Friday, November 11, 2011

A Manifesto for Mums - Review & Giveaway

This post is sponsored by The Smile Collective... but the sappy sentimental stuff is all mine

The interwebz has been getting me down a bit lately.

It seems that lots of people, lots of Bloggers, seem to be going through a bit of a funk and since I'm one of those people who feed off the emotions of those around me, I can feel myself being sucked down. If you're crying, I'll weep. If you're hurting, I ache. If you spew, so do I, but that's taking the example a little too far.

At the peak of my doldrums, Kelly Exeter from The Smile Collective contacted me to see how I'd feel about reviewing (and giving away, yay!) the inspirational prints for Mums and kids she wrote and designed and it was like a little beacon of light had shone in to my world. Sounds totally corny, right? Well kinda, but if you think of it like pop-corny it's less like a boring vegetable and way more fun.

I've been staring at the Manifesto for Mums since it arrived... it's propped up against my bookcase because I still haven't gotten to the shops to get a gorgeous frame for it. But you know what? That's OK. Because I'm an awesome mother. I'm not trying to show off, or say that I'm better than you, but I am serious. Tricky is kept (mostly) clean, fed, entertained, guided and loved. I'm not a perfect mother, but I'm a bloody good at it, a fact that the Manifesto helped me to remember when my mood, much like my still breastfeeding mammaries, was less than perky. I wish I'd had this on those long nights of feeding through gritted teeth, so I could look up and see "trust your instincts" *coughgreatbabyshowerpresentcough*.

The Manifesto for Kids is everything I want for Tricky. I want him to explore the world and marvel at it's intricacies; to make a mess and be so completely covered in mud that I have to strip his clothes off at the back door before a warm bath; to run and play and climb and scrape his knee but be having such a brilliant time that he doesn't even notice. I know with a crazy mama the odds are stacked against him a little bit... but he will know he is loved and he will know that it is more than OK to just be a kid. And with this hanging in his room (yes, once I get off my backside and get a frame), he will be reminded every morning when he wakes *coughgreatchrissypresentcough*.

If you need a reminder that you or someone you know is an amazing mum and that kids just need to be kids then tell me below one of your favourite childhood memories. Three winners will be chosen and each will receive an A3 poster print of both the Manifesto for Mums and the Manifesto for Kids valued at $60.

Find The Smile Collective on Facebook and chat Kelly on Twitter @kellyexeter... in fact, you already might have!

Entry is open to Australian residents only. Entries close at 10pm AEDST on Monday 20th November 2011 at which time three winners will be chosen using a random number generator. Make sure you sign in to the comment platform with a valid email address/twitter handle or leave your details as part of your comment so you can be contacted. Winners have one week to reply to notification, failing that, the prize will be redrawn. The prize is provided by The Smile Collective and is not transferable.

32 comments:

  1. One of my favourite childhood memories is my mum arriving at school to pick me up when I was 5 with my fave doll at the time, all dressed up in an outfit my mum had made for her that day. It was a love present. A just because present. It was perfect.

    Thank you - for doing this. I haven't thought about that memory in the longest time. I am going to have to call my mum today, and talk to her about it... Its nice to have GOOD memories invoked. :)

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  2. Hmmm a favourite childhood memory would have to be water fights with my mum. We'd splash her & she'd splash back (in the house mind you!) but without fail one of the four kids would always end up carried fully clothed into a cold shower!! I've done it once with my two... I think we need to do it again now the weather's warming up :)

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  3. I loved zooming around on my skates for hours.

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  4. My favourite childhood memories include scones with jam and cream with my Mum at the Myer coffee shop every Friday while the big kids were in school and being Dad's co-pilot on local flights! (My Dad the pilot was so cool!!)

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  5. My favourite is baking cupcakes with mum in the kitchen

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  6. My favourite childhood memory?
    Gosh, I had a rough childhood, but my fabourite memory would have to be the weekends spent at the local racetrack. We made friends with the other "track kids" and one of the kids and I after many weekends spent exploring the place, we had the *brilliant* idea of using a large piece of foam and sticks to paddle through a swamp to get to the other side. A swamp that had sea snakes, and eels and gosh knows what else in there.
    Well lets just say that sticks aren't great paddles, and foam isn't boyant enough to hold two 8 year old kids. Did I mention I can't swim? Lol.

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  7. I have to admit that I'm not sure if my favourite memory is a real memory, or if I've just heard the story so many times that I've convinced myself I remember the moment. Either way, it was a game of I Spy. My parents and I were playing it in our lounge room (which was in view of the kitchen) while my then baby brother was playing on the floor. I spied (with my little eye) something beginning with B. My parents listed everything they could see that began with B. They listed things they couldn't see that began with B. They said every word they could think of that began with B. They gave up. I didn't let them. They said nonsense words that began with B.

    After hours of this (according to my mum - knowing our low patience levels, I doubt it was more than 15 minutes), I got ready for the grand unveiling. I spy (with my little eye)... basketti bolognese!

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  8. Mine would have to be staying at my Nanna's house and her spoiling my brother and I with Coke in coloured metal cups, and sharing her stash of bingo biscuits (you know the Arnotts two packs? Those were the best).
    She would also give us $3 each in five cent pieces, a perfect roll tied up in a freezer bag. I loved my Nanna, she was the best.

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  9. I remember having a childhood filled with love from my Mum.. I can hardly recall her getting cranky at us.. and certainly never hitting us. We must have done something naughty one day though, cause she threatened to hit us with 'the thong' (one of those gimmicky fly swats with a thong on the end). It ended up being a crazy, laughter filled chase around the house as she tried to 'swat' us :)

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  10. Love these manifestos! Have seen them around and have always wanted one but could never really warrant buying one.

    One of my favourite childhood memories is actually a story that gets told over and over in our family - my Mum wasn't home for some reason so Dad had to get me ready for preschool. So he came in to my room, opened my wardrobe and just said "oh I dunno, just wear this dress!" So I did. He didn't realise he had to pick out my underwear too! I can actually remember being at preschool and making sure I didn't flash anyone before they realised and called Dad to bring some undies :)I also love remembering the days we spent in our big yard during the summer holidays - just running under the sprinkler, jumping on the trampoline or making up dances. Fun times.

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  11. I remember riding my green bike around the block endlessly after school. There was a little hill down past our place and I would stick my arms and legs in the air and squeal like a girl. Should I admit that I used to pat my bike because it was a "brumby" brand and I thought of it like a horse?
    Whoops, too late ;)

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  12. One of my best childhood memories (of the kids being kids kind) is of sitting on the corrogated iron roof of the old house we lived in and sending spoons down in the corrogations.  My spoons in one corrgation racing someone else a few corrogations over.  I think maybe I was about 6.

    i have no idea how I got up there or how I got down or if we got into trouble all I reemmber is that it was fun.

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  13. A favourite childhood memory...all the memories of hugging my mum. Wish I could do that right now. So instead I just close my eyes and remember. Can't beat a mother's hugs <3

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  14. I had just been eyeing these off in the I Love Pretty Things Christmas Gift guide. They are beautiful.

    One of my favourite childhood memories is icing patty cakes with my mum - I used to put the hundreds and thousands on. I loved helping mum in the kitchen.

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  15. So many good memories, how do I pick just one?

    I used to love coming home from school when it was raining, because rainy days were always pikelet days. We would come home to make pikelets and they were so good! Mum always picked us up in the car too (usually we walked). She was a good Mum. My friends always came over on rainy days too- to eat pikelets, and then we would play crazy games of sardines and hide and seek in our big old queenslander. Good times.

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  16. I love these and have just ordered the children's one for my son :-)

    My fave childhood memory was staying with my grandparents. My Papa would feed us Baileys & wafer biscuits before my Mama would wake up! Then she'd yell at him and we'd all giggle - probably because we were tipsy from the Baileys!

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  17. I can remember the whole scenario like it was yesterday and it still cracks me up when I think about it.  I was in year 4 and i had "sprained" my right ankle.  My Mum got called away from work at lunch time to come and pick me up because i was so upset about it.  She collected me from school, took me home and set me up in my room with ice on my ankle and a nice drink - she was being the perfect Mum.  I decided i needed to go to the loo so I started hopping down the hallway and from behind me my Mum said "Hey, I thought it was the other foot?!!!" She'd completely caught me out! She didn't even tell me off for lying, we just spent a great afternoon together!!

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  18. One of my favourite childhood memories is helping my Nanna & Grandad in thier allotment. Picking strawberries and eating most of them and sitting on my grandads special seat outside the shed and drinking hot chocolate from a flask.

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  19. My memories are of leaving the house in the morning and then not coming back until the sun starts to set. Of roaming around, playing with the neighbours kids, riding bikes through the bushland behind our house. Freedom...and I must admit, I'm too scared to allow my kids the same.

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  20. I remember playing with the sprinkler in the backyard with all of the local neighbourhood kids. Afterwards when we were soaking wet, we would all sprawl out across the trampoline and mum would bring us a big plate of watermelon. We would try and spit the seeds at one another! The BEST fun and a fantastic childhood memory of kids being kids =) 

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  21. I remember going grass skiing with my family and laughing so hard we all feel down in a heap

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  22. My favourite childhood memory is baking with my mother when I was three. We made Christmas sweets for all the childcare workers at the centre I attended, it was lovely :)

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  23. My favourite memory is an awesome holiday we took where we drove (??) a Clydesdale horse with an old style caravan wagon attached around the SW of WA. That was before the days of public liability insurance!! A company running tours like that could never get a license these days - sad.

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  24. Going fishing with my dad he would wake me at 2or 3 in the morning and just him and i would go to our favorite spot just us sometimes a mate would come, i remember one time 3 of us were fishing and i caught more fish than them by myself dads mate was so jealous it was great cause i was only 6 or 7 at the time , my dad has since passed away im glad i have good memories like this but i still miss him.

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  25. Walking with my grandma on my birthday, I was about 5 I think. I was guessing what was in the giant box she brought me. I don't have many memories of my childhood, so that walk must have been very special to me.

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  26. I loved Christmas time. My dad worked in Sydney and each year my mum would take me into town, we would meet dad for lunch then walk around looking at the Christmas displays in the shop windows. This was our special time each year and I now plan on doing the same with my daughter.

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  27. My favourite childhood memory is walking in a pine wood with my Mum picking mushroom and berries!

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  28. Christmas, it really is a treasured memory for me and it is why I love Christmas so much. I remember the smell of pine needles, the smell of of the wrapping paper (did you know it has its own smell, no I am not nuts!), making small holes in the corner of the paper that I was convinced nobody knew were there, making decorations for the tree and decorating the tree, waking up to Santa being and finding our stocking filled (even though we had little money and I mean little), finding reindeer prints in the dirt outside the back door, popping crackers hoping for the best toy in the pack! lol, seeing my grandparents and playing with my cousins (who we didn't see often as we lived in a country town), the heat, the cricket on TV (boring) and Dad sleeping in front of the TV (but if you changed the channel he knew!), playing under sprinklers and everyone was home and we were all together even though it was likely someone was going to kill someone by the end of the holidays. All this in just a few weeks, I loved it every year and I hope I can make it as memorable for my girls.

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  29. One of my favourite memories is of going camping. I was the youngest of four children, mum and dad used to take us away to different places around Australia. Sometimes we had close family friends come along too. My sisters and brother have stronger memories of what we got up to, but I recall exploring a cave on the beach with my brother when I was around 4.. I remember that because the jelly fish I poked stung me back!  We stopped going as frequently after my father passed away, but even now 25 years later, we try to still go at least once a year as a big group.. and my son loves camping in the backyard every other week!!

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