Remove White Sugar from my Diet Challenge

DAY 1 Today, after causing my insides to have become marinated in Easter Egg Chocolate, I am kicking the habit and cutting white sugar from diet. They say white sugar is a cancer causing carcinogen and I believe it. Why I have been able to switch off that useful bit of information in denial so that I can indulge myself over Easter...who knows? One thing I do know is that when I maintain a steady supply of white sugar into my body, the quality of my thoughts go off. They become a bit insidious and deceptive about what is reality. Once it's got a hold on my thought process, my mood and motivation also then plummets. It's really not worth it and if it's doing such negative things to my mind, it must be a pretty powerful 'drug' to take control over me to this degree.

I am expecting sugar withdrawal headaches of course. However I am planning to wean myself gently in others ways. Whilst I am going cold turkey on white sugar, this week I will still have small amounts of raw sugar (not brown sugar, which is just white sugar coloured by molasses) and raw honey. Here is my 4 yr old having just brought to me a packet of Red Tulip solid eggs that he just got out of the fridge. Tempted? No. I made the decision last night that they didn't taste as good as I first thought (yeh, right!) and that even if I saw my husband still eating them of an evening, I choose not to be tempted. I know that I can do it. I have done it before. Also, that little bout of insomnia that I experienced last night that kept me up until 3am this morning because I stuffed copious amounts of chocolate into my mouth 'for the last time', has galvanized me. I think laying in bed last night, I could almost feel the river of chocolate spreading through my body and changing my cellular structure and not for the good!. So support me, encourage me and journey with me PLEASE! I need all of the help I can get for the next 3 to 5 days. That's how long it takes for the addictive pull and yearning of white sugar to abate. Thanks goodness I have a whole lot of sewing to do to keep me busy! x Tanya

KEEPING IT REAL...New look Bubble & Bear!

That saying 'It's not about appearance, it's what's inside'. Unless there is something about something (or someone) that 'grabs' you to make you take a second look, some people will never know what's inside. They will never see it. Now I know this post is just about the outer shell or the introductory 'look' of Bubble & Bear changing, but we can relate this same principle to people.

Facebook is ALL about visual. What our eyes first sees and what piques our interest, guides our keying fingers to click on a certain name, page, photo or link. Now what decides what piques our interest? Obviously this is variable depending on the individual. However, market trends and marketing leaders kind of dictate to us through subtle and sometimes not so subtle ways, what is 'appealing' to the average person. Our teenagers are the guinea pigs in this age of ipads, iphone, I Facebook etc. Their eyes are constantly being bombarded and their minds and motivations shaped by what they see on their screens and monitors. We all need to keep a firm hold on the old adage "what maketh the person", because we are all being slowly influenced and perhaps gently manipulated and lulled into a more 'virtual' and commercial lifestyle. Even us mums who are 'grounded' by the in-the-moment realities of raising children, get caught up in the yummy mummy, stay-at-home-business-woman-persona that is portrayed via facebook, pinterest and blogosphere. Now don't get me wrong, I am all for the way these avenues have enabled us WAHM's to gain confidence and etch out a working niche for ourselves whilst balancing motherhood and housenessdom. There are some amazing women out there who are 'keeping it real' for us and blogging about integrity, being true to ourselves (and others) and being mindfully aware of the pitfalls of the social media marketing slants on reality. Keeping it real. That's whats needed as we traverse the great divide between relating in person with customers whilst switching on our intuitive senses to guide our interactions with others, as opposed to the 'virtual-unverifiable-relating-behind-the-screen-and-across-the-distance-from-my-monitor-to-your-monitor', where for all we know, someone may just be 'keeping up appearances'. We have to be attracted to take a second look. Once we have had more of a look, although we can't see the non-verbal cues in conversing with the face behind the business page, we can glean a sense of the 'quality' of this person and their business by the way in which they interact on their page and the feedback and comments from others. This then gives us the confidence to go further and commit to an interaction with that person or page. Our experience then shapes our decision as to whether or not we can trust in them. Why have I gone in this circular, round about way to announce that Bubble & Bear now have a new look? lol! Basically, because I am genuinely fascinated by the whole social media, networking and interaction that is taking place on the internet via facebook and blogging and my journey in experiencing it, learning from it and growing. I have great plans for Bubble & Bear, so in changing the look of B&B I hope to portray that we (my business and me) are a growing entity that is motivated to serve it's customers with integrity, interest, enjoyment and appreciation. Thanks for being part of it with me. x Tanya

Introducing...'Blog ~ About with B & B' on Friday Nights

Welcome to our first 'BLOG ~ About' on a Friday night. The impetus for this planned weekly event is to link together some of the wonderful people I am meeting through Bubble & Bear's facebook page. To learn a little bit more about you all, what excites you, what you feel passionate about, what YOU are interested in and would like to hear about and just generally blog about this stuff. Why friday night's? Because, I am a self imposed recluse who has no life and am ALWAYS home on friday nights. I am always imagining what exciting things people must be getting up to out there on their friday nights, however, I thought to myself "surely there must be some other people out there with no life"? I want to commune with you if that is you also. If for some miraculous change of circumstances I do venture out on a friday night in the not-to-remotely-likely future, there will be a NEWSFLASH and I will let you know. Now, the game plan for a Friday night 'Blog ~ About' is for any of you to post on Bubble & Bear's facebook page through the week with a topic, thought, area of interest to be blogged about for that Friday. Anything and everything is blog worthy for us Friday night stay-at-homers. I will do a little research about the suggested topic, taking in other peoples' thoughts and comments and then we can all discuss it in the comments section under the blog post. Feel free to post links relevant to the topic in the comments section also. We already have a topic for next friday evening...'Shabby Chic' as (kind of) suggested (with a little help from me) by the lovely Wendy P. As it is a bit too late tonight for a well thought out or researched blog~about post, I will just share a little about what makes me tick, what I like, what I am interested in learning about and anything else that comes to mind really!

So,I like chocolate, I am interested in raw and whole food eating however am not really living by it as I am easily swayed by the festivities and social interaction around rich food at Christmas which takes me through with bad eating habits until Easter. I love kids, I care about my community. I used to like and enjoy doing exercise however since having more children I am struggling to find the balance and self discipline to prioritize exercise. It is something that I keep aspiring to 'start doing' in the very near future :) I started Bubble & Bear after my mother-in-law reignited my creative urge last year after teaching me how to make ragged quilts. I have always been 'crafty' and studied Art in high school, however I never knew how to incorporate 'Art' into everyday life. It hadn't really occurred to me that you could make functional, beautiful and useful products that allowed you to follow a creative process and experience. It always felt self indulgent to immerse myself in Art...until recently! Combining the social media of Facebook with a stay-at-home-mums passion for making has been an extremely rewarding experience. By rewarding I do not mean monetarily, but by how my life feels enriched by the interactions I am having with my customers, followers and fellow business page owners. If I was 'out' at work, I would be experiencing fulfilling interactions with people in person. The next best thing is being able to stay at home and still have this interaction, albeit of a virtual nature and quietly read out in my mind! Except when some of my customers opt to come and pick up their creations or I meet them somewhere close by to drop their orders to them. It has been really lovely to meet them in person and really lifts my day to then say hello again on facebook a few days later. I told you I would ramble! So getting back to the Blog ~ Abouts on Friday nights...I am hoping that there might be a few topic suggestions from people, however here are a few of mine, based on interests and questions I have rattling around in my mind at the moment. In no particular order but numbered because this post needs a bit of direction and I haven't worked out how to make my paragraphs stay set out as paragraphs once I have hit 'publish'. Any pointers on this from someone in the know? 1. How to get my new overlocker to do narrower stitches than what my instruction booklet and machine setting seems to allow (without it being set on rolled hem mode)? 2. What is the favorite look this winter for kids? 3. Who is an up and coming fabric designer to look out for? 4. How do mums with more than 2 children manage to keep their day in balance so that they get enough exercise/sleep, eat well, pay bills, shop, clean, stop said kids from strangling each other and return all emails & phone calls and remember everyone's birthdays? 5. What crafty activities can I do indoors this winter with the kids to stop them getting cabin fever? 6. How do I keep sane whilst raising my teenager? 7. How do I stay 'connected' with hubby when all the other stuff has me feeling depleted most days? I have a lot more I could add but will hold it there. So at this stage, next Friday is looking a bit Shabby. Hope you will come get shabby with us! x Tanya

New Labels for Bubble & Bear

Here are our new labels. Bright, bold and colourful...

What do you think? x Tanya

Sneak Peak of Hot Pink, Aqua, Lime Pinwale Cord Ruffle Pants

I just thought I'd share these gorgeous colours I have used to make these Pinwale Cord Ruffle Pants.

What do people think of the colours? I know they are not traditional colours for winter but they will brighten up a dull day don't you think? x Tanya

When Fabric No Longer Fits!

Whilst on the subject of fabric, today has become a day different to the previous two. Earlier on in the week I was incredibly inspired and lashed out heavily on purchasing some stunning designer fabrics to make into new creations. Today however, I explored unintentionally the darker side of fabrics. WHEN FABRICS NO LONGER FIT. When fabrics have become excessively eased and stretched beyond an inch of their lives in areas of wear on one's person. When fabrics let you down and make you feel down about yourself. Yes. That's right. Today my pants split...

You are probably wondering why this would be blog worthy news and why would anyone want to hear about my split pants experience. You are not alone. I too, am sitting here wondering why I feel compelled to write this. But here I am and there you are too (if you are reading this). If not, at the very least, I am entertaining myself. There was a series of events leading up to the split pant fiasco and several moments of pause for thought afterwards that led me to surmise that this day of mine has been an inadvertent exploration of 'FABRIC THAT NO LONGER FITS'. Perhaps I will take you back to when my day first started...Well, I opened my eyes and had a little rush of excitement thinking of my fabric purchases online the night before. I briefly fantasized about the lovely creations I will make from these to-die-for fabrics and then the furtive sounds of toddlers climbing on the kitchen bench and possibly shoving little fists into the small hole on the lid of my thermomix, shot me out of bed and my fabric filled reverie. My day had started. So, kids fed, dressed and ready for the drive to school, I go to the bathroom to throw on my no-thinking-reliable-black-pants which I delude myself into thinking cover all my dimples and bulges. I can wear any top with these pants, so it is an easy, quick dress combo to go to kindy in, in the mornings. Well, once at kindy, little bear 4 wants me to sit beside him to do a puzzle. Kindy seats are really very small. I know that a size 10 or 12 yummy bottomed mummy will fit rather neatly into one and feel no strain what-so-ever on her seams, but for me, a thicker-set mummy-that-has-had-too-many-yummies, it is a challenge. It is also a rude reminder that you are no longer in your twenties or even in your thirties and that the forties are being not so kind to you. Or as my long time friend once said to me...it makes you experience one of those 'Shallow Hal' type moments. When you think in your mind that you are smaller than you are and then you walk past a shop window and see a fat person reflected back and that fat person is you. Unfortunately however, I am not Gwyneth Paltrow acting in a movie and wearing a fat suit. I take my costume with me wherever I go. I can't take off my fat suit. Well, not quickly anyway. Moving on... I finished the school run and go home where I have a lovely chat with said, long-time friend. We chatter and laugh and commiserate over times gone by when we could eat what we want, not get down on the floor for a week and still display good mobility without creaking joints and slight ripping sounds of seams. We talk about how all the fuss and commotion is over turning the big '40'. Turning 40 is fine...a breeze...a non-event. It's after you turn 41 and creep up to 42. That's when the proverbial really hits the fan and you go 'wow!', I am getting old. I KNOW! I am sorry, this is sounding very depressing, but it helps me explain my story. So, I finish my comforting conversation with my friend and I think we both go away feeling mildy less worried because we are both going through fat-findings-in-your-forties together. I finally sit down to sew whilst bubs is having a nap. Time passes quickly and I cut it fine to wake bubs and get him in the car to do the school run again. Keys in hand, bubs in the other, I suddenly remember that bubs wanted to walk to his brothers class and I promised to put shoes on him for the afternoon school pickup. I find his shoes on the printer and make the snap decision to quickly, 'throw' my leg up onto the office chair, propping bubs on that thigh, whilst I one-handedly apply his shoes. In this one, normally smooth movement, I hear a loud RIPPING noise and then a cool breeze over my inner thigh, where previously it was quite snug and warm. The sound, the feel of the fabric letting go of its weft and weave cotton connection took a few milliseconds to inform my brain. I lower bubs to the floor, his shoes discarded, as I rub my other hand over my thigh. I felt skin where the fabric should have been, has always been. Until now. Until I got so fat that my pants gave up. The fabric had died, perished, given up. It was too big a job to contain this fat thigh that was constantly being rubbed against it's equally oversized fleshy neighbour. Which was still nestled clothed and smug. But not for long. Pants were removed and inspected. UNREPAIRABLE. They did not split at the seam. I couldn't deflect the blame from myself in developing stupendous thighs and think to myself...poor workmanship. I felt deflated. Reality hit. I HAVE GOT TOO FAT FOR MY PANTS. Running late now for school, bubs follows me to the bathroom and watches as I look for second best black-pull-on-pants that I delude myself into thinking hides everything. They have just been washed. I squeeze into them. Another not so subtle hint that when standing in my bathroom I am slowly filling up the void with my ever growing bodily mass. I can't wear just any top with these pants, as the waist band digs in too deep and graces me with a double whammy, cheese-on-the-side, muffin top with split tummy state of being. It's not an attractive look...muffin top (fat pushed up from waistband as well as fat pushed down from bra), then split tummy (where one's waist band squishes fat above burrowed waistband and fat under burrowed waist band). Anyway, dressed, ego feeling very bruised, I get to school and launch my ample body with child into the throngs of yummy mummies, sucking in my tummy, I throw my head high and try to convince everyone that I am one too. Unfortunately, my delusion gets shattered again not long after. One of the mums invite us over for a play after kindy. I thought it was just me and the kids going and I think to myself...'These pants should contain me until I get home and if I am very careful with the way that I move, bending over to children etc, my top should keep my double whammy tummy hidden from view'. Well the invite was for just a 'quick bevvy and the kids have a play'. I quickly discover that most of the mums from my mums group are coming over and they have brought, curries, pizza ingredients for the kids, pj's and jumpers to stay on until evening. I agree to staying for a few hours and settle in my seat with a small glass of wine and start chatting with the girls. I am not myself and feel rather self conscious. I limit partaking in the double brie and biscuits. The other mums are all 7 to 10 years younger than me and very slim and definitely yummy mummies. EeeK! I am surrounded. It's sink or swim. A bag gets passed around the table. In it is some lovely vintage tops, dresses & skirts. One mum friend holds them up against herself. She has a lovely figure. Some items of clothing are offered around. Unfortunately, I am not part of this particular conversation. Another reminder that I have dressed for comfort for way too long now. Two recent pregnancies and a stay-at-home lifestyle, I have accommodated to my lounge too much and allowed myself to spread. Fabric gets too pricey when you get bigger. You need more of it to pattern from and clothe your plentiful self. Driving home I appease myself with reviewing-the-day thoughts of... 'really, the reason why my pants split is that the fabric was a cheap cotton from China, which was just not able to stand the test of time'. I'm feeling okay again. That is, until this evening when I get out of the shower and go to put my undies on. They are new and the usual size I buy. Sliding up to the top of my thighs, they meet resistance. I rationalize to myself that they are new and they just need to be stretched a little. I try some more. NOPE. They come down again and off. Momentarily, I pause for thought. Mental note to self 'must cut back on biscuits'. I go to my drawer and look for my period undies. They fit and they are comfortable. It is a sad day when your period undies become your everyday undies and you can not ignore the fact that FABRIC NO LONGER FITS. x Tanya

Are you a Fabric Ferret or a Fabric Squirrel?

Little Bubble came over for a play whilst her mummy went shopping yesterday morning. After having a bit of a groove in the lounge room and watching Play school, little Bubble & little Bear had a lovely little picnic lunch outside on the grass...

Whilst sitting watching them take items of delight from each others plate and horde them in a little corner on their own plate, I got to thinking about my squirrel~type habits. As you all know by now, I LOVE LOVE LOVE fabric. I love everything about fabric. I love their texture when you get a great Organic Cotton one. There is a life and substance to the material. You can almost feel the growth rings that it was created from. A thick, weighty softness that is a joy to cut, handle and sew with. I love the smell of fabric, the new fabrication smell of un-laundered fabric that says 'I'm New' and inspires you to create something beautiful and 'New'. I love to look at fabric and their designs knowing that there is an endless possibility of new designs coming out at any minute. I like the process of 'testing' the aesthetic appeal of a fabric, seeing which one can get my heart racing and thoughts of inspiration and hope of what I may come up with next. All of this loving makes me spend an inordinate amount of time perusing the net and finding new fabrics that excite. Ultimately, it also leads to a lot (I mean a LOT!) of expenditure on fabrics! I sew and make, however my fabric supply continues to multiply and spill over my shelving. I more often than not, guiltily place more fabric onto my desk top or sewing table top, as I have run out of room on my shelving. It is at this moment when I connect with the squirrel~like behaviour in me. I convince myself that I am more in the business of being a Fabric Ferret who gets new fabrics in, makes with it and sends it off to it's new owner. I mean, don't get me wrong! I do, do this, however not quite at the pace that I should, or think that I should. If I am totally honest, I spend WAY too much time, looking for new fabrics, purchasing them and then waiting for them to arrive in the post. I say to myself "no more buying fabric until you have used some up". I said this to myself last week and guess what I have done for the past 2 days? Yep...bought a LOT of gorgeous fabrics! It's a little like my chocolate addiction...'I will just have this last piece of chocolate (because it's the weekend and I deserve it) and then I won't have anymore.' I should just add a disclaimer from now on...'and then I won't have anymore...until next time'... If you really love something, that next time comes around pretty quick! Another justification that a Fabric Squirrel will come up with is this...'well winter's coming and I will be holed in and I will need these fabrics with all the sewing that I will be doing'. Does that mean that I am a Fabric Squirrel Bear perhaps?? As a self confessed Fabric Squirrel, another good justification I can come up with is this one...'I will just buy this last lot of fabric...I can always do a destash sale on facebook or ebay'. But then I don't. Fabric squirreling behaviour is a bit of a phenomenon and I am sure I am not an alone squirrel in the world. I would love to hear about other squirrel's challenges with their squirreling habits and how they have overcome them or at least harnessed them. But perhaps, what could be really useful here as well, would be to hear from you FABRIC FERRET's!! Are there any FABRIC FERRET's in the house?? It would be great to hear from you and learn a little bit about the behaviour of a Fabric Ferret. These tips would also be hugely useful to help me and other Squirrels, gain some new ways of behaving with fabric. Better yet...are there any REFORMED FABRIC SQUIRRELS that have learn't how to become FABRIC FERRETS??? x Tanya