Aussie Curves – Peplum

September 17, 2013September 17, 2013 / Lisa / 12 Comments

I only own one peplum top. I never really jumped on the craze like everyone else, it would seem. Possibly because I was not 100 per cent sold on the first one I purchased, therefore never ventured forth to buy more.

But the one I did buy, I LOVE the colour of it. Now I’m not usually one to wear a bright colourful top. Usually I’m dressed in the blacks and greys. But when I saw this colour it screamed at me “buy me, buy me!” So I did.

It’s acid and I love it.

It particularly goes well with a pair of dark jeans.

I actually wore this outfit a few weeks ago and instagram’d a picture of it. The idea to wear it like this was inspired by one of Danimezza’s previous posts. I had never worn my peplum like this before, so decided to try it and loved it. This will probably carry on being how I wear it. Or with a pencil skirt, cause I have a few of those now.

The top itself is made of quite heavy material, so I never really want to wear something heavy on top. This light khaki jacket has been sitting in my wardrobe pretty much untouched since moving to Australia, I’m not really sure why as it’s pretty great. Also a perfect jacket which is light and covers my arms, but doesn’t really provide more warmth.

The only reason I’m not completely sold on the idea of peplums is probably because this one keeps riding up. A sure sign I probably needed to go up a size. But also while wearing this I’m very conscious of my tummy, which I don’t really want to be.

Peplum top: City Chic
Jacket: Autograph
Jeans: City Chic
Flats: Target
Necklace: Tiffany’s
Cuff: Actually ankle straps taken off a new pair of flats I just bought from Target.

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Aussie Curves – $50 Outfit

September 13, 2013September 13, 2013 / Lisa / 4 Comments

This week’s Aussie Curves challenge is $50 Outfit. As it turns out, I spend way too much on clothes. Not just I buy heaps of clothes, but I don’t necessarily buy cheap ones.

I was racking my brain trying to remember how much I paid for this and how much I paid for that. And it turns out most of my wardrobe is made up of things that tend to make a $50 outfit very hard to compose.

There might have been one point where I logged on to City Chic’s website to see how much I paid for certain items in which Man Piece then wanted to know how much I had spent in the year.

He was shocked and I thought it could have been higher. That figure? $2000. Yes, I have spent that much on clothes just from CC in the last year. Whoops?

The first step is admitting you have a problem.

And so to this week’s outfit. I struggled, really struggled, but in the end, I found something.

It also helped that Sydney decided to hit a high of 31 on this particular day, thus allowing me to wear less clothes, and making this challenge slightly easier.

I picked this dress up during one of my trips home to Wellington this year. I found it on the sales rack at CC Lambton Quay and I hummed and haa’ed about it for a few days, but eventually went and bought it. It was only $20. Bargain.

It came with a belt – not this one – I couldn’t find the thin one it did come with, so I substituted in another belt that came with a different CC dress.

I paired it with my pair of black leggings with lace panels down the sides, which I paid $30 for.

This tunic has a cut-out in the back, makes it a little bit different and a bit cooler.

The necklace I am wearing is from Trelise Cooper. It was given to me/free in an NZFW gift bag one year which my flatmate at the time didn’t want.

I didn’t include shoes in this one as I had run out of budget! But also, by the time I took these photos, I’d taken my shoes off, plus I only wore jandals. Nobody wants to see my jandals again, do they?

Dress, Belt, Leggings: City Chic
Necklace: Trelise Cooper

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All the buzz… feed.

September 9, 2013 / Lisa

This week Christian Gray was cast in the film adaptation of 50 Shades and Australia got a new Prime Minister. Again. Rumours are we’re heading back to the 1950s. Who said time travel wasn’t possible?

Now for this week’s worth articles worth reading. (Or last week’s, I’m a day late in posting.)

As already mentioned, Christian Gray has been cast – it’s Charlie Hunnum. Many will know him from Sons of Anarchy and while I appreciated his good looks, I’m not so sold on whether he can pull off the part. Anastasia will be played by Dakota Johnson.

Yeah, this dude:

This article just makes me really hungry. I’ve never seen food look so good before.

It was announced this week that the next season of True Blood will be it’s last. I’m kind of happy about this. It did lose a bit of its appeal in the latest season. Go out while still semi-on top.

I really need to try and remember a few of these Mac Hacks, cause honestly, some of them are awesome. Others I already knew, obvs. Life changers, seriously.

And now it is time to look at tiny cats with tiny hats.

It’s the Mad Catter:

Soz for all the Buzzfeed linkages, but Buzzfeed is where it’s at, yo.

Also, I’m a little bit excited City Chic has introduced the TDF jeans as shorts.

Aussie Curves – Vulnerable Side

September 8, 2013September 8, 2013 / Lisa / 6 Comments

When I read that this week’s Aussie Curves challenge was your vulnerable side, I had no idea what I would do.

I have spent all week thinking about it and looked at what other people have done, just to try and understand (as this is all still new to me) what to do.

In the end, I chose an outfit which I don’t wear often because it does show off certain assets which I still tend to hide.

Let me back track a little bit. I have been overweight my entire life. I don’t remember a time when I actually considered myself a ‘normal’ size. (I blame society and the media for putting this idea in my head, because really, what is ‘normal’?)

Growing up, throughout high school and well into my years at university, I hid my body. I covered it up and wore very unflattering clothes. Baggy t-shirts, ill-fitting jeans, hoodies and board shorts – yes board shorts! – were part of my normal wardrobe. I never wore skirts and I certainly did not own dresses. Looking back at photos makes me cringe with how badly dressed I was.

This does come in part to what clothes were available to me. Small town New Zealand doesn’t have many options. In fact, 10 years ago plus size clothing didn’t offer many options. I wore what I was comfortable in – what society thought I should be comfortable in – and I was ok.

When I finished university, I was incredibly depressed, but as I was treated for that, I began to come out of my shell. My confidence grew, I became more body positive and I started to dress differently.

This partly coincided with plus size fashion really starting to take off and I finally discovered City Chic. I fell in love instantly. I have not stopped shopping with them since.

My transformation from being a wallflower to building self-confidence and becoming ok with my body was helped in part to actually being able to find clothes that fit me and that I liked. Knowing that I was not alone also played a huge part.

Even though I still have days, or even weeks, where I hate my body for what it is, I am very far from what I thought of my body back in high school (even though I’m bigger now than I was back then). I’m now comfortable showing off my arms, showing a bit of boob and even sometimes my legs, in all their glowing whiteness.

This dress, from none other than City Chic, shows the above – baring my arms for all to see the flabby-ness and my boobs. Yes you can see my bra, but I don’t care. At least I’m wearing one.

I’m still a bit uncomfortable when wearing this dress, but today I kind of didn’t care – Sydney got up to 30 degrees, so the less clothes I wore, the better.

My confidence and body-positivity are still growing. They grow with reading fellow plus size bloggers’ stories, seeing what they are wearing and finding new clothes from new places which make me feel awesome. (Like ASOS, I’m falling for ASOS in a big way.)

Dress: ‘Hello Sailor’ from City Chic
Leggings: Moda from Target
Shoes: Target

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Sloths, seals and cupcakes.

September 2, 2013 / Lisa / 2 Comments

To be honest, I don’t really know how the week passed so quickly. One minute it was Monday and then it was the weekend. Life is going by so fast right now and I’m starting to wonder whether it is all worth it. (Life that is.)

First up in the week that was, from Buzzfeed (naturally) were these 30 best headlines of The Argus – a small paper in back-water UK, I think. They tell it like it is. My favourite: