G’day Beach Cottage Ladies, ready for a Fashion Friday Post on Friday, no less?
Hmmm, this is the one where I bought a maxi-dress in the supermarket, tried it on over my clothes in the shop & loved it, got it home, put it on and loved it.
Here it is …from Coles Mix range …I loved it on the website and I loved it in real life
And then saw photos of myself in it and said, who the **** is that forty-is-the-new-thirty woman with the white saggy bits in a dress that is too long for her and sort of clings to all the bits that weren’t there twenty years ago?
That my friends would be me. No you can’t see them in these photos. Cos I chose the ones where they weren’t there, because I am the editor, writer, model and image person for this blog, so I have the power
Still, I do love this dress and the maxi dress thing, if it’s right and, if you remember, my mission for this summer was to get out of shorts and jeans once in a while and get girly again…to wear a dress and skirts and forget about my shoulders.
When I wear this dress, it makes me feel happy…it’s floaty and drapey & swishy…I love that.
In my head though I looked different than I did in some of these pictures though, which furthered my thoughts that you have to put a little bit of effort in to the maxi to get it right.
My husband was the camera man on this ocassion. Note to self : when you ask the man who normally says ‘hun you look good in anything with a yawn’ what he thinks and he replies firstly with a pause and secondly with an ‘errrrm I think you might need a cardigan on this one’, you should take his advice.
So with all that in mind I will still be wearing this dress, with something on my shoulders unless it is 100 degrees or it is dark.
Here are the ten things I have learnt about Maxi dresses this summer
1. if you have big shoulders like me, even if you are not large elsewhere, the chances are it won’t work unless you find one with a bust section to it like the one I am wearing.
2. if you have a large bust, said section probs won’t work for you
3. if you have a large bust and large shoulders, run fast from the shop unless you will be wearing something on top of this in that area
4. be careful with the fabric, unless you are super-hot, in your twenties and stunning you don’t want billows of fabric around, you will look like a walking tent.
5. look for a straight, tank, a-line style rather than a poofy style
6. go for soft but tight fabric
7. buy a size smaller (but be careful with the ahem looser forty-is-the-new-thirty skin spilling over the top at the back)
8. go easy on the pattern….yeah yeah I know colour blocking is de rigeur (can’t wait til that’s over) but anything too busy looks….busy and unless you’ve invested in quality, very budget
9. Persevering with the trying-on of these things is worth it because once you get the look ‘right’ for you (for me that means hide the shoulders) this covers a multitude of sins, including but not limited to Christmas excess, un-shaved legs, wobbly stuff going on at the top of the thighs, the lack of self-tanning
10. rock it…pop on a cardi, sling on some flats, shove on a load of bangles, stick your hair in a messy bun & you will be good to go
Now I would love to know your views on the maxi…especially those who are tall, short, big, petite, etc and how you have, or indeed, have not found them to suit you…
…do you love them? have they changed your wardrobe? do you hate them when you see every other woman out there in one? do they make you feel (and look) like a walking tent? Do you think they are nothing short of a glorified nightdress? do you think they are chic, easy and comfortable?
Looks good on you! I love it with the denim jacket. Perfect! I can’t wear a maxi, I am only 5 feet tall. I could hold it up and have a train in the back, but that’s not really the look I would want to go for. lol
Hugs and God bless,
heading out to the greenhouse to plant more seeds,
Fi
Think you look great in yours Sarah! I’m 5′ 10″ and love maxis to bits. I find the empire line or triangle top most flattering on me and they are so easy to chuck on and off you go……..B:)
Try putting a tshirt under it (blue and white stripe?) and tuck the halterneck tie in to the dress so you can’t see it…. that’ll fix the shoulder region and avoid hiding the dress under a cardi
Sara you are so sweet , I remember when i first started reading your blog you were so shy of having your picture taken for the blog .
You have came a long way . keep up the good work .
I wore a maxi dress to a destination beach wedding and was so, so comfy in it even though it was about a million degrees. I am petite so it’s hard for me to find long dresses that don’t look like they are trying to swallow me. You look great in your maxidress and I love the color!
I’m 180cm tall, my bottom is 2 sizes larger than my waist. Since having my baby 8 months ago, I have only worn a maxi once as its hard to find one for breastfeeding purposes. Prior to this when my tummy was only a small muffin top, I had an extremely hard time finding one for my height. My second problem is I have saddle bags on my butt that are emphasised by clingy materials. I have found 3 that fit well. A black one with white stitching detail on the bottom – from Kmart that can either be strapless or thin straps in a light cotton material for $29, a black one in Target (which was actually a maternity one) with cap sleeves and a few gathers below the bust (for the pregnant belly which works well for muffin tops) for $40 and the other was from a shop in Cairns (can’t remember the name) that was cross over straps at the back, empire line style that had a drawstring under the bust to tighten it to the required amount. I am a real pear shape and I’m really envious of those tiny straight short bodies out there that seem to find the perfect maxi anywhere anytime. If you find the right one and add the right accessories, they can look chic and are extremely comfortable! And yes…you do look hot in yours & I love your denim jacket. The bust style of your dress wouldn’t work on me, I need a lower v neckline to emphasise the top and detract from the butt!
G'day! I'm Sarah, I live in a tatty old cottage, near the sea in Australia with a battered old deck & a big old fig tree out the back...stripped wooden floors, old sash windows & a jumble of vintage furniture. [Read More …]
Helloooo lovely Beach Cottage ladies, some blog tips for real girls from this old cottage broadcasting from deep Down Under this morning. Now, I love blogging, I think that is pretty much obvious now for sure, for me it has opened up a world of opportunities that simply were not available in any shape [...]
G'day ladies, let's have a Too Easy Beach Cottage recipe yeah? The original place for Too Easy Recipes on the web ;-)
So, after my last salad went down a storm in my inbox, that's here if you missed it, I had to do this one seeing as I make it most weeks.
There is a problem with this salad and kiddos though...it looks, well, it looks, kinda yucky...but once they try it, they'll ask if and when they are next having it....at least that's what happens in this ratty old cottage...but I must interject here that my kiddos are 'good eaters'? ...they didn't get a choice in that ;-)
Now, stop, don't start running and hitting that next on your blog reading list, pulses are your best friend in the Too Easy Dump & Go kitchen for the busy mum, or busy anyone for that matter...that reminds me I must blog the garlic canneloni Go To for when you forgot to do dinner, feel like a bath but have three ravenous young Beach Cottage Kiddos on your hands...another day.
I am almost embarrassed to tell you how easy this is, we have it so much that I always have a couple, make that six, cans of lentils around and a jar of goat's cheese in the fridge...the great thing about this is that it's all too easy to get ready in just a few minutes, but it looks, tastes and seems like you did oh so very much more than that.
You can obviously too change it up a bit depending on what you have to hand in your kitchen, and I must say that is how I settled on this version...because one day when I made it I didn't have enough Parsley in the garden and so I chucked in some basil too, and liked the Summer feel it added.
I think of this as being a rather posh salad, not sure why, because it couldn't really be further from the truth...the great thing is that it works so well for an average run of the mill day, (when I did this for this blog post, it was a hot Sydney Sunday and I did it just simply to go with Rosemary & Garlic stuffed pork, you can see that pork here),
...but just as easily it works on a regular old Wednesday night when you have lost all enthusiasm for rustling up yet another meal, or indeed on Saturday night, when your friends are on their way over for dinner and you my friend, are in your new vintage inspired clawfoot bathtub (that's me in a few weeks time, k?) without any clothes on, a tipple and no idea what to cook for dinner...
I have a complicated and ever-changing relationship with goat's cheese...it never fails me in its performance and it never fails to impress me (you can find out a bit more on what I like in food here if you like) and I kinda collect it...because it's very easy to collect and has a fairly long fridge-life, I love trying out different ones and there's not many things I love more than goat's cheese on sourdough...but I think the best thing about it is not thinking about it exclusively in the toast/salad department...I've stuffed it in chicken and all sorts of things as a last minute and it's been fab.
But let's get down to the nitty gritty of this super salad that makes you look like an angel who has been on her knees all day scrubbing the front step when really you are in the digital world and spent most of ...
G'day Beach Cottage ladies, howdy, howdy howdy today for a Beach Cottage Too Easy recipe.
If you like cake, cream, sugar and chocolate, make this.
This is, rather than a recipe, a putting it together...as you know I am no dessert maker, but, I do make quite a few sweet things, because, somehow I have ended up with kiddos, who in their roles as offspring, believe that part of the deal, is that not only do I feed them a home-cooked meal with a few homegrown ingredients in there, yes, they also believe that dessert and not the kind that comes out of a packet is included too in this All-Inclusive Deal they call Parenthood.
So, this, for sure, is no culinary masterpiece, but if you are looking for something that is so very easy, dump-able, uses everyday ingredients and at the same time makes you look like you spent hours pulling things together plus tastes good....well, then this is for you.
Best though, you don't make this for yourself, if you have spent the most part of your week sitting on your derriere reading blogs...this my friend ain't low in the calories department...if, however, you are treating yourself to a delight in a mason jar, this is so for you.
I first had a version of this when at dinner back in Old Blighty with a girl, I once, in another life, caught the train up from our village to London with...she was a funny thing really...I am not quite sure how we got on...she was kinda prissy and a bit bothered by too much...I would run to the train flustered, having got up late, and she would have a spreadsheet on the train times, if you know what I mean.
Anyway, a few years later when we both had bambinos, I bumped into her again and we met up for playdates and dinner sometimes....this particular night, after a lovely meal she served up little bowls of creamy, cakey fruity stuff topped off with chocolate flake...it was delicious!
She didn't serve hers in little jars like this, hers were in a champagne glass and not quite so layered as these ones, plus she used tinned fruit not fresh or frozen.
Years later when said offspring kept requesting dessert, one day I wangled together somehow these from what was around in the fridge and they've been with us ever since.
Most likely, if you ever come here for dinner, and shock horror, you dont' bring the dessert with you, this, if you are lucky, will be what you will get.
Throw it all together, sprinkle a lil bit of chocolate on the top and the blog reading past-time you so rudely left in order to make this, is my friend, your oyster.
Beach Cottage Too Easy Layered Raspberry, Cream & Sponge Dessert
1 small maderia or butter cake or a pack of cupcakes (or of course make your own)
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
8 tbsp fruit
1 x chocolate Flake or chocolate bar for grating
1. beat the cream cheese until it is soft
2. whip the cream until soft peaks form
3. combine & add the sugar through
4. cut your cake into portions
& layer into the bottom of your jar
5. add a tablespoon of fruit
6. layer on top the cream combo
7. repeat
8. grate chocolate or Flake on top
*Beach Cottage Recipe Notes : this is just a guide really, you can use any cream that you have on hand...I have made this with clotted cream (don't even go there unless you want to seriously get these babies on your thighs), with double cream and I have even, in desperate times squirted in that, ...
G'day Beach Cottage ladies, well I thought it was time for some blogging tips here today, alongside a few nice flowers and shells ;-)
I was recently part of a blogger discussion group over at Kidspot and a couple of hours later had a few questions from girls who couldn't make it to the live chat, one was on my Facebook page and one via email, the Facebook one I will deal with in another Real Girl Blogging Tips post...the email one asked me what essentials do I think every blog needs?
Well I have been around here for a while now doing the blogging thing, so I should know this, yeah and I mused this on my walk by the sea this morning I thought well what do you only need?
...I think it is really very easy when blogging, whether or not you are blogging up there in the lofty heights of the Super Bloggers or you are just dipping your toe in the water, to get side-tracked by 101 million different things that are 'essential' to your blog and if you are someone like me who actually gets a thrill from reading blogging tips then you are in an even worse place because you will find yourself literally buzzing with these essential things to add/do/implement on your blog.
However, walking along, gulping down that brisk sea air today (no sunshine & clouds) I thought you actually don't need any of that professional blogging stuff to be successful...but there are a few things that are pretty much crucial ...and once I started to think about it I got it down to about 5 - these are the only things that you need to concentrate on...once you have read through take a look at some of the big girl's blogs...you'll see that actually they don't have bundles of stuff on their blogs...but they do have all of these...
So here are my top things that your blog must have
1. About Page
There are all sorts of About Pages out there, and if you search on it there are many different tips and ideas for what to have on yours
Whatever blogging platform you use, adding an About Me Page is easy, quick and simple and will do everything to grow your blog.
I like a long-ish About Page, I am inherently nosy and I like to know a bit more about the person but at the least you should have on it your name and where you are located. I also think a photo is good too...over the last year or so I think this has become more important in blogging - if you are hesitant about that as I was, you can try using sunglasses or a behind shot until you get comfortable.
There is nothing worse than stumbling upon a new blog and going to find out more to only be faced with a piddly little one liner About Me Page...well there is something worse, not having one at all!
2. Contact Page
The chances are someone, somewhere will want to contact you and you will be surprised what lands in your inbox once you put yourself out there on the world wide web with a blog.
Many bloggers also use this page to include details for PR's/brands that may want to contact them and some bloggers put their stats on there too.
A short, to the point and simple Contact Page works really well...whenever I have wanted to contact another blogger I am often very busy and have limited time so I don't want to hang around sifting through information looking for an email address, so concise and clear ...
G'day lovely Beach Cottage lovelies.
So, yeah, so on a roll people, so on a roll.
I feel kinda home accessory wired right now.
I am always telling people, if anyone ever listens, that blogging is all about passion, not that sort of passion, but about passion that makes one tick.
Things like this make me tick tick boom.
I love finding things that suit my budget and let me treat my home but look amazing too.
So without further adieu I introduce you, ladies of the beach, to the blue vintage glasses that I have been stroking for about a week or two now...
These glasses are from a little boutique I sometimes happen upon, this boutique sells also pet accessories, carpet cleaner, bras and compost...it's quite unique though.
And, thanks to my friend Marnie (she blogs over here, go take a look at her praying position, interesting), who just so happens to be one day having me over for a lil' Greek dinner, has let me in on the fact that we call Kmart....The KMart...with an accent ....as in 'I love The KMart'...just like her MIL does. Oh yeah. Love that.
So I have had my eye on reproduction vintage glass blue wine glasses and being trying to find real true vintage blue glasses for like ever.
Oh yes I have spied them in Frenchy boutiques, I have lusted after them in stores that I shouldn't even enter and I have put them back pretty quickly in those shops with the hand-written price tags. C'mon, you know the ones.
And, though all of the above have tempted me, muchly, really, even with my wardrobe stashing skills I just thought that, actually, I'd rather be saving that casherooni for our next trip overseas..
Hello The KMart.
Tick Tick Boom
Vintage style blue wine glasses.
Do not come to my old place and think you might pick up one of these and smile with pleasure at their handblown quality, their weight, and be secretly jealous that my wine glasses cost more than your car...friend, that would not happen...these do not feel like that...indeed these in a funny way reminded me of my baby girl, she was a tiny little thing, with stick legs, the tinsssssssiest ankles and wrists you ever did see, she slept sideways in her cot wedged in between rolled up blankets and would only settle attached to Mr Beach Cottage or I or a (dirty) pj top of mine scrunched up under her nose...the first few times I picked her up to cuddle, being used to Honeymoon Baby who weighed in at 9lbs at birth and has never really stopped growing, I nearly threw her little bird-cum-rat down covered body over my shoulder.
These glasses are like that...be careful or you might lose your wine down the front of your shirt.
But oh baby, we are not talking picking up here, we are not talking quality, we are not talking house accessory snobbery.
Beach Cottage ladies, we are talking aesthetics.
And this is what I need in my cottage.
Blue vintage style glass, paired with coastal / nautical / beach stuff on my deck.
It's The KMart.
Tune in tomorrow, tomorrow, I have more budget foofing for your home, or maybe it will be the dress that wraps me up in supermarket-chic and makes me feel like me again.
Good Day to you my friends, wanna come hang out on my deck, talk house accessories, The KMart and drink some wine from blue glasses?
Sarah
Looks good on you! I love it with the denim jacket. Perfect! I can’t wear a maxi, I am only 5 feet tall. I could hold it up and have a train in the back, but that’s not really the look I would want to go for. lol
Hugs and God bless,
heading out to the greenhouse to plant more seeds,
Fi
Think you look great in yours Sarah! I’m 5′ 10″ and love maxis to bits. I find the empire line or triangle top most flattering on me and they are so easy to chuck on and off you go……..B:)
thanks Brenda! I love the good to go bit!
Try putting a tshirt under it (blue and white stripe?) and tuck the halterneck tie in to the dress so you can’t see it…. that’ll fix the shoulder region and avoid hiding the dress under a cardi
thanks Mel!
Sara you are so sweet , I remember when i first started reading your blog you were so shy of having your picture taken for the blog .
You have came a long way . keep up the good work .
I wore a maxi dress to a destination beach wedding and was so, so comfy in it even though it was about a million degrees. I am petite so it’s hard for me to find long dresses that don’t look like they are trying to swallow me. You look great in your maxidress and I love the color!
I’m 180cm tall, my bottom is 2 sizes larger than my waist. Since having my baby 8 months ago, I have only worn a maxi once as its hard to find one for breastfeeding purposes. Prior to this when my tummy was only a small muffin top, I had an extremely hard time finding one for my height. My second problem is I have saddle bags on my butt that are emphasised by clingy materials. I have found 3 that fit well. A black one with white stitching detail on the bottom – from Kmart that can either be strapless or thin straps in a light cotton material for $29, a black one in Target (which was actually a maternity one) with cap sleeves and a few gathers below the bust (for the pregnant belly which works well for muffin tops) for $40 and the other was from a shop in Cairns (can’t remember the name) that was cross over straps at the back, empire line style that had a drawstring under the bust to tighten it to the required amount. I am a real pear shape and I’m really envious of those tiny straight short bodies out there that seem to find the perfect maxi anywhere anytime. If you find the right one and add the right accessories, they can look chic and are extremely comfortable! And yes…you do look hot in yours & I love your denim jacket. The bust style of your dress wouldn’t work on me, I need a lower v neckline to emphasise the top and detract from the butt!