Reko dress, H&M jeans, Polished Sense shoes, Primark cardigan, Primark bag, various thrifted necklaces and ring, Ray Ban sunglasses
I love Vanessa day so much! How fun is this outfit? There’s something about this slinky leopard print dress that just cheers me up and makes me want to go out and dance. I think it’s the perfect representation of Vanessa’s streetwise, urban style. What do you think? Yay or nay? Did I pull off V’s look? And are you looking forward to Little J tomorrow?
In other news, I’m currently enjoying a rather delightful week off work (hence the outdoor photos!) and revelling in the amount of time I have. I’ve got time to do laundry, time to read books, time to cook delicious food and go for drinks on an evening. There’s time for walks, time to shop (although I always find time for that…) and time to call my mum for a chat.
As some of you may know, my Monday to Friday usually includes an 80-mile round commute to work, which leaves me little to no time for the rest of my life. I’m a huge believer in life before work – I work to live, not the other way around. This week has really put things into perspective, and I hope things will be more balanced in the future. Remember that Very Important Day I was telling you about? Well, keep your fingers crossed it all works out!
Do you have time to do the things you love? How do you make time? Any tips? I’d love to know!
xoxo
I always find time to do things I love. I like my easy 9 to 5 job which leaves my whole evening and weekends free to walk the dogs, read, cook, watch films, cinema etc. Plus it only takes me ten minutes to get home which is great! x
I think this is my favourite GG outfit so far – I love the leopard print dress and how you’ve mixed it up with the colour cardi and shoes. Vanessa would definitely approve of this outfit! Your week off work sounds really nice 🙂 x
I LOVE this outfit, you look amazing! Sexy and chic :o)
I commute about 2 hours a day, and hour each way. It does make for little free time, especially when I factor in my grad school night classes. I often don’t get home until after 11 pm.
You may have picked up on it from my blog, but I had a recent crisis about life vs work, and have made the decision to just not agree to work more hours than I want to. A week of crying while driving home past midnight was eye-opening.
Definately the most lovely look of the week, Jen. The leopard print, vibrant cardi, funky boots and the skinny jeans suit your fab figure to perfection. Again, so much better than the original inspiration.
Hope you’re enjoying your break and yes, feel free to use any detail of my blog…I’d be honoured.
Vix
xxx
Yep, this is my favourite outfit so far! The mix of coloyurs is fabulous & I love the leopard print!
I find it really hard to get that work/life balance…. having time off makes you realise what you are missing out on! I work in a gallery so don’t have set days off and rarely have weekends, I don’t intend for it to stay like this for much longer…. back to job hunting I think! x
You looks so fierce!
I don’t think I could pull off that outfit but you definitely do my dear 🙂
This is my favourite outfit of the week so far. The look really suits you.
I absolutely know what you mean about work/life balance. I have a 50 mile per day commute and when you add that to an average of 45 hours week (excluding lunch) there isn’t a lot of time for much else. Whilst I admit at the moment, work is taking over a bit I absolutely could not bear sitting in a mindnumbing job where I count down the hours until hometime and wish my life away. So for now I carry on in a challenging job and relish any time I get to do the things I want.
It’s all about sacrifing some areas to get what you want in others.
80 miles??!?! You must really love your job! Enjoy the time off 😀 The Vanessa outfit is great; you really captured her with the bright colours and leopard print.
Ah, you totally rock as Vanessa, Jen! I love the addition of the purple Polished Sense shoes – totally something that Vanessa would wear!
I’ve begun to force myself to make time for the things I love. This involves setting time limits for how long I work on certain projects to accomodate spending time relaxing and doing the things I love!! 🙂
A leopard dress… How clever of you, Jen! Vanessa is a highly discussed character in our house. I think you caught the essence of her dressing very well. An 80m commute is rather stressful… Certainly not easy to find a good life-work balance; very curious about your plans!
Love the funky look, I hope your VID and all that works out.
Vicki xx
I really love the jeans and shoes – as usual you make an amazing combo of two things that I’d never think of putting together!
Ah the work/life balance. I make myself be quite selfish about it – evenings and most weekends are my time and if I want to sit in bed and not talk to anyone, I do so. I don’t want to look back at my twenties and think “why was everything about work?”. I don’t have a crazy social life or anything but I fit in what I want to do and that’s enough for me.
Enjoy your week off – I really wish I had a Monday to Friday job, currently I seem to be loosing all my Saturdays to work. I use to love working four days a week but that went with a dip in my wages and when i’m “meant” to be saving money to move in with the guy, its kinda all hands to the deck money wise! So Sunday’s in theory become my day to do everything I wanna do, but it more likely turns out into being my lazy day because i’m too knackered to go anywhere – sadly!
Love the leopard print, huge fan of the shoes, the whole outfit is beautiful 🙂
The last 3 years studying (after working full time for 7 years before that) has really showed me how my life there is to live, when i worked full time I spent most of my time working and sleeping. I’ll be returning to the world of work soon and how I plan to manage having me time is by putting it my diary, I wouldn’t cancel on a friend so I won’t cancel on myself. Time for myself but also time for my relationship. Don’t know if that helps xx
I think that is my favourite outfit of yours ever, I love that cardi against the leopard.
This outfit is really Vanessa! I love the Serena outfit too. You’ve really encapsulated each girl’s style- love this challenge!
Glad you’re enjoying your week off- your commute sounds like a challenge! I make sure that I keep a few evenings free a week as my me-time (or me and the boyf time) is super important and when I’m at my happiest x
Love love love this one, fav so far.
I really enjoy having time off to do the little things that take up a whole day on the weekend (washing, cleaning you get the picture!) I wish I had more time for Silver Peacock, painting and seeing my family. Work rules me at the moment due to bills and needing money but one day soon I hope that balance can change.
X xx
p.s glad you’re enjoying your week off!
Love this dress… your Vanessa look is fierce. Jen, you’re doing the contemplating look. Very good!
It’s really difficult to balance life and work then add blogging to that. It’s all about time management. Fix your schedule and stick to it.
Have a great day sweetie! xoxo
I think Vanessa would totally wear something wild and fun like that! Can’t wait for your interpretation of little J and kinda sad that this GG style challenge will end soon. Maybe you could pick another show next:P
I know what you mean about finding time to do things you love! Sometimes I wish blogging was my full-time job. It’s really great that you got a week off from work to relax and put things into perspective. Also loving the pics outdoors too:)
xx
Great outfit!I have never seen Gossip Girl,but have heard sooo much about the clothes!I MUST see it,as your past few putfits are inspiring me too!!!:)
LOVE the leopard frock. Sounds like you’re having a fabulous break. : )
LOVE IT! Vanessa is my favorite girl by far on GG 🙂 Love the leopard and love the shoes! You look awesome! And that is wonderful you have the week off, how nice is that? Enjoy it!
yayyy i love the Vanessa’s look!! you did a great job pulling the essences of her look! the glasses the cross-body bag and the colorful artsy mix of prints!
sometimes, i really don’t think i spend enough time on myself, doing stuff that i want to do..but i think blogging has opened that door for me..now im exploring.. 😀
xxjess
I could definately see Vanessa working that outfit! I love the purple booties! I work to pay my bills, but it’s definately not the priority!
And yes, I’m a huge Harry Potter fan. So is my bf, so when we moved in together, we have doubles of all the books except the last one (since we just got one to share). I’m not dress up nerdy, but definately opening night nerdy.
I love this! As you say, so fun! Love the leopard print.
I’m off work ill today 🙁 so catching up on blogs in bed 😀 I’ve been so behind with everything recently because of work, so I think its time to get my priorities sorted! I too, work to live.
Very intrigued about this VID! x
I love your blog and this challenge espec is brillant. You’ve nailed all 3 girls so far, can’t wait for the clothes and lashings of black eyeliner fro little J tom.
Fingers well and truly crossed for you.
Jo x
u look great i love the shoes and the dress ^^
Love this, totally Vanessa!
Wow this is awesome, I love those shoes Jen! Hope very important day goes well 🙂
I really like the shoes. They look great!
I totally love this concept. You’ve inspired me to challenge myself more!! You look great!
This is very Vanessa! I love this look X