Being a Grown Up - I Know Stuff...

I read an article a while ago that I really should have kept. I am so slow to throw things out, and then when I do, I remember why I was keeping something the day after I both put it in the recycling bin and the bins are emptied. Grr... But, the article was basically a whole stack of letters celebrities wrote to their 16 year old selves. It was quite interesting. Especially Elton John's. 


I was thinking about this article the other day as I watched a pair of teenage girls interact while I was out for a walk. The pair of them were tottering around in the tiniest of cut off denim shorts, hair that looked as if it had been nested in and wide necked, cropped t-shirts that revealed too much flesh in every direction. 


As they walked along, they were talking about typical teenage things: crap parents, cute guys, skanky girls at school and how dumb family holidays were. They were typical also in the way that they just knew nothing. They were just gongs. Lots of noise and not much else. Now, I say that in the nicest possible way, of course. They may have been very bright and interesting young things. But they were just so young and the way they talked about life was so limited and so... uninformed. Gosh - that was me and my friends as teenagers {sans the sleezy clothes}! 


I was a pretty insecure teenager. I had terrible skin, braces, low self-esteem. I was not working anywhere near my potential. I was always nervous about saying something stupid or that someone would laugh at me. I had an overactive imagination and thought everyone hated me. I was just plain awkward. I often wondered what I could ever contribute to life, I just didn't know anything. 


The other day I popped into the shops and ran into someone I hadn't seen in ages. I heard myself giving all sorts of very good advice about stuff. I then ran into a few other people I knew. Some asked for advice on hair care, others asked if I knew where to buy a certain product. Since then people have been emailing me asking for recipes or meal ideas or telling me that something I had put up on the blog has really helped them. I realised something startling...


I. Am. A. Grown. Up. and  I. Know. Stuff.


I know stuff! I know what to do with white wine vinegar. I know how to clean poo off paintwork. I know how to make a curry without a recipe. I know what kids should have in their lunchboxes. I know which cry means what. I know how to care for chickens. I know how to make a hundred different meals from a few simple ingredients. I know how to iron corduroy. I know what is a bargain and what is a sham. I know a good t-shirt when I see one. I know if someone is lying. I know when someone is being too nice. I know stuff!


I don't FEEL like a grown up, mind you. I still read magazines and wish I had better skin and longer legs. I still get nervous talking to people I don't know. I still wonder if people actually like me. I still really worry about what my sisters think of my decisions. I still don't know if I am responsible enough to have a child, let alone three! But...


I know stuff. I know that I now have the skills to get through each day ensuring I can not only keep my little clutch of offspring 'alive and mostly happy'**, but make their lives a bit better in the process. Which is cool.


If I had to write a letter to my 16 year old self. This is what it would be...


Dear 16 year old B,


You are gorgeous in every way. Own that. 


Marry that cute guy called Mr Cool, he is a keeper. 


Dream big and start working towards those now, don't wait until you are 30 to find out what you want to do with your life.

Don't move out of home until you are married. You will save yourself a whole lotta crapola and money.

Wear better jeans and keep that navy and white striped light weight jumper, you will need it in 2011. 

Travel. Kiss someone you love at the top of the Eiffel Tower and ride bikes in Holland.


Life is cool. Live it. Love it. Share it.


Lots of love,
Your old self from the future. 


If given the chance, I would not go back to being 16 again. Eugh - who would go back to all that angst!? Not me, not for a minute. I love my life. I have the coolest, funniest, cutest husband on the planet. I have beautiful, funky kids who drive me to the brink of madness and back again, daily. My friends are the coolest I have ever had. I have a groovy house with loads more potential to find. I am involved in lots of fun things around the place. And me? Well, I have a happy heart, a good attitude and some funky clothes. Could a girl ask for more?


What was that? A shiny black 4X4 and a Kindle? I got those too.

What advice would you give to your 16 year old self?

**'Alive and Mostly Happy' is the informal name two of my lovely friends came up with for their babysitting co-op. I think that is hilarious....

Why oh Why am I doing this?

I literally typed the following into 'Google':  'Why do people blog'?  As you would expect, a H.U.G.E list of articles came up. I have since come across articles giving some fabulous advice, funny things to do, quirky things to do, inspirational things to do and absolutely outrageous things to do, it was quite educational.


For those of you who know me and/or have followed my diatribes on Facebook over the past few weeks, you will know that I have been trying to rejuvinate my blog. What a comical disaster of errors this has been. I have searched high and low for a new funky background, I have 'Skitched' and spliced, Picasa'd and Googled, I have deleted and added, changed fonts, swished colours, chosen and un-chosen templates, and even updated my blog roll. I now have a new look and a new focus and I have been all gung-ho to .....


Oh pfft... What the heck am I doing here?  Why on earth would anyone care about what I have to say? Who is reading this anyway?


I know that this sounds a bit weird and a bit self-loathing, but I have had to basically decide whether this blog thing is for me. I mean I could leave my little ripple in the blogosphere and take up cross stitching cat decals on socks and be done with it. Then a Crafty friend reminded me of why I started this blog. I love to write.  No, no, I know YOU love to write too.... But I L.O.V.E. to write.


At night when I wake up, I am in the middle of thinking through story plots, or I am thinking how I can improve a recipe format, or I am remembering something that made me really mad and a letter I could therefore justifiably write (I have a very interesting 'Draft' section in my email account), I am coming up with anonymous letters to people in my street to get their cats desexed, their lawns mown or letting them know that if I stand on the very tippy corner of my bath and lean 32 degrees, I can see into their shower. I love to write. About anything.


So... writing is my first passion when it comes to my blog. But my other passions fit into my blog too - which is handy. I am passionate about 'cool' - ridiculous, right? Not cool for the sake of being cool, but cool as in maintaining a good attitude, keeping good peeps around me, experiencing new things and constantly learning learning learning. I am anti-settling. I am not ready to settle into my hair-cut, shoe style, jeans cut or my 'look'. I am not ready to say I am too old for things (I will not be listening to Beiber and wearing jeggings by the way, don't worry). I am passionate about continuing to discover myself and life even though I have kids and a mortgage (or two).


Therefore, (I wanted to start this paragraph with, 'So', but the previous one was....) within the html of this blog you will find things on fashion, shopping, my somewhat quirky homelife (just wait until you meet 'Fern'), my feeble attempts at crafty things and sewing, and I am going to add cool things about my kids. I was not going to blog about my kids because EVERYONE blogs about their kids, but, you know what? My kids are really cool, and we do really cool things together. Therefore, they get space on my blog.


But you will hopefully find my first love, writing. I give myself little topics to research and write about and things to think about all the time, which send imaginative sparks shooting through my brain.  Topics coming up in my Drafts are the history of Birkenstocks, lists of what you need to get your cool back if you have lost it, rules for shopping, the difference between 'Style' and 'Cool' and the list goes on and on and on and on....


Cool....