Take 5

Hi there, remember me? It's bloomie the fatshion blogger. I know it's been five months since I last blogged. I'm no longer a lapsed blogger, I think I qualify as a non-blogger.

But September has arrived and due to some pushing and prodding by my beloved Jamie I am going to attempt a fifth incarnation of 30 Dresses in 30 Days.

I'm not making any promises this go around. I forewarn you that I may not finish the month, I may spend a day in my pajamas and most notably I may/will likely end up wearing dresses that I've worn before. At this point in my endeavor I can't quite keep track of what I have and haven't worn in previous years and going through 120 outfit photos every morning just doesn't seem feasible or realistic. So I'm going to aim to wear things I think you haven't seen before, but it may not always work out that way.

Dress - Ebay
Leggings - Danskin
Sandals - India

Earrings - Topshop
Fascinator - Street Fair

Photo courtesy of Ateqah, who also suggested the tongue.

Things I did in India

I know, I've been promising photos from India for ages. Well now I'm finally sharing some of them. These photos are just a brief snippet of what I did and saw. I was in India for 15 days and traveled to 5 cities via 4 trains and 5 planes. It was exhausting, but fascinating as well.

I visited Old Delhi. The traffic, sights, sounds and smells were overwhelming.

I rode in a bike rickshaw. It was SO. MUCH. FUN. I wish I could travel to work via bike rickshaw everyday.

I went to the Taj Mahal. That's the money shot.

Then I played on a see-saw and rode down a slide with the Taj Mahal in the background. How many people can say they've done that?

I also took some cheesy, touristy photos.

Oh and I saw a cow inside a store. Yeah, no big deal.

Then I went to Varanasi, home of the Ganga River where many people travel to cremate the dead and then scatter their ashes in the Ganga River. This is the view of the ghats (aka steps) that lead down to the water. There are nighttime ceremonies conducted by Brahmin priests which is what this is a photo of. This is also where my tour guide insulted me.

We took an early morning ride of the Ganga to see a very different side of river life.

People bathing in the Ganga. I was freezing sitting on my boat so I can't imagine how cold these individuals must have been.

People also wash clothing in the river. This is a photo of sari's drying along the waters edge. It was one of my favorite sights of my trip.

Goats, heading home from the market. They're awfully calm considering they're likely on their way to be slaughtered.

I visited a Hindu Temple. It was the first time I'd seen a swastika used as it was originally intended for. It was pretty cool.

The decoration at the City Palace was unbelievable

With a guard at the City Palace in Jaipur. The big vessel in the background is the largest silver vessel in the world and was built to carry water from the Ganga to England for a king to bathe in while he was on holiday.

This was in Jaipur and it's where the maharajah's ladies would sit and look out on city life through the windows. On my desk at work I have a things to see before you die page-a-day calendar and this was one of the sights listed while I was away. Kinda amazing right?

I went to a gorgeous fort. And wore tevas. Please, you can't judge me any more than I judge myself.

I went to a monkey temple which was fascinating and scary all at once. Wild monkeys are scary.

I met some cute school children who asked me to take their photo.

This is an Iraqi synagogue in Mumbai that has been there for over a 100 years. It was beautiful, I'd never seen a shul like it before in my life.

I splurged my last few days in Mumbai and booked myself at a nice hotel. I spent a lot of time at the pool. It was lush.

The next set of India photos will be things I didn't do in India. To be continued....

It's all About the Scarf

Remember how I said I knew I was tempting fate by running head first into spring? Well it came back to bite me in the ass and it only took about 4 days of lovely weather to do so. But I'm going to pretend for a few minutes that it's still nice and I haven't spent the last 3 days walking around with big hair and rain boots and share with you a photo from earlier last week when the weather was lovely.

My skirt and blue fishnets are from Old Navy, my top is hand-me-down from my friend Jamie, the jean jacket is Svoboda via Re/Dress as is the button on the jacket, the earrings are from Topshop, my sneakers are keds and may actually be from high school and the bag is Botkier and trust me, I got it like all my fancy handbags at a sample sale.

What makes the outfit interesting and special is the scarf.

I've already told you that I'm not really a scarf person and I never really know if I'm wearing them correctly. However I recently bought this scarf in India and I am obsessed with it because the entire design is hand blocked. Yup, you heard me, it was all done by hand.

While in India I went to this village called Sanganer that is famous for its handmade paper and textiles. I visited factories that made both and I bought this scarf at the hand blocking factory I went to. It was one of the absolute highlights of my trip and I thought I'd share a few photos from my visit there.

First you choose what pattern you like from a variety of blocks

Then it is dipped in the ink that you see on the right in this photo

Then this exceedingly talented man showed me how you press down on the fabric, hitting the block with a hammer to get the right outline. He also explained to me that you must use the same block, dipping in different colors to get the full design.

This is what the finished products look like. Now do you understand why I'm so obsessed with my scarf? The entire design was done by hand. Absolutely amazing.

Publish Post

Being Fat in India

My dear readers, here is my one and only uploaded photo so far from India. I know it's only one, but it's a pretty cool picture, isn't it? I'll share more next week if you all promise to ignore the heinous clothing I'll be sporting in all of my photos.

Before I came to India my friend Ashwini warned me that "you'll be the fattest person they've ever seen." Now I have found this to be completely untrue - there are plenty of fat tourists and there are plenty of fat Indians, but I have had some amusing experiences that I thought I'd share. It's interesting to see how fat is viewed in other cultures and how people react and what they say. A bit of fat, cultural anthropology if you will.

There's been the staring and the laughter, which I honestly don't know if it has to do with my being fat or the clothes I wear, but I get a LOT of attention - much more so than my male traveling companions and the stares don't bother me too much, but the laughter is a bit odd. When we went to the Taj Mahal groups of people laughed at me. Not my friends, but me. It was bizarre and weird, but completely harmless.

But there are 3 instances that stick out in particular that I thought you'd all get a kick out of. It's a good thing I practice self-love and body acceptance, cause otherwise these people may have brought me down. Instead I just laughed and went on, un-bothered with my day. I think my traveling companions were often more bothered by it than I was.

1) My friend and I became obsessed with a day spa near our friends apartment where we were staying in Delhi. I think they thought we were crazy cause we came 3 days in a row and showed up to a fancy place in some very un-fancy clothing. I decided to get a special massage that involved 4 hands, lots of hot oil and a tented steam cover - it was pretty fucking fabulous I must say. So I'm undressed, lying on the table in nothing but a pair of disposable underwear they've given me when one of the women performing the massage says to me "so, have you tried our weight loss massage?"

So I'm naked, supposed to be relaxing and these women are about to touch me for the next hour when they've just insulted me, not to mention that a weight loss massage is among the dumber weight loss techniques I've heard mentioned to me. Had I been in the States I would have gotten dressed, talked to the manager and gotten my massage for free from 2 other masseuses. But I was in India and I realize that it's culturally acceptable for people to say these sort of things and it's not considered rude so I just laughed and said "no, I'm happy with my body just the way it is thank you. I like being fat." And then I had a 4 handed massage. Heaven I tell you.

2) I was on a boat in the Gangas River when our tour guide asked me if I had any children. I responded no, to which he replied "well you look like you have." He then continued on "do you practice yoga?" which is when I realized where this conversation was going and I again responded no. He continued on "you really must watch the butter and red meat" which was kind of hysterical because I don't eat much of either one. I mean I bake with a lot of butter, but most of that is brought to work and sent to my friends. Either way, it's completely irrelevant since my body is nobodies business but my own.

He then told me that I was fat like his brother and needed to be careful. At this point my friends and I were laughing hysterically at his rudeness and I told the guide "you're being rude, you need to stop" but he DIDN'T. He continued on about diabetes and my health and I wasn't about to start having a HAES conversation with the man so I calmed my giggles and told him firmly that I love my body just as it is and that he needed to be quiet. He eventually shut up and then had the gall to bring us to his house to try and sell us stuff. No thank you.

3) I was at a mall - where by the way my friend got a scoop of ice cream and found a piece of chewed gum in it, ugh - when we walked into a womens clothing store. I was in there for all of 30 seconds flipping through the shelves when a woman came up to me and told me "we don't carry your size." The first 2 experiences didn't upset me at all, but this one did for some reason. She was just so rude about it and she was making assumptions - she had no idea who I was shopping for. I said "I'm still allowed in the store aren't I?" and continued to browse until a minute later one of her colleagues came up to me and again very rudely told me "we don't have your size." I once again rhetorically asked "I'm still allowed in the store, right?"

I don't know why this simple comment more than the others bothered me so much, I think because it felt exclusionary - you're not allowed in here, fatty leave. The whole thing reminded me of that scene in Pretty Woman when Julia Roberts walks into the boutique on Rodeo Drive and is told that they don't have anything for her. I didn't walk out of the mall with much of anything but I did walk out of the store and not purchase a top I had been eying for my mother.

I thought of how great it was that I was able to laugh instead of get sad or really bothered by these comments - I don't know that I always would have been able to say that. These experiences only served to reinforce my body acceptance and self-love.

Anyways, those are just some of my adventures of being fat in India. And I have to stress that it's really just a teeny, tiny part of my larger, crazy adventure that I'm having. This morning my friends left to go back to the States and I'm traveling on my own for a week so I think more of my stories will have to do with men trying to flatter their way into my wallet than insulting my fat ass, but who knows. Either way I'll be sure to keep you updated.