Wednesday 26 January 2011

The Gallery: Children

For the gallery this week it would have been easy to have taken one of any number of stunning photos of Dodo..but hey you see her all the time! So I thought I would trawl through the family albums and dig out a few gems from my childhood..Please note..I am not responsible for the dodgy hair! That is one hundred percent my Fathers own work, creative man, but clearly insane making a fringe begin in the centre of my head.
I secretly love my fringe! thanks Dad x
I am not an only child, so I will risk incurring the wrath of little brother and Dad and post this beauty!

Note Dad has AMAZINGLY on trend glasses!
Scary that fashion has come full circle and many of my friends are sporting the beardy/glasses look right now! I love the pictures that my parents took in the little flat we lived in, the dining room was so bright and sunny. Great memories and a treasure trove of style influence..I am absolutely getting a spider plant right now!
Get on over to Sticky Fingers and check out the other fab blogs who have joined in this week..






Wednesday 19 January 2011

The Gallery: Mother Nature

Monkey bedtime!

After last weeks gallery post, I thought I should tone it down a little with a nice soothing sunset scene! Looks can be a bit deceptive though..This shot was taking a few years ago in Krabi, Thailand. The only way to reach the town from our hotel was to walk through a nature reserve set on a headland. This involved a very rickety wooden ladder and narrow pathway..oh and Monkeys! Lots of Monkeys..Very large and curious creatures who kept trying to tickle (or eat!) the feet of the sleeping Dodo on my back!!!! Was a pretty scary actually but a great tale to tell when she gets bigger.

The sunset was worth the walk

Dodo Slept through the Monkey drama!

Now go and have a look at the other fab photos on Sticky Fingers!

Friday 14 January 2011

Eyeliner and So Much More

Lately I have been slightly obsessed with eyeliner, liquid, pencil you name it and have probably got some on. I go through phases with make up sometimes it's all about the lipstick and then I get bored and move the focus to my eyes. Whatever it is it has to be fast! Dodo is fascinated with my make up and has been known to swipe a lippy with dire consequences. Put it this way she has not got the application technique right yet!
So in my quest for the perfect smudgy black eyeliner I happened upon the Illamasqua shop in central London..make up heaven! Really great colours and fantastic staff who make my hurried attempts at looking presentable look very tame. While I was mooching through the eyeliner choices I found one named S.O.P.H.I.E just what I had been after, black and soft, smudgy, gorgeous!
Really easy!
The pencil is named after Sophie Lancaster, a beautiful teenager who was kicked to death purely because she looked different. Illamasqua have teemed up with The Sophie Lancaster Foundation to raise much needed funds. The foundation was set up by Sophie's mum to create a lasting legacy for Sophie by campaigning for the U.K hate crimes legislation to extend to alternative subcultures, lifestyles and dress.
S.O.P.H.I.E stands for stamp out prejudice hatred and intolerance everywhere. I found this film on the trust website and it is a very moving reminder of what happened to Sophie.


Thursday 13 January 2011

Tangled

On Sunday Dodo and I were very lucky to be invited by Disney and Annabel Karmel, to a preview screening of the latest Disney feature film, Tangled in 3D. Cue very excited Dodo asking every night "Mama is it time for Tangled yet?" She had seen the trailer for the film on Christmas morning on her Beauty and The Beast DVD.
Flynn and Maximus do battle
On arrival we were greeted by Annabel and Mickey Mouse which was quite a moment for Dodo who is a big fan. Then it was time for snacks from Annabel's Disney branded range which was declared to be yummy, the peach flavoured raisins have been going down a treat. We got a sneak peak at the new Tangled Nintendo Wii game and also the Tangled Nintendo DS game which I had trouble prising from dodo's mitts! It amazes me how fast they learn to play the games. Then it was time for the main event.
Dodo trying out the 3D glasses!
For Disney's 50th animated feature they have pulled out all the stops with a reworked version of the classic fairy tale Rapunzel. After being kidnapped as a baby by the vain Mother Gothel, Rapunzel dreams of a life beyond the tower. Don't be deceived by the princess image, this leading lady is no shrinking violet! With 70 feet of magical golden hair and a dab hand with a frying pan, Rapunzel is a teenager with conflicted emotions. Steadfastly loyal to Mother Gothel, yet ready to make her way in the world and fulfil her dream of seeing the floating lights that mysteriously appear on her birthday every year.
Flynn, a wanted man
When Flynn Rider, the dashing over confident bandit comes crashing into her tower her adventure begins.
And what an adventure! Action packed with some fantastic chase sequences that show off the latest in computer graphics and hand-drawn animation to stunning effect. For me the animation itself regardless of the storyline was entertainment. Really breathtaking at times and coupled with the 3D it is an amazing achievement for the team at Disney. The scene with the lanterns captures brilliantly the magic of seeing them in real life. I am lucky enough to have experienced this ceremony many times in Thailand and to see it animated on the big screen was beautiful.
Rapunzel's hair is almost a character in itself! With new software specially developed for the task of animating, it and hours of painstaking research, the magical glowing hair is stunning.
All that hair comes in handy sometimes
With music from 8 times Oscar-winning composer/songwriter Alan Menken the man behind Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, you know you are going to be singing along. I loved the over the top number "Mother Knows Best" sung by Mother Gothel. It's a great vocal performance by Donna Murphy, the voice of Mother Gothel who is a really fantastic villain. 
Dodo managed to sit though the movie very happily but as I feared she was still a little bit young (almost 3 and a half) to keep the 3D glasses on all the way through. This didn't seem to spoil her enjoyment at all! The details of the storyline went a bit over her head but there is plenty to keep the little ones watching. The super cute chameleon sidekick Pascal and the hilarious horse Maximus were great fun and will appeal to young and old alike.
Pascale..he rocks!
Rapunzel was declared by Dodo to be her favourite character. Since we got home she has been playing Rapunzel games and I am certainly going to be capitalising on this to win the battle of the hairbrush! We have our own Tangled situation every morning and sadly I get cast as Mother Gothel. If only dodo's hair had the same time reversing effect as Rapunzel's I would never need bottox! Only 24 hours after seeing the movie Dodo was asking to see it again and wanting to know when the DVD will be out..So a big hit in our house then!
With great songs, strong characters and stellar animation this is great film for the whole family.
In cinemas 28th of January.

Wednesday 12 January 2011

The Gallery: Body Parts

This weeks gallery has been causing a stir on Twitter and left me with a conundrum..Do I annoy the gallery host Tara Cain by posting my feet? Or perhaps take a leaf out of Mocha beanie mummy Jay's book and post my arse!? Was a mighty fine arse! Well I will spare you all my bum..did I hear a collective sigh of relief!?
But I will show you my Bangers, Jugs, Knockers, Rack, Fun Bags Hooters, Babylons, Melons, Baps AKA Boobs! Whatever you and yours choose to call them mine have been a rather dominating feature throughout my life.
It has taken me until the age of 34 to learn to love them, it has been a love hate relationship. At war with 'the girls' when they have failed to fit into pretty clothes and stubbornly refused to be contained in any sexy lace number I have tried to ensconce them in. Love when I finally thought I had lugged them around for a reason and breastfed my daughter. War again when they couldn't satisfy her hunger. Love when I realised that she loved them as a pillow! And love for the hours of amusement they seem to have provided as the butt of many of my friends jokes..So hurray for boobs! and thanks for the mammaries..sorry!



Tuesday 11 January 2011

New Year New Body..again!

I don't make resolutions. Simple really, I would hate to set myself up for a fall. Life is complicated and busy enough without having the little voice in my head nagging me about the "resolution" that I foolishly made on January first! So why you may ask have I decided to take part in the New Year New Body group over on the Living With Kids blog? Well it seemed like a good opportunity for me to try and shift a few excess kilos in good cyber company without the shame of a real life weigh in. It just happened to be at new year!

So what can I say that has not been said before on the subject of weight? Well probably not much, but I can tell you that in my adult life I have been every dress size from  4/6 to 18/20. That's right both ends of the spectrum and everything in between. I don't yoyo diet and before anyone starts panicking, I do not have an eating disorder!
As a chubby teenager I could never really work out why. I thought I ate well and had a reasonable amount of exercise but never seemed to be able to lose anything. Months of low fat, low calorie diets and hitting the gym 5 times a week (which I hated with a passion) and the most I ever lost was 4lbs!!! After never being smaller than I size 14 I gave up. What was the point? I love food, I love to cook. So I did, with gusto!

I slowly crept to my biggest size and hated it. I was not a happy fat girl and hated not being able to buy clothes that looked good. Unhappy with the way I felt about my body and felt so dreadfully ashamed that my thighs rubbed together and hurt on hot days. So I worked hard to get back into a size 16 and stayed that way for a while, again believing that that was what I was supposed to be. Always the "big girl". Until I met a friend from America who gave me the Dr Atkins New Diet Revolution book, which I just laughed at. Hard.
At that time in my life I was going through a really traumatic family situation and knowing that I might comfort eat I decided to read the book. It was a revelation! Could this be the answer to why I had always been overweight? Carbohydrates?? So I stuck to the plan, to the letter..the weight dropped off. The change was dramatic. I would catch a glimpse of myself in a mirror and not recognise myself! The joy of my new body was amazing, shopping was fun and the attention was a huge shock.

I lived in Istanbul at the time and in Turkish society people think nothing of remarking upon a persons physical appearance. Day in day out I had been hearing the comments "oh you have put on weight", "why don't you diet?". One woman only five minutes after being introduced had the nerve to say "you would be really pretty if you lost a few kilos". Did I punch her? No. Did I want to? Umm..!
The topic of my weight was never off the agenda now..it was all anyone ever talked to me about! People who had not even glanced at me now paid attention to my new body, ignoring that the old me was still inside. This is the bit that bothers me the most. We judge others on the ability they have to control the size of the body they have. As a thin person I was treated better, paid more respect by strangers, valued more in shops. I can only conclude that this was because I was thin, nothing else had changed.

I got married in a size 6 dress. I wore a size 10 the day I found out I was pregnant. I wore a size 14 after Dodo was born and a size 16 when my marriage broke up. Now I am getting divorced and I would like to be a size 12. All of those things have changed me on the inside and now I want the outside to match.
This post has no revelations and no answers. I know how to lose the weight and I am sure you don't need another article telling you, it's January pick up any glossy mag you like! Whatever size you are, where or want to be, we all deserve to be respected and loved. So to all those trying to get the inside and the outside to match, good luck.

Friday 7 January 2011

Happy Birthday Mr Miyazaki

Twitter lets me know all sorts of odd bits of information that otherwise would pass me by. Yesterday I noticed that Hayao Miyazaki was a trending topic and for one terrible moment I thought that we had lost the great man! Much to my relief I found out that it was a happy reason for the huge number of tweets. Hayao Miyazaki turned 70 yesterday! It was really lovely to read all the birthday wishes and feel the joy that his heartwarming films have brought to so many people.

Big Totoro, little Totoro and a soot sprite
For those of you who are yet to enjoy the world of animated characters that Miyazaki has created I urge you to get your hands on a copy of My Neighbour Totoro. This has to be both Dodo and my favourite movie ever! I really will never forget the first time Dodo watched this film, the look of wonder on her not yet 2 year old face was magic. I was amazed at how it captivated her and inspired her games from the moment she saw it.
Even our pumpkins are Totoro
The dvd is rarely out of the machine (we are on the second copy now!) and we know it word for word. Dodo's second birthday was her Totoro birthday, with toys (hard to find!) and an amazing cake.
Oh dear Totoro has bitten Mei! (Dodo in disguise)

Another more recent gem from Miyazaki is Ponyo, a beautiful story about a little mermaid who wants to be a girl. Take a look at the trailer.



I am a huge fan of all the works of Studio Ghibli, of which Mr Miyazaki co-founded. As Dodo grows up I know she will have so much fun watching the films for older audiences. My big dream is to be able to take her to the amazing museum that Ghibli opened in Japan. I only wish I would be allowed to play on the giant cat bus they have there..boo! for the under twelves only!
So a very happy (little bit belated!) birthday to you Mr Miyazaki and a very big thank you.