Seven Quick Takes - The Maternity Clothing Rant

I promise I will come up with something more substantial to write about soon-ish.  In the meantime, here is what is on my mind today:

1.

I am really not that big yet.  However, most of my normal clothes do not fit me anymore.  I am in that not-fun time during which I am too small for maternity clothes, and yet I am too big for my normal clothes.  I am taking picking up a few things that will also fit me right after the baby comes, but I am having a hard time because I don't want to buy work clothes since I will fit back into my regular clothes by the time I have to dress up every day.  This means that my work wardrobe is shrinking daily.  I will be out of clothes that fit soon. 

2.

Why are 80% of maternity clothes black no matter what season it is?  While I don't mind as much now that I will be big in the winter, it drove me crazy when I was pregnant in the summer and dressed like a crow every day.  It is boring and gloomy.  And I can't find a non-black pencil skirt.  I already have a black pencil skirt.  I loved it last time, I just don't want to wear black every day. 

3.

I will say, that having lots of black winter-looking clothes will help me not have to buy quite as much this go-around.

4.

How on earth can they justify charging so much money for these clothes, cute and non-cute alike?  I can't bring myself to spend $50 on a T-shirt or $250 on a work dress when I am skinny.  There is NO WAY I will spend that much for something I won't wear for more than five months. 

5. 

The above complaint reminds me why I hate all of my maternity clothes.  Since I won't pay for what I really like, I am left to work with whatever I can find on (real) clearance at less expensive stores. And whatever my mom buys me.  I just spent my morning internet shopping.  Most of what passes as clearance for maternity clothes approaches what I will pay for my normal clothes.

6. 

Those of us who are prengant and do not have skinny legs and small breasts, are mostly doomed to looking huge.  (Unless you are willing to pay ungodly amounts of money for your clothes.)  I am curvy and I have big muscles.  The small part of me is in the middle, the part that most maternity clothes balloon around.  Unless the tops and dresses are fitted around my belly, I end up looking fat rather than pregnant.  I remember this from last time.  I won't show pictures.  If I had skinny legs and didn't need to wear a bra, it would be easier to find maternity clothes that make me feel pretty.  Because there are a lot of pretty maternity clothes and some of them are affordable.  They just don't flatter me. 

7. 

I understand that pregnant women who work seem to be in the minority.  It is clear from the volume of cute casual clothes (things that go with jeans and corduroy) and the fact that it is very difficult to find professional pants and skirts that are not black polyester.  Is everyone really okay with spending months only wearing black polyester to work? 


For some non-clothing related quick takes, visit Jen's blog. 

Seven Quick Takes: Update Edition

1. 

A few months ago I mentioned that I was looking for a natural way to color my ever-increasing volume of gray hair.  After posting, I brewed extra-strong sage tea and did my best to spray it on my gray hair.  And it started to work! As long as I remembered to do it every day.  Unfortunately, I do not remember to do much of anything every day.  Most days I successfully use deodorant and brush my teeth, but otherwise not so much.  Needless to say, sage tea is not a viable remedy for my gray hair. 

2.

As a result, I have turned back to henna, but I found a new brand!  This one seems to be much less processed than the brand I formerly used and consists exclusively of powdered henna and indigo leaves.  I used it last weekend, and am much happier about the way the color turned out than with other brands of henna.  It is much more natural looking and makes my hair a lot less brassy looking in the sun (so far). 

I didn't leave it on quite long enough, so I expect that the color will fade in the 4-6 weeks promised by the company.  Since I dont' like to put extensive effort into maintaining my appearance, I usually expect things to last longer than that.  Since I will need to leave it in longer next time and I don't think that it will turn my hair ugly colors, I might use a lighter shade when I buy my next box.  If I had a picture, i would post it.  

3.  

 The potty training battle was nearly over!  After sweet, stubborn, smart little Bee started CHANGING HER OWN DIAPER in the middle of the night, I took a few days off work, brought her to my mom's house, and started boot camp.  That didn't work great, but somehow a week later, she started cooperating.  She now almost always uses the toilet (the big toilet, not the baby toilet) unless she is playing in the yard and too busy to tell us she needs to go.  Since the weather has changed for the worse, we might be done with potty training very soon. 

4. 

However, in the last week Bee has gotten lazy and now she often wets her pants a little before she gets around to making her way to the toilet.  Izzy is not happy with the set back. 

5. 

I finally got Bee to happily wear her brown dress.  Here she is right before her second birthday party looking very pretty in her dress and "hat." 

6. 

Yesterday I pulled out most of the plants that were in my summer garden.  Last year I waited until they were beyond dead and it was probably February before I got around to cleaning everything out.  I am trying to be better this year.  I also have a few fall vegetables growing.  If the weather stays the way it is and doesn't freeze before Thanksgiving, I should have broccoli, beets, lettuce, arugula, and the ever-present chard. 

7. 

Meanwhile, I have to figure out what to do with the remains of my summer crops.  I spent several evenings this week canning pears I bought last weekend, but I feel obligated to find something to do with all the produce Izzy stripped of the plants before I tore them out.  They consist of lemon cucumbers, unripe bell peppers, a million habaneros, quite a few tomatoes, but not quite enough to make it worth canning them.  I am taking suggestions.


For more quick takes, visit Jen's blog.  

It Happens So Soon

My mom bought my daughter a beautiful dress.  It is a brown halter dress with pink flowers embroidered on the bodice and waist.

Last Sunday I wanted to dress her in it, but when I pulled it out of the closet in the morning, she said "no" and pointed at a different dress.  I put her in the dress she chose.  Later that afternoon, when she had dirtied the dress she picked out, I took the brown dress and put it on her.  She protested but I prevailed and got it on her. 

All day she had been telling me how pretty my dress was.  After I got the brown dress on her, she told me again that my dress was pretty.  We had quite the conversation about how her dress was pretty too, and eventually she reluctantly agreed.

That evening, when we took the dress off, she looked at the dress, pointed, and said "no".  I got the picture that she doesn't like the dress.  She looks beautiful in it, but she doesn't think it is pretty.  She has started favoring certain colors, and brown isn't one of them.  Have I mentioned she isn't even two yet? 

I told my mom about the incident and she said that Bee did the same thing in the store when she bought the dress.  My mom knew Bee didn't like the dress, but she bought it anyway because it was so pretty.  I knew Bee didn't like the dress, but I made her wear it because I knew she would be beautiful in it. 

I didn't think it was a big deal to put her in the dress.  However, today I remembered how much I hated it when my mom made me wear dresses I didn't like.  I was a lot older than Bee is now, but as I thought about it, I decided that it is important to respect her opinions and allow her some autonomy, particularly when it concerns something so unimportant as what she wears.  She is her own little person with her own opinions and it is in her best interest if I respect them, especially when it concerns something insignificant like what color clothes she wears. 

I was always prepared that some day she would start having opinions about her clothes, but I thought it would be a little longer before this happened.  I am even more confused because she doesn't protest against the crazy mismatched outfits her daddy puts her in on the regular. 

I love that dress and I will probably continue to try to convince her that it is pretty and she ought to wear it, but I probably won't make her wear it against her will.  Maybe she will change her mind. 

If I can get a picture of Bee in the dress, I'll post it just to show how pretty she is in it.

Goodbye Gray?!

I have gray hair.

Most of it appeared sometime between my engagement and when I went back to work after having a baby.  The bulk of the gray hair is located in my bangs in a significant streak.  This past year I realized I was starting to look like the principal of my junior high, who we all said resembled a skunk.  After this realization, I started trying to hide the gray.

My hair responds badly to dye; it dries out and sometimes falls out.  Since I prefer to avoid using harmful chemicals on my body, I have used henna to color my hair, but it has not proven effective for covering the gray for any significant amount of time.  I finally broke down and used regular hair dye, trying as much as possible to only use it on my super-human gray hairs, but it got on the brown hair as well.  I wash my hair with baking soda, which is abrasive and is not kind to dyed hair, so now I have brassy post-dyed brown hair in addition to the gray that shows once the dye wears off.  I'm not happy.

So now I am trying something new.  According to several sources on the internet, you can remove gray hair using sage.  So tonight I picked a ton of sage, boiled water and let it steep until it appeared to be a pretty strong tea.  I will be applying this to my hair in hopes that the gray will turn brown in a few weeks.  We'll see how it works.  

Here is a list of several natural options for coloring hair.  Someday I might try some of the others if I should ever get my hands on the ingredients.