The Storm by Small Paintings

Sometimes if you want to pick up a shift in society all you have to do is look at what the shops are selling, or not selling anymore for that matter. Perhaps they know something about how people live their lives these days better than we do? Are they no longer selling something, not because they don’t feel like it or are trying to sell you something else but because there has been a small shift in society and we’ve stopped doing something we always used to do?

This became apparent to me the other week when my mum and I went looking for raincoats for the girls so when they walk to school they won’t get wet in any torrential downpours. And we couldn’t find any, shop after shop resulted in nothing. Finally after about the sixth big name shop we found a tiny collection in a kids clothing store.

This was crazy, why in the middle of autumn could we not find any raincoats? Why weren’t the big department stores selling raincoats? Surely there were heaps of kids who needed them to go to school every day and would get wet without them.

And then it dawned on us, there weren’t any kids getting wet on the way to school because there weren’t any kids walking to school. Not anymore. Mum and dad were driving their kids to school, and obviously doing it so much their precious little ones were never in trouble of getting a drop of rain on them in winter. This is even apparent in my own neighbourhood where almost all the kids live within a 15 minute walk of the school and yet the parking lot and streets were packed everyday with parents picking up their kids. Even on a beautiful sunny day it’s hard to find a parking spot if you get there just on the bell.

I’ve always thought of myself as a bit of an against the grain kinda gal. If everyone wants to go left I want to go right. Well, who would have thought that just doing something as simple as letting the kids walk to school (what I did every day myself, starting at grade one when I insisted my parents leave me to do it on my own) would put me in the minority. I would say around 10 – 20% of kids in our school walk or ride their way every day and that’s on a nice day, I’ve yet to see what it’s like on a rainy day.

I’m not advocating children walk for an hour each way to school every day or tip toe through the tulips during an electrical storm but when you live less than 15 minutes walking distance though a safe neighbourhood why would you not send them out? Walking itself is a joy and one that should be encouraged; it would be a shame if we taught our children that the only time they should go outside is when the weather is perfect. When you’re rugged up against the rain it can be great fun getting outside, the world is a little different, sounds louder and it all feels that much more of an adventure.

And kids deserve a little bit of adventure in their everyday lives.

With the current political turmoil and the budget being released this week there’s been a lot of political talk on the news and on the radio (talk back radio is always a hoot). One of the things that surprised me was the large number of Gen Y voicing their opinions on social media sites. I’m sure a lot of them thought they were being current and insightful, showing their knowledge of a sometimes complex subject and just how gosh darn smart they were.

But what popped into my head was “wow, aren’t Gen Y a bunch of boring conservatives”. I mean let’s face it; there wasn’t any talk of rallies or protests. There was just an awful lot of thinking out loud type commentary. Granted some of it was very insightful and clever but an awful lot of it was “Yay Bob Brown, boo Tony Abbott” type postings.

But let’s get down to the real jist of this post, and that is just how boring and conservative Gen Y are. I’m seeing less and less commentary on social media about getting drunk and waking up with a tattoo and more and more about gardening, exercise, Masterchef and of course, politics. I will whole heartedly admit to be boring and conservative myself. It’s not something I’m proud of but as a working mother I just can’t be bothered getting all dressed for the five minutes between finishing work (at a conservative company) and beginning my endless list of household tasks, much less find time to do anything more daring than use the dryer instead of drying on the line. But I wasn’t conservative in my late teens and early to mid twenties. None of us were, we were rebels, creative’s with purpose and no money…well nobody had money; it was in the middle of a recession.

But we were definitely less conservative than Gen Y and I think it’s because we were transition babies, making the leap from one type of conservative to another.

I don’t believe conservative rules are set in stone, written as the Ten Commandments and we either follow them or don’t follow them thus deciding our level of commitment. Rather they shift like tectonic plates, moving over different rules, leaving others behind and taking up new ones as we go. We leave behind old rules, believing them to be old fashioned and out dated but at the same time picking new ones up, passing them off as social norms without even realising it. Things our grannies would get their knickers in a twist no longer upset us, we’re not bothered by such meaningless twaddle; we’re more evolved, more grown up now. And at the same time we’re horrified at things people do now that our grannies thought nothing of, and we put these new social norms out into society because we’re more evolved, more gown up now.

Let’s do one of my favourite things; a thought experiment. Scientists do these all the time, they do them because they’re impossible to physically do but provide interesting insight on things.

Grab yourself a time machine and sprint back into the 1950’s, plucking your average upstanding citizen off the street. Don’t pick anyone too moral and religious or anyone too casual and verging on hippy. We want to get someone who represents the average moral standard of the day. Now bring them back to the present day and head out and find a similar upstanding person of the present day. Once again, don’t pick anyone too religious or someone who doesn’t have their finger on the current moral pulse. Now let’s take them somewhere nice; it’ll make the modern person proud of their city’s achievements and impress the 50’s chap. Here’s a hint; nothing too trendy mind you, they won’t get it and will want to know why the cafe is filled with second hand couches and think something is terribly wrong with society.

Now you’re going to ask them two questions, the same questions.

1. What is society’s view of young women having sex with multiple partners before they are married?
2. What is society’s view of someone who has the sprinkler on for an hour a day everyday and hoses down their concrete driveway?

Then you’ll give them two possible answers, they can choose one for each question; using both of the possible answers, or only one answer for both questions.

A.   “Well society doesn’t really have any view on such a person. They’re just seen as normal and doing what most people like them do”

B.   “Society looks down on people like that, as selfish, unethical/immoral and if I was friends with them I’d definitely rethink whether I wanted to remain friends with them.”

What you’ll most likely find is the 50’s chap is far more likely to choose answer B for question 1 and answer A for question 2 and the modern chap will probably choose answer A for question 1 and answer B for question 2.

The 50’s chap will probably look at the modern guys answer with surprise. Why on earth would you look down on someone who takes pride in their lawns and yet celebrate some bed hopping unmarried woman? Because in a mere 60 years the tectonic plates of conservative Australia have moved. We’re no longer standing over the hot bed of premarital sex but rather have rested on a new moral standard; conserving water.

Our conservative area has not diminished but rather moved to new territory, we are still as conservative as ever, we just changed the goal posts.

What is interesting about Gen X however is we were in our formative years while the plates were sliding around. We didn’t have the pressure of living like our parents did but had not yet moved far enough to take up the environmental hot spot so loved by Gen Y. We’d also briefly shifted off the materialism hot spot due to the recession and were in essence floating around, a little lost, but a lot freer. I think most of Gen X still feels that way, disconnected from the Baby Boomers and Gen Y, wondering why they take things so seriously and are so high and mighty about what they think is right.

But the story of Gen X being like the middle child is a whole other post.

Side note: Before any of my three readers mistakes me for an honours student who majored in Australian politics and has written several critically acclaimed books on the subject I must admit my knowledge comes directly from the news on the telly and radio and newspapers and my very smart husband who has read a mountain of books on world politics and has a very scathing view of any news that isn’t on the ABC. He generally fills me in on the background details and sets me right when I say things like “Why is Joolia copping so much flack for this whole Slipper controversy? Are they just picking on her?”

So I would say my knowledge is better than someone who gets their information from social media and the channel seven news but not as good as anyone who actually finds it interesting and seeks out more in depth knowledge.

Oh well, these things happen and it’s not like it’s a huge deal, I’m just a bit miffed that you will all now miss out on what was undoubtedly a hilarious post.

Part of the news I wanted to give you was I’ve changed insurance companies. In the long run they’ll be cheaper but right now I’m doing the “Oh my! How many soaps will I have to sell to pay for this?” panic on the inside.

On the outside I’m cool, calm and all entrepreneurial. Besides it’s nothing compared to what I used to pay, especially in my first year of business.

Another main change in the business is I’m going pure essential oils for my fragrances; it’s an insurance requirement and a business decision. I’ve been moving slowly towards it and have decided to take the plunge and go in 100%.

And the last change I’m making is I’m going organic and natural where ever possible. I’m already Palm oil and preservative free and so the next logical step is to move to organic if possible and remove the synthetic additives when I can replace them with natural alternatives. For example I’m taking out the synthetic soap colours and changing to natural clays and colours to add prettiness to my soaps.

It all sounds like huge changes but they all feel pretty natural and are actually simple steps forward. I’m almost out of soaps after a few busy markets and so the next batches coming out of the Lather Lab will be my new fangled ala natural soaps and bath bombs.

I can’t wait…

I was speaking on how to display and sell your products at a market. I don’t think my market displays are particularly brilliant or anything but gosh I’m an excellent critic and I know what I like and why.

Hopefully I passed on some helpful and inspiring ideas and concepts. I flatter myself and think you all would have been proud of me…or at least slightly amused when I was so tongue tied I couldn’t even finish a sentence or get out an idea sometimes.

The ever delightful Nicole from Tall Rabbit on the right just before she was about to speak. I was the first speaker for the night, a pure calculating tactic in order to starve off nervous giggling and vomiting.

The other two esteemed speakers were Tamara from Tamara Harrison Design and Cynthia from Shiny Rabbit.

And cake of course.

Her best friend came over to spend the day with her, and there was cake, gifts and of course “Happy Birthday” was sung to her.

I was perhaps a tad devious and prudent as the bulk of her presents from us were clothes she needs for Winter but the whole stuff-you-would-have-got-even-if-it-wasn’t-your-birthday seemed to pass by her innocent little mind.

In the lead up to the birthday Chaise spent a great deal of time discussing her party, who was coming, what presents she was getting etc. And was absolutely devastated when I had to inform her there was no party this year, just a friend could come over. On hearing that bit of news she promptly informed me her daddy needed to work harder to make more money so she could have a party whichever year she so desired.

The day ended around 4pm when we found her like this on the couch.

Clearly things had gone well.

And every night there’s a rustling in the bushes. Of course the first thing that pops into my head is; am I closer to the back door than the rustling, and every action movie I ever watched that had a kickass female knock down some cliché bad guy with a simple high kick and a witty comeback.

Then it occurs to me that if it was an intruder he was making an awful lot of noise, kicking his way through dried leaves and noisy shrubs, and quite possibly was scaling a tree as well. Reality always sets in eventually and I go through the list of possible explanations; cat, snake, rabbit, bandicoot etc. Tonight the cat was outside with me and seemed unconcerned by the noise which lead to the conclusion that it wasn’t an intruding cat and was definitely too big to take on which only leaves bandicoot as the night stalker.

Just as this was all unfolding in my head an ear-piercing scream let out in the darkness. Something quieter than my noisy bandicoot had just found itself dinner.

I hope this isn’t true and that perhaps it had just stubbed it’s toe or it too was watching Dirty Dancing that night and had gotten to a sad bit.

I won’t know for another 24 hours when I’m out again hanging the washing on the line…

Probably due to the high quality posts…snort!

On a whim this morning I decided to see if I could export the content despite it being suspended and was delighted to see I could. So now the blog reaches all the way back to May 2007.

That’ll keep ya busy for a while.

But this is all just the rich tapestry of life, cycle of life, all things must end, circle of life, kicked the bucket, etc. etc.

And nothing quite compares to the joy of both your children finally going into full time school. I know a lot of mums out there have been lamenting the lose of their children, sobbing at the thought of their precious little ones stepping out into the world and the sinking realisation that yes, they are growing old, and there’s nothing they can do about it.

I’ve not been like that. Having both kids in school has opened up a whole new world of life for me. Finally I can clean the house and it stays clean for the rest of the day, no longer is there a young asking for food every five minutes, and lets not forget the blissful silence in the house because the relentless noise of kids TV has finally been turned off.

Precious little things, they do look happy too. Perhaps it’s the relief that their tired, grumpy mum is not nagging at them all day.

You’ll notice my shop has no sales or feedback or anything. That’s because I’ve got a new shop called Empire of Delight. The old one Delight Society I’m keeping for my arts and crafts and fun thing I make and sell.

I could have changed the old name to Empire of Delight but would have lost Delight Society as a name forever and didn’t want to do that…so new shop it is and it looks like I’ll have to start all over again.

But what the heck…visit it anyway and buy if you are so inclined.

This is our old table:

It’s stolen off my sister and while ok is nothing to get excited about. But lets take a minute to see what it looks like with the tablecloth off.

Even the dog is unimpressed and she thinks everything is exciting. I did paint it in a feeble attempt to brighten it up and have it looking newer. But that was a total fail. It was really not up to scratch so when mum found a table at Freedom she thought I’d like we popped over to have a look.

And it was perfect…and it’s in the dining room right now:

Oh yeah baby! Look at that sweet ride right there.

And here’s the kicker…the price. It was originally $900 but during the sale was dropped to an amazing $445. Great right? Well just take another 20% off as it’s floor stock and you suddenly find yourself with a brand new all wooden table for the low price of $352.

Mum picked up a similar table for around the same price too.

Bonkers isn’t it? And mind blowing.

I also bought a few odds and ends and spent a total of $455 that day, but when I added up the original price of everything it came to $1075, a saving of $620.

That, is bonkers!!!