Spring Wardrobe Number Three

Spring Wardrobe Number Three by boredomaboundsbyjulia

I had a lot of fun putting this together. I was imagining a Spring afternoon tea or garden party when jeans just won't do, but you don't want to be the most dressed up gal in the room either.

I actually came really close to buying this dress from Dorothy Perkins a couple of months ago, but ended up with something else. However, I'm just so drawn to the cotton candy colour and the simple white stripes. Paired with a cardi and some simple ballet flats and this outfit will make you look chic and cheerful, with the pink of the sundress popping out.

I kept the make up simple, because the colour of the dress is the show stopper in this ensemble, and a nice neutral bag with sunglasses with tinted frames complete the look. And as always, a girl can never go wrong with a pair of pearl earrings.

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Spring Wardrobe Number Two

Spring Wardrobe Number Two by boredomaboundsbyjulia

This is my ideal work wardrobe for Spring. I love capri pants with a bright top, and the black boyfriend jacket gives it a corporate look without being too unflaterring for a woman's shape. Simple accessories do the trick, and subtle make up with a hint of plum in the eyeshadow would look fabulous with this ensemble.

FYI, I love that bag. And those shoes - I never wear super high heels to work, but wedges are infinitely more comfortable than stilettos and would give me a little bit of height to set off the shorter capri pants. Retro sunglasses are obligatory, obviously.

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Polyvore - Spring Wardrobe Number One

Spring Wardrobe Number One by boredomaboundsbyjulia

So, I signed up to Polyvore. I thought it would be a good way to get wardrobe ideas without having to actually go to the shops, and then I realised I could just post my mood boards here to see what you all think. It's a win/win!

Anyhoo, this is my first attempt - Spring is in the air, and while the days aren't always warm, I'm looking forward to updating my wardrobe a little bit. This cardigan costs way more than I would ever pay, but I just love the floral Spring feel. Loafers are my new obsession, as you know, and the accessories are a nice blend of neutral tones.

I could easily wear this outfit at work or on the weekends, it has a nice, seamlessly classic feel to it.

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Boredom Abounds Loves: Vintage

It's no secret that I love all things vintage. While I don't have a house full of retro Danish furniture or a cupboard full of vintage fur coats, I do appreciate the aesthetic of style from eras gone by. I love vintage furniture, old music, retro homewares and so on. But what I really love to look at is vintage clothing. Specifically women's styles from the 1940s, 50s and 60s. It was a time when women's clothes were just SO feminine. Curves were celebrated and fabric was so bright and patterned and lush with all the petticoats and all the crazy underwears foofing it out.

Vintageous
So here are a few of my favourite vintage websites for inspiration and drool-worthy outfits.

This is REAL vintage stuff. They must trawl estate sales, second hand shops and have clients sell directly to them like nobody's business to get stuff like this:

Can't you see Betty Draper and Joan Holloway wearing these? So gorgeous. I've never purchased from the website (since I suspect my build is somewhat larger than the women who wore these dresses in the 50s and 60s). Although I wonder how easy it would be to alter the dresses.....I think the site is a really great resource for bridal parties - if you want your bridesmaids to have different looks and a bit of retro flair, this would be perfect!

Posh Girl Vintage

This is another site with real vintage wares. The site layout is a bit more contemporary than Vintageous and the clothes are so lovely. I love that they have so many different categories of clothing. I'm loving these three items at the moment:

But honestly, I could browse there for hours. The handbags in particular are extremely chic and there are some awesome hats that could really finish off an outfit nicely in Winter. Whenever I look at this site I do some serious outfit daydreaming.

Shabby Apple

Okay, people. This has been my absolute FAVOURITE online clothing website for well over a year now. Shabby Apple specialises in creating stylish, modest clothes for contemporary women that have a definite vintage feel. It's a US website, but they ship internationally, and while the shipping isn't super cheap, the cost of a dress plus shipping with the dollar so good right now and you'll be paying basically what you'd be paying for a dress from shops like Portmans, Witchery, etc.

I mean, take a look at these:

Beautiful, right? The thing I love about Shabby Apple is that their collections all have a theme - Manhattan, Oh La La, Amalfi Coast and so on. I'd actually love to see them expand their swimwear range a bit more, because retro styled bathers offer SO much more coverage than modern stuff. I find their designs so classic - the style, the cut, the colours, yet they all have a modern twist to them that makes me surprised that more shops don't offer clothes like this.

One Australian blog you simply have to check out is Esme and the Laneway, which chronicles the very vintage lifestyle of a gorgeous Londoner who now calls Melbourne home. Esme's style is completely retro, from clothing to make up to her lovely interior design. Seeing a blog like this has given me heaps of ideas on how to incorporate vintage touches to every part of life. It's simply just a lovely blog!

So tell me, what's you favourite vintage website (clothes, homewares, furniture, whatever)?

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Boredom Abounds Loves Interior Design Sites

If I were rich, I would spend hours and hours planning and implementing the interior decor of my mansion (preferrably in New York or Boston, but I'll take Paris, Rome and certain suburbs of Melbourne at a pinch) and waste terrible amounts of money on fancy things like glass blown chandeliers and Moroccan carpets and a kitchen that would make Nigella, Jamie and Gordon lose their shit with jealousy. Oh, I would also have my own kick ass library with huge, squashy couches and fresh hot chocolate and marshmallows on demand 24/7.

But, since I'm not rich (yet), I spend my time browsing fun and funky interior design blogs to find ideas and small, afforable ways to improve the lovely unit my husband and I share. These are some of my favourites:

Apartment Therapy

Most people know about Apartment Therapy, but it's worth mentioning again. First of all, they have a handy menu bar at the top of the page that lets you choose which city you want to browse, or you can just stick with the main site and see it all mixed in together.

They feature really interesting things, from house tours of regular people with exceptional (and sometimes weird and wacky) taste, before and after shots of refinished furniture, trend DIY entries and basic styling tips. They'll feature anything from shabby chic to sleek minimalist, so you're sure to find something that piques your interest.

A comfy Boston dining room

A contemporary white NYC kitchen

Chest of drawers before and after shots - cute, no?

An NYC study - I love the burst of colour among the white and black

A San Francisco bedroom - a little crowded for my taste, but still quite stylish



Design Sponge

Similar in feel to Apartment Therapy, Design*Sponge goes that little bit further by adding fashion style tips and mood boards, city guides, recipes and videos. I prefer Design*Sponge's web layout over Apartment Therapy, mostly because it feels less busy and the neutral background is easier on the eyes, but each site is as good as the other when it comes to content!

Floor Stencilling - I'm so into this idea. Too bad we have a fully carpeted house!

DIY postage stamp coasters - love the colours

Floral mini-trend. Mini-Trends are a great regular feature on Design Sponge providing tips on small ways to incorporate a theme into your home with subtlety and flair

How About Orange

Run by Jessica, a graphic and textile designer, How About Orange is more of a DIY / Craft blog, but there are some really, really fun ideas to add colour and patterns into your space. She offers a lot of free downloads, tutorials and a heap of useful resources for readers to use at their leisure.

These retro fabrics are designed by Jessica herself. I adore the bright colours! 

One of the free downloads available - some super cute printable labels

Even though St. Patrick's Day has passed, you can use these DIY bottle labels for your celebrations next year

The Design Files

The Design Files has a great mix of everything you need to design your life: fashion, interior design, a peek inside Australian homes, and two categories devoted just to Melbourne and Sydney. They also feature entries on event styling, which I love. I'm not an event planner (although I'd love to do it if I weren't afraid I would punch a bride-to-be or mother-of-the-bride in the face one day), but there are lots of little ideas you can use for your own dinner parties or backyard barbecues that don't require too much effort or money.

How gorgeous is this retro kitchen? I suspect having a stove that tiny would drive me insane, but the colours are so cute

Some funky jewelry from Elke Kramer

Some event styling pics - I am totally stealing the hanging glass bottle idea. So pretty, and probably relatively easy and cheap to create

Two sites also worth mentioning are PapernStitch Blog and Down and Out Chic, which feature a good mix of a lot of the stuff mentioned above, but on a smaller scale. They're daily stops for me and definitely worth checking out.

We're planning to do some wallpapering soon and I can't wait to show you all the finished product. What DIY projects do you want to get started on? Or, tell me what your dream house absolutely HAS to have!

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Boredom Abounds Wears

Finally! The warm weather has reached dreary Melbourne, so it's time to break out the sundresses! This is the newly purchased dress I'm wearing today:

Diana Ferrari Halle Flutter Sleeve Dress - $149.95

I love the Diana Ferrari range this year - so versatile, affordable and they stock sizes for real women.

Although I have paired it with a black cardi and black peep toe flats, and I black string of beads, I kind of wish I had the matching peach cardi to go with it instead. The dress is jersey fabric, lined, and unbelievably comfortable!

Oh, and the sleeves are handy for jiggly, upper-arm issues.

Just sayin'.

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Funny Stuff

I love the internet. I especially love funny stuff on the internet. There's nothing better than being bored and having a bit of free time to check out entertaining sites online, especially when there's a lull in activity at work and the sight of my gray cubicle walls are making my eyes glaze over.

These are some of my favourite sites to browse and get in a few giggles during the day:

Ever received a funny text message from a friend? And they were drunk? Why not submit it to Texts From Last Night? It's basically a website where people send in hilarious text messages they've received recently. A few of my favourites:

Er, I should probably mention that the site centres heavily around sex and drunkenness, so if either of those two things offend you, you may want to avoid the site. Your loss though. Just sayin'. Also, TFLN is a lot funnier if you've had a few drinks. You're welcome.

Moving on, another hilarious and appalling site is Look At This Fucking Hipster. Appalling in terms of the heinous fashion crimes hipsters inflict on humanity. You may look at this website and say "Hey, don't make fun of people's fashion sense! It's their right to dress in a way that reflects their personal style." Valid point, reader.

However, I say if you dress like this:

or this:

You leave yourself open to ridicule. Frequent ridicule. And if you are one of the people in the above photos then I can't help you. Only you can help yourself.

One of the really hilarious things about LATFH are the captions under the photos - you really should check them out.

Next up let's think about the people who live inside the pages of interior design magazines. Trapped in their postmodern houses, their lives are a exercises in futility. You simply must have a look at Unhappy Hipsters and really understand just how difficult it is to live in a house made entirely of cork.

Finally, check out Allie Brosh's Hyperbole and a Half. She draws simple cartoons using Paintbrush that illustrate amusing things she encounters in her life, and they're really, really funny.

Her post on the grammatical abuse of the words 'a lot' is pretty much the greatest thing ever:

Note that the above two cartoons are copyright and property of Allie Brosh over at Hyperbole and a Half.

Okay people, as always go forth and procrastinate! I hope you find these sites so entertaining that when you laugh a little bit of wee comes out. Enjoy!

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Boredom Abounds Loves: Food Blogs

Everyone is mad on food here in Melbourne. CRAZY for it. And you can eat very, very well in Melbourne, in pretty much any suburb. But what about those times when you cannot be bothered leaving the house because you haven't gotten out of your pyjamas since the day before, you have no petrol in your car and you just don't want to deal with all the other humanity out there?

My friends, let's talk about my latest obsession: Food blogs. 

There are people who devote their lives to food and drink, working as chefs, sommeliers, baristas, pastry chefs, bakers, chocolatiers and restauranteurs. BUT. There are also people who devote their lives to other things and just love to cook for pleasure, and they write about it on the side. These people are some of the most popular bloggers - the food bloggers.

These are some of the blogs I check out in my down time. I like to get inspiration for meals, learn about different restaurants and check out the photography. Because oh my gosh: food photography is like an art form these days.

My current favourite Australian food blogs are as follows:

Citrus & Candy is run by Karen, a Sydney girl by way of London and Perth, with a Malaysian-Chinese background. Her recipes are often simple, quick things, and the desserts she makes (and photographs) are to die for! Her commentary on the recipes is very friendly and as a novice cook, I relate to her well. She seems like a fun person to bake with.

Her photography is just stunning - so simply styled, but they look like spreads from a magazine.

I made this recipe for a flourless apple and almond cake a few months ago and it was a hit with dinner guests. AND it turned out just like the picture. That never happens to me!

Next on the list is another Sydney blog, Not Quite Nigella. This blog isn't just all recipes all the time. Blogger Lorraine has recently been featured in The Foodies' Guide to Sydney 2010, and travels to restaurants, has interviews with chefs and competitions and give-aways on her site that keep the reader interested and engaged.

Now for a couple of non-Australian food blogs I can't get enough of!

I love to bake, and Erica's Sweet Tooth is such a fun blog to read. Erica is a dental student in the USA, and she bakes just for the fun of it. Her blog is fresh and colourful, and the most appealing thing about it (to me anyway!) is that she only makes sweet things. There's an emphasis on cupcakes, muffins and cookies, but there are also some delicious looking cakes, ice creams and yummy treats. I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, but when I do, I think these will be first on my list (cinnamon ice cream, and chocolate hazelnut mousse).

Ree Drummond, known on the Internet as The Pioneer Woman has one of the best lifestyle blogs around. Her story is like something out of a romance novel - she was a girl living and working in California. On a visit to her home town in Oklahoma she met and fell in love with an honest-to-God cowboy. Instead of moving back to the city, Drummond married her cattle farmer cowboy, who she refers to on the blog as "Malboro Man" (seriously, go and read their love story. It's long, but it's worth it). The site has a lot of great sections on home schooling, house and garden, photography (she is self-taught and she is AMAZING) and of course, food.

A example of her photography, just because I love it so much:

Let me know if you you have any food blogs you love to read, and in the meantime, enjoy browsing these sites - you'll find lots of treats to keep you inspired!

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Boredom Abounds loves: Fashion

I've been meaning to do this for ages, but time got away from me. Anyway, when I'm bored there's nothing I love more than playing around on the internet. So, here is Boredom Abounds' list of stuff to keep you occupied on the web when it comes to all things fashion:

Love retro stuff? Take a peek at ModCloth, a haven of retro and indie clothes for girls interested in unique items that can't be found in shops. Their sizes run a little bit small in my experience, so order a smidge larger than you would normally wear. My current desire? This super cute navy cinched waist dress.

Ok, you all know about Anthropologie right? No? I'm not surprised, they've been relatively off the radar in Australia until recently. They finally started shipping internationally, and although their shipping rates are a little steep, one look at the website and you'll be in love with their gorgeous, feminine fashion. These are clothes you definitely won't find in Australia. They tend to use unique prints and styles, some modern, some retro, and buying a few pretty pieces is definitely an asset to any girl's wardrobe. These two items are my current faves:

For cute clothes that are a bit cheaper, check out Urban Outfitters and Forever 21, which, like the above two brands, are American, but they have tons of cheap items and seem to have sales quite frequently.

There's also UK website Asos which has about a million different dresses, tops, coats, shirts, accessories, bags, shoes, and most of it is quite affordable. I love these items:

All of these companies ship internationally, and their rates vary, but it's worth checking them out periodically to pick up key wardrobe items you won't find here.

Plus, there's nothing better than having people compliment you on your outfit and ask you where they can find it!

Now, when it comes to actually dressing yourself, you may need a little bit of inspiration. These are the blogs I enjoy looking at for ideas on what to wear:

Possibly my favourite blog at the moment, What Would Emma Pilsbury Wear is a spotlight on Miss Pilsbury, the uptight OCD guidance counsellor on Glee. I adore her clothes, and this blog focuses on every outfit in every episode and lets you know where you can purchase her wardrobe items. They also feature cool reader submissions where people submit ideas for similar outfits. Again, the key selling point is that the clothes submitted actually link to the company's details and you can go out and purchase it yourself.

They use a great site called Polyvore, which is sort of like a virtual mood board. You can mix and match clothing items and see where they can be purchased. An excellent source of inspiration (and a great time waster!).

This little blog I stumbled upon is wonderful - Academichic is run by three female PhD students in the States. They have set out to challenge the idea of "the ill-fitting polyester suit of academic yore", and basically take photos of themselves in their everyday work wear and casual wear.

A lot of their outfits can be translated into pretty much any office atmosphere (provided it isn't too corporate), and they give me great ideas for mixing and matching pieces, as well as spotlighting particular styles they love.

And when I want to check out the latest high fashion and celebrity looks, I turn to Red Carpet Fashion Awards. They feature the latest celebrity looks every day, runway looks and best dressed reader polls.

It's a great source for looking at the latest designer stuff and celebrity styling.

Until next time, peeps. Enjoy! Pin It