Helloooooooooo!
Long time no see.
If you follow our facebook page you might have noticed a flurry of sudden activity so I thought I would hoppity hop over here and give you all an update.

After hibernating for a term for me (Michal) to lick my emotional wounds and process my abandonment issues after Emma left, and for Emma to adjust to her very different life in France (I will let her update you on that). We are emerging from our rabbit holes, blinking in the springtime sun, pulling up our socks and embarking on the new chapter of Petite Music Box.

And... it turns out... it is surprisingly exhilarating!

We are now VERY 2018, international artists collaborating, dreaming, and cheering each other on from other sides of the globe.
I can happily inform you that PMB are VERY MUCH still together!

I'm getting such a kick out of recording vocals and guitar in my lounge in New Brighton- and sending it off to Emma in France (don't ask me where exactly... she has told me countless times.. literally countless times... and I'm surprised she hasn't cut me out due to the fact that I still answer.. ummmm somewhere nearish Paris? I know they make some sort of alcohol there?.. sorry Emma.. one day I'll get a map)

Together we are recording brand new songs we can't wait to release to the world.
Together we are re-launching our bespoke songs business and SO enjoying creating these special songs for other families. (order yours today)

But here is where is gets a little new... we are now SOLO acts when we perform.
Except that by solo... we mean that our partner in shows are now all the incredible children and parents we perform to. As well as our own wonderfully talented and enthusiastic offspring!

That's right folks you can now book me (Michal) to perform at your Preschool, Kindy, Community group, Mums group, Birthday party or Teddy Bears picnics!
Please do spread the word as I am so excited to perform more and more as we move into 2019!
My shows will be a mix of well known covers and Petite Music Box favourites.. as well as something new and special- writing a brand new song ON THE SPOT with the suggestions of the children at each show. I've been practicing this a lot of home with my girls and it has been hilariously good fun!
I wrote my first song at the age of 5 and my girls each started writing their own songs from around the age of 3 - I am thrilled to be on a mission to show more children how they too can become songwriters and storytellers no matter what age they are!

We love this adventure we are on - and the best part of all is that you are on the journey with us! Thank you for all your support and love while we have transitioned into a new era! We love our PMB Family xx

Kindness.

Seems like a simple concept doesn't it?

Treat others as you would like to be treated.
Make everybody feel like a somebody.
Try to be a nice human being.

Surely that is something we can all offer one another? It is after all free to be kind. It costs us nothing. It is good for our own souls, as well as lifting up others.

Then WHY OH WHY does it often seems so scarce out there in the big ol' world?

I had to make a work call yesterday to a company whose sole purpose of operating is to make the world a better place. And blimey, but was the lady on the other end of the line mean! Like, out of her way unkind. And just a simple 3 minute phone call with her left me feeling small, useless, worthless, and afraid to pick up the phone again.

Her very small interaction with me was hurtful.

And it ruined for me what was a beautiful day of celebrating my daughters first birthday. Because her tone and words were the loudest in my head for the rest of the day.

(Dramatic? Yes. But I think you've cottoned on to the fact by now that I am 'emotionally gifted' as one friend puts it.)

However, I don't think I'm unusual.
Small interactions with strangers make up our days.
When someone is kind - even in a small way- like passing on a parking docket with time left on it- it can put a smile on your face, a spring in your step and a song in your heart.

But when the choice made is to withhold kindness from someone- you have no idea what kind of perfect storm is happening in that persons day.

I am TIRED of living in a world where we are sold the lie that kindness makes us weak. That when we give good vibes to others around us that it steals from us in some way. That there can only be one person on top. That there isn't room for everyone. That to be strong we need to be dominant.
IT'S UGLY AND IT'S NOT THE WORLD I WANT FOR MY DAUGHTERS.

And
it's
false.

I was watching the new(ish) Cinderella movie with my daughters last week (because if I watch Boss Baby one more time I will lose every scrap of kindness in my body). And I LOVED the message of the film -

Take courage. And be kind.

YES YES YES YES YES!

This is exactly the message I want ringing in the ears of my girls as they grow into women of this world. Do you I want to raise strong women who know their incredible value. YOU BET YA!
But there is great strength in kindness.
Only the strongest of people can give kindness to everyone the meet. Even when that kindness isn't given in return.

Yesterdays phone call with Cruella was a very important reminder to me to watch my own tone when I get frustrated. Because of course we ALL get frustrated. And rightly so. Life can be an irritating, disappointing, unfair, hot mess with bad communication.
But to be firm, clear and kind all at once is a skill I am keen on mastering.

I think when we know who we are, that we are one of a kind, that there is space and place in this world that is just for us, as well as each and every other human being alive.
Then we can step outside of the tall poppy rat race and just be genuinely nice people to each other.

So I will attempt to 'be the change I want to see in the world' from today.

Let us live lives that cultivate kindness.
Let us raise children who are kind.

And let us only send emails and never make another phone call again.
(not quite over it yet).


x Michal

After a long slumber, and with mere weeks before Emma departs, we have cranked into gear again and have lots going on!
It has been such an awesome joy to see that you guys are still here with us! Still loving our music and keen to be part of our wonderful community. I can't tell you how much energy and joy we have gotten from having you in our lives. Truly.

So here is what is coming up over the next couple of weeks:

GIVEAWAY:
You give so much joy to us so we want to give back to you! So we have a giveaway happening on facebook at the moment - there will be THREE winners! - so make sure you check it out now and be in to win!
https://www.facebook.com/petitemusicbox/

FACBOOK LIVE SHOW:
on FRIDAY 15th JUNE we will be popping up LIVE on facebook for a fun interactive morning music time. Make sure you head to our page at 10.30am with your little ones and be prepared to sing, dance and laugh (at us or with us... both are encouraged)
Get your little one's requests in now as we love playing all their favourite songs.

LIVE IN NEW BRIGHTON: FAREWELL SHOW
THURSDAY 21 JUNE
SOB! It is time for our last show together for at least a couple of years (in New Zealand at least...France... we are looking at you!)
Come down to Grace Vineyard Church at 10am and we promise a whole lot of musical fun!


After that.... it will all look a bit different as Michal will continue here in NZ as a solo artist and Emma will be doing the same in France. We will still be a duo behind the scenes, writing, recording and dreaming together! We are both excited about this next season for Petite Music Box and would love you to come on the journey with us.

So we want to know! What would you love to see in the future for Petite Music Box?

It has always been our vision, our purpose, and our dream to create a beautiful, magical, hope-filled musical universe for children that inspires and encourages their unique imaginations. We exist to bring families together, creating moments that will draw parents and close. We dream that our music will weave it's way into each families very special lives and be the soundtrack of these precious years with little ones. Children see magic and beauty in the smallest of moments, we want to look through their eyes and see that the world is indeed a beautiful place where anything is possible. Then sing about it.

And we can certainly keep this dream alive in two different countries. In fact, how amazing that we now have the opportunity to be present in two countries at once!~

xx Michal and Emma

Hello.. remember us?

You haven't heard from us much this year. This is for lots of reasons

1. We are drowning in small children.
2. We are utterly and entirely sleep deprived.
3. We are adjusting to the knowledge and impending reality that Emma is moving back to France - so everything is about to look very different for PMB.

Change is a funny thing.

In this incredible, beautiful, mundane, painful, inspiring, lonely, defining and emotionally intense last year ... I have found myself constantly longing for change in so many ways.
I catch myself looking longingly at the future, looking lovingly at the past... wanting to be in either or both of those places but knowing that the present is so incredibly special that I don't want to miss a second.
One minute I'm pitching a huge life change to my husband- a new house, a new job, a new country. And the next minute I am so grateful for a quiet life, wanting to stay in our little house by the sea forever and never go past my front door.
I have watched lots of friends move away, chasing new adventures in places I've never been.
I see others growing beautiful bumps, children whose names we don't yet know.
I watch my children transform before my eyes - not realising how fast they are growing until I look at old photos- then nostalgia hits hard and I have to catch my breath.
I have fallen apart and been put back together so many times this past year I have lost count.
I long for change not noticing it's happening all around me, all day, every day.
And that in this time of being undone. I am being changed more than I know.

With Emma moving. It has been a big adjustment.

We have built Petite Music Box together for five years- and it became so much more than a music project.
It has gifted me a friendship in Emma that is so rich. She is a remarkable woman. France you are so lucky to have her back for a while.
It created a community of parents brought together by our mutual love of our children, and was so much more than music. We had so many good belly laughs through our facebook live sessions that brought true real honest joy into our lives. Thank you to everyone who joined us on those Friday mornings!
It has inspired the soundtrack to my childrens early years. The songs we have sung for you all have been love songs to our own children. They mean more to me than any other songs in the world. (and that is saying a LOT when you love music as much as I do).
It has introduced us to other amazing musicians across the country who are all passionately creating music for the next generation.
It has inspired endless amounts of ambition and dreaming between Emma and I- there were times where it felt like anything was possible. And maybe anything is.


Emma moving home is a wonderful wonderful thing. I am so happy for her that she will be taking her children and husband back to her country. Her family. Her culture. It is so important and it is the right time.

But...

It's sad. I am sad.

I've been asked so many times what I'm going to do now.
If I will be finding someone else to replace Emma here in Petite Music Box (Ha! Replace Emma... Impossible!)
Honestly it has been hard.
You don't realise how much of your identity is caught up in something until that thing comes to an end.
I've been 'Michal from Petite Music Box' for the entire time I have been a mum. That's my thing. It's who I am. So when it's felt like that is about to be all over it has been a bit of a process.

But it's time to figure out what this looks like going forward.

My initial reaction was to QUIT! FORGET IT! IT'S OVER! I'M JUST GOING TO DRINK WINE AND NEVER SING CHILDREN'S MUSIC EVER EVER EVER AGAIN.
Haha okay maybe not quiiiiite that dramatic.

But now that the dust has settled - things aren't looking quite so grim.

It's just looking different.

I am still Michal.

I am still a songwriter.

I am still a mum.

I am still a person.

I am still here. And who knows how this will look. But it will look like something.

Emma will be Petite Music Box in France.
and I will be Petite Music Box in New Zealand.

We have new music on it's way. And I love it!

One of our new songs is called dreamers ... and I think it may just be our theme song for the next wee while. The chorus goes like this

'I am a dreamer it's true, but you won't believe what I can do'.

Here's to change. It's never what we think it will be.... but maybe it is even better.

xxxx

Emma is moving to France

The house in the picture is where I am gonna live!! Yes I know right!!

Hey ya'll

So we haven't really been blogging lately.. because... sleep. Sleep which was once gloriously a pretty regular and wonderful part of our lives... is now more like a passing friend who comes to stay occasionally..in the spare room.

Yes. I am so tired my analogies don't even make sense.

This week I was that sort of tired where basic human functions seem incredibly difficult. ie.. not dropping whatever is in my hand, walking through a door without hitting the side, remembering my baby has a different name to my preschooler. Those kinds of things.

And shouting.

I've been shouting.

I remember when my first girl was a baby I was really secretly smug about not being a mother who yells...

Ugh, those mums who yell. Why don't they just communicate in a calm loving way? Why don't they use a lovely sing song voice like me? Look at the lovely way I talk to my child.

Oh how the mighty have fallen!

I now have a house FULL of emotionally intelligent, tired females (and one very patient male)! And I don't know who throws the biggest tantrums, but I'm pretty sure my internal rage tops all of them put together!

How I looooong to go back to the lovely mum I used to be...
but she and her singsong voice can't come to the phone right now. BECAUSE SHE'S DEAD TIRED.

I have had so many moments of feeling guilty that I'm much less Mary Poppins and much more Abby from Dance Moms....

But guess what.

I've had an epiphany.

I'm human!

I'm a human mum, raising human children.

And humans lose their temper. (well most of them... well all the creative ones...well all the tired creative ones who are running late to dropping their children at school).

And today after I shouted about something to my daughter. I stopped and looked and her. And she looked at me. And we both started laughing.

And I asked her why she was laughing..and why she wasn't upset with my yelling... and she said..

"It's just silly when you yell, because I just know you love me so much"

OOOOOOH MYYYYYYY WOOOOOORD. This Kid!

She gets it. I make sure I am always quick to say sorry when my anxiety gets in the way of my communication. or even just regular plain old stress. Or tiredness.
In our house it is A OKAY to make mistakes. And that includes us as parents.

And the more I think of it (even though I still don't want to be someone who shouts often) the more I think being truthfully flawed in front of our children is life giving to them. And to us.

It gives them permission to be flawed themselves.
It gives them permission to get it wrong sometimes.
It shows them though our behaviour, our moods and our mindsets change.... our love for each other is constant.

And when we can take a moment to laugh about it. It shows we don't take ourselves too seriously.

And that laughter is the best medicine.

I love my children more than life itself. (Particularly because right now they are asleep). And if I can spend all of my days alongside them simply being authentic in who we are, the good, the bad and the ugly.. and through it all laughing our heads off at our own imperfections... then I have lived a very very good life. And I am grateful.

So let's all wash away the mistakes of the day by finding someone or something that will give you a blimmin good laugh.

And a wine. Happy long weekend!

Xx Michal

 PUFFIN ROCK

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