While I'll be having a break from blogging for a few days (although I'm sure to be on instagram a bit), I wanted to have something Christmassy posted.
I decided to do a flashback to some Christmas outfits from previous years that I could find photos for.
Over the past few years maxi dresses have been my go-to for Christmas day, and I'll be wearing a maxi dress again this year! (I've included some great ones under $100 at the end of the post too).
Fingers crossed you find your perfect gift under the tree. If you're celebrating the birth of Jesus, or just the fact that you have a day off, I hope you have a wonderful time with friends, family and food.
If you can't make it to church or want to celebrate while staying comfortable in your pajamas, check out Church Online, we have some special Christmas services running this week.
But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. - Luke 2:10-11 NIV
Although I've only been back at the office 6 months, and I'm only in the office two days a week, I've been feeling slightly uninspired with my office wear lately. When I do think of something to wear, I'll happily repeat it again with similar items!
Last week was printed shirts, this week wasn't really breaking away from that format too much, picking striped shirts and pencil skirts. I do like the simplicity when getting dressed, makes it easier to decide what to wear if every outfit builds on something from the previous one.
Nice and simple: striped shirt, pencil skirt. Easy office wear. As this pencil skirt is a casual jersey fabric, I thought the slightly more formal collared shirt was a nice pairing, for a day with a few meetings.
The only downside to this shirt, that you can see in the photos, is that it's such a soft fabric it wrinkles easily. Both sides started out nicely ironed, haha!
As I liked the simplicity of the striped shirt and pencil skirt 'formula' above, decided to wear it again, with this newish navy tank. Last time I wore it was with jeans.
I preferred this outfit over the one above, even if I was in a bit of a rush that morning and rather sloppily tucked the shirt in! I think the navy and black is a nice colour combination.
Continuing to wear my maxi skirts as they fit my knee bandage underneath while still keeping me warm as we move into spring in Brisbane. (These pics were taken a few weeks ago near the end of winter). Decided to wear some of my grapic tees, as I haven't worn them in a while.
I really liked this outfit! I've mentioned before how much I love the tee (a gift from my bestie) and I thought the purple cardi and the grey skirt worked nicely with the navy. I was really comfortable and happy in this all day. Just had some errands to run in the morning, and a checkup at the doctors with baby T.
This is a good example of how just changing one piece of an outfit can make it look really different. I think the grey hoodie dresses the outfit down and makes it a lot more casual than the outfit above with the cardigan. Still just as comfortable though, and perfect for a morning at playgroup with toddler T.
This Threadless tee hasn't been worn in over 3 and a half years (the length of time I've been blogging what I wear). I went through my huge box of Threadless tees and sold the majority on ebay a while back, but I kept this one as it was one of the first few I ordered, and I don't have a lot of green in my wardrobe. I don't have a lot of green as I don't wear it often...as the long time between wears for this tee shows! I'm still keeping it, too sentimental to let go. At least I sold the 20+ other ones I hadn't been wearing, to justify keeping this one.
It's only for a limited time, so if you've got your eye on anything I suggest snapping it up quickly! The sale includes menswear too if you're looking for a little last minute something for Father's Day this weekend.
As for what I've been wearing, more maxi skirt outfits! They really are the best option for keeping me warm and still allowing me to wear my knee brace. Which I'm hopeful I'll be able to go without soon. I'm making great progress with the physio working up to getting the full range of movement in my knee again.
No jacket! It's officially spring, and this was taken in the last weeks of winter. I'm trying to make an effort to get a last wear out of some of my winter pieces before they are packed away. I did think about wearing a scarf with this also, and in the early morning it would have come in useful, but defintely wasn't needed in the heat of the day - I ended up rolling up the sleeves from the jumper as it heated up.
I was just working from home with a short break in the afternoon to go get a scan and find out how much damage I'd done to my knee. I'd thought of wearing this skirt as it as the slit up the side, for easy knee access, but the slit is on the other side! I ended up wearing it anyway. It was easy enough to roll up to let the lady look at my knee.
I felt amazing in this outfit, even if it does look a little odd in the photo. Should have tucked the tee in, so it didn't overwhelm my frame and make my already short legs look really stumpy! I had looked in the mirror that morning and decided it looked okay to leave it loose, a nice relaxed outfit for playgroup with the toddler.
I got this tee and skirt around the same time, so I'd been wanting to wear them together for a while. While it's not the best photo, and seeing it made me wish I'd tucked the top in, I enjoyed wearing it.
More office wear, with a very unimaginative repeat of the trench coat and ballet flats combination. Definitely a necessity for both days in the office though!
This is the outfit I wore when I was involved in a little incident on the way to work and smashed my knee. I had considered wearing heels that day, as I felt I hadn't worn them in a while, but decided at the last moment before I went out the door to wear flats instead. I'm so glad I did as it was hard enough trying to hobble around the office in these flats, I couldn't imagine what it would have been like if I was wearing heels. The one good point to a not-so-good day!
As it's the second time I've worn it, my purchase review: I reasoned that this top was such a bargain ($10) and would be perfect for office wear and SAHM wear so I'd be crazy not to buy it. I haven't worn it outside of the office yet, but I'm glad I got to wear it with these pants as it was one of the outfits I had in mind when I bought it. I'm really happy with this, and I have lots of ideas for more ways to wear it still.
Again with the same trench and flats! And bare legs. It wasn't actually warm enough for bare legs, I just can't wear tights over the compression bandage on my knee. I knew I wanted to be warm to try cancel out the bare legs, so a long and cosy trench, a thick jumper, scarf and a couple layers under the jumper helped a little bit.
Picked the same flats as the last time I went into the office as they were so comfortable and easy to walk in, felt like a good repeat choice.
The last two of my Fox in Flats Style Dare outfits for May, two outfits that I really liked. I got to wear some of my brighter, more statement denim. I have a few stand-out pieces in my denim collection, it's good to have something different to step away from the blue denim now and then when jeans are the best outfit choice.
The style challenge for the day was 'pure gold' so I knew I would be wearing these metallic jeans. They really make a lot more of a statement than normal blue denim, but being jeans they are just as easy to wear! I didn't have a need for anything overly dressed up, so I just wore them with a baggy tee. I needed something to keep my warms warm so decided on this jacket as it has the metallic thread running through it.
It was our wedding anniversary, so to celebrate we had a little picnic in the park and then took baby T to feed the ducks for the first time. It was a little tricky trying to get him to stop eating the bread though, even after his lunch! I thought the neverfull was the perfect picnic bag - easy to throw things in and get things out of as we sat on the grass. It was even warm enough for me to take my jacket off for a little while in the sun.
The last Fox in Flats Style Dare for May! I've been so behind with blogging it, and not just because I put it on hold to share some of the June dress week challenge pictures first. Only blogging 6 outfits a week means I quickly fall behind in posting if a style challenge means I have to get dressed every day of the week. (Although baby T is older I still like to have a few PJ days at home now and then, and some mornings are so hectic it's good to know I don't have to get outfit photos if I run out of time!)
The challenge for the day was 'nailed it' so I wanted to wear my favourite winter nail polish, OPI's Russian Navy. I had planned to just do my nails, but I had some last minute things to buy for baby T's birthday party so had to get dressed anyway! Used the opportunity to wear these red jeans that I'd been wanting to wear for a while but couldn't fit into a challenge prompt, and a bit of print mixing with the cardigan and cami.
Wearing Havaianas in winter because they are comfortable (and I'm a Queenslander!) and we were just running around the shops in the morning so I was indoors most of the time. I've worn Havaianas and sandals in winter before - as much as I like winter boots I don't like hiding my feet away for 3 months of the year! I'll have another excuse to wear sandals again soon, I've ordered a pair of Ikwetta sandals. I'll be receiving them C/O, so that I can post a review about them. Blogger perks! I wanted to talk about the brand a little before the sandals arrive for two reasons.
First, they are a company doing great thing. They have a kickstarter that I highly encourage you to donate to if you can. The proceeds from their kickstarter will go to build a workshop for their artisans. They have partnered with local people in Kenya who live in slums and make beautiful designs to sell to passing tourists, often only making $1 profit for 4 hours of work. With Ikwetta, they will have a state of the art workshop, high quality tools and environment, and they will be fairly compensated for their hardwork making intricate designs. They want to make a difference in the lives of the talented artisans making beautiful accessories.
And secondly, and rather selfishly, I'm telling you about them as when Sheeni emailed me about a collaboration, it showed that she had actually read my blog and took the time to express her thoughts on it, before explaining how she wanted help to end poverty for the artisans she had struck up a relationship with. I don't have a huge blog so I'm not getting emails every day, but I get a few emails a week from people wanting to collaborate and it's refreshing seeing one from someone who put some effort into their pitch, and that also wants to do some good in the world.
I hope you will check out their kickstarter, even if you can't donate at the moment. It ends 6th July. The products you get from some of the pledges would make great gifts too!
Sharing more of my office wear. The return to work has been tricky, but baby T and I are handling it well I think. From an outfit perspective, I've been enjoying wearing my pencil skirts and 'dressing up' in corporate wear for a change.
A lot has changed since I was away on maternity leave, and the team I'm working with day to day has changed quite a bit. I'm still doing the same role as I was before, just working with different people. There was a big department meeting where everyone from all our locations got together and the newbies and myself had the chance to introduce ourselves to over 100 people. I've mentioned it before on the blog, but public speaking is one of my great fears. I've done a few things to try and get over it (like recording youtube videos to get used to speaking to an 'audience', and taking part in a presentation skills group), but I don't think I'll never get rid of those nerves entirely.
As I was incredibly nervous, I dressed in my comfort colour - blue! This blue lace pencil skirt has to be one of my favourites, it always gets compliments on the blog and instagram too, the best sale buy. I've linked up some similar ones below. I thought the striped shirt worked nicely with it, you can't really see the stripes unless you're up-close, but stripes are always good for pattern mixing anyway. I felt as comfortable and confident as you can be when presenting I guess.
I went with heels for that extra confidence boost, and I picked these nude patent ones as I don't remember them being the most comfortable last time I wore them. I was expecting this to be their last wear, but I was really happy in them through the day so they are staying in my wardrobe. I need to ease myself back into wearing heels with my dodgy knee! They will never be as comfortable as flats of course!
I put this outfit together around the red flats. I was inspired by something Audrey posted about how to wear bright shoes, and realised I don't really wear these red flats a lot, considering how comfortable they are. I've worn the top and the shoes together before, (even with the same skirt!!) but not with a red necklace. One of Audrey's ideas was to wear a necklace and shoes that compliment or contrast a colourful top. Although I don't like the way the necklace looks with the neckline on the top, I was happy with the outfit overall. And very comfortable not wearing heels all day, hehe!
Two more #JaNEWary style challenge outfits and two different ways to dress up denim shorts. I'm still enjoying being a stay at home mum a little longer before I return to work, so I'm always dressing for comfort first. I'm trying to put a little more effort into what I wear and be a little dressed up now and then, so I don't fall into a rut of the same outfits over and over.
In the winter, I was looking for ways to try dress up my jeans, now in summer I'm looking for ways to dress up shorts. Just like before, I find accessorising is the best way to do that. And it's easy to do, just add a little something before I step out the door. Denim is a great option for life with baby, but it's good to be able to dress it up now and then.
It's the Australia day long weekend, don't forget to take advantage of all of the extra sales and discounts in between your celebrations :)
The style challenge for the day was to 'wear black'. Which was not my first choice for a sunny day, I'll be honest! Kept cool with denim shorts and a sleeveless tank. I like the ruffle detail on this tank, and it was nice and loose for a hot day.
My new scarf fit the challenge theme too. My mum bought it for me in Paris, it's beautiful. I thought wearing the scarf in my hair added a nice bit of interest to the outfit and dressed it up a little. Unlike the last time I wore a scarf in my hair, it wasn't tugged on too much by baby T which was good. We took a road trip up the coast, and had lunch by the sea followed by a bit of shopping. Baby T even had time for a paddle in the waves.
When I wore this, the style challenge was 'try something different with your makeup'. I am not a beauty guru at all. I have the products I use, and just one of each of them. While I was younger I'd have a few different eyeshadows and lippies, but it's never really been something I've been as interested in as I am in clothes or accessories. Over the years, I've downsized to my staple products and so my options are makeup on, or makeup off! I spent the day without any makeup, and hid it under a big hat.
I like how the hat worked with this outfit. I'm not a hat person, but being out so often during the day lately I am loving hats just for the sun protection aspect! The nice wide brim helps keep baby T shaded a little when I baby wear too. Plus a bad hair day is really easy to hide....I might be converting to being a hat person!
Wore this out for a day at Southbank with my grandparents and family, and felt appropriately dressed up enough for a lunch at the restaurants nearby. It helps that the sleeveless shirt has a few sequins woven in too. Isn't it pretty? Another cute piece my mum brought back from Europe for me.
