FrUmP

There is a period after having a baby where most women go through a serious frump-slump. It's a grace period of about six months and no one pays much attention to it for those first few months. It's allowed and even expected. Moms go back to work and get back in the stream of the living again. If the mom doesn't go back to work though it can become critical. I wasn't so aware of it last year just after having Charlotte (grace period) but this year I'm really noticing it because evidently it can and does continue through the toddler years.


It includes:

oversized t-shirts
ill fitting jeans
no make-up
hair in a ponytail
no haircut or BAD haircut
a "favorite" sweat jacket
sneakers never heels (or dirty sneakers)
dirty, ragged fingernails
never wearing jewelry
unshaved armpits/legs
bad posture
always looking tired (& complaining)

I see it all the time as I follow the moms to pick up our kids at the preschool. I make mental notes of what not to do. I'm not naturally glamorous but I'm aware that frump is contagious and frump can spread like a disease. I try to avoid those clichés. I am trying to try harder.

But obviously not hard enough.

A mom came up to me yesterday at the school and gave me a usb key full of cute pictures of the kids at their little circus gym that they go to every Friday. They take a bus and her husband took tons of photos, and to be funny he shot some photos of me and another mom friend outside the bus window seeing our kids off.



Agh! Frump! Ill fitting jeans, unwashed hair, oversized shirt, bad posture, etc, etc. and unshaved armpits (I bet). I look like the underpaid nanny of that adorable child (who I'm holding like a sack of potatoes). I am one of those BEFORE photos in the before and afters they do on reality makeover shows. The fashion disaster.

The other person in the photo is a mom friend who looks fabulous all the time. She's so put together every day. ANYWAY, time for a makeover. Time to dump the frump and clean out the closet.

On coming back the same dad also took a picture of Seb out the window who was there to pick up Little S. Seb looks great! What is this well dressed man doing with that frumpy woman?

(Just by chance it's the same mom friend in the photo too, don't mean to paste her on the internet--like I said she always looks great)

Coiffed

I just got these totally rad new highlights which remind me of when I was 15 and I died my hair with cherry kool-aid. That stuff does not come out!

My new hairdresser in Mexico is named Gustavo and I love him. Most women in Mexico have long hair and they get it straightened every Saturday. They seem to rarely get more than a few centimeters trimmed off. I think he likes me because I let him have fun with my hair.

After ten years in France I´ve learned to love to get coiffed but here in Mexico I really love it because it´s so much cheaper.


*look! see background !! office is becoming organized as mentioned very recently in new years resolutions... (and it´s ONLY early February)

Gift giving made simple

The in-laws arrive tomorrow for one week and the house looks like a tornado slammed through the front door and left out the back. How I will get everything stashed and arranged in time I do not know. I have just way too many organizing projects going on right now. For example Seb found three boxes of beauty products in the basement before he left last week and hauled them upstairs for me to deal with. These were from the cleaning out of the vast beauty product armoire last month and then the elimination of bathroom two and its giant pharmacy cabinet behind the toilet. "Aren't you embarrassed about having all this stuff?" He was right. There was so much stuff it was embarrassing: creams, body scrubs, loofahs, mineral salts, oils... But you know good stuff. So I am going through it right now and dividing it into "keep," "throw away" and "give away." The whole projects covers my bathroom floor and with Little S's help is one giant mess. So yeah that's just one project.

It's Father's Day in France on Sunday and I think in the US too (I'll have to check on that). I was in Marrionnaud returning my products from Mother's Day so I got a brilliant idea to start Seb on a better skincare regime. Right now he just slathers drugstore lotion on his face from time to time and calls it a regime. Anyway they have a great sample coffret (slightly larger than sample size actually) from Clinique on promotion and I was really pleased with it. It lets you try a few of the products in the men's line. So you know, great! more beauty products for the bathroom!

I actually realized that the store I went into and complained about for my Mother's Day gift was the wrong Marrionnaud. The right one is a few doors down from that one (it makes no sense to have two Marrionnaud stores on the same street but that's the French for you) and they were brilliant. I got to take back everything and got some good advice. Skin care advice reminds me of breastfeeding advice. Everyone has their opinions and everyone has their different philosophy but in the end you just have to listen to your body and take what the experts say with a partial grain of salt. What they say is valid but in the end it's your body and you know better.

Because I'm worth it

Seb always makes sure I can take back my frou-frou Valentines/Mother's Day gift. He knows I probably will because well, he knows women. So on Wednesday I went to Marrionnaud to take back my Lancome skin care set that I'm sure he got duped into buying and exchange it for one of my favorite products like Clarins or Clinique. I don't use Lancome, never have and am not sure why I should start. Maybe it's just my image of their company I don't know but I do know that they are part of a huge cosmetic empire that makes the Daimler-Chrysler-Mercedes merger seem like corporate child's play. I actually believe they are also Revlon and L'Oréal and a few others in between like Biotherm and that's just crazy and confusing. In addition to that, the coffret had an entire gamme of products in slightly larger than sample size and since we're moving I wanted to keep the adoption of any new products to a minimum, especially creams.

As soon as I walked in with my exchange I knew that they would give me a hard time. The sales clerk called over her manager who eyed me from afar, up and down and then mumbled something in conference and then finally gave a rolling eye "okay." I told the sales clerk that I might even keep the coffret but I wanted some skin advice first, an evaluation. Evidently they don't do this. After her asking my age and not so much as looking at my skin she said dryly "Lancome is perfect for you. I don't see what the problem is." "I want some advice though. I like Clarins and the more natural products" I said. She grunted "If you generally use Clarins you should switch to something new like Lancome."* "But my skin? MY skin? Can't you give me some advice?" Finally she pulled out a large appointment book from behind the counter and said "when can you come in for an evaluation?" This is more like it I thought. Someone will sit down, look me over under a uv light and evaluate the damage. Afterwards we can pick out a few products together and I can learn something. I took an appointment and she handed me a card with a brochure and a price list. "How much is this going to cost?" I asked surprised. She took the brochure from me and circled the "soin de visage" at 57.00 euros.

I don't often buy skin care products in France. Even my pet products like l'Occitane and Clarins are cheaper in the States. I can't always wait to get them there but I know I am saving at least 10-20 euros each time I do wait. How can these French products be cheaper in my own country? It always baffles me. Clinique is one product try not to buy in France at all.

I'll be cancelling my appointment and buying something else. And I won't be asking for any help either. I think I can manage fine on my own.

*I agree with her that you should switch but I often switch between Clinique and Clarins

Update: well it turns out I was in the wrong Marrionaud which was why they had the conference about returning my things. After figuring this out I went to the real store and returned my products no problem. I also got some good advice and yet they respected the fact that I didn't want to switch products. And samples! I got a whole bag of samples!