May was a pretty big shopping month for me, so I decided not to buy much in June...then the Iconic had an extra % off sale items. I couldn't resist picking up a maxi skirt I' d had my eye on for months after seeing it on Beth's blog, and of course I had to add in a few extra things to get free shipping ;)
In the end I only kept 3 of the things I'd ordered and returned another 3 so I'm quite pleased I didn't buy too much this month. Definitely going to be doing No Buy July again this year though! No clothes or accessories purchases for the next month. I didn't quite achieve it last year, hopefully I can do better this year! Here's what I bought before starting #NoBuyJuly16.
I have a goal of wearing things twice in a month after buying them. By setting myself this goal I'm making sure I'm only buying things I'll actually use now, and not just store in my wardrobe with the tags on. My wardrobe is full enough already! I'm trying to make sure I buy versatile pieces I can wear a few different ways too. I've started a Ways to Wear series to show the different ways I've been wearing what I bought. Really pleased I managed to wear everything twice this month!
Since we are halfway through the year already, I thought I'd do a tally on my spending so far. (I got this idea from Beth too, it's not just shopping inspiration she gives me!) I've spent a total of $1,510.77 which averages $251.80 a month. Most months, like this month, I'm well under that total. Considering I've bought 3 handbags this year I'm surprised the total is relatively low, but I'm hoping that for the second half of the year I can spend even less.
Another pregnancy OOTD post! While baby has arrived, I've got a few more pregnancy outfits scheduled to share on the blog. I'm at home enjoying the newborn cuddles and only venturing out when we absolutely have to. You can see my new mum 'style' on instagram.
Autumn in Brisbane didn't bring the cool change it usually does, so my autumn pregnancy style has been pretty much the same as my summer pregnancy style - maternity shorts, singlets, and printed kimonos!
I loved how well the Mulberry Alexa bag went with the colours of this outfit! And as I've mentioned before, this simple outfit formula of singlet, shorts and kimono makes me feel happy and comfortable each time I wear it.
Wore this to run a few errands and attend my obstetrician appointment in the afternoon, not an overly busy day.
Wore this to attend my first Australian Breastfeeding Association meeting. With all the craziness when toddler T was born (and being without a car for a while) I had never gotten around to signing up, so I figured I'd best give it a go before baby was born this time. It's always good to make new mummy friends too.
Kept with my simple fail-safe outfit formula like I've worn above as I'd be going to a new place and meeting new people I'd only spoken to online before. For a little confidence boost it's nice to be happy with your outfit.
While baby has arrived, I used the start of my maternity leave before his arrival to get out and about and take outfit pictures every day so that I'd have some scheduled posts to share, allowing me time to embrace the newborn days and the standard new mum uniform of pyjamas!
I wore these two outfits to make the most of my maternity leave and run a heap of errands and last minute tasks to try be as organised as possible before baby arrived. It means dressing simply too, easy maxi dress outfits don't require a lot of thought and are comfortable to wear whatever the day has in store.
I like the sparkly embellishment on this dress, so I usually save it for dressier occasions. However I noticed it hadn't been worn in a while so decided to dress it down a little with the casual Mulberry Alexa bag and wear it to go to playgroup with toddler T. Every time I wear this dress it makes me smile, even while pregnant, so I'm glad I wore it again.
Doesn't need any extra accessories with the beaded neckline, so it's really simple to wear.
I liked the maxi dress and Mulberry Alexa combo above, so wore it again a few days later. Had a quiet day with a few errands to run in the morning.
I didn't like this outfit as much as the one above. I wasn't sure what accessories to wear and kinda threw things on, although it looks okay in the photos I felt something was a little 'off' about the outfit all day.
I wore this the same day I took the video of my Shopbop sale purchases. I was so excited to wear the scarf right away! It does look a bit big though....hoping I can figure out how to tie it better and get some more wear out of it (it's only linen) before the weather heats up too much here in Brisbane. I'd bought it without checking the measurements as it reminded me of a scarf I had my eye on in the July sales, when I was doing #noBuyJuly. That scarf sold out before July was over and I could shop again. I'd been looking for a yellow scarf since, so was excited to pick this one up!
I worked from home and had an OB appointment in the morning, so I had to put some shorts under the dress so I had a little bit of modesty intact when the OB was checking baby's progress.
Although I'm only in the office 2 days a week, I've managed to get quite a few of my colleagues excited about Frocktober. We've been trying to get group pics as we go along, as we email them around to the department with updates on our dress wearing and fundraising progress. This day, someone suggested we should all try wear our best LBDs, and the final picture was awesome. Wish we had come up with a weekly theme sooner! Maybe next year.
I'd worn this dress in the third trimester before so I was confident I'd still be able to fit into it, and so I'd been keeping it in reserve for the later days of the end of the challenge when I suspected I'd be running out of dresses that fit! Was grateful to have something I knew I would be able to wear.
I managed to wear an incredible 32 different dresses in October in order to raise funds for Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation, even with the developing baby bump meaning I outgrew a few dresses in my wardrobe.
I wanted to do #31Days31DifferentDresses to fundraise for research into ovarian cancer. One woman dies every 10 hours from ovarian cancer. There is no early detection test, so people are often diagnosed when it is too late and the cancer has spread. More research could develop an early detection test, change those statistics and will make a difference.
While my challenge is wrapped up and done and I'll probably be staying away from the dresses for a while and enjoying the rest of my wardrobe, I'll still be posting some more outfits from the month on the blog into November. I couldn't let Frocktober end without a final wrap-up and call for donations though!
In the second week of the challenge, I was beginning to feel a little frustrated with having nothing but dresses to wear, and a little concerned with how many dresses I was having to set aside as I'd outgrown them. I began to organise my little capsule wardrobe a bit better to make sure I'd have enough to wear for the month, which lead to me wearing some dresses I wasn't feeling comfortable or confident in, just because I wasn't sure I'd fit into them in a few days.
By the third week I was outgrowing even more dresses and was glad I had so many roomy maxi dresses in my wardrobe! I was also very kindly given two beautiful new maxi dresses from Jeanswest which gave me some more options.
The final stretch of the challenge! I'd saved a few favourite dresses for near the end, knowing I'd be feeling a bit large with the growing baby belly, and a little fed up by the lack of choice each day. Despite this, I even managed to wear an extra dress when I got changed for an evening out.
There was just one dress that I still fit into that hadn't been worn in my wardrobe, not counting the maternity dresses I hadn't pulled out yet and the dresses I had to quickly set aside as they didn't fit a second trimester baby bump. So yes, I do have a lot of dresses!
Thank you again to everyone who donated - through my fundraising page or other means. Your advice, outfit ideas and inspiration, kind comments, and of course donations encouraged me to keep going with the challenge.
After my awesome wardrobe detox session with a personal stylist, I've been looking at my wardrobe differently. It's given me some more outfit ideas for old favourites, and a reason to re-wear some pieces that haven't been worn in a while. It's definitely generated a lot of inspiration for me with my wardrobe! Below are two outfits where I tried different things for my office wear. Quite colourful too with the pinks and blues and my lilac Mulberry Alexa bag.
I had wanted to wear this pretty skirt to the office again, after last time I wore it when I was finding it tricky to wear casually outside of the office. Pencil skirts are not the most practical or comfortable choice for life at home with baby! Good for the office though. I wasn't sure what to wear it with when I saw the tank and remembered that when Maudie did my wardrobe detox, she loved this top. And I do too! I've always wanted to find more like it, but have never had any luck. It's something that's been on my wishlist for a while, I keep looking for similar pieces. So easy to dress up or dress down, it goes with everything. And even hides a second trimester baby bump!
Kept the outfit simple and comfortable with flats - the skirt is quite clingy so I wasn't comfortable adding heels into the mix. Good for a fairly meeting-free day in the office.
This dress was something I was thinking about donating, but I wasn't completely sure. It was one of my first dress purchases specifically for the office, back when I had just started my current job. Lots of fond memories. During my wardrobe detox Maudie wasn't overly impressed with the dress on me, but we spoke about it for a while and now I have a few different ideas for how to wear it. I won't let it leave my wardrobe just yet, although it definitely will be leaving at some point.
Was a little on the fence with this outfit though! I wanted to wear my new jacket and I tried on a few ideas in front of the mirror the night before, wasn't sure about the textured jacket with the printed dress...maybe a little too busy. In the end I couldn't make up my mind and decided I should just give the combination a go. I always tend to think my first few autumn layering outfits look a little off, takes me a while to get back into the layering mindset after the hot and humid Brisbane summers! Fashion is all about fun anyway, and it doesn't really matter if the outfits work or don't work I still get a chance to try again the next day! :)
One thing I did notice fairly quickly is that this jacket is not as ideal for the office as I hoped it would be. It's got zipper details on the sleeves, which are cute, but the zipper pulls are not the best when typing at a keyboard! So much noise...had to take the jacket off while I was at my desk. Something I hadn't thought about when I bought it! I like the mix of gold and silver thread through it though. Hoping the weather continues to cool so I can wear it more often.
Slowly we are starting to get some autumn weather in Brisbane. It's cooling down quite a bit in the mornings and evenings. I got the chance to wear more of my latest purchases; the skinny jeans I bought in March.
Last year I started sharing my purchases on the blog and giving myself the goal of wearing them twice in the month after I'd bought them, so I could review what I bought and see what worked and what didn't. I've found it really makes me think more before buying things. A lot of people give the advice that you should think of different ways to wear things before you buy them, it's nothing new. All I'm doing is putting that into practice. Knowing I'll need to come up with two different ways to wear something I buy because it's going to end up on the blog is helping me make more thoughtful purchases, and reducing the amount of impulse buys.
Last time I wore this tank I wore it with blue denim and a red bag. I really liked the colours in that outfit, so thought I'd wear it again with red jeans this time. Wore this outfit for a movie date with hubby. He found an old movie ticket gift voucher in his wallet that expired soon so we decided to use it as an excuse to see a movie together.
Second time I've worn these jeans, so my purchase review:
I like these, but I'm might have figured out why they were in the op-shop in the first place! I thrifted them (only $5, bargain!) when I was browsing my local op-shops. I'm trying to make more time to do that lately. After my wardrobe detox I know I need to look at some more colours and they make it so easy to shop organising things by colour.
They fit really well, and I was very excited to actually find a pair of jeans in my size in an op-shop, that almost never happens! After getting rid of my old red jeans a while back because they kept getting really baggy knees I've been looking for a replacement, so these were perfect. However, I noticed when wearing them that they seemed to stretch out quite bit through the day. The first time I wore them I only wore them for the morning and they were fine. This time I wore them all day and felt they started to get a little baggy by the end of it. Maybe I put too much fabric softener in the wash when I washed them though...will give them another go. I can always donate them back to the store if they don't work out.
It's been a long time since I last wore this tee, almost 5 months! There is nothing wrong with it, I really like it. It's just a sign I have too many tops as it takes me so long to get around to wearing it. this scarf is another really pretty piece that doesn't get a lot of wear as I have so many scarves. It's been almost two years sine I last wore it! I rediscovered it in my wardrobe detox - Maudie instantly started putting outfits together around it it's such a versatile piece. Need to give it more love.
And another purchase review: as this is the second time I've worn these jeans:
I love these jeans so much! I think I've gone on and on about them every time I've brought them up on the blog. I've had to try really hard not to buy more in different colours. I think the new 'Prima denim' line at Jeanswest is perfect. I've always been a fan of their jeans, but this pair has given me the push I needed to get rid of many other pairs of blue jeans in my wardrobe as they will never be as good as these.
They look good, they wear well through the day, they wash well and I am so glad I bought them. Even at full price! And after getting rid of multiple pairs of skinny jeans afterwards, I don't feel so bad about buying them. I had too many jeans anyway!
Had quite a busy Saturday! Spent the morning with my family. We had lunch and did some shopping, of course we ended up at a baby store. Baby has so many nice new things now, very spoiled already! So pleased that we are ticking off all of the essentials off the list. In the evening we went over to the in-laws for dinner.
Thought this dress would be nice enough for both events, and the scarf as a belt for a dress has been something I've been wanting to do again for a while after seeing Cecylia's post. When my mum came over I'd been running around trying to tidy a little, so I'd taken the scarf off. When I put it on before we headed out, she said she preferred the dress without the belt. I still belted it anyway, I thought it looked better that way. What do you think? With or without the belt?
More baby shopping today! Went with my mother in law this time, Babies R Us have a big sale on so we stopped by to check it out. Baby ended up with even more goodies! :)
This grey maxi skirt is the other one I bought at Target last weekend. I am really loving maxi skirts even more than I did before pregnancy, I think I've almost doubled the number I own! Thought the plain grey would be nice with the bright top. And my Mulberry Alexa bag yet again, as I've been too lazy to change out bags recently.
