We had a birthday/Easter lunch at the in-laws on Monday. A maxi dress seemed like a nice choice, especially with the heat! Thought that the bright clutch was a nice addition to balance out the black and white of the dress.
I have some more colourful maxi dresses that I could have worn, but not all of my non-maternity maxi dresses fit in the third trimester. Part of the reason why I bought another one on Saturday ;)
Back to work today! A short 3 day working week due to the public holidays. A lot of people took the 3 days off to make a long Easter break, but hubby and I are saving our leave for baby's arrival. Just a simple pencil skirt and tee combination to be comfortable. Very similar combination to the last time I wore this tee! I've said it before, but the relaxed 'business casual' environment at work has made it easy for pregnancy dressing. It's good I can still wear tees and pencil skirts, even if the tees are being stretched to the limits at the moment!
I took the time last week to list some items on ebay in an attempt to make more space at home after my wardrobe clearout - checkout my auctions. Selling a mix of clothes and even handbags too. Everything ships internationally :)
We had a few cool and stormy days in December so I took the opportunity to get some more wear from my maternity skinny jeans, before the summer temperatures make jeans too hot to wear.
While these are denim, they are such a dark wash that you wouldn't be able to easily tell that they are jeans, so I wear them to the office quite a bit. A good pregnancy workwear option!
As I'm doing the fox in flats DAREcember style challenge, I wore a bit of a bracelet stack to meet the 'army candy' prompt.
Managed to do two style challenges in one! 'Red lip' for Fox in Flats DAREcember and 'sparkle and shine' for Summer Style File. After never having worn red lipstick before and only buying it as part of a challenge, I've quickly become a fan. I love this shade.
This tee was another one I'd been looking at in my wardrobe wanting to wear before the bump gets too big! It has a subtle metallic shimmer to it, a really nice piece and perfect for the challenge theme.
Despite the sunshine in the photos, it turned into quite an overcast day and with all the running around I was doing with toddler T (looking at day care centres for next year) I actually wished I'd worn a cardi a couple of times. The necklace is new - I'd heard of the group For King & Country through Spotify, and then they did a live set at Church Online and I ended up buying the latest album. I saw this necklace while browsing their store and loved the message behind it, that women are priceless and that everyone should be treated with respect and honour.
I was pretty good budget wise in December! As the baby bump gets bigger shopping for clothes is more difficult so I don't do it as often. I shopped more for Christmas presents for others. I did take advantage of the ASOS sale and pick myself up a couple of things I'd been wanting though.
When I did my 30 wears post with one of my leather jackets, I mentioned that I'd been looking forward to wearing the maxi dress and leather jacket outfit combination more over winter. Add some ankle boots, a big scarf and a leather jacket to a summer maxi dress and you have an easy and cosy winter outfit - and you get more wear from your summer dresses.
Wore this for a day out with my boys, my last official day of maternity leave. (I've already blogged my return to work outfits but haven't shared this pic yet!). We spent the morning running a few quick errands and attending rhyme time at the library.
After liking the maxi dress and leather jacket combo I was eager to try it again. I thought that printed leather jacket would be nice with the black maxi dress but it all just looked a little too dull and black - so bright accessories were perfect for adding some colour! I really liked the purple scarf with the magenta Balenciaga day bag and pink tank.
I went much more colourful for the next time I wore the maxi dress and leather jacket outfit. Had a crazy busy day. After being back at work, I'd found all the little errands I'd usually do during the week had to be crammed in on my days off, and so set an optimistic target of stopping in multiple places before lunchtime. Of course the boys were increasingly cranky and fed up being driven around all morning, so it wasn't the easiest of days!
Although we ran out of snacks buy the time we reached the final stop at Priceline, I was thankfully able to keep the boys amused long enough to have a wonderful chat and makeup trial session with Kaitlyn. We picked out all of the below makeup for my return to work.
I'm sharing this as I know a few bloggers gave me advice when I mentioned I needed new makeup that didn't make me breakout. My old stuff was over a year old and not entirely perfect. With the information I'd picked up from beauty blogs and a very patient and knowledgeable Kaitlyn, I managed to pick out things I'm really happy with.
I'm not a beauty blogger but I am impressed with all of this so far! I wear it twice a week to the office and have zero issues. The L'Oreal foundation in particular was expensive but worth every penny! What I bought:
Just as well beauty products were exempt from my #6MonthsWithoutShopping challenge, as this was quite a big haul for me! Not sponsored, but I have been visiting the ladies at my local Priceline often (as it has a pharmacy) and I trust their recommendations! :)
Don't pack your summer maxi dresses away when the cold weather arrives! You can layer them up for even the coldest winter day with the right layers. they might not be ideal in the snow if the maxi length trails on the ground, but if you have a snow-free day it's a good time to give this outfit idea a try! You can even hide some leggings underneath if it's really cold.
It's spring now in Brisbane but I still have some older winter outfits like these to share. A cosy knit and colourful jeans is a simple cold weather outfit. I didn't wear my knitted jumpers a lot over winter as dry clean or handwash only pieces aren't my first choice for wearing around two toddlers! They worked perfectly for work from home days when I do the daycare pick up / drop off.
I absolutely loved this outfit - it's taken me a while to get around to posting it on the blog though! I wore this when it was really chilly in the middle of winter, so the extra scarf was necessary for the cold morning. I wasn't sure what scarf to wear with this at first, the purple jeans and ombre knit are a busy enough outfit on their own. I've worn the ombre knit with leopard print before though so I grabbed this one. I really liked the way this looked.
Nice and cosy (with a long sleeve tee under the open knit) and colourful with the purple jeans, but comfortable and quick to pull together in time for dropping the kids off at daycare before working from home for the rest of the day.
This distressed knit is either a love or a hate, I don't think there's any in-between! First time I wore it I shared that Baby Boy kept getting tangled in the distressed pieces. Last time I wore it I rolled and tucked to hide the distressing a little more. Since I didn't get a proper blog photo first time I wore it, I was eager to wear it in all its raw ripped glory again. A work from home day with the boys at daycare was the perfect chance - no little toddler hands grabbing and pulling on it! A day to myself meant I could wear a 'grown up' beaded necklace too, even if I did have to take it off in the evening as baby boy kept trying to play with it like he does with my teething necklaces.
I loved how colourful this outfit was with the rainbow knit, red skinny jeans and yellow bag. Felt a little 'wasted' as I only worked from home and didn't see many people, so I'm sure I'll wear this combination again next winter.
I feel a little sad when I look up the previous times I've worn these knits as they've been worn so rarely. I've actually downsized my jumper collection this year, rather than buying more. Usually June is a big spending month for me coming into winter and stocking up on winter pieces, but as I was doing my no-shop challenge I haven't added any wintery things. I'm sure I'll return to loving my knits more next winter when the boys are bigger, but right now I've been preferring layering up summer pieces and sticking to wearing things that are machine washable. Two toddlers can be messy!
Cold morning and in a rush? Grab a favourite knit, add some bright jeans and you're ready in an instant! I like the winter days where it's warm enough to just wear a jumper and jeans, it's the simplest and easiest outfit formula and keeps you cosy no matter what the day holds. Maybe just stick to machine washable knits if you're spending time with toddlers! Linking up with Mix It Monday, Modest Monday, On Mondays We Link Up.
