Day 24, Dressing for the Family

My sister and her youngest child came to NY for a visit which has been so exciting. N and her children live far, far away and I miss them terribly so I took off a few days when they were in town. It's been funny because my nephew Liam kept telling me I looked "ugly" because he thought I was too fancy all the time - that's an Israeli for you. All week he asked me things like "why are your lips red?" and "why are you so fancy? I don't like it." He told me I was pretty exactly twice. Once when I threw on jeans to go get my CSA on Saturday morning and on Yom Kippur.

On Thursday we went to have a little mini-family reunion with my grandma's twin and her family. I wanted to look nice because you always want to look good when you see family, but also because my family is a bit obsessed with weight and is always talking about diets and other stuff that makes me want to tear my hair out. Diets inevitably fail and they only serve to make people feel bad about themselves. I am not a fan.

Here's a bit of background as to what I'm talking about with my family. My Grandma passed away while I was living abroad and I flew in for her funeral. I hadn't seen my family for quite some time and somehow a year of eating frozen pizza and drinking oodles at the pub had led to a large weight loss for me. Don't ask me to explain, I don't understand it myself. Anyways I show up at my Grandma's funeral and my cousins oohed and ahhed over how I looked and one of them said to me "I wish your Grandma could see you now, she'd be so proud." And I looked at my cousin and said "I'd like to think my Grandma would have better things to be proud of me for than my weight." I mean here I was getting my Masters from the freaking London School of Economics and my weight is what my deceased grandma would be proud of? That is fucked up people. My sister thought I was terribly rude, but that's because she has no conception of what it's like to be fat and have your body be this public space that family and strangers alike get to discuss.

The point of all this is that I wanted to look good. It was also what was possibly going to be one of the last truly warm days of the year so I whipped out my favorite dress of the summer. I had "re-discovered" it earlier this summer and it's been quite a hit each and every time I wear it.

Dress is once again from Thea, my favorite vintage shop in London. The belt and earrings are from Accessorize and the shoes are from Primark. The dress is a little tight so I like to wear my red, rhinestone bra from Lane Bryant underneath it cause it matches and I think it looks sexy when it peeks out from the dress. Photo credit goes to my sister who took it on the porch of my great aunt's apartment.

After the visit I went to what may be the only Forever 21 with a plus size section in all of New York City. One of my purchases will be revealed in just a few short days. Are you breathless with anticipation just yet?

Day 23, I get professional and shit

As soon as I left my house on the 22nd I thought "oh no, I have to go to a work do tomorrow, I should have saved today's dress for tomorrow." As you may have inferred from my photos, we have a lax dress code in my office, which some may argue I sometimes push to the edge. To make up for that, I always like to put on a good show when I'm working in any sort of official capacity.

So yesterday's dress would have been very work appropriate and I was a tad concerned that by the 23rd of the month work appropriate fare may have been in short supply. But I shouldn't have been worried, at this point I should realize there's always something buried deep in my closet. And low and behold there was and shock of shocks it was black.

I cannot just wear a black dress. Elvis's mommy may try to convince me that wearing solid black is the way to go, but wearing solid black would drive me absolutely crazy. Seriously insane. So I did what I could do to liven the outfit up while still remaining "professional."

The dress is from Splendid and is a size large. My friend Jamie turned me onto Splendid when she gave me some of her hand-me-downs. Splendid is one of those lines of over-priced cotton basics, the kind where you scoff and say who in the world would pay this much for a t-shirt and then you buy it and realize that it puts all your other t-shirts to shame.

I was looking anything but splendid when I bought this dress. I was up in Woodstock for the weekend at a bachelorette party where I'd spent the weekend farming, skinny dipping, cooking and drinking and hadn't showered or looked in a mirror for days when we went to town for ice cream. I wasn't planning on shopping, but it was hard to pass up walking into some of the hippie shops up in Woodstock for a laugh. Turns out that not all of the shops are full of crystals and tie-dye and incense (although there are plenty of those). I walked into one shop and saw a bunch of Splendid on sale and had a go while everyone else headed for ice cream.



To enliven the dress I added some cute accessories. The belt is from Ross and was bought in what can only be described as a Ross-related nervous breakdown brought about by a 6am flight, followed by a conference and then a 3 1/2 hour shopping spree at Ross. Shoes are from Office and the necklace is from Primark.



The work event was ok, but the real highlight of the night was later in the day when we had our weekly Top Chef viewing party/pumpkin beer taste test. I love everything pumpkin flavored, beer especially. Here is how the beers fared from favorite to least favorite, although I had Blue Moon pumpkin beer on Saturday and I think it just might place second.

Day 22, The day after...

So like I said, my 30th birthday was lovely and amazing. I started my 30's in a bar and ended it...well not in a bar. By time the clock officially turned to midnight I was home in bed, but a large portion of my first 24 hours as a 30-something was spent in a bar. All of this is a preface to the fact that it was a bit rough going the second day of my 30's. Not too bad, as the beer that would have put me over the edge was taken away from me at the end of the night and replaced by pizza (thanks Mo!), but I was not up for much fatshion on Tuesday.

Instead I rolled out of bed, threw on a dress that had enough going on with it so that I could get away without really having to accessorize it, and headed out the door. I got some bagels and headed to my coffee shop for a meeting. An egg and cheese on an everything bagel is the best hangover cure in my mind.

Note the pink lipstick marks. I may be a bit hungover, but I can't resist my hot pink lips. As you can tell from photos the day was kind of dreary and overcast, which was good because I couldn't find my prescription sunglasses and I was too out of it for contacts.

Today's dress is an xl from New York and Company and I'm betting that I probably could have fit into a l just as well, but I get so annoyed every time I set foot into the shop near my office that I wasn't about to go downstairs and grab another size to try on. Seriously, talk about crappy customer service, I really shouldn't give them my money. I had actually seen the dress awhile ago and thought it was so cute, but I hadn't bought it because I was so annoyed by the folks in the shop that I left. But I was passing by and there was a huge half off sign in the window and I was drawn in. $22.50 for such a cute dress, I couldn't resist. I will say I don't love it because the fabric is only printed on one side, so when the ruffles fly up, (which they inevitably do) it doesn't look very nice. My flip-flops are havianna's which you've seen before.

I could have accessorized this dress much better, but I was tired and wanted to wear this necklace and so I did. I bought it at the 7th Avenue Fair this summer and I heart it so. It reads "If Paris is France, then Coney Island, between June and September, is the world." Which is a quote from 1886 by George Tilyou and perfectly represents how I feel about Coney Island. The Mermaid Parade, Nathans, the beach, the boardwalk, Totonno's, rides, Beer Island, how can you not love the place.

Day 21, It's my birthday!

So after much obsession and hope against hope my 30th birthday would never actually arrive, it came around and it turns out that it wasn't that bad. In fact, due to my unbelievable friends it was actually a pretty amazing day.

I mean it started with a call from the messenger office at work telling me I had flowers waiting for me which led to a very excited commute to work wondering who in the world had sent me flowers (thanks Carrila in Israel!) and after picking up an unbelievable amazing bouquet of purple flowers I walked into my office to discover that it had been transformed into a purple fantasy land. Seriously. I am not making this up. Purple fucking fantasy land. There were balloons and streamers on the door with True Blood love notes and vote was written out on my desk with purple streamers and there was purple cauliflower in a vase on my desk. {sigh} my friends are the greatest.


And of course I had to dress for the day. Today is kind of what I imagine a 6 year old would wear to a party. I mean it is pink, has flowers, is short and it twirls. I love it! I originally bought it to wear to M&A's wedding in August but I threw it on and wore it to the office today. M said it best when she said "your office is like high school." Tee hee hee. So true and I'm so lucky.


Today's dress was purchased in London and is a size 20 from Evans. Evans is kind of like the British version of Lane Bryant, except cool enough to hire Beth Ditto to design for them and they have a shoe department with boots cut extra wide to fit my fat calves. The very first pair of boots I ever bought that fit my calves came from Evans, so they'll always have a special place in my heart due to that. As for the rest of the outfit the tights are from Old Navy and the shoes are Office. I bought these shoes thinking they'd be my go to black shoe but too often I feel like they don't work and are too witch-esque. I however got a ton of compliments on them so perhaps I have to re-think that. Hot pink sunnies I bought on the Brighton boardwalk and the earrings I bought from a street vendor in Brooklyn.


Like I said I ended up having a wonderful day. I rang in 30 with a pint of pumpkin beer in hand, was feted all day by my amazing friends, had not one but two cookie cakes, got thrown a surprise party and had drinks bought for me all night long. I'm really a lucky lady.

During an early morning freakout, I was having a conversation with my friend about turning 30 and he kept saying that it's a great opportunity to take a look at where you are in your life. You can see what you've accomplished, appreciate no longer living paycheck to paycheck and most of all take a look at the love you have in your life. What can I say, Wilma got it right.

I'm aiming for 30 and fine...or maybe 30 and dirty. I haven't quite decided just yet.

Day 20, I finally get to the park

I originally had big plans for Sunday which was to go up to Harlem to my friends bike store so she could teach me to ride a bike before my 30th birthday. Yup, you read that right. I'm 30 and I don't know how to ride a bike and I am desperate to learn. But it will happen soon, I swear it and if any readers want to offer their services I'd be very excited by the prospect. Although it's not exactly like I lack offers to teach me to ride a bike, it's more like everyone lacks the follow-through to actually teach me. So if you're serious for real, let me know.

I was actually kind of happy for the last minute cancellation because I was so damn tired from family and cooking and services and eating and travelling and driving and all the other things associated with holidays. The sun was shining, there wasn't a cloud in the sky and I had a book that I was obsessed with finishing (go read The Yiddish Policemen's Union, it's so good) but hadn't had an opportunity to do so because I'd been riding the R gossip-train to work every morning and seeing Ateqah every single day and the subway is my main reading time. So I threw on a dress, grabbed a blanket and a book and headed to the park. Perhaps I should have been doing something a bit more exciting on my last day of my 20's, but reading in the park sounded like perfection to me. Perhaps I really am getting old.

Dress is a size 12 from H&M, purchased via a Friday fatshionista sale post. For those who don't know what that is, on Friday people post online clothing sales to fatshionista and folks can buy clothing for a fraction of the cost. Particularly now with Re/Dress I am too lazy to actually photograph my clothes and ship them out, but I have a bought a fair amount of clothing from fats sales over the years. Flip flops are haviana's, earrings were purchased a million years ago in Paris and the cropped hoodie is a hand-me-down from Mirka and is a medium from Banana Republic. Yes, a medium. Sizes really make no sense sometimes.


I wasn't sure who was going to take my picture on Sunday and this was beginning to gnaw at me. I even thought I might stop by my friends P&S house on my way home, but low and behold that was completely unnecessary because they happened upon me in the park, along with their puppy Java and visited with me for a bit and took today's photos. Seriously, once the month of dresses is over I may start up a new blog titled "how many people did I run into in Brooklyn today."

I love dogs. You know how people make funny faces to babies on the street? Well I do that with dogs. All my friends have baby pangs, I just have doggie pangs. But I don't have the sort of life (to start with a building that lets you have a dog) that would allow me to be the right type of mommy. So for now I get to play with my friends dogs, but one day I will have the English bulldog of my dreams. Thanks for playing with me Java.

Day 19, I'm a Susie Homemaker

Hello my lovely readers,

First off apologies for the delay in posting. It was Rosh Hashanah this past weekend and then my {gulp} 30th birthday yesterday which just hasn't left much time for posting. But that is all going to change right now.

So Saturday was a gorgeous day here in the Slope and it was the first day of Rosh Hashanah so I decided to be a good Jew for the day and head to services for the first time in about a year and host a lunch for some friends. I wanted something that was appropriate for shul, not too heavy in case it wasn't air conditioned at services and dark (cause I'm a bit of a messy cook at times).

So I picked a cute, 40's inspired dress out of my closet for the occasion. I got this dress just this past August at a Ross in Orlando and it's some random brand in a size 16 and every time I wear it I think of the mantra, try it on. I picked this dress up on the rack and thought there is no way my ass is going to fit into a fitted, size 16. One of the reasons dresses work so well on me is cause I'm so much smaller up top than I am on the bottom and dresses that are fitted like today's dress will usually only fit me on one half and not the other. But lo and behold, Ross comes through again (and for only $12.99 at that). Shoes are Office and earrings are a lovely present from M for throwing her a bachelorette party. The fabulous apron in the first photo is the Size Queen apron I wrote about buying last week.



At services we ran into one of the new fellows at work and so we invited him and his girlfriend along and then Dani surprised us by showing up as well and then Selene called to arrange to return some picnic supplies and she joined us for dessert - the more the merrier! I wasn't the best hostess ever, but in the end it turned out lovely. Smitten Kitchen served me well with her spinach quiche and apple cake, but I had been so busy in the days leading up, that the early arrivals were tasked with helping me cook. Thankfully I have very lovely friends who are happy to help and with their assistance we had ourselves a nice meal replete with pink apples.

Lots of pictures tonight

So sorry for not posting for days. Between Rosh Hashanah all weekend and my birthday yesterday I haven't had time to post. That all changes tonight, I promise. I'll be back with a fabulous vengeance and some really cute dresses.

Day 18, One dress, two different ways

Happy New Year!!! For those of you scratching your head thinking, but it's only September 18th, that's cause it's Rosh Hashanna, the Jewish new year. And I just got home from what may have been both the largest and most delicious meal I have had in ages. I am seriously stuffed, not just with good food, but with love and friendship and family. Lord I'm a sap.

Today we have the same dress, done two different ways. It's just like every single episode of Top Chef, when they decide to do something (ceviche, mushrooms, beef, scallops, etc...) done two ways. And while we're mentioning TC, can I just state my unabiding love for Mr. Kevin Gillespie. Cute, sweet, beardy, bellied boy who can cook like nobodies business and is prone to saying things like "we bond on the fat kid level." Sigh, I am so in love. If you know anyone like him in NY, send 'em my way.

Anyways, I threw on this dress this morning and didn't think about it too much. I bought this dress last year at a Loehmann's in Los Angeles with Jamie and she gave me SO. MUCH. SHIT. because I picked up this dress in the Juniors department. Yup, you heard me right, that wasn't a typo, today's dress is a size large from the Juniors department. Jamie thought the dress was cute, she just had a philosophical problem with someone our age buying clothing in the Juniors department. I'm sure you can all collectively think what my opinion of that suggestion was. F that.

So during the day this dress was styled a bit shlubby. I threw on some eggplant colored American Apparel leggings (pick em up here and not at the store to save yourself some money), some black, slip-on plimsolls that I got from Dorothy Perkins in England and my uh-may-zing Brooklyn Bridge necklace that is once again from Brookadelphia which like I said has some cute stuff, but crappy service.



But tonight I was going to a very close family friends for Rosh Hashanah dinner, and I didn't want to show up in sneakers, so I fancified my dress by throwing on some black tights, a purple cardigan from Banana Republic and some purple sparkly shoes that are Sigerson Morrison for Target, which I got on sale for a whopping $7.49. Sparkles fancify everything.



Then I headed off to Long Island for a delicious dinner, with even better company. I could begin to tell you all about the Jewy goodness that I consumed but that would take 15 minutes or so and I'm tired as it is. I was at the J-H's and they're like my surrogate family, I'm just so lucky to have them in my life. And once again, in a story of how close and incestuous my little bit of Brooklyn is, it turns out that one of the dinner guest's brother is my former neighbor - as in I live in apartment 11 and he lives in 12. My world is so small sometimes it astounds me.

The casual photo credit goes to the built in camera on my mac, the second set of photos were taken by Dobs. The cutie in today's photo is Adam and he's quite the fan of this little blog. He also gave me a much needed bear hug when I burst into tears when they gave me my birthday present. I love you guys and I can't wait to eat croissants with you in gay Paree.

Days 16 & 17 are brought to you by Old Navy

Remember how I mentioned that Nicole and I did a bit of shopping and drinking on Tuesday night? Well in a shocking bloomie moment, I actually wore both of my new articles of clothing in the days immediately following purchasing them. Since after I hem and haw at the store I then hem and haw at home and wait awhile before taking the tags off, this was unusual for me.

Dresses from the past two days are both xl's from Old Navy and were bought in a fit of shopping in about 5 minutes, without a fitting room and just throwing it on over what i was already wearing. Not my finest hour, but I think it worked out ok. Neither of these dresses are fancy or particularly special, but they're comfy and cozy and sometimes that is just as important in an article of clothing as being the most exciting, sexy thing around.

Wednesday's dress was a bargain at only $15. I know it might look like I'm wearing a skirt and shirt (and in fact someone at work yelled at me for not wearing a dress) but it is a dress. The scarf you saw before and it's from Forever 21, the earrings which jingle-jangle when I walk are a billion years old and are from this incredibly tacky accessory store called Girl Prop that you can sometimes find decent stuff in (or at least you used to, I haven't been in one for years). I had another pair of shoes that I wanted to wear but they were predicting rain so I threw on my Melissa's.



I had never heard of Melissa until this summer when it seemed as if every other woman at my office had a pair. All of their shoes are cut from one solid piece of rubber and they're cute, fashionable and easy to clean. I bought a pair this summer thinking they'd be the perfect pair of shoes to travel with and great for rainy summer days as well. And they would except that I wear an 8.5 and the shoes only come in full sizes. This is a major pet peeve of mine as I wear an 8 and a half, not an 8 and not a 9. So after spending half an hour walking around the store deciding if it was better to go a tad too big or a tad too small, I went a tad too tight. I probably should have listened to Mirka and not bought them, but I was seduced by the utility of the shoes. Not so much utility if you don't wear them too often.

Today I am wearing another dress from Old Navy in an xl and this one was a mere $7, talk about a bargain! It is seriously nothing special, but I have very few dresses with long sleeves and I just can't resist 'em when I see them. With this dress I'm wearing purple, lace tights from H&M and all I can say about them is that I wish I had bought 10 pairs of them so I never had to worry about them dying a sad, ripped to pieces death and having no replacement. I'm wearing the ubiquitous purple belt from Primark, a headband from Goldy Mac and a cute elephant necklace (although when are elephants not cute) that I got at the Bust craftacular.

I wanted to wear green or gold flats today, but fall arrived in the last two days so I threw on some boots to keep my legs warm. There's a story to these shoes which is that I searched for a solid decade for a pair of purple cowboy boots before I found these. You can find cowboy boots in every color fairly easily save for purple. Seriously, every store has at least 5 pairs of pink, red and blue cowboy boots but never, ever purple. And then last winter I was shopping in the village and did my bi-annual stop into this random cowboy store on 8th street (owned by a gay, Chinese man, only in NY right?) and made my yearly ask of "do you have any purple cowboy boots?" Except this time he said "Yes, we have one pair on a sale in an eight and a half." And that's when my heart stopped for a minute. Had I found my holy grail?

I held my breath as the owner went to grab the shoes from the back. He brought them out and though they weren't the shade of purple I had envisioned in my cowboy boot fantasy, they were unbelievable none the less. I slipped them on and then I was a bit confused. Cowboy boots don't fit the same way as regular shoes do and I wasn't sure that they fit properly. But after a little lesson in how cowboy boots should fit my foot as well as having the boots stretched a bit for me I paid for them and eagerly brought them home where they have remained one of my most prized, material possessions.



Wednesday's photo credit goes to Farrin who took my photo on the way out of work in our lobby and Thursday's credit goes to Lair-bear who is neither a bear or gay, but that is his nickname none the less.

Day 15 and it's Primary Day!!!

I love to vote. Love, love, LOVE to vote. It's my passion both personally and professionally and any day in which I get to vote is by absolute definition a good one for me. Today was the NYC primary and since King Bloomberg and the millions of dollars he has spent to buy his way into office has kind of guaranteed his re-election, not too many people showed up at the polls. Bloomie of course was the exception. I live by the motto "vote early and vote often." God, I really do love to vote.

To mark the glory that is a voting day, today was also an absolutely gorgeous day and perhaps one of the last true summer days we'll have this year so I decided to whip out a very summery dress, one that I won't really be able to wear once the leaves begin to change. I am able to convert many of my summer dresses into fall/winter ones with a pair of tights and a cardigan, but not this one. I just think it'd look stupid if I wore it in January in New York.


I got this dress in the spring on a trip down to Fort Lauderdale for my friends 30th birthday. I spotted it in a shop window (well technically I spotted it in several store windows, Fort Lauderdale doesn't have too much variety) and was completely besotted. I ran in after dinner and insisted I try it on. I was a little nervous when I found out that it only went up to a large, but remembered the very wise words of Ms. Beth Ditto who years ago, before she was the indie rock star she is now said something along the lines of "go in, try it on in the largest size they have and if you bust the seams, fuck em for for not making it big enough." So I went in, tried it on and hey, I think it looks pretty good.

The cardigan is a hand-me-down from my dear friend Jamie (shockingly this is the first cameo we've had of a Jamie hand-me-down as I have many) and it originally came from Anthropologie. Candy shoes from Office are a repeat that you first saw on day 3. My necklace belonged to my Grandma and I don't get to wear it very often because it's so chunky and such a unique color. I love how well it goes with this dress.

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I want to say a quick word about the power of accessories. As I'm sure you can tell by now I love accessories and believe they can truly shape an outfit. For instance, I wore this dress recently with completely different accessories and it looks totally different the way I've styled it today. The power of accessories people.

Photo credit today goes to two people. The subway shots were taken by Ateqah who I once again ran into on the train. I ran into her at my subway stop, we rode a few stops and then we saw Nicole transferring to the car in front of us so we ran and switched cars to chat with her and grabbed another friend getting on the subway at the same time. When you work at my organization, the R train from Brooklyn is quite the hot spot and we had some fun this morning with our subway photo shoot. The outside photo was taken by Nicole.

So as I mentioned yesterday my 30th birthday is impending. I will be having my tenth annual birthday picnic to celebrate, but I'm also feeling the need to drink on the actual day of and I've been obsessing over what bar I should go to since my original choice isn't really going to work out. Nicole, being the amazing friend that she is popped into my office today and asked if I'd be interested in going shopping and then checking out some bars. Shopping and beer, how could I say no?

So we hit up some shops where I {gulp} bought another dress or two. I will say even though I'm sure it doesn't seem that way, I don't really shop that often and when I do I always shop and return, shop and return. There's at least a 50% chance that I'll return whatever I've bought - I'm good that way. I also found some bars that I like so if anyone wants to weigh in on the +/- of Patio, High Dive, Cherry Tree or Loki Lounge, please comment away.

Finally, as if I hadn't had a wonderful enough day I walked into my apartment to find this enormous package waiting for me. My brother and sister-in-law to be got me a soda maker for my birthday (I have a bit of a seltzer addiction so this is great) and I am so excited!

Day 14. The countdown begins...

Countdown, what countdown you say. We're not even at the halfway mark of 30 Dresses in 30 Days, that's not till tomorrow. Except I'm talking about a much more personal countdown, the countdown to my thirtieth birthday. Eek-eek-eek!!! I'm being very un-bloomie like and having a full on meltdown over this birthday. I randomly burst into tears the other day at work and then sobbed "no one is going to want to date a 30 year old." At which point Nicole looked at me and told me that was the dumbest thing she had ever heard me say. She's right, it is and it is SO not me. I don't know what is coming over me, I just know that I'm having a bit of a crisis over my impending life altering birthday, thus the countdown.

But you wouldn't know that from my fabulous fatshion that I'm sporting today. In fact today I was anything but sad or droopy over the impending birthday of doom. Instead I was a vision of purple and yellow, with matching flowers to boot. Purple is always my go to color, but every now and then I become obsessed with another color and earlier this summer that color was yellow. I'm not sure if it was inspired by Michelle Obama or my excitement at the advent of summer after the bitter winter we had, but suffice it to say I bought a bunch of yellow back in May.

Dress is once again via ebay and is a 2x from Red-Dot-Boutique, which I wrote about a week ago today. Purple belt and necklace are from Primark and my shoes are from Office. I stopped at the supermarket on my way home from work and the woman behind me in the checkout line could not stop talking about my shoes. Suffice it to say I loved her. Flowers are from my CSA that I was bringing to my windowless office to bring some nature indoors and while I didn't carry them around all day as an accessory I included them in the photo because they too were purple and yellow.

To please Jamie I will say that this photo was taken outside of my office as I was walking in this morning. My friend Ateqah was today's photographer and I ran into her on the train which was lovely as she's one of the few people I actually enjoy running into on the train, usually I'm happy to just read. My current selection is The Yiddish Policemen's Union and I'm not quite sure yet if I like it, but I'm still reading which is a good sign. We then ran into two other friends on the walk to the office and as Ateqah laughingly said, it was like we were in a sitcom. Although our block was shut down for a VIP's arrival and that doesn't usually happen on sitcoms, or does it?

Sorry I'm not writing more or being witty or what have you. Tomorrow is primary day in NYC, something I take very seriously and I'm still an undecided voter and I'm researching and reading and putting all my energy into figuring out who to vote for rather than talking a whole lot about what I'm wearing. Blah. Plus I cooked a whole bunch tonight and I still have a ton of dishes to do.

I do have to add one thing, which is that being an "undecided voter" is so bizarre for me. I have never understood undecided voters who claim they don't know who they're voting for and won't till they get to the polls. Granted there's not quite as much of a difference between Brooklyn Dems Brad Lander and Josh Skaller as say there is between Barack Obama and John McCain, but I'm having some new found, later in life respect for the "undecided voter."

Days 12 & 13. Weekend Wear

This weekend was filled with friends, brunch, shopping and park. All in all a good weekend. I went out for brunch on Saturday and Sunday and I didn't go into Manhattan this weekend which is always bonus points in my book.

Saturday was grey and dreary but a great day none the less. One of my favorite stores Re/Dress was having an indie trunk show so off we went after brunch. In case you haven't heard of it, let me talk about the amazingness that is Re/Dress. It's a plus size vintage store and resale shop (a la Beacon's closet and Buffalo Exchange) and it's the sort of store I've been waiting for all my life. I get to bring my old clothes there, sell them to the store and then go shopping and I often don't have to spend any money, I just use my store credit. It's uh-may-zing and I would love it just for that alone.

However Re/Dress isn't just a store, it's much more than that. The owner Deb Malkin is a wonderful woman and the store has become a community space for queer and fat activists alike. You go in there and it's just such a warm place to be and as an added bonus there's usually eyecandy around. As my shopping partner Nicole said, it's the sort of store that you just want to spend your money in because it's just such a great place. I have much love for Re/Dress, Deb and all the amazing fattie love they put out there in my world. Thanks for existing.


So...we went shopping and I got a vintage dress from the Re/Dress stock and this unbelievably adorable apron from Size Queen, one of the indie designers who was selling that day. It's a white, waist apron and I was hemming and hawwing over buying it as I couldn't quite see the utility of a white, waist apron even if it did have teapots and pink ruffles and pink pockets on it. Then Deb pointed out I could wear it when I serve food which was such a wonderful insight. So now y'all need to come over for dinner sometime so you can admire the cuteness of this apron.

As I said, Saturday was dreary and grey so I wore my new sort of sweatshirt dress that I bought just last week at Anthropologie. It's purple, what a shock. The dress is a size L from that brand named after the days of the week and which is far too long for me to type out. Tights are from Old Navy and I just stocked up for the upcoming fall/winter season. As you know I love dresses, so tights are a must to ensure year round dress wearing. As soon as ON puts their tights up on their website I buy one in every color of all their patterns. I am a woman obsessed. Boots are from Shoegasm, no that wasn't a typo and no I didn't get to name the store after two of my favorite things. Necklace I bought at Iguazu Falls in Argentina, bag is marc b concession from Topshop in London. The feather in my hair, aka the piece de resistance is from Fascinators NYC and I seriously can't recommend their products enough. Having a bad hair day, stick a feather in a bun and off you go. The best!



Sunday was the day that I kept forgetting to have my photo taken by folks, oops. I forgot at brunch, I forgot when I ran into my work twin while getting my nails done and then I forgot when I went to a picnic in the park. Well that's not quite true, I forgot till after the sun set so today's photo is not very good.


Dress is from Ross and is super booby. I have worn this to work with a cardigan, but I think I won't do that again. I'm wearing come cute earrings that I bought at the 5th Ave Fair in the spring with Karen #2 (I also bought yesterday's hair feather at that very same fair) and necklace I got at the Bust Craftacular. Pink sunglasses I bought on a trip to Brighton. Yellow sandals are via Old Navy and are being held in my hands, rather than on my feet because my feet were slidy from my pedicure and I didn't want to break my ankles.

See you when the work week begins.

Day 11. I was sad.

I woke up on September 11th and the weather was crap which actually made me happy in the sense that it contributed to my incredibly shitty mood. See I absolutely hate it when the weather is nice on 9/11 because a) it is a sad day and grey and rain fit both my mood and the mood of the city and b) it was so stunningly gorgeous on 9/11/01 that it can kind of hurt too much when the weather is nice on the anniversary.

I also had a physical that morning which contributed to my crappy/crying mood that seemed to be my theme of the day. I have a kind, sweet, caring GP but have had so many negative and terrible experiences over the years with doctors that I have a perpetual fear of them. Combine that with 9/11, rain and grey and hearing announcements like "this is the fourth moment of silence to mark the collapse of the second tower" and it added up to a crappy, crappy day.

Generally I'm a happy person so when I have a crappy day I tend to wallow in it. And wallow I did, including in my choice of clothing which was dark and black and kinda blah.

However the outfit was also influenced by the weather because I wanted to wear rain boots. For years I used to buy fun, crazy rain boots that looked like frogs or had cherries on them or other fun things. But then I learned how difficult it is to match things to those fun boots and I got wise and bought some mostly black ones. I actually bought these with my mom and sister who also bought some boots as well and for the first time I can remember I bought the tamest article of clothing in a group of people. What a shock.



Dress is an xl via Ross in San Francisco (one plus for SF over NY), leggings are Danskin, rain boots are from Laila Rowe and the cardigan is a L that I got from Goldy Mac. I'm wearing 3 necklaces from 3 different places. The silver spoon necklace is from Urban Outfitters, the black necklace is from Peacock's and the silver/white necklace is from Primark.

The highlight of my day came as I was about to leave the office. I get a flower share from my CSA and was changing the water and throwing out some dead flowers when I found the most gorgeous caterpillar stuck to a leaf where it had sat on my desk for a week unnoticed. Nicole and I named her Yetta and brought her outside to a flower bed. She started to perk up straight away as we took her outside and she felt the rain. It was so cute.

Day 10, I found myself a twin

Today is brought to you by the color purple and the magic world of Ross.

So remember how yesterday I talked all about "check it from behind?" Well that was some wise advice if I do so say myself. I originally envisioned this outfit with some lace tights. I put on the tights, put on the tunic and checked the mirror. It was ok from the front, but when I turned around it was completely indecent from the back. COMPLETELY indecent.

Now I already got some shit at work that this is more of a tunic than a dress, but I already explained that when you're working your way through 90 dresses you've got to give a girl some wiggle room.

So on to the deets. Dress/tunic is from Ross and is a 2x. As I've said, here's the funny thing about sizes. I own another dress by this label in a large that fits me just fine. So it's the same brand and it's a bigger, flowier dress and yet I'm wearing it in 3 sizes bigger. This is why you must always try it on.

Leggings are in my opinion a fattie's best friend (other than KBM that is). The leggings are Danskin and I cannot say enough good stuff about them. I've tried a million different brands of leggings and none hold up as well as Danskin. Boots are from Evans and someday soon we will have a very long conversation about fat girls and the hunt to find boots that fit our calves but I'm too tried to do that right now.



I'm wearing 2 necklaces. The glasses I got at a stall in Camden Market and the purple vote necklace I shockingly had custom made from Brookadelphia. Brookadelphia makes some great stuff but I'd be hardpressed to actually recommend them to someone. I custom ordered my vote necklace last December after buying several other pre-made pieces at the Bust craftacular. I paid in advance and was told it would take up to 4 weeks. It ended up taking over 3 months and they didn't respond to my emails. I had to stalk them on gchat in the hopes of getting an answer from them so now I wouldn't really recommend them.




Finally I need to show off my twin. My co-worker Nicole saw AH in the bathroom and told her to run over to my office because we were twins. It was really funny when we saw one another. AH's top is from Urban Outfitters and pants are from H&M. It was the second coincidence of the day. Earlier I had run into someone from high school walking out of my office building when I was running in, in a mad rush, already late to a meeting (I am not a morning person). Whoever says NY isn't just a small town has obviously never spent time with me.

Day 9, Check it From Behind

Sorry for the delay in posting, it has been a very busy few days.

So on Wednesday I had to got to a conference. Early. In the Bronx. Which is like an hour and 15 minutes from where I live in Brooklyn. (Although there was a 7-11 there and I treated myself to a coke slurpee which kinda made up for it.) And I had a party later that night which I had already picked an outfit out for in my head but then remembered I had a professional event to go to so I had to switch it up. It was a bit chilly so decided to wear a new dress that had sleeves. It was cute, ok for work (I thought) and was good for a party as well. Dresses are perfect for days like that, just thrown something on and you look all put together. And then I re-learned a very important adage.

Check it from behind.

See I have a big booty - a shelf ass you could serve a drinks on. I mean it's really, really big. I love it. Other people love it. It's a hit! I have no problem with my booty. But sometimes I forget just how big it is which causes a bit of a problem with shorter dresses. What appears completely normal and acceptable in the front can be several inches shorter in the back, especially when you start walking and things start to ride up. If I'm carrying a bag that rubs up against my booty then it rises some more. Which leads to yesterday.

I basically spent the entire day walking around flashing the free world my goodies, or at least it felt like I was flashing the world my goodies. My friends kept trying to convince me that it wasn't as bad as I thought it was, but it just felt bad and uncomfortable. All I can say is thank you Jesus for black tights. Had I not been wearing them I think I would have been arrested for indecent exposure. Here's what I'm talking about.

Dress is a new purchase from Ross when I was down in Orlando in August. It's some random brand in a size 18. Tights are an xl from Old Navy, pop of color purple shoes are from Office and necklace is Betsey Johnson. I never knew this till my friend Danielle introduced me to her accessories, but BJ has some really cute, whimsical pieces. I highly recommend checking them out.


So what is the lesson of day 9? Check it from behind!