3 Keys to Layering

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layering

I’m a summer girl at heart, but I have a soft spot for May through August. The crisp, cool mornings giving way to sunny, cloudless days. Winter in Brisbane means waking to a slight chill in the air, the day warming to the mid-twenties and evenings with just a nip of shiver. It also means relying on the art of layering.

For a girl that normally relies on a maxi dress, layering can be tricky. It takes a bit more thought and planning. But it’s also a chance to really build an outfit and take the separates out for a spin.

There are three keys to successful layering. Read more…

When to sew / when to buy

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When to sew / when to buy

I have a pair of culottes currently under the sewing machine. Delustered Satin in a vintage floral print. You wouldn’t look at the fabric and think “culottes”. Maybe shift dress or box pleat skirt. But that’s why I went in an unexpected direction. Because I could.

It’s one of the things I love about sewing my own clothes. But obviously I don’t sew everything I own (although I’d love to). So how do I decide what to buy or what to make? Read more…

End of our world?

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Once again my news feed is full of terrible things. Horrors and terrors hard to imagine. And I wonder anew if our world is at a tipping point. Then I remember, we have been here before. Read more…

Minimalism and Special Event Dressing

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Minimalism and Special Event Dressing

This is what normally goes through my head when I receive an invitation to something slightly fancy. Oooh, exciting. Yay, we are free that day. Bother, we have something the day before – why are these things always clustered together? What am I going to wear?

The what am I going to wear question quickly becomes “What am I going to buy?” A wedding, a big party, a celebration is a lovely excuse to hit the shops and indulge. But not this year. This year my wardrobe options are limited to strictly in-house shopping. Read more…

Yearning for Rest

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Yearning for Rest

My youngest was nearly one. The mythical “sleeping-through” remained mythical. And from the accounts of my new mum girlfriends, we had all been fed the same fantasy. None of us were getting a full eight hours. My very bones were weary with tiredness. It was impossible to fathom how we could continue and yet we all did. I yearned, yearned for rest.

I remember talking to mum about it. How weary I was. My dear mother has a way of seeing herself in every story. So she told me about how tired she was. As an aside, if you’d like to frustrate a person to tears, be a person without a baby telling a person with a baby how tired you are. Of course, new parents don’t have the monopoly on exhaustion, but for the love of all that’s holy – just give it to them. They are honestly only just hanging on.

And while my mothers “empathy” rankled she then said something that gave me pause “sometimes I wish for just a short stay in hospital, nothing serious of course, just a little rest.” Read more…