Win a beautiful, Vintage 50s dress.......(sob)

I am a lover of all things vintage, I collect glass perfume bottles and I love the glamour of Hollywood past.  Vintage has seen a massive rise in popularity with stylists embracing the past to recreate a new look and this is something I was doing long before it became "fashionable". 

Sadly, three children in five years and a (finally!)diagnosed under active thyroid has promoted a massive change in my body shape.  Gone are the body con dresses of yesteryear, replaced instead with tunics and leggings, the staple "mumpreneur" uniform that most of my contemporaries seem to favour.  I love this style as it is easy, comfortable and hides a multitude of sins.

However, it has left me with a wardrobe bursting at the seams and I have decided to let one of you lovely readers win one of my favourite pieces.  I bought this 15 (ish) years ago at an Antique fair in Battersea Arts Club.  I fell in love with it instantly.  It is a gorgeous example of 50s splendour with a nipped in waist and a full, stiff underskirt.  It has amazing detail, a big, black bow on the front and a beautiful pleated, concertina seam at the back.  It is a generous 12 and fairly tight across the bust.

It has been to Ladies Day at Ascot (accompanied with a HUGE black, Holly Golightly Hat) a wedding in the South of France which ended up with me playing craps in the Monte Carlo casino with a F1 player, and a beautiful Tuscan wedding.  

Now, I could sell this on ebay or to a collector, but I have decided that I would much rather give it away to someone who will love it as much as I do.   Therefore, please only enter if you would wear this or perhaps if you have a daughter who would.  You will get bad dress karma if you sell this gorgeous dress, I promise you that!!!!!!!

If you would like to win this, here is what you need to do:

1) Follow this blog and comment below telling me who your style icon is and why
2) follow me on twitter @superamazingmum and tweet "I have entered to win a vintage 50s dress with @superamazingmum http://t.co/i4DETBE

I will choose my 5 favourite style icons from your answers below, stick them in a hat, (vintage of course!) and then pick out a name.  This closes on the 30th March 2011.

Relax Kids - A Review....

The thing I love about twitter is that you quite literally tweet with people you don't know, have a quick 5 minute conversation and the foundation of a friendship is formed.  I have been tweeting with one such lovely lady, Marneta Viegas or @relaxkids for a while now and she asked me if I would like to review one of her CD's which aid relaxation and stress management techniques. 

Unfortunately for the boys, they both seem to have inherited my hot temper - HAW is so chilled out he is virtually horizontal, but I have always been a hot head and it seems as if the boys are set to follow.  As a grown up I have learnt to rein it in but asking a 7 and 4 year old to do the same is near on impossible.  

The CD introduces children to relaxation and stress management techniques by getting them to imagine that they are the characters in fairytales.  This CD has amongst others, Aladdin on his magical, flying carpet, Peter Pan and Jack and The beanstalk.    Each relaxation track is set to music and you absolutely must listen to Marneta's voice as it soothes the quickest of tempers.

Not only is it a good relaxation/calming down CD, it also has lots of positive affirmations which if you are listening at bedtime can't be a bad thing.  Where this CD has come into its own though for us, is on the school run.  We are always stressed and fraught in the mornings and to get into the car and put on the CD instantly calms everyone (but more so me!) and leads to us discussing how we are all feeling  and definitely helps the boys get into the right frame of mind for learning.

I have actually passed the CD onto a friend who is having dreadful problems with her son at bedtime.  He has been unable to "switch off" since starting school in September but after only 3 days of using the CD he is a different child and she is finding bedtimes relatively stress free.  Long may that continue.

Please have a look at Marenta's website here Relax Kids where you will find lots of free downloads and reviews.  She is also a fabulous, chatty tweeter and I am sure she would love to "tweet" you all.

Listography - 5 things for valentines.....

One of my favourite meme's is Listography - Kate takes 5 whereby the lovely Kate comes up with a  topic and we have to take 5.  This week, with Valentines around the corner, the topic is 5 things I would like this valentines, so without further ado (waffle!) here are mine:

1) A lie-in with HAW

How lovely would this be?!  Gone are the days when we used to have a leisurely lie-in with coffee and the papers, now we are lucky to wake up in the bed without a little wriggling person in between us!  Having three kids this happens frequently.  What I find ironic is that even if the kids are at my parents, neither of us can sleep in and are awake by 7am anyway.  Crazy!

2) A new wedding ring.  I must blog about what happened to HAW and I in the Maldives.  It really is funny looking back now but we *must* replace those rings!!!

3) Flowers - I adore flowers and HAW is very good at buying them "just because".  However, he has never, ever, sent them to me via Interflora.  It must be his Scottish Blood!  I would so LOVE to open the door to a massive bouquet.

4) If we are talking about price being irrelevant, I would dearly LOVE a chanel 2.25.  *swoon*

5) A live in housekeeper - This would make my life so much easier, meaning I could spend more time with HAW.

Happy Valentines day Lovely People!

Magpie Monday

The lovely Lizzy at  Me and My Shadow blog has come up with a meme that is my sort of thing!  It's called Magpie Monday and it's basically a chance to show of your treasures that other people have thought of as trash! 

My lovely mum has always been a bit of a magpie, not only at things like charity shops and car boot sales but she can walk into TK Maxx and find a gem amongst the the rails. 

All her rummaging must have had some effect on me though, as I now love a charity shop and fortunately for me there are lots close by.  However, I'll save some of my charity shop finds for next week and instead share my first ever skip find.  I blogged about it here Rich beyond my wildest dreams and I am happy to say that it is currently being reframed and artcare glass added. 

How about a challenge?  £5 budget and see who gets the best find??! 

Are you a winner???

The 4 lucky ladies who have won tickets to the baby show are:

Chocorange
Birthaffinity
Secretbumpy
Jennifer @jlou100

Can you please email me your address so I can send out ASAP.  Please email superamazingmum at yahoo dot co dot uk (hope that makes sense!!)

Would love to hear all about it!!!

Thanks

Sleep is for the weak.......

Ok, hands up, I admit it.  I have been a "smug mum" these last seven years when it comes to children and sleep.  It wasn't always that way, as the first 12 weeks of Beansey's life was a sleep deprived nightmare, with a colicky, constantly breast feeding, bundle of cuteness and not the cosy, cuddly world of a newborn that the magazines lead you to believe (Ha, Ha).

I was struggling with the lack of routine and in desperation turned to "The Contented Baby" by Gina Ford which totally polarises parents but for me was an absolute sanity saver.  I realise that when you first read it, it comes across as very regimental, but out of desperation, we followed the feeding and sleeping parts of the routine and our lives were transformed.  

If you are not aware of the book, she advocates nonsense such as leaving a baby to cry it out, and putting them into their own room from birth which is something we couldn't do, but in terms of structuring feeding and sleeping it was magic and worked for us.  

Needless to say, I used the same method for Beau Bo and Pixie and know countless others that have followed our less rigid version with great success.   As a result of this routine, all of my kids have always been great sleepers.  They still go to bed at 7pm and sleep for 12 hours, they have all slept after lunch for 2 hours until the age of 3 and I get some much needed time out in the middle of the day!

However, since moving Pixie into a "big girl's bed" we have had nothing but problems (and no, we can't put the cot back up as passed it onto a friend).  At first,  she relished in the fact she had a B.G.B (Big girls Bed) but very quickly realised that she could leave her bedroom.  This is not good as we worry about her falling down stairs etc etc.  Our house is an old Victorian one and so we have irregular sized door frames, therefore a stair gate won't fit across her door. 

We have resorted to wedging the door with an old tea towel.  She still goes down like a dream at night, but from around 430am starts to wake up and we can't work out why!  She cries, loudly, then starts to wail "Mummy/Daddy bed, Mummy/Daddy bed".  We ignore and she changes her tactics by banging on the door.   Obviously we don't want her to wake the boys and so I then go into her.  She then says "Morning Mummy, downstairs".  This is her at 5:15am. Cute eh?!

This isn't a one off, this is every single night and I am at a loss as to what to do.  I have tried the following:

1) Cutting down her daytime nap - this doesn't work as she is up so early and needs this sleep.  If she doesn't have it, she is then wanting to go to bed at 5pm. 

2) Sleeping in her bed with her when she wakes up.  She has a cot bed.  I am 5ft 6inches and not a skinny minny.  This works for her, but not for me.

3) Ignoring her - she gets louder and louder, eventually waking the boys.

4) Bringing her into bed with us.  She then faffs about and doesn't sleep, wanting to go downstairs.

5) Putting her back into bed and trying the "sh, sh, sh" method.

HELP!!!!  Can anyone see where we are going wrong or is this just my punishment for being so smug about sleeping in the past?!

Cybermummy 2011 - I need a sponsor

Dear Potential Sponsor,

I would LOVE to go to Cybermummy 2011.   It's the benchmark for all mummy bloggers and the key note speaker this year, is the lovely, inspirational Sarah Brown.  Despite only blogging since October 2010, I was  humbled and honoured to be nominated by fellow bloggers as a finalist in the Brilliance in Blogging fresh voice of 2010 category. 

 

I would love to be your eyes and ears at Cybermummy 2011 and as I love networking it would be great to act as the representative for your brand.  I have a great understanding of brand development and positioning having worked in advertising for the last 20 years (gulp) and would love to formulate a social media strategy in conjunction with you.

 

In exchange for the cost of the CyberMummy ticket and transport (approximately £250) I would be happy, for the duration of the sponsorship, to 

• display any company Logos or banners on my blog
• publish dedicated blog posts for brand launches/specific products
• provide company link in any posts relating to CyberMummy
• review any products on my blog, including publishing videos to my YouTube channel
• host competitions/giveaways
• give mentions on Facebook and Twitter

.

On the day, I can wear sponsored, branded clothing or badges and if  anyone asks me for information I will be able to provide samples/literature/money off vouchers etc

 

I would even be prepared to host/speak at an after show party/lunch which could be incorporated into a blogger press launch if this is something that you think is relevant.

 

If any of the above tickles your fancy, then please do get in touch with me.

 

Thank you so much!

 

Love S.A.M xx