Fear of a Female Planet

"Curvy" can mean a lot of different things to different people. To me it means that my body literally has curves: a rear end that isn't flat, hips, a bust, and a waist that is thinner and therefore accentuates these things. Sometimes I envy the skinny girls whose thighs don't seem to touch or the girls with perky little B cups who can go without a bra, but overall I'm happy with my curves and can tell they are attractive to other people.

As far as accentuating curves, this outfit probably does it the most, being that it is the tightest and shortest that I have. Fashion magazines always tell curvy girls to accentuate their curves with wrap dresses - these people clearly don't have curves, because I have found exactly one wrap dress in my life that doesn't make it look like my boobs are in a sling.

And this is it:



They also tell you to wear v-necks. I don't know about you, but I rarely wear a v-neck when I will be working in an office. This weekend I heard about a case of a woman who was allegedly fired for being too hot - in particular, her turtlenecks were distracting. First of all, it just goes to show that if you are curvy, just wearing fitted clothing can be flattering. Secondly, society blames women for attracting too much attention by simply wearing clothing that fits. Little Emily and I had a similar discussion about how her employer (a family owned greenhouse) tried to suggest that her company t-shirt didn't fit. Emily is a skinny girl with DD's. The shirt fit her fine, anything else would have looked like a sack on her - she was not about to wear something baggy just because it stretched a little over her chest.

Today's outfit:


Dress: American Apparel
Boots: Ariat from The Shoe Box
Necklace: Three strands of amber, bought at Wiscon two years ago
Ring: Art Gecko
Earrings: Amber double drop, unsure of where I acquired them (I buy a lot of amber)
Watch: Toyko Bay

This is one of my favorite summer outfits - perfect for sitting on the Terrace and soaking up the sun. I used to have some nice leather sandals that I wore with it, but they fell apart walking home in a rain storm last year. Now I either wear flip flops, black heels, or my boots - depending on the situation. I bought these boots after Justin and I broke up - as many of you have heard: "There's nothing like a new pair of shoes to ease a breakup because, unlike men, you never get sick of looking down at them and have no problem telling them you love them." Of course, now Nick gets scared anytime I go shoe shopping :)

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Reflections:

1. I realized that in general I already dress to accentuate the positives rather than hide the negatives - these were all outfits I wear all the time. I used to hide my figure more, especially with clothes that were too baggy. Losing weight after the divorce helped me get excited about clothing again and when I realized the weight was staying off my wardrobe really transformed. Now I don't buy things a little too big to hide under or grow into and I'm not afraid of short skirts, tight clothing, or very feminine things.

2. I realized that, to me, accentuating my legs means short skirts and heels. This isn't necessarily appropriate for all situations (work, teaching, everyday) and I'm interested in figuring out what would accentuate my legs without being too "fun." Certainly, any clothing that fits is good and, being petite, I have to almost always get my pants hemmed. I have also gotten used to wearing heels with pants, which makes my legs look longer. Otherwise, I'm not sure, and still thinking about it...

3. I realized that I have no interest in dying my hair again. I liked it better when there was more natural variation and gray in it.

4. I realized I do a lot more skin care than I thought I did. Perhaps it's because I like any sort of pampering in the bathroom - any excuse to just chill out for a while, like putting a face mask on and reading a magazine for ten minutes, sounds good to me. On the other hand, my skin is one of the only things that makes me feel my age (stupid dark spot). I guess if that's the only thing that makes me feel my age, I should count myself lucky though. And I do love my freckles :)

5. Again and again it comes down to wearing things that fit.

TAG, you're it!

My eyes are probably my most complimented feature and have been my whole life. My pale skin and darker hair help accentuate them, but so does white clothing and blue jewelry.

I recently dyed my hair (well, Stephen did as a birthday present, but you get the idea) and interestingly enough I realized I liked it better before (gray and all) - which is a good realization because dying my hair is certainly something that got cut out of the budget, along with a car and cable, as unnecessary expenses. The dye just flattens everything out - I liked the natural variation before.

I took this picture two years ago to show off the necklace that my friend Nayad made me for my birthday, but you get the idea: white shirt, blue necklace - hello eyes!



Stephen also magically made my hair curly (last summer), so here's a comparison for the hair (today):



And the whole outfit for today:



Shoes: Keen hiking boots
Jeans: Michael Kors
Shirt: Old Navy
Necklace: Some hippie store back in Vermont
Earrings: Some craft fair back in Vermont
Ring: Art Gecko
Watch: Tokyo Bay

I have to walk two miles to campus today (well, I could take the bus, but it's gorgeous out) since I left my bike there yesterday due to the rain, so I thought it would be a great day to break in my hiking boots more (we're off to Yellowstone State park this weekend). I love these Michael Kors jeans - so comfortable, nice wash, and, well, they make my ass look great. This is a new shirt, one of the rare finds that are thin and light enough for summer, but not quite see-through. I just recently re-discovered this necklace, so I'm excited to break it out :)

I'm going to a girlfriend's birthday party tonight with Nick so the outfit is also easy to convert to nighttime with some cute shoes.

Oh yeah, remember that Dress Your Best Week I was going to do? Okay, for realz this time!

The first item on my list was my nails. I'm not quite sure how to dress to show them off, but I can tell you what I do to keep them nice. Honestly, I don't do a lot - I shape them (squarish tips), keep them clean, clip hangnails if they pop up, and usually just use clear polish on them.

Before:


After:


I suppose rings are a way to show off your nails - these are my four most commonly worn rings:


When I want to do something fun I have a bunch of polishes:


Some are tame (pale pink or mother of pearl), some are totally for fun (blue, yellow, black) and some are mostly for toes (bright pink):


The main problem I have is frisbee - it's very easy to break a nail when handling the disc. I keep clippers and a file in my gear bag to take care of any breaks right away. There are two ways you can throw a disc:

Backhand (what most people are familiar with):


And Forehand, which is more common in Ultimate because it is harder to throw (and especially harder to huck it) and therefore you force the person you are guarding to throw this way by guarding against them using their backhand (for example, standing on their left side if they are right handed):




Anyway, somehow this turned into a post about frisbee - sort of like how picnics go around here. This is what I ended up wearing today:



Danskos - Ebay
Khakis - Old Navy
Belt - Old Navy (shortened at local cobbler)
Black t-shirt - Banana Republic
Glasses - Zennioptical.com
Bracelet - Handmade by me at Anthology
Ring - Art Gecko