More shorts

New purchases:

Sportsgirl shirt, $47 down from $90
Karen Walker sunnies, $150 from Shopbop, RRP$295
Karen Walker shorts, $100 from ebay, RRP$340

My basketweave Von Trapp shorts are so wearable, that I pounced on this cheap tan pair on ebay. Here are a couple more outfits featuring some of my favourite shorts:

Karen Walker shorts and sunnies, Country Road tee, gold wooden beads

Lover leather shorts, Sewn blouse, Nine West sandals

Twisted tailoring?

Images from Gary Bigeni website

I love the look of some of the twisted and draped styles that are around this season, such as those from Gary Bigeni's latest collection, as pictured above. He uses beautiful colours and unique tailoring, as well as eco friendly fabrics. However, is it just me, or do a lot of these styles add unwanted bulk to certain areas? The top in the fourth picture gives the effect of a newly pregnant belly. I tried on the Boy dress in the third picture. Extremely flattering colour and fabric. Front view: gorgeous. Back view: hot. Side view... eek! My waist just doubled in size! Maybe the tall, thin model can get away with doubling her waist, but not me. So very disappointing.

Perhaps this pastel pink version from Karla Spetic could work for me?

New dresses

Here are some of my latest purchases - been a bit bad with the spending lately. The Sretsis dress was a planned purchase, but the Stella McCartney cloud print dress was an impulse Outnet buy. Even at 50% off the already well reduced price, I was still a little surprised and dismayed when the conversion came through on my credit card statement. Never mind, it's pretty gorgeous. But for an original price of about $1500 it would want to be!

Stella McCartney's second Target collection hits stores this Friday. I wonder if it will be as crazy as last time? I still love my silk bird print top from the last collection. But something tells me I should hold out for sales this time around...

Despite my thoughts that I may have had enough shopping for now, and should probably dedicate a bit more to savings, I find myself browsing Outnet once again...Richard Nicoll blouse, $90 (approx)

Vanessa Bruno culottes, $80 (approx)



Lover dress, $120 (approx)

Bonsai: the Bargain Hunter

I mentioned in a previous post that I am not into buying shoes at full price. Well, I have a confession to make... I quite rarely buy anything full price. Apart from a few must-have pieces from my favourite brands, I have trouble bringing myself to buy clothes that are not on sale. And I have a very warped view of prices. Sometimes I'll hesitate over a $30 top, telling myself that it's an unnecessary extravagance. But then I'll convince myself that a $300 dress is completely reasonable. Here are some of my best bargains (all brand new and undamaged):

Sass & Bide dresses, $5 each from warehouse sale



Velvet jacket, $6 from Trade Secret sale


And my latest, Mimco bag, $120 down from $500 in recent sale

Characters

I realised that our house has become increasingly full of funny little characters. Looking at them makes me smile...

A special occasion dress...

My Sretsis 'Silver Heart' dress, from the 'Stolen Hearts' arrived in the mail today and all I can say is... WOW. The detailing is even more incredible than I expected. It's much more sparkly than I thought, with green and gold shimmery specks through the grey lace overlay. The sleeves are also more puffy than I thought, giving the dress a kind of vintage look. But the sparkly silver hearts add a quirky modern touch.

This is definitely a special occasion kind of dress, made for parties! I'm thinking either birthday, Christmas or New Year's for the first outing, all coming up in quick succession. I'm imaging it paired with either my Country Road grey vintage style low round toe pumps, or my Midas pewter almond toe high wedges. I can probably dress it down for winter with tights, my Mollini grey & black heeled brogues and a grey jacket.

Here are some pics I took to try to better convey to you its beauty:

Shoe steals

Guess who bagged some bargains on the weekend? As you know, I'd been on the hunt for some new summer shoes. I'd held back from buying either of the pairs I posted about previously because, well, because they weren't on sale. I'm very funny with shoes. I spend quite a bit on clothes but, for some reason, I don't like to splurge on shoes. This is what I like in a pair of shoes:
1. Comfortable
2. Go with everything
3. On sale

But while I was waiting for my ideal shoes to go on sale, I came across these two pairs (Nine West purple suede flats, $37 and Sportsgirl heeled clogs, $30). While the purple pair won't necessarily go with everything, and the wooden heeled ones will only be comfortable for short spurts of walking, for the price I think they're pretty spot on. I've workshopped some outfits as a test of their versatility (both passed) for occasions from bar through to BBQ.























































1, 2 & 4: Sretsis dresses

3: Country Road blouse, Mativeski velvet skirt - this is a beautiful silvery purple and I recently got it altered from knee length to mid thigh to make it more versatile

5: 'Hi There' Karen Walker blouse, Lover pants (from the new collection, they look huge but I swear it's the angle of the photo!)

6. Lover blouse and Tsubi skirt