As mentioned in my previous post, I'd been talking about and thinking about my handbags, and how things will change with them when baby's born. When toddler T was a baby, it took me a while before I started carrying my bags again and not just throwing my things into the baby bag.
The Mulberry bayswater is one of the bags that I'm sure will be neglected for a while. It's perfect for the office, not so much a day with a toddler. In my final weeks at work before maternity leave it was good to get it out again.
Can't believe this is only the third wear of this dress! Considering I got it at the op-shop (thrift shop) for $1 it's still a pretty good cost-per-wear though. I had the usual second trimester panic that nothing fit and I had nothing to wear so I went op-shopping and found this for only a dollar. A size larger than my normal, I knew it would work in pregnancy. It's a great piece for the office, although I don't see myself wearing it much after pregnancy so I'll try squeeze in a few more wears before baby arrives.
Another day at the office, another printed wrap dress! Unlike the one above, I feel I'm wearing this dress a lot this pregnancy! It's almost a weekly thing....
It's nice though having a go-to outfit for work though. It makes picking out something to wear the next day much easier, no matter how tired I am at the end of the day.
I wore the tank top and maxi skirt combination frequently in my last pregnancy, so I have a go-to outfit for those 'I don't know what to wear' days. My maxi skirts have stretchy and comfortable elastic waistbands and are so easy to wear. Add a bright and colourful tank top and I'm set for a hot day! And comfortable too, even though everything I'm wearing is from my regular, non-maternity wardrobe it accommodates a baby bump nicely.
More house hunting! I've mentioned it here and there on the blog but finding the perfect house is taking longer than we thought. Anyway, the outfit. This maxi skirt is quite a thick one but it wasn't too warm paired with the berry singlet.
I was really wishing I'd picked something different for my feet though. Buckling and unbuckling sandals before entering an open house when pregnant and juggling a toddler is not the easiest thing to do...I ended up leaving the sandals unbuckled by the time we got to the fourth house.
If I wasn't having problems at checkout, the Rebecca Minkoff sale is the one I'd be shopping! I have my eye on the custom bag offerings! Sadly, I can't get past the shipping stage without getting an error. I've emailed but still haven't heard back.
It was a slightly cooler day than the one above, so I took the chance to add a kimono over the singlet and maxi skirt combo to try make it a little different.
It was a little chilly, so perfect time to wear one of my warmest dresses. And since it was Hat Day too, I was able to meet the #myStyleOctober challenge of 'hattitude' by wearing a cosy beanie. Layered up with a scarf as well as it got quite cold with the wind and rain.
I was so grateful to be wearing this dress, and not just for the extra warmth. The dress has a longer hem in the back that comes in helpful for toddler wrangling. I spent the morning at the accountants getting my tax done, having had to take toddler T along with me. Although he did sit there quietly 'reading' a book most of the time, every now and then he'd try running around. He managed to drop down and crawl under the accountant's desk at one stage!
We went out for dinner in the evening with hubby's family, so I figured I'd wear one of my 'dressiest' dresses for the occasion. I'm trying to plan out the month so I'm not left with something completely inappropriate to wear near the end! Dinner out seemed like the best time to wear such a formal dress.
We weren't doing much earlier the day though, so I tried to dress this down a little, and settled on the denim jacket and casual bag. I've been wearing my Balenciaga bags a bit lately!
This dress hasn't been worn much - it's been almost 10 months since I last wore it! It's definitely staying in my wardrobe though. I just don't wear it much as I keep it for more formal occasions. I think it's perfectly okay to only wear a floor length formal dress a couple times a year. I expect my 'everyday' wardrobe to get worn a lot more though!
Easy corporate style for those 'I don't know what to wear' days, printed dresses! They are a great go-to outfit for any occasion, not just for office wear.
I picked these two dresses to wear as I felt it had been a while since I'd worn them.
It was little chilly in the morning, and this is quite a lightweight dress, so I added a purple cardi under my trench coat that you can kinda see peeking out in the first photo. Kept me warm at my desk too as the dress has short sleeves.
Hopefully I can re-create this look when the weather is warmer, without the trench coat as I really liked the cardigan and dress together. I thought the fuchsia pashmina complimented the purple well.
A warmer day so less layers - just a trench over this dress. I didn't add a scarf, because I find this dress a little tricky to wear a scarf with. I don't have many plain scarves, most are printed! Could have done with a scarf to keep me warm in the early morning, but wasn't too bad without it.
It's been a while since I last wore this Mulberry Bayswater bag too! I wore it in March, on my first day back at work after maternity leave. Overall, I've only worn this bag 21 times in the past 3 and a half years (my blog archive is great for finding out info like this!). The leather is extremely sensitive to water, even after I've waterproofed it with the same product I use on all my bags. It tends to get worn mainly for the office. It's such a classic style that will never go out of date though, and some days you just want a formal bag like this for work, so that's why I've held onto it.
This post was created in partnership with Shopbop. Occasionally, Away From The Blue blog may receive vendor or brand sponsorships for mentioning their products or services. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely my own.
The sale ends on 20th August so you have to be quick! A handbag sale is a perfect way to start a post about a handbag.
I've been using my Marc by Marc Jacobs Eliz-A-Baby bag every day for over 14 months now, so felt it was due a review post. I thought I'd do what I used to do in the early days of my blog and share some more videos from my youtube channel.
When we started shopping for baby things, we checked out baby bags in every baby store, but hubby and I weren't too impressed with the options. They looked too small, too girly or both. We had always joked that I'd get a designer baby bag, so after a few weeks of unsuccessful baby bag hunting in person, I went to Shopbop! They have a great selection of baby bags.
I read every review and did further research on ones that looked promising. A big part of that research was looking for youtube handbag videos, which is often my first stop before buying any bag. I like to know it can hold everything I need before I buy.
As I like to know what fits inside a handbag, I did a 'what's inside my bag for a newborn' video after using it for a few months to help others considering the purchase.
Now that baby T is a toddler, what I carry around every day has changed. I also bought some cute travel pouches that I use to organise the bag a little bit more, so everything has place and it is easier to find. I recently did an updated video showing what is inside the baby bag right now.
Overall, I love the Marc By Marc Jacobs Eliza-A-Baby bag I bought last year. I'd highly recommend it. After constant use, you'd expect a few irritations to develop. In saying that, the only problem I have with this bag is that it holds so much, it's easy to over stuff it and make it too heavy to carry when you're holding a toddler too. Of course it's a positive as well as it means I can throw my things in there on days I don't want to carry my own bag!
Pros and Cons of the Eliz-A-Baby bag:
Positives:
It's HUGE and holds a lot (I chose the 'pretty' version of the bag over the 'preppy' version because it had the softer sides and looked easier to keep adding things to)
There are different ways to wear it (handles and a cross-body strap) so it's easy to wear while holding a toddler
It's easy to clean
The handles haven't stretched out with use
The bag is so light, being made of nylon
The material has held up really well with no scuffs or scratches
Negatives:
It's easy to just keep adding things to the bag and make it too heavy to carry effortlessly.
If you don't buy it on sale, it can be a lot more expensive than other bags on the market.
This post was created in partnership with Shopbop. Occasionally, Away From The Blue blog may receive vendor or brand sponsorships for mentioning their products or services. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely my own.
Sharing my June purchases and the final two outfits for the June Dress Week Style challenge, two work outfits. I enjoyed playing along with Kiki during this challenge, but I do think it was extremely challenging for me wearing so many dresses in winter. It definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone though, which is a nice benefit from a style challenge.
With all of these purchases this month it's easy to see why I've decided to do a #noBuyJuly15 challenge! I definitely don't need to be adding any more to my wardrobe. I still have completely unworn items from my May purchases, as well as things I bought and have only worn once! I didn't hit my goals of wearing things twice in a month after buying them...because of this I returned all of the tops from my Jeanswest order. I think I need a bit of space to wear and use what I own instead of buying more in July and compounding the problem.
The style challenge for the day was 'shirt dresses or wrap dresses' so I wanted to wear my newest shirt dress purchase. Wearing a dress as a top isn't a new thing for me (I've done it here and here before) but I actually really hated it this time! I don't know if it was the lack of a belt or just the mix of the materials with the dress, tights and skirt. It didn't stay in place and I kept tugging at it all day. The jersey pencil skirt wasn't very forgiving when the dress bunched up underneath it either.
I like the idea behind this outfit and all the pieces, but not how it all worked together. If I was to try this again I'd wear a different skirt, add a belt and pull the dress down. I think part of the problem was that I tried to let the dress drape a little over the top of the skirt to disguise that I didn't add a belt. See how Kiki had a better outfit for the challenge here.
This was what I wore for the 'Floral Friday' challenge. I did think of wearing this wrap dress for the previous day's challenge, but as it was one of the few floral print dresses I own I wanted to save it for this day instead. I've worn it a few times in the blog, during pregnancy and post-baby too. I've never worn it layered up quite so much, even pre blog I kept it as mainly a warm-weather dress. Was good to try something different and wear it in winter. See how Kiki wore the floral Friday theme on her blog.
I really liked this outfit to wear, but I think the photo shows how rushed I was that morning - everything was kind of thrown on and I didn't even have time to try straighten anything out before I took the photo. Taking daily outfit photos will never be more than something I quickly do before I go out each day, I'm not trying to and never will be perfectly posed and styled. I figured a rushed photo was better than nothing, as I was doing the style challenge I felt I had to get a picture. Still pretty pleased I managed get ready and take photos and get to work on time though, I was really running late that morning.
Leaving My Wardrobe: Asos Aggie Black Ankle Boots
This is the last wearing of these ankle boots too. The heel just limits the amount of time I can wear them, and I've already bought a pair of flat ones to replace these as shown in the video. They were comfortable and did well in my wardrobe, I just need things that are a little more suited to life with baby. From the first wear to now, I've worn them 36 times. Not bad for a sale buy 3 years ago!
A wrap-up of my May purchases and the second outfits with a couple of my April purchases, so some purchase reviews as well. I enjoy doing these. Wearing things twice in a month makes me think seriously about ways I can wear them before I buy, and reviewing how successful or unsuccessful I was at buying something I want to reach for in my wardrobe again and again is really giving me things to think about when I'm shopping.
I hope you're enjoying following along with my progress too! I recently did an interview with JORD watches where I talked about my goals and my shopping habits a little more. As well as gushing about baby T....
I planned to just get the handbag, but there were a few other things I couldn't resist! The 'fill a bag for $2' sale at the local op-shop (thrift store) means I have lots of new wardrobe additions!
I'm so pleased to have this shirt at last! It's a new purchase and I have been looking forward to wearing it. A few months ago I tried it on in-store, and although it was 25% off, I decided to leave it and wait for a 40% off sale. Of course when the next 40% off sale rolled around, the top was sold out in my size online and in the couple of Jeanswest stores I checked. I was extremely pleased to see the last one in my size on the sale rack in the Brisbane city store when I went in to return something from an online order and decided to have a browse. I knew I had to have it! We were out for most of the day - lunch with my family and then dinner with DH's family, and this shirt was perfect. I just added a cardigan when we went out for dinner in the evening.
The rest of my outfit was coordinated with my sister for the 'dynamic duo' style challenge from the Fox in Flats style dare, with the black pants and Balenciaga bag.
I really like these! Just as much as the blue pair I have. I got these in the Jeanswest 40% off sale, and another pair of the regular skinnies. I wanted to replace my old black skinny jeans as I wasn't thrilled with the fit, so I donated them. I've been trying to be more critical and get rid of those jeans I have that just aren't right for me to reduce the size of my denim collection. Since that left me with no black denim in my wardrobe, I ordered two pairs to make my mind up between them.
I did think that it wouldn't make sense to have both a black and a blue pair of the prima denim jeans, both with the same zip detail...but these are the perfect length for me and the other black jeans I ordered I would have had to have taken up for my petite frame. So I decided to keep these instead of the plain ones, and I'm glad I did. I really like the prima denim range!
This was a nice casual outfit for working from home and doing the day care drop off/pick up. I rediscovered this top when pregnant. Although I don't wear it much now, I used to wear it a lot. It never really looks great in pictures but I like wearing it so it is staying in my wardrobe.
The style challenge for the day was '70's situation' so like last time the 70's was a theme, I wore my flared jeans. Unlike the last time I wore these jeans, I enjoyed wearing them. Although the hem was really long worn with Converse and I did worry I'd trip up when holding baby T! I've taken the flares to the tailor now, I wear flats unless I'm in the office and so it doesn't make sense to keep these long enough to wear with heels, they will never get worn unless I shorten them.
It's the second time I've worn this top, so my purchase review:
I admit I was struggling to find a way to wear this tank twice within a month of buying it. It wouldn't have been so difficult if I had bought it earlier in the year when it was warmer. I bought it just as the weather started to cool, so layering it under tops is pretty much the only way I'll be able to wear it for the next few months of autumn and winter.
In saying that though, I'm glad I bought it, the yellow colour is so cheerful! I just hope it doesn't meet the same fate as all my other bright tanks that don't really get worn often. Perhaps buying something I already have a lot of wasn't a good idea, even if it is a really nice colour. I need to think a little harder about what I buy and be sure I really will wear it, not just think I'll wear it.
