Archive for Mad Cow Thinks …
Some Verily Nice Photos
Posted by: | CommentsAbout a week or so ago, some very nice things happened.
(Almost as nice as winning some Vodka-O)
I received a gorgeous pack from Verily containing some nice tops, pants and a lovely frock, and a few days later, I was treated to a small photo session with Sarah-Louise Photography, who did some bio and author photos for me.
I wouldn’t normally do two reviews, and give you my thoughts on two products in one. But I am this time. So, ner.
Where to start … Sarah-Louise is so much fun!
Being such a shy petal, it takes a fair bit to get me to play up to the camera. A glass of wine at 10.30am will do it.
It wasn’t hard at all to not feel like a knob whilst having the pics taken. She’s quite relaxed and quite obviously knows her stuff; did a bit of directing, because I clearly needed all the encouragement I could get and took some amazing photos. She does all manner of photography, mostly architectural, but her passion is “creatures”.
Hrmmm, wonder if that is why she did such a great job on me …
I’m just super impressed that the photos came back to me so quickly and I actually liked them. I’m an avide Hater Of Photos Of Myself. Not these ones. Loved ‘em.
(You can check them out in the Family Album tab up top, or here)
How does this tie in with Verily, you may very well ask?
Well, you may have noticed the gorgeous, very (or verily) nice top – a Ring Wrap Tunic top I am wearing in the pics. Like this one:
It is a very comfortable and easy to put on wrap tunic – yeah, you know you’ve done it, got yourself all tangled up in a wrap top! Not this one.
It’s very elegant, wears really well over jeans or nice pants (or jarmies. Just sayin’) and is a really lovely fit. Something, being somewhat booby in the booby area, I have trouble with all the time. Was reallylovely to put this one on and breath a sigh of relief and not spend the entire photo session (and subsequent wears) pulling at it and faffing about with where it sat.
I’m also, in a few shots, wearing a really nice dress! Am not a dress/frock person, per se, although I have been known to don one on occassion. Like my wedding.
Fell in LOVE with this one. Again, because it actually sits nicely over my boobs!
I know it may not sound like a big deal, but when you spend your life avoiding nice frocks – or any sort of frock for that matter – having one that sits nicely, fits nicely and looks good is a HUGE deal!
The subtle shaping of the “V” at the neck, I think, helps it to fit better, but also gives it a really classy look.
Let’s face it, I need all the help I can get when it comes to looking classy!
Verily also do quite a few more tops and dresses, all of which I am convinced work well for those of us with Mummy Tummies, boobs, rounded buttocks and the like. My body is not what it used to be in my lycra wearing days, I am so impressed with these outfits.
I’m sure they’re also really suitable for you lot with no boobs, bellies or bums. Whatever!
Anyhoo – two awesome chicks in one Mad Cow Thinks …
Sarah-Louise (who also does buisness bio shots 
. family portraits, new born and maternity, creatures and buildings) and Verily, who cover all your semi-casual and going-outy outfits from top to bottom.
Go visit them both. And buy stuff from them.
Bed protected!
Posted by: | CommentsThis is not a paid or sponsored review / post, although I was sent the product in question at no cost to me, in order review it.
We – by which I mean the Grumpy One, yelling at me at random intervals to come and assist him whilst I was in the middle of something terribly important – completely stripped the bed the other day, vacuumed the mattress (he does like to vacuum things) and flipped it, hung various bits out on the line to air and remade the whole thing.
Starting with a Quilted Mattress Pad from Protect-A-Bed.
Now, they do claim to aid you in having a better night’s sleep. They have, unfortunately, not yet mastered the art of ensuring the toddler sleeps through, and the seven year old doesn’t wake up at some stupid pre-7am hour all chirpy and wanting a cuddle / to put his cold feet all over you. They also haven’t worked out how to prevent the loud snoring from next to you.
Hmmm, unless the suggestion regarding a pillow over the face to stop snoring permanently is just hard to find on their site ….
They do say that it will helpw ith a health, anti-allergy sleep, however, with all kinds of things like “dust mite barrier and allergy protection”, “cool and comfortable to sleep on” and those sorts of things.
It is also machine washable and tumble dry-able, easy to put on and off (gotta love a fitted sheet!). And it is comfortable.
And protect the bed? YES! It does. Well the mattress anyway, as we found out only a few nights ago, after a Toddler Vomit Episode. He started in the hallway, down the stairs, then had a go at his own cot sheets, promptly feel asleep on our bed whilst I tended to his, then vomited all over our bed – artfully missing the spare sheet and towel I had spread over what I thought was “all over our bed” but wasn’t.
Quickly removed said spewed on sheet, replaced towel, blinked and he’d up-chucked again on the … you guessed it!; Quilted mattress protector!
So I let him keep going on that till he’d had quite enough.
Mattress protected! Hurrah!
Washed, dried, replaced.
I have also discovered it is really good for protecting the mattress when:
- toddler feels a naked, post-bath dance on our bed is all the go
- when the school kids “put their bags away” by throwing it at the nearest thing (their bed or ours) where it lands upside down and the lid of their water bottle is not screwed on right
- when you’re sitting up in bed, writing product reviews on your laptop, with a glass of wine in one hand, and school-aged kids decide they need a cuddle, and are completely incapable of climbing into bed with you without bouncing and spilling your wine!
I also have one of these to give away!
Tell me, what does your bed need protecting from and you shall be in the running to get some protection! For your bed, anyway
Bragging about my Baggy Bitz
Posted by: | CommentsEvery now and again I experience a product I must share with you (and sometimes people send them to me for review – must do more of those on here )
This is one such product AND service I must share with you as it is totally brilliant and deserving of some sort of Mad Cow recognition and braggage.
It is one Baggy Bitz, from where I am the extremely excited owner of not one, but three bags made by the fabulously talented Penny!
To say that “Penny ROCKS” is but an understatement. Not only has she done all three bags – a handbag, a tote bag and a messenger bag – in cowish print, but she has completely understood my desire, nay need for pockets and compartments and she complied in a way I have not yet seen in a bag. Some may suggest my need for such organisation is compulsive and pathological, but I don’t give a fuck, because it means I can organise stuff And that makes me very happy.
Also, this is so cool, heavy duty material (don’t ask me what, if I knew that, I’d make my own damn bags. As it is, I have no clue, thus I outsource!) has been used, meaning they can endure activities that also include the use of children. Or presence of children. Whatever.
The tote bag I even used once most successfully as a nappy/baby bag. Only once, not because it was no good as a nappy bag, quite the opposite in fact, it was brilliant, however, I just felt most dirty and disrespectful that the bag was used for such a job.
I righted that when I took it with me to Shanghai and it flew business class with me. Much more appropriate for a bag of such high esteem. And it allowed me to keep all my bazillions of bits that I took with me all organised and within reach and not getting lost. Was large enough, too, to contain all the bits I did pack for on-flight, given my propensity to overpack to a somewhat pathological degree.
This particular bag was designed to my anal specifications and my desire to fit in lunch, an A4 notebook and a largeish pencil case, which, too, has far too many compartments and contains more than I probably need, but will take it with me “just in case”.
In a nutshell – AWESOME. For slightly more detail, perfect size, perfect number of pockets (that goes for all three of the Baggy Bitz bags I own), really well made and really great quality.
Penny does know her stuff!
I’ve also had the pleasure of owning one of her play mats for babies (a gorgeous present for when Chippie was born) which does and awesome foldy uppy thing and turns into a bag itself. Then and unfoldy thing, and it’s a play mat! Hurrah! Also good if you are out with it and need a bit of a nap; you can use it as a pillow, a blankie or to lie on …
Penny will make to your requests, and can do all kinds of makey, sewingy type things that are way beyond my comprehension and ability to explain.
She does, however, get the Mad Cow stamp of approval for the bags she made for me. And deservingly so!
Baggy Bitz can be found at http://baggybitz.blogspot.com/
Yeah, I heard ya! Thanks to Oricom
Posted by: | CommentsOoh, my Oricom baby monitor arrived in the mail today!
We never used one before – never really had the need. You don’t when you live in a shortish, smallish house. Now we have a loooong hallway.
And two very loud other children. And a daddy who likes watching TV and does that “be quiet kids” while turning the volume up … and I digress.
Anyhoo, hard to hear bubs up the other end of the house with all that going on. So, we have now solved the problem.
It arrived when the children were out (thank goodness), so we could play. It has everything, and I mean everything you could want. Especially the control freaky type parents.
You can monitor room temperature, turn the night light and lullabies on and off without even entering baby’s room, set the sensitivity – for example, when you have a loud baby, you make it less sensitive, and when you have a quiet baby you keep it less sensitive – and adjust the volume.
It also has a completely secure DECT technology. In Real Mum terms, this means that it doesn’t pick up any interference, like other babies cries or the conversations of your next door neighbours. And vice versa.
It’s only downfalls are:
1. If you hear a baby cry, it is your baby. You can no longer convince yourself it’s the one across the road. Thanks for that, DECT technology!;
2. It allows you to hear your baby cry;
3. You can no longer get the neighbourhood gossip via your baby monitor.
On the upside, the neighbours with baby monitors can’t hear your late night feeding ramblings, or tut at you the next day when you can’t drag yourself out of bed for your noise making baby during the night (they won’t have heard him! Hooray!)
It’s also go two way communication, so I no longer have to raise my voice, or worse, walk to the other end of the house to tell the older kids to get out of baby’s room – I simply press a button and yell. The sound magnifies – it’s awesome!
(We’ve also had great fun like putting the totally transportable parent end under the kids’ beds, the sitting in the baby’s room and telling them stuff. That really freaks them out and is such a laugh! Well, we have kids, and therefore, no life – we have to make our fun somehow!)
Anyhoo, the Secure Range (100 and 200) of baby monitors retail from $79.95, and Oricom offer a 12 month replacement warranty on all it’s Secure Baby Monitors. For stockists and/or further information, contact Oricom on 02 4574 8888 or visit their website http://www.oricom.com.au
Maternity Pics and Belly Tricks
Posted by: | CommentsWhat a fun day!
I was scheduled to have a photographer come and visit a week and a half ago to take pics of my ever expanding belly. But she got sick. And then went on holidays.
Damn her!
Does she not realise I am pregnant!!!
I need these photos done – coz, deep down, I really am a very sentimental kind of person. That, and I live with a family who will quite happily run my battery down taking photos of under-the-bed dust (Godzilla), moment by moment snaps of Thomas (Monkey Boy) or just not take any photos at all (Grumpy Pants).
I’m sure my kids are gonna grow up thinking they never had a Mummy. I’m never in any photos. Unless I take them myself, which requires a mirror for visits to the Eifel Tower, or really close up shots – taken at arms length – with the option of partial tourist attractions sticking out my head, or partial head shots. Take your pic.
All was saved, however, by the appearance of Kelly! Photographer extraordinnaire and really funny chick!
Who had me doing all kinds of fun stuff and giving me the best laugh I have had in ages! Although not too sure, now, how many of the photos we actually got I want made public! Actually – all of them I think.
Of course, the doorbell went at some stage, when I was dressed in pyjama pants and a lab coat. Was only the postie. Who also happens to by my neighbour, delivering a message to my husband. Attempted to explain current getup by pointing at photographer and saying “Ah, er, um, er, er ..” a lot.
He asked me not to explain any further as he’d really rather not know.
And, inevitably, its when she had me nuded up and wrapped in a sheet in the open door (best light, apparently) that the moving van went past. Slowly.
She even got the kids involved when they came home from school. Then had them paint my belly – hmmmmm. Ah, well, at least they cooperated.
And, hooray! I finally have photos of my belly. Nice photos at that.
Well, actually, I don’t have them yet. Do you think she’ll mind me asking her every 5 minutes if they’re ready yet?
She has kids … surely she’d be used to it!
You rock, Doll.....thanks for such awe inspiring honesty and brilliant laughs.