Sunday best...

So another Swap treasure - I think this was from Lovely Lauryn - love the bird print....I wore it to go up to the Southbank to Japan Matsuri - a fab Japanese festival that I went to last year when it was at Spitalfields. This year it was around County Hall and it was insanely busy....

But I only went for one reason....Takoyaki....

 

 These are the yummiest things - and worth queuing for 15 minutes for. A lot of the stalls sold pre-made ones that they just chucked in the deep fryer. These ones were cooked fresh - see below...

They were my favourite thing last year and I don't know of anywhere in London that sells them - there must be somewhere....

Anyway....I wore my lovely leather jacket from Eclectica too - and wore my hair in plaits..! We didn't stay there long as it was too busy. But I got my Takoyaki fix so I was happy!

Swap Outfit outing!

So I got a chance to wear one of my WONDERFUL dresses out last night - along with a jacket and a belt I got from Yours absolutely ages ago but didn't know how to wear - thanks to the amazing Monkey who helped me with this dress at her Swap, I was brave enough to try it....

And thanks again hugely to Eclectica for the dress (and probably the jacket too!)....I know the shoes aren't ideal but I don't really have any shoes that go with dresses as I rarely wore them (note the past tense! I now have a wardrobe full!). So any tips or ideas for FLAT shoes for a dress like this would be welcome. I have arthritis in my left ankle and even after an op last year to remove loose bone, still can't get into heels without excruciating agony...

How this began and why I'm here

Once upon a time I discovered a blog....Pocket Rocket - written by the wonderful Lauren who also works with Yours Clothing (which is how I found her). She, and through her I found quite a few others post outfits they wear. These women are quite inspirational to someone like me.

I've always been big. For as long as I can remember. And in the 80's as a fat teenager you had very few options. Then Evans came along when I was a student - or rather started to stock more fashionable clothes - but it was still the only place you could get something above a size 14 that didn't look like your granny made it.

Fast forward to the present day - I'm a few stone lighter than I was in my 30's and now there are a myriad of places I can get clothes from ASOS.com to Primark....but I still find myself dressing like I did when I was a 22 stone wearer of tent dresses. So I look to blogs like A Monkey Fatshionista or Fat Fit Fine or 52-46-54 to name a few - women who dress to please themselves, who look AMAZING, who blog regularly with outfits of the day and who are generally inspiring and positive and healthy and wonderful.

I was so lucky to attend Monkey's Big Fat Swap Shop event last weekend - and it was heaven. Not only did I come away with the biggest bag of swag (I was so greedy!), I learnt some amazing tips on how to dress myself, got my first ever leather jacket, got to meet women I have long admired online in the flesh and just have a bloody good laugh! I really look forward to more events like this and I'm utterly grateful to everyone who came along, brought clothes, allowed me to walk off with them all and most of all Chattermonkey for organising it!

So I thought I'd take a leaf from their book and try and start a fashion blog - take pictures of clothes I wear, try and remind myself, as the women whose blogs I read often do, that I don't need to define myself by a dress size, a number, or anything. I'm trying to lose weight at the moment for health reasons - but I'm focusing more on the HEALTH rather than the scales. Once my youngest son is at school full time (22nd September...!!!) I will be doing Zumba at least twice a week, hopefully three times. I'll have more time to exercise and swim. And hopefully the weight will drop.

So here, to start with, are a selection of incredibly bad photos of myself - will try and improve or insist someone else takes the pics! These are just SOME of the amazing clothes I got from the Swap Shop!

I utterly LOVE this - thanks to Monkey for the belt tip!

Little black dress - one of many!

Jaunty cap - and beautiful camel dress (excuse the hanger ribbon)!

LOVE this dress - and love the gloves - I even got the ring at the swap!

Though then again - I don't want to lose any weight at the moment or these fab clothes won't fit me!

So here's to future outfit posting! Hope you enjoy it and do leave me comments!