While I'm still on leave, I haven't shared these outfits from before the Christmas break yet! Summer in the office is usually pretty relaxed, when the heat gets too much they often change our already business casual dress code to be even more casual. If I'm worried my outfit is a bit too casual though, even with relaxed dress codes, I add a blazer, just like I've done in both outfits below.
I'd just worn this blue tanka few days before, but wore it again to the office to squeeze in one more wear before the month ended, to meet my 'wear things twice in the month I buy them' goal. It's a great casual top, so I added the blazer to ensure it would work for the office as well. Although the turquoise tank and the navy skirt are very different blues, I thought they would look great together, and I couldn't resist adding this colourful yellow statement necklace for even more colour.
I really liked all the colours in this outfit together. The neutral black ballet flats and grey blazer were good accessories, and my Rebecca Minkoff navy MAB tote matched the jacquard pencil skirt well.
Wasn't quite so sure about all the colours in this outfit. I love yellow and blue together, and the green necklace is great with the yellow tank...but I think that something was off about this outfit, I didn't like it as much as the blue one above. Getting woken up far too early by baby boy and being too tired to consider my outfit properly that morning may have impacted how I felt about it, ha! I am always harsher with my outfits if I'm not having the best of days.
I was hoping for an easy day at work for being exhausted before my day even began, but when I realised it wasn't looking that way I popped out to Starbucks for a little morning tea treat between meetings.
Thankfully my day improved when I got home, it's impossible to have a bad day when you get excitedly greeted by 2 little boys and a very fluffy dog.
Your casual summer tanks can easily do double duty in the office when worn under a blazer and paired with a classic pencil skirt. If you're worried a bright tank may be too bold for your office, try picking neutral layers and accessories to wear with it. A blazer definitely isn't needed in the middle of a Brisbane summer, but you can easily take it off for the commute and slip it on to combat the cold aircon at your desk in the office. Such a simple layer to make any outfit feel more pulled together and office appropriate.
Skipping a few outfits I still haven't shared from December to post my Christmas outfits before we get too far away from Christmas day! I've linked to a few of the Christmas day photos I shared too, in case you missed them on social media.
For Christmas Eve, we traditionally do crafts, make and decorate cookies, listen to Christmas songs, and just relax and enjoy spending time together while wearing our Christmas tees. Christmas day was a busy one, we had both sets of grandparents in Brisbane so we split the day between them both. Different activities means two different outfits.
As Christmas eve was on a Sunday, we took advantage of the special Christmas service at our local church in the morning, before heading down the coast in the afternoon to spend time with my family.
As you might have seen from my overshare on Insta stories, we all wore our Christmas tees, made and decorated cookies, did some craft, ate a lot of good food and watched Polar Express with the boys for the first time. They loved it!
I often wear this tee with shorts to beat the heat (even while pregnant!) but decided to be a little different this year and wear with a skirt instead. Thanks to everyone who voted on Instagram to help me pick, I went with this red skirt over the chambray one I was also considering. Red and green are perfect Christmas colours!
Instead of putting the boys down for a now much needed and overdue nap, we hopped into the car to drive to my parents and thankfully they slept a little then.
Another Christmas tree, more presents to be exchanged and so much good food, we a delicious Christmas dinner there. A storm hit in the evening so when it briefly stopped we headed home, perfect timing as once we were home again we got hit with a second storm.
With traveling, unwrapping presents, playing with toys and lots of food, I went with a classic maxi dress. It's my go to for Christmas day as we all like to get dressed up for it in my family. Hubby's family is much more casual, but a maxi dress is perfect for both places. With 36 degree heat too (97 fahrenheit) this light dress was all I could stand to wear.
Although it's been a while since I've bought a new dress for Christmas, I was happy to shop my wardrobe and pick out an existing maxi dress. My bestie gave me this one, and it never fails to get compliments. Added lots of gold and rose gold accessories to compliment the peach ombre maxi dress and colourful yellow Balenciaga envelope clutch.
Formal or casual, however you dress to celebrate Christmas, comfort is key. With all of the good food you want something non-restrictive, so an empire waist maxi dress or elasticated maxi skirt is a good idea. Perfect for when the aircon gets too cold as it covers your legs, but loose enough to catch the breeze and keep you cool when it's a hot and humid day. You can wear a maxi in winter too, although snow might make it a little harder!
Hope you had a wonderful Christmas last week and you're having a great start to 2018!
While I'm not a massive opshopper (thrift shopper for my American readers!) I do like browsing when I can and occasionally getting a bargain. Back in October, my local store had a 'fill a bag for $2' sale. I took the rare opportunity to leave the boys home with hubby and have some time to myself to browse. I didn't try anything on, just filling my bag with things that looked good and I guesstimated would work.
I've shared before that I sometimes wonder if it's worth buying less than perfect pieces at the opshop with the idea of spending more to get them tailored to fit. But with two of the thrifted pieces I'm wearing below I decided to go ahead and spend more on getting them tailored. They worked out at 67 cents each so even with the average $14 tailoring price for both they were still bargains.
This beautiful tribal print skirt used to be a strapless dress. It looked nicely made, but you could see where the fabric had been pulled from someone constantly adjusting it. I couldn't get past the gorgeous print and colours, it looked lovingly handmade too so I added it to my bag, reasoning I could wear it as a maxi skirt. When I got it home and tested this theory out, I realised it was going to need a bit of elastic sewn in to keep it in place as a skirt. Luckily my tailor was happy to do that for me. While it's not quite maxi skirt length, and is more an ankle grazing length on me, I adore it. I've never seen anything like this in the stores and being cotton it's sure to get a lot of wear over summer.
It's made me think about getting my red maxi skirt fixed up - it's a bit too long (#petiteprobs!) but I usually just get around that by wearing it higher on my waist.
Wore this out for an errand filled day with the boys, trying to cram everything in before a predicted storm was due to arrive. Thankfully it passed right by us. I did a little detour in the morning and stopped by the Jeanswest sale again, and picked up another little something which you'll have already seen in my November purchase post.
Both the tee and the shorts I picked up at the same $2 sale! The super soft tee was perfect as it was, so no alterations were needed there. I got it to replace my black tee which I accidentally destroyed by sticking it in the wrong wash cycle one too many times!
When I saw these shorts I was drawn to the colour and felt positive when I saw the size label was my normal size. I threw them in the bag. After having my colours 'done' pastels were one of the things suggested to keep away from my face, so I thought these shorts would be a nice way to add some pastels to my summer outfits.
I was disappointed to get them home and realise that they were either labeled incorrectly or a different sizing standard, as they were much too big. After debating if I could belt them, I decided to go ask my tailor if she could do anything. And she could! I felt pretty good about giving these shorts a new life, slightly tapered off by then seeing very similar shorts on sale for less than half the cost of the alterations.
The way I see it though, I supported a charity buying them in the first place (even though it was just $2...), and supported a local business with the alterations. So I don't feel too bad that there are similar styles available cheaper. $14.67 is a pretty good price for a cute pair of shorts!
Wore these out to playgroup, where the boys had chocolate chip cookies and of course my shorts were smeared in chocolate. Hopefully these light shorts will fare better next time I wear them!
It can be tricky to find your size when op shopping. While there are ways around things being slightly too big like belting or wearing skirts higher on your waist, you can always alter something to make it fit. If you're not crafty or are a bad sewer like I am, finding a local tailor is a good idea. They can give you ideas and advice on ways to change garments and make them work for you. Something to try when you love something so much you don't want to leave the store without it. (Tia is my local tailor who I recommend if you're in the Brisbane bayside and this post was not sponsored, she doesn't even know I'm writing it).
Do you buy things knowing they will need alterations, or do you leave them on the opshop rack and hunt for other treasures that fit?
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!
