Not a Skinny Mini

Talk about stepping out of your comfort zone - when I bought this dress I thought I would wear it as pajamas, or around the house on my own... turns out it looked better on me than I thought it would.

Mama's Measurements

This post is a little different from my regular posts. First off - I've been grossly and viciously ill since just after New Year's and I know I'm totally failing you with outfit posts - I will be back with a vengeance next week - I promise!

In lieu of an outfit post today I wanted to go over something that happened just recently: I received a nasty facebook message.

Let me preface this by pointing out a few things:

1) I am a Mom. A woman. A Canadian. AND a blogger. Yes: I take pictures of myself and put them on the internet and Yes: I realize that that opens me up to a certain amount of scrutiny. I am not a fool. I was prepared for that before I hit post for the very first time.

2) I am not a "fashion expert". There is no where on my blog that you will find me saying that I am such a thing. I am just a plus size, Canadian woman who wears clothes and takes pictures and puts them on the internet. The end.

3) I am not okay with body-shaming. I try my best to dress the body that I have in a way that I think is stylish, comfortable and appropriate. I don't make claims to be a model, to be a designer, to be a stylist, none of those things. I don't like to shame anyone for being big, small, skinny, thick, curvy, flat, boob-a-licious or WHATEVER. Let's stop telling people they're too big to be this or too small to be that or too anything to be anything.
We. Are. People.
We. Are. All. Different.
THAT. IS. AWESOME.

SO - having said those 3 things I was, frankly, shocked when I received this message in my personal facebook "other" folder in the past week.

You dont know me and i dont know you. But I have read you're blog and i am pissed off at you always saying your plus sized or whatever. Your not a plus-size woman your just fatter than you should be but your not like a natural size 24 or whatever. In all your pics you can tell that your just fat and you shouldnt be calling yourself plussize and saying stuff about being "hard to fit". plus size and fat arent the same thing. Nobody cares about you"re stupid cothes blog so stop posting.

Wow.
Yeah.
That happened.

This person - who I am not naming, because what is the point - took the time to figure out who I am, my real name (since you will realize that I don't use my "real" name here on the blog) and then find my facebook and send me a message via fb to tell me that I'm not a plus sized woman (I'm just fat) and no one cares about my outfits anyways. Um... what?

First, apparently, I'm not plus-sized. Well - I am totally baffled, because I have no idea why I own all these size 14, 16 and 18 clothes! I've been wearing the wrong size all along! Also - evidently until I'm a "natural size 24 or whatever" I'm not plus-sized. Someone alert the media! We've been labeling plus clothing all wrong!


Here's the thing, readers: I don't care.

I don't really care whether this person (or anyone) thinks I'm plus-sized or skinny. I don't care. I live in this body. I have to dress it. I know that I carry extra weight on my body and where on said body it is. It's MY body.

FYI - In case anyone's wondering. I DO wear plus-sized clothes. I'm not sure how there's necessarily a difference between being plus-sized and being fat. Does the writer think I'm too fat to be plus-size? Not fat enough? I'm confused. In any case, generally I'm a size 16. And for kicks - here's my measurements just to give some accuracy!

So, even though no one cares about my "stupid cothes blog" (clothes blog? They're probably right; as evidenced by my 2 blogloving subscribers and 0 other actual followers - oh well! lol) I'm just going to keep on keeping on. And if you're reading this, letter writer - click on by - I don't do this for you. I do it for me.

Tea.

Fab-Friday! :: Laurel

I'm so excited to start this new feature here on What Mama Wears! Twice a month (every other Friday) I will be featuring a real-life, fabulous femme! I'll be calling it Fab-Friday, and if you're interested in participating - please let me know.

These ladies are either Moms, Step-moms, Grandmas, Aunts, Teachers, Professors, or basically anyone who deals with children (small, grown or otherwise) on a regular basis. They're all shapes and sizes and they're all beautiful - obviously.

I love how these wonderful ladies have chosen outfits that make them feel beautiful and let their gorgeousness shine through.

Enjoy!
Tea.


Introducing Laurel!
Laurel is a professor who deals with "grown up" kids day in and day out. She has a beautiful, classic style that I'm excited to share with you today, and to let you get to know her a bit better.

Blue Blazer & Print Dress

I recently picked up this blue blazer from Suzy Shier. It's purely for looks as it has no buttons, no lining and is actually quite stretchy, but I loved the colour and I think it's good to have a few "not quite" blazers in the wardrobe to throw overtop of a sleeveless dress or shirt when the occasion calls for it.

 

It's my birthday, I'll wear hot pink if I want to

Hey there Blogees! It's my birthday! I'm 32! I don't know why I'm writing that with an exclamation point!

Okay, I'll stop.

Seriously though - something about birthdays after a certain age losing their lustre makes me want to wear hot pink and/or other freakishly bright and annoying colours. Kind of like, hey, I'm 32 and I'm gonna wear whatever the hell I want... or something.

Also - I love this skirt.

Anywho - this morning I went to the park with my BFF and her kiddos (and my kiddos, obvs) to hang out and be outside in the sunshine and have celebratory birthday timbits. And this is what I wore. Yay for birthday outfits (NOT to be confused with birthday suits - no one wants to see that, trust me).

Mud Run Fun Fashion

Today's post is going to be a bit different.

For the 2nd year in a row now I've pulled up my big-girl panties and gone and done Mud Hero: a 6k mud obstacle course fun-run. It is seriously the hardest thing I do all year (and no, it's not nearly as hard as Tough Mudder, or Warrior Dash or a myriad of other mud-runs.... it's kind of like those runs goofy little brother... but hey) and I'm usually really sore and really proud of myself the next day. I'm not the most fit person around, but I manage to complete the run and do all the obstacles, so I love it. And I'm so doing it again next year.

This year, the hubs decided to join me, and our team "Muddy Mayhem" was made up of myself, the hubs, my folks, and my friend (who is way tougher than me and has done Tough Mudder approximately 18000% more times than I ever will) and I decided to share some "mud run fashion" with you.

For mud-runs, the normal fashion rules do not apply. You need to wear clothes that are fairly tight, made of wicking material, and add some wacky costume accessories to make you stand out to the photographers around the course. So here's what we wore!

 

My folks - possibly the coolest parents ever. 

 

My tough mud-run friend - this hero is ready for mud-battle!

 

Here you can see us rocking the neon yellow knee highs and yellow bandanas we chose for our team this year. Also - fluorescent shoelaces. Obviously.

Summer Sunday

Going to church in the summer can be awesome - you see people that you probably haven't seen in a few weeks, everyone is happy because it's summer, and the kids Sunday School consists mostly of games so they can hardly wait to get there.

It can also be absolutely ridiculously hot. And when you're part of the music leadership like this Mama, you can't just show up in a pair of shorts and a tee. Well, I mean, I COULD (because our church is awesome like that) but I'd probably feel bad about it later on.

So that presents the problem of how to dress up for church and be looking good without roasting. Solution: simple shift dress to the rescue!

 

What Mama Wears

Hey Blogees.

So - this is not totally new - What Mama Wears used to show up occasionally on my other blog Talk And Tea Leaves... but I've decided that it needs a home of it's own.

For those that know me, you know that I LURVE looking on Pinterest for outfit ideas, endlessly "window shopping" online and just basically dreaming of a walk-in closet that's the size of my second floor.

However, that's not likely to happen... like... ever. And my clothing budget is basically around 0.00 each month... and I usually shop at seriously high-end stores... like Walmart. And Value Village. And sometimes I get super fed up with the options that are out there and I sew something up myself.

Also - I'm plus-sized. Yup. It's not necessarily the size I thought I would be, and it may not be the size I continue to be - but it's my body and if I want to leave the house and not be arrested, I have to wear clothes on it. However, being plus-sized often means that I'm apparently required to pay WAY more money for the same clothes that come in "standard" sizes...  which I'd be totally cool with if a size 2 and a size 8 cost different amounts (I mean, hey, obviously one uses less fabric) but they don't. So I don't see why a size 16 costs a different amount than a size 8 - ya hear me?  This blog is NOT however about body bashing in any way shape or form. People who comment and body bash will totally not be tolerated and I will mentally send a herd of angry goats to come and eat your clothes. Or wish you step on a Lego. Either or, really.

And unlike the previous What Mama Wears instalments - this blog is going to be about honesty. I can't promise I'll take pictures every single day, but I will try. EVEN on days when I'm wearing a ponytail, yoga pants and a crummy t-shirt. Because sometimes THAT is actually What Mama Wears. It's about ownership. This is my life, this is my body, I am the Mama, and this is what I wear.

I look forward to sharing it with you.

Peace, Love, and BIG closets,
Tea.