Worth Casing Wednesday Linkup – Mamma Mia… here I go again

WARNING WARNING WARNING!!

I’m putting my proud Mamma hat on this week for Worth Casing Wednesday, which I appreciate isn’t exactly for everyone. So consider yourself pre-warned.

I’m finding it a bit odd that I have to give a warning for these types of posts but when I share images of my girls or myself to Facebook, I tend to end up with a lot of negative feedback on that platform although not the ultra negative feedback that my lack of a thigh gap tends to attract here on the blog.

The thing is though, it’s who I am (a proud mother not the thigh gap) and who I will continue to be, so if you find that side of me annoying or not to your style, just move on to something you do like or just stop following my Facebook page. Simple. Same goes for those that are offended by my lack of a thigh gap here. Seriously move on people nothing to see here!

But if you don’t mind me sharing the more personal posts… stick around.

PROUD MOTHER MOMENT #948387

This week my eldest daughter Ashley (17) headed off to her Year 12 Ball. Ash has had a trying 12 months with lots of highs and lows.

There was her whirlwind school trip to Greece. Her feet had hardly touched the ground at home and she ended up in hospital for an appendectomy that uncovered a burst ovarian cyst. She had only just recovered from this and we threw jaw surgery into the mix.

Much needed jaw surgery that didn’t go according to plan. As a result the recovery time has been a lot longer and the braces we anticipated would be off following the surgery and in time for her ball/ball photos are still needing to be on a little longer.

While it is fairly early in the year for a Year 12 Ball, that’s how they like to approach things here in Perth. Get the celebrations over and done with early on which means the students can get back to concentrating on more important things like actual study with plenty of time before major exams.

It’s only now that we are on the other side that I can truly appreciate how distracting a Year 12 Ball can be and why I’m so glad it is out of the way, even if we do have to do it all again next year, for our next daughter who is currently in Year 11.

Throughout the year, I heard all kinds of ~~horror~~ stories about last year’s different graduations and balls. Including the fact that some private school parents capped their daughter’s Year 12 Ball spending at $2kish. WT?

Which oddly enough, didn’t actually include any after party shenanigans, just the Cinderella element to the night which for me would include dress, hair, makeup, accessories and a solid gold pumpkin carriage.

Some even flew their designer, custom made frocks in from Paris. Again WT? But I suppose… each to their own and most would raise an eyebrow at our rather low key but still fabulous (if you ask me) approach.

Thankfully we had more than a few designer fairy godmothers that waved their designer magic wands in my daughter’s direction, with some amazing and affordable options. There was also my level headed, budget friendly daughter who knows the real value of money having saved up and paid for her school trip to Greece last year (almost $5k), which meant we were able to set a fairly strict budget and stick to it.

Even if we hadn’t just spent a small ($26k) solid gold fortune on our daughter’s recent braces and jaw surgery and the budget was there to play with, I’m not sure our approach would have been much different.

Hair & Makeup – Moss Styling | Clutch – Jessica Bratich Designs |Jewellery – Tamara Harrison Designs | Designer Outfit – Jonté Designs | Heels – Betts Shoes

In the end after playing dress ups in Jonté Designs‘ studio for an event ready party earlier in the year, Ash opted for a two piece number. Not your typical ball dress but much like her mother (aka me) my daughter likes to do things a little left of centre to most.

Although I, for some unknown reason, left selecting a hire dress for my deb to the last minute. It meant I only had two floor length dresses to chose from in the entire small town I was living in at the time. A toilet dolly frilly look or the fluffy marshmallow dress.

Care to guess which hideous creation I ended up donning?

Oh the shame of it but as all photos have since been destroyed and I choose to follow a mantra… ‘photos or it didn’t happen’ it really didn’t happen. OK!

Ash on the other hand was super organised and while edgy, still well and truly looked the Year 12 Ball part, she certainly didn’t look out of place but she also didn’t end up looking like everyone else. The necklace, studded headband and cuff from Tamara Harrison gave the outfit a further edge as did the little black clutch from Jessica Bratich Designs.

I must confess, there was much discussion (& suggestions on my part) when it came to the heels but in the end the strappy ~~stilts~~ super high heels on sale for just $19.99 from Betts won Ashley over.

KNEES UP

Now I’d love to report the evening went off without a hitch but the fact is, the next morning I was online googling how to remove blood stains from a designer white skirt. Not even kidding and that wasn’t the half of it. You could say the evening went knees up early on in the night.

From what I can gather, my daughter tripped soon after getting out of the limo on arrival at the event. Busted her knee in the process (see the huge aftermath in the image above), ripped her designer skirt and had blood all over her white skirt.

I should add at this point that there was no alcohol or anything sinister at play just a case of really ~~high heels~~ bad luck.

True to her solider on and have fun character, my daughter managed to clean herself up as best as possible and continue on celebrating only to be struck down with a migraine about an hour into the event that resulted in a teacher needing to phone us to seek permission for pain relief to be administered.

For those that suffer migraines, you will appreciate that once they start, even after the strongest of pain relief, only a quiet and darkened room will help speed the healing process up. You can imagine what loud music and bright lights ended up doing to my daughter… far too much time was spent nauseous in the bathroom. Followed by a distress flare aka SMS requesting an early pick up.

The poor girl was home in bed before the official event was even over. She didn’t even make the after party. When I think of all those months that I spent stressing and debating the logistics of the after party and finally agreeing to allow her to go. Now isn’t that ironic?

At the end of the day (or night as the case may be here) what impressed me the most, apart from the budget friendly approach my daughter took for the evening was her couldn’t care less when everything went pear shaped attitude. Ash still managed to have a great time, in parts and she picked herself up and made the most of the night for as long as physically possible. I think I would have given up at the first hurdle which in this case was in the shape of a ~~really large tumble~~ limousine.