How to talk to your daughter about her body

The girls, Summer 2013

As you may well know, I am a mother of three. Of whom, two daughters, one will be entering college this autumn, the other, hopefully, the next. As they grow into their bodies, transforming into the women they were born to be, I am often concerned about the model I am to them, what I say, what I do, how I treat food, others and life. 

The post below, sums all that I think I must be doing right, and some I hadn't thought of, in an eloquant way.

Enjoy.

How to talk to your daughter about her body, step one: don’t talk to your daughter about her body, except to teach her how it works.

Don’t say anything if she’s lost weight. Don’t say anything if she’s gained weight.

If you think your daughter’s body looks amazing, don’t say that. Here are some things you can say instead:

“You look so healthy!” is a great one.

Or how about, “you’re looking so strong.”

“I can see how happy you are – you’re glowing.”

Better yet, compliment her on something that has nothing to do with her body.

Don’t comment on other women’s bodies either. Nope. Not a single comment, not a nice one or a mean one.

Teach her about kindness towards others, but also kindness towards yourself.

Don’t you dare talk about how much you hate your body in front of your daughter, or talk about your new diet. In fact, don’t go on a diet in front of your daughter. Buy healthy food. Cook healthy meals. But don’t say “I’m not eating carbs right now.” Your daughter should never think that carbs are evil, because shame over what you eat only leads to shame about yourself.

Encourage your daughter to run because it makes her feel less stressed. Encourage your daughter to climb mountains because there is nowhere better to explore your spirituality than the peak of the universe. Encourage your daughter to surf, or rock climb, or mountain bike because it scares her and that’s a good thing sometimes.

Help your daughter love soccer or rowing or hockey because sports make her a better leader and a more confident woman. Explain that no matter how old you get, you’ll never stop needing good teamwork. Never make her play a sport she isn’t absolutely in love with.

Prove to your daughter that women don’t need men to move their furniture.

Teach your daughter how to cook kale.

Teach your daughter how to bake chocolate cake made with six sticks of butter.

Pass on your own mom’s recipe for Christmas morning coffee cake. Pass on your love of being outside.

Maybe you and your daughter both have thick thighs or wide ribcages. It’s easy to hate these non-size zero body parts. Don’t. Tell your daughter that with her legs she can run a marathon if she wants to, and her ribcage is nothing but a carrying case for strong lungs. She can scream and she can sing and she can lift up the world, if she wants.

Remind your daughter that the best thing she can do with her body is to use it to mobilize her beautiful soul.

This lovely post was originally posted here and I found it through here.

Fashion Destination:South Africa

I was thrilled to discover these beautiful pictures and share them on my Pinterest boards. I can hear them sing Summertime in the happiest tune!
These pictures actually come from a most interesting clothing company I discovered only recently, called, Tea.
Tea offers practical luxury and inspired design for babies, children and mamas, which are built to last in both styling and materials. A great plus for me is that they're made of natural fibers. Natural fibers feel great on the skin and are easy to care for. They are also practical, because they are designed as separates, dresses, leggings, graphic teas, etc. that mix and match and thus can be easily layered to move smoothly from one season to the next.
Tea Collection offers 20% off all shorts! Or you may use their 20% off the Welcome Baby Collection at Tea Collection with code LULLABY20! offer.
To view their stunning summer catalogue, click here.

Enjoy!

Fashion Friday-Fall looks for kids

Boden

Gap

Marie-Chantal

Marie-Chantal

I love kids dressed like kids!

Linking to:

Cubical storage from IKEA

Some years ago, we used to stock at the shop these storage cubes.

They were made of heavy plywood and you could mistake them for solid wood if it weren't for the cross section on the rim.
They were basically meant to be used as shelving in kids' rooms.

They were very practical as one could stash them and move them around or add to them as a child grew.
Though we do not stock them any more, I found a similar product that could be used in a similar context

  

I recently spotted  the PRÄNT storage untits by IKEA. They are originally made to hold magazines and other sofa-side parafernalia, but look at this interpretation I found.
The  PRÄNT range consists of four different box shapes which makes it easy to build up
an irregular storage compound, one of the strong shelving trends right now.

Our range came ready painted, but as is the case with many IKEA products, the  PRÄNT cubes come unfinished, which is a goos thing if you are willing to get a little paint in your nails, as you may customise them to suit your room's palette.

 In these pictures you can see that the inside of the crates is painted in soft pastel shades.

In order to bring stability to the units, you can attach the boxes both
horizontally and vertically with simple stationary black metal clamps.

In the US they retail at $6.99 which makes them worth a try!

{All images via Livet Hemma}

Mosaic Monday-Autumn decoration 2010

Hello dear friends,

Today I am joining Mosaic Monday at Little Red House, the lovely blog I wrote to you about in this post.
My first mosaic is a collage of photos from our new Autumn decoration at the shop, that we completed last week. I hope to post some more pictures this week. Thank you for stoping by today, and thanks to Mary Carroll for hosting.

Have a beautiful week,

An Alice in Wonderland Celebration

{Charmed Memory}

{Stephanie Fizer}




{Alice in Wonderland, 1903, via the beloved India Knight}

Have a fairytale, colourful, magical week ahead.

Playful chair

I don't particularly like it, but my kids think it's fun. Kind of like it...reminds me of the days they jumped in the ball-pool. Oh, where Time goes...From here.

Cowboys and Gardening Girls

I so much love the new (and the old) prints by Their Nibs. I like kids to be kids, and these prints and cuts in their clothing and accessories are ment for children (forget the Beckhams; think Suri). Their prices are reasonable, too.

This overnight bag costs 25 pounds.

Calling all cowboys...

...and mermaids of our lives!

Yellows

Best first impressions. Yellow on the staircase adds class and style. Beautiful backdrom for sketches and guilt frames.
Formal. Nice guilt mirror. Safran velvet on both curtains and sofa.
Essentially cream vanilla with a vigorous touch of yellow on the left, a delicate Baker on the right and a blue sofa adding a touch of seriously adult style. Look at the chandelier bringing blue and yellow together and adding an ethnic tone. Also notice the accent use og red on the chandellier.
orgeous informal living. Again see the use of red and burgundy as an accent color in the throw on the chair to the right, the pillow on the left and the armchair a la Provencale to the left.
Yellow and black. Stripes and pattern. Ironwork.

That's quite a usual combination. However, the light and bright walls encourage the feeling of space. See how the pillow to the left echoes the red on the armchair to the left, and the pillow on the yellow arm char on the right rpeat the grey of the side chair to the right, plus a touch of burgundy from the pillow to the left. Love the flowers, too.
I wouldn't go for shelving over a bed, but I love the buttery yellow and the under bed storage.

My first advertisement!

So, here I am! This is my first personal advertisement ever. I have deleted my details, apart from my Christian name, otherwise this is how it looks like.

And here is an advertisement for our shop's furniture and on top my fabrics. I wanted to show more of Designers Guild fabrics, but I opted for Jane Churchill to start with, since people here are quite conservative in their choices. Italian influences prevail, with lots of golden threads and ecrus, but I will change that.

Dream Room