Beej, of thebustytraveler.blogspot.com, suggested this blog and I love it both as a fat and as a beginning seamstress/DIY/crafty-gal! I was quietly catching up on some recent posts when I came across this one and just WOW & YES! More, please?! Ha-ha! I am falling for “Psycho Sue” and cannot wait for more fun sewing tips and “Fatshion for Wayward Girls!”

This week’s Tank Top Tuesday pic comes from Beej of http://flickr.com/photos/tootsicle. If you’re on the Fatshionista LiveJournal community, you’ll have seen her there for sure! Always stylish with a unique or handmade twist, this gal knows how to work that fatshion like nobody I know! =0)
And now you can check out her brand new blog: http://thebustytraveler.blogspot.com!

Thanks, doll! I love this pic! It’s all sass & glam and thank you ma’am! Ha!

**Exercise your right to bare arms! Email your Tank Top Tuesday pic here: notblueatall@notblueatall.com I still haven’t had any guys submit a photo. I would love to feature ya though. So please, take a chance, we love everyone here! <3

I suddenly can’t remember how I found Big Boy Fashion but I am so glad that I did. I had long complained (whined, bitched, wev) about the lack of male perspective in the fat blogs (only two that I’m aware of and only one has posted fatshion pics to my knowledge). And I am loving it every day! It’s so refreshing to see fatshion presented in a “whatever makes you feel good” sort of way! It’s certainly how I approach fatshion. In a way I wish everyone saw fatshion this way so that manufacturers would be forced to use more natural fabrics and designs. Ha-ha! Please check it out, you won’t be disappointed.

This week’s Tank Top Tuesday picture comes from Eku Egao, taken on her trip to trip to Perry, Maine searching for agates on the beach! “I’m a rock hound, among many other things, haha! I stock shelves overnight for a living, but my passions lie in comics, gems, singing, and acting.” Check out her work with a super professional fandub production of the last season of Sailor Moon www.youtube.com/starsfandub, “I’ve just wrapped up recording as the evil Queen Nehelenia. (I’m a total nerd, but I know there are other Sailor Moon fans out there who oughta hear this. Fat girl acting!)”

Thanks, Eku, I love this picture so very much!
We don’t often get to see fats in nature, as it were. Ha-ha! I wanna go rock hunting now!

**Would you like to exercise yoru right to bare arms?
Email your Tank Top Tuesday picture to: notblueatall@notblueatall.com

You know how it feels when you have things planned out to perfection in your head and then suddenly everything just sort of falls apart? Yeah…THAT! I thought I would have so much time after work to pretty myself up some and well, no! I closed the cafe at 2, headed across the street for a trim and then my wonderful and lovely friend let me borrow a vest for my outfit of awesome. By the time I got home? I had like 30 minutes to shower and get ready. Ack!

My Avenue tights of such high expectations ended up not even going past my thighs (I got a size E for fuck’s sake!) and so that sort of threw me off, too. Luckily my Avenue boots worked out okay. I say okay because they did fit and look great, but because the ankles were so very loose the entire boot ended up scrunched down around my ankles. My husband said they looked fine this way, but they left my ankles sore from the added pressure I guess. I am considering having the ankles taken in somewhere and maybe adjusting the top lacing bit. Oh, yeah…I bought these boots in black. And they fit my 19″ calves! It took a bit of patience and my husband was kind enough to work out the lacing in the back once they were on so that they looked nice (I seriously cannot do it when they’re on and sort of need them completely loosened to zip up the side zipper). In the end I’m glad I bought them, but they’re not my dream boots of radical awesomeness.

So yeah, my outfit didn’t turn out as planned. Also because the vest I had dyed didn’t take the black dye completely. It will require another dye job. *sigh* It’s a lot of work dying stuff, I had no idea. C’est la vie! I made the best of it and while I didn’t have time for the cute eye liner I wanted to do I did dig out my fave glittery eye shadows! Ha! We headed to Oakland for dinner and the Big Moves show.

Dinner was weird. I mean, the food was great (a bit pricey for my taste though) but the bar was closed (transferring their license apparently) and then we had to wait for them to process our bill forever! It wasn’t packed or anything either. In fact it was down right dead. So we ended up being a bit late for the show. We still made it in time to see the show start, but I of course had wanted to mingle and chat with fats. Again, oh well. I did run into two fab ladies that I knew. And the show was good. Not great? No. You see, my two BFFs and I had attended the Go Big or Go Home show a couple months ago and the Fat Fly Girls basically performed numbers from that show, plus one new one (unless I’m wrong). But the belly dancers were lovely and Vicadonia was fabulous as always. I did enjoy it, but the set up was a bit weird because we were sitting at tables instead of auditorium style. Also a lot of the dancing was on the floor level and not on stage so it could be hard to see at times. It was nice to expose my other friends to fat positive things. And the chocolate was Killer! Ha!

After the show half of my group headed home as they had work in the morning. The rest of us hit up a local tea shop to chill out, chat and sip teas! It was nice talking to these two wonderful ladies whom I had grown up with. Yep, we’ve known each other for over twenty years which seems crazy, but they’re rad! Definitely need to do that more often! Before we left, they took this pic of my outfit (pay no attention to my cheesey smile):

As it was cold and wet I did have to wear my Avenue Trench/Raincoat (from 3 years ago, sorry) but the t-shirt was Avenue $9.96! (The t-shirt was dove grey with black and silver glittery beading on it.) The vest was borrowed, but from Torrid and the skirt was a tube dress from Target clearance last year for $4! The clutch is actually Avenue, too. The the necklace says FAT in Fame-like lettering that I got on Etsy for $10! Sorry, it doesn’t show the boots on me.

And this lovely lady was in the display window of the antique shop we took my pic in front of.
Just thought she was cool:

All in all it was good fun. Plan or no, I enjoyed spending time with my fave peeps and seeing a big fat show to celebrate my birthday instead of a party! Ha!

Today actually is my birthday. I don’t like to have a fuss made over me because of it and so I don’t have that on my Facebook at all. I was surprised that my business neighbor bought me a gorgeous balloon bouquet of blue stars and rainbow-heart butterflies (how did he know me so well?) and a card and a happy birthday banner…my customers keep asking who’s birthday or how long ago my birthday was. Ha! When I say it’s mine, today, they just look confused. I just hate fake or obligatory greetings/offerings/etc. I feel like the people who should know do and that is that. I am so very grateful for all that I have and wouldn’t change it for anything. Please don’t take offense, it’s not a big deal for me anyway.

I’m not yet sure I’ll be celebrating it today at all. Saturday was the true celebration. I may have some wine or something. I may go to karaoke and get faced…I don’t know. Today feels weird to me for other reasons, too. Just not feeling like my bubbly self. Woke up too early from a night of fitful sleeping. Woke up the puppy by going to the bathroom at 5am and thus my husband got up to walk him and seemed fairly grumpy by the time I saw him after my shower. A friend asked if he had anything planned for me tonight and I was taken aback by that. Not sure why. I guess because, well, I love my husband and think the world of him, but I also think he’s going through something internally right now and isn’t ready to come out of his shell. In other words: No. I doubt he’s planning a thing and that’s fine. Ha-ha!

<3
S