#78, 79, 80 - Week 23

I must admit, blogging doesn't really come naturally to me, especially blogging about myself, so I have been a bit slack with updating this blog lately. Anyway, I just wanted to post all of last week's shoe challenge photos so that I can move on to this week's photos!

This was a weekend outfit. I used to dress up during the week and dress down on the weekends, but I'm not dressing down so much anymore. I have so many nice clothes that aren't really work-appropriate, so I'm trying to get some use out of them on the weekends. I have a few pairs of casual boots that I need to save before the end of Winter, too.

Dress by Alannah Hill, jacket by Forever New, and boots by Steve Madden (I think). I just bought these boots in a sale a few years ago. I don't find that I get too much use out of boots, and these aren't the most comfortable ones I have as they're too big for me, but I have already worn them a couple of times this Winter.

This is my new Topshop dress, which I have mixed feelings about. (I was hanging out the washing while holding my cat here, by the way. A bit strange, I know, but I'm trying to vary my standard, boring style of photos!) I do like the style and colour of this dress, but the fabric is strangely scratchy, and the dress doesn't sit very well.

These are some of the cheapest shoes I own, and while I love the colour, I don't like to wear them because I see someone else wearing them nearly every day! I guess that's what happens when you buy cheap shoes.

I was so happy when I went to Myer a couple of weeks ago and saw the first Spring fashions in the store! I love this time of year for clothes. Not only does it mean that Winter is over, and we no longer have to wear thick fabrics and dark colours, but it means that flowery dresses are available everywhere!

This one is from Cue. I have to admit that I've bought 4 dresses from Cue in the past fortnight. I was just admiring the new dresses with a sales assistant on the day I bought this one, and an elderly lady walked past us and commented that the dresses there were just like ones they used to wear 40 years ago, and that sealed the deal for me - I couldn't walk away without buying at least one!

These are shoes from Diana Ferrari that I bought in a David Jones sale a couple of years ago. I somehow managed to spill coffee all over my new dress and my (satin) shoes on this day, but thankfully, it seems to have come out of both the dress and shoes without leaving any marks.

Nemo approves of this dress :)

#77 - Shopping online

I think anyone who's ever shopped for clothes or shoes online knows that it is fraught with danger. The worst thing that can happen (aside from your parcel not turning up, I suppose) is that it doesn't fit. It's always a bit nerve-wracking when you first open a parcel, because it's the moment of truth. And if you live somewhere like Australia and order everything from overseas, there's no sending anything back, because it just wouldn't be worth it.

Aside from clothes not fitting properly, I've discovered that there are plenty of other things that can go wrong, too. There's a particular store in the UK that I sometimes order clothes & shoes from, and pretty much everything I've gotten from there has been a disappointment. Sometimes the sizing is off, and whatever I've ordered is way too big or small, but more often, it's just that the quality is worse than I expected. The fabric is scratchy, there's no lining, it's fraying, it fits but doesn't sit well, the colour is different to how it looked online... I just wanted to post about this to remind myself that next time I'm looking at their website and see something I like, I shouldn't bother!

I bought this dress from Modcloth, but it's by Bernie Dexter. I look at Modcloth a lot, but rarely buy dresses there, because they've all been too big for me so far. I got my mother to take this one in for me, and it's fine now. It has the most amazing scenic print, and I thought it was worth the risk that it wouldn't fit.

I know my shoes don't match; I didn't end up wearing them for the whole day because the clashing shades of green really bothered me! I wanted some green shoes to go with this dress, but I went shopping for shoes without the dress, and this is what happened... They are turquoise. It's a pretty colour, but not one that matches this dress, unfortunately.

They're from Peeptoe, which I think may be a local brand. Peeptoe used to make red-soled shoes, but they've changed to purple (it's rumoured that Christian Louboutin took legal action against them, along with a few other brands, but I'm not sure what really happened).

#75 & 76 - Colours

These are not the most exciting of outfits, but as I've discovered, in the quest to save shoes, it's not always possible to wear fabulous shoes with fabulous outfits. Someone told me last week that you should have no more than 6 colours in your wardrobe. (Apparently, the fewer colours you have, the easier they are to match). As you've probably noticed, I have EVERY colour in my wardrobe. I can't think of a single colour I don't wear. (I may not have saved any yellow shoes yet, but they'll be coming soon!) Sometimes it is a bit of a problem; I have shoes that don't match any of my clothes. But I do have rather a lot of both shoes and clothes, and if the need arises, I will buy an outfit just to match a pair of shoes (or vice versa).

Anyway, these shoes below (from Tony Bianco, I believe) are an example of shoes I bought without having any clothes to match. They're an unusual colour (it's more purple than blue), but I've since found 2 tops and a cardigan to match, so I have been able to get some use out of them.

Please excuse my photo fail. I somehow managed to cut one of my shoes out of the picture above.

This is a rather plain outfit, but I have to say that this cardigan is one of my favourite items of clothing. It doesn't really stand out, and it's hard to see in this picture, but it has lace at the ends of the sleeves which partly covers my hands, like something out of the 1600s.

My sister tells me that these shoes are dull, but to that I say they're Burberry! Burberry isn't about being trendy and flashy; it's more reserved and classic. They may not be the most exciting shoes in the world, but I think there's something appealing about them.

#74 - Wedges!

I recently joined Shoeperwoman's Red Wedge Movement. I had never really liked wedges - I only owned one other pair - but when I saw these ones in Myer recently, I was intrigued. I tried one on in the store, but the sales assistant was somehow unable to find the other shoe (this situation is still confusing to me) and they were the last ones in my size. By that stage I was determined to have the red wedges, so I went to other Myer stores until I finally tracked down a pair.

Anyway, the purpose of these photos is to show that I really do leave the house sometimes!

This is me at a beach on the weekend. Not a really nice beach, by Australian standards anyway - just the closest one to our home. I always look ridiculous in photos (especially ones taken by other people), and this is the only one taken on the weekend that I don't totally hate (I've noticed I always seem to be looking down in photos - trying to avoid the photos even while being in them, I guess).

Here are the wedges... They are from Keds. They're cute yet casual and quite low, so I thought they'd be comfortable enough for walking in. They were okay for a while, but on the way back they really started rubbing, and days later, my feet are still hurting! So I think I'll have to stick to boring shoes for long walks from now on.

And here I am sitting on some rocks and looking as uncomfortable as I felt.

Wearing a cardigan to the beach just seems wrong! Surely, Winter must be over soon...

#73 - Retro

I'm about halfway through my shoe challenge now (although I keep making it harder for myself by buying new shoes!), but I think it's only going to get harder from here on, as the only shoes I have left are multicoloured shoes that don't match anything, and boring shoes that I don't really like or wear anymore. Maybe I'll voluntarily throw some of those out rather than force myself to wear them this year.

Anyway, last Friday, I thought I'd do my own version of 'casual Friday' and wear something a little crazier than usual. Often when I get dressed in the mornings lately, I think "If my sister was here, she'd veto this outfit!" I realised on the way to work that I don't know anyone else who'd wear an outfit like this, but I think I'm okay with that.

I just got this skirt from Dorothy Perkins (and might I say, their shipping takes aaages! It must've come by boat or something!) and these shoes from Modcloth. Whenever I looked down at my shoes that day, I felt like I was in another era. They're different to any other shoes I have, but I really like them.(I don't wear light-coloured tights very often, because I'm pale enough as it is, and they make me look like I have blue/purple skin!)

Anyway, speaking of pretty pink things, I got my beautiful boots from Mulberry last week! I've been wearing them around the house a lot, and they're currently sitting on my jewellery box so that I can admire them. Mulberry also have the best packaging I've ever seen - they sent me all sorts of cute things, like stickers and some kind of badges/pins. I only wish they were still having their online sale so that I could buy more shoes!

#70, 71 & 72 - A colourful week

I feel like I'm slowly getting back to wearing the clothes I like after a few weeks of trying to be conservative at work. And this means I've managed to go back to saving more pairs of shoes in the shoe challenge, too. People probably think I'm weird, but you can't please everyone. I'd rather be myself and die of boredom wearing grey and black every day.

I love this skirt from Kate Spade. I stalked it for so long, and when it finally went on sale recently, I bought it right away. I was worried that the size 2 would be too big for me and I couldn't get it in a 0, but it fits fine. (It's crazy, because I have a size 0 dress from Kate Spade which is huge on me - I don't even know if my mum is going to be able to fix it so I can ever wear it).

My tights, shoes and cardigan are actually navy rather than black, but it's a bit hard to tell here. I realised when I decided to wear this outfit that I didn't have any suitable shoes to wear with it. I wear a lot of navy, but do you know how hard it is to find navy shoes? On my lunch break, I went to every shoe store in town, and I finally found this pair below, thanks to a very helpful sales assistant. I really like them. They have a retro look about them, and I think I need more shoes in this style! They're from Basque.

The dress below is from Cue (which, if I haven't mentioned it before, is an Australian brand which mainly makes work clothes. They used to have a lot of classic style work clothes, but now have more interesting, modern designs), and while I don't usually wear orange, I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it.

I would probably have worn it with orange shoes, but I don't really have any. So I wore it with these rather boring black booties instead. I have to admit that they're useful in Winter, and I have been wearing them quite often lately. They're from Diana Ferrari.

This dress is from Ojay, which I believe is another Australian store. I only really bought it because I'm a shopaholic and it was on sale, but I'm glad I did, because it's a really useful work dress.

I'd never worn these shoes before, even though I've had them for about a year and a half. They're from Mollini, and the unusual colour combination (it's like a peach and blue/turquoise stripe) makes them difficult to match with anything. I've discovered that the best thing to do with shoes like these is to keep your outfit simple, but I always find it hard to do that!

The best thing about these shoes is that the bows are detachable, and they came with 2 sets of bows (the other set is stripy and matches the shoe fabric).

#69 - Tights & peep-toes

Do you wear tights with open-toe shoes? I wouldn't have in the past, but I have been lately. Partly because I realised at the beginning of Winter that about 95% of my shoes are open-toe, so I'd have very few shoe options in cold weather if I didn't do it. And also, they did it at Prada last year, so I think that makes it ok!

In fact, at Prada they wore socks with sandals! I don't think I'd go that far. (But I do have the shoes above, and I have worn them with tights).

Anyway, it's been ages since I updated, so this is one of my shoe challenge pictures from a couple of weeks ago.I like this dress, but this was the first time I'd worn it (I think my sister had already borrowed it from me twice!). I have so many clothes that I don't get to wear most of them very often. That's probably not a good thing. I haven't even worn a lot of the clothes I have yet, and I'm thinking about selling some of them.

These are some shoes I bought from Betts, and I'm not sure what the brand is. Airflex, maybe? It's strange that most of the heels I've had for a long time feel much lower than I remember them being. I guess I'm getting used to wearing really high heels.

Beautiful Boots

Mulberry may be known mostly for handbags (my sister has a Bayswater that she bought last time she was in London, and even though I'm not usually a huge fan of bags, this one is really nice), but as I've recently discovered, they make great shoes too! And at the moment, they're having a sale at their online store.

I particularly like these boots. They're such a lovely pale colour, and the bows are amazing! I hope they look nice on too, as I've given in and ordered them! I wonder if they might be a bit over the top for every day wear, but I'll let you know when I receive them... I can't wait!

I'm also really liking these watermelon pink/red booties, also with adorable bows. I'm trying to resist the temptation of buying more shoes at the moment, but they're making it hard...