 2 meals, but have bought some rice cereal to see what she thinks of that as the second meal in a few weeks. So far she has had a taste of Pear, Apple, Banana, Avocado and Carrot. She can't open her mouth fast enough or wide enough when she sees the yummy goop coming her way!
• Zoe is very happy ALL the time, and lately I have been able to get her laughing by making a 'rarrr' sound as if roaring like a little lion or something. Didn't expect that to be funny but oh well! Other laughs come at the showering of kisses on her cheeks or jiggling her about in the air while kissing her.
• She is getting a good hold on her toys and is obsessed with her linked rings and toadstool rattle. You can see her little mind working over time at wanting to reach out to things but not quite knowing how to yet... cute!
• Her strawberry birthmark is like a thing of the past, we aren't putting a bandage on it to protect it from her clothing anymore as it seems fine without. It doesn't hurt her or get in the way, would just be nicer if it wasn't so huge and people didn't have to ask about it when they see it! "Oh my goodness what is that!?! Is she alright? Does it hurt?"
• No teeth yet :-)

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I have a Bad Hair Day EVERY day!

I have a love/hate relationship with my hair. I love to hate it. I'm a big fat hair hater. The colour, the frizz, the not quite curl-just a wave, the cut, the long bits, the short bits, the parting, the length, the sticky-uppy bits, the wirey bits, the bits that fall out. It never co-operates, it is rebellious and reckless and it never does what I want it to do.

Ariel understands...

Image by Bri-Chan, found on google: (here)

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