necessity is the mother of invention

I had another recent clothing crisis ... instigated by a growth spurt ... well basically my belly grows noticeably every single week!

I also decided I could not waste any time allowing my varicose veins to get any worse so I bought myself some knee high compression stockings. I will switch to full length ones as the weather cools although I wish they had stay up ones that grip onto your upper thighs instead of the regular pantyhose kind that I will just have to leave sitting tucked under my belly.

Firstly I believe the stockings are having a positive effect and I basically wear them from the moment I get up until I shower at night. I have 4 pairs and I hand wash each pair the day after I finish wearing them.

They are hot and they look funny especially when everyone is wearing short shorts, thongs, strappy sandals etc.

So I decided my best option was to try and wear them with some longer skirts.

One of the dresses I bought for myself last year had detachable straps so you could wear it as a short sexy dress or as a long skirt. It is scandalously short and I have not been able to wear it as a dress so I just think of it as a skirt now ... but it gave me an idea.

I need clothes that give me sun protection for when drop off and collect Kt from school so strappy dresses or even strappy tops are out.

I need clothes that are cool because I am really feeling the heat.

I need to wear the stockings to help my veins.

I don't want to look daggy when I go to school.

I want to be comfortable.

All this can not be achieved with one wardrobe so basically I wear something nice, sun protective, less comfortable and warmer for my pick up and drop off to school and also for going out shopping etc.

When I come home I switch to older, cooler, more revealing, comfortable clothes and I change back again in time to collect kt from school.

I have been doing this since last year but it has been absolutely essential this year.

So these days when i am at home I can be found wearing knee high compression stockings, short shorts and singlet style tops. I don't get too hot, I don't get uncomfortable, I can clean and move and sort things out without worrying about getting dirty and I can head back to school later looking respectable again.

My good clothes stay good, relatively clean and fresh smelling, my old favourites continue to wear and be worn and be useful.

I also looked back through my wardrobe again to see what I could do about finding suitable dressier things to wear and discovered that I could turn my other maternity dress into a longer skirt by turning the strappy sleeves in under the material and pulling the dress down below my waist, while wearing a long t shirt on top.

I can also do this same thing with a black flowery dress I like to wear ... I just have to fold the sleeves and top part under my belly, the skirt part of the dress sits on my hips and I put a t shirt on the top.

There was also a dress i got given that came from Greece. It had a boob tube type top bit with elastic that goes above your breasts, more elastic that sits below your breasts and then the skirt part.

Before i was pregnant it looked kind of feminine and nice although not my usual style. Once I was pregnant it fit well and was comfortable .... soft thin elastic but really made me look frumpy.

Now I just wear it as a skirt with both the upper and lower elastic below my belly. The material that used to cover my breasts forms a few ruffles and folds which appear underneath my t shirt, but just look like they are decorative.

Wearing it this way turns it into a fabulous skirt that I am likely to wear a lot, pregnant or not, and I am unlikely to ever wear it the other way (as a dress again).

So I am feeling very creative and inventive and happy to have found more wearable things in my wardrobe!

I did go out shopping last week and picked up a few tops ... one was a green maternity top (just because I wanted to see if they really are better than big tops) and also it was on sale for only $7 down from an original $18.

I also bought a couple of size 14 t shirts that will go with the new "skirts" I have created... and also a couple of size 14 long sleeve shirts that I can wear in winter when I am breastfeeding and while my tummy will still be big. Size 14's are roomy, not tight around the breasts, and are long enough to cover my belly.

I am feeling like I am pretty much covered now both for clothes for the rest of the pregnancy and clothes for the rest of the year and early next year while my size continues to vary....until I am back to wearing my regular clothes.

Hopefully I can avoid the shops (at least for clothes shopping for me now for a little while).

I also do not feel like I have overspent or wasted money on things ... maternity wear really is exorbitantly priced and everything I have purchased has been at a good special, or will be wearable for some time beyond the pregnancy too.

I have also borrowed some things and thankfully I kept my maternity wear from last pregnancy and every bit helps.

the ups and the downs

Yesterday I did some shopping!

I have really been trying to stay away from the shops as much as possible ... there is plenty for me to do here and I don't need any more distractions but there have been some things I have been wanting to get and things I needed to investigate.

So armed with my list and my catalogues I headed off for a very successful and satisfying shopping trip.

First I got a new Xmas tablecloth from aldi!

Then I went to Kmart to look for some swimsuits for Kt and some maternity wear for me.

Kt's current swimsuits are a touch too small and the elastic on them is just about gone ... not a good combination!

After searching for quite a while for the right section I found two absolutely lovely swimsuits in size 5.

One was a one piece pink with a picture of a fish on it and the other was a two piece rainbow coloured set with a little tankini top and the bottoms are a little skirt attached to the normal bikini bottom.

I fully expected to have to return one or the other for size or style issues but when I brought them home they fitted perfectly and Kt loved them!!!!

I also had a search around for some maternity gear for me. I don't want to go overboard with it, but I particularly needed something cool, comfortable and pretty to wear on Xmas day. I will also need larger clothing for the whole pregnancy and also for the time I am breastfeeding .... last time I went up to a size 14 in tops ... they call me busty these days!!!

I tried on heaps of different things, maternity clothing and normal clothes in larger sizes. Something like 3 trips to the change rooms with 5 things at a time.

I finally settled very happily on two dresses both in a similar style. One was a white maternity dress with blue patterns and with shirring elastic around the bust. I got size 12 because size 10 fits OK (snug) now but in a month who knows. There is plenty of "give" in the top because of the elastic.

The other dress was black with purple and green patterns ... also with shirring elastic at the bust. This one was not a maternity one, but a summery dress which can be either worn as a dress (with straps over the shoulders) or the straps can be detached and the whole dress shifted down to be a longer skirt.

My kind of clothing ... multipurpose and the shirring stretches nicely around a pregnant belly with plenty of additional stretch. This one was a size 14 (normal clothes).

I considered getting it in a size 16 (still fits but has a bit more room) but decided against it because it really is only a summer dress and should fit me fine until about march when the weather starts to turn cold. Then I can wear it again next summer while my breasts are still big and my belly is figuring out what it is doing.

The tag on the black dress read $45 (which is a lot for me to spend on one item of clothing) but Kmart had 25% off clothes this week, so I figured it would come to a more reasonable $30. The other dress was $39 and would come to just under $30 too.

At the checkout the total was much less than I expected (how often does that happen!) and when I got home I was surprised to find that the $45 dress scanned at $30 and then they took a further 25% off to make it actually cost me $22.50!!!!

Wooooo hoooo!!!! what luck.

Even kt's swimwear was 25%off! $27 for two fabulous swimsuits!!!

Very happy!!!

This morning though uni drove my car home from work and because it was dirty decided to stop and give it a wash at the service station.

While he was manoeuvring he backed my tail light into a guard rail (which he could not see) and broke the outer plastic. The lights still work, but the coloured plastic is broken and jagged and there is a small dent in my body work. He thinks he might just be able to get the outer plastic replaced at a smash repairer ... but I suspect the whole tail light assembly might need replacing. OUCH! Don't think that will be cheap.

Hmmmpffff ....

He was very sorry and it was an accident and he was trying to do something nice for me at the time ......

grumble mumble .... husbands :-P ... what more can I say.