#24 - More coral

Today was the last day of the working week for me, as I'm having the day off tomorrow! I haven't had a day off work in so long that I don't think I'll know what to do with myself. Maybe I should rearrange my closet, as it doesn't help having clothes all over the floor when I'm deciding what to wear in the mornings...

I wore this dress for the first time today, and I really love it. It's great when you find a dress that's in a nice style and fits well. I think one of the reasons why I never used to wear dresses is that the fit can so easily be wrong, and I found it hard to buy dresses that I really liked and that fit well. I don't seem to have that problem anymore, but maybe that's just because fifties style dresses are my favourites, and they're a lot more popular these days.

My shoes are from Basque, and they always seem to attract attention for being so brightly coloured. I noticed that there is a dark scuff mark on one of them, and I'm not too sure how to clean patent shoes, so if anyone has any ideas, please let me know!

Everything I do at the moment feels so trivial compared to what's going on in Japan. It's strange how life goes on everywhere else as if nothing has changed, yet there's not an hour that goes by when I don't think about the people of Japan, and hope that things don't get any worse for them. It's been such a difficult year for so many people around the world already. I only hope things will get better from now on.

#23 - Coral & copying

I got an email from Nordstrom a couple of weeks ago about cardigans (most of the email I get is from clothes/shoe stores, which is a bit depressing!), and I really loved the outfit in this picture:

So I went to their website and tried to buy the whole outfit, however it didn't quite work out as planned. I couldn't get the belt in my size (and I'm not too sure about the whole wearing-belts-over-cardigans look anyway), I found the cardigan a bit plain for my liking, and the skirt also came in a pink/coral version (and if there's a choice between beige & pink, I'm going to choose pink every time!). So in the end, I bought the blouse and the coral version of the skirt, so this was my outfit today:

Both the skirt and top are slightly too big for me (that is the curse of being small! It's frustrating when people say "You're thin; you can wear anything," because it's not true!), but I quite like this outfit. It felt professional yet pretty, and coral is my favourite colour.

I wore my new Ted Baker shoes today, and aren't they the best things ever? I got a lot of comments on them, even from people who usually have no interest in shoes. I think they're going to be some of my new favourites!

#22 - Puppy shoes

My day today was kind of 'blah', for lack of a better word. Nothing particularly bad happened, but nothing good did, either. I thought I was going to have to go to a seminar, so I made sure to dress conservatively, but I didn't end up going in the end. While I do believe in being yourself and not conforming for anyone else's sake, if I'm going to a work conference where everyone else is going to be wearing black suits, I don't feel too comfortable standing out, so I will dress a bit differently than usual - but it's for me, not for them!
Today's shoes are from Irregular Choice, and if they look too big, that's because they are! I just can't work out the sizing for this brand. I have another similar pair of Irregular Choice shoes that are only slightly too big, but these ones, in the same size, feel a whole size too big. I think they're made for people with very wide feet, as seems to happen with a lot of the shoes I get from the UK, which is strange! Anyway, they're cute, so I put insoles & heel grips in, and I'm determined to wear them anyway.

I think mismatching shoes like these are cute and quirky, but wearing two completely different shoes, Helena Bonham Carter style, is probably not such a good idea!

My outfits this week have felt quite dull, so I'm going to be wearing some COLOUR tomorrow!

#21 - Flora

Today's outfit was fairly simple, but I love to wear white - it always feels so Summery! As it was a Monday, and I was not too keen on going back to work, I decided some super fantastic shoes (as the Manolo would say) were needed today...
These Gucci shoes are probably some of the prettiest ones I own. The first time I wore them to work, my assistant took a photo of them so he could show his girlfriend. I see a lot of flowery shoes, and in fact when I am searching for shoes online, I usually look for multi-coloured ones. But these are more special than most. I only learned recently that the Gucci Flora print was actually designed for Princess Grace. It makes sense when you see it, as it really is lovely. My sister came back from the UK today, and she bought me these beautiful Ted Baker shoes that I'd been admiring on Asos for a while. For some reason (maybe just to spite me), Asos decided that they would send these shoes anywhere except Australia (and NZ), so I wasn't able to order them! But my lovely sister managed to go to an Office store and find them for me.

I can't wait to wear them! I just need to find the right outfit...

#20 - Haircut

I got my hair cut today, and as always, there were good and bad things about this. I never like sitting around at the hairdresser's for hours on end, but I do like catching up on my celebrity gossip & music (reading magazines & watching music videos), and it's always a good feeling to have newly cut and coloured hair.
I own at least 8 grey dresses, which surprises me, as I don't even like grey (most of the dresses aren't as boring as they sound, though!).

These shoes are from Guess. I thought they might be good daily walking shoes (I wear heels most days, but I try to limit how much I wear them for walking, so I change into flats walking to & from work & the bus), but they're cracking and starting to fall apart already. I only bought them in October when I was in Canada, and I've hardly worn them! Nemo is always so photogenic. I wish he'd tell me his secret!

#19 - Satin shoes

I had to go to court today, and an older lady who's an administrator there commented on my pink satin shoes. She told me that when she was younger and used to go to dances, it was difficult to find coloured satin shoes, so she would buy white ones and dye them to match her dresses. I thought that was a really interesting idea, and I know you can still get dyeable satin shoes for weddings. It'd be a good thing to do for those outfits that you just can't find the right shoes to match.

Shoes from Debenhams, skirt from Herringbone, and sweater from Wheels and Dollbaby (I love it! It's so pretty and girly. Wheels and Dollbaby have some amazing clothes). It really wasn't sweater weather today, and I felt so hot wearing this, but at least it looked cute, I suppose.

Well, I did go shopping today, and I bought an adorable dress & 2 pairs of (inexpensive) shoes, which I'm sure you'll see here soon enough. I think it might be time to start going through some of my old shoes and getting rid of the ones I'm not going to wear, because I'm still feeling quite overwhelmed by the shoe challenge at this point.

#18 - Cute!

I let the girls at Alannah Hill dress me up like this. I don't know if it's necessarily an outfit I would have picked for myself, but when I tried it on, it did look cute. (I wondered if there was maybe too much going on with this outfit, but at Alannah, nothing is ever too much!)

I am trying to experiment a bit more with my fashion choices lately. I never used to wear belts, but I've bought a few recently and I'm finding ways to incorporate them into my outfits. I think I'll try scarves next. Somehow I've never really worked out how to wear them properly; I guess they're not all that important here in the hot Australian weather. A friend of my workmate often comes to visit us at work, and she always wears all black with a coloured scarf. It's an interesting look, and I think I'll try it sometime (with some colourful shoes, perhaps).
Today's shoes are red velvet heels from Collection, which I think is a Myer (department store) brand. They were available in navy blue velvet too, and it probably would have been more practical to get the blue pair, but I just couldn't resist the red ones!

Here is my baby Nemo lying on the shoe box. (Only half on the box, mind you. Such is the way of the kitten).