Dare to dress up on a White Night (thanks to Target).

This is a sponsored post. Target provided me with vouchers to go shopping and will pay me for this post. Opinions are my own.

On Saturday night, I excitedly headed to the city for dinner with Sandra and then on to the White Night Festival. The White Night Festival was an overnight art festival - bringing music, dance art, and light shows to the city. I was looking forward to the writers camp at the Wheeler Centre, and seeing the lights, but I was not prepared for the large crowds. Oh the crowds. More about that later.

We decided on a cheap progressive dinner (it made spending $25 for three courses and a drink all the more fancy!). We started with rice paper rolls, and then I overcame my fear of dumplings at a little place in China Town. We finished dinner with a piece of cake each from a Greek patisserie. Delicious. I love dining with a food blogger. We never run out of things to talk about, and we never have to ask each other permission to take photos of our food.

Before dinner and taking outfit photos, we stumbled across some street art and live hip hop in Tattersall's Lane. I saw this one just off that lane, in Stevenson Lane. Here we are now, entertain us.

And after dinner, we set off to White Night, first stop was The Wheeler Centre where we saw one of my literary heroes, Sean M Whelan, perform some poetry. He was brilliant - alliterative, evocative and funny. A beautiful talent. Sandra and I met up with Karen, Carli and Carli's sister Liza too - lovely to see these ladies again. My initial plan was to stay at the Centre and write, but then I was enticed by talk of the light and art around the city. Only, there were crowds. I've never seen so many people in the city of Melbourne. It was a slow pedestrian crawl, rubber necking to look at the pretty things. Carli, Liza, Sandra and I walked down Swanston Street, taking it all in. We saw a catwalk in a lane way, live music, street artists and many many people. It could have been more accessible and participatory had it not been for the thick crowds, but that was also the magic of it. Sam McHugh tweeted "#whitenightmelb: Earth Hour's nemesis". I laughed - so many lights used and power cables over the roads.

Here are some of my favourite sights of the night.

The State Library of Victoria.

A shadow play at City Square - this was fun - seeing the children interacting with the shadow characters. There was an audio story being told too.

Projections on the windows of St Paul's Catherdral - Sandra made a great point - funny that they'd projected AFL, where fans are fanatics to the point of religious, on a religious building.

The Yarra River, westward. There were light fountains looking east, but the crowd was too thick to look through comfortably.

And the jewel of the night (that I managed to walk to anyway - my face was getting sore - and yes, a sore face does affect my desire to walk!): Flinders Street Station. There was a rock concert on the stage too.

Isn't it beautiful?

White Night was pretty special. I loved how pretty Melbourne looked, and how many people celebrated this great city. I am excited about next year's. Were you there too?

So, about what I wore. I love Target, it's my go-to store for workwear (I like their dresses, pencil skirts and short length trousers), their pieces fit me well amd often I can avoid trying them on due to their consistency in sizing, and I also like that I have so many pieces that make people say "huh?! that's not from Target!". Like my coral lace dress and black pleather jacket. Target has a really great selection of women's clothing - I mostly buy from the City Dressing, Hot Options and Limited Editions ranges. I have also recently picked up some Target Essentials basic tops and bonds undies which I'm really happy with.

Target sent me shopping earlier in the week. The brief they gave me was dare to dress up. I had great visions of me moseying through the store, taking my time choosing the perfect outfit. But instead I found myself there one hour before closing time, doing a power shop because I thought I'd cram as much into my day by scheduling a phone meeting after work, cooking a meal and remembering just in time to get money out for my cleaner (note: first world problems hey?!).

I took a brisk walk through my local Target (one of two - I have a large store which I shopped at last week, and an Urban store within five minutes drive of my house - I like Urban for the up-to-the-minute range of women's fashions) and headed straight for the dresses. Though I couldn't find any that I liked. They seemed very conservative for my tastes. I rifled through the clearance racks (so many of them, such low prices) - but nothing piqued my interest. I then looked at Hot Options, and to be honest, the colours didn't grab me. I was a little disappointed. I have loved the brights and florals of spring/summer, and now the tones are more muted - lots of bottle green and burgundy - reminded me of a bag I sewed in year eight textiles class.

So then I located my old faithful, the Limited Editions section. I can always count on this range to find something that I like. I have a lot of work clothes from Limited Editions. I thought I would use my voucher to buy something that I wouldn't ordinarily buy - black and trousers. And luckily, there were some beautiful tailored trousers and interesting luxe tops to fit the brief.

Here's what I chose:

A slinky jersey Limited Editions top with pleather trim ($49.95) and black jacquard print straight leg Limited Editions pants ($59.95). I like that theese pieces can be dressed up or down - I can wear them both with denim, and I can wear the top with a skirt or even layered over a dress with leggings. The top is actually short sleeved (you can't quite see it because of my love of layering) and is a really flattering fit. I need to take the hem of the pants up, but overall they fit very well and make my legs look long and slim.

I wore some silver bangles and a bracelet I made myself (navy sunstone) and a Red Phoenix Emporium necklace (the long white one, gifted), plus another Target necklace (the heart) that I picked up for $5.40 after that initial shopping trip. I love the heart - especially its woven fluro wire. Received lots of compliments on it. I wore the same shoes that I had for my year 10 formal. Back in 1997!! Yes, they still fit and are quite comfortable. See how the pants have a pretty floral black on black print?

Later on, in the cool of the aircon, I put on my shiny shiny jacket - a buy from Target in September 2012.

That was me in a beanbag at the Wheeler Centre. Of course I chose the purple one. I am not sitting very graciously. Beanbags are heaps of fun, but very hard to get out of! Sandra made me laugh: "It took seven years of yoga to get my ageing hips out of that beanbag #downwarddogfacing", she tweeted! Oh the awkwardness!

Thanks for the lovely night amd for taking outfit photos Sandra, and thanks to Target for having me as a Target Blogger!

Please note: I am a Target Blogging Ambassador, and this is the first in a series of sponsored posts.