Friday the 13th

Today I'll be re-organizing a store-room at work, so I'm in jeans and a tee.


So you get Helpful Links:

• Jezebel has an article this week on "Where are Fashion's Gender Neutral Clothes?"  There's a pretty lively debate in the comments.  Personally, as soon as I read the post title, I thought of Star Trek uniforms!  You just can't take the sci-fi out of the girl.  I do like the idea, though.  As a teen, I frequently thrifted men's clothes because I wasn't into frilly, girly clothes.  You might have noticed the predominace of BLACK in my wardrobe still!
• Sal from Already Pretty has the best list of tutorials, videos, and "body image musings" on this page.  You can learn how to overdye clothes, how to wear belts, how to choose your pants length, and how to flatter your figure.
• Audi from Fashion for Nerds has a fantastic list of tutorials, too.  Just go down the page and the list is in the right hand column.  She'll help you break out of a fashion rut, find a hat, build a belt collection, and even layer skirts and dresses.
• Lady Smaggle is an Australian blogger who'll help you DIY, posts outfits, AND will inject fun into your life with her "Why don't you..." posts.
• And finally, a few of my favorite baking/cooking blogs: the American Not So Humble Pie and the British-born (but living in Cardiff, Wales) Mr. P of Delicious Delicious Delicious.  You can weep with food lust at their beautiful creations and start searching your pantry.  And for sheer foodie lust, spend some time looking at Tastespotting, which has beautiful pictures/links to every kind of food you would ever want to make (and quite a few you wouldn't).
•  

Little Red Riding Belt

I might be a full-on belt convert.  Bless me, Father, for I had lustful thoughts about that sash!  I've worn this dress a ton on the blog, usually with a t-shirt over it and leggings.  I kept the leggings, but picked up a cute little cardigan off the to-be-folded pile.  And then I thought...hmm.  What about a belt?  I picked through my belt drawer and got this out.  I think it used to be the sash of a dressing gown, but the color was so pretty that I kept it.

Looking at the picture, I admit the grey leggings look a little strange, but at the beginning of the outfit, the leggings were going to match the t-shirt.  I just never changed to black leggings or hose.  And today, my hair is behaving perfectly!  My fascinator is helping to hold it back the slightest bit, so it doesn't get overly busy during work.

My fascinator from the top

Dress - Chico's
Cardigan - Cherokee
Leggings - Faded Glory
Shoes - Xhilaration

The bloggers told me to!

 So, yesterday I tried 2 new (for me) things that I had seen recommended by fashion bloggers.  Between my dress and leggings, I wore a slip, in the hopes that it would keep the dress from clinging to the leggings.  I also wore a belt.  I've had this belt for ages.  I would occasionally look at it, think "What a neat belt!  But it's much too big to fit through the belt loops on my jeans."  Then I would toss it back in the closet.  Because I honestly had no real idea how else to wear a belt.  But, when I started my blog (and started reading lots of other blogs) I got a clue.  The slip idea comes from Sal and the belting ideas come from tons of people, but mostly Sal and Audi.

The slip idea...didn't work so very well.  Even though I've very happy to have a slip that fits.  The belt makes me super happy!  I got several compliments and I felt like it showcased my (relative to my bust/hips) small waist.  The dress is new, another Faded Glory item, and I got it in brown and black.

Of course, after saying in my last post that my new haircut didn't get poofy, what did it do yesterday?  IT GOT HIDEOUSLY POOFY!  I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that I was moving a ton of cassettes and therefore flipping my head (hair) up and down.  Luckily I had a head scarf with me, since I was out until 9:30 last night before going home.

Cupcakes and silver hair

I'm such a dork.

So I got my hair cut yesterday.  At a salon!  That's the first time in 11 years I've trusted anyone but immediate family to cut my hair.  Long ago (senior year of high school, when you want your hair to look it's best) I had a horrible haircut before school started.  Suffice it to say, it looked very...masculine.  I have a pretty girly face, I think, but this haircut I had accentuated every last masculine bit of my features AND emphasized how big my head is (it's HUGE).  BUT.  Even though I hated the way the hairstylist's hair looked, even though the place was called the "Hair Barn" (does that inspire ANY confidence?); this is where my sister get's her super cute hair cut.  So, the woman cut tons of layers into my super-thick hair and hopefully now it won't get so poofy!  It looked cute yesterday, and the temperature hit 98 and the humidity seemed to be 400000%.

You want this cupcake.  You know you do.

You can see (better in person) my lovely silver hairs gleaming even better with this haircut too!  I know I sound sarcastic, but I seriously love them.  If they were gray, I'd probably dye my hair again, but these hairs are a gorgeous old lady silver white.  I went to Chuck E Cheese with Jen and her kids, so we definitely deserved these fancy cupcakes afterwards.

Look at me trying to not take a bite!

I made myself a new necklace yesterday.  (It's behind the cupcake.)  A little silver oval that says: "Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.  -Franz Kafka".  That's a pretty good motto, don't you think?

Dorky, but beautiful.

Tanks - Fruit of the Loom and umm, another
Jeans - Old Navy

Shoes - Crocs (try going to Chuck E Cheese in heels!)

Thrifting? Bleah.

Warning: Rant ahead.  No happy ending, only crankiness.  Also no pictures.

Yeah, I know that several items of my wardrobe are thrifted.  But honestly, my mama brings home most of them!  As a plus-size woman (real plus-size, as in size 18 not some piddly little 12 or 14) it is DAMN hard to find cool stuff at your average thrift store.  And as for vintage?  I honestly do not have the time it would take to find vintage clothing in my size.  Last time I measured, my measurements were something like 48-38-47.  On a 5'4" body with stumpy little legs.  And I don't particularly want a vintage 70's caftan.  I'm not knocking thrifting as a whole.  As a (much smaller) teen, I got the majority of my wardrobe at thrift stores.  If you are a thrifting fanatic, next time you go, take a look in the "plus size" section.  Yes, that's the one, right there lumped in with the MATERNITY section.  Because fat people and pregnant people are EXACTLY the same.  If you live in a large city, there may be a decent selection.  But, I live in the mountains of Virginia.  Southwestern Virginia, at the foot pretty much of the Appalachian Mountains.  Not exactly a fashion mecca!  And as we know, I'm much too cheap to buy super nice stuff anyway!  So, I live on sale items from various big box stores.  I'm growing increasingly unhappy with it, but my job situation and basic thriftiness preclude me running up huge charges on my credit card.

EDIT: There is a happy ending!  See my next post!

School days...

No, I'm not going to school.  But with the VA school sales tax holiday weekend, I was able to buy some great stuff that was on sale and tax free!  The clothing will show up soon on here (except the slip and camisole, which will feature underneath it all in a sneaky underwear concealing way).  I shopped at Wal-mart, a store I dislike on principle.  But my thin little wallet wins out over my pangs of conscience.  And their plus size section is a TON larger than Target's!

Shirt - Fashion Bug
Pants - JL Studio
Shoes - Mossimo

Gypsy Girl

I tried on the blue scarf I've worn before with this top, but I decided I wanted something splashier.  This is a long burnt velvet scarf I got for Christmas this past year.  You can't see the colors very well, but it has brilliant splashes of purple, blue, green, etc.  

With the colors and the fringe at the bottom of the scarf, I felt fairly gyspy-ish.  I also have on my fascinator, but you can only see where the headband is pulling back my hair.

Shirt - Old Navy (thrifted)
Jeans - Old Navy (thrifted)

Crocs - suck it, fashion world!

Jewelry - hand-made, excepting the ring

Ring it

Eh, normal outfit today...George dress, Faded Glory leggings.

But, what's that on my hand? Is that the AWESOME ring my sister got me from some random shop in Chinatown?  Why, yes it is, psychic reader!  What's that, you want to see a closer look?

You want a CLOSER look?  Okay...

IS IT NOT BEAUTIFUL?!!

July is OVER

Last day of July!

It just started!  I know, I know, I sound old.  You should see my pretty silver white hairs.  (They make my mama VERY sad, and she asks why I don't dye my hair again.)  So: July is over and August is being.  Back to school month!  Jen's munchkins go back to school on the 12th, the swarm of kids will come back to the college.  And I've been having "going back to school" dreams.  I can't find my room to move into, or I don't have the keys.  Last night I dreamed I was helping to put on a huge production at my former elementary school.  I kept losing one shoe.  I never really have the school dreams about exams and not studying/failing them.  I tend to dream about being lost, and having to go up and down way too many tight staircases that don't have railings. (Hmm...looking at online dream analysis sites, apparently this reccuring theme of staircases has to do with my desire to either go towards enlightenment or away from it.  I think it's simply the fact that I don't like stairs.  I also don't like being lost.)

For my birthday (which was LOVELY, thank you all so much for the happy birthday wishes!)  I got many fantastic things.  A Roku box (which is having some issues playing Netflix, but I'm going to crack the phone whip at them today), a neoprene case for my laptop, a beautiful ring from Chinatown, another year of Netflix, and a gift card for Torrid from my sister!  The question is what to buy...