small people -guest post by Rachel Meszaros

Standing with my back to the warm spring sun, I find a rhythm as I work. Bend, straighten, peg. The basket empties, and the washing snaps softly in the breeze as I stand back and take it in. My mind is still adjusting, a tiny, perfect daughter, after two small precious boys, my cherished little family. The line full of pink, after four years of blue.
My daydreaming slams to a stop, the boys demand my attention. We play, we run, and then I pause, an ear turned towards the open bedroom window, as I hear the cry of our little girl, wanting to join the fun. I lift her from her cot, remove her wrap as her tiny fingers curl round my fingers. Just like her brothers, her tiny perfection takes my breath away. Three beautiful, enchanting small people, who fill my heart and my days. I am blessed.

This post was shared with me, as a lovely moment in the world of PINK. Thanks Rachel.

Checkout Rachel's fabulous blog {explore} for more great photos and thoughts of her life. 

Artist corner: A beautiful butterfly!

Artist: Chai

Age: 5

About the work: Mummy drew me a butterfly to colour in and I used oil pastels.

Would you like to have your art work featured on the rainbow blog?
Just email a scan or photo of it to: info[at]beyondpinkandblue[dot]com
This month we are show casing anything PINK.

Once apon a time, boys wore pink

 Image taken from Sarah Hoffman's website, who has a boy who loves pink.

It seems there are no definite facts that claim who owned pink or blue throughout the ages. I've found for Western culture the following:
Babies and children wore white for a long time, gender was not an important factor before the 1900's.
It wasn't until the 1920's that Western culture started assigning the colour pink (and blue) to an individual gender.
Pink was actually an appropriate boy colour, because it was seen as more masculine, being close to the colour red.
Blue was seen as a more dainty and delicate colour, so was appropriate for girls (also think Virgin Mary).
But rumors are, the two colors were used interchangeably until World War II.
During that time one of the cruder examples of the shift for pink as a more feminine colour was a pink triangle to identify homosexuals in Nazi prison camps.
After the war women stopped working and became housewives, encouraged to wear pink lipstick and own pink cars....a more rosie outlook to life and family after the war.
Barbie was born shortly after and, of course, pink was her colour of choice.
Pink became the colour for girls and blue as a color for boys.

And so here we are today.
Sometimes fashion allows men to wear pink (or salmon), boys have a dash of pink in their t-shirt design and baby boys will get mistakened for girls if they're anywhere near pink.
On the other hand, majority of girls seem to gravitate toward the colour pink and dad's won't allow their sons to don anything in the pink family.
This is all generally speaking, of course, because if you are reading this post, you already know that kids of any gender can like any colour they want... even pink.

February is PINK month!

It's a bit of a girlie colour, but boys love pink too! It may be shamed and in the closet, but it's sweet and lovely to see on rosy cheeks- which can be found on boys after running around, playing shenanigans!
So lets embrace the colour PINK this month, with love.
Pink stuff in the store is discounted this month, just head on over to the specials area.

Would love some pink inspiration this month from our readers!

Please send anything you have to monica[at]beyondpinkandblue[dot]com and I'll post it up for everyone to enjoy. Can be a photo taken, a picture drawn, a poem, a story.... anything!

Theme Shopping: Pink (of course!)

Keeping on with the Pink Ribbon theme, here's a small collection of what's on offer at bpab over the month of October. Remember 20% profit on any PINK item bought will be donated to Style Collective's Pink Ribbon breaky. Go to PINK STUFF at bpab.
From top to bottom, left to right:
Rabbit bell ring rattle, Cowgirl invitations, Dwink juice box
Rainbow singlet in yellow, Pink fairy crown, Little extensions (for onesies)
Paper dolls nappy wallet, Pink dots bib, Crochet flower onesie
Pink & purple flower clip, Pink 3/4 band it pants, Elephant snooze sac
Knitted watermelon rattle, Fairy wall art, Candy stripes shoes.

Pink Ribbon month.... buy PINK!

We've jumped on board with Style Collective and have gotten into the "fundraising using PINK" mode!
Click on the banner to take yourself to Style Collective's page during the month of October for Pink highlights.
We are donating 20% of profits on any PINK purchase made at beyond pink and blue during the month of October! We have a PINK STUFF category to make it easier for you to find something PINK to add to your basket. So you can shop for something yummy and still be helping a worthwhile cause. Yay!!

One in every nine Australian women will be diagnosed with breast cancer by the age of 85. It could be a mother, sister, aunt, cousin, niece or friend. Whoever they are, one thing they have in common is that they will all need our help and support.

This is..... what I'm surprised I like!

Well I was walking around the house this morning thinking what am I surprised I actually do like! What a weird thing to be meditating about on a Sunday morning!!
A few things came to mind immediately......
pumpkin! - I loathed it when I was younger and was made to eat at least one piece if it was on the menu - but now..... being vegetarian, I love it!
pink - never was a fan of this colour, but having little girls around has made it easy to embrace what pink represents and how being really girlie sometimes is fun!
early mornings - I've always been one who LOVES a sleep in. Since having kids, it's rather rare to get a sleep in (no matter what time you went to bed the night before!), and so instead of fighting it I now relish the mornings I get to sneak out of bed without waking the kids and enjoy the peace of just being me and doing odd tasks without being interrupted! Of course this could also be because I'm getting older and I've noticed that's what older people do...........
wood bugs (Slaters, butchy boys) - this is a weird one. I grew up detesting these little creatures that roll up in a ball when they get scared, as they were everywhere and like all insects and pests, seemed rather ugly when I was a young teenage girl. BUT lately they have re-surfaced at our place, in the back yard on the concrete and I have been teaching the girls to embrace all creatures (even the annoying or scary ones) and to observe them doing what they do and to leave them be (rather than killing them or crying for fear of being eaten by them!). So we have been looking at the wood bugs and some times try to get them to roll in a ball..... one of the girls calls them her friends. Yay!
Last one.....
berries! Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries..... never liked them very much at all. Especially hated the artificial strawberry milkshakes or ice cream. Yuck!!!! Until about 2 1/2 years ago.....
when I was pregnant with my last bub - I developed a taste for the berries and now love them!
(Still hate the artificial stuff.....) I like them fresh, will eat them just like that. I like them in cakes and desserts, in smoothies...... I find it rather odd really, that pregnancy can change your taste buds (maybe not that odd seeings it changes so much of you anyway!).

So to pay homage to something I was surprised I liked - here is a fantastic recipe that I tried the other day (with amazing results, as I've never tried making a pav. before in my life!)
Oh, and I added sliced strawberries on top as well...... enjoy!

Recipe taken from "Vegetarian Supercook" by the amazing Rose Elliot. (Truly a must have cook book for anyone who wants to experience food!)

'This is' theme from earl and cookie, nice one!
Three buttons will tell you all you need to know about playing 'this is'.

Pink in Indonesia?

PINK: a colour mix of Red and White
In the Indonesian language there isn't a word for pink as such, instead because it 'stems' from the colour red, the words to describe the colour pink thus has the word for red (merah) in it. So pink in Indonesian is either "merah muda" or "merah susu" or "merah jambu" which translate into "light-red" or "milky-red" or "red jambu" -jambu being a tropical fruit found in Indonesia which has a deep pink, almost magenta colour to it, hence the closest natural colour of pink that people can relate to. (image above)
Nowadays however with almost everyone able to speak English, the work 'pink' has been adopted into the Indonesian language, and almost everyone would know what it means when we say 'pink'.

Thank you to Jacinta for this great contribution on what Pink means to her.

Image from here.

Looking out the front window....

We are fortunate to have the most enormous Camellia bush in our front yard. You could pretty much call it a tree! We love it and have a great view when it's pink flowers appear.

Lark Made Pink!

Got new Lark yummy treats yesterday!
The girls were in heaven..... mainly about the sweet stuff, not so much about the good stuff.
Here are 3 Pink Lark rattles for you to drool over:

Cherry choc. cupcake

Watermelon

Strawberry sprinkles ice cream

These are all on sale this week.... 'cos they're PINK!

And if you are good and eat up all of these:

You can have all these:


(All Lark knitted rattles are made by hand by women in Bangladesh, under Fair Trade conditions! )

PINK

This week we're girling it up a notch! My 3 year old will be very pleased!

PINK PINK PINK PINK PINK

Looked up Wikipedia..... lots of pink ideas there!
Mainly associated with the female gender, pink was once a colour for boys! (and blue for girls)
Boys wore pink as it was a strong colour, being in the same family as red.

But why is pink naturally a little girls favourite colour?
Having first hand experience, my oldest girl loves pink, everything to do with the colour. If it comes in pink - it's hers!
There has been no influence to suggest she should like pink above all other colours. (Believe me, she has been exposed to all colours equally and none more than the other.....)
My youngest girl hasn't been able to experience much pink (as her older sis. has claimed it as her very own colour!) yet...... will she choose pink too? Maybe when she's older, she may secretly covet pink and sneak a bit of pink in here and there.... never letting her sister know in case it's snatched away from her!
Or maybe she won't care too much about pink and have a love affair with another colour. I hope so.

Would love your views, ideas on this sweet colour!
The shop is celebrating with all PINK things going at a special price..... not just in the SALE section either. Have fun!