Yesterday I was headed out to a fatty meet up across the bay and as per usual, I was stressing on what to wear. WHAT TO WEAR!?!?! It is the question that never truly gets answered. We are left constantly unsatisfied with our own wardrobes and styles and long for some mythical perfect outfit of splendor! Psshht! I’m slowly but surely getting over that concept, but I still struggle. I am always fearful of over or under dressing. I am usually a jeans and cute top type of gal, but have begun to explore, experiment and play with fashion more than, well, ever before! I am loving it, too! Overdressed? Oh well, ain’t like I’m doing manual labor, it’s just a meet up after all, so I went for it. I went and tried to put together the nuttiest thing I could with what I had. Mind you, I love lots of colors, but usually don’t go for anything super bright. But I’m getting there. I tested the waters of the color Hot Pink with great delight. So, yesterday I really dove in head first into colors…no, I mean COLORS!!! Prepare your eyes, babies, prepare them, shield them and remember that fashion and fatshion should be fun!

Bam! COLOR! But I felt like a little kid and maybe not in the best way. So I asked my husband to snap a pic and I text it to Nicole to ask if it was too much (I also had a yellow cardigan to go with it, ha!). She responded that it may be bit too much but that she liked it over all. My husband said it did in fact look like I was trying to dress and as a kid and I did feel a tad silly in it. Perhaps if I had a specific occasion for this type of technicolor outfit I would rock the hell out of it, but I just didn’t feel that the meet up (first impressions being what they are) was the right time or place.

So I headed back to my bedroom for a  wardrobe change and I actually love what I ended up wearing even more than the mega-brightness you see above. All of what you see in these outfits are mostly newly swapped or given pieces and I am so grateful for such opportunities when I am out of work and without the moolah. And yes, the TEGGINGS!!! The hot pink ones above as well as the black ones below are made of awesome sauce! I can’t say enough about them and feel compelled to own all of the colors they come in! Oh yeah, the outfit:

I friggin’ love this dress (it has pockets)! I got it at the Cupcakes & Muffintops event last month and it fits like a glove! It’s so me! I love daisies! And that gigantic purse is actually a “bocce” bag from Tokidoki for Le Sport Sac in “arancia.” I’m a major Tokidoki fan and lusted after the Le Sport Sac stuff for ages before finally tracking down this little baby for myself when I opened my cafe two years ago. Who knew it would fit so perfectly with this outfit?! I love it! And yes, the wingtips are Doc Martens (via eBay). You can’t see it, but I have the black flower headband rockin’, too!

Best of all, I had a great time hanging out and meeting new fatties, catching up with good friends and just enjoying a lovely Sunday afternoon in Oakland. Woo! Thanks to Lisette for organizing the meet up! Thanks to Jeanette for driving me all over the place! Thanks to Nicole for the help, the dress and for hanging out even though you got blisters from having to walk so much, and hanging out with me. Thanks to Marilyn Wann for being so rad and kind and just a great listener and advice giver! <3

Now, for more fatty events!!! I am hitting Club Anton in Oakland on Friday for their Full Figure Entertainment night! Then on the 23rd is Big Moves Bay Area’s “Fat Dance: Oh What A Feeling!” in Oakland. And what I truly cannot wait for (but in a way I’m nervous because I’m gonna sing some karaoke, y’all) is Marilyn Wann’s “Squak & Gobble” B-day & Fundraiser bash in Oakland on the 25th! Woo Hoo! I suddenly fucking love September! Ha-ha! It’ll be the fattest month of my 2011, that is for sure! Thanks for reading. Hope you have a fat-abulous day! <3

We all can! Woo! It’s true! Re/Dress NYC now offers teggings and more on their website: http://www.redressnyc.com/

I’d longed for some teggings since I first heard Marriane of therotund.com mention them in a podcast. I think I even waxed philosophically with Golda about it in my own podcast! Ha-ha! I lusted after them like they were some sort of lost treasure that only a few were privy of it’s whereabouts.

No more! While at the Cupcakes & Muffintops event in Oakland, the ever flabulous Marilyn Wann allowed, neigh, invited me to touch and stretch her hot pink pair of teggings…and I did with great delight! It was at that moment I was convinced that I required them for sure. And so I ordered myself three pair: Dark red, Hot pink and Black!

Today was the first day that I wore them. And can I just say that they will absolutely fit almost anyone! I have 63″ hips and there is plenty of room for more! They are thicker than tights, thinner than leggings and stretchy as hell! I love ’em! I will say the crotch thing is always an issue for me, but it’s not terrible in these as the fabric isn’t at all binding. Yay! The waistband doesn’t roll. They stay up quite nicely. I have no complaints at all. This is shocking and flabulous!

This first pic shows the see-through-ness of them with my knees all bent and stuff:

This one is just standing there, you know, lookin’ good, I guess:

Teggings from Re/Dress $18, Dress from Ross (Dress For Less $10), Belt Torrid (2/$5 dealio), Headband Ross $4, Necklace Kohl’s…I think that’s it! Ha! I’m not so good at remembering these things.

I am quite pleased with these and I hope you will be too! I give them my fullest endorsement. No, I’m not being paid, though I would gladly take more teggings as payment for this glowing review (more colors!). Ha-ha! Thanks for reading.

My husband and I recently watched the documentary, “Pregnant In America” on our Netflix instant watch (gotta love it). I had wanted to see it for awhile. Having previously watched “The Business of Being Born” another birthing in the US related doc by Rikki Lake and, “At Your Cervix” where the truth behind pelvic exams was revealed. All great documentaries! I highly recommend them all if you are even remotely interested in having a child in the United States of America. Because a lot of what we’ve been told, taught or marketed to in regards to women’s bodies and reproductive health, is, well…BULLSHIT!!!

I was born in a hospital. No complications, just a typical 1977 birth. My younger brother and sister, however, were born at home with a midwife. They, too, had no complications in their births (or should I say our mom didn’t). Yet somewhere along the line I grew a nice big prejudice against home births. I am not entirely sure why, other than I typically will rebel against anything my mother is for (I have not seen her in over 15 years). But getting my info on and watching these incredible documentaries has completely changed my mind!

I had grown fearful, over the last couple of years, of having a kid because of a lot of things. Mostly passing on genetic stuff, but also because there’s a damned good chance that I’ll have a fat child (who may also end up with my hair color, not bad, but kids are merciless towards redheads). Would the government take my child away because it’s fat? I couldn’t bear the thought of living through that. Or would I even get a say in the birth of my child while also being seen as too fat for anything in the eyes of the medical world? I read the blog WellRoundedMama and have found some great articles/info/resources there, but that fear still lingers.

When I read this post on AmpleProportions I was quickly reminded of my fears and the real threat to our rights as women in America, let alone the rights of the fat! Watching “Pregnant in America” sort of snapped me back to my germaphobic self in a way: hospitals are for the very ill, not for the newly born! I mean, babies don’t belong there! They don’t have fully formed immune systems and who knows who is touching your baby and if they’re washing their hands appropriately?! My husband has long said that he doesn’t want to have our baby in a hospital because they snatch it away from you the moment it’s released from the birth canal and instantly inject, weigh, test, “clean”, etc… when the natural thing is to clutch the infant to the mother’s breast, leaving the placenta in-tact for awhile, so that the natural hormones kick in and do what they need to do: Bond, initiate natural breast feeding and so much more.

Is it possible that the rise in postpartum depression has something to do, directly, with the westernized pathology of handling birth? To inject drugs (epidural) into the spine of the mother (can lead to so many problems I don’t even wanna talk about right now) so that she cannot feel the baby moving and may even be temporarily paralyzed until after the baby is born? You see, we’re natural baby makers, women. We and our bodies know exactly what to do, if we are unaltered and uninhibited. We will find the right position for us while giving birth, naturally! While OB/GYN’s have been trained to find pathology and complications where none exist all in the name of efficiency and profit! Laying on your back, legs splayed in the air, is not only not natural, but damned uncomfortable while pushing out a baby! I have completely changed my mind and I have no intention of going anywhere near a sick house (hospital) unless it’s an absolute emergency. They don’t want me anyway, I’m fat and have no insurance. Fuck ’em!

I’m not pregnant and don’t have immediate plans to get there, but if and/or when  I am ready, I thank the stars above that these films and the experts and resources available today are there to inform and help me along the way. I cannot stand the thought of not being in control of my own body or infant. To interfere with a natural thing? Well, that’s bullshit! I won’t stand for it and I most certainly will not pay for it!

You know when you get a new bra, how it’s suppose to just fit the last row of tabs? It’s sort of tight/snug, but not unbearably so, so you just deal. Well, that is how it was for me at least. But the last time I bought a pack of bra extenders I found out the hard way that they simply don’t (or very rarely) come in a row of five like my actual bras do. Having just purchased four new bras and not wanting to just deal with the initial tightness of them, I decided to take matters into my own hands…literally!

I took a pair of scissors and snatched the two broken bras from my trash can and cut the hooks and tabs out of them. You can see in the first photo here that one side is all tabs and the other is a row of hooks. I wasn’t sure at first how I’d go about attaching them, but I just went ahead and dove in head first! I simple flipped the hooks under the tabs and sewed them (I do have a machine, though I’m not fully skilled at using it yet) on the opposite side (facing the appropriate way so that they could be used of course). I couldn’t manage to sew a straight-across line with all of the hardware in there, so instead I went in short bursts between each hook:

You can see on the beige one (’cause I used black thread) where my stitches are. I made one black and one beige since that is what I had on-hand and pretty much all I wear. And they worked like a fucking charm, I tell ya! Perfection! They fit, I don’t even notice them when they’re on and best of all my new bras fit spectacularly! It took me all of five or so minutes and didn’t cost me a dime! I love stuff like this.

Do you have a cheap and simple DIY projects you’d like to share? Hit me up! I’d love to post about it here and try it for myself, too! notblueatall@notblueatall.com

Hey everyone! How are you? How was your weekend? I had a bit of a long one. Whew! Can’t believe it’s only Tuesday actually, but I’m feeling good.

Today’s Tank Top Tuesday submission comes from yours truly! I hadn’t received a submission from a reader in awhile and the last couple were from my very generous friends. So I wanted to jump back into the fray with you all, sleeveless and proud! Okay, no, that’s not entirely true. By the time this picture was taken I was proud, but most of the evening I felt terribly self conscious. I even grabbed a matching cardigan “in case I got cold” which is ridiculous as it was very hot that day. We had some friends over for dinner and I wanted to look cute, but…Nicole gave me this dress. Isn’t it lovely? I adore it! It’s not something I would ever buy for myself, but would fawn over in it the store only to walk away from it. Isn’t it strange how I was fine being sleeveless several different days last week (more tops from Nicole! Thank you gurl!!!) yet this dress put me right on edge?! My husband was very kind and encouraging, even when I threatened to change about four times. I think that’s the key though, to getting over this hump? Repetition! Because I was fine in the sleeveless tops I wore that week, but the dress? Why did it freak me out so? By the end of the night I couldn’t have cared less about my damned arms, but at the start I was beside myself with “OMZ! They will see my armz!”  And I am so sick of that! Why should I have to worry about how my bare arms make someone else feel? I’m done!

Okay, and then I see pics of myself like this and I think, “Wow! I look younger than I feel! Ha-ha!” Just sayin’! The dress is from Old Navy, but no clue as to when she bought it. It’s a 4x and is roomy up top, I may take it in a tad so it won’t pook out on the sides as much. but I love the colors! The accent looks red, but it’s a coral color trim. Lovely!

I am taking submissions from anyone who wants to exercise their right to Bare Arms for future Tank Top Tuesday posts! Email your pics here: notblueatall@notblueatall.com, please include the name you’d like in the post, a blog or etsy shop you wanna plug, your thoughts on bare arms or other fatty philosophies. It does not have to be in a tank top, so long as your arms are bare. Have fun with it!

Also, feel free to still treat comments as TMI topic/discussion/venting area! Feel free to ask TMI questions or just vent/rant about your own stuff. I love it! We all do! =0)

**Friend of the blog Erylin, has a clothing swap coming up in Kansas city mo. we will be having one on September 25th at the north Kansas city library right off of armour and I-35. (if you need more info leave a reply and we will connect you somehow). **