Get shorty

Yay, it's the weekend! Well - actually it is almost over.

And now Sunday-evening-itis is starting to sink in. You know, where you suddenly become super-conscious of how quickly the weekend is slipping away from you. And no matter what you do, you can't stop it from happening. It is over, you have to get up tomorrow and go to work and you have to do that FIVE TIMES IN A ROW before you get another reprieve.

Mmmm - I love being a grown-up!

Anyway, my husband and I did pretty much the same thing this weekend that we do every weekend. We just hung around our hood, read the paper (well - he did. I read Vogue) and drank a whole lot of coffee - but it was still lovely. I feel like maybe I should want to do more with my weekends - like I should be bored of this by now - but I don't and I'm not. In fact, it makes me very happy indeed.

Oh but I did mix up my clothes a bit. Because even though just like a month ago I was saying how totally awesome winter clothes are, I was totally bored of all my winter jumpers and leggings this morning. I just couldn't bear it any longer.

So, much to my husband's chagrin, I thought I would rock some cut-off shorts with opaques. Not something I am usually into, but I had bought these cute little cargo cut-offs from One Teaspoon in the sales and I couldn't wait any longer for the weather to warm up so I could finally wear them. Solution? Opaques!

Yeeeeah - so they are really short, huh?

Uh, in fact - I think I might ONLY wear these little booty-shorts with opaques. So lucky I tried this out!

The messed up hair is thanks to getting a thai massage in the middle of the day. Felt great but kinda left my hair in a bit of a cray-ay-zee state.

Oh wait - so I *did* do something awesome today! No wonder I feel so good!

Now I just need to make sure I don't remember that Monday is fast approaching me.

I mean... DAMMIT!!!!!

Man style

So, taking a break from ME ME ME for a little bit, let's talk about guys.

Not just the pretty ones (I swear - Ryan G will not be mentioned once. Well, apart from that one time anyway) - I am talking about the super-styling ones.

I don't really like guys that are overly fashion-conscious. It is a little unnerving for me if a guy dresses better than me (I mean, what would I bring to the relationship?). But I do love it when men have a strong sense of their own style and what suits them.

That said, I would really like to have the chance to be able to dress my husband up in what I think he would look good in.

Like a real life Ken doll!

Don't get me wrong - he doesn't dress too badly. And he certainly dresses better now than when I met him  (my influence over his style has been a bit of a slow burning process - in fact he would argue that my influence over it was non-existent but pfffft to that!).

But if we go shopping and I try to push him into something that he really doesn't like though, he will just lose interest in the whole thing.

For example, he would never just try something on for me so I can see what it would look like, much to my disappointment. Like the other week when we were in Jack London and I reeeeeeeally thought he would look good in this burgundy velvet jacket:

Source: www.westfield.com

But nooooo. Would not play with me at all.

So I just have to admire the style of other men instead and make little comments about how great they dress in hope that he gets the hint and tries out something new (but thinks that it is his idea so he is ok with it).

And right now, these are the guys whose style has caught my eye:

1. Tom Hardy

I swear that I haven't just added Tom Hardy because I saw "The Dark Knight Rises" on the weekend or because he has an amazing body and gorgeous face. He has actually got some serious sartorial chops.

Source: www.aceshowbiz.com

Source: www.gq.com

Source: www.fanforum.com

(Yeah, also the body and face help. Although, it would be nice if he could shave more often...)

2. Jamie Hince

It is pretty hard to match the sartorial awesomeness of Kate Moss and Alison Mosshart. But I honestly think that James Hince (AKA Mr Kate Moss and one half of ace Brit band, The Kills) holds his own in the style-stakes.

Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Source: www.vintagethreadsuk.blogspot.com

Source: www.zimbio.com

Serious rock n roll hotness. Speaking of which...

3. Justin Dean Thomas

I only recently found Justin Dean Thomas through Twitter strangely enough. He is the gorgeous singer/ guitarist for The Bowery Riots (a great New York band with an awesome sound) but he also puts together awesome, retro-inspired looks that make me seriously swoon. Dig it.

Source: www.koo.im

Source: www.internationalaffairsmusic.tumblr.com

Source: www.theboweryriots.tumblr.com

Yet another reason why New York is just cooler than everywhere else on the planet.

4. James Dean

This is an all-time favourite for me - James Dean's style was timeless and will always be on this list. Again, the fact that he was gorgeous and broody certainly helped, but he also had his own look going on that has made women swoon for decades. If more guys dressed like this today, I would be a very happy gal.

Source: www.ecosalon.com

Source: www.nowhavefun.com

Source: www.sabotagetimes.com

Vintage nommy.

5. Mark Ronson

Mark Ronson's look is just about as slick and well-put together as the songs he produces - the man can do no wrong.

Source: www.gq.com

Source: www.rodcollins.com

Source: www.stylebistro.com

He looked so good blonde. Like, almost as good as Spike.

6. Nick Cave

More rock loveliness, Nick Cave rocks a suit like nobody's business - always have, always will. He is just ridiculously cool.

Source: www.contactmusic.com 

Source: www.dangerousminds.net

Source: www.fanpop.com

His hairstyles are also awesome. (Granted, there is a little bit less of it to style nowadays though - but he is still da man).

So all I am asking is for my husband to take a leaf out of these guys' books - maybe get around in a suit, hat, striped shirt or maybe even a trench coat - is that really too much to ask?

Previous experience has taught me that yes - yes, it really is.

Le professional - day five

Casual Friday. It sounds like it should be fun, right? Relaxed even. But it isn't. Not really, anyway.

I decided to make up for the shortness of yesterday's dress with a midi-length dress AND opaques - no legs to see here folks!

It was comfy, super-warm and simple. What more could you want on a Friday? While I do love wearing all black, I like to break this dress up a bit with a belt because it can be a bit sack-like. This one is a cute one from ASOS (surprise!) with rose gold plates and a groovy little chain.

So that is the last outfit for the week. What do you think?

I got some feedback from some of the girls I work with about my little challenge - and it was not good, you guys! Basically, they did not think there was much of a difference between what I have worn this week and what I normally wear.

WHA??

So this means I have, essentially, failed in my challenge. BUT also means something else which is pretty great - they clearly had not noticed that I had been wearing stretchy skirts with t-shirts or knits almost every day for the last god-knows how many weeks!

Which kinda makes me feel like just going back to that and not bothering with this challenge anymore... Dunno. We will see how I feel on Monday morning. (I am predicting I will feel crappy because it will be Monday morning, but let's pretend that isn't inevitable, ok?)

Anyway - IT'S THE WEEKEND! YEAH!!!!!!!!

Now I am allowed to wear whatever I want for two whole days.

Total bliss. :)

Le professional - day four

So this is becoming quite the learning experience.

A few people mentioned that they thought yesterday's outfit was the best one so far (and I agree) - which is lovely and all - but I then felt HUGE pressure to look even better today. Ok, maybe not huge pressure, but I thought it would be nice.

And, as pressure tends to do to me, it caused me to panic and then fail to come up with the goods.

I decided to stick to something basic - shirt-dress, opaques and a men's style jacket with my lovely silver heels. You'd think that would be totally work appropriate, right?

Nope! Because, even though I have worn this dress a whole bunch of times, it was only looking through these photos that made me realise just how short it is. Like, not so much a shirt-dress and more of a shirt-shirt.

Yeah, so while I have been walking around the office in this dress thinking, "Oh, I am soooo professional looking", I was actually looking like Slutty McSlut-slut from Slutsville.

Good grief!

Also, it gets creased easily and requires ironing which is against my moral code.

So I think this dress will get retired. Or maybe I will just wear it with leggings or jeans or something.

At least it is a nice colour.

Le professional - day three

Today I had a legitimate reason to not dress like a slob for work - I had a lunch to go to for the "Because I am a Girl" campaign where I would be meeting lots of interesting women and, you know, wanted to look smart.

I went with the basics - black pants and jacket with a white collared shirt. BUT I threw on these ace neon orange shoes. So - can neon be corporate?

I think so! My boss did do this mock "Oh my gosh - I am going blind!" thing when he saw them this morning but I think they spice up an otherwise dull outfit.

The jacket is also very cool - I got it from All Saints when I was overseas last year. Even though it is a plain black jacket, it has this great drapey back.

Aaaaaand, because I wasn't going to the gym today, I decided to wear my glasses.  And everyone knows that professional people where glasses, right?

Well - my barista told me I looked smart, so I am going with 'yes'. (Especially when teamed with bright pink lipstick!)

And that is day three down. Woot!

Le professional - day two

So I think this is a slight improvement on yesterday's outfit.

I had a jacket in mind for it too but, when I put it on, it didn't really look right with my new collar/ fouffy-thingy. But I do love my new collar/ fouffy-thingy!

I bought it when I was in Brisbane the other week from a very cool, Brisbane-based designer - Dog Star. (This warranted mentioning because there aren't many cool things in Brisbane so when I find something, I like to give it props.)

The reason I bought it was to make my basic t-shirts look a bit more snazzy and not so much like a t-shirt. Which I hope make it look a tad more work-appropriate.

My husband thought it was ridiculous - but then men don't really get accessories as a general rule. It is kind of like their attitude towards scatter cushions. So, needless to say, I ignored him.

And again - yay me not wearing all black! I don't normally wear cream or any pale coloured clothes because I am always worried that I will spill stuff on them. I proved this to be a sensible concern when I proceeded to drop coffee foam on my skirt within, like, an hour of being in the office! Bah!!!

Interestingly, a random guy commented that my outfit matched my hair - not sure if he meant that to be a good thing? Maybe I should avoid wearing cream and black in the future (or at least until I change my hair colour again).

And clearly he didn't notice that there were other colours represented i.e. pretty pink lipstick and fab indigo blue nail polish. Preeeeeetty.

So - thoughts, feelings, comments?

Le professional - day one

Today so did not go according to plan.

When I woke up all I wanted to do was chuck on a t-shirt and seriously wondered whether people might actually mistake my black jeans for tailored work pants if I just made sure I moved around a lot all day.

But then I remembered that I was supposed to be trying to look at least a little bit capable. So I picked out something kind of smart looking but also a little bit me.

And then it totally went to pot when I realised that I had forgotten to bring my make up bag to work. ARGH!!!! All I had in my office was some BB cream, pressed power and a sad, black eyeliner crayon which was old and dry and dragged when I put it on.

Sad. Face.

Anyhoo, I still think I pulled up ok for a Monday - still lots of room for improvement though. Also I think I get extra points for not wearing all black.

Aaaaaand it looks even more corporate with a blazer!

Still wore some of my chunky, goth bling too.

(Here is a close up of the ring - it is ace!)

So kinda professional, right?

Le professional

So for the first Sunday evening in aaaages I haven't been a serious funk about heading back to work tomorrow.

Not for any particular reason but it does mean that I am able to think about more important things. Like what I am going to wear.

I've mentioned before that I work in a pretty straight-laced profession. And while there are certainly a lot of people in my workplace that dress very conservatively, I tend to take a more relaxed approach.

This normally suits me just fine, right now I am in the mood to up the game a little bit. At least for a few days until it all just seems too hard and I go back to my old ways.

Because, while I know I should probably dress like this:

Source: www.iamnotasupermodel.com

What I really feel like wearing is something more like this:

Source: www.deviantart.net

Source: www.rebelrebelantistyle.blogspot.com 

Source: www.sugarscape.com

Starting tomorrow though I am going to at least try to look more professional. Wear a suit or two. Maybe a blouse even (although also maybe not).

These are the kinds of looks I am thinking I could handle and not feel like too much of a cookie-cutter office worker:

Source: www.delimitedaddiction.com

Source: www.huffpost.com

Source: www.justjared.com

(Stella - not Kate. Obviously.)

Source: mlejit.com

Source:www.onsugar.com

Source: www.thekooples.com

Usually this mood passes me by pretty quickly but I will try it for at least a week and will post my photos up here to keep me accountable.

Wish me luck, you guys!!!