Back to the Grind Stone

As the sun rose this morning,  I realised that our holiday had officially come to an end and it was time to head back to The Office and the reality of earning a living. Luckily for me, I love work and the people I work with so I was quite excited to be heading back. I'm sure my plan to debut a new outfit recently purchased over in Hawaii helped too! Hooray then for my new navy and white polka dot shift dress from Tommy Hilfiger. By the end of the day, I realised just how easy this dress was to wear and how super-comfy too (just like a beach dress only corporate!) and after only the first wear, it has now become my new favourite work outfit. Paired with my Jimmy Choo patent flats and a navy Zara cardigan, I was ready to hit the desk running on Day 1 post-holiday.

In other news, our renovations started this morning with prep work being the key aim for the builders today. So when Honey Boo, the cutest puddy in the world and I came home this evening, we found the carpets and skirting boards had been ripped up, the balustarding on the stairs had been ripped out and a water-proof membrane painted on the downstairs floor which can't be walked on until tomorrow morning. It is messy and dusty and a tad inconvenient but also very exciting! And the best thing ever about the builders? After taking Honey Boo to work with me today so she wouldn't get in the way (she was a terrible flirt with John Paul, one of our builders, when he came to do his measurements. It was really quite a shameless spectacle but he seemed to fall for it hook, line and sinker!) and knowing we couldn't access the kitchen to get to her food, the builders left a selection of puddy treats on the stairs for her dinner. Who says flirting doesn't pay?!!

  

Back to Work for 2012

Today was my first day back at The Office after our Christmas in the UK. After dressing in civvies suitable for winter in the northern hemisphere for the last few weeks, it was time to get back into 9 to 5 dressing for summer in Sydney. The dress code at The Office is best described as relaxed, where being identified as "A Suit" means that you are out of touch with reality and lacking in some serious NFP credibility. Aaaaargh, the pressure! I wanted to make an effort i.e. not immediately resort back to jeans, sandals and singlets of my pre-Christmas wardrobe but not so much of an effort that I came over all corporate. Gosh, no wonder my brain was tired before I even left home! With all of these priorities balanced in my mind, today's 2012 debut outfit turned out to be:

My top is from a cute little shop in Surry Hills, my skirt from Country Road and new Jimmy Choos fresh from London (the flat version of my heeled favourites which I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!) accessorised with two necklaces, the white one of which was a Christmas present from my SIL, Beady. Even though I did get a lovely compliment on my outfit today, I am already feeling tempted by the ease of dressing in denim so we shall see what tomorrow brings...

No more sleeping in for Cole K

I have just finished Day 2 in my new role and although it's early days, it definitely isn't too early to say that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it already! The work is incredibly interesting and I am sure will prove to be very rewarding too once I get more involved. The CEO has been really supportive and the people within the company have been very welcoming, happy to answer the multitude of questions that I have thrown at them and are so enthusiastic about the ethos and vision of the company that you can't help but get caught up in the excitement.

Yesterday though, as the sun rose on my first day, I woke up feeling more nervous then excited and wanted to choose an outfit that was easy to wear yet professional in look (primarily to reassure the CEO that he had made the right decision in hiring me!) and so decided that a dress was the best way to go. I wore my black silk Jac+Jack sleeveless dress over a long sleeved woollen jumper dress from Kookai for some extra warmth and accessorised with a vintage style brooch. I was super organised and had made myself some treats like passionfruit yoghurt, vegetable fritatta and a slice of orange and almond cake the day before which I took with me to keep my hunger at bay during the day. I also took some roast chickpeas which I found in the health food section of the supermarket and which are my new favourite snack - delicious and healthy!

My usual way of coping with dressing dilemmas during the week is to alternate between pants and skirts - one day I wear pants and the next a skirt or dress and so on until casual Friday. The beauty of this method is that  that when I get up in the morning, if it is a "pants" day (or trousers for those in the Northern Hemisphere who believe that only undies are called pants), I can rule out half of my wardrobe and only have to think about outfits featuring pants. It might seem a little nuts but it does make the whole decision-making process about what to wear a little bit easier. So following this rule, I paired my See by Chloe pants and Jimmy Choos with a vintage style shirt chosen by my Grandma and purchased by my Mum a couple of years ago. As the office is a tad on the chilly side, a scoop neck woollen jumper from Glassons on top completed my office outfit.

The perfect cure for a winter lurgy

A dreaded winter lurgy has got the better of me over the last few days and despite my best efforts to fight it off, the big guns have had to be called in - antibiotics and bed rest. With a low boredom threshold at the best of times, this is amplified when I am feeling unwell and told that rest is best (Conversely, if I am feeling great I love nothing more then lazing about in my pjs all day. Go figure.). So after spending the last 3 days in bed, it was bound to happen...iPad + Bluefly website = Jimmy Choo. So what exactly does this highly technical equation mean? Well, it means that my lovely new pointy-toe flats are currently winging their way across the world to be delivered to straight to my door by the equally lovely Mr DHL. Yes, another internet purchase but ooooh, they sure are nice!

Now I have been coveting these shoes all year but for one reason or another, they sat in my shopping cart on the Jimmy Choo website patiently waiting for the day they would be purchased. After receiving some good news two weeks ago, I thought they would make an excellent celebration present but just didn't get around to hitting the "purchase now" button. In my bed-ridden boredom though, a quick check on the Bluefly website, initially conducted to cheer me up and keep me occupied for a bit, had an amazing result. Not only was my boredom cured, my heart positively skipped a beat when I laid my eyes on the very Jimmy Choos I wanted, not only in my chosen colour but with one pair left in my size too. Bingo. With Eady's grim request to go easy on credit card for the next few weeks ringing in my ears, the exchange rate plus the price reduction that always comes with Bluefly was just too good an opportunity to pass up. The shoes were almost $150 cheaper then if I had of purchased them via the Jimmy Choo website so as far as I see it, I have actually made Eady and I a profit by purchasing them. Eady, who is a proper Accountant, might not agree  but with thinking like that, I'm sure I could well be a financial genius in disguise.