Ugly Boots, Cute Scarf

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We've been having a rough. snowy winter in New York which means that I've been stuck wearing ugly shoes fairly often. I bought these hiking boots a decade ago when my family went on a cruise to Alaska and since then they've basically functioned as ugly, but sufficient winter boots. On the upside they keep my feet nice and dry so I try and focus on that and make the best out of a bad shoe situation. After all I'm wearing a purple scarf with elephants on it, how bad can the outfit be?

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Skirt - Torrid, seen before several times.
T-Shirt - Dorothy Perkins
Cardi - Banana Republic
Tights - Old Navy
Earrings - Mexico
Hiking boots -EMS
Socks - Dad
Scarf - In the pound bin at Spittlefields Market


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And finally I have to give you a close-up of my eyeliner, which is the first time in my life I saw a makeup product reviewed in a magazine and then actually went out and bought it. I don't normally wear eye makeup because I'm too blind to apply it unless I'm wearing contacts and I don't normally wear contacts. I do however wear contacts in snow or rain because those make my glasses fog up making it impossible to see. It was snowing, so I wore contacts and was able to wear my new liquid gold eyeliner from Bobbi Brown. How fun is it!

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Photo credit goes to Miss. A.

Tight, Bright & Short. Plus Chub Rub Solution 3

On the list of "fat girl no no's", I think this outfit probably hits them all. It is short, it is tight and it is bright and that's just the way I like to rock my outfits.

When I first put this outfit on and accessorized it I thought i was being very original with my color choices and accessories. And then I thought back to this post and realized that I was basically wearing the spring version of that outfit. Seriously I'm just wearing a t-shirt instead of a sweater and different shoes, otherwise it is exactly the same. Originally I had on all of the same accessories until I realized what I was doing and decided I had to be more inventive. So off came the necklace and earrings and on went some different earrings and a scarf.

Skirt - Torrid

Top - Dorothy Perkins

P.S. I am well aware of and embarrassed by the hanger hooks hanging out of my top. Please forgive me.

Scarf - Old Navy

Earrings - Top Shop

Shoes - Office

What will likely be of more interest to all of you however is what is beneath my skirt. Or rather....

What isn't.

Yup, this was the day that I tried out a much discussed but new to me chub-rub-solution. What pray tell? The answer my dear readers is Body Glide.

Body Glide was originally created to help runners with chafing. As I understand it (because I am currently the slowest of the slow in my running class) when you run really long distances chafing becomes an issue for even the thinnest of runners and so Body Glide, which looks and is applied much like stick deodorant, was conceived.

I tried Body Glide a few times before reviewing it and I have to say so far so good, but it has its limitations.

On the positive side, I particularly like that you're not wearing any sort of added layer which is lovely. This is particularly useful if you favor short skirts or dresses (as I tend to do). Some of the other solutions I've already reviewed would just be far too long and would peak out from under a skirt this length and that is not a look I embrace.

On the negative side, this stuff definitely wears off by the end of the day and I haven't even road tested it in any really hot or sticky weather yet. On a humid day in New York in August I would not trust the sanctity of my inner thighs with just a layer of Body Glide.

Do any of you have any other chub rub solutions I should try out?

Photo credit goes to friend, colleague and blog fan T-Pops.

Fake It Till You Make It

This is going to be a very, very quick post of last Friday's outfit. I'm going to be quick because I was still sad last week, which you can probably tell from my red-ringed eyes in the photo, but I'm in a much better mood this week and I don't want to focus on last weeks sadness. However I thought y'all might enjoy Friday's colors, which was another day of dressing the opposite of how I felt. My colors were bright, happy and cheerful and I was not. Folks kept saying I looked like I was colorblocking, whatever that quite means.

So in a brief rundown of last Friday's outfit.

I'm wearing these amazing purple Tripp pants that I got from Torrid in one of their mega clearance sales. They have these pants in a variety of crazy colors and after months of hemming and hawing I finally ordered a pair for like $15 and let me tell you I LOVE them. I think they're so much fun! The sweater is a hand me down from my darling Jamie. You might remember I wore an outfit using the same sweater in a similar color palette, but it was a very different look.


Now on to the accessories, my favorite part. I'm wearing a new, purple sequined bow that I got from Dorothy Perkins, which reminds me that I must update you on that international order that didn't go so well. The earrings are from Topshop and the necklace I got in a rainforest in Argentina.

And the shoes, ahh the shoes. I think these may have been the very first pair of shoes I owned from my beloved Office and if you can't tell from looking at them I have loved them to death. Seriously, I have had these resoled at least 4 times and they are stretched out and coming apart and fall off my feet half the time, but they are the perfect, gold flat and I can't find anything perfect enough to replace it with. I'm an 8.5 if you see anything that you think will work for me.


Photo credit goes to my work wife Nicole. Thanks love!

Underneath the poncho

I know I promised to post a photo of what was underneath my poncho the very next day, but it would be generous to call this past week the week from hell at work and all I could even contemplate when I got home from the office was food, beer, some utterly mindless television to distract me from the "AAAAHHH" of work and sleep. Not much time for fatshion.

But I'm making up for it now cause I really like this outfit and it wasn't at all what I was planning on wearing when I woke up that morning. Sometimes I fixate on one article of clothing and everything is falls into place around that. Sometimes I'm lazy and there's a sweater sitting on a chair and I grab that. Today's outfit was a mix of those two things.

I had bought this skirt during Torrid's clearance sale for something like a whopping $9.74 or something equally ridiculous. Which is what convinced me to bite the bullet and purchase a purple denim, acid wash, mini skirt. When I told my best friend about it I thought she was almost going to disown me. It's ok, we have an agreement. She can think something like this is a nice bag and worth $100 and I can buy things like acid-wash, purple denim. At least most of my fashion risks are inexpensive...sometimes.

Anyways so I got the skirt and loved it, but wasn't sure what to pair it with. My friend Jamie had sent me this enormous box of sweaters in the hopes of urging me to do 30 sweaters in 30 days and I was slowly taking the sweaters from the office back to my apartment where they would inevitably sit on my armchair for a bit before being put away. That is where today's mustard sweater was sitting when I pulled out my new purple skirt and started planning my outfit. Once I had those two key pieces matched the rest of the outfit came together fairly easily.

The tights today are some random brand that I got at Pay/Half and the gorgeous brown boots that I don't wear nearly enough because I'm a total wuss when it comes to heels are from Evans. My necklace is Primark and the earrings are Topshop.

Photo credit goes to Mirka who took the picture in our local movie theater and I have zero recollection of what we saw and it's driving me crazy. Know how I said I was a wuss when it came to heels? I couldn't walk to dinner after the movie I was in so much pain and slowly shuffled the 3 blocks back to my house. If I keep wearing this much color and am unable to handle heels, I may just get kicked out of NY.

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 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.