Nothing but the truth

My learned friend who sits just down the corridor from me came bursting in to my office this morning to see if I was wearing the floral dress. He reprimanded me when he beheld a sober brown pinstripe number with a black cardi and a black belt. "Where are the flowers?" he demanded.

Maybe tomorrow.

It was fiendishly busy today - I'm glad I was in pinstripes. They kept me focused, and kept me from lamenting the glorious bright yellow Sydney weather that I couldn't actually experience.

I had lunch at my desk while I read the paper and sent emails at the same time. On the way home I mentally packed for my next holiday break, which will be in San Francisco early next year. Everything I'm seeing on the Northern Hemisphere blogs - scarves and tights, dresses and coats - is exciting me. I've mentally packed my tights and scarves a thousand times.

Which brings me to two special purchases I made at the final winter sales a few weeks ago:

A pair of neutral boots to help me make my way through the Yosemite park.
These are from a store called Trenery, a relatively new chain that mercilessly targets women like me - forty something, working, wanting to wear nice things, striving not to look like she's competing on a low grade reality television program. The boots had been reduced several time and were waiting patiently, in my size, for $109.00. They are the second pair of boots I have bought new in my lifetime (my boots overwhelmingly hail second hand from eBay).

And a blossom coloured woollen scarf, soft as bunny's belly.
I swear this scarf wriggled suggestively at me when I walked past it on a rack. "Psst," it whispered. "I'm down to $29. I'm all merino wool, fold up real small and like travelling. Feel me. Aren't I something? Are you really prepared to keep living without me swaddled around your throat?"

I am very vulnerable to chatty accessories.

Now, my sordid confession: I'm still getting the hang of the photographing-oneself-thing here. I take lots of photos but they never look right and my incongruent blend of vanity and shyness makes it difficult to work out how I should be displaying my clothes and personal clothing choices. I really admire the other bloggers who post photos of themselves and wish I could mimic their confidence and style.

In the meantime you'll have to cope with Kate, who always looks great but doesn't really waiver in her daily wardrobe.
Needless to say, any tips or clues you can give me about posing for blogworthy photos would be most appreciated.