my week as a disco ball

Andrea at Fox in Flats has done it again... she dared her readers to sparkle from morning to night for seven days straight and like a crazy lady I agreed. Then I realised that I only actually own one top with sequins and only two tops that really sparkly. With an overseas holiday coming up soon (tomorrow!!) there was no chance I could justify buying anything. So I went through my jewellery and then my shoes and phew, it looked like I could do a week of it. So here I am sparkling my little heart out...

It was only day 1 and already I felt like a cheater, the closest I could get to sparkling on my Sunday morning run followed by a cheeky coffee at the most lovely Taylor Blend with my sister was to add an necklace and earrings. It did turn out to be comment worthy. Both my daughter and sister wanted to know what the deal was with the running decorations!

For day 2 I wore a top with silver sparkly thread. I normally only wear this out at night. I had to wear a singlet underneath, it felt a bit too cleavagey for work. But I wasn't so comfortable with the way it looked. I did get a compliment at work though. So thats a win!

I was already feeling stuck and it was only day 3! I added a brooch to my head scarf and popped on my sparkly sandals and was super happy. I suspect that my hair flopped over the brooch, because I didn't get any comments on it, or it just looked crap!

 Out came the big guns on day 4, I bought these earrings about a year ago, and I have only worn them once or twice and only at night. They were just cheapys and I always felt that they looked a bit cheap in daylight! I was definitely not comfortable. But they were certainly showstoppers and everyone at work commented on them. (I'm still not sure that they will get another daylight guernsey)

I wore my only actual sequinned top on day 5. I love this t-shirt, I love the illustration. And the sequins are really quite subtle. I was well within my comfort zone and very happy.

You can't actually tell from this pic, but my top for day 6 has gold thread running through it. I love this top and I added some extra sparkle on my ears and neck, just because I wanted to! This top was also perfect for Fat Mum Slim's March photo a day challenge theme of green. 

I have to admit to being relieved to reach the end of this challenge, for day 7 I was repeating day 3's sandals with some arm sparkles and my favourite love heart necklace. But compared to my daughter I had nothing! 

What I learnt from my week as a human disco ball:

1. I should have thought first before I agreed to this dare
2. But sometimes its fun to be impulsive and let everything sort it's self out.
3. If I could fit into children's size 10 clothes I would have smashed this challenge!

Do you ever jump in with out thinking? What happens when you do? 

PS I'm off on holidays tomorrow, if I can I'll try and post while I'm away, otherwise I'll see you back after Easter xx

my week in black

The very stylish Andrea over at Fox in Flats has been running a series of style dares to get Mums out of the Mum uniform rut. Her first dare was to wear red lipstick from morning til bedtime, Andrea describes her inspiration here:

Am totally stealing the idea from a cool book I’ve just started to read called Anonymumsabout a few mothers who, bored with the perceived monotony of their lives, give each other dares to spice things up a little.

Made me think about how it is easy to fall into a fashion rut once we become mums, and we acquiesce into the sartorial monotony of our ‘mummy uniforms‘.

So, at Fox in Flats we’re instigating a ‘Dare of the Week‘ where each week we’ll challenge ourselves to trying something that might just be out of our style comfort-zone, but might just spice things up a little too.

I have been a long time lurker in the bloggy world and have only just started getting my confidence to participate in this beautiful community, so this is my first go at one of the Fox in Flats style dares. Those of you who know me will know that I am an absolute colour girl, so this was a massive challenge for me to do...

Day 1 - In a favourite outfit, I'm well within my comfort zone. 

Day 2 - Realised that I would have to be strategic for the week to manage my washing timing with having a suitable outfit for the day's activities. It was 35º+ today and I rode my bike to work. A fitted lined dress was not the greatest choice, but there were multiple moments when I gave myself mental high fives for the modesty leggings as my dress rode up to my upper thigh. Especially when I was riding through the construction site that used to be Victoria Park!! Another negative for this outfit was the ballet flats have a very slippery leather sole that is most unpredictable for cycling in. The MASSIVE plus was all the lovely compliments I received!

Day 3 - Today's outfit rocked! The girls at work noticed that I'd been doing something a little different, so I filled them in on the style dare. But more excitingly, I'd actually forgotten that I owned these shorts! I'm looking forward to more warm days to get more use out of them this Summer (now that I know they exist again!!) And the heels and shorts combo was so much easier to ride in than the flats and LBD from day 2!

Day 4 - I love this outfit. It was completely perfect for my day. Comfy ride to work. Stylish enough for work (I am in a creative industry, so no need for corporate attire), then perfect for helping out at basketball training after school. And suited the 30º+ temperature perfectly. All in all an excellent outfit.

Day 5 - I love this top! It is my most awesome always feel happy and confident wearing it top. I love it with this necklace. I saved it for Friday because it was the first P&F meeting of the year and I am president, so had to chair the meeting. That might make me sound like a person who is full of confidence and who knows what she is doing. But I am not. I needed a little superficial something to help me out and this outfit was it. I felt good and we had a pretty good meeting. I always feel nervous that no one will turn up. It feels like I am 15 again. I feel so relieved as I see the room starting to fill. We had lots of positive people and lots of new mums, so it is great to know that the P&F will have the strength to continue.

Day 5 (part 2) - I had planned on adding heels and extra make-up for Friday night dinner with the girls, but after getting stuck into my declutter inspired by Sarah at A Beach Cottage I was way too festy to not get changed. After taking the old clothes to the Salvos and our bottles to the recycling depot (where I also discovered that the Magill Recycling Depot take old clothes that aren't good enough for the Salvos) I had 45min to kill before school pick up. So I took myself off to Kmart and invested $29 in this cute new dress. I styled it up with my favourite brooch and beads plus a belt and was rewarded with lots of compliments from the girls. (My girl told me that she loved my outfit and thought I looked like a fashion coach, I just needed to be wearing converse high tops. I love her so much and don't want her to turn into a teenager who hates me!!) I had the most awesome dinner with a group of girls who I love and adore and who are an absolute inspiration to me.

Day 6 - I had to organise a babysitter for Friday night because Mr G had a pre-season soccer game (argh!!!!) Mr G's brother and sister-in-law stepped up and Miss M had a great night with her cousins. We had little sleep in, then picked her up from her cousin's tennis. We got to see our nephew play a terrific game of tennis. (Proud Aunty moment!) I was possibly a little hot in long pants, but was pleased that the scarf both hid my bed head, and made it look like I had made an effort! I felt super stylish doing the Saturday chores (Note all the black on the clothes line!)

Day 7 - There was a potential point of weakness on today, the final day. My sister and I run on a Sunday morning, then follow it up with a lovely coffee and a chat at Taylor Blend. I do not own a summer black running top. I could have worn a regular black singlet. But I think when you are getting close to 40 and are wearing Skins on the bottom, it's important to wear something baggy on top! Plus when you plan to run for an hour, there is no room for taking chances on clothes that could chafe.

My Skins are black and I borrowed Mr G's black Man Utd cap and decided that was close enough. I think I made it up tonight though with my black top and shorts combo with yellow accessories for dinner at the Italian Club with our cycling group.

Five lessons from my week in black:
1. A theme makes it fast and easy to get dressed in the morning (maybe the minimalists are on to something!)
2. Wearing black is like being a human vacuum cleaner (a clothes brush is your friend)
3. Having a theme makes you search your wardrobe and find things you forgot you owned.
4. There are lots of different ways you can incorporate colour into simple outfits and restyle old clothes.
5. I love leggings.

day 38 - button (or feb day 7)

I have been feeling a little podgy since the Christmas holidays. (And the scales are backing me up on that!) Even though I have stopped eating sugar, I still put on 4kg over the holidays. I suspect the fabulous support I give to the Australian wine industry that is the cause of my problems!

I had thought that I would try Feb Fast, good thing I didn't get sponsorship, because I only lasted 3 days. I caught up with my sister after school on Friday and, well, she thought that a cheeky glass of bubbles might be good to settle our nerves. And let's be serious, that can only be a good thing! I thought maybe the rule could be that Friday's don't count. But then on Saturday night I was babysitting my nephews and had got the kids all set up to watch a movie after dinner and really started to feel a bit wine o'clock. I fessed up to my hubby about my Friday afternoon bubbles, and he fessed up to beers at the soccer! And we both agreed that if we felt like a glass of red on a Saturday night we absolutely deserved to have one!

Anyway, the point of that long rambley story is that I like a weekend tipple and my new thing is to cut out bread and pasta to try and ditch my xmas pudding. I made hummus on the weekend and have been having that with salad for lunch at work. When I started eating my lunch I remembered that the challenge for today was buttons. And I had button mushrooms in my salad. How good was that!?

Did you put on weight over the holidays? Have you managed to lose it yet? What works for you?

day 25 - something I made

Woah! What a crazy busy day!! I worked all day. Then I arrived home packed our bags and we headed off to the beautiful Pt Vincent to sneak in one last long weekend before school goes back.

The morning had been frantic, no time for making, although I did take some photos of old projects, it didn't feel right to use an old project, (I'm still feeling funny about using one of our old childhood photos on day 10). I did make my breakfast, but I ate that before I thought about what the day's challenge was. I did spend all day kind of making at work, I'm working on our new stationery range. But that didn't feel right, since it was on the computer, not made with my hands. And aside from that, I can't share it anyway until the range is officially launched.

I saw Styling You's photo on instagram and she'd made herself a cup of tea. That would have been perfect, if I had have thought of it first! But I didn't want to copy. I wondered if I could count packing my bag as making something? I didn't even make my lunch or dinner. As we were driving to Pt Vincent the inspiration hit me. I was hanging out to arrive and see my family and especially, finally relax with a glass of wine. I knew what I could make. I could make myself smile, by pouring a big, fat glass of wine.

Isn't it silly how I have all these rules in my head for how I have to play the photo-a-day game? I really could have just used anything I had made, but it had to follow the rules. Adèle and I are always reminding each other at Intrinsic that we make the rules, so we can break them. Do you ever set yourself rules that are restrictive and also unnecessary?

happy, happy me