I feel pretty

People are starting to notice I'm dressing differently. No longer hiding in voluminous black articles of clothing or jeans and baggy tops. Since last summer I've been slowly blooming into something - a woman who enjoys wearing dresses. Who likes prints. Who wears leggings a lot and doesn't give a flying fuck that "fat girls" aren't supposed to.

Yes, I still wear my Ugg boots a lot - I like comfort....(sorry Claire)....but I am getting bolder in my choices and am shopping (and swapping) in many different places. And I like it. Today it was a grey miserable rainy day. I considered going for slobby jeans cos I had no where particular to go. But then I remembered the skirt that Claire swap/gave me at the Red Bows event and it called to me. It was too wet to wear my Uggs so I decided to put on my proper leather boots.

I also have this top - I bought it 2 years ago in Detroit and it didn't have a hope in hell of fitting me but I bought it because it was part of Sarah Jessica Parker's short-lived fashion line "Bitten". I bought a bag of hers and I loved it and this black top was a large....a very small large...and I hoped I would fit into it one day or I'd flog it on Ebay for a fortune. While contemplating how to wear the skirt, I decided to pair it with this belt from Yours which has a frilly edge...which reminded me of the frilly front of the Bitten Top so I dug it out of the back of my drawer and tried it on and here you are.

Husband hates it. The top - he loves the skirt. But a female friend who I trust more told me she absolutely loved the top and I'm quite proud of my combination - all my own work....

Top - Sarah Jessica Parker - Bitten

Belt - Yours Clothing

Skirt - Swap

Boots (you can't seem em) - Evans

What do you think?

Red Bows Vintage event - MY HAUL! Pt 2

As Claire has mentioned before, I do love a clothes swap! I think I hauled more than anyone last summer at the London event....

This was my haul!

A gorgeous sort of reverse leopard print top from Amanda I think...

I always seem to end up grabbing anything that Claire brings - I love her style! She used to wear this as a skirt but I'm going to be brave (if the weather improves) and wear it as a dress.

A beautiful silky top from Tasha

Think this was Claire's as well - love the floral dress....it's a bit big so I need to take it in at the top....but I love it....

This is a brilliant maxi from Tash - it's strapless - I just didn't take my bra off - and it's the perfect length for me....

Another beautiful floral tea dress...

And - I did actually spend some money - this is the dress I bought from Michelle - it's not a great pic - this is beautiful cornflower blue with little flowers embroidered throughout - not sure what period it is - think it might be 80s as it reminds me of things I used to wear. I intend to put my big tutu petticoat under this to dress it up, or wear it with leggings/tights and my blue cardie for everyday. It's such a beautiful dress and my FIRST vintage item!

Red Bows Vintage Event Gather the Women! Pt 1

So...plus size vintage wasn't something I'd ever thought about until Plus London- as I've said before on this blog - anything outside of Evans was something new to me until recently! Michelle who runs Red Bows, had a rail at Plus London that I drooled over while waiting to go on to the catwalk - I just didn't have time to browse properly. Luckily she agreed to host an "at home" event with her clothing and was ably supported by The Vintage Cake Company.

All of us who attended brought some food to share...and best of all some clothes to swap!

The Vintage Cake Co's beautiful china!

One of the wonderful rails FULL of plus sized Vintage

The swap sofa! We all put our freebies on there and waited for the rummage!

More vintage finds

Cakes!

Sian got this amazing jacket!

Michelle in a dress I'd brought to swap - it looks SO much better on her....

Sian again in an 80's classic dress - I swear I had this dress back then. It looked AMAZING on her. No idea why I ended up just taking pics of Sian trying the stuff on! I think I was so busy chatting, trying on stuff myself and just having such a fab time that I only managed to take a few pics. Michelle in this shot is also wearing another of her swap finds - this time it was from Claire and it looked amazing on her - I tried it on but she looked, again SO much better in it. That's one of the wonderful things about clothes swaps - you bring along things that aren't working for you - they might be the wrong size, or just not suit you - and then you see some amazing women trying it on and they look brilliant.

Claire taking a cake break. The cakes were amazing - especially the Victoria Sponge!

We all had a food break - the best parties all end up in the kitchen anyway!

Amanda is one of the brilliant women I've met through Fatshion but she doesn't blog - YET! PLEASE Amanda - you have such great style - share it with the world!

The food we brought and shared.

I just want to say thank you to Michelle for welcoming us all, thank you every one who was there for being there, being supportive, sharing your clothes and your sartorial fashion tips. I love it when bloggers get together like this - I'm becoming addicted to this community!

It was great to meet Tash and Sian who I hadn't met before - to catch up with Claire and Amanda, to eat Hannah's wonderful cake and just to have a fabulous Sunday in the company of wonderful women wearing beautiful clothes. I'm about to do a separate post with my haul!

Uber Quick OOTD (Crap photo though!)

Dress - Torrid

Cardigan - New Look

Leggings - M&S

Got the other half to snap this this morning so my hair looks dreadful and I wasn't smiling even though this outfit makes me really happy! It's a Blogger tribute outfit I think! The dress is from Em who was one of the first bloggers I ever read and whose style I adore. She has this dress - you can even see it here when she met Gok! She sold one exactly the same on her Boombands Blog Shop and I snapped it up!

I paired it with a cardigan that the lovely Claire gave me when she was restyling me - love the polka dots. The dress - you can't see it in this photo but you can on Em's link - has a mad combo of tiny polkadots on the boobs, a big wide ribbon band and floral skirt. So I thought this might work. Be gentle with me - this has to be the first time in weeks I've worn something without checking with my style guru first....

My mother said it was "awfully bright" and a bit in your face. Which she didn't mean as a compliment but I took it as such!

Where HAVE I been?

I know...it's been bloody ages. Don't know what's  been up with me....(well I do...stressed out to fuck husband and insane children) but I've had all the creativity of a dead fruitfly. I haven't even been posting on Fbook (which has sent a lot of my friends into a panic wondering what's up). I've given up on my Photo A Day (mainly due to the upcoming death of the wonderful picnik.com as of April 19th which is what I use to edit photos) also due to a total lack of creativity and inspiration.....

So today, even though I've got a cracking headache....and my two boys have been the demonic antichrists all day....I'm attempting a brief catchup.

About 3 weeks ago (sorry Claire), the lovely Monkey Fatshionista did a re-Gok on me - another style session with some new items and some other stuff that had been in the wash when she came last time....

 I saw Kathryn review this Gok Dress from his new collection for Sainsburys and although she didn't like it, I loved the colour. It's a relatively new thing for me, colour - I used to live in black like a dutiful fat girl. Since joining the marvellous world of Fatshion, I've been inspired to get colourful.  I went to Sainsburys to buy it (checking with Twitter while walking around the shop with it in my trolley) and ended up buying it and asking Claire's opinion. She liked it! Hoorah! I would have kept it even if she didn't! She showed me two ways to dress it - with the brown New Look jacket she'd suggested I buy and ....

 With the blue cardigan she also suggested I buy (I think it was Dotty P's but I can't remember and can't be arsed to go up two flights of stairs to check)..... So it's a keeper - though everytime I look at the above photo I a) love that you can see Claire in the mirror, and b) wonder why I am always standing with my belly stuck out!

 Then we played with some other choices - love this purple top (M&S) and wanted to see if it worked with the long sleeved T and Claire thinks it does. I wore it once since and actually changed as I didn't feel comfortable. Need to get more confident with my layering....

 One of my main fears in dressing in clothes that are more fitted than I'm used to, is that I'll look pregnant. I can't count the times people have asked me AFTER I'd had both my children, how long till I'm due. So Claire showed me with this pic that it's in my head! I don't look pregnant - and my boobs, although diminished, are still bigger than my belly.

 Playing with ways to button a cardy. Claire suggested this but every time I've worn it since I've worn it with the top two buttons done up instead - my preferred choice (SEE! I'm not her #walkingtalkinglivingdoll and I do have an opinion of my own - I just like hers as well)

 This was an outfit Claire put together and I really like it! Roll on summer and I might wear it! I found I do have a Cami - after various chums suggested I wear it under dresses - and I thought it was too big but CleverMonkey found the straps were adjustable. I'd obviously substitute a white bra (note to self - need to bloody buy one)

This was a lovely dress that I bought on Claire's recommendation - styled in a different way and I still love it. Have worn this outfit a lot.

So daily I'm thinking more about what I'm wearing and I'm actually getting so many more compliments on my clothes. And I FEEL better. Huge debt of gratitude to Claire


And now for something completely different....

I went away this weekend to a 40th Birthday party adults only weekend at Butlins. It was utterly insane and utterly fun. The theme was Old Skool so the 11 other women I went with were going for the full on Britney/St Trinians schoolgirl look complete with mini skirts and stockings. NOT in my lifetime. So I decided I would be the headmistress......

First night we were there we all wore the obligatory (as nearly every other woman there was wearing) Tshirts with our names on and a photo of the birthday girl across our chests,  and pink tutus. I drew the line at legwarmers....

I also had a fab fake ponytail. I was worried that I'd feel too belly exposed but actually there are a heck of a lot of larger women out clubbing these days (it's been about 20 years since I set foot in a nightclub) and I didn't really feel fat shamed at all the whole weekend!

On the Saturday night it was school time....are you ready for this? Mistress Salacious the demon headmistress at your service....

I know! I can't quite believe I went out in public like this (though you should have seen some of the other outfits). I was quite tipsy on vanilla vodka and AfterShok though! I did have a jolly time scaring the life out of various men who were dressed as school boys. I was asked to spank.....so after making them say please I did....

I was very much in character - no smiling, insisting they all said please mistress and thank you mistress. It was great fun. I love this corset - I have had it for a long time and it used to be too small - unfortunately it's actually a bit too big now - it was laced right up and still too loose around my (diminished) boobs....boo hoo! But I still got a heck of a lot of boob compliments (from other women) and I felt fantastic. The skirt is an underskirt from my 50's dress, the boots are from Evans and the fishnets from Torrid.

So there's an eyeful of a catch up for you! I'll try and blog more OOTD to replace my Photo A Day - my life just seems endless drudgery as hubbyhoo isn't contributing anything but grumpiness from behind a laptop, I'm dealing with all kinds of work stress myself and as I said, the boys are possessed. I've been watching American Tv on Sidereel.com to destress and totally neglecting everything else (but can highly recommend Smash and GCB as wonderful escapism)

Ok - words drying up so that's me out.....

Catching up - new stuff

After my fab experience with Claire, I got given a list of suggested additions to the wardrobe....Here are some pics - I like some but am returning some....

Dress: Asos Curve

I kind of love this but it's really just not ME - I wouldn't wear it - I can see why Claire suggested it but it's
going back.....

Dress; Dorothy Perkins

This however - I love! Never would have picked it myself but I really like it - especially the collar. 

Jacket: New Look

And teamed with the waterfall jacket which I also love - perfect combo....

Dress: Dorothy Perkins

Now I love the fabric and the fall of this dress - it's really lovely BUT - the top wrapover just doesn't work. I think it's cos my boobs are too bloody small - see below

I think it should sit like this over the boob but it slips down like this....

...to under boob which looks just wrong! So sadly this is going back too!

Dress M&S via Kirsty

Leggings: Primark

Saw these and couldn't resist them even though they're a bit garish! They go really well with my black dress and I love em.

So speaking of my wardrobe experience with Claire....she wrote it up brilliantly here  but has copped a lot of negativity on the comments. People seemed to think I was a mindless barbie doll being forced to wear someone else's taste and style. That the choices Claire made were hideous and hiding and that I was a poor little victim of bad taste. I couldn't DISAGREE more! Makes me mad that Claire was getting flack for doing something so fab for me. I asked her to help me because I like the way she dresses. As you can see from my reactions above to her suggestions, I DO NOT mindlessly accept her opinion - we don't agree on everything but I asked her advice and I appreciated it. She made me feel fab in some items of clothing that had sat in my wardrobe unused and unworn. She was working with my current clothes which aren't exactly all what she would have chosen. SO LAY OFF! I'm happy. We enjoyed it. I'm almost loathe to ask her back because I don't want her to feel it's a horrid thing to have done......I've had SO many compliments this week, wearing outfits she coordinated for me. So thank you Claire and I'm sorry you got shit for it....

I also bought this dress today - totally on my own without anyone else's opinion coming into it and I love it. I CAN make good choices on my own but that's mainly because I've been reading so many wonderful blogs - in fact this is almost directly inspired by Mhairi's Bettie Page dress! It's got a fab tutu skirt - it's a Hell Bunny dress - if you google them, lots of punky burlesque type shops seem to sell them and a lot of their styles go up to a size 22.....

So - got a lot of things to return but hopefully a lot of new things to come!

My Wardrobe Makeover.....courtesy of SuperMonkey!

Claire is an UTTER GENIUS....when she almost jokingly offered to come and do a "wardrobe cleanse" a few weeks ago, I never realised how wonderful she was! I mean, I love reading her blog, I love the way she dresses - but had no idea she could give Gok a run for his money!

In explanation - though I've probably touched on this before on the blog....I've NO fashion sense. For a myriad of reasons. I was a size 16 at 16 and kind of kept the age-dress size ratio going until I was 30. When I was in my late teens, early 20's there was NO choice really - Evans or nothing. So I lived in trackie bottoms, large tshirts and black black black. I lost weight in my early 30's to have my kids and then have kind of yo-yoed between a 24 and a 20/22 which is kind of where I am now (According to Claire I'm 20 on top and 22 below which makes sense). I never looked at fashion magazines, never thought fashion was relevant to my big body. Then as I've written before, I found the myriad of blogs to the right in the sidebar and realised I COULD wear things that I loved, that there were a huge range of online choices and even some high street choices that I never knew were out there as I was stuck in my Evans rut.....

So I'm still learning. The clothes swap was brilliant but I just grabbed lots of stuff that I didn't know how to wear and some of which didn't suit me....I read a lot of the blogs to get ideas but never really knew how to put outfits together. I had a lot of stuff in my wardrobe that I hadn't worn because I didn't know how to.

Enter the wonderful Claire.....she made me get everything out and put it in three piles - keeping, maybe and NO! I stepped out of my go-to comfort dress (which she hated by the way and I've promised never to wear in public again) and started trying on.  Prepare for the pics! (If I haven't mentioned where I got things, it's cos I can't remember)

Skirt and shirt - Marks & Spencer

Jacket - Torrid

 I bought this polkadot skirt last summer and have never worn it even though I loved it as I had no idea HOW to....Claire added a white shirt I'd bought for a weekend away and never taken out of the packet....and a jacket that I won from Lauren that I'd also never worn because I didn't know how to. This jacket now figures in the majority of the pictures and outfits and will become a staple! Love this combo - kind of a funky secretary look!

 

Top and jacket (again): Torrid

Jeans : Sainsburys

This top was another from the blog win from Lauren that again, I'd never worn cos I didn't know what to wear it with. Ta daa!

 This was a fashion swap vest that I loved cos it was all sequinned but I thought it was too tight...paired with  a shrug (also from the swap) and my black jeans - it looks fab!

Dress: Fatshion swap

Jeans: Lane Bryant

Cardie: Sainsburys

 I loved this dress but thought it was too big - and would never have put it with jeans but I love it - almost nautical as Claire said!

It also works with the shrug and the blue jeans from Torrid via Lauren!

Top, jeans and jacket (again!) Torrid

This top I've had for a while but never really knew what to wear it with....The jacket makes an appearance again! Love this combo

 This is a jumpsuit I bought on impulse from Evans. First time I wore it my mother told me I looked like Andy Pandy and I've never had the guts to wear it again. Styled with the ever wonderful jacket, I love it and will definitely wear it.

 Also works with the shrug! But I prefer it with the jacket.

 I can't remember where I got this skirt from but I love it and have never worn it - I'm not confident with skirts. Mainly, I've learnt today, because I keep wearing them on my hips and not my waist - pulled down too low making me belly concious. With a little styling help from my guru and a simple brown vest - I will now be wearing this a LOT this summer!

 Thought I couldn't wear this top because my boobs had shrunk post babies. However put the brown vest from the outfit above with it, it works perfectly. And looks great with my jeans.

 Not 100% sure on this but it looks better than anything I'd put together - a denim skirt from Ann Harvey with the brown vest and favourite jacket. I need to get a belt for the skirt (I borrowed Claire's!)

 Favourite polka dot skirt in another outfit combo! This time with a purple vest top I got at the fatshion swap but never knew what to do with....

 And if you add my new favourite jacket.....skims nicely over my bum and makes me feel less selfconcious.

 Top: Primark

Jeans: Torrid

This was the first top I bought from Primark but I wasn't brave enough to wear it that often and I used to team it with leggings. I love it with jeans!

Sequinned jacket: Yours

Top: Torrid via Lauren

Jeans: Sainsburys

 Another combo - using a sparkly jacket that I bought in the sale but never wore - and another way to wear that lovely top...

  And another way to wear it! - with a leopard print vest (also from Torrid via Lauren)

 This top I've had in my wardrobe for ages and thought it didn't look right - but it does when Claire puts it together....

 Top: Marisota

Again I wasn't sure if this top worked but with Claire's reassurance, it's back on my "wear" list"

 Dress and jacket (again) : Torrid

I bought this dress in a Torrid sale about 7 years ago just because it was reduced from $70 to $8. And I never wore it cos it was too small then. And then because I didn't know how to....now I do!

And finally - this is what I'm wearing now - a top my mother bought me which I thought was too short but teamed with my waterfall cardy (which needs mending) and blue jeans, it looks great.

I will be selling a lot of stuff on Ebay - will post a link to it all here when I've sorted it. I'll be wearing a lot of things I haven't worn before in ways I'd never have dreamt of. I'll be looking a HELL of a lot better too!

I can't thank Claire enough. Really grateful! And really inspired. So if any of you need her services - snap her up now while you can still trade her expertise for sushi! Before she starts charging by the hour! Thank you thank you thank you Claire!!!