Happy Valentine's Day

A bit belated, but happy Valentine's Day!

Whether single or in a relationship I always get a kick out of Valentine's Day. I think of it as an opportunity to wear bright colors, eat pastel candy and tell friends, lovers and family how much I adore them. What's not to love?

Getting dressed Tuesday morning I was struck at how little red and pink are to be found in my wardrobe, particularly my winter wardrobe. But I was determined to put together a Valentine's Day outfit and I think I succeeded. Granted I may have succeeded in dressing how a 6 year old would dress on Valentine's Day (especially when you see my nails) but that's often my aesthetic and I've learned to embrace it.

Head to toe, here's how I put together my outfit.





My base is a tank dress from Brooklyn Industries, that I've worn before. Over that I'm wearing a top from Old Navy that I don't really wear very often, topped with a cardigan that I'm betting is about 10 years old from the Gap. The gingham top is long and if I let it hang down, it wouldn't give me the look I wanted so I belted it with a white belt that I got in a Fatshionista sale.



I'm not sure where I got these tights from and my shoes are from Payless.



My necklace says love in Hebrew and it was my sister's present to her bridesmaids over a decade ago. It's a sculpture in Israel that she was married in front of you.

Finally, I give you my nails. It's a good thing I've already admitted that I'm 6. This confirms it.



I used a hot pink base, sparkly pink over it and then a heart nail polish over that.

I hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day!

Photo credit to my work wife Nicole.

Goodbye 2010, Don Draper is Here to Kick You Out the Door

I hate New Year's. Actually I think despise is a more accurate term. A fact I find fairly ironic since I'm always happy to dress up, and yet New Years Eve - a night made for sequins and dancing and drunken kissing (three of my favorite things) has never been my cup of tea.

But 2010 was a terrible year for me. I mean it was really, really not good, perhaps the worst year of my adult life and I was ready to say goodbye, slam the door on 2010 and start 2011 surrounded by people I love. So I sucked it up, put on an outfit and headed to Manhattan for a party. And in the end I'm really glad I did.

My friends threw a Mad Men party and we were instructed to dress the part. I have never seen a single episode, but I live in the United States so I'm well aware of the characters and the fashion and the clothes. I had a million things to choose from, but in the end I decided to channel Peggy (in full disclosure I kept forgetting her name and calling her the dowdy one). This was a wise move since everyone else used Joan or Betty as inspiration. I was the lone Peggy inspired lady.

I think I did a pretty good job channeling Peggy.

I'm wearing a polka dot dress that I got at Fat Fancy on my recent trip to Portland, with a red DKNY pencil skirt over it. The skirt was a hand-me-down from JLR and I think when I don't have a dress underneath it fits better. The scarf around my neck and my fur shrug are courtesy of my Grandmother. My tights are from Old Navy, my shoes are Sam Edelman and my glasses are an old pair from college which are of course way hipper now than they were when I wore them a decade ago. Candy cigarettes are courtesy of Economy Candy, a store definitely worth checking out the next time you are on the Lower East Side.

Our hosts for the evening went all out with amazing details and almost everyone in attendance was dressed in some amazing outfit. Here is A working the bar. Funnily enough his normal hair worked out just fine for a Mad Men themed party.

Others worked very hard to get their Mad Men hair just right.

I hope 2011 is a wonderful, magical, happy year for all of us. Also I hope all of you had as lovely a night as I did and that you also didn't suffer a 2 day hangover as a result. This is the last shot of the night as I stumbled my way home.

All the amazing, higher quality photos are courtesy of Dr. B and Miss. A. Thank you!

Sparkles, Feathers and Public Nudity

Almost all of my favorite holidays take place in the fall - Election Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Sukkot. However the big exception to this rule is the annual Coney Island Mermaid Parade which is a huge homegrown, homemade, very Brooklyn parade that is held the first weekend of the summer. Ostensibly the theme of the parade is mermaids, sea creatures, the ocean and a celebration of summer - all of which I love. It's also an excuse to get naked in public, which is also something I love. You can read more about it on wikipedia.

I've been going for years and I've marched for the past two years, but I've never been 100% happy with my costume until this year. This year I marched with a group of friends and our theme was Red Tide. Our cohesive aspect was that all of our costumes would be red, other than that we could wear/be anything we wanted. I freaked out a little over this because I don't own very much red and I couldn't come up with a costume idea. Two days before the parade my friend suggested I be a devil mermaid and I finally started to get behind my idea.

I quickly realized that while I don't own much red outerwear, it's a fairly prevalent color in lingerie drawer, and really I didn't need much more than that for my costume.

The base of my outfit - the matching bra and panties are from Lane Bryant and I've had them for years and I love them. I don't have enough matching bra and panties in my life, a true tragedy dear readers. I realize you can barely see my underwear because I wrapped a red feather boa (a long ago present) around my waste to liven up the outfit.

But a bra and underwear do not a mermaid or a devil make and most definitely not a devil mermaid, so I began to get crafty.

I made my mermaid tail from cellophane wrapping paper and a red plastic table cloth. I added some plastic sea kelp-esque plants to the tail so it looked a bit more underwater and I tacked on my store bought devil tail on top.

I made the devil ears myself using some foam from the local crafts store and I made the trident/pitchfork using some pipe cleaners. I hadn't used pipe cleaners in years - lord they're amazing.

My makeup and rhinestones were a group affair and for that I thank the fabulous members of the Red Tide. I never would have looked so good without ample amounts of assistance from them. Thanks for one of my favorite days of the summer.

The unseen hero of the day and perhaps the most important component of my outfit was copious amounts of Body Glide. Now I know when I first blogged about it I said I didn't know how it would fare for long periods of time and/or on a very hot day. Well the Mermaid Parade was both a loooong day and a hot day and I danced down the parade route with nothing between my legs and had zero chub rub at the end of the day. Body Glide is so my new best friend.

If interested, you can check out my large and (forewarning) completely unedited set of photos from the Mermaid Parade right here. I think this may be my very favorite one of the bunch.

Yay for mermaids, fun and fat body visibility all at once!

A Whole New bloomie

Don't worry, you didn't accidentally end up on the wrong blog. I promise it's me, bloomie, just with a different look today.

Last Friday was my friend A's last day at the office and in her honor a bunch of us decided to dress like her. I've written about A before and her love of the color black, so this was indeed going to be a difficult undertaking. But I love nothing more than a themed outfit and I have a strong (some might say unattractive) competitive streak and I was determined to be crowned "dressed most like A."

It was an unusual day, people just did not know what to do with me. My co-workers were freaked out by my new look. Amongst the many comments I received I was told, "I don't recognize you" that I looked "sexy" and "Middle Eastern." Since I am Middle Eastern, that was one of the weirdest comments of the day. I think it had to do with the eye makeup, which A handily sent us a tutorial on.

It wasn't just the black and the eye makeup that had folks in a tizzy, it was the fact that there were so many different things going on all at once. My hair was back, my eye makeup was very different, I was wearing heels and black and my first pair of shorts not intended solely for travel/working out/doing something involving dirt, in about 10 years. It was a crazy day, but a fun one.

The experience reminded me why it's a good idea to step out of our fashion comfort zones every once in awhile. Turns out I liked how I looked with cat eye makeup and I learned that shorts are really comfortable when it's hot out. Sadly, it continues to be true that if I wear heels I still want to cry from pain at the end of the day, no matter how cute they are.

The lesson of today's post? Go outside of your comfort zone, dress out of the norm every once in awhile You could end up having a great time and have a new look that you might even like. Have any of you had an experience like that?

Shorts - Ross

Tank top - Banana Republic

Vest - Target

Shoes - Aerosoles

Oh and it should go without saying, but I won the contest.

Solid Gold

Sorry for the lack of posting, it's been a rough past week. To make it up to you I'm back with a completely and utterly ridiculous outfit that I hope gives you as much joy as it did me.

On Saturday night I attended a Solid Gold party and I was out to win for best outfit. Last year these same friends threw a Black and White party and I was totally going to win until my friend Ateqah showed up and completely bested my outfit. It took me a long time to get over that loss and I was determined to win this year, coming up with an outfit that would guarantee victory and let me tell you, victory was mine.

Here I am with the male winner of the evening in our matching 1970's victory necklaces. In case you were wondering, it was never about the prize, merely the bragging rights.

Back to the outfit. The top has a bit of a back story to it. I got via a plus-size vintage reseller called Cupcake and Cuddlebunny who has an etsy shop and who also sells on Fatshionista. She has really beautiful pieces, however I've ordered from her about 4 times off of Fatshionista and twice there was something wrong with my article of clothing. The shirt I'm wearing arrived with a hole in the front of it. The owner was very accommodating about it and allowed me to return the items and I did with one of them, but return shipping and waiting on line at the post office just makes it not worth my while.

The shorts are Size Queen via Re/Dress and the wig is courtesy of Target and I bought it cause 2 years ago I dressed up as Miss. Piggy for Halloween. Tights are Target, bag is vintage and my wedges are from Topshop. I must say Saturday reminded me just how much I love the way I look in heels and wedges. I really wish I had more tolerance for them, but I just don't. After about an hour of dancing they were sitting under the couch.

I got a lot of male attention on Saturday, many wondering 1) what my hair looked like under the wig and 2) if my outfit was made up of things I already had in my closet. The answer to the latter question was a resounding yes which amused people all night long. To my surprise folks were more shocked that I had a blond wig in my repertoire than sequined hot pants. Really?

It leads me to wonder if blonds have more fun or girls in hotpants have more fun. What do you think?

Madonna, circa 1984

No, it's not Halloween, just another day in the office. This outfit was inspired by the leggings I mentioned in yesterdays post that I wore home after my tights were shot. They're a bit insane I know, but I'd been eyeing them on Torrid's website for some time and when they finally went on sale I decided to grab 'em for $8.99.

These leggings are the sort of item that you have to base an outfit around. If you're wearing purple, green and black animal print anything, everything else must revolve around that. So it did. I wasn't sure what look I was going for but it all came together when I opened my draw of hair accessories and saw my hairband with a big, side bow. Aha! I was going to be Madonna, circa 1984. Once I'd decided on my inspiration, I decided to embrace it with full force. I was prepared for merciless mocking by my friends at dinner that night, but they were surprisingly not too bad. My co-workers absolutely adored my ensemble.

Outfit details

Leggings are from Torrid in a 1x
Tunic is a large from Tart via Loehmann's and is technically pajamas but I've never worn it as such, its always been worn either as a dress or a tunic.
Over that I have a wraparound shrug that is a hand-me-down from Mirka via Old Navy in a size large.
Jacket is a 2x from Forever 21's new plus line Faith 21 and even though Mirka teased me mercilessly when I bought it, I absolutely adore it.
Belt is from Accessorize
Shoes are from Office
Headband is from H&M
Necklace is from Primark

Sorry I don't have better photos to share with you. Today's photo credit goes to Josh who took it in the lobby of our friends building after dinner and he was all "what the hell am I doing?" so there are no detail shots of anything.

Day 30, Take me out to the ballgame

So finally I'm posting the last of the 30 dresses. And you probably expected me to go out with some really great bang and instead you're looking at today outfit and thinking "what in the world was she thinking?" I know it's one of my most liberal interpretations of a dress and it's not stylish, but there's a story to it, I promise.

This past January Todd Drew, a beloved member of our ACLU family passed away fairly suddenly. Todd was one of the best people I've had the honor of knowing and working with. He lived his beliefs in every one of his actions, from how he treated the women who worked in the coffee shop to never owning a photo id because he believed that it infringed on his rights.

Todd was also the most passionate baseball fan I've ever known and he had his own blog Yankees for Justice. His tagline was "I believe in baseball and an equally free, open, just society for everyone" and it was the truth. He wrote all about the regular baseball things, but he also wrote about what the vendors at the stadium got paid and the impact of a new stadium on the neighborhood. He was the best type of person there was.

On the day he passed away we gathered in our office to remember him and our ED announced that we were going to go to a baseball game in his honor. And so we did and so I give you todays outfit. An oversized top in Yankees pinstripes that I had originally intended to wear in a much cuter way, but it was too cold for that.

The top I picked up for $8 at Re/Dress and is a 1x from some brand I haven't heard of and it's layered over a hand me down white t-shirt from JLR. The leggings are Danskin in an xl, belt is from Peacocks (I think), fake Uggs are from Target, the long necklace is from Primark, the short silver spoon one is from Urban Outfitters, baseball hat is from Danielle the ACLU swag fairy.

Now we apparently didn't follow all of Todd's rules at a baseball game (I didn't keep score nor did I refrain from eating or drinking) but I did sit during the singing of God Bless America (or whatever patriotic song they sing during the 7th inning stretch) and stand for Take Me Out to the Ballgame which was fun.

Read Todd's last blog about baseball and cancer here. We all miss you.

I interrupt this regulary scheduled broadcast

To announce that I am wearing pants right now. Not as in I woke up at 10:45 and had to roll out of bed to pick up my CSA by 11 so I grabbed whatever was close by, but as in I woke up this morning, showered, tried on many incarnations of an outfit and headed to work wearing jeans. See people I do own pants.

I also realized this morning that I kind of forgot
a) how to dress myself when I'm not wearing a dress
b) how to dress for the cold weather
c) what I own for the fall season

I think I need to reacquaint myself with my wardrobe this weekend.

Today I am a Rude Girl

Sorry about the late posting, I was tipsy and tired when I got home last night and in no form to be doing anything but sleep.

So last night I had a friends rehearsal dinner, the theme of which was "A Salad and Ska Soiree." No I am not making that up. Seriously I am not inventive enough to make that up, I went to a salad and ska themed party. Delicious food from the incomparable Tanoreen and ska music.

I don't know much about ska aside from the fact that there is some ska music in the classic 90's movie Clueless and that ostensibly No Doubt started off as a ska band. But I knew that was not what my friends meant when they said ska. They are music snobs and they meant the real ska from the 60's. When I asked how I was supposed to dress they first laughed and said to wear whatever I wanted. I however am never one to turn down an opportunity for a themed outfit so when I pressed them for more info they told me to look up rude girls for an idea.

That didn't really help me so much either so I just googled imaged ska fashion and the overwhelming response was really anything in black and white. Which leads us to today (or technically yesterday).

A closer view

From the side. Do we like the multiple shots or is it bringing my narcissism to a whole new level?

Tights (the first outing of tights this season, woo hoo) are Hue which if you ask me is just about the best brand out there, although they don't do their really fun colors in the larger sizes. Tunic (told you I was generous at this point with what constitutes a dress) is from Dorothy Perkins in a size 20.

One of the things that I love about UK stores is how many of them carry up to a 22 UK in their stores. Granted a 22 only equals an 18 US, but considering that so many American stores have taken to removing their 14/16 out of their stores and only selling them online (I'm talking about you Ann Taylor, Gap, Banana Republic, J. Crew and American Eagle just to name a few) I appreciate the in store size variety. I hate stores that want to take inbetweenie money, but don't want us actually in their stores trying on clothes.

However I am ranting and getting off topic. Focus bloomie. So it's the accessories that make this outfit, so lets proceed to them. I mean if I had to wear this as just a top and tights with no accessories I'd be so uncomfortable that I would not want to leave the house. Seriously, I'd rather go naked than be un-accessorized.

Shoes are once again from my beloved Office. Neck scarf is from Forever 21 and I had to have assistance from a friend as to how to wear it. I always want to be a girl who wears jaunty scarfs, but they usually just end up as headbands on me. Belt is from Lane Bryant and earrings I think were from some random pound store in London. My hair and makeup came from 90's inspired ska and I have no idea if that's correct, but it was the only thing I had to go with.

This means Sunday there will be wedding attire photos!