#48 - Tulle

I finally got around to takng photos of all my shoes, and I hope that this will make it a bit easier to work out which ones I've worn as part of the shoe challenge, and which ones I have yet to wear.
I may not have mentioned it before, but I LOVE tulle skirts. I have rather a lot of them, and although it can be difficult to make them work as part of dressy or casual outfits, I do try! Luckily, this one is quite long, and being black, I think it's suitable to wear to work.

This is also a new top, and I've taken a photo of the back because it's cute (although it's difficult to see as it blends in with my skin colour. There's a little bow at the top, anyway)!I've had these shoes for years, and they're probably some of my oldest heels. I never used to think of them as being low heels, but I just realised when wearing them recently that they're much lower than I usually wear now. I think at some point I may also have walked through a dusty field while wearing them, so they're not in the best condition. Maybe it was a beach wedding, actually. Anyway, they've seen a lot of wear!

The shoe challenge is starting to make me realise that I need more of certain types of shoes (black and navy shoes, and probably red and pink shoes too, as I've worn almost all of mine already), and fewer of other types (flats, and I've hardly worn any of my green shoes, but that may just mean I need more green clothes!). So it has been useful already!

Some photos from my weekend

Here's something different for a change. I love nature and hiking and animals, which I think would surprise a lot of people who know me! We went to a rainforest/national park over the Easter break, and here are some photos I took. I just have to say that this kangaroo in the first picture was the awesomest kangaroo I have ever seen. He was standing by the side of the road, and when we drove past, he continued to stand there munching his grass. He wasn't worried at all. Awesome :)

Wow, blogger really has a way of ruining all my photos! Anyway, a quick story about the parrots. I love birds, and it is my dream to own a parrot someday! When we went to feed these wild birds, this red & green parrot (King Parrot) was the only one of his type that we saw. For some reason, he really liked me, even though there were a lot of people there with food for the birds. A foreign tourist came over to me after a while and said "Can I have that?" and pointed to the parrot. I thought it was a bit rude (I wasn't monopolising the parrot or anything - it wasn't my fault that he liked me!), but I encouraged the parrot to go to this guy. Anyway, a couple of minutes later he flew back to me again. Heh.

#47 - Happy Easter!

I wanted to wear something nice for Easter, even though I'm not doing anything much. I went to some markets this morning, as we somehow forgot that the shops were going to be closed for the next 2 days, and we hardly had any food in the house! This is one of two River Island dresses I've bought recently. (I've discovered that UK size 6 dresses are SMALL! I probably could've done with the next size up, especially in the other dress I bought - if I wanted to breathe while wearing it, anyway. This one is fine, but a little tight across the chest, which is not a problem I usually have!) Well, I still have plenty of shoes to wear as part of the Shoe Challenge, but some days I just can't find any to match my outfit (that I haven't already worn), like today.


Don't mind the cat in the picture. This is something that tends to happen a lot - I just have to crop him out a lot of the time! Did you know that cats can apparently make 100 different sounds? He was making a lot of those while I was taking this next photo (most of them rather grumpy-sounding!).

These shoes are from Topshop, and they're cute, although not as comfortable as I'd like a pair of flat shoes to be.

More importantly today, here is the super cute Easter egg my sister gave me:
And here is my cat licking it (I was surprised, as I didn't think cats liked sugar!):


Here it is all smashed up and ready to eat :)
Happy Easter!

#46 - Blue

After what has felt like the longest and most boring week ever, I am finally on holidays! It's only a few days, but we seem to have several public holidays over the next couple of weeks, so I think there are only 3 more work days until May 3 (which happens to be my birthday, and not a holiday, unfortunately). I'm going away until the weekend, and I'm just hoping it won't rain, as the weather hasn't been too good lately.
I wore another new dress today, which I love! I wish I could say the same about my shoes! I do think they're cute, which is why I've kept them for several years, however I don't think they were actually made to fit human feet. They are impossible to walk in. Slingbacks are never the most practical or comfortable shoes, but with these particular ones, the straps do not stay on the back of my feet at all. You can probably see in the above photo that they've fallen down. It's rather annoying, but as I have so few pairs of blue shoes, I'll probably keep these until I can find another pair to replace them with.

I hope you all have a nice Easter break, and I'll be back posting again in a few days :)

#45 - Jacquard

I am not sure how I feel about jacquard dresses. I like them, but out of the 3 I own, I've only worn this one. That will change this year, though! I'm determined to get more wear out of everything I own. Anyway, I guess I tend to associate jacquard with elegant old ladies, but hopefully it can be worn by elegant young ladies as well!
I loved this dress so much when I first saw it at Alannah Hill. They didn't have my size, so I tried it on in a larger size and it was too big. I didn't buy it (although I did end up buying a dress in similar colours from another store, but it just wasn't the same), but I couldn't stop thinking about it. I eventually ended up buying it from Alannah's online store in a size too big, but I got my mother to alter it. (Incidentally, I think it's lilac, my mother thinks it's beige, and the store called it pink!).
My shoes are by Circa Joan & David, and they are actually one of the few pairs of platform shoes I own. (It's very slight and you can't even see the platform in these photos). I know a lot of shoe-lovers are going to disagree with me on this, but I don't particularly like platforms. I think the main reason is that I don't want to be any taller than I already am! I am not particularly tall, but I am happy with my height. My assistant thinks it's funny to tell everyone we work with that I always wear heels because I'm short - it's not true!

#44 - Rainy Day

I've noticed the weather getting cooler over the past few weeks, and today was the first day this year that I had to wear tights. (It would have been alright if it had just been either cold or rainy, but as it was both cold AND rainy, the tights had to come out). I was very disappointed about this. I love dressing for Summer, and I am not particurly good at the whole layering thing, or at matching tights/other Winter accessories with my outfits (because we don't get much of an opportunity to do it here). I hope to change that this year, and I think I need to buy about 10 more pairs of tights (once my shopping ban is over) and hopefully I'll manage. I am trying to put off wearing boots for as long as I can, as I only have 3 pairs and that is not going to help me in the shoe challenge. My plan for Winter is to continue wearing my Summer dresses, but with cardigans etc. I really should make an effort to take photos in the mornings, because in the evenings it's dark and I have to use the flash, which looks terrible, and I also look like I've been standing in the rain & have dark circles under my eyes. Not a good look.

These Kate Spade shoes are my most recent shoe purchase (and they'll be my last for a while, considering my current shopping ban). Although I don't often buy black shoes, I saw these ones in David Jones, and I really liked the mesh with polka dots, so I ended up ordering them online (which was much cheaper).

#43 - Shopaholic

I was determined not to buy any clothes last week. I told myself that I wouldn't buy anything until I got paid next week. It was going okay, until somehow I ended up going to my favourite store on Friday and spending $600. I was so annoyed with myself, and I realised that when it comes to shopping, I have no self control. I am a shopaholic. So I've put away my credit cards, and I am going to stop shopping until June. I've done a 'no shopping month' before, but this is more like a no shopping month and a half, which seems like a very long time! It's not going to be easy, but I still have so many clothes I haven't even worn yet.Anyway, my outfit today seemed very matchy, which I was quite pleased about! I also wanted to mention (again) that Hollister and Abercrombie have some great cardigans, surprisingly enough. I bought this skirt recently from Alannah Hill, and I love how sparkly it is. Here are some close-up photos of the details:

I love Pucci. That probably doesn't surprise anyone, as I am a fan of all things bright and colourful. They have the most amazing prints, and these particular shoes have sparkly bows on the front which make them extra cute!

#42 - Lost

I feel a bit sad today, because I lost my bracelet. I ordered a really cute ring and bracelet from Kate Spade and just got them in the mail earlier this week. I wore them for the first time today, and the bracelet had quite a flimsy clasp and kept opening up. I went out to the mall today looking for a light gold or beige belt (which is surprisingly hard to find, I might add), and on the way back to work I realised that my bracelet had fallen off. I don't hold much hope of finding it now, and I don't know whether or not to order another one, because as much as I like it, I wouldn't want to risk losing a second one.

Today's dress is from Cue, which is another Australian brand. They make mostly work wear, and most of their clothes tend to be in dull, dark colours, so I was surprised to find this bright pink dress there in the Christmas sales last year. I think of it more as a 'Friday' dress, but as I couldn't find the dress I'd intended to wear today, I ended up wearing this one. I love dresses in this style, as you can probably tell! My shoes are super cute Love Moschino heart sandals, and I fell in love with them the first time I saw them. I almost didn't end up buying them, because they didn't fit too well because of the diagonal straps, which were too big for my feet in my usual size. They're more special occasion shoes than all-day wear shoes, as they're not the easiest to walk in for any length of time. But their cuteness makes up for that, I think. I never really understand when I go shoe shopping with friends and they try on shoes and deliberate about how comfortable they are. Unless you're shopping for running shoes, I don't think it really matters. I can't really see myself passing up a pair of beautiful shoes just because they're not comfortable!

#41 - Green!

I wore one of my new Alannah Hill dresses today. I was undecided about buying it - although I love the print, I wasn't sure about the style - but I really do like it now. I didn't feel that it was particularly bright or colourful, but that's what everyone kept telling me today. I also wore these cute little green turtle earrings I got from my cousin years ago.I love these shoes. They're last season D&G shoes, and they're so beautiful, but I have to admit that I rarely wear them. I can never find anything to match with them! I don't dislike green, but I tend not to buy anything green, and I think the reason is my high school uniform. After wearing green every day for 5 years, I guess I'm over it. I feel a bit like a cheat, because I actually didn't wear these shoes for very long today. I intended to wear them all day, but because the heels are so high, they're quite hard to walk in, and I really didn't have the energy for them. I usually wear 2 pairs of shoes a day (flats for walking in, and heels the rest of the time), so even if I had 500 pairs of shoes I think I could probably still get through the shoe challenge in a year! I'll try to wear these again before the end of the year.

But here's the strange thing about these shoes - there is a gold and green insect on the front. It appears to be a fly (or maybe some kind of beetle? I am not an insect expert!), which is something you don't often see decorating shoes!

I have a boring meeting tomorrow, so I'm trying to find something to wear that is conservative yet colourful...

#40 - Dressing for your shape

I feel like I'm starting to lose track of which shoes I've actually worn, so I'm just wondering, how are you all managing your shoe collection for the shoe challenge? Maybe I need to rearrange my shoes so that the ones I've yet to wear are stored on top. I've actually taken photos of most of my shoes, so I should probably just put them all in 'worn' and 'not worn' folders on my computer...Anyway, today I wanted to talk about dressing for your body shape. There are a lot of books out there about this (most of them probably by Trinny & Susannah), and when I was at Borders today looking at shoe books, there was a lady standing next to me looking at these types of books. I don't worry about this sort of thing too much myself, because I want to wear whatever clothes I like, regardless of whether they look any good on me or not. I guess I try to take a more positive view of these things, too - we're all different, but maybe that's not such a bad thing. Maybe we shouldn't necessarily try to hide all of the so-called flaws that make us different. The outfit I'm wearing today is, I believe, the type of oufit I 'should' be wearing according to some of these books (outfit with ruffled top, enhanced waist, flared skirt). I like it, but I wouldn't want to wear it every day - I much prefer knit tops to blouses.

I have very few pairs of black shoes, and I often feel like I should have more. Today's shoes weren't quite as matching as I would've liked! I did once order a pair of shoes online in the same colour as my blouse, but somehow I got sent the wrong size, and it didn't work out.

Anyway, I got a few things in the mail today - 2 dresses (yay!) and these shoes, which I ordered on impulse. I don't actually know if I like them or not. I love anything to do with wings and angels, so when I saw these shoes, I had to buy them. But they are actually very casual, and they remind me of sneakers (well, they are made by adidas, I suppose!).

I went back to work today, and I still feel pretty weak and tired from my illness, so I was struggling to walk in heels. Still, I might attempt to wear some of my D&G shoes tomorrow, if I feel brave enough to take on the cobblestones in 4.5 inch heels...

The shoe challenge so far, and supporting Shoeperwoman

I've been meaning to post about my experience in the Shoeper Shoe Challenge so far, and mainly how great it's been for giving me an incentive to wear some of my lesser-worn shoes and get my money's worth out of them. I'm sure that all of us participating are grateful to the lovely Shoeperwoman, Amber, for coming up with the idea and for allowing us to be a part of it. I just heard today that Amber is having difficulties with someone else trying to use and trademark her blog name, and like many of her other readers, I just wanted to post to say that I support her. It's awful to hear about these sorts of things happening, especially to people who don't deserve it in the slightest, and I hope that Amber and Terry can defend their business and that they won't be troubled by these sorts of issues again.

#39 - Stars

I haven't wanted to post any photos this week, because I look so horrendous (I've actually been to the doctor more often than work this week. Hopefully I'll start feeling better soon). Anyway, I have a bad feeling at the moment. The kind of feeling you get when you walk into one of your favourite stores when they're having a sale, try on a whole lot of stuff (all of which you love), buy it all, spend $1000, and then walk out of the store thinking "I can't believe I just spent a thousand dollars!". But, in good news, I learned that the shop (Alannah Hill) now has an online store! All of this staying at home in bed with my laptop isn't good for my (non-existant) budget... Anyway, most of my outfit today is from Alannah Hill too. It's a lovely store full of pretty, girly, colourful prints and embellishments. It's worth shopping there just for the decor alone, and the sales assistants, who all wear heels (I hear that they have to!) and red lipstick and the most beautiful outfits.

My shoes are from Gorman, and I love them! (It's funny how I tend to think that whatever pair of shoes I'm wearing that day are the cutest shoes ever, and the next day I think the same thing about the next pair of shoes...) They're so comfortable because they have a thicker heel than most of the shoes I own. I think Gorman is an Australian brand, too. I have realised that I actually wear mostly Australian brands. The reason is not so much that they are my favourites (although in a lot of cases I guess they are), but more because we don't have many international brands available here. We don't have stores like H&M, Zara, Gap & Forever 21 here, even though they exist pretty much everywhere else in the world. Actually, some of these stores are just starting to open in Sydney now (unfortunately I don't live in Sydney). I just heard today that our local Borders store is closing down, and that there's a possibility that Zara may go in in its place, so I hope that's true!

#38 - More cat-walking!

Well, I'm still sick and feeling sorry for myself. I've had a bit of time to look at blogs over the past couple of days (while I've been lying in bed with my laptop), and some of them have been really inspirational. They've made me think of trying some new things with my outfits, and also with my blog. For starters, I want to try to make it look prettier by posting more pictures. (Hopefully they'll generally be better than the ones I have taken today. I noticed after looking at these photos that my dress is terribly creased and covered in cat fur, but I guess that's what happens when you spend most of the day in bed!) I love this dress, and I know it doesn't look like much, but it's so comfortable and casual, and it has pockets! I don't know why, but there's something terribly exciting about finding out that your dress has pockets.

My shoes are super cute and a bit crazy, and they are, of course, from Irregular Choice. My sister says they look like oversized child's shoes, but I think they are fun.

Nemo and I did some real cat-walking today, where I actually put him on a lead and took him out of our yard and into the outside world. People often stop and point and laugh, and I have to admit that cat walking is not particularly successful. As cat-owners will know, you can't make a cat do anything it doesn't want to do. I spend most of our walking time standing around while Nemo eats grass or stalks grasshoppers. It can get a bit embarrassing when I'm holding his lead and he starts climbing a tree. But he enjoys it, and I guess that's the most important thing.

#37 - Cat-walking

So, I am not finding blogger to be particularly user friendly. Maybe I am just horrible with computer/website things. But I used to have a blog here about 8 years ago, and I managed fine then. I just don't find it easy to post pictures, or to format my posts. Anyway, I did manage to save another pair of shoes on the weekend. My kitty is an inside cat - he's only allowed outside when someone is out there with him. He really likes going outside though, so we try to make time to take him out often.

These are just some simple flat shoes from Diana Ferrari. I'm not sure if I'd worn them before, but I think they're quite cute. I have so many flat shoes, and I don't wear a lot of them anymore, so I'm trying to get through a few pairs on the weekends.

I love his cranky face here. I can just imagine him saying "But mom, I don't wanna go inside!"