Style for Real People

Tuesday 5 March 2013

Last Hoorah to bright colours

Summer is over and Autumn is here!!!

Feels like Autumn has already been her for a while with the amount of rain we have been having everywhere.

This outfit post I am dedicating to the vibrance and exciting personalities of the divine bright colours trends we have had over this past irratic summer.
Thankfully we can be grateful we had bright colours to turn to, to remind us it was indeed summer.
I have mixed some of my favourites together. The jacket which features through out, is more of a lime green than a yellow as it appears.
The jade in the pants is showing up for Autumn as well Yaaayyy! As my clients would know I just love this colour. It does work well on a lot of people as it is not to harsh.

I know to some the lime and jade may look like the Australian Olympian's uniform but I like these colours together and I do like to experiment. I must say wearing a bright colour does make me feel energetic and
bouncy.

So as our warmer weather starts to dissapear, I am starting to think about what I will need for Autumn/Winter and if I need to update any of my staples or just add some new accessories to freshen and modernise the looks.

Looking around at what is in stores for Autumn, what I am liking, actually loving are the new Burgundy and Jade which by the way looks amazing together.

Image from her imagination of Brian Attwood ooties

Burgundy is a bit of a hard colour to wear. So if it is not the right shade for you to wear up near your face, try an accessory like a bag or little bootie.
Talking about Burgundy I was at Embelish Atelier www.embelish-hats.com/ and Catherine is doing some amazing fedoras and pill boxes for the Autumn Racing Carnival in burgandy and lots of other beautiful colours and fabrics. Catherine and her team will be having a pop up store on level 1 of QVB starting from Monday 10th March for a week so pop in and say hi and try some hats on.

Black and white is also very prominent and of course ever classic I do feel excited by it. Cant wait to start experimenting and showing you some of my crazy combos. Thank you for reading. Don't forget to comment. xxx

Style.com photo of Phillip Lim dress

Sunday 10 February 2013

Love you as you are!!!

Well it has been a while!!!

Add caption

The problem is when you have a bit of a break the doubt sets in and to get back to it is so much harder.
Anyway here I am in 2013 and very excited about the New Year.
My baby boy is doing his last year at High School! That sounds too weird.

I had a wonderful Christmas with most of my family and an amazing beach holiday with all my boys. Above was the view from our lounge room over Burleigh Beach.
Yes I jam packed the car with decorations from home.  We stayed at Gemini Court Holiday Apartments which is a little walk up a small hill but worth it for the view. I could see the boys surfing out the kitchen window.
It was such a happy lovely time. OOh and I got a new lens for my camera so will be experimenting with the blog photos. Love to see any comments. Or if anyone would like me to come and go through their wardrobe and do their hair and make up and be on the blog let me know. You just have to wear what I say and pose for the photos.

So in this post I need to talk about the very common topic of Women's body shapes'.

This morning I was doing my chores while TV was on in the background. On my way out to the clothes line with a basket full of saved up (prob form before Burleigh) washing from my son's room.
I was stopped in my tracks when I heard the interviewer say to Jennifer Lopez
"Because you are curvy did you have insecurities?" her answer was of course "yes, to start with"
JLo went on to tell how in the early days she was told to loose weight and would always wear loose fitting baggy styles to hide her curves.
I could not believe I was feeling sorry for the absolutely amazing, gorgeous JLo. This beautiful girl was made to feel not good enough because she had curves!
It made me fire up inside.

Most women I know dislike something about their bodies and are always on a diet or trying to loose those extra kilos, myself included. I don't like my thighs! and am constantly trying to thin them down. (with not much success).   However I have come to accept them to a point and work with them.
It is a bit like having to deal with a work colleage or family member you just clash with but they are here to stay so you have to just deal with it and eventually you actually sort of in a weird way like them???

Thankfully we are starting to see some more amazing women that are fit, healthy, intelligent, talented AND curvy sports stars and celebrities that the young girls today can look towards.

I was doing a workshop with a group of women and as we were discussing body shapes as women do, we all got talking about the changes in our bodies that we didn't like.
A young Europeon girl who had gorgeous curves and very confident and happy with them said
"What is wrong with all of you not wanting curves?You are crazy to want straight up and down bodies! that is for boys!!!". I

This outfit is supposedly not for the "larger bottomed people like moi"
but I don't care cause I love my thighs now after this post and I like this outfit!!!

It is fun. I love the bold tangerine colour when teamed with the baggy printed pants. Go on Ladies and Gents go wear something daring tommorow and send me a photo.

Have a great day xxx

Tuesday 11 December 2012

It was all Yellow

One of my favourite things in life that just gives me a boost and makes me feel like bouncing around is wearing my yellow dress.

Yellow is one of those colours that make you feel good instantly!

Like the sun, daffodils and sunflowers, they just seem to make me beam inside.

My whole house is virtually yellow! As my friend Dee from cotterandjewellinteriors.com.au/ pointed out to me I have so much yellow in my life!

This dress I wore to work last week is an old Cue dress. The shape is classic with the peplum that is now very in, but it does help take focus from my thighs and accentuate my waist.
This shape would work on lots of body types because of the structure and its built in shape.

Does anyone have a yellow obsession?

Sunday 9 December 2012

One Dress four looks

Veronika Maine dress, Cue belt, Fossil bag, Diva cuff and ring Shellac nails by www.beautyfull.net.au

Coming up with what to wear every day can be a chore!
However it can also be fun if we have the right pieces.

If we have the pieces we need to make every outfit a winner, we can create many outfits from a few key items.

Sometimes this is a challenge as we only have in our wardrobes what we have. So we have to put our creative hats on and come up with new ways of putting it together.

My friend, boss and inspiration Wendy Mak (Owner www.smittenwithstyle.com) who I do styling for, has just written a book The terrific thirtywww.theterrificthirty.com.au.
It is all about the thirty pieces we need to have to put together over a thousand outfits for every occassion.

Changed shoes and bag for a more casual look.

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The terrific thirty is a wonderful check list just to help you get your wardrobe organised and then you will be finding new ways to wear these pieces. Great Christmas present idea I will be getting a few.

My Outfit pic today has been inspired by some of Wendy's ideas in the book.

This is a dress that is a lovely shape. I have dressed it up for a special lunch, down to wear to work with slightly more comfortable shoes and then added a top and belt, changed accessories and totally changed the look. Then added trench vest to give deception of a different outfit.

Thursday 29 November 2012

Inspirational Friends - The Other Mad Hatter

Eight years ago one of my dreams of opening a shop where I could make and sell my creations became a reality.
When I embarked upon this adventure I was scared, excited and full of passion and energy.
There was no stopping me.

It was an experience where I set out to do one thing but I was rewarded with so many other things

One of those things was meeting so many wonderful, interesting and yes Inspirational people.
Whilst there were many people that came into my life at that time, one of them who I have formed a long lasting friendship with is Catherine Kelly who has Embellish Atelier at Rozelle.
Catherine came into my shop (Which was a Hat and Accessory shop) one day, as she was passing.
As Catherine was studying Millinery at the time she introduced herself and we started chatting and we havn't stopped since!

Catherine would stop by reguarly and we would talk hat stuff. We soon realised that our boys were at the same school, and that we had the same surname.

I was so happy to meet someone else who made hats and finally be able to talk to someone else about being a Mad Hatter.

Over the years Cath has encouraged and pushed me into doing things I would not do on my own. I have watched her start out in the Millinery world and with her determination, spunk and talent and now has a very successful Millinery business where she does Hat, fascinator, flowermaking and various other workshops and designs and makes beautiful creations for a wide range of clients including Racing socialites, Brides, Mothers of the Bride and Groom and has made incredible pieces for theatrical productions. Over the Spring Carnival period Catherine had pop up stores in the QVB in Sydney and at The Rocks.

Unfortunately Cath lost her amazing husband John suddenly in 2010. Needless to say the last two years have not been easy for Catherine and her children. I have seen Catherine pick up and push herself through and seeing what she has achieved and done despite all she has been through is just amazing. It just makes me aware that when I am having a bad day it is really just a walk in the park.
At the time John died he had started working for an organization called Activate that Mentors young people.

Cath and the family decided to set up a foundation in John's honour The Trust Company -
John Skipper Kelly Fund - creating leadership opportunities for disadvantaged youth to continue supporting the work he was doing .Which today has raised over $150,000. If you would like to know more click on the link above.

Cath and I had a fun afternoon going through her wardrobe which has some wonderful treasures like the Sage green Vintage dress she is wearing that was her Mum's. We did her hair and make up also.
Cath has a bit of an obsession at the moment for duck egg blue so it features a lot in this post. It is an amazing colour that looks beautiful on her too.

Tuesday 27 November 2012

What if we can't do Designer?

As you may have already discovered. I love love love accessories!!!

That includes necklaces, bags, shoes, sunnies, watches, rings, cuffs and bangles and of course hats.

It is not Rocket science, but a necklace, cute bag or groovey sunnies can make the whole look.

I also love, love, love something a bit different and quirky in design.

However my budget does not always allow for the price tag that comes with these items especially if a designer name is all over it.

Not that I do not understand and appreciate the time, workmanship and quality of materials gone into the process of getting these beautiful items on to the shop floor for us mere mortals to moan over and spend more than we can afford to pay for one amazing piece.

Taking all this in mind, I do have some lovely pieces but have not bought that ultimate life changing item yet!!! I know that day will come and it is something I look forward to so much.

In the mean time I don't mind doing and will do items that fit in with my budget and will help to achieve the look of the lust after items for now and just tame that yearning for a while!

These include the $9.95 sunnies from Valleygirl, $29.95 bag from Tempt, Diva watch $29.95, Jennifer Kelly necklace

Top Zara $45, Pants Zara $89, shoes (very comfortable, walked around for four hours today) Staccato $119

Monday 26 November 2012

More Wedding outfits

As I said in last week's post I love a wedding and another reason, apart from what I said last week, is that I love seeing everyone dressed up. Guys in a snazzy suit; girls in an eyecatching dress or skirt; maybe a hat and the hair and nails shimmering.
It is almost like the car that we know needs attention and a service. You have not had time to check that noise or thd leaking oil. So the holidays are coming up and with the realisation that the car has to be up to transporting us that six hundred kms to get to our holiday destination, we have no choice but to book it in and do without it for the day.
Once it is done though, it feels and runs so much better and we think why didn't I just do this before.
A bit like the process we go through to look our best at a special event. We love the end result but always put everything else ahead of spending the time on ourselves (or the car that is so important to us).
This is my gorgeous niece at her twin brother's wedding. Melissa put this outfit together for the occassion and she looked beautiful. A busy Mum of three, as a lot of us know it is not easy to find the time to worry about what we are going to wear to this or that. Melissa you nailed it. You looked absolutely radiant.

Tuesday 20 November 2012

What to wear to a wedding

I can't tell you how much I love a wedding!

The love in the air, the union of two people that you care about have found each other in this mad, crazy, wonderful world is just so much to be happy and excited about.

The other reason of course, is because you get to plan an outfit. Sometimes if we can, a new outfit (Can you feel me trembling with excitement).
Yes, I do have lots of things I could have worn BUT there are a few Christmas events that I needed to save those outfits for.

So when I do have to pick a new outfit for a special event like a wedding or big party, for myself or a client. I will always try to choose carefully the pieces so that they can be worn more casually also.

As I have done with the outfit I wore to my nephew's wedding on the weekend.

The top can be worn with jeans or shorts or pants for a smart casual look. Or a shorter skirt. The skirt which my friend Maree picked out for me as I would never have chosen something with the splits so bold. However it had the shear long skirt which was just so appealing to me. It did hide the bulk of my legs.
I was a bit nervous about wearing it but got myself a good fake tan and some very high heels.
I did feel nice in this outfit as it was very flowy and relaxed.

The moral of the story girls and guys is push yourself out of your comfort zone!

The Tree of life

Thought I would share something that dawned on me the other day.
On the weekend I purchased a door mat. It is a print of a tree.
I placed the tree so that when people come to the front door they can see the tree the right way around.
So I go out not long after I have placed it at the front door.

The Door matt

I get home and it is around the other way with the tree facing out so when you are leaving our front door you see the whole tree. So I think to myself I thought I put it the other way. Oh well I mustn't have. So I put it back again.

I go out the next day and upon returning - What do I find? It has been turned around again!!! I turn it back. Next day same again but this time as I am turning it around, the front door opens and my nineteen year old son is there and says "Mum, Stop turning it back around, it needs to be facing out. branches grow outward if they are the other way they dont grow"

It was one of those wake up moments! What he was saying is so true and the funny thing is, it is a metaphor for the stage I am at with my boys.
Both my boys are growing up and branching out and I am having to let them go more and more each day. I am struggling with this and the doormat incident is exactly what I am doing to them. Holding them back for my own purpose as I want to keep them safe and sound and close by me like when they were little.

My grown up boys

The last nineteen years of my life I have spent the majority of my time looking after the kids (as well as a part time job or business that worked around the school/activities hours)whilst it of course had its challenges, I loved and cherished the time and was so grateful I got to have that time at home with them .

Now all of a sudden they have their drivers license, they are off doing their own thing and while I am still busy at the same time I have a lot more time to myself.
This is also a bit exciting for them and for me to see them explore life as I move into my next stage.
While they were younger I did dream about the day I would have a bit more time to myself, now it is here I long to be crazy busy with them again!!! I see Mums picking up there kids from school and I feel very nostalgic.
I am definitely not moaning about it. I know you busy Mums will being thinking what is wrong with her.
I actually feel a lot calmer as our life is not just one big rush from here to there. I just have to get used to it and utilize the time.

Hubbie and me

I need to find a new way of being me - A Mum of two fine young men, and wife to my hard working, now organic loving husband (another story for another time).