Aussie Curves- Work

This week the Aussie Curves challenge is work. My work at the moment is being a single mum. Looking after my boys and running the household. I need to wear clothes that are easy to move in, soft, with no sharp necklaces so I'm always available for cuddles and comforting. Earrings are simple so they won't catch on little boy's faces when they hug me. Of course, my clothes are always colourful, which my boys greatly approve of. Sometimes when they look at my outfit for the day, one will add "You need a bit more rainbow Mummy". I'm always happy to oblige.

The weather is finally warm enough that my legs see the light of day. Blue and orange is a favourite colour combo of mine at the moment. My velvety skirt is from Autograph, that I picked up for $20 in the sales.

My cardigan and owl shirt are from Big W. I like the navy and orange styles they have in their shop right now. My shoes are cheap flats from Kmart that are my go to shoes, they are comfy and go with everything. Perfect when I'm rushing to get the kids in the car for the school run.

My orange sunnies are from Kmart (I have them in green and pink too). Lightning earrings are from an op shop, and my owl clip was sent to me from Kath, one of my lovely online friends.

Being a Mum is an important job. I'm very aware that I am the constant, loving adult in their life, and I see how they depend on me and take strength from that. Sometimes that's a bit scary, and I feel overwhelmed at all the responsibilities I juggle, with no one to talk over the decisions with, no one to step up and do the washing up for me when I'm tired. But I'm also aware that I'm very lucky. My kids and I have a place to live, I have a supportive family in my parents and siblings, and my church. My boys are usually happy, and they're still young enough to give me cuddles and tell me that they love me. We have fun playing computer games together, and at the moment I'm enjoying reading them their first Harry Potter book. I'm grateful for my life and my boys.

Outfit Details
Skirt: Autograph (22)
Shirt: Big W (24)
Cardigan: Big W (26)
Shoes: Kmart (11)
Earrings: Thrifted
Owl clip: from a friend
Sunglasses: Kmart

Aussie Curves- Heels

For the heels challenge, I only had one pair to show you- my wedges. I'm a flats girl, sandals and sneakers are my main shoes. I have a flat foot, and wearing heels causes me lots of pain. Plus I tend to turn my ankle. Anyway, I bought these wedges from Big W last year, 'cos they were so pretty and they didn't feel too painful. I have to yet to wear them out of the house though, let alone long periods.

I'm pairing the heels with my lace dress from Asos Curve. I love the colour and style, but it's too short for me to feel comfortable (short dresses always ride up my bum!) so I'll be wearing it with leggings most of the time. I like the contrast between the light shoes and dark dress.

I added a light coloured belt and my pink necklace and earrings to tie in to the creamy shoes. I happened to have a hair flower that exactly matches the colour of my dress- scored for half price at Big W (all their accessories are currently half price if you're interested).

Outfit Details
Dress: Asos Curve (24)
Shoes: Big W (11)
Necklace: Op shop
Pearl bracelet: Op Shop
Belt: Big W
Hair Flower: Big W

Aussie Curves- Mixing Patterns

This week the Aussie Curves challenge is about mixing patterns. It's not something I've really tried on purpose before. I love patterns and have a lot of them, I just haven't mixed them together! I decided on trying to mix both colours and patterns, why not jump right in the deep end, right? I love the red and blue colour combo, and thought I'd try mixing my polka dot shirt with my floral skirt. I think it works!

I picked up the polka dot shirt a little while ago from Big W. The skirt is a Target brand find from the op shop (must have been back in the day when they made coloured plus-size stuff). The skirt is a bit big, I had to safety pin it at the back. 

My shoes are from Best and Less, they were only $10 at the time, and came in a snug size 11. My hair bow and necklace are from my favourite local markets, the Olive Tree Markets. My bracelet set is from Yours Clothing. I like the colours and the elastic which means it fits my wrist, but the quality isn't great. The knots on it made from string or something, are starting to unravel.

I bet the other Aussie Curves ladies have some great pattern mixes, check them out below!

Outfit Details

Top: Big W (24)

Skirt: Thrifted (Target, 26)

Shoes: Best and Less (11)

Tardis Earrings: Etsy

Bracelet Set: Yours Clothing

Necklace and Hair Bow: Olive Tree Market

Aussie Curves- Dark

I almost didn't get this theme done this week, I've been busy, and dark isn't really a theme I'm into. I have one black dress that I'm saving when we have the LBD theme, and most of my other dark shade colours were used in previous weeks. I could just wear all black, but I'm not a fan, wearing all black makes me feel depressed. Then I remembered I had this spotty dress.

Yes it's black, but the white spots make it fun. I picked this dress up at Best and Less for about $40 years ago and it's really been value for money. The pattern reminds me of a starry sky. It is comfy and easy to wear too.

I usually pair this dress with red accessories, but I went with purple to keep it more in the "dark" theme. The bag I'm holding is a vintage bag that used to be my Mum's when she was young and single. :-)

Just trying to show you all my accessories in one pic. The necklace is from the op shop, the bracelet from a market, the hair flower from Target, and I made the button earrings myself. I added the hair ribbon to the pendant, I think it goes nicely. Also, you can adjust the length really easily, which I like.

Isn't the embroidery pattern on the bag cute?

Outfit Details

Dress: Best and Less (20)

Necklace: Op shop/ thrifted

Earrings: Made by me

Hair Flower: Target

Bracelet: Market

Shoes: Payless (11)

Aussie Curves- Polka Dots

I was excited to see that Polka Dots was the theme this week, as I am a big fan. I have polka dot pyjamas, polka dot hat, polka dot plates and of course polka dot clothes. I decided to recreate what I wore for my birthday last weekend. This pretty dress was marked down to $20? (can't remember) from City Chic, which is the first thing I've bought from them. Usually their prices are too high for my budget, and they don't seem to have 70% off as often as Autograph, so I don't usually pay them much attention. But the price was right for this dress! I like that the straps are adjustable, as I needed to adjust them a lot (the usual fit around the hips, too big up top problem). The dress is comfy to wear and I love the combo of ruffles and polka dots. It came with a belt made out of the dress material, but I found a more structured belt worked better. 

To offset the chill as I went out for birthday dinner (if you're ever in Newcastle, El Nonno in Hamilton have yummy Italian food and great service for reasonable prices) I wore my Domino Dollhouse jacket. Both the jacket and the dress were having their first outing, by the way. I turned up the cuffs so you could see the adorable polka dot print on the lining. The jacket doesn't photograph well, but the colour is a rich burgundy velvet, so nice to wear. I like the crop length too, especially over dresses.

I wore my awesome op shop find boots. I like how the jacket, boots and studded belt add a bit of edge to the pretty floaty dress.

The bunny brooch and polka dot hair bow were birthday presents given to me on the night, which I promptly wore. The necklace is a dark purple stone from my Grandmother, it's not exactly right with the dress but I couldn't find a better match. 

My bracelet and my sparkly handbag are both op shop finds. The bow on the handbag is the belt from my dress.

I've assembled some other polka dot looks for you, which can be found here, here and here. I still have two more polka dot clothing items I haven't featured on the blog, maybe I'll show them off this week.

Outfit Details
Dress: City Chic
Jacket: Domino Dollhouse
Bike Pants (underneath): Big W
Boots: Thrifted
Bracelet: Thrifted
Necklace: Gifted
Hair Bow: Gifted (Olive Tree Markets)
Bunny Brooch: Gifted (Blackbird's Corner)
Belt: Asos Curve
Handbag: Thrifted

Blue and Green Striped Maxi

I love me some stripes (almost as much as polka dots) so when I found this cheap maxi at Kmart I was excited. It also has one of my favourite colours in it- blue. I wore it with my blue hair flowers, a green sparkly necklace I'd picked up from one of those little pop-up shops in shopping centres and blue and green bead earrings. I added the black elastic belt for a bit more visual interest (it was an op shop find).

The dress fabric is a nice breathy cotton, not as stretchy as my other stripey maxi (seen here). I went for a size 24 initially but it was too loose in the top. The 22 fitted better, and now that I'm cool with dresses hugging my curves the bottom part of the dress was no problem!

Once again I'm pairing a blue dress with my new op shop boots. I think my boots are going to feature often at least until the excitement of the find has worn off!

Stay tuned for another outfit for "blue week" coming out later in the week!

Outfit Details
Dress: Kmart (22)
Bike pants (underneath): Big W (22)
Boots: Thrifted
Necklace: market/pop-up shop
Bracelet: from a friend
Hair flowers: Target
Belt: Thrifted
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Aussie Curves- Blue

I was excited to come up with an outfit for the "blue" theme for Aussie Curves this week. Blue is one of my favourite colours, and I have a lot of pieces. I decided on one of my favourite shades of blue- in an Asos Curve dress I bought on clearance. To honest, I've had nothing but trouble with the dress. When I first tried it on, it was too big on top, a little tight around the waist (usually my smallest area) and fine around the hips. A weirdly made size 24. I decided I'd keep it and adjust the straps and front to make it fit. After a day of hand-sewing (not my forte) the straps still slipped off my shoulders. I think they're too widely set or something. So I'm currently wearing hair clips on the back of the straps to attach to my bra and keep them on for the photos. It's important that I'm always honest when I share my clothes with you. I still love the colour and style, so I'm going to keep it and try and figure out a more permanent fix.

I added my purple Domino Dollhouse petticoat to make the dress flare more, and I love it. I added an Asos Curve belt and my new favourite boots, a recent find at the op (thrift) shop. I'm big fan of sneakers and boots with dresses. These boots look brand new and despite being a size 9 they fit my size 11 feet. The best op shop find of the holidays ever.

I love how this dress has pockets!

I went all blue with the accessories. My brooch is hand-made from my favourite markets, the Olive Tree markets. The hair flowers are from Target. My earrings and bracelets are op shop finds. I'm declaring this week on my blog as blue week, expect to see two more blue themed outfits this week my lovely readers!

Outfit Details

Dress: Asos Curve (24)
Boots: Thrifted (9)
Hair flowers: Target
Brooch: Olive Tree Markets
Bracelets: Thrifted
Earrings: Thrifted
Belt: Asos Curve
Petticoat: Domino Dollhouse

Aussie Curves: Picnic

This week in Aussie Curves, our challenge theme is picnic. Before we get started, I have a confession. The photo below accurately sums up how I feel about picnics. The only nice thing I could think of about picnics was reading a book, but you know I could do that inside in the comfort of my bed. Picnics for me mean flies, mossies, ants, food that needs to be eaten on laps, etc. Yep, I'm an indoors person. Give me a good book to read inside, or a good gaming session any day.

Ok, now I've got that off my chest, here's my outfit. Picnic made me think of my tablecloth dress, that I wore for red week in this post. I needed to mix it up for a new post, so I decided to wear it as a skirt, paired with my Sweet Tooth shirt. My top is from this Etsy shop which has lots of other cute shirts and shoes too. I tucked the skirt under a bit to match the higher waist of the dress (and of me!). Usually it's longer, as you can see in my previous post here.

I wore my comfy red shoes, which seemed a sensible choice for a picnic. Lots of ants and grass and stuff to get in your sandal type shoes, I would think.

My accessories included my strawberry clips from The Olive Tree Markets, earrings from a random market, and a bunch of bracelets- pearl ones were 50c from an op shop, red one is part of a set from Yours Clothing. Apologies for puffy eyes, I was staying at my parents for these photos and they are hayfever central.

Outfit Details

Top: Etsy (2x)

Dress: Asos Curve (24)

Shoes: Wild Surf Co (men's 10)

Bracelets: Op shop (thift shop) and Yours Clothing

Hair Clips: Olive Tree Markets

Earrings: Market

Lipstick: 50c from the local chemist!

I like the pairing of red and turquoise, I'll have to do it more often! Check out what the other lovely Aussie Curve ladies have come up with below.