While we pack up our house, move across town and deal with the inevitable interruption in broadband (argh!), things may get a little quiet here in HPP-land. Don’t worry, normal service will resume shortly!

While browsing the Breastfeeding forum at MDC today, the following google ad caught my eye:

Tee hee… not quite sure if that’s exactly the type of pump nursing mums are looking for, but thanks for the recommendation anyway!

Cancer Care West & the Mayo Cancer Support Association are asking us all to send a bra and a donation to them to help in their November attempt to break the Guinness record for the longest unbroken chain of bras, they need 120,000 bras and the chain they form will be in excess of 70 miles long. In doing this they hope to raise awareness of Breast Cancer and also some much-needed funds.

Both groups are voluntary and provide crucial support and care to both patients and their friends and family. You can read more about their work here.

From Mayo Cancer Support’s page:

You may ask “how is this going to create awareness and raise much needed funds” We believe that the publicity generated from the attempt will make people aware of the services we provide and in so doing allow people the opportunity to support us with practical help such as a donation with each Bra submitted.

It is a sad reflection on our society that services such as Cancer Support depend almost entirely on voluntary contributions from the public for funding. The Cancer Strategy states that Support Services such as ours are an integral part of the recovery process for people diagnosed with cancer. Apart from the cancer patient the family looking after the patient needs support. It is from the identification of this huge need that the 35 plus centres sprang up throughout Ireland

So if you’ve got an old bra, and it wants to be part of a giant chain of bras and get into the Guinness Book of records, then send the bra and a donation to either

Cancer Care West,
University College Hospital Galway,
Galway, Ireland
or
Mayo Cancer Support Centre,
Rock Rose House,
32 St. Patricks Avenue,
Castlebar, Co. Mayo, Ireland

You don’t have to be from Ireland to donate a bra! The last time this record was broken was in Cyprus in 2006 and they received bras from as far away as Alaska.

So everyone can get involved, think of the fun your old bras will have breaking a world record!

As a well known supermarket says “Every little helps”

Have a look at what Mr. Postman brought for littlepixie last week, a beautiful Nest hatchling sling so she can carry her dollies/bears around. I entered a giveaway a few months ago at Mama Speaks, and won, but my poor little hatchling got lost in the post

Ashlee of Nest Baby Slings and Mama Speaks (a busy lady indeed!) very kindly sent us another, and we love it, it’s 100% cotton, a gorgeous Heart Nouveau design, navy and green hearts on one side, reversing to solid navy on the other side.

Here’s pooh bear enjoying his first carry in a real sling (not a tied together muslin cloth!). Now littlepixie has her hands free to build lego bricks and sweep the floor as much as she likes or, as demonstrated here, examine pieces of a jigsaw puzzle!

Now, because I love the hatchlings so much, and because you’re all so wonderful, and because it’s my blog’s 1st birthday next month, I will give you a sneaky hint about my next giveaway…. I’ll be giving two of you your very own hatchling slings so your lovely children can carry their dinosaurs/trucks/dolls etc. around happily!

So stay tuned mid-July for that lovely giveaway

We’re moving house. hopefully very soon!

Mr. HPP’s job moved to a village just outside the city, resulting in a very long bike commute for him. It’s not too bad now with all the general pleasantness of cycling in summer, but in the winter, brrrr… He cycles along the coast road which even now has a fairly strong cross-wind from the sea. So we’re off! That’s one of the handy aspects of renting, we’re free to roam.

Luckily a new non-denominational Educate Together primary school is opening in our new village this year and has just recently started taking names for upcoming years. Littlepixie is now on their list. It’s a few more years until she starts school but ET schools are incredibly hard to get into, you nearly need to put your child’s name down as soon as soon as you go into labour! So I was beyond delighted when they rang me back and confirmed that she’s near enough to the top of the list that she’ll get a place in her year. Yay!

ET schools are the only non-doctrine-based primary schools in Ireland (the majority of our schools are run by the Catholic Church & the Church of Ireland), the ET schools are all set up by groups of parents, and share a common ethos:

• Multi-denominational i.e. all children having equal rights of access to the school, and children of all social, cultural and religious backgrounds being equally respected
• Co-educational and committed to encouraging all children to explore their full range of abilities and opportunities,
• Child centred in their approach to education
• Democratically run with active participation by parents in the daily life of the school, whilst positively affirming the professional role of the teacher

They’re big into parents getting involved so when LP starts school I’ll donate some of my time to helping out there too!

There is a weekly farmer’s market in the village, so myself and LP can go out with our basket and get our fresh veggies every week. There’s also a library, mother & toddler groups, play centre, parks, cinema and health food store so we won’t have to make too many visits to the city. It’s only a 20 minute bus ride into town if necessary so that’s grand!

We’re not terribly attached to where we live, and the thought of a move to a nice village instead of a random suburb is very exciting! I’ll miss my monthly La Leche League meetings, but they’ll only be about a 40 minute trip away so if I’m really in the mood we could manage it! Other than that, we’re ready to go!

It’s just as well we kept all the boxes from our last move, and that I enjoy packing. I’m really looking forward to the chance to do some major decluttering! So, lots to do, find new house, pack up old house, move into new house, unpack everything, fingers crossed that we can get decent broadband there!

Picture this. Two socks, in a laundry basket. Happy. Making plans. One sock wants to see the world. She whispers about the exciting adventures she will have to her staid mate. He doesn’t want to travel. He will stay here. Safe. He will wait for her, no matter how long, no matter what happens. It’s all very “The Last of the Mohicans” waterfall scene. They hear footsteps. It’s time. As the clothes are loaded into the washing machine, she slips away. Leaving her sockmate behind. Alone. Drying on the clothes line he thinks of the future. He will wait in the laundry room for her. She knows where he’ll be. He prepares to wait. He watches all the other paired socks go into the basket. He prepares to wait. But no, he’s going into the basket too. The basket is going upstairs. It’s dark now, he lies at the bottom of the sock drawer. How will his socklove find him now? Where will she go when she returns? Will she think he didn’t wait for her?

Poor socks. “No more” I hear you shout!

So today I made them a sock bag. This sock bag will live in the laundry room/utility room and all unpaired socks will go into it.

Five old knee-high toe-socks (how cool are toe-socks?) sewn onto a cotton tote bag.

Simple, free (and green because it’s a good way to use up old toe-socks that are full of holes & too small) and, best of all, offers so many socks a place to feel at home while awaiting the return of their wandering mates.

As their mates sneak home weary from their adventures (under sofas, behind the laundry basket, under the washing machine, under the bed, in random backpacks) they too can go into the sock bag (after a good wash) and every so often they will all be paired and rejoin sock society.

Of course, if like so many people, toe-socks creep you out, you could use other socks. I love toe-socks, especially in winter, five little individually wrapped warm toes wriggling in front of the fire, I don’t know why it seems to scare people! Now a truly frightening, yet very cute, application of toe-socks is this, a Toe-Sock Cthulhu, Mr. HPP would you like one of these?

Of course, you don’t need to sew old socks onto a cotton bag to make a home for lonely socks. But it’s cooler if you do. People will laugh at you if you don’t do it. And apart from many Cthulhus, what else are you going to do with old toe-socks? Or is the problem of old too-small toe-sock disposal unique to me? It very well might be!

If you liked this crafty yet simple idea, you might love the old peg bag too!

I gave up eating chicken nuggets long before I became vegetarian, once you read what goes into a chicken nugget you can’t look at them the same again! Plus nine times out of ten I would always end up gagging on a piece of gristle, ugh!

Anyway, our local supermarket has recently been overshadowed by a bigger supermarket, which opened to great fanfare and promises of lower prices and all that. So, our local supermarket’s owner, who by all accounts is a shrewd businessman, has decided to push the organic, fairtrade aspect of his store and has started expanding his product ranges. Which means I can do all my “fancy vegan shopping” only a ten minute walk away, very handy. It’s kinda cool to see special offers signs on soy milk!

There is an ever-expanding freezer section devoted to veggie and vegan meals. We’re not really fans of fake meats, we tend to make our own bean burgers but have been known to buy vegan sausages and pies on lazy occasions.

So I was browsing the newly arrived new products, you know the usual, burgers, pies, veggie sausages etc. And saw a new range of Fry’s vegan chicken items, breaded “chicken breasts” and “chicken nuggets” complete with the Vegan Society sunflower. So curiosity got the better of us. We bought some nuggets and cooked them up with garlic green beans and chips.

They look and smell like chicken nuggets. They are made of a special protein blend called “protam” which gives the food a realistic texture (names like “protam” unnerve me, it’s a little too soylent green-y sounding don’t you think?!) …

Protam H is the method developed especially for Fry’s by which conventional wheat and soya proteins are prepared in order to optimise food value, flavour and texture. It is unique in that the food products prepared by this method bear a striking resemblance to real meat in terms of taste, mouthfeel, appearance, texture and nutrition.

The ingredients list isn’t too alarming.

Hydrated vegetable protein concentrate (soya), wheat flour, vegetable oil, vegetable protein isolate, flavourings, cellulose extract, sea salt, spices, herbs.

The first nugget was yummy. Un-nerving but yummy. The second the same. And then it happened and I couldn’t eat any more of them. I bit into a lump of fake gristle, ugh, bleuch, peuck, gag…. they didn’t have to make them that realistic…

But I do see from looking at their site that they do a vegan hot dog, hmmm… I think I’ll give that a try next, just for research purposes, you understand!

Today I’ve been inspired by Danielle at New Mommy Rant to continue my virtual housekeeping. I checked for and repaired deadlinks 2 weeks ago so they should be grand, I still have to divide my blogroll into easier-to-manage sections, I have a few new blogs to add to it. I had a look at other templates, but, you know, I like my current template so I think I’ll stick with it, I like the colours and the little boxes it puts around photos.

My blog will be 1 year old next month, so it would be nice to celebrate its birthday by making it all happy and clean.

So I’ll open the floor to all of you. Is there anything here you don’t like? or do like? anything you’d like more of? less of? anything that bugs you everytime you visit? anything that makes you smile? any bright ideas? suggestions? criticisms (now be gentle!)? will I do a giveaway for my blog’s birthday (that would be fun)? too many widgets? not enough widgets? too many pictures? not enough posts? anything at all!

Go wild…. Thanks (I think!)

I have an online shopping problem, you all know that. Here are the latest fruits of my shopping labours… two new books for Littlepixie, ah selfless guilt-free shopping, the best kind!

The two books are “I am a Little monkey” and “I am a little elephant” both by Francois Crozat.

Littlepixie loves monkeys and elephants and she adores these books. The drawings in them are beautiful, quite lifelike but animated at the same time.

The books themselves are an unusual shape, almost 30 cm high and 16 cm wide, and have a hardcover with board pages so they are a little heavy.

But nothing LP can’t handle

Reading-wise, they’re aimed at bigger kids, as there are long-ish sentences, but LP loves the pictures and listens to my made-up story to go along with them!

Here’s a little teaser from the elephant book, each picture spans two pages.

The text reads:

“When I am hungry, Mama stands still and I get very close to her. Then I drink her milk. It is so good, and it keeps me healthy!”

Isn’t that adorable!

And not to be outdone, here’s a glimpse into the life of the little monkey

“I fall asleep in my mother’s arms and dream about butterflies and ants. I am happy with my family and my life in the forest”

Awwwww….

I’ve been following a thread on MDC where people have been adding links to their favourite breastfeeding images, be they photos, paintings, sketches, statues, advertisements, public awareness campaigns or jewellery.

But as with all threads on such busy forums, this one will eventually start to slip into the archives, so I thought I would take a few moments to copy all the links and share them with all of you!

Galleries:

• Breastfeeding-art.com- Gallery of breastfeeding goddesses & some more contemporary artwork too.
• Breastfeedingart.net - Has a huge collection of breastfeeding images (including many photos) from AD 1200 - present, divided by region, America, Africa, Europe, Asia.
• Breastfeeding.com - Another huge gallery of breastfeeding images and photos.
• Maria Lactans - A Catholic site with a fantastic gallery of images depicting Mary nursing Jesus, dating from AD.250
• ProMoM’s Fine Art Gallery - 77 beautiful images in one place.

Paintings: (these are ones mentioned as people’s favourites, they may be in the above galleries too)

• “Allegory of Charity” & “Charity” by Jacques Blanchard
• “Charity” by Guido Reni
• “Christ Blessing the Children” by Lucas Cranach the Elder
• “Love above all - A motherhood Collage“- Onewithwings
• “Maternity” by Pablo Picasso (our favourite)
• Nursing Madonna & Child - By Leonardo da Vinci, Lorenzetti, Memling (see above link for more Maria Lactans paintings)

Photography:

• Bosom Buddies - An exhibition by Petra Finkenzeller in support of National Breastfeeding Awareness week.
• Lavigne Photography - A collection of black & white nursing photos.

Sketches:

• Heidi Scarfone - Gorgeous pencil sketches of babies.
• Anja Kiel - Sketch of nursing mama & baby

Advertising/Public Awareness:

• Australian Breastfeeding Association - Posters celebrating the environmental benefits of breastfeeding
• Be a Star - A campaign dedicated to increasing the number of young mums in Lancashire, UK who choose to breastfeed.
• Get Britain Breastfeeding - An exhibition and competition, the winning posters are here.
• Kate Kelly - “All things to all people” award winning photo from Tasmania.
• “La Teta…to give the breast is to give life…” - a public information broadcast from Puerto Rico on YouTube.
• Lucy Lawless - the New Zealand campaign during World Breastfeeding Week 2001.

Humour:

• Breastfeeding.com - 2 Galleries of funnies - The Lighter Side & The Joan McCartney Gallery
• Hathor the God Goddess - Your daily dose of breastfeeding advocacy cartoon-style
• Stone Soup - They did a week of breastfeeding cartoons in February, you can see them all here

Sculptures, Statues & Carvings:

• “Abundance” Fountain in Piazza Maggiore, Bologna, Italy.
• Breast Feeding Art - A mix of sculptures depicting various traditional nursing goddesses.
• “Charity” by Giacomo Serpotta
• Isis nursing Horus from Ancient Egypt
• Nursing Madonna and Child by Michelangelo
• “Our Lady of La Leche” - The inspiration for LLL’s name.
• “Thirsty Baby” - Beautiful statue carved from hibiscus wood.

Jewellery:

• Attachments - Beautiful clay breastfeeding goddess pendants and the most adorable heart shaped pendant depicting a nursing baby holding his mama’s breast with a little chubby hand. Also available at Mom’s Breastaurant.
• Breastfeeding Art - A wide range of pewter metal pendants and lapel pins.
• Family Tree Glass - Handmade glass nursing pendants in a variety of colours.

Miscellaneous:

• Australian Breastfeeding Association - Beautiful mugs designed by local artist Rebecca Cool.
• Baby Milk Action - Cute little breastfeeding fridge magnets and handmade breastfeeding dolls.

Do you have any favourite paintings, photos, statues or any other type of nursing imagery you’d like to add? Leave a link in the comments and I’ll add them in to the list!