Denim Jacket Blues

I have always wanted a denim jacket, for some reason have never bought one!  I was obssessed with Sass and Bides 'Funky Thompson' denim jacket aBout seven years ago, but never ended up loving it enough to spend the couple of hundred bucks at the time.

Because Sass and Bides Funky Thompson jacket is so old, the only photos I could find on Google were ebay selling photos!

This is from a defunct blog so I wont bother putting up a credit.  But thank you very much because this photo really helped me in my search for my denim jacket :-D.

Miranda Kerr with a dark wash jacket :-).  This is the look I am after, 

Keira and her light wash jacket.  I am not loving this.

But now I am obsessed again, I think because I have been seeing it a bit on celebrities and since I need a jacket because I am returning to colder weather - perfect excuse to buy one.  There are not to many instore at the moment, I found some at Dotti, Portmans and Jeans West.  All were priced between $80 to $90 and none of them I particularly liked.  And then there was the dilemma of what shade of denim did I want, bleached, washed out, vintage, dark?  EEEEEEK.  So after a lot of research (I mean ALOT of internet research I decided that I wanted the dark look of Miranda Kerr's jacket, not the lighter look of Keira Knightley's.   So THEN I got on ASOS which had heaps of denim jackets at reasonable prices. And I also had a 20% off discount code, yay.  So I found two I liked, but one was a bit to light so I picked the darker one though I wasnt sure about the cut but it was the best I had found and it was $50 after my discount!  BUT THEN, this morning when I was on ASOS grabbing the photo of the jackets to put on my blog there was THE perfect jacket and it was only $39!!  Obviously it had moved out of someones bag overnight and so appeared back in stock - so I snapped it up and it is out of stock again :-).  Yay for perfect jacket.  But very sad face to the fact it was to late to cancel my other order, and I had wasted my one off 20% off code on that one as well.  So a bit of an expensive exercise, but I will either return the first one for a refund (so wasting the postage price and my discount code poooo) or will gift it to my Sister. 

The lighter wash one on ASOS that I loved the cut of but not the colour - it was $56

The one that I bought originally was $60 but $50 with discount

the one that I bought second, I love this cut better than the original one - $39

Social networking and still no to floral pants!

So I am attempting to use a little more technology in my life.  I got back onto Pinterest, I really need to utilise this application because it will solve my clutter problem of my look books.  But I am still not really feeling it, obviously alot of it comes down to the spare time I have.  With a baby I do not have much spare time anymore, but I will continue to try and make Pinterest work for me :-D.  I gave twitter a go for the second time, but I definitely do not have time in my life to keep up with twitter - so thats out!  Finally we have instagram, I started an account last year but never really got into it.  But I just restarted using it.  I love taking photos of my baby, of course I am mindful of spamming Facebook with baby photos, but I figure I can spam instagram with her photos instead ;-).

I am on a proper spending ban at the moment as due to childcare issues I wont be going back to work for a couple of months more than expected, and since we want to go on a major overseas holiday next year best I dont spend all our money on clothes :-).  Have I mentioned how I think Jessica Alba is my style icon??  She is amazing and obviously has access to a stylist as well as I am sure she doesnt get time to shop for all the clothes she has, I swear I have seen her in over 20 different jeans in the last 6 months as she rocked the coloured pants and did NOT rock the floral pants.  UGH to floral pants, as this clip shows, even Jessica Alba cant make floral pants look good. http://www.fabsugar.com.au/Jessica-Alba-Wears-Floral-Printed-Jeans-Target-Practice-Sin-City-See-How-See-Works-Trans-seasonal-Trend-24626254.

Whip my hair back and forth take 2

My hair is nearly back to the colour it used to be and what I want it to be!  Which is ironic since after this hair appointment I am returning interstate to where my previous salon is anyway!  So wish me luck that I finally get what I want this appointment.  My hair is still not bad considering after baby I had a huge amount of hair loss (apparently this is normal!), and I still have baby hair and tufts all over the place growing back lol.  I love Blake Lively's hair, I might get my hair a touch blonder to match her colour, but I will wait until I am happy with it again before I mess with it :-p.

Wish List and culling victims

All purchases are now deferred to the wish list.  Very sad face!  I really wanted these leggings from Black Milk, but now they are actually back in stock I have no purchasing power anymore!  So they are on the wish list for a couple of more months at least.

I am okay with this as I really need to focus on packing up my house (again), then finding a new house then unpacking again lol.  In between that I also need to keep up my new exercise regime which is going well so far since Baby G has started enjoying being in the pram again for runs/walks (lets be honest its mainly walking!).  I am still culling a million things in our house, we cull every time we move and considering we move every year I shudder to think what other people have in their houses.  Though I recently read about Miley Cyrus's amazing physique change due to Winsor Pilates, so I tried to find the Winsor Pilates dvd set I purchased many years ago and I cant find it :-( :-(, I think its been a victim of a cull!!!!!!

little treats and one for the wish list

I am loving the neon trend at the moment.  The eighties just keeps coming back!  I am waiting for jelly sandals next lol.  I really needed a waist belt for a dress and fell in love with a bright pink one from Colette, but then when I tried it on - it wasn't a waist belt it was just a normal belt.  Then I discovered it was both, it has adjusters at the back to make it a waist belt - perfect!  Two uses from the one belt.  I also bought these hoop heart earrings as well cause I love hoop and heart stuff :-D.

$9.95 from Colette

$7.95 from Colette

I had to put this dress into the I will not buy it wish list.  It is so cute!  And only $52, but I have about five dresses unworn (though I have two outings coming up) so I cannot justify this dress when we are trying to save.  poo. I also feel like I need to get away from the poofy skirt look, nearly every dress I own is a skater dress or a poofy dress skirt!

Culling and the virtual world

For the last week I have been doing a massive cull of everything!  Lots of wardrobe stuff, I am still being cautious but I am more open to doing another clothing cull at the end of Summer :-).  I gave all our cd's to Lifeline - Two boxes!  Thats a lifetime of cd's, but seriously since they have been loaded on iTunes we have never used a cd again and now we just buy our albums from iTunes electronically.  It was hard donating thousands of dollars worth of cd's, but since I haven't cracked open a cd for years they were just more clutter in our lives that needed to go!  I also donated all our renovation magazines, that was probably another box full - I figured we were done with renovation at the moment, and all these magazines are not only available from the library but they repeat all their content all the time anyway!  Next on my list is the rest of our books, we did a huge cull last move but I want to go through them again and this time Hubby has agreed that his can go as well.  YAY.

Though one thing I can't cull are all my look book folders, I have about six folders of all the looks I have ripped out of magazines over the years.  I thought that Pinterest would replace my lookbooks, but to be honest I don't have time for Pinterest - and i just don't love it!  So I am not bothering with Pinterest anymore and keeping my lookbooks.  Another reason is for some things - like music, I don't mind not having the physical thing anymore so am quite happy for my music to live in and be accessed from the virtual world.  But I actually really like physically opening my folders and going through the pages.  Its the same with books, I have a few on Kindle but its just not the same as a proper book, luckily nearly every book I want the library gets so it doesn't effect me that much.  Magazines are half half, at the moment I subscribe to the physical copies of Who, Allure and Glamour USA.  But I virtually subscribe via my Ipad to a whole stack like Harpers Bazaar, Marie Clare USA, Glamour UK, Cosmopolitan USA and ELLE use via the Zinio App.  I got all the subscriptions at mega cheap prices as well :-D, Zinio have some great sales you just have to keep your eye out for them.  I also just started subscribing to Vanity Fair which I bought via iTunes - it wasn't super cheap $38.99, but considering I cant seem to subscribe to the hard copy and to buy it at the news agency is $10 a month thats still a pretty good deal!  I also just accidentally subscribed to the USA magazine SELF.  I was renewing my Glamour subscription online when it said subscribe to SELF for only $35, I thought actually thats pretty cheap and I have always been interested in that magazine, so I pressed the subscribe button expecting to go to the details and it popped up 'subscribed'!!  Apparently it used my account and cc details since i was still in my account and now I am subscribed.  A little bit of an accident lol.  

Pretty things cheer me up!

I am feeling a bit ho hum at the moment, we have made a decision to move and I am still not sure if its the right decision.  What I do know is that I love Black Milk's new stuff, they have really upped their game out of the bogan chain store crap that has been copying them and are finding their niche again.  I know that alot of people have had strong opinions about BM being a bit of a bogan brand, I think that maybe it was a back lash from the bad copies that were appearing everywhere that alot of girls were wearing and BM became very cool so heaps of girls started buying them.  But where I live I have never seen any girls wearing BM stuff and I still happen to think a majority of their stuff is cool  - especially the new stuff BM have released.  I couldnt resist buying the New York skyline swimsuit and the cathedral leggings, especially when it was 20% off!  So it was still $140 altogether, but thats a good things because a) its awesome quality and b) the price means its not disposable fashion that girls everywhere will buy and wear.  I was not 100% sold on the Cathedral leggings, but I really wanted a another pair of BM leggings and they were the ones I liked the most.  They arrived within 5 working days of ordering and I am in love, they are just SO pretty and great quality.  I have actually been quite good and made a few shopping bags on websites like Ally and not bought anything else.  Speaking of which Ally are having 20% off instore next weekend and I will be abstaining again :-).

To many Apples

ARGH, this is my rant post about my iMac.  I have an Ipad and an Iphone that I love and had no problems learning how to use.  But I just cannot figure out how to use this iMac.  I think its caused by being brought up completely using Microsoft - especially the last ten years using Microsoft at work every day!  Not only do I not know how to use the imac very well, but I dislike some of its functions, so many of them :-(.  And its especially hard when I go to work and use Microsoft all day then I come back and try and use the imac platform.  So even though I have borrowed an imac for dummies book from the library, I still have every intention of buying a laptop with a Microsoft platform very soon and leaving the imac to my hubby.

As always I am trying hard not to spend a lot of money.  I am pleased that after the last post about Ally clothing never having good sales anymore, I found a bargain dress!  This was $14.95 reduced from $29.95.  This is a work dress that will look pretty with thick black stockings under it for winter and no stockings for summer!

All Neon like

I hardly ever buy jewellery anymore, which is probably because I own so much already, not to mention last years splurge.  Last year when I was pregnant I bought SO much jewellery - since I couldn't really buy clothes or shoes because I was pregnant - jewellery it was!  But for the last few months, I have really tried to not buy any jewellery - quite successfully.  Until now, I love the neon trend at the moment, except having been old enough to remember the late 80's I cannot bring myself to buy any of it.  But then I spotted this necklace, I think its so cute!  Plus its small enough to keep away from old octopus hands (my 7month old daughter).  It was $14.95 from Colette Accessories.

I am reading heaps of books ferociously at the moment, in fact I reading a really good one thats a biography kind of, written by Martin Sheen and his son Emilio Estevez.  I really don't have the time anymore to read at the pace that I am at the moment, and lots of things are suffering (aka my housework), but it makes me feel good :-).  I recently read some great chick lit books such as Jane Costello's 'All the single ladies' and Chrissy Manby's 'What I did on my holidays'.  They are so easy to read and although somewhat predictable story lines they are feel good ones.

Where are the bargains!

You may have noticed by the amount of posts about Ally clothing, that is one of my favourite stores.  In previous years I have always bought so many bargains from Ally, and their clothing is pretty cheap anyway!  This year, not so much!  Their clothing is more $$ and I can never find a bargain!  Even when things go on sale its only $5 or $10 off :-(.  Total sad face!  I cant work it out because the stores are always heaving at the seams full of stock but all the good stuff never goes on sale.  Surely it doesn't all sell out?  Even though I don't really shop at Cotton On, I have noticed the same phenomena happening there as well. hmmm.  I should really stop having a whinge as Ally's clothes are quite good quality compared to Cotton On's and I have never been dissapointed with any purchases (apart from the price sometimes lol), in fact one of my favourtite dresses at them moment is one that I bit the bullet and bought a couple of months ago at the price that I don't pay very often - $39.99. But I am loathe to spend that kind of money so I am on the eternal hunt for bargains at the moment.  Very slim pickings!  I picked up this coat from Ally for $39 a massive sale cut from the original price of $49 - well for Ally these days that is a massive bargain!  I also picked up this dress for $19, a saving of $5.  I have actually had a bag saved online at Ally for awhile, but nothing ever goes on sale enough :-(.  

still swimming

I havent been able to blog for ages, lots of commitments and travel and the Ipad is such a crappy blogging tool I don't even bother to blog on it anymore.  I really do have to utilise blogger more on my Iphone and Ipad though.  I have had heaps to blog about, but will start slowly - I bought another swimsuit!  Because its Winter and all so why not lol.  In my defence I take my daughter to swimming lessons every week in a heated pool so I do wear them.  I really wanted to buy this Black Milk one, but its way out of my budget and I don't love it enough to blow my budget.  But it is awesome :-).  I have only posted the back of the swimsuit, but check out the link for the front and NY skyline.  I have a whole stack of stuff in my ASOS shopping saved bag, but recently they released a 15% off discount code so I bit the bullet and purchased the below swimsuit, I love it because the ruffles make it less sexy and more parent swimming lessons appropriate.  It was around $32.