What’s my style anyway ?

A few days ago, I had the surprise to get an email saying “Congrats…you have been awarded the ‘Stylish Blogger Award’“. Must be for my truly awesome (?) blog design, I thought (recently updated my AboutMe page) but when I went to BigWords’ blog (which I really quite like so I felt doubly flattered), I found her post about her 7 wardrobe essentials and was confused :  Oh, it’s about my own style then ?
According to the rules of this snowball blog award, 14 other ‘stylish’ bloggers also got the price (making me feel a little bit less special, i have to say) but yes, thank you very much! and “I want to thank my family and some other great people who made this all possible … -
“Hey, Ms BigWords, do you know in what situation you put me in here ? Stylish, me ?
Geez, I really don’t actually DO fashion anymore !
So what’s stylish style …?!
Well, probably, somewhere between  Casual chic, Skater girl, Eurotrash, Young Urban Lesbian (just the look) and uhm.. Sporty Spice ?

You see, most of my clothes are from the ‘basics’ section in shops, and they’re cheap shops, too : I hate spending money on clothes as we’re a bit on a budget now, and most days, I have no problem with wearing daggy, crumpled and spotty clothes to run around in the house, even to the mall, and now, to the school run. This is why I could totally relate to Lori’s “Anti-fashionista post, posted what seems like an eternity ago now…
I would like to dedicate this post to her. (Maybe she reads it one day. It doesn’t matter now. Her post, so many of her posts before made me laugh then. Now we all cry with her.. )
Because I now think :  having no style is definitively a style too! Indeed, I’ve realized that I totally DO some sort of fashion, in my own way. And while I don’t do fashion, I am quick with judgement on people that do (and badly..but that will be subject of future posts) Here, from head to toe,  is my list of seven – not so randomly picked – items for my very own casual everyday style :
1.

I have a small head (size 56) and I only like the classic style baseball / cricket caps on it, that is round top (not high) and a nicely bent duck beak (important!). You still need sun screen on the ears, mind you, but I like them for me and you can hide a bad hair day, have some sun protection and still look kind of cool.
This IMO is not the case for those horrible big caps with flat shield (worn with the tag ?!) that were around in the last years! Yuck!
2.

Very classic for my sunnies too. Since I need to wear prescription sunnies (yeah, I know, a fashion handicap), i have only 2 pairs at the moment : one looks like the RayBan Wayfarer (the Blues Brothers model), the other is the oval shaped model by the brand ‘Police’ (on the right). I really would like to get a pair of Aviators (middle) next – can’t go wrong with any of these!
3.

Most of my tops are pretty basic singlets. I have ‘a bit’ more cleavage than the chicks on the photos, that’s why I avoid slogans or pictures a little nowadays (they notice anyway). Got some bright colours too, some have little frills or buttons for a somewhat feminine touch but that’s pretty much the look. With more boobs and a few tattoos, well, you get it.
4.

I love light cargo (or battle) pants. Growing up (yeah, no, well, never mind, in progress, 4-0 soon, can’t believe it myself), I am choosing them a little bit ‘tighter fitting’ but I still have 2 camos ! Bermudas (?) or 3/4s  don’t become my (short) legs all too well, but I like to wear them around the house. Oh, and a message to the Youth : Baggy pants are great, but PLEASE pull them up. Like Dr Phil AND even Obama, I say NO TO CRACK!
5.

The Japanese Brand Asics makes my forever favourite sneakers, more precisely the “Tiger Onitsuka Mexico 66“ (a bit more solid than the Tai Chi model Uma Thurman wore to kill Bill ). They come in all kind of colours, are light and comfortable and the ones I had always last me for years. I now have a pair in black w/gold and another in silver w/turquoise . I really kind of fancy the black w/pink model, Oh! I want  them. But they are a bit dear, so an  honorary mention goes to the cheap and comfy Dunlop Volley that I only discovered here in Australia (but what’s up with the rapid ‘toe wear’?).
6.

I have one pair of actual ‘hot pants’(as in: short&tight). They are cut off jeans of my first boyfriend. I was 17. I still have them. They still (kind of) fit me! Yeee-harr! Cuz I rock! (ok, at the moment I can’t quite close the zip. But still.) Apart from this ‘sentimental’ pair,  never was much of a babe in shorts because, well, my legs are already short..? I am getting more used to it now (it’s just so damn hot here) and still like best just a pair of cut stone-washed jeans. (but girls, not too short, it looks ueber-cheap! Don’t even mention the absurd  fashion of the ‘visible pockets’, ok. Please – just don’t do it!)
7.

Long before I came to Australia, when it became ok to wear thongs or flip flops ‘in the city’, I stubbornly wore Docs or sandals. Later, I even had Dr Martens sandals.  I still think  thongs are a bit trashy and what more is, most models would be so bad for your (or your child’s) feet!?! But sometimes, trashy is just right so I occasionally wear Volley’s thongs (left, won in a competition, with a photo of dogthing chewing up a purple pair..) most times though, I wear and  I totally recommend AussieSoles ‘ Starfish (on the right). They have an ergonomic foot bed and are so much lighter than the sandals made by Crocs (USA). They come in wicked colour mixes and have models with elastic straps for kiddies. Can’t imagine living without them. I mean it. Tornado calls them his “zebra shoes”. We love them!

I know I have to choose 15 bloggers to pass the award on to.
Bear with me. I will have to really look sharply into the list of the dozens (hundreds?) of blogs I am randomly following via Google reader, to pick 15 that will then make it into my Blogroll (in construction) and get the price as a bonus.
But since it is dedicated to her, the queen of anti-fashionistas in blogland, the first one goes to Lori (the chick with the awesome piercings.. in the daggy grey cardie.. exactly.) and her bitter sweet blog “Random Ramblings of a SAHM“, where she blogs IN STYLE.  xox

Flogging my blog courtesy of Kristin from “Wanderlust” :

and highly recommend the post of another anti-fashionista, Holly, from “Good Golly Miss Holly” – very funny!

"imaginext". About Love and Hate and Fisher-Price

In the 70s,  when I grew up, the new toy on the block was Playmobil (curiously, Brandstätter, the German makers, decided they had to make smaller toys because of the ongoing oil crisis and the rising prices for raw materials), they did not have as much as they do now, but it was quite popular. Their pirate ship was totally awesome.

My friend Marc had one and he was making a big deal about it.
Rich kid show-off.

My (poorer) parents then chose to buy me PlayBig, the knock-off copy cat (which was actually more exact in details and proportions of the figures). They had to stop production a few years later. The Playmobil man is in the middle with the dumb but steady smile because he knew he would win -  big time.

I believe I had gotten this set with the road construction. I wasn’t too thrilled. Fortunately, my brother had lots of Lego and matchbox cars, and it did not really damage me for life. I have actually grown up to a person who tries to be unimpressed by brands and ‘originals’ which is basically what you have to do when you don’t have enough cash to always get the latest thing in fashion. Now that is something I will try to transmit to my son.
Or make lots of money soon.

Fast forward .. 30 years (yep!). Playmobil is hard to get in Australia.

After seeing how happily my boy played with an old Fisher-Price fortress and the knights that my husband found in his shed from his now teenage son, for his 3rd birthday, he got him this :

It was the beginning of a love/hate relationship with the “Imaginext” line of Fisher-Price for me.  Over time, we bought him – or he made us buy – the following sets all themed on emergency and rescue :

My fav’ is the police horse, just check out this face – it means business !

So I love these toys it because :

• my son would spent HOURS playing with his “little men” – even without me, and i finally got stuff done for myself. Toddler’s mum in heaven.
• they would not break easily (at least not at first)
• they were themed on emergency and rescue professions, something my son was – and still is – very interested in, bless him
• the details and the facial expressions were kind of cool (raised eyebrows, sunglasses.. ) – much better than the Playmobil idiot smile.

But I hate them because

• we kept losing the removable jackets and other accessories and this caused tremendous distress and drama. I have lost many hours of my life searching for them (allowing him to take 3 firemen on an overseas journey was one of the biggest mistakes I ever made)
• different to the old knights that are simpler in conception but survived years of play and then more years in storage, they are now losing their arms and I keep having to repair them with superglue. and then repair them again because he takes them into the bath. The printed on faces also come off. The are now a miserable bunch of disfigured amputees really
• you just can’t always get the set you want in Australia it seems..
• instead of expanding the city theme, they have broadened their range of toys first to to superheroes, robots and merchandising stuff (toy story3) like everybody else. there are also knights and pirates now, but I would have liked to expand the collection on more contemporary – and real life – stuff. (there is already a lot of superhero stuff going on in my son’s life anyway.)

But he still plays a lot with them and we have started building stuff ourselves to enrich the experience (i make a ‘cheap as craft post’ about it)

And now I see they have come up with this :

A-dorable aliens ! I want them. But I can’t have them.
Because my son would take them from me.
Because he is totally mean and takes all MY toys.

What’s your toy story ?
Any toys that mean a lot to your child AND to you.. ?

***

PS : I do not want to withhold two curiosities I found while researching pictures for this post.

This dad posts about a campaign by UNICEF. I feared this was part of the now huge range of Playmobil series, but I think it’s a good idea anyway :
http://daddytypes.com/2007/12/03/aww_playmobil_child_soldiers_c.php

The operation scene seems to be one of the more recent conceptions. I thought this website was rather curious…http://www.dimensionsguide.com/dimension-of-a-playmobil/