Our house has two basements and one used to be my parents' bedroom while my brothers and sister and I shared the other one. The upstairs of the house was used as a guest house which my Mom ran. When my parents split, we got rid of the guest house and everyone moved upstairs but I stayed downstairs and went into my parents' bedroom. So one of the wardrobes is still full of family stuff, mainly being thousands of photos! My Mom was definitely snappy happy when we were growing up and if I can't sleep, I sometimes look through a few boxes. When trying to figure out why I have a girly affinity, I can see how I've been frilly and floral all my life! Here are some important snaps that must have had an effect on what I'm like now...
So in 1989 I was born! I was pretty heavy and chubby and my Mom was in labour for 36 hours after being two weeks late; I wanted to make an entrance!
I cried alot and liked my dummy. I was already interested in boys by the time I was only a few months old obviously! And I think this was my Nan's chicken, Henny Penny.
I'm embracing future trends well ahead of time, check out those ruffles and heart shaped sunglasses!
I remember having identical Minnie mouse pjs to my Mom's friend's daughter but thinking she looked much more like Minnie than I did! I wasn't cute like a fairy princess but more at home with a plastic cup on farmyard in a woolly jumper. I liked my friend Danielle's yellow bobbles with little plastic balls on the end and put one on my barbie but tangled up all her hair. My sister and I had a ton of barbie stuff and if we tidied our rooms we got a new barbie outfit each week. We also had a massive box of duplo and rationed the stuff by taking it in turns to pick our the best bits, like the cooker and beds, then spending ages setting up the houses and abandoning them!
Alot of garish 90's clothes must have made a mark because I would kill for this bow today! Also patchwork is super hot for Autumn, there is a great possibility my Nan knitted this jumper.
On Valentines day in 1991, when I was 18 months old, my sister Chloe was born! Unlike me, she had jet black hair that turned blonde, then brown. She was much quieter and smaller but we became firm friends! I'm not sure whether my Mom agreed when she found me trying to feed her smarties when a few weeks old or smothering Sudocrem all over her face after seeing mud baths on Blue Peter.
We had practically the same wardrobe, with almost all identical outfits. I hated growing out of my very own clothes because then Chloe would get them!
Check out these blue tights, bang on trend! It looks like I resembled a curtain most of the time though.
I liked reading and had a big book box with lots of stories but the only ones I can remember were about starting school and making babies! We had a book called Mommy Laid an Egg, where the mom and dad think babies come from tooth paste and under rocks, but the children have to explain to them how they're really made, how confusing is that!?
In 1993, the day after Chloe's birthday, Nathan was born! He had red hair too and was extra chubby but brought alot of Thomas the Tank Engine into the house.
Then in 1995, three days before Chloe's birthday, thus having kids born on the 11th, 14th and 15th of February, Laurence was born! I was a big school girl by now and remember taking his scans and hand prints into school.
So then there were four! My Mom coped with four kids under six years old by tripping us out loads, my main memory of buying big drawing pads to sketch (or scribble) statues in town. My Dad was an electrician but by now became a fire fighter, which was easy to finger paint in year one. I remember him bringing home Disney videos and loading all our bikes into the car to take to the park.
To back track a bit, I went to nursery as still short and chubby. My Nan had to cut the sleeves of my dresses to fit my arms! We stayed at her house every Friday, which later moved to Saturday, and went to church every Sunday morning. I wore this blue dress practically every day to nursery and had no friends. I just played with the doll house!
We had a big dressing up box and used to put on plays for my parents to watch. I went to dance school when I was four until around thirteen so had lots of costumes from shows. I had two clown suits and loved this one! In the summer we went down to my Mom's aunties farm in Gloucester where we climbed piles of hay bales in the barns and made the geese honk. Then we drove on to Weymouth and stayed with my Nan's cousin by the sea and their two daughters, who my sister and I were later bridesmaids for. One was a nurse and I remember trying on her uniforms and feeling cool that I had the little watch and my sister had the name tag! They had the song 'all that she wants' by Ace of Base which I like to hear every time we went down and I love love loved their video of Grease 2.
Here's evidence of hand-me-downs, as I look moody on a trampoline in Weymouth and then my sister is wearing the same dress haha. I liked my new blue sunflower dress because it was a wrap around which I thought was really cool.
My sister and I needed glasses and note my sister's round, rainbow pair- hilarious! She may kill me for this. She always had a bob and I always had long hair, although my Dad use to joke we would look better with no hair like him!
Despite having no friends in nursery, I made lots in school, my best friends being a little boy called Nicholas and a girl with really curly hair called Louise. I liked the uniform but of course preferred the gingham summer dresses after Easer.
I think big tshirts with skirts was my new uniform when dresses became too babyish. Check out the Spice Girls t-shirt with leggings, ah what a combination! Also I too had colourful, round glasses- how attractive!
When I was around eight, I said we were bridesmaids for some cousins. The first had the wedding a few days after Christmas so we wore little green velvet jackets. I remember we found some tables with clothes over the top stacked on top of each other so they were like tunnels, where we played during the boring speeches!
An important day was my First Communion where us little girls got to wear white dresses! We had to be paired up with boys to walk down the isle and I didn't like mine. I think my sister had to wear the same dress to hers, haha! Although I was jealous of her veil as I didn't have one.
I still loved dancing and took up Irish dancing, where the teacher used to hit us on the leg with our shoes if we misbehaved!
Now do remember I was a 90's kid and this stuff will possibly fashionable again in a long time... but I cannot forgive the orange velvet shirt with leggings, argh! Also the army print sheer t-shirt with matching bag, oh the horror!
On one of my birthdays we went to a theme park and in the morning the presenter on Nickelodeon had two buns on her head with plaits coming down either side. I made my Mom give me this hairstyle, even though it probably would have worked a million times better if I had afro hair too, oops. Also I couldn't miss out the denim dress, didn't everyone have one!?
Some more horror stories and crazy hair styles- nice pink trousers! With a matching cardigan! I think we were on holiday for that photo doing some sort of dance. I thought I was well cool in my new shorts and strappy top for the other photo, I think I copied the hairstyle out of Girl Talk magazine! Also check the glitter jelly sandals, I lost one of them in the sea not long after this photo was taken, what a shame!
So there you have it, around half my life in some classic outfits! There aren't many of that awkward, ugly teenage stage but I'm sure I can dig some up.
Funnily enough, just as I was typing this I looked up to my cork board of important notices (read: accessories!) and spotted the light up butterfly wings we all bought for a dressing up night. If you tie the arm elastic around your head, it makes a fabulous head band! Unfortunately they do have glitter stars and fluff on them, and they are totally massive, but it's a starting point! When I have a spare hour I'll pop into town and look in accessory shops for clips. 
