This Is Home

Over my adult years I have lived in a few places but I have always come back to what I regard as my home town of Deal, although I didn't move there till I was 15 I always regard it as home.

I am ridiculously proud of how beautiful Deal is, google it for more impressive images and love the fact we have the UK's only concrete pier.  Deal is a old smuggling town and I took these as I walked back from going to see a lady about a dress, like some people see men about dogs I see ladies about dresses.

Anyway as I love my home town and think it is beautiful I thought you might like to see some of the reasons why I love it so.

The shelter that I have pictured below always reminded me in my late teens when I was desperate to leave Deal and for something to happen, reminded me of the song Every Day Is Like Sunday andd I would sometimes sit here or lay on the beach humming or singing it to myself.  Funny how things change back then I wanted to be any place else now I love home.

Finally Deal has been voted High Street of the Year by the Telegraph, now I have to say I am not sure if it is High Street of the Year, or if it has been voted that due to some down from London's who work for The Telegraph, but there are some rather nice shops here.  This one Taylor-Jones & Sons kindly let me take a picture and they sell really lovely quirky homewear and art.

Anyway this is my home town, have you ever been here?  Or are you ridiculously proud of your town, tell me I want to know dear reader type as I am dead nosy!

Perfect Prints

Sorry for the sound of silence on this Blog, but y'know life and not feeling bloggy.  However, I am am back and those who know me or regular readers of this Blog will know I am potty about prints.  Give me a quirky print and I am a happy girl.  I often have a lust list in my head of what prints I want next, so I thought I would share with you some of my current favourites that are currently making my fat little heart sing.

Usually I go for dresses but I am loving the idea of this Banana crop top and skirt, from Oh My Honey, which I could totally see Paloma Faith rocking.  It costs £59.00 and goes from a size 8 to 20 but fellow fatties do not despair there is a custom order on the site which I am taking to mean that they will do larger but alas I cannot find the crop.

The Cat dress is from Mod Cloth and is very high on my lust list at the moment, when finances allow and I feel brave about possible customs charges I believe this will be my new print frock.  Those who regularly read this blog will know my favourite ever item of clothing is my Get Cutie Gnome dress as featured in this post, with that in mind who could resist in adding to their collection of Gnomes this cute skirt is also from Mod Cloth and is $59.99.

I am loving the Fox Print on this lovely dress from The Victory Parade by Limb Clothing, unfortunately they only go up a size 20 on the site but do know they have sent me a 22 before so I think maybe they may be up for negotiation but at £99.00 it is an investment piece.  If you love prints then this dress is available in loads of fabrics so have a look.

I have included this beautiful Flytrap dress by Deadly Dames at Pin Up Girl Clothing, with more than a nod to Little Shop of Horrors and the punch of the blue against the green I love it, but it is always out of stock! Boo!!!!! However, you can ask to be notified when it is in stock.  At $128.00 plus possible customs and shipping it would definitely be an investment for me but if your feeling rich and brave.

Lastly the dinosaur dress is from Vampire Bunnies I know they only list to a 18 but I know I have several custom size dresses that have been made for me by Ellie, I think generally she charges a £5.00 extra for a plus size and a £5.00 extra for straps or to make it longer and I have to say in my dealings with her she has always been a pleasure. Again Ellie carries loads of different fabrics and is approachable to ask about hunting down a fabric.

I have to say this is a highly edited list but if you love a print and want to check out some other great retailers with fabulous prints I cannot recommend Get Cutie and Silly Old Seadog highly enough.  Debz from Wannabe Princess has also featured some lovely print skirts from E Bay which are pretty reasonable and Betty Pamper has featured a brand called Little Wicked's Emporium which does some lovely prints.  Although Collectif, Lady V London and Hell Bunny are more retro I have seen some amazing prints by them, one of which I will feature as a OOTD soon.

If there are any brands you know that I might love especially if they feature prints not in a 50's retro way, let me know as I am always hungry for prints.

Birthday Take 2

As I said my original day out with the girls came to a bit of a halt when my lovely friend and organiser of the day ended up in hospital.  So what's a girl to do when a celebration has been planned and cancelled, redo it of course!

So three months after my real Birthday like the Queen I trotted out to do a second one.  My original outfit was the Gemma Collins dress I tried on a Bluewater but due to the searing heat body con was out  and my beautiful Lady Voluptuous Phoebe got her first outing.

 I bought the Phoebe in size 22/24 and it is a tad bit too big if I am honest but I don't think a size 20 would have fit me as there is around 3 to 4 inches of material spare at the waist but not 6" which on the size chart is the difference.  I am really hoping that Lady Voluptuous does away with the dual sizing as for me I don't think it is a winner.  The dress itself is lovely and features a little net underskirt which gives it a bit more poof and elevates it from a day dress into something a bit more special.  Be warned though a gust of wind can see you doing a Marilyn in this dress.

I teamed it with some very old Primark Wedges, my Blackheart Creatives Fabulous Forty necklace, some amazing donut earrings that Jenny bought me, My Janine Basil Pixel Cherry clip and a Drumstick handbag also a present from Jenny.  With my hair I had tried to create some ommph and mini short hive as I am growing it but I'm not sure it was that successful, and my lipstick was a Bourjois Rouge Edition Velvet in Ole Flamingo which is a lovely long lasting bright pink.

It was an amazing day full of friends, food, cocktails, cake, gossip, laughter, fun and dancing after we swapped the more serious club for a cheese fest!  I could not have wished for more.

Guilty Pleasures - The Hunt for The Best Veggie Breakfast, The Sea Cafe, Walmer Green

I have a secret I LOVE a fry up. As a recent sorta veggie (I eat fish still) the  wife of a Veggie and the lover of a going out for a brekkie, I am a girl who is on a hunt to find the best brekkie that my area has to offer!

So as it was a glorious day me and The Hub thought we would walk Madame Beyonce our aging Staffrador (Mongrel, if we're going old school) down to the seafront and try our fried breakfast luck at The Sea Cafe as there is a lot of seating outside and it looked dog friendly.

The Sea Cafe is converted from the old public toilets, which upsets some people on Trip Advisor but not me I didn't spot a dirty old urinal in the kitchen so I feel quite happy!  Now this is not chi chi Latte Deal and I may well come to that in further reviews, but more your greasy spoon but that was the order of the day I wanted a hearty breakfast.

Inside is kind of arty and eclectic with mismatched furniture and art.  However as we had Beyonce we chose a seat outside and me and the hub went for the Veggie Breakfast which came with a Veggie sausage, egg, fried bread or toast, beans, mushrooms, egg, hash browns, bread and butter and a mug of tea at £4.50.  Madame Beyonce prefers a more meaty option and I thought she would appreciate a sausage.

A slight disclaimer any breakfast with beans and a fried slice is a winner for me and the fried bread was good.  I would have liked more mushrooms and if I was to return I would order extra mushrooms and I was thrilled that they were real as a few times I have been horrified by tinned mushrooms on my breakfast.  The egg was well cooked and still runny and I liked the veggie sausage (I think it was a Linda McCartney one) The tea was good and strong so I am voting this breakfast a 8 out of 10.

I think my happy face bellow sums it up.

Now as I am ridiculously in love and proud of my home town I will leave you with some pictures of our splendid seafront and the Lifeboat station on Walmer Green

A random Totem pole by the beach huts

Those benches were home of many a teenage snog!

Stay tuned for more of guilty pleasures and if you know of the finest breakfast available to humanity let me know people!

PS; Beyonce also enjoyed her sausage, but this should not necessarily be taken as a recommendation as she is not the most discerning of eaters

Bluewater Blogger Meet and Boobies

This Sunday I had the pleasure of going to my first Bloggers meet, I have long wanted to join in these fun filled days but I am usually working!  However, this weekend I wasn't and it would be rude not to attend.

It was a pretty intimate get together as it was Father's Day so a lot of people were doing family stuff but the amazing Anne-Lise from Mookies Life, Leah from Just Me Leah, Abi from A is for Abi and Caroline from Curvy Wordy all made it, as well as Leah's lovely friend Rach.  I had never met any of these ladies bar Mookie before but I can report with all honesty that they are totally lovely, gorgeous people inside and out.

First stop was Evans I didn't see a lot that I wanted but me, Mookie and Leah all had a blast trying on this lovely Scarlet and Jo dress in the sale, like a fat bunch of Charlie's Angels.  Leah's friend Rach made a excellent artistic director directing us for our shots and this was the rock one I think you can tell Leah and Mookie are more authentic rockers than me.

I did try on this rather beautiful dress by Gemma Collins that I am kinda in love with, it is a bit different for me as I usually do quirky rather than glam.

Bottom shot encouraged by Leah

Then after Evans we met Caroline, who I greeted by stating: "You're the booby lady, right?  Can you help me find a bra that pushes my boobs together as there too far apart."  The lovely Caroline took this in her stride and said she would and through her I discovered my boobs are 3 cups sizes larger than I thought as through wearing badly fitting bras a lot of boob was living under my arms! (who knew) and that  I had been putting my bra on all wrong for like 30 years!  Although now getting dressed takes a while longer!

We then all headed for a noisy lunch where we chatted nonsense and generally had a lovely time.  Fair play to all the husbands who met us they managed this brilliantly, then took the pictures at our insistence, whilst we posed and mugged for all we were worth.

After lunch Leah headed off for family matters, Rach and her man went off for a wander, whilst Abi, Mookie, Caroline and I headed to Yours and I finally tried on the Tess dress, as I was feeling left out as every other blogger has tried it.

Thanks to Abi for taking this

After that we headed to Marks' for Bras and Caroline helped me with my bra problems, if you don't read her blog do as this lady is a boob and underwear genius and as predicted the husband was appreciative of the new fit.

We then did ice cream and drinks and it was time to say goodbye for me as I had a busy day the next day, but I can honestly say it was the most fun I had, had in a while and proved to me good company is what makes a day as I only spent £14.00 on a bra but it was the best shopping trip in ages, so if more brands could take note so there is a bit more range we could explore whilst out that would be great.

*sorry for the lack of group shots but I am a bad blogger, but if you look on other people's blogs you might see more pictures.

Fat Pinups Forever Or My New Tattoo

I have been wanting a fat pinup tattoo for quite a long time, the plan is it will be part of a bigger piece.  So as Dave Grohl cancelled our date on Friday and my local tattoo studio Tribal Nation in Deal was having a walk in day it just seemed like fate.

I had narrowed it down to these three beauties:

So which did I go for, well it had to be the librarian really as a huge book lover I felt it reflected me the best.

I am thrilled with it and although it is a bit ouchy at the moment I can't wait to add to it.  I am loving the change of hair colour to red and the hub says she reminds me of Thelma from Scooby Doo a bit which is a good thing as she was my first chubby role role model, as I always thought she looked great.

Sometimes I Wish I Had Wingz - A Product Review

Firstly apologies to the lovely Sarah who sent me these Wingz to try out a little while ago and I had meant to review much sooner.  However, life has been kicking me in the arse a bit and if I was the Queen I would certainly be using terms like Annus Horribilis, but things like blogging have been low in my list of priorities as have even hair dying so excuse the barnet.

Now for the Wingz, my husband thought they looked a bit like crotchless leggings but the idea is they give you sleeves to pop on under dresses or tops without sleeves and look a bit like this when on.

Not me - Taken from the Wingz Website

I Chose the 3/4 length fitted sleeve version as I felt this would go best with my style and what is already in my wardrobe.  I teamed these with Vampire Bunnies Star Trek Print Dress with spaghetti straps, I have a sneaky suspicion that a thinker strap might of looked better but here is how it looked.

I found the Wingz pretty comfy to wear after getting used to them, as initially they did feel a bit odd and I liked that you could see all of my dress as a cardigan can hide such a lot and sometimes ruin the line.  I think the weight will be perfect for Spring, early Summer and Autumn although I would maybe want something a bit warmer with this dress in Winter.

If you fancy giving Wingz a go there are several styles on their website - Here

*I was gifted this item for review but my opinions are mine, mine, mine!