It's The Time to Disco!

This craft loving mumma gets super excited whenever there’s a chance to get creative Our little monkeys have their school disco this evening and the theme is super fun - NEON! 

But let me begin by being very honest here. Only yesterday after school, I was made aware of the event by my Little Miss who had a very frantic expression on her face that I’d not known earlier, but heaps of excitement in her voice as she declared I could still buy tickets on the morning of the disco, phew!
Now, what would they wear to the disco? They didn’t have anything in bright, neon colours. And the only thing that kept flashing (pun? ) in my head was high-vis clothing  Obviously, there wouldn’t be any that’s kids’ size easily available at the shops. Nevertheless, I was confident that a trip to Kmart would certainly be fruitful. And it was! 

In the beginning, I scoured the party section in the hope that I’d find some bright, funky accessories that would be an easy, quick fix. I picked up a pack of glow-in-the-dark bracelets. The kiddos seemed happy enough with wearing half a dozen of them each. I, however, wasn’t content. You see, I’m a crafty mumma and I have an obsessive need to do more! I wandered around looking for something more when I found a pack of neon shoelaces. The bright neon pink, green and orange colours were just screaming for me to pick them up! Then somewhere through the maze of aisles, little miss found a hot pink vest that she was certain met the criteria for her school disco this year. That it was workout gear didn’t seem to bother her! I wasn’t too keen on spending $8 on 
A. a workout vest that was probably way too big for her anyway and 
B. something that I couldn’t squeeze into either (and I won’t say much about my workout scene right now, ermm) 

So after convincing her that her crafty mumma would magic something really cool, I walked on, musing over my options until I hit the art/craft/scrapbooking section...paints! Of course!! My mind was instantly picturing something cool, as promised  
I knew I had plain white tees that I had got for them when they had a colour-run event at school, washed but with some faint traces of colour still on them, their verdicts declared to be home wearing clothes. So, I didn’t need to spend more loose change, awesome! I grabbed a pack of ‘Neon Pump Paints’ and after a $100-ish at the checkout, walked out very excited about my craft project! What? Oh, yes...the shopping for the disco was only $12.50, (for both, with supplies still left over for another project, and little miss needed new shoelaces anyway, so...score!) but hey!, it’s Kmart! You don’t just walk out with ‘only what you need’! 

Anyway, at home after the school run this morning, I set out to work. Located the said white tees, phew! Lined the insides with some paper towels and went to town with the pump paints! So easy, so fun, so quick! Trust me, anyone can do this! Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy!! The paints were already in pump/spray containers which was super convenient! They’re water based and do come off easily with a wet kitchen towel, but best to protect your work surface with a splat mat or some newspaper. 

While I let them dry, I made a quick, fun accessory for little miss to wear - a braided necklace with the neon shoelaces. Super easy, but would make a funky statement! 

With the leftover shoelaces, I added some more oomph to little man’s already cool light-up shoes, yo! They're being charged, as I type 😄

And with a couple of those glow bracelets, my kids will be neon disco ready this evening! I’m sure their smiles will be brighter than the neon colours themselves!! Right, so this crafty mumma signs off here! 

Until my next creative/crafty venture...stay happy and keep crafting! I’ll be sure to insert some pictures of them all dressed up later this evening!

List of supplies I used: (I live in Australia and Kmart is a popular store here. But I’m sure these products would be easily available anywhere/everywhere.)
Glow bracelets ($2 pack of 20 from Kmart)
Fashion Shoelaces ($5.50 pack of 3 pairs from Kmart)
7 Pump Paints ($5 pack of 7 from Kmart)

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A Human. A Mum.

In the last two years and eight months, I've been puked on, sneezed at, had my hair smeared with gooey baby food, even had the occasional poop explosion all over my clothes! Find it disgusting, do ya? Well, me too. After all, I'm human. BUT I'm also a mum. Quite a conflicting combination that. As any other person, I have all these naturally strong feelings about not wanting to have another (little) person's snot all over me, or wanting to be able to wee in peace, and you know, just being me. As a mum though, I need to be okay with anything, everything. Okay, wait, I think I'm turning this into a sorrowful rant and I don't want it to sound like that. So I'm quickly going to tell you that that's just one side of the story. The slightly challenging, testing my nerves, make-me-want-to-scream-like-mad side. There's also another side to it. The beautiful, dreamy side where I've been hugged by tiny warm hands, smiled at like a gazillion times, been kissed by Nutella-smeared lips and been showered with the happiest giggles. The joys and woes of being a mother! The happy things far outweigh all the small inconveniences. Yes, there are times when I secretly wish someone would take them for a day, a few hours, a few minutes so I could actually finish my cup of coffee while it's still hot. But that isn't a real wish, no. It's just some weird chemical reaction in my mad-mommy brain sometimes.

I know I want their playful presence, their squeals of delight, the constant babbling and chattering, the prancing about, all the crawling and tugging and exploring. I want my little man to pull my hair with his chubby little (very strong) fist, I want him to use my nose as his teething toy, I want him to demonstrate his limited skills (waving and clapping) over and over again and I want to laugh and say 'Good boy!' every single time. I want my little missy to force feed me pretend toast by the dozen and make me drink 12 cups of pretend tea from her pretty pink teacup, I want her to make me read her favourite book for the twenty-second time in a day, I want her to point her little finger at the pantry and ask for jelly beans and I want her to drag me to her room to play dress-ups when I'm in the middle of cooking. I want it all. I want all of it, I want every bit of being a mum :-)

The difficult bits, the happy bits, the challenging bits, the fun bits; the love, the laughter, the tears, the frustration; the quiet times, the noisy times, the hunger tantrums, the nap times - I love them all. Because I'm a human. Because I'm a mum!