I suddenly had a hankering for this dress one morning, and just as suddenly realized that one of the perks of being a grown up is that I can wear whatever suits my fancy. Well, my fancy and the office dress code — hence my trusty Cartonnier blazer. But seriously, though, how much do I love this dress? A lot. It’s one of my old Winners clearance rack finds, and I still wax nostalgic about the days when finds like that happened regularly. I paid $60 for it, and love it enough to have spent another $60 having it altered after I lost a bunch of weight. That print is just so “Adina” — I can easily see myself wearing this in another 10 or even 20 years’ time. The problem is that I’ve relegated this dress to “special occasion” status, which means I don’t wear it nearly as much as it deserves to be worn. This was a nice reminder that it’s more versatile than I credit it.

On a completely unrelated note, I’ve decided to try out a new nail shape (hello, squ-oval!) and I had to cut my nails pretty short to accommodate the transition. Problem is, I hate short nails — I feel that they make my fingers look extra stubby. It’s a weird complex, I know. So I dug through my stash and found of my old fave “nude for me” (aka “mannequin hands” in the polish collecting world) polishes, OPI Tickle My France-y. As in all things, I love me a colourful manicure, but there is something so elegant about a barely-there nail colour.

Lastly, here’s my blogger confession of the day: when I got to work, I decided to switch to plain black pumps. I looked at these photos and decided the red ones were too bright. Sometimes, I swear all that minimalism talk is rubbing off on me …