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
This dress was one of my favourite maternity items in my last pregnancy, but it's taken me a while to get around to wearing it this time! While I did wear it a little post-pregnancy (it's a nursing dress too) it had been packed away with the rest of my maternity clothes and after unpacking it I had been waiting for the perfect occasion. I had been planning to wear it to toddler T's playgroup Christmas party for a while. Was the best thing to wear on such a hot day.
The only thing I didn't like about this outfit was the belt - I really wished I'd worn a different one. With an inquisitive toddler who loves to pull out all my accessories I've had to move my belts up to the top of the wardrobe and I didn't have time to rummage through the box and grab the one I wanted as we were running late. Just went with the first one I saw.
If you remember last time I wore this necklace it had a few more strands - the best feature about this necklace is that you can separate the pieces and wear it together or wear it separately. For less than $50 it's a great gift idea too!
Wore this for a busy day. We spent the morning braving the local Westfield gift shopping, crossing a few more gifts off our lists. Then I popped into the city to meet Rachel from A Nesting Nomad. It was great catching up with her and her hubby briefly while she was in the country! After having afternoon tea with them though I was still a bit full when we had dinner with the in-laws in the evening.
Red and black seemed like a nice colour combination, and it gave me an excuse to wear my quilted Rebecca Minkoff mini affair bag that hasn't been getting worn lately.
My final October outfit! I had a bit of a backlog of outfit pictures before I started the Frocktober challenge, and I wanted to post them before I started sharing all of my Frocktober outfits. Mainly because it's a nice timeline of the development of the baby bump. Thanks for sticking with me while I wrapped up posting the old outfits.
My favourite dress to finish up Frocktober! Just a relaxing Saturday, spending some gift cards we found that expired that day, and going out for lunch.
It was an interesting challenge. If it had been one of the instagram style challenges I like to play along with, I would have given up a long time ago! It was only because I'd set myself a #31Days31DifferentDressesto fundraise for Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation that I kept going, as so many people had generously donated to encourage me.
I did a Frocktober wrap up post here. There were some outfits I loved, some I hated, and despite hoping I'd be able to clean out my wardrobe a little by getting rid of dresses that no longer worked for me, so very few dresses actually left my wardrobe! With many generous supporters, I managed to triple my initial fundraising target and raise over $600 for such a good cause. Thank you.
I was so excited to wear my maternity jeans after Frocktober! I wore my jeans and pants as much as possible in the early stages of my pregnancy with the help of a belly band, but I was really missing my maternity jeans. I knew as soon as I wore them the secret would be out, especially here on the blog, and I wanted to keep the secret to myself a little longer.
It was so good to wear these - comfortable and practical for a morning at playgroup with the toddler. I wore my Kisschasy band tee I'd picked up at their final Brisbane concert too. Toddler T and I both wore our graphic tees!
For the final days of the Frocktober challenge, I'd saved some of my favourite blue dresses to wear. I'm sharing dresses 29 and 30, for work and weekend. I wore them both with gold necklaces!
This dress is one of my favourites for work, and I'd saved it for near the end as it fit in the third trimester last time so I knew I'd definitely be able to wear it in the second trimester.
Wore this to MC a Frocktober frock fashion parade at work. Wearing my favourite colour, blue, always calms me and wearing a dress I'm happy and confident in even with a growing baby bump helped me be a little less nervous, as I hate public speaking. All the 'models' did so well, took the attention off me so I could relax a little more and we raised a lot for Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation, which was wonderful!
I had to save a maxi dress for near the end of the challenge! It's been a few months since I last wore this dress too, as I last wore it for toddler T's first birthday party!
I wore this during the day, my sister and I took toddler T out for a morning of fun. We went to rhyme time at the local library, and spent a while inside an indoor playgrounds (I carried a pair of socks for me in the baby bag for that, as you have to wear socks). We had lunch together then took a very tired but happy toddler home to nap.
In the evening, I got changed into yet another dress! I hadn't had a chance to wear it during the challenge, was keeping it as one that would work for the office if I ran out of dresses, so it was good to squeeze in a wear. My sister and I went out to see one of our favourite bands we loved growing up, doing their final gig in Brisbane. I've shared my love for Kisschasy before, and they did play my favourite 'Strings and Drums' song as part of their set. It was a bittersweet show.
Two more Frocktober dress outfits. Some colourful printed dresses for the weekend, where we spent time out in the sun so my trusty sun hat was needed. I balanced out the bright prints with a neutral bag.
Had been planning to wear a maxi dress, but decided to wear this cute red leopard print dress instead. We are hosting a frock swap in the office to raise more funds for Frocktober, and I figured I could bring this dress to the swap. Wanted to give it one last wear before I did so. It's ordinarily a very flattering cut, but doesn't look the best with a baby bump. Belting it higher over the bump helped a little. I did enjoy wearing this out to a school fete, but I'll take it to the swap anyway and see if there is anything on the racks I prefer more.
I have a little red dress, I have a animal print dress, not really sure if I then need another that combines both of those things! I've gotten 9 wears out of it in the 3 years I've had it, so it's not as frequently worn as my other dresses. If there's one thing that Frocktober is showing me it's that I own many more dresses than necessary, I need to start getting rid of some! Swapping an old one for a new-to-me one is a good start.
This was the maxi dress I had planned to wear the day before (above) when I picked the red leopard print dress instead. Was perfect for a morning out at a family friendly festival. This dress is one of the ones that the stylist suggested should leave my wardrobe during my wardrobe detox session. I know that I do have plenty of maxi dresses, but I refuse to let this one go. I'm much too attached to it. It's one of the older pieces in my wardrobe - so old I can't remember when I bought it - so I'm going to end up wearing it until it falls to pieces I think! It's one of those pieces that always works and looks great: pre-pregnancy, during pregnancy, post-pregnancy and now in pregnancy again.
Same accessories as the day before. The sun hat protects my face and shoulders nicely from the sun on a day out and the grey bag goes with everything. I have no idea why Rebecca Minkoff discontinued this style, the MAM is a wonderful bag. There are still lots of cute Rebecca Minkoff bags (and I certainly own a few!), I just haven't found anything similar to the MAM.
Why fund-raise?
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.
What's the challenge?
There are 31 days in October, so for Frocktober I've decided to wear a dress each of those 31 days. To really challenge myself, I'm going to be wearing a different dress every day. #31Days31DifferentDresses. Makes it a little less boring and repetitive on the blog here too, and I'm hoping along the way to identify a few of my many dresses that no longer need to stay in my wardrobe.
How can I help?
I would love for you to donate - you can donate through my fundraising page here (I have a goal of reaching $200). It's not too late to get on board yourself either! What about a girls night in/out or a morning tea in your office, where everyone has to wear a frock and make a donation to the cause?
My first frock: this lovely Jeanswest printed one that I like wearing to the office. Paired with a blazer as it was a little chilly in the morning, and it's good to have my shoulders covered from the cold air conditioning at work. I've used this dress in the past to hide a second trimester baby bump in the office, and was pleased to find it hid the early second trimester bump this time around too.
I knew I hadn't worn this dress in a while, but didn't realise it had been over a year and a half! I am definitely keeping this in my wardrobe, but I need to get rid of some other dresses so this comes up in the rotation more frequently.
A more casual outfit for my second dress of Frocktober. This one again, hasn't been worn in a while. it's been a little over a year since I last wore it. It's cute and comfortable and really should be worn more! It was perfect for a hot spring day. Toddler T and I spent the morning visiting family on the coast and then had lunch with my mum.
I thought the denim jacket looked nice with this, although I took it off pretty quickly as the day heated up. This jacket only really seems to get worn in spring, so I'm making the most of it now before it's neglected in my wardrobe over summer!
First wearing of my new Balenciaga bag! As expected, I love it just as much as my blue one. Also my first attempts at wearing some too-short dresses.
Choies gave me the chance to order this striped dress for free, and they also threw in another dress as a gift. I was between sizes so went with my usual 'order a size larger to be safe', and also because I thought the extra length would be good. Being petite, I find that sometimes things that look short on the models are actually an okay length on me, but there is no harm in having an extra centimetre or two.
Both dresses arrived, and are lovely, but as I shared on instagram, they are much too short! So I've had to come up with other ways to wear them. Thought this post might be helpful for others who have received too-short dresses they can't return or that aren't worth the cost of returning. It's also a good reminder to check the length measurements before ordering something and not just the bust and waist!
I thought I'd try wear tights with this to make myself a little more comfortable with the short length, but I really wasn't comfortable in this at all! I think I should have picked a longer cardigan, that had the length in the back I felt the dress was missing whenever I bent down to pick up toddler T.
I've also mentioned in the past that I can't wear tights with the compression bandage I have for my injured knee. It's designed to keep the muscles warm, so I have to wear it under clothing so it's right next to my skin and it gets a bit warm through the day. When I add tights, it's just much too hot. I thought this day would be okay though as it was cold and rainy....nope. My knee got so hot so quickly. I couldn't wait to take this off! A bit of an outfit fail all round.
How would you wear this dress differently? I was thinking maybe as a bikini cover up for the beach...
After the outfit fail the day before, I knew I'd need a bit more coverage with this dress! While it does have the right length in the back and even in the front, it has curved hems so it comes up short on the hips. I belted it like a tunic over jeans. It would look better with skinny jeans, but I can't squeeze the knee bandage under them.
I really liked this outfit though! I felt happy and comfortable all day. I really like the way the dress looks belted, and I wasn't worrying about what it looked like from behind every time I bent down as I had jeans on underneath. It's a really comfortable cotton, which helps as it feels good to wear. I'm thinking this would look nice worn as a top and tucked under a skirt too...I can see lots of other ways to wear this dress. Definitely a winner, even if I don't wear it as a dress as it was intended!
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.
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