My Deep, Dark, Shoe Secret

Before I jump into my outfit details I want to thank you for all of your kind comments to my first posts from last week. It is so heartwarming that even after my extended absence I still have readers. Also you should know that while I'm fairly delayed with posting photos I have been taking them every single day and will post them eventually. And now, on to the outfit.

This dress is a hand me down from my work wife Nicole and I think she may not have ever even worn it. It's a silk dress from BCBG and is actually fancier than it appears in the photo. The dress is a regular sized large (that old adage of always try it on comes to mind).

I picked up the necklace and earrings at 2 different fairs (one craft, one street). Please excuse the droopy boob shot, but my weekend wardrobe goal is basically to not wear a bra and it was Saturday so I was not wearing bra. Plus I wanted to do something different and show you a sitting spot. Never say my blog isn't exciting.

Finally I'm going to admit a deep dark secret to you. Look at my shoes (and ignore my chipping pedicure) and guess who makes them.

Have you guessed yet?

Deep breath. They're crocs. GASP. It's ok, judge me, lord knows I judge myself. But these shoes are SO comfortable, which is something severely lacking from my summer shoe wardrobe that I just could not resist them. I take solace in the fact that at least they don't look like the original crocs and most people guess that they're Melissa's. Who would you have guessed makes them?

Photo credit to my friend Kate who was helping me apartment hunt.

Dare to Bare

I've been on the hunt for a denim dress ever since I saw my friend Mr. Kate rocking an awesome one at her birthday last year. Finding a fitted dress that fits my large ass and smaller chest is difficult so I didn't have much luck until City Chic (the Australian equivalent of Torrid) launched in the U.S. this year. They were kind enough to give me a gift card and after some buying and returning (yay for 2 way free shipping!) I ended up with this awesome dress.

There are pockets! Which makes me love any dress at least 50% more.

And a fun zipper down the back. Back fat realness.

Even though my office is casual I feel strapless is a bit much (apparently even I have boundaries) so I added this orange cardigan so to make it office appropriate. It also would have been perfect had I been headed to a Mets game (which I wasn't).

Aren't my earrings fun? My sister laughed so hard at me when I picked them up earlier in the summer but I have been wearing the hell out of them the past few months. They go with everything!

Dress - City Chic
Cardigan - Hand-me-down from Jamie, originally Bendel's
Shoes - Office
Earrings - Aldo

Photos courtesy of Ateqah whose birthday it also happens to be today. Happy birthday babe, I love you!

Sometimes I Wear Pants

Not often, not a lot, but sometimes I wear pants. A fact which can take people by surprise. This afternoon I ran into a friend while running errands who commented "I didn't even know you owned jeans." Ha. In fact I own plenty of pants and plenty of jeans. I am after all, a woman who loves options and large wardrobes.

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The jeans are Not Your Daughter Jeans, purchased for a fraction of their retail price at a Ross in Orlando, Florida. They were this magical, amazing lone pair of jeans in an 18 petite that were just waiting for me to take them home. I've paired the jeans with my beloved purple cowboy boots but it may have been a bad idea. I'm afraid they give me just enough height to make my jeans look an inch too short. Next time I'll stick to flats.

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Almost everything else I'm wearing was a hand-me-down. The t-shirt was from my friend Lauren and the cardigan was from my friend Jamie and both originally came from Anthropologie.

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The crazy necklace once belonged to my Grandmother and I can't quite imagine her ever wearing it. The fascinator was purchased at a Brooklyn street fair.

Jeans are comfortable and keep you warm in the winter, but to me their most fabulous function is that they showcase my ass better than any other article of clothing.

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Day 16, Dress 106: Sisterhood of the Travelling Dress

I have dubbed this dress the sisterhood of the traveling dress, after the movie Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants. I named it that after this straight sized medium dress magically fit me and two other friends with two very different bodies and still managed to look good on all of us.

I doubt you could tell it from these photos, but I was not having the best day. I had just signed my lease the day before and was having a nervous breakdown about the enormity of all of it. In typical bloomie fashion I broke down in tears in front of my friend/work wife/colleague/regular photographer Nicole and she was so worried about my well-being that she insisted that I hop on a train to Westchester for a pre-Yom Kippur fast meal. (Is it completely terrible that ate a big meal and proceeded to not fast?)

So here we are at the train station in Westchester doing our photo shoot. It wasn't however my first shoot of the day. Early in the day I headed over to Governor's Island where I was lucky enough to model for one of my very favoritest websites Adipositivity (warning, it's NSFW). All of my photos haven't been posted yet, but you'll be able to spot at least one of them very, very easily. I was hoping to get more naked than I was able to, but even just wearing my Mermaid Parade costume we got questioned by the staff and so we scurried off the island before we really ruffled any feathers. It was a wonderful experience and I hope I get to pose for the lovely Substantia Jones again sometime soon. I'm envisioning a winter photo shoot where I wear boots, hat, an open coat and nothing else. Wouldn't that be cute?

As I mentioned the dress is a medium dress from Macy's in-house brand INC that I got via my friend Mirka. My red peek-a-boo bra is from Lane Bryant (which if nothing else has cute bras), my necklace is from Peacock's, earrings are from a street fair and sunnies are from Primark. Big smile is due to the insane conversation I had with my girlfriends on the train up to Irvington. I really do believe that you're never fully dressed without a smile.

And I'm wearing my summer staple Dansko sandals, replete with my pedicure that would be more in place on an 8 year old than a 31 year old.

Photo credit goes to my friend Caitlin.

Day 9, Dress 99: Starting the New Year Off Sexy

A few months ago I asked for your input as to which dress I should keep of 2 very different dresses that a friend was offering up to me. I ended up getting one dress as a present and buying the other off of T-Pops but when I wasn't sure if I could do that I had already decided on today's dress as the keeper. It was the overwhelming favorite of y'all and as many of you pointed out, I didn't have anything like it in my closet.

When I first posted the dress to vote on several of you commented that while you liked the idea of the dress, you thought it was too tight on my lower half. Some of you suggested shapewear as a solution, but aside from being uncomfortable, bodies - mine perhaps more than others - have lumps and rolls and I'm ok with that.

Thursday was the first day of Rosh Hashannah, aka the Jewish New Year and I decided that I was going to start the new year off right - loving and embracing my body and looking fierce while doing so. In that end me and my lumps and bumps wore my sexy secretary dress from Torrid for the very first time.

The dress had so much going on that I kept the accessories simple. Silver wedges from Office and the earrings are from a Brooklyn street fair.

I'm not one for services, but my sister-in-law was leading services which made everything very special. We even had a celebrity spotting at services! NY is fun that way.

Photo credit goes to Nicole, my dear friend that I am so glad I got to start the new year with for the third year in a row. This past year wasn't what I would call my best ever and I'm hoping this coming one is a better.

On the Jewish New Year we eat a lot of sweet food and dip everything in honey in the hopes of having a sweet new year. Dear readers I hope you all have a sweet and happy new year filled with joy and happiness and of course some pretty clothes.

xoxo

~bloomie

Long Labor Day Weekend: Days 5+6, Dresses 95+96

I had lovely long weekend, but I spent most of my time frolicking outdoors and stayed far away from my computer. Thus I'm a backlogged blogger so this is going to be a double post.

I spent my Sunday in Prospect Park with some of my very good friends who have just moved to Brooklyn from Paris. Yay! Everyone I love should move to Brooklyn! I spent the afternoon showing them my beloved park and soaking up the beautiful weather. My dress is from Ross and I've paired it with some earrings that were a birthday present years ago from my friend Mirka.

Sadly beaches close after Labor Day so I headed out Monday for the last beach day with lifeguards of the summer. To advance my personal goal of fattie bathing suit visibility here's me in my cute bathing suit that I got at Accessorize several years ago. I think this bathing suit may be on its last legs - the under wire began poking out of the suit on Monday.


And I couldn't not wear a dress, so here's what I wore over my cute bathing suit. This dress you have seen before and it is a hand-me-down from Jamie and she got it at Loehmann's. The hat was picked up on a trip to Israel several years ago. It took me all the way to the final beach day of the summer to finally remember to pack a hat when I head to the beach.

Day 3, Dress 93 - Comfort and Coney Island

Day 3 and it is hot and sticky and all I could think of when I was getting dressed was comfort. To achieve that end I grabbed what I am aware is a not very exciting dress from my closet and decided to try and spice it up a bit with some accessories. That's not a stain on my dress, just a bit of water. In case you don't believe me, here's a picture from later on at night, sans water stain.

The dress is Splendid, a line I have raved about to you several times before. Like many dresses in my closet, it is a hand-me-down. This one is from my lovely sister-in-law to be and I believe she inherited it from someone else as well. The cycle of dresses!

The dress is simple, so I decided to add some pop with accessories. I've never really paired brown and yellow before, but Friday morning it was calling my name. I put on a big chunky necklace that I got in India.

And on of my favorite hair pins that I got last year at Atlantic Antic - a huge street fair in Brooklyn. I love how versatile this clip is.

And even though I shouldn't have, after looking at pictures from the day before and seeing how my tevas ruined my outfit, I wore different shoes and ended up paying for it with a very sore foot. Note how my friends shoes compare to mine.

The shoes ended up being a bit of an issue because some friends and I headed to Coney Island Friday night to see some fireworks. The fireworks ended up being cancelled (which we didn't know about until we already schlepped all the way out there) because of Hurricane Earl. Considering that the "hurricane" didn't even bring us a drop of rain in Brooklyn, we were none too pleased. However we decided to make the best of it and eat some fried food

play some games

go on a few rides.


and have a drink
It was a fun time, but we walked a lot and my tendinitis was really hurting by the end of the night.

Striped Sundresses and Care Packages

I have passions outside of fatshion. Many in fact, but for this post we'll focus on just three of them. Baking, care packages and Jamie.

Jamie, like many of my beloved friends lives far away from Brooklyn in a land called Los Angeles. The distance is difficult, but we try and stay as close as if we lived down the street from one another. One of the ways is our baking tin. Basically Jamie and I bake and then pack it up in the same tin that we cover with stickers and then we ship it cross country. There's always little love notes and sometimes we pack in little presents and then, once in a blue moon I open my box to discover crazy surprises like this. Blondies, a dress and a gorgeous, metallic purple handbag - an early birthday present. Jamie (and Yoni and JuJu spoil me terribly). I do love them so.

As long time readers may remember, I have been the recipient of many wonderful Jamie hand-me-downs over the years, although this wasn't so much a hand-me-down. She said she bought it at Loehmann's, tried it on repeatedly and then finally decided that it really was just calling my name so off to New York she sent it.

I have to say I absolutely LOVE it! It's great and summery and it can stand alone without many accessories, however as you all know I have trouble saying no to accessories. Note the yellow sandals from Old Navy.

My office is so freezing that even though it's 100 degrees outside I always have to have a layer close by. My cute cropped cardi is from Banana Republic and it kills me that they haven't re-issued it as I have loved it to pieces.

My favorite part of the dress is the pockets! Dresses with pockets always make me smile.

And since I can't resist accessories, even though the dress doesn't need them, here you have a closeup of my headband from Dorothy Perkins and my necklace from Primark. Oh dear London (and your shops), I can't wait for my next trip, I've missed you so.

Jamie I hope the dress is just as you imagined it would be on me. I love you and miss you terribly.

Poll Time

I consider myself lucky for a whole lot of reasons that I won't get into at the moment, save for one. Hand-me-downs. Oh, I love hand-me-downs and I'm lucky that so many of my friends like to dress me in their cast-offs. I'm even more lucky that I have friends who are my size or close enough to it that I can rock their hand-me-downs.

My friend T has recently changed clothing sizes. She has to sell most of her clothing in order to buy some new stuff that fits, but she has generously offered to give me one of her dresses, but I'm having trouble figuring out which one to take. Help me please.

Option 1

The first dress has a naughty secretary edge to it. It's from Torrid and it's a size 18. T thinks I should choose this dress because I don't have my pencil dresses, nor do I have many animal print articles of clothing.

Now with flash

It looks really good from behind. Highlights my assets dontchya think?

Option 2

The second dress is a little Dorothy Perkins number in a UK20. It's polka dots which I love and I think I may get some more use out of it, but as T points out, I have a lot of things like this already in my wardrobe.


Without flash

This dress however does not do much for me from the back. In fact I think it hurts in the back. No bootylicious tightness, in fact it's a bit bunchy up top.

Lord I am indecisive, which is why I always end up with 8 dresses every time I go to Ross. So help a girl out. Am I naughty secretary or am I sweet polka dots?

Photo credit goes to T.

Remixing at its Best

There are a lot of places to find fashion and clothing inspiration, especially on Flickr. One of my favorite groups on Flickr is the Wardrobe Remix group where you can find anyone wearing anything and inspiration galore. Remixing is when you something in a different than you have before or use it in a way different from its original purpose. Today's outfit is remixing at its best.


My "dress" is actually a skirt in a size medium, that I snagged from a friend at her stoop sale (in Brooklyn we have stoop sales instead of garage sales cause we don't have garages). D is only a few inches taller than me so I'm not sure how she ever wore this as a skirt, but apparently it was one of her favorite middle school wardrobe staples.

I took the skirt, hiked it up and belted it with a belt that I got from a Friday fats sale. The cardigan that I love and need to get rid of cause it has a small hole is from Banana Republic. The shoes are from Primark and the earrings are from Topshop.



Photo credit goes to my very handsome co-worker Mel who I ran into en route to enjoy some lunchtime sunshine.