Mint Condition

Hello hello! 3 weeks without posting :0 This is the longest absence I have had in a year and I’ve missed the excitement of scheduling a post to go live. I could tell you work got in the way or mid-semester exams took over or Sydney was having terrible weather but in actuality, I was not feeling the buzz to shoot. Then, during the ANZAC long weekend, the clouds parted, the stars aligned, I was finally digging my Insta feed and my creativity fuel was back!

Kicking things off, we have this autumn-appropriate outfit, shot in the cute little streets of Surry Hills. The hero piece is a great thick and structured double-breased blazer perfect for work and dressed down with boyfriend jeans for the weekends. So here’s to a better month ahead filled with blog posts!

Recreate my look:

Blazer / Tee / Jeans / Shoes / Sunnies 

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Man Child

Fundamentally, there’s nothing more man child than a grown adult in a pair of overalls.

Conclusively, they are so comfortable and hide the stomach with just a silver of skin so you can put it over all your cropped tees. Transition it for the colder months with a chunky sweater and make it exam time appropriate with a collegiate jersey lazily thrown on top.

Basically, they’re my new go to denim and these patched ones from Cotton On’s 91 denim range are exactly what I was looking for at $10! Same price as a pressed juice people. Loose, bronzed, brushed buttons and pockets for days.

Overall, go get yourself a pair of overalls.

Thanks for putting up with all my synonyms and I hope you have a lovely easter long weekend (if you’re lucky enough to get one!).

Recreate my look here:

Shirt / Overealls / Flats

Conservative Trending

Top / Jeans / Belt / Bandana / Watch (c/o) / Flats / Bag / Nails

I’ll always go to the clearance section of any store before I even glance at the new arrivals. Further 50 percent off emails and banners make my hands sweat with excitement. Pricing an online store from lowest to highest gives my great satisfaction. Lets face it, I’m not the biggest fan of spending money on trends. Its easy to see what’s going to go out of style and what to invest in. I like the whole 70s thing that every chainstore is shoving down our throats but not enough to commit to a pair of flared jeans for more than a month. Instead, I add a red bandana and brown cross body both stolen from my mum’s wardrobe and I don’t have to spend a dime.

That’s not to say I don’t like to splurge on the finer things. Timepieces are something I thoroughly enjoy and this year I have managed to acquire quite a few unintentionally. One of which includes this Rumba Time piece. The beautifully cut edges reflect light and create the prettiest rainbow effect on your walls. Unfortunately Rumba Time’s website only ships to certain places. However, you can buy this exact style on ShopBop which I recommend because the shipping is crazy fast even if you live in Australia.

So save those dollars and invest in lasting pieces that your children can steal from you down the road. Or put it towards that holiday you’ve been meaning to take yourself on. Experiences are always greater than material things. Period.

Edit: I have decided to update my sign off with a more personalised touch. Writing Christmas cards and gift tags helped me come up with a new way of spelling out ‘much love karen’. Let me know what you think of it and thank you so much for reading.

(Teal)quila Mockingbird

Tequila Mockingbird is an actual drink, I discovered it a few years ago when I was passing by the cocktail section of a bookstore and I looked at the title and thought how punny. Today we’re not talking about alcohol but er maybe we should because of the questionable hyper poses seen in this post. Instead we’re talking about my favourite colour: robin egg’s blue. It’s basically a more washed out version of teal, hence my clever double pun title hur hur. 🙂

If this was a traditional New England preppy sailing look, you would probably go for a navy dress, a cable knit sweater stolen from your hunk and some boat shoes. I modernised the whole thing with some lace up ballerinas and a pastel frock but made sure to add a statement with everybody’s favourite preppy summer fabric: seersucker! You can see how I styled this blazer with matching shorts in ‘A Style Tale of 2 Cities‘. These pictures were taken at different places and as Sarah Donaldson said, “never trust a blogger’s geotags.” The cute little palm tree coffees and striped umbrellas are from Watsons Bay Boutique Hotel where everything is teal even the toilets which give that whole under the sea vibe which is very cool. We actually went first thing in the morning when it was relatively empty but then we went again at 4 for iced coffees and the place was super packed so I don’t recommend Sunday arvos for coffee and chill there. Netflix and chill more like it am I right?

Recreate the look with this Brooks Brother blazer, Dotti dress, Lipstik flats and Essie polish 

Oversized

I have a couple of coats on rotation this winter and one of them is this duffel coat from my Auntie (Hi Auntie Stephanie!). Its very oversized on me but by tucking in the sleeves for a 3/4 length style, it looks like its meant to be boxy. I have become more resistant to the cool weather this year so now I can get away with wearing my summer tops under big coats and with double the amount of options, its a whole new ball game with my wardrobe. Exciting times people! Speaking of … exams are over soon, two down, two more to go. Come the following Friday, its a month long winter break whee hee and I’m committed to spending as much time as possible outdoors creating great content and filling my calendar with a plethora of activities to make the most of my staycation. Whilst it would be nice to jet off for some northern hemisphere sun, there’s actually so much of my own backyard that I haven’t seen so I plan to see more of my own city in July.

// Coat: similar here / Blouse: Forever 21 / Jeans: Miss Shop / Flats (c/o) Sammydress / Bag: Bardot //

Shelfie

Did you know bookshelves say a lot about a person? Take the bookshelf test here and then share your shelfie with me! I am a bit OCD with my Ikea expedit shelves; I need them to be their aesthetic self but at the same time, I need them to be functional and hold as much junk as possible. Here are my tips!

ONE: Collect a bunch of boxes and magazine holders to store the unattractive bits. You can also buy very cheap binders and decorate them like I have done here a la Kate Spade.

TWO: Hold onto those champagne bottles, glass candles and jars and fill them with fresh, dead or fake flowers.

THREE: Display your favourite accessories that you never seem to get to use. For me, these are my quirky clutches and my cat flats which have died a bit.

FOUR: Let it go. Its basically impossible for your shelf to resemble a Pinterest shelf so don’t worry too much. Have fun, switch it out regularly and inject as much personality into your bookcase as possible. Magazines, gift bags, candles, travel memorabilia and picture frames are all great space fillers. Try stacking stuff sideways and if all else fails, shove it in a storage bin and try again tomorrow!

Lippy Lippy Bang Bang

I never really go and buy a whole new outfit for an event anymore. I think these are all great basic formal pieces that everyone should have in their closet: a fitted black blazer for shouldering, a bustier because you’re fun like that, a black circle skirt for twirling, pointy toe flats because they’re better than heels and a tiny box clutch with that extra bit of magic. Happy Wednesday guys!

Blazer: Bardot (similar here) Bustier: Bardot (75% off!) Skirt: Sportsgirl (similar here) Flats: Sammydress Clutch: DIY

Wrong Way (Don’t Turn Back)

Christmas is now sadly over but I hope you all had a very merry day or week or month! There’s so much build up leading to the 25th that it almost becomes anticlimactic when we fall asleep in our santa hats with our food comas watching the ten hundredth Christmas film (for me this was Arthur Christmas!) and sucking on candy canes that we hoarded from store promotions (is that just me?!?!) I’ve had a great week filled with all my favourite F’s: food, family, friends, fairy lights, falalala music and festive everything.

Yesterday was Boxing Day. What Boxing Day means now for the modern person is just as ironic as its American counterpart: Black Friday. You spend the day before being grateful for what you have and then the next day you go and buy what you don’t need … I remember when I was younger, I thought boxing day was just a plot my parents had to delay us opening our presents and then another year I read that it was the day the box was invented but today I actually learnt a brief history about it that  sounds legitimate so I thought I would enlighten any other souls who have always wanted to know. Boxing Day is actually an old holiday where servants box up leftover food from their employers and take it home for their family. Unfortunately,  retail employees today have to get up at wee hours of the morning to ready themselves for the morning shoppers one of whom included me!

On my 7 hour trek (never again or so I say haha!) I wore this mostly pink ensemble. What kind of pink is this? Peachy pink? A light salmon? I’m not exactly sure but I know for sure that its a new favourite. For most of senior high school, I stayed away from pink clothing after going through a bubblegum pink phase in junior high where I had pink cable knit sweaters and pink plaid skirts and an obnoxious pink backpack. But now, pink is coming back into my closet in the prettiest way. Its soft and feminine but there’s no trace of lace or silk in sight.

This top is actually the wrong way around. I wore it back to front because I liked how the zip detail give the fluted hem some edge. Plus, convenience-wise, its much easier to zip on a top from the front (haha!). Perfect for making snap decisions in the change room where there’s a sea-length of impatient shoppers. Continuing on my love for this kind of colour, I wore my summer slip ons that have what I like to call ‘pony hair’ * on them and my minimalistic light weight watch. Then I have these cute little pair of pin striped shorts underneath that I wear every summer and can’t seem to let go of because they have way too many sand printed memories on them.

* I think I call it pony hair in my mind because it reminds me of a pony’s coat and it would be incredibly sad to see a pony drenched in water just like these slip ons would be completely ruined under rain. You comprende? Probably not but that’s ok because I confuse and contradict myself all the time anyway.

FANCY

I’m actually a very lazy person when it comes to dressing. Half of the time I’m in a loose tee and denim cut offs and more recently I’ve also started embracing the normcore that has always been in me by wearing joggers on occasions that don’t involve working up a sweat. The weather has been crazy in Sydney this week – think really hot mornings and spectacular thunderstorms in the afternoon followed by light sun at dusk again.

To combat the heat, my outfit for today is really just a fancied up version of your basic pyjamas. I love this light, chiffon button up because I’ve managed to wear it a million different ways and today I discovered a new way! The sleeves are actually very poofy when buttoned at the wrists but today I buttoned them up and pushed the cuff three quarters of the way down so that the sleeves would flow out in a more boxy manner. Then I’ve actually just got on a pair of monochrome patterned work out shorts and my good old flats as opposed to bedroom slippers because I do have to draw the line somewhere. To carry my stuff, I’ve got a canvas bag because that to me is the lazy bag. Unless, of course you’re carrying groceries in your canvas bags, then you are in fact very hard working and I commend you with many snaps.

If you’re curious, these shots were done at a University campus in front of what my friend and I believe is an anthropology mural with some questionable drawings that we had a good laugh at trying to figure out what exactly they were trying to convey. On an end note, I’d like to say Happy month-versary eve! It has been almost a month since I’ve launched Style Smorgasbord and I just wanted to quickly acknowledge how much your support and love has meant to me! I hope you have enjoyed the few posts that have tricked out of me and I hope to improve my posting schedule over the next month. Until then, have a great weekend – only 19 more sleeps till Christmas which means an ornament DIY coming very soon 🙂