My First Love

When I was a "little girl", I used to dream of growing up to become Wonder Woman and planned to marry Astro Boy. With his sweet nature and brave spirit, I was really quite smitten. So when I saw these gorgeous winter boots in the new Peter Sheppard catalogue, I fell in love all over again. They are the 'Ornel' red boot by French company Arche. RRP$369 AUD. So I may have to save my penny's.
Now, it's not as though I need another pair of shoes, I have lost count of how many I have at present. So many in fact, that I couldn't fit them all in my wardrobe; so those that weren't season appropriate have gone into another large container for storage. Of course, there are also quite a few that I never wear, but I just like to look at because they are so stunning. I am sure I'm not the only one with this (debatable) problem. Perhaps when I finally get this wardrobe under control and all my vintage pieces listed on eBay, I may have a little more cash to spare.



Oh, and I saw this other lovely Japonica pair in their past summer catalogue. Perhaps these might be on sale now?

Swimmingly.

Here's what I came up with for swimming lessons yesterday. The skirt was a bit long to show case the socks, but it sure was a comfortable choice. The layering worked really well, better than a T and jacket combo with jeans. And the skirt and socks allowed for a bit more 'breath ability'. What do you think?

Structure and Socks

This beach side outfit, seen on Helena Bonham Carter, for Sweeney Todd has me all a-flutter. What a fabulous movie on so many levels. I love it when Hollywood gets musicals right and you don't find yourself thinking, "oh, another song? When will they get back to the story?" Tim Burton's screen adaptation of Sweeney Todd is another triumph of gothic fantasy goodness. But it was this costume that got me thinking....

How does one dress for the tropics when it is only 20 degrees celcius outside?? Here is my dilemma. I take my daughter to swimming lessons once a week in a heated indoor pool, where the temperature inside is often 38 degrees with 99 % humidity. However, with Autumn upon us, the weather outside is often below 20 degrees and will only continue to drop. Now, I realize layering is the simple answer but I never like to be about "simple".

Perhaps I can channel some of the 'structure & socks' look of Helena's I so covet right now. That should give the 'old jeans and bad t-shirt brigade' something to talk about! Let's see what happens when I open the wardrobe tomorrow.

New Pieces on Etsy

For those of you wondering when I would finally get my pieces up on Etsy - here they are! Although I love eBay for some things, selling my work there really wasn't the right forum. I have now separated my pieces into two places. All my own hand made work will be listed on Etsy and my vintage finds and personal wardrobe re-distribution ( for want of a better term) will be listed on eBay.
My new listings are part of my Gothic Lolita style range. They can be worn as part of an extreme style statement or dressed down, simply taking the girls to ballet as I did the other day. I love the blue cuffs with a grey T-Shirt and jeans combo. It makes a fairly plain and functional outfit something much more. Besides which, I get lots of ohh and ahhs from the other mums.
I'd love to hear some comments on these pieces and if you could see yourself working them into your wardrobe.

I am about to start work on some new pieces to add to my gym wear as I have a little more unexpected free time this week. My beloved was supposed to be home from Tokyo tonight, but got snowed in and had to miss his flights. :( Well I guess if you will go snowboarding you kinda have to expect snow!

Arming myself

I headed out yesterday to Brunswick in the hope of picking up some wicked fabric for a dress I need to make for an upcoming wedding. And as fate usually dictates, I found loads of other things I loved instead. I picked up loads of great stretchy, spangled , netted fabrics with the intent of making some sort of fingerless glove / sleeve type arrangement. After some sketching and planning, imagine my surprise to come across this post over at Style Bubble.
These incredible creations are from Glovedup. Check out there gallery for some more fabulous shots. I am in love with these! I don't have any great couture plans of wearing these with fabulous gowns, (as nice as that would be) but instead just funking up some jeans and T-shirt combos. I have been making some fabulous cuffs for a while now, and was looking for an alternative. So as soon as I have completed my versions I'll post some shots of their deliciousness here for your enjoyment.

Back to the proposed dress for upcoming wedding- I've got a great Vintage Butterick pattern from 1962 and did eventually purchase some gorgeous fabric. But as my camera cable has disappeared today, the photos of these will have to be forthcoming.

Can't wait to get cracking on some of these projects; but I had better finish the Great Wardrobe Clean Out first or I will have nowhere to sleep tonight.

The T

As promised, here is the graphic of the T-Shirt that my bro S made for me. I just love this. He took the image from a photo of us at a Burlesque show (at which I was 8 months pregnant) and worked some Gocco Rocco magic with it. It's one of my favorite things to wear and I love the double-take you get from some people when wearing it. And no, those aren't our real names... they just seemed to fit.

I finally started to tackle the wardrobe issue too. The weather is perfect and both girls are asleep, so I really have no excuse. But of course I can't see the floor now. I have managed to get as far as emptying all the cartons and deciding what is going on Ebay, then photographing it all. Now begins the tedious process of listing it all. I'll give you all a heads up here when I list this collection of weird and wonderful on Ebay if you'd like to check it out.

I think that I will definitely follow Gala's advice and wear at least one piece of all the 'ify' items over the next few days to see how they make me feel. It's not that they are all terrible, but that perhaps they would look a lot better worn in different ways. I do think that I am really just plain bored of much of it and it would do much better to be adopted into a more appreciative home.

So now that I have procrastinated just a little more here, it's back to the coal face.

Brothers With Taste!

How lucky am I? I have two younger brothers who are the most stylish people I know. So when it comes to special occasions I am well spoilt! Check out the gorgeous bag from A. It's TOKIDOKI for Le Sportsac.

You can also see my favorite skirt that A made for me on my style diary as a piece from his label CDNF - Cut Do Not Fold.
I'll have to take some pics of the awesome T-shirt that S made me for my birthday too. Stay tuned...

The Gym Experiment

So here is what I wore to the gym today. Blue toweling dress over crop top and 3/4 yoga pants. Not really a huge improvement but I like the change of length. I think the dress is a little plain. Any suggestions for fancying it up a bit? Oh and of course there was a black diamonte bow necklace to go with it all.
On another note... the heat has finally gone and today was 21 degrees celcius. So I am *hoping* to try and tackle the wardrobe problem again tomorrow. Wish me luck!

The Art of Procrastination

Yes, I finally have a small window of time to sort and clean out my wardrobe, which I usually love doing,( The Virgo in me) but I just can't seem to make it happen. It's 34 degrees celcius again today, so it's really too hot and sticky to try things on as I go. I have simply got FAR too many clothes (when I moved house I had about eight large cartons of them) and I honestly only wear about a quarter.
The problem is I am a super organised, minimalist loving - creative hoarder with maximalist tendencies! Perhaps that's the problem of being born a Leo on the Virgo cusp.

I imagine my wardrobe all spread out beautifully in front of me - which would of course take one the size of Paris Hilton's - with everything sorted by type and then of course having a computerized cross referencing system that let me keep track of everything and how and when I wore it together. But I'm sure that the reality of this would bore me as part of what I love about fashion is the ability to find new ways of wearing things every time you look at them.

Anyway, the best I can do right now is get back on the wagon over at www.mystylediary.com where I posted a few outfits pre the last pregnancy.

So I think this time I'll change my tactic in how to tackle this wardrobe. There was some great advice from Gala over at iCiNG
I don't usually go to such lengths to purge my wardrobe, but this time there are so many Vintage pieces and things I LOVE but never wear - I may have to get more ruthless and use these tactics to justify it all to myself.

Besides.... I really want to see my chair again!

Rock your Body

So I am back at the gym after baby two. I have been back since before Christmas but now I am so much fitter I feel I can hit it a bit harder. But here is a sartorial challenge.. funky gym gear that doesn't cost the earth and also doesn't look like I'm trying too hard. I used to stick to the basic varieties of Yoga pant and singlet top but I am boring myself into oblivion; it just doesn't express anything about WHO I am. I really hate the way so many people drag themselves to the gym looking like they have just rolled out of bed. Bad hair, old over sized T-shirts, too tight gym pants that show just where your undies have ridden to while you were on that tread mill, and a look of silently begging "please don't see me / talk to me". Isn't part of getting fit liking what you see?

There have been a few good blog posts recently about cool gym gear, but truly, I am not planning to spend more than $40 on an outfit and I don't need a whole wardrobe full of trainers - I need all that room for my other shoes! Ah, and one more challenge to add to the mix- I have a baby to breast feed just before hitting the gym floor. So I still have to wear maternity bras (Elle MacPherson's rule!) and tops that allow for fairly easy access in a hurry.

So I am going to try and mix and match, layering approach and we'll see what happens. I'll post up pictures every time I go and see what you think. Any comments or suggestions people?

SPLASH!

I'm finally taking the plunge into Blog land and I'm hoping it will keep me inspired, connected, alive, happy and sane! It is sure to be an exercise in self indulgence and self discipline. Just one of the many contradictory things that make me me.