Daily Outfit: Saturday Casual

Today was all about getting ready for the week ahead. 

Most people, I imagine, use their weekends to relax and rewind and not to run around like a madman getting their lives sorted for the following week. I am unfortunately not such a person, and while I did find time today for one or two moments of relaxation, the majority of my time was spent running errands, doing chores, and generally getting my life sorted out for the following six days.

I didn't really get a chance to stop until I headed out to dinner tonight with the boyfriend.

Daily Outfit: Dressed But Not Impressive

I am counting my lucky stars that I wore this outfit today, as I had a surprise meeting concerning a job that I had applied for, and it could have been significantly uncomfortable had I been wearing some of my less-corporate clothing.

Daily Outfit: Uniformity

Uniforms are something that get a lot of reference in fashion, over and over again.

It is sort of hysterical when you consider the fact that for those that have to wear a uniform, be it for school, for work or for a sport; it tends to have very negative connotations. A polo shirt, for example, is something that I have been loath to wear until very recently, because as soon as I put one on I remember either high school, or working retail.

Neither are experiences that I am in any way interested in reliving as an adult, which likely explains my aversion to wearing them.

Daily Outfit: Homeward Bound

This weekend I'm back in my home-town of Bega, NSW, to celebrate my boyfriend's birthday with our families.

We stopped on the side of the road on the way down this evening to take the photos of my daily outfit. I'll be taking my outfit photos for the upcoming week while I am down here, but I wanted to take the opportunity to snap something in my favourite area if the country, the Monaro.

Daily Outfit: Aggressive Salmon

I was bullied a lot growing up, mostly because I have always been obviously gay. Occasionally I realise just what an effect this has had on the way that I am today, and in often in really strange ways.

One of the key tips that I was given by teachers growing up to avoid being bullied, was to be less noticeable. One teacher went so far as to suggest that I stop wearing bright or patterned clothing, and only wear dull colours. It was as though she genuinely believed that the other children were not drawn to the fact that I was gay and therefore different, but rather like little T-Rex’s; they were drawn to the bright colours I was wearing.

Blogging: The first day of the rest of your Blog's life...

Recently, I applied for part-time hours at work, so that I could take one day a fortnight off from my 9-5 Public Service job, to focus on my Blog and to work towards making a career for myself as a professional Blogger.

Today was my first Friday off work.

My plan is to trial this for 3-6 months and to see where I am then, and potentially drop to eight days a fortnight then. Ultimately, I am hoping to leave the Public Service within two years, and to be professionally Blogging and making a decent income. That's my current plan and dream, in any event; and today I've taken my first steps towards realising it.

Daily Outfit: Cold and Colder

I was out of the office all day today, but knowing I was going to be at a venue my work often uses for training exercises, and how cold that venue is, I opted for a daily outfit on the warmer side. The jacket I am wearing today actually came with matching running tights, and I was very tempted to wear them under my jeans for the sake of the extra warmth!

Blogging: Blog Hop - Why do I write?

The lovely Erin from Mouthless Mutters asked if she could tag me in to a meme that's being passed around the Canberra Bloggosphere at the moment. 

It just so happens to have come at a time where I am doing some contemplation and self assessment with regards to my Blogging, so I happily agreed to take up the tag and to answer the four little questions myself.

Daily Outfit: Dressing for War

Today’s daily outfit was an exercise in dressing for war.

Now, I don’t mean to trivialise war or what our service men and women do; I am talking about the sort of personal battles that we each face on a daily basis. Right now my work situation is a bit fraught, and I was feeling like today I might be in something of a firing line. So, being a big believer in dressing to how you feel; today meant dressing for war by armouring myself.

Daily Outfit: Cafe Regatta

I've had a really lovely and lazy day in Helsinki with my best friend Mags. She's off to Norway tomorrow morning and My sister and I are flying back to Australia on Sunday evening. 

This means that I won't see Mags for around 3 months :"(

We decided to check out Cafe Regatta, which we walked past on our first night here almost three weeks ago. Subsequent research suggested that it had the best Pulla (a type of cinnamon bun) in all of Helsinki, so we went to check this out for ourselves.

Daily Outfit: Arktikum

Today's daily outfit shots were taken at the Arktikum, by Mags.

The Arkticum is a huge, partially underground building with an immense glass roof, which houses a museum, and art gallery, and a science centre. Visiting the Arktikum was a very spur of the moment decision, but as we had no real plans today besides visiting the Arctic Circle line, it made sense. And I am so glad we did visit, because it is a truly beautiful building with some great exhibits inside.

It also proved to be a great location for my daily outfit snaps.

Daily Outfit: New Threads in Rovaniemi

Today we left Jyvaskyla and drove six and a half hours north to Rovaniemi, Lapland, where we will be staying for two nights.

I decided that this lengthy drive was the perfect opportunity to break in this gorgeous new 100% cotton sweater that I picked up at H&M yesterday for $19 Euros.I have been wanting something along the lines of this sweater since I touched down in Helsinki and started seeing example after example of hot Nordic guys in blue and white striped tops!

Daily Outfit: Tallinn, Estonia

After a very brief ferry ride from Helsinki, we arrive in Tallinn, Estonia, where we will be for two nights and three days.

My outfit for today was planned around two different forecasts for the weather, with Helsinki promising 14 degrees and potential rain, and Tallinn 20 degrees and cloudless skies. I wanted to be prepared for anything.

I'm not exactly sure that the outfit was a success though, especially not in the style sense...

Daily Outfit: Helsinki

By the time you're all reading this, I am on a plane on my way to Singapore, before reaching my final destination- Helsinki, Finland.

I'm headed to Finland with my younger sister Hollie, and we're meeting up with my best friend Mags. I'll be away for three weeks, in which time we're travelling all over Finland, and venturing to Estonia and Sweden as well.

If you're wondering "Why Finland?", the main reason is that my dad was born and raised in Finland, and as such I am incredibly curious about my heritage.

Announcement: Ink & Leathers Turns Six!

Six years ago today, I decided to start a Fashion Blog.

Six years of this on-again-off-again relationship with my Blog, of taking likely thousands of photos of myself and my clothes, of changing platforms and addresses and templates and learning how to use twitter and instagram and never quite getting the hang of html or my camera or even really how to dress myself...

It has been something of a roller coaster ride, to say the very least.

Fashfest 2014: An open letter on Front Row Etiquette

Fashfest night three has drawn to a close, and instead of the exhilarating high and desire to relive the collections that nights one and two left me with; I find myself despondent, and frankly a little pissed.

Let me make this blatantly clear before I go on—this has nothing to do with the wonderful Fashfest team who have put their all into every night and element of the event and who have, for what it's worth, blown my mind.

No. The anger I am feeling tonight is directed firmly at my fellow audience members. Specifically, this is aimed at four men seated across the catwalk from me, who went ahead and ruined my perfect streak of meeting interesting, lovely people seated in the front row, with a catty and raucous attempt at living up to every 'bitchy-gay-fashion-guy' stereotype ever penned in the most basic of sitcoms.

Daily Outfit and weekend travel announcement

Today's daily outfit was all about comfort for travel, as the boyfriend and I left for Berry after work today, to spend the long weekend with his folks. 

I wanted to take at least one blazer this weekend, because they're so versatile and can be dressed up or down. In the end I went with my oversized Oxford blazer in a navy wool, because it it much more casual than my others, and it's quite warm as well. Berry is a beautiful coastal town, and it does get quite chilly, so I wanted to make sure that I will be warm if we head out to the beach. I also wanted to at least look like I had tried to dress with work in mind. I probably failed in that regard though.

Weekend Adventures: The Royal Canberra Show

Today I made my annual pilgrimage to the Royal Canberra Show.

I love the crazy carnival atmosphere of the Canberra Show, everything from the noise, the sights, the smells; right through to the queasy sick feeling you get watching people hurtle around on the rides or from the masses of deep fried carnival fare consumed. Going to the Show is something that I treat myself to and refuse to feel guilty about. It is one day a year where I do not ask myself how many calories are in something, whether I really need to eat that, or whether I probably shouldn't buy that.

50 things I did in the past 500 days:

There was a meme floating about the ether of the interwebs a little while ago called 50 in 500 – and it essentially challenged people to do 50 things in 500 days. I was going to do it, but like many other projects of mine, it fell by the wayside when something shiny distracted me.

However, I thought I’d get back in the saddle of Blogging by sharing with you 50 things that I did accomplish in the past 500 days, to give you an idea of some of the things that I have been up to in my hiatus.

1.     Travelled overseas for the first time in my life, to Japan for eight days with my boyfriend.

Daily Outfit and a return to blogging:

Long time no post eh? Almost 500 days to be exact, since I last updated this Blog. A lot has happened in this time, much has changed, and even more has remained the same. On Wednesday February fifth this year it will be exactly 500 days since my hiatus started, and I've got a post planned that will give you a bit of an idea of what I've been up to. 

Until then, let's just focus on the clothes shall we?