Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Beautiful on the inside.

"When someone calls another person ugly, all I see is the person in front of me that's saying it become instantly less beautiful." DitaVon Teese

Dita twittered this a few days ago and I was just thinking about how much this speaks to me. Why exactly, as women do we feel the need to attack other women? Especially when it comes to appearance. Ladies, talk to me. Don't we already have enough on our plate? Juggling jobs, families, school, all the while trying to look beautiful feel good about ourselves and some how retain our sanity. Why oh why do we feel the need to call each other out on so called "faults." Is it because we feel insecure? Is it because we're trying to impress our friends, our boyfriends, our husbands, our family? Or is because we really truly feel that way and we feel the need to just say what comes to mind?

This hits home for me because I have been dealing with insecurity my whole life, so I have fallen victim to my own insecure self and have said hurtful things about another girl. I never meant what I said and said it in a hurtful manner to make myself feel better because growing up, I was always chubby. I was always told I was chubby. I was always told "you need to do sit ups," ask "are you watching what you're eating", tell me what not to eat, or had someone close to me pinch my tummy. The most hurtful things come from the people who are closest to you, who probably don't realize what they are saying is hurtful. I refuse to let the cycle continue. I refuse to pinch my nieces thighs and tell her "maybe you should put that frappachino down." I want her to know that she is beautiful the way she is, and to project that onto other girls and to be supportive of other girls so that she doesn't grow up to see how some girls and women can be. Evil, catty and just down right mean.

From now on, I'm going to use the negative to push me forward. The more you tell me I'm fat, the more you tell me I'm wrong, the more you tell me I shouldn't eat that, the more you tell me I can't do that, the more it will push me. The more I'll want to succeed to be better. To be better than what you think I am. To be better than you are. I know who I am and I may not be where I want to be but damn it, I'm striving to get there and I have accomplished so much in the past few months that most people wish they could have accomplished in their whole life. I think I deserve a "you go girl" for that.

Bawk bawk beee-gawk.

I know that was a chicken noise I just made but I am in love with peacocks. Strutting around all fancy and colorful with that giant fan of feathers on their tushes. My recent short hair cut has left me wanting to do a little bit more with it. Just because my hair is more than half the length of what it was doesn't mean I can't, dare I say, dress it up a bit. Where does the lovely peacock come into play? Well the feathers of course! A few days ago, I saw a blogger on Skorch rock some peacock feathers in her hair, almost holding it back like a clip or a headband. It got me super excited because to me, it was very 40s pinup-esque. Retro and funky. Very cute and very nice with short hair.

peacockclip

peacockheadband

Another option would be the ever popular flower, which I think is very summer appropriate.

Orchidflower

Also very cute, retro, and great for short hair. And with the warmer weather coming up, my pretty colorful hair accessories will be every where. Just deciding on which one would be the hard part. :)


Monday, May 10, 2010

Won't you be my neighbor.

I am currently having a love affair with cardigans. More specifically, open front cardigans. Please do not disturb, I got the sign on the door knob.

Taking the steps from dressing college student like with my jeans, t-shirts and hoodies hasn't been the easiest task. The cardigan seemed to be the easiest transition. They are fun, warm when need be, can be dressed up or dressed down unlike my favorite hot pink hoodie. Not to mention cute and different. Open, closed with buttons, jeweled buttons, short sleeved, long sleeved..so many different colors to chose from. Including my ever favorite hot pink. :) And the flowey open front cardigans? Yes please. Pretty and slightly romantic I think. I just picked this little number up from the amazing Faith21 collection which I can easily inoperative from spring to summer, since it's short sleeved and light:

opencardy

Mr. Rodgers approved. :) Love it!

Friday, May 7, 2010

Hair today, gone tomorrow.

I want to dedicate this post to one of my oldest dearest friends Genevieve. To me, she is a hair chameleon. Braids this week, curly the next.

Long hair

A few months ago this was me. Short, sassy, adorable, cute, bubbly. Not that you would notice any of that because I hid behind my wall. My long, drab, dry, boring, same old same old wall. My wall that I would try to subtly pull back with a clip and think "wow I look cute" when I really look like I did the day before and the day before that. My long hair.

Let me tell you a story. A story about a girl and her long hair. For as long as I could remember, my hair has been the same. Long, brown, straight. For as long as I could remember, that was what I considered beautiful. I would see girls that I would admire, such as Angela Jolie, Crystal Renn, Adriana Lima..all had beautiful long dark hair. I think that the long hair was a distraction from the rest of me. My long beautiful dark hair would distract people from looking at my stomach or my thick legs or that little bit of fat I have under my chin. Not that I ever did anything with it. I'd pull back in a pony tail, or I'd pull it half up and try to leave the rest down all the while putting in different cutsie clips. That was as far as I would go with experimenting. What new clip can I put in my hair today? Should I put it half up? Put my bangs in the same place as usual? I was afraid to try something new but my hair was definitely wearing me down. I was in need of a change and fast.

Shorter hair was not new to me, and all ladies can relate to this story I'm about to tell you. One day after being bored with my long hair, I decided to try something new. I found a brand new stylist and basically uttered the wrong phrase that no one should ever to a stylist you don't know. "Do with it what you want." This woman cut my hair off. We are talking short choppy water fall layers that came up from my chin and made my face look bigger than it actually was. From that day on I vowed "never ever to cut my hair off ever again." I didn't want to lose my cute and sexy again, which was what happened with that awful hair cut. It's just hair. It'll grow back. Just not fast enough.

Fast foward six years (yes, six years!) later. I live in a new town, I have a new job, making new friends, and a new lease on life. The first thing on my agenda? Find a fantastic new hair salon with a fantastic new hair stylist and get my drab, boring hair cut off. This wasn't an easy task. I had to do the research, the hair research. I looked through countless pics online, in magazines. I tried to fantasize what my hair would look like with a Nicole Ritchie bob, with a pixie cut, layered, with bangs, without bangs..well maybe not without bangs. Then came the stylist. I hate to admit this, but I didn't put in any research for the stylist. I lucked out. I picked the salon closest to my apartment. Then came the cut. "What do you want?" "I want it OFF." And let me tell you guys, it was liberating. It was as though I had lost fifty pounds, fifty pounds of hair. That was 20+ years of hiding, 20+ years of thinking long hair was beautiful and sexy. Now I have short, sassy, SEXY, fun hair that I don't have to hide behind. That shows off my young, fresh bubbly personality. The start of my transformation comes from the head and goes down. It starts with the hair, and ends with the feet.

short hair

Now that I made the leap from long to short now comes the fun part. Now I can play with different styles and just have fun with it. A recent trim with a little more length taken off the back and some high lights, I feel like a new person. Where went that shy, meek little girl with the long hair? She is gone. Meet the new improved fantabulous me. I am here and I'm ready to start my life right. I may be a little bit late, but I'm ready and willing to start making changes and making myself feel good for once. I'm finally ready to tell myself "you go girl!" instead of telling it to everyone else. So Lindsay, you go girl! :)


What's in a name?

Hello world! I've been wanting to blog for quite a while now and for whatever reason after reading many, many articles of Skorch magazine online I've finally decided maybe now is the time. My first blog. Be gentle. :)

My first task was figuring out what to name my blog. The subject nature of the blog isn't going to be about myself cause let's face it, I'm not that interesting. One of my many interests out there is fashion and while I am of what they say "the plus size variety" and there aren't a whole lot of us around, I thought a plus sized fashion blog would be just the thing. We need more soldiers in the fat girl fashion army I believe, and I hope that this blog will open the eyes of others. Designers, girls over the size of 12, girls under the size of 12, family members, friends, etc. We are not our waist size, and just because we wear a certain size doesn't mean we should dress in potato sacks and be treated a certain way.

So what is in a name? For the life of me, I couldn't figure out a good name to call this blog. I never liked the term "plus size" or "full figured" for that matter. But really, there is no nice term to call someone who wears a size 16 jean and XXL top. So what should I base the name off of? I decided to go with how I strive to feel 24/7, whether I'm walking down the street attempting to be sassy, at work in scrubs and sneakers, or relaxing at home with my boyfriend and my pup in my sweats and slippers. Fabulous. So hence the name, my fabulous self. Hope everyone, short, tall, fat, skinny, fashion forward, whatever you are, can get some kind of enjoyment from this blog.