All in an Afternoon

Probably my favourite thing about living in Geelong is the jaw-droppingly good op shopping they have. With every cluster of houses comes another Salvos or Vinnies store - there are three op shops between my house and the bus stop to uni. When I live in Melbourne, I will definitely still make a regular trip out to Geelong just to pillage their op shops. Maybe it's because the people here haven't really discovered the joys of op shops yet and have left all these gems for the rest of us to find... I dunno, I can't explain why I keep finding awesome stuff. I would have thought they would be quite popular, given the large number of them, and the generally working-class population of Geelong.

The median income of Geelong is $50,000. It doesn't sound like much, but it's approximately 50,000 times more than what I am currently earning. It wasn't the smartest idea to move to a new country in the middle of a recession when all the fashion boutiques are closing down. I'm not ready to start working in hospitality just yet. 

Aaaanyway, all these op shops are great, because recession and second-hand shopping go so well together. Here's what I bought yesterday (and I spent less than $50 all up!): 

You can never have too many striped shirts right? I may have to get this one taken in because it is so wide that when I put it on I feel like I am drowning in fabric. I have no sewing skills, but luckily my grandmother will be in Wellington when I am.

After falling in love with the floral blazer Allison Mosshart was wearing during the Kills encore, I was prepared to do anything to get one myself. Even if it meant ordering the $220 Topshop one. I found this one in the first op shop I went into:

This dress didn't look like much on the rack, but I took a chance and tried it on. I was surprised to find that the cut of it is quite flattering if you wear it with a belt and the sleeves and collar are super cute.

A close up of the collar

It started off coming down to mid-calf and had this yucky frilly bit at the bottom, but I cut it off and now it's a perfect length. May have to get it hemmed though.

This one is my favourite and also the cheapest one I found. Win win!

With the addition of these three to my (already heavily saturated with floral) wardrobe, I think there might just be such a thing as too much floral. I'll see how it goes, but I may end up selling the first two blazers on ebay. I'll let you know if I do!

I also bought this velvet bow from Forever New, a very girlie local chain store. It ended up being the most expensive item I bought all day at only $10. I love that it can be pinned either to your shirt or to your hair. 

Though this dress wasn't bought on the day of my op shopping adventure, I did buy it second hand on ebay. I am slowly developing an addiction to ebay... my wardrobe will be better for it but my wallet won't.

I found out today that I have been accepted to be a part of this year's Geelong Advertiser Hot Shots program and I am super stoked! It's kind of an internship/work experience thing where one night a week we get together at the offices of the Geelong Advertiser and a speaker tells us about various aspects of the newspaper industry. I'm particularly interested in finding out what is being done to prevent the death of print media. It's an amazing opportunity and I'm one of only 10 people from Deakin University to be chosen. It starts in two weeks.