What I wore: the office Christmas party

If I were a “real” fashion blogger I’d be putting up lots of outfit posts, you know, like every other day. But trust me, if I did that you’d be seeing me in a house dress and thongs EVERY OTHER DAY. And that could get very boring, very fast.

The Model and Me posts are something else again. These posts are designed to encourage you to try on a dress or an outfit you wouldn’t normally have picked up off the rack.

So, when I get the opportunity to glam it up a little – or a lot – I’ll drive my family mad by making them take photos of me in all my finery. They usually roll their eyes but are getting used to my requests that usually come minutes as we have to step out the door. In which case the eye roll is usually accompanied by a disgruntled mumbling.

Last Friday night it was my husband’s MASSIVE office Christmas party.

No photocopier in sight. Just 1500 people in a room that could fit two Olympic swimming pools and a circus theme that reduced grown men to taking close-up photos of an extremely flexible young lady doing things in a Swarovski-encrusted leotard. As you do … when the wine is plentiful and the DJ goes by the name Sparkles.

Anyways, enough about the party and on to the outfit.

I chose this Sacha Drake dress and played around with the halter top ties to strap “the girls” in a little more securely. Seriously, this dress is all kinds of wonderful. It’s stretchy (so I had no problems accommodating the Moreton Bay Bugs AND the duck confit from the lazy Susan buffet in the centre of our table), it creates a magic shape and those tiered layers? They sit over two other layers, working in unison to hide the bits I like to hide.

Sacha Drake Rosalie dress $369 | Samantha Wills Greta Garbo earrings $165 | Mezi bracelet | Mogil clutch | spray tan: Lime Health and Beauty | hair: suite three hair | shellac nails (iced coral layered over cream puff): suite three beauty

I wanted to get you a close up of the earrings because they are just so AMAZING. And really not too heavy to wear.  So I attempted this “selfie” in the car on the way to BrisVegas. Shame my son takes his role as the family photo-bomber apprentice so earnestly.

So, while waiting for the cab to arrive when we got to Brisbane, I got my daughter to snap this one:

… then many rounds of festive cheer later, the earrings feature again. I was standing in line at the tattoo tent (I did mention it was a circus theme, didn’t I?) and thought to myself, what would Eden do when faced with a choice between a frangipani, dolphin or SpongeBob SquarePants tattoo? So, I Tweeted her (as you do) for advice. Before she could Tweet back, I spotted this:

And I knew she’d approve.

The only disappointing thing is that the tattoo tent lady told me I’d get two weeks out of it – now it’s just a black smudgy mess that if I scrub off will also remove the tan.

Damn it. I so thought this was the perfect addition to my recycling this outfit on Friday week for the red carpet walk at the Nuffnang Asia-Pacific Blog Awards in Kuala Lumpur. Eden, maybe I need one for reals?