My Style Diary - Saturday Afternoon Strolling Around Fremantle

Good morning! 

I'm sitting here bright and early on this lovely Sunday morning with my cup of tea, ready to get stuck into blogging. 

These photos are from last Saturday (just quickly snapped on my phone) when Tom and I spent a lovely afternoon strolling around Fremantle. For some reason we rarely get to Freo, but when we do I always love the chilled vibe it has. The old buildings, walking through the markets, popping into second hand bookstores, and just leisurely exploring, really can make you feel like you're on holiday, even if it's just for a few hours. 

Outfit-wise I was wearing my Country Road jeans and one of my favourite (very brightly) printed shirts, with my navy cardigan thrown on for a little more warmth (we seem to be heading into autumn a lot more quickly than usual, what happened to our endless summers?!)

These are all staple pieces in my capsule wardrobe that I've worn time and time again and won't be going anywhere anytime soon!

The bag I actually stole from my Mum (she wasn't using it so I thought I may as well give it some love!) and it's become one of my favourites. It's a lovely soft leather, the tan colour goes with almost everything I wear and it's the perfect size. Cross body bags have always been my favourite style, and they're particularly great for days like this one when you're wandering around exploring (and pretending to be on holiday).

Speaking of holidays I have SO many photos from our Europe trip to share but I just haven't gotten around to sorting through them yet! Making time to sit down and write posts/edit photos has been hard lately as I feel like there are a million other things I 

should be doing 

and my poor little blog always gets put on the back burner. 

I do really want to make this more of a priority though as it's something I love doing and truly makes me so happy.

 I have so many ideas floating around in my head for fun, creative posts (not just style diaries!) and just random things I'd like to share, but I do still have this mental block that my blog is just this "silly, frivolous thing" so I have trouble making it a priority. Even after four years of blogging I don't talk about it with people in real life and the thought of people I know reading it still makes me squirm! I know it's ridiculous and I really do just need to get over it, but it's much easier said than done!

Any tips on getting over this silly fear? They would be much appreciated! :)

Anyway, that turned into a bit of a ramble didn't it?

I hope you have an awesome weekend!

Lots of Love

Lauren

xxx

Top - Sportsgirl

Jeans - Country Road

Cardigan - Pull & Bear

Shoes - Roxy

Bag - Country Road

My Style Diary - White Lace Playsuit

Hello and Happy Friday!!!

I can't even begin to tell you how incredibly happy I am that it's finally  the weekend! To make it even better it's a long weekend for us, and I'm actually off on a fun girls trip to Melbourne!

Before I go though (I've got about half an hour before I need to head to the airport) I thought I'd share these photos from last weekend. Tom and I went out for breakfast with my Dad on Sunday morning (a foodie post will be coming soon) and I had a chance to wear the latest addition to my wardrobe. 

I've been really careful when making any new purchases as I've been pretty happy with how my capsule wardrobe is going and only want to add things that will complement it perfectly. Even though I do already have a white lace playsuit (so I don't technically need another one!), when I saw this one in Kookai I just couldn't pass it up! You know I have a soft spot for white lace pieces and this one is just so easy to throw on and ticked all the boxes;

Effortless - check. Classic - check. Playful - check!

I love the cut-out detail at the back and the lace fabric is really beautiful. It feels really modern but at the same time just a little bit vintage-y too (or am I just imagining that!)

It will be a really easy and versatile piece that can be worn casually like I did here or dressed up with a pair of heels and maybe even a blazer. There's something about playsuits that I really like - they seem to just add a slightly more quirky, fun touch to an outfit compared to dresses. What are your thoughts on playsuits? Love them? Hate them?

Anyway, I better head off!

What are your plans for the weekend? I'd love to hear :)

 Mine include lots of eating, a little shopping and just having a fab time hanging out with some of my best friends!

Lots of Love

Lauren

xxx

Playsuit - Kookai

Sandals - Windsor Smith

Bag - Jigsaw

Sunnies - Ray Ban

How To Care for Orchids

Good morning!

I hope your weekend has been off to a lovely start!

For today's post I thought I would share some of my tips and tricks for taking care of orchids. Now I'm not an expert (I feel like I preface everything I say on this blog with that!) but I have had a reasonable amount of experience and luck caring for my little orchid collection (all of mine are Phalaenopsis). I've been able to get a second life out of all the orchid's I've had so far and one particular plant has has actually bloomed three times already and is still going strong!

So here are my simple tips - hopefully they will help you out!

1. Make sure your orchid gets lots of bright, indirect/filtered light

When we first moved into our apartment I had one orchid that I kept on the windowsill. It did fine in winter but when summer came around the light became way too harsh and actually ended up leaving a burn mark on one of the leaves. Now I like to keep them on my desk or dresser - close enough to get enough light, but far enough away so the window doesn't turn into a magnifying glass and burn my poor orchids to a crisp! If it's a really hot day I'll pull our sheer curtains over the window to filter the light.

2.  Water your orchids using a spray bottle or the ice-block trick if you're a beginner

Apparently one of the most common reasons that orchids don't survive is because they are overwatered, which is why the trick of using a small handful of ice blocks (around 3-4) once a week is so popular. When I first started out with my orchid's I did this and it worked really well for me but after a little research I've noticed there is some conflicting opinions on whether this is really the best method - take a look at

this article

if you want to read more. Despite this I feel that if you're a beginner, watering with ice-blocks is a good place to start.

I've actually switched over to using a spray bottle to give my orchids a good watering roughly once a week, and sometimes a little more frequently if I notice the soil is looking really dry. You want to give it a reasonable drenching so the soil is nice and moist, but leave enough time for it to dry out properly.

It's also important not to get water collecting in the centre of the plant on the leaves so I always make sure to spray the water under the leaves right onto the soil.

3. Repot roughly once a year (once the flowers have died off)

I delayed repotting for ages as I was terrified I would kill my orchid by doing this, but it's really quite simple.

This video

by Chicago Botanic Garden on youtube was the most helpful I've found. Once I repotted I found my orchid started growing really well and flowered very quickly afterwards! I used a

potting mix

made especially for orchids that I picked up from Bunnings.

4. Remember to fertilise your orchid

Some sites I've read recommend fertilising every few weeks whereas the directions on the fertiliser I use recommend every 6 months. I use 

this Osmocote fertiliser

 and have used it roughly every 6 months  and so far it seems to be going well! I guess it really depends on the specific fertiliser you're using.

These are the tips that have worked for me so far! I hope they're helpful if you haven't had much luck with orchids in the past. It really is such a great feeling when an orchid starts to flower again. Let me know if you haven any suggestions or extra tips - as I said I'm not an expert so I'd love to hear any extra advice!

Have a lovely weekend whatever you're up to!

Lauren

xxx

My Style Diary - A Pinafore with Pineapples!

Helloo! :)

Today I have a quick outfit post from the weekend that I wanted to share.

I was having a big wardrobe clear out and streamlining my summer capsule wardrobe (a little late in the season I know but my excuse is that we were away for a big chunk of summer) and I've decided that I can now quite accurately define my style  as  "effortless", "classic" and "playful".

I either love outfits that are really simple and classic (like a white top with blue jeans for example) or things with bright quirky prints - think fruit, stars, birds, flowers, polka dots... Anything that just adds a fun twist and a splash of colour!

I feel like this pinafore definitely ticks the playful and fun box with its cute pineapple print!

It was just a really easy and comfy outfit to throw on as I was running out to brunch with friends :)

I hope you had a lovely weekend and that your Monday has treated you well!

Lots of Love

Lauren

xxx

Pinafore - Dangerfield

Top - Country Road

Sandals - Windsor Smith

Bag - Country Road

Experimenting With Our New Camera - Olympus Pen EPL 8

I'm diving into my photo archives once again for this post. There's no particular theme to this one - just a few cool photos I took while experimenting with my new camera that I wanted to share!

Back in November, I finally decided to take the plunge and invest in a new camera. I've been using my little Sony one for years and I figured it was time to step it up a notch. After doing a lot of research, I finally settled on the  

Olympus Pen EPL-8.

 I wanted something that was fairly compact but that still had the option of using different lenses, so this one seemed perfect. 

After much discussion with my photographer uncle (it was so handy getting advice from him although his recommendations were definitely on the very expensive side - which I guess is to be expected), I decided to skip the kit lens that it usually comes with and instead invest in a few prime lenses - the  

17mm f1.8

and  

45mm f1.8

. They were pricey, but they are really really nice lenses that I will use for years to come. I've been blogging for 4 years now and have been using my same little camera this whole time, so I decided it was finally time to just take the plunge.

These also seem to be the lenses that a lot of fashion bloggers use, so I figured they would probably be perfect for how I plan to mainly use them! I do also want to add a zoom lens to my collection at some point - it would have definitely come in handy while we were travelling!

I won't go into all the details about the camera because I am no photography buff, but I am really enjoying playing with it and (very slowly) learning how to use all it's different features.

This year I'd really like to learn more about photography so I can make the most out of my new camera. I'm happy to say I'm no longer shooting solely in automatic mode but I still have a long way to go!

So that's it for today!

Hope you're Sunday is off to a great start! I'm just about to do some  

Yoga With Adriene

now!

Lots of Love

Lauren

xxx