You Can Look Good In Clothes!

Wow, sorry about the delay.  I am totally in over my head with projects.  I wish there were 20 more hours in the day (and that they come after my kids go to bed.)  I signed up for 30 in 30 but I don't think I can do it.  I've barely even showered this week.  Life is just crazy right now!  Not to mention that I sliced my finger open last night and it's making typing blog posts tricky.  

I fully intend to keep doing the posts I wanted to do, but I hope you'll bear with me if I don't post every day.  And I did the survey in a stupid non-calculatable format so I have to tally those results by hand.  Yay me.  

Dress:  Forever 21; $22

Tank: Old Navy; $4

Skirt: Gap, Thrifted; $5

Boots: Famous Footwear; $50

Scarf: Walmart; $5

I was watching "What Not to Wear" tonight and this Dolly Parton reincarnated girl was on the show.  After her makeover she looked SO much better (as they always do) but she hated her new look.  She wanted to go back to the over-madeup face, the huge bumped up platinum blonde hair, and her teeny bopper style.  You know why she did this?  Here's my theory:

You get used to a certain idea of what looks good.  For me, for a very long time, the only way I thought I could look good in anything was if I lost 10 lbs.  And even now that I'm dressing more for my body type which is helping so much, I still have to push away that idea about myself.  I will always want to lose that last 10 lbs, and I'm always trying to.  But if you are anything like me or the Barbie girl, you have to open up your mind to the possibility that you could actually look good in clothes how you are (without loads of make up, without Spanx, without huge bleached hair, without losing weight.)  You CAN look good in clothes, but you have to figure out how.   

That's my Soap Box for the night.  Good night y'all.   

Dressing For Your Confidence

If you didn't read my post over at Momma Go Round, you should.  Otherwise you'll just be completely lost.  Lost as in starting to watch LOST during the middle of season three, lost. 

Just kidding.  It's pretty self-explanatory. 

Dressing For Your Body Type
Sad as it is, our bodies don't stay the way they were when we were 18.  But really who can expect that with all the drastic changes we make throughout our lives?  Seriously, if your body is the same when you're 80 as it was when you were a teenager, take a good long look at your life. 

I remember the first time I had the realization that I needed to change the way I dressed.  I was in my first year of marriage, and as you know, marriage comes with at least a few comfort pounds.  I had been wearing tight jeans and shirts for a long time and then I realized I was sucking in my belly a little more frequently and looking, well...fat. 

Source

 But the weird thing was that I hadn't gained more than five pounds.  It's like the entire composition of my body just changed.  I could have had super powers for all I knew. 

So I went shopping.  But this time, I shopped in the LADIES area (I think this was a department store) instead of the MISSES area.  I was totally embarrassed to be shopping with all the frumpy old ladies in there who wear pants up to their chest.  But I actually found some clothes that didn't make me look like a teeny bopper.  And then I went to Charlotte Russe and bought jeans that were in a bigger size.  That made me sad, to be buying a bigger size.  But I needed it.  I just wasn't cutting it in the jeans I had. 

The clothes were revolutionary for me.  I realized that there was a whole world of clothes that I could wear that would make me look like a woman rather than a high school student whose love handles look like a Play Dough fat factory.  I looked good in clothes again, and I gained back so much confidence that I'd lost.  And I actually came to terms that maybe my body wasn't so much 'fat' as it was just a woman's body, rather than a girl's.  

Kudos to you if you are skinny.  Seriously, everyone loves to hate you for your body.  :)  But the majority of us have a few extra pounds that we would love to ditch but it just ain't happenin'.  And it's really easy to get depressed about it.  But guess what?  Maybe you just aren't dressing for your current shape.  And I don't just mean buying clothes that actually FIT (but that helps loads.)  I mean dressing to flatter your lumps.  

It's important to me, ladies.  It's important to me that you all recognize the beauty that you have, obviously INSIDE of you, and that you can radiate that beauty outwardly as well.  You may have forgotten how good you can feel about yourself when you actually feel beautiful.  Looking good always makes me feel so much more confident, and I hope that I can inspire you to do the same. 

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So without further ado, I bring you the new series "Dressing For Your Body Type."  I will discuss the different body types there are, what these types need to emphasize and de-emphasize, and then find clothes for that body type.  Get ready to assess.