Combining two of my loves together for some colourful summer outfits: soft shorts and mustard yellow. Buying these shorts at the start of summer was such a good idea!
Wore this for Australia day, so I had to go with the green necklace to have a bit of green and gold with the mustard tank. I've worn this tank and necklace together before too. It was something a little different for Australia Day, as we usually try host a BBQ but skipped it this year. We went to the Yayoi Kusama exhibition at Brisbane's Gallery Of Modern Art before having lunch in the city. I was hopeful we might get to see some more of the exhibition but our main goal was to see The Obliteration Room in the kid's area. You get given a sheet of stickers, walk into a white room and get to stick the stickers wherever you want. Toddler heaven!
The boys are always trying to stick stickers everywhere at home, so I thought they'd enjoy being given free reign and leaving their imprint on a fun work of art. As you can see from the Instagram photo, it was near the end of the exhibition so there wasn't much white left, but it was still a lot of fun. They had an incredible time and although I didn't get to see other bits of the exhibition I'd wanted to, it was so much fun seeing how much they enjoyed the room.
I'd thought of wearing a monochromatic outfit as it would look great in photos, but wanted to wear my mustard tank more. I did feel a little regret when I watched a lady in a black and white dress posing in front of a professional grade camera and realised her shots would look beautiful! But I was happy and comfortable in this outfit, nice for a hot day out in the city. I did dress the boys in white shirts and they looked especially cute in all the photos. Of course I regretted that outfit choice later too when they had ice cream... 😂
I shared this on Instagram for Australia day but I'd worn it a few days before, I just hadn't gotten around to sharing it then. It was a busy day, with the daycare runs, my usual working from home, and then a specialist appointment for the little one. The stress of a busy day and of trying to find and get to a new location on time was quickly forgotten when we stopped to buy milk on the way home and I picked myself up a well-earned tub of Ben and Jerry's!
Given how high I had to wear these shorts to disguise the mum-tum though, probably could have skipped the ice cream. Still ate and enjoyed it though!
The necklace is gold and the chain on the mini MAC is silver, and the aquamarine doesn't match anything else I'm wearing, but I really liked this outfit. I think the colours all worked so nicely together despite not matching, and it was perfect for a hot summer day.
Soft shorts are the best for a hot and humid day. A plain tank is always a good basic to wear with them, especially if they have a print or embroidery as these ones do. Another benefit to a basic tank is that you can be a little more adventurous with your necklace and pick a bolder statement piece if you want.
Everyone repeats clothes at some point (even celebrities who probably have more clothes than they could ever possibly wear). In my quest to try and get more use from my wardrobe, I try to wear things a little differently now and then. Instead of completely repeating an outfit piece by piece, I'll take elements I loved and use it to come up with an outfit formula to follow to wear the same thing slightly differently. Like everyone else though, sometimes you just have to repeat an entire outfit head-to-toe!
When I saw these olive embroidered shorts, I instantly thought of wearing them with stripes. I decided to wear them with my foil striped tee, and loved it so much the next time I wore them I picked another striped tee. Same formula, slightly different results.
I wore this back in December! I'm usually a little behind with sharing my outfit photos on the blog, but nothing makes me feel more disorganised than sharing December photos in January, with the new year making these last years photos 😂
Delayed posting aside, I really liked this outfit! I wore this for our playgroup Christmas party which I overly shared on Insta stories. I've been going to this playgroup since Toddler T was a baby, he had his first Christmas party there and I always go snap happy taking tons of photos of the boys enjoying the massive picnic spread. There were chocolate eclairs this time, and so of course I have a fair few chocolate face photos!
I thought the metallic foil stripes on the tee and the Christmas bow on my wrist were nice nods to the Christmas theme without getting too dressed up, as there would be a lot of sitting on the ground and running around with toddlers. I did dress the boys up in their novelty Christmas tees though!
I liked the first metallic stripe tee outfit so much that I planned this one, again with the same shoes, although a different Rebecca Minkoff bag. I liked this resulting outfit much I wore it twice! Wore it on Monday, for some errands and a specialist appointment and then again a couple days later on the Wednesday. There was a bit of a stressful day or so in between with an unexpected overnight hospital stay for the little one, and some frantic rescheduling of planned appointments and work for me so that Baby Boy was taken care of.
To make things easier on myself, I just pulled on Monday's outfit again. Another doctor's appointment but also the opportunity to work from home while my mother in law looked after baby boy. An outfit formula is a wonderful way to make getting dressed easy, but there is nothing easier than repeating an entire outfit when you're too stressed to think of anything else!
Crazy backstory aside, I did enjoy wearing this outfit. Nothing really matches, with the navy stripe tee, olive floral embroidered shortsand mustard bag, but I do love the way all of the colours work together.
Nothing wrong with repeating an outfit combination you love! But if you want to change things up a little, try using the pieces that you loved from the outfit to make up a formula to follow to recreate a similar one with different pieces. This also works if you're inspired by an outfit you see but don't have the exact pieces in your wardrobe - identify what you liked about the outfit and see if you could create something similar based on that formula. Outfit formulas work well when you're pushed for time in the mornings too. You can use an outfit you loved for inspiration for a quick outfit another day, just by following the formula you create.
I love printed pieces, especially stripes, and given the choice between a plain piece and a printed piece I'll usually go for the print! Over the past couple of years I've been really trying to focus more on adding basics to my wardrobe - nice plain pieces that go with anything in my wardrobe. Plain doesn't have to mean boring though, as you can see from these fun colourful tanks. Simple style and cut but bright and cheerful colours.
For their first wear, I wore these bright tanks with some relaxed and soft printed shorts. Easy summer SAHM dressing.
I was excited to wear these two new pieces together, I bought them both during separate shopping trips at the Jeanswest sale. I like that these shorts have pockets too. I was surprised to see how nicely the blue tank works with the aqua bag - I wouldn't change anything about this outfit! It was so comfortable and perfect for a hot summer day.
We took each of the boys shopping separately to let them pick out Christmas gifts for each other, then watched Santa's arrival parade at out local shopping centre. (I wore this earlier in December). To finish off a busy morning, we had swim lessons. It was a much more relaxing and quiet afternoon!
It was a quiet Sunday, just a couple of errands in the morning, but I loved how bright and colourful this outfit was. I'm looking forward to wearing this tank a lot more - perfect addition to my wardrobe.
An ideal wardrobe would have the perfect balance of plain pieces and printed pieces to allow for a lot of outfit options. Basic plain pieces don't have to be neutrals - add a little colour with bright basics that still pair just as nicely with printed pieces as neutrals do!
Boxing Day Sales!
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My blog friend Ruth does these 5x5 style challenges on Instagram. Another blog friend, Eileen and I started talking with her about it and thought it would be fun to participate. We decided to do an international style challenge a couple of weeks ago near the end of November.
The rules: 5 pieces of clothing to create 5 outfits over 5 days, with a black and burgundy colour scheme. Accessories like shoes, necklaces, scarves, handbags, outerwear, can be added as needed and don't count as one of the 5 pieces.
Who took part: Ruth @ruthyannie, Eileen @eileensed and myself, @awayfromblue. Ruth did this over autumn in the cold weather, and Eileen had to dress a growing baby bump too! I have so much admiration for them both!
This is going to be a bit of a long post as I share with you what we wore over 5 days! I hope you'll get a lot of outfit inspiration from it though, and discover some new ways you can rewear pieces you already own.
My Capsule Wardrobe
After a few last minute swaps and changes, these are the 5 pieces I came up with for the challenge.
black drawstring waist maxi skirt
black denim shorts
burgundy jersey dress
black, burgundy and cream shirt dress
burgundy slouchy tee
My choices were limited by the colour scheme which helped me make decisions about what to pick as my 5 pieces. The last time I did a capsule, it was my third trimester capsule wardrobe and the growing bump helped limit my options there too! I did have to go into the office for one day which made me pick the shirt dress, even if the print is more red than burgundy. I figured it was close enough!
The main worry I had was around structuring the pieces I wore to allow me to have them washed and ironed ready for the next wear With two messy toddlers it was highly unlikely I was going to be able to wear things twice in a row without washing them! In the end I came up with 6 outfit ideas so that if something wasn't ready in time, I'd have a fall back option.
For the first day of the challenge I went with a classic tee and maxi skirt combo. When I'd first started planning outfits and pieces for the challenge I'd went with a different burgundy tee, and changed my mind and swapped it for this tee instead. I didn't like the way this one sat with the maxi skirt though, I was a bit frustrated with it both tucked and untucked and wasn't as comfortable with this outfit as I could have been. Easy outfit for playgroup though.
This was as 'formal' as my outfits got during the challenge, the majority of them were casual outfits. I had to go into the office, so picked this shirt dress to fit in with the business casual dress code. I found myself fussing with this outfit too during the day though, the dress seemed to ride up a lot and I was constantly tugging it back down. I much prefer wearing this dress as a kimono, or layering it up with tights in winter.
I knew with the darker black and red print on the dress (it's a geometric print although it looks like polka dots in the pics!) that this Marc Jacobs bag would work perfectly with it. This bag doesn't get worn as often as it did when I first got it, but it's still a nice choice for work. It's been tagged in 62 posts on the blog and most of the time it featured in both outfits of the posts, so you can see it was worn a lot in the past! Such a unique colour too, a deep purple-y brown.
The simplest of all my challenge outfits, and also the most popular. I wore this to work from home and attend a specialist appointment with baby boy in the afternoon. With the burgundy star print dress, I added black through my accessories, with the same ankle boots I'd worn the day before and another little worn bag, my Mimco button bag.
This was actually my first expensive bag purchase, despite how little I wear it now I'm never going to let it go. I spent months thinking about it and saving for it and picking out the perfect colour combo I wanted and I still remember the excitement of going to the store to pick it up! Very treasured even if not frequently worn now. I think I bought it in 2007 at the height of the button bag trend, still looks great. Sadly it's discontinued, the closest thing is the Mimco Turnlock bag that's around $200 more expensive than the button bag was 10 or so years ago, or to go to ebay for the classic style.
An incredibly busy day called for a comfortable and casual outfit, and the first wearing of the last of my 5 pieces, my black denim shorts. Added the comfy slouchy burgundy tee and the printed dress was worn as a kimono. Converse were a practical choice for a busy day, and the mustard yellow bag was a fun touch of colour with the black and burgundy.
Baby boy had some more tests at the hospital in the morning, so I had the day off. With my mother in law available to watch the boys, as it was a day I normally work, I made the most of it and she looked after them both once the testing was done so I could gt a rare child free afternoon to go Christmas shopping. And I shopped up a storm, getting the majority of the things remaining on my Christmas present list!
For my fifth and final outfit with my 5 pieces, I wore my denim shorts again and the lovely burgundy dress as a top. I added turquoise accessories with the necklace and Rebecca Minkoff mini MAC bag for an extra touch of colour. I've won dresses as tops before, it's a nice way to wear something a little differently. The extra dress fabric wasn't too bulky although it was a bit of a pain tucking it in to the shorts every time I went to the bathroom! I had considered doubling up on the dresses and wearing the shift dress as a kimono over this again, but despite how little time I spent with the boys the day before it still got messy and had to have a wash. That was the hardest part of this challenge - making sure everything was washed and ironed in time to wear again!
This was a nice outfit to finish the challenge on, I ran around with the boys completing a few errands.
Hope you enjoyed seeing the different outfits we were able to create for the challenge. While it was a fun challenge for me, I was looking forward to getting back into my regular wardrobe at the end of it! Especially after buying lots of new pieces that month that I was eager to wear.
Thanks so much to Ruth and Eileen for inviting me to take part - if you don't already, you should follow them on Instagram!
