Alternative Plus Size Thrifting

For optimal viewing gratification please click and enjoy this video while perusing my post.

 

 

 

 

Our theme this month for Ahead of the Curve is Plus Size Thrifting.

This look was a total steal! From head to toe the whole outfit cost me $26.

The most expensive item in my look was my skirt, I picked it up recently at ASOS with a coupon and got it for $15. I picked up the shirt at Vaule Village for $4; Vaule Village is a  chain similar to Savers. 

When I got the shirt it was not a crop top, I decided to chop it in half to make my own crop top. Ya sure as heck can't beat a $4 crop top! I picked up the gloves on eBay for $2, and the hat as well for $5.

The boots came second hand from a friend and the necklace I crafted myself. 

I gave myself a $25 budget for this look and I think I did pretty fantastic only going over by $1. I would like to point out that three of the items were shipped and I still keep the look under $30!!!

Proving you don't need to spend a mint to dress fashion forward and look sass-a-licious!!

 My look for this months blog really took me out of my comfort zone. I've always been afraid to show my belly, let alone any of my midriff, but there is no hiding in a crop top. Wearing one shows my stretchmarks and I'm cool with that; having four children I've earned every one of them. I had my daughter, who is my photographer, take a photo of me from behind as well; I prepared myself to be horrified but I found  my back was interesting and pretty with rolls.  
Who knew:)

Don't stop here! Check out all the chic, smart ways other bloggers from AHEAD OF THE CURVE interpreted this month's theme as well. Just click HERE.

Hedwig And The Angry Inch; Hed Head Outfit Of The Day

"Ladies and gentlemen, whether you like it or not... Hedwig."

 

 

 I woke yesterday morning with an over-whelming desire to embrace my inner Hedwig. This is what I came up with at a moments notice. I think it's Hedwigish.

 

 

 

"Don't you know me? I'm the new Berlin Wall. Try and tear me down!"

Skirt

Forever 21+  (Size 3X) 

Leggings

Forever 21+  (Size 3X)

Shirt

Was a gift from a friend, but you can find a similar shirt at Rainbow Shops. This print is also available on two tanks at rainbow.

Boots

I got last year from Iron Fist Clothing. They are no longer in stock, but if you look around sometimes you can find them. Here is a listing for a pair currently on eBay. 

Necklace

EILH. I have lots of different Hedwig designs on my Etsy page. I also take custom orders so if you would like me to design you something special just send me a message on Etsy.

Glasses

Forever 21

Lips

 Pretty Zombie Cosmetics. Shade Blue Moon.
 

I leave you with my all time favorite Hedwig and the Angry Inch song.

A True Blue Garden Party

 

For optimal viewing gratification please click and enjoy this video while perusing my post.

 

 

 

 

 

Our theme this month for Ahead of the Curve is Garden Party. I can't say I've ever been to a fancy garden party; I can only imagine a true garden party would be totally classy, with fruity cocktails and ladies in pastel frocks with large hats. Oh, and mini sandwiches of exotic types, lots of mini sandwiches. In Canada, people tend to throw a different type of garden party. There is usually no garden. It's mostly about the fire, burgers, and beer. Today I dressed for the party I want, not the party I've got.

My outfit is mostly a mish-mash of items I've had sitting in my closet, Unfortunately, some of these items are currently unavailable. I am sorry about that, but I still wanted to go with this look; hopefully my outfit will still inspire. The dress I picked up at eShakti last fall; they carry many dresses in this color so you should still be able to find something you love. I had this dress made custom to my measurements (53/50/64). You can get any dress from their site custom fitted for an extra $7. I think they did a pretty bang on job though I wish the sleeves were a little shorter and tighter but, for the most part I'm very happy with the fit. The one thing I do dislike about this dress is the fact it wrinkles so easy. The dress was steamed ten minutes before these photos were taken and you can see in many of them it's already wrinkly. Wrinkles are my arch enemy. My shoes and socks are both from ModCloth. The shoes are sold out, but don't lose hope, ModCloth quite often brings back their popular items. You also can make a request to be notified if they do become available in stock. The dancing on flair socks are currently in stock and I think they are totally adorable. Who doesn't want to wear the same socks they wore the first day of kindergarten? HA! Alright so maybe not everyone, but I'll never grow up.

While I'm sure my red hair would have looked fine with this look, I kind of wanted to sport shorter hair, so I pulled out a black wig my husband wore for Halloween. I thought it looked pretty cute for my fictitious party. Blue Moon lips from  Pretty Zombie Cosmetics and my paper doll Divine pin finished off my look. I really love the liquid lip product from PZC but, I'm on the fence still about the blue color. My husband came home and told me he liked them, but they will take some getting used to. How do you feel about all the new quirky lip colors coming into trend? 

 So I'm all dolled up with no real garden party in sight. I think I may need to bring back the art of the garden party around here. Who want's a cocktail?

 

Divine Paper Doll Pin from EILH

Don't stop here! Check out all the chic, smart ways other bloggers from AHEAD OF THE CURVE interpreted this month's theme as well. Just click HERE.

The Wizard of Oz: The Magic Spell of Hell Bunnys Poppy 50s Skirt

For optimal viewing gratification please click and enjoy this wicked  themed video while perusing my post.

 

 

 

The Wizard of Oz was one of my favorite movies as a child. It might even be the movie that started my love of everything dark and villainous in this world. While most girls my age were praying Dorthy make it home safe. I just wanted more of the evil green faced witch and her uber creepy slave monkeys. When putting this look together I kept going back to the scene I have posted above. I wanted to incorporate the yellow brick road, wicked witch, monkeys and of course poppies. I needed everything from this stand out scene to tie together my outfit.

A few months ago I discovered Hell Bunny released a poppy skirt and dress. While the dress is super cute it really wasn't going to work for the look I had in mind. I knew I wanted to make the skirt the center piece and work the darkness around it. These poppies really were the perfect excuse to finally buy my first HB skirt. I picked the skirt up at Sweet Echo Plus. Sweet Echo is my go to shop for Hell Bunny. I order a size 4X. I was a little afraid it would not fit. There is no elastic in a Hell Bunny skirt and their size chart only goes up to a 46" waist. My low waist is 50". If I had to wear this skirt on my low waist it would not fit. It works fine for the high waist look I was going for. I actually can only see myself wearing these skirts high waited. I find it to be a good length high waist. If I wore it down lower it would be longer in my legs then I like.

The bright yellow tights I got from My Tights. I was totally trying to find a pair of tights there were more reasonably priced than We Love Colors. I'll admit I was being cheap. WLC ends up costing me $30 for one pair after shipping and I only wanted a pair of yellow. I found My Tights was much cheaper. These were $9 for the tights and only $5 shipping to Canada. That being said the tights took four weeks too arrive. They also are much too short to fit me properly. I'm 5'6" and the only way I could keep them up was to wear Spanx over top. Spanx under a full skirt suck! If you are under 5'6" I would totally recommend that you check these out. You can't beat the price. The tights were good quality and the color was very vibrant. I'm wearing the UK 28/30 for reference.

For a skirt I wanted the classic black and white side shot of the wicked witch. I had a hard time finding exactly what I wanted so I created the shirt I wanted in RedBubble.

Redbubble is fantastic if you have a vision and can't find what you are looking for. This happens to me a lot. I just have to go ahead and make the stuff I visualize. My shirt was ordered in size XL. It is very snug, but I wanted it very fitted. 

My creepy monkey minions also were custom made. I made a pin and a matching ring. I kind of wish I had made more. Lots and lots of creepy moneys. Can one ever have too many? 

Lastly my shoes came from ASOS. I fell head over heels in love with them. They were so wicked and witchy and made me think of this seasons American Horror Story Coven. I would like to think that The Supreme and the Wicked Witch of the West would have been best buds. Ya know if she hadn't been melted.

Please leave me a comment below and let me know what you thought of today's look. I love getting feedback and answering questions. If there are any items you would like to see me blog about or review let me know. 

Thanks for the creep,

Stina

xx

Candy Strike Teenage Jezebel Cry Baby Tee

For optimal viewing gratification please click and enjoy this wicked  themed video while perusing my post.

 

I'm so freaking thrilled to be sharing my first blog post about Candy Strike. What I love about Candy Strike is their unique off beat screen printed threads and killer designs. Designer Elizabeth Denneau has mad skills and amazing taste. Denneau's newest collection titled Teenage Jezebel, is a tribute to the pope of trash Mr. John Waters. It features designs inspired by the movies Hairspray and CryBaby. This collection is for the misfit and rebel in us all. So if you aren't afraid to express your inner bad girl/boy, check it. The collection includes dresses, skirts, double-sided clutch bags, crops and tees. All items are available in sizes S-4XL. One of the awesome things about this collection is you can custom select your tee style. I ordered my tee with a scoop neck at regular length. You can also opt to order it with a regular neck or as a crop top. Sweet! I have been drying to try a crop for a while and it's always nice to have options. Actually most of the items in the collection can be customized. They are all made in shop by the Candy Strike team. If you're interested in custom it's as easy as a quick email.

I  picked up a couple pieces when this collection was released on March 28th. This is the first look I have put together. The look is pretty classic high school hellcat. I paired my Wanda  Beat It Creep Tee (3X) with a red pencil skirt I got from Pink Clove. This skirt is on sale right now for 6 pounds! It is still available in most sizes up to size 32. I wanted my look to have a traditional pin up cinched waist. I threw on an old Torrid belt I've had for years. I think it pulled together the shirt and the skirt. I wanted to show a full visual look of my Wanda tee so make note of the photo towards the middle where I have untucked my shirt and removed my belt. This tee from Candy Strike is a really nice length. I can wear it tucked, flipped under or straight down long. It makes it nice to style with different skirts and pants. I will wear a tee tucked in with a skirt, but never pants. As I recently revealed I'm super scared of body conscious looks. This was out of my comfort zone. However, I'm owning this one and looking bad ass! 

Stina

xx

Mondo Guerra Crocs and Mismatched Polka Dots

 

 

 

The theme for this month's Ahead of the Curve collective is Miss Matched. Mixing colors, prints and textures can be risky, but if you do it right, it can be smashing! The first person that came to mind when planning my look this month was Mondo Guerra. Mondo is a huge inspiration and an off-the-hook style icon. Mondo also knows how to rock a mismatched look, like totally.

Recently, Mondo teamed up with Crocs to put out a collection of stunning print shoes. The designs are mirrored from some of his most popular Project Runway looks. Currently, exclusive to the Crocs NY 34th street location, there's a rumor they will be available online in up coming months. I was lucky to get friend and fellow blogger Marcy Cruz to scoop us up some pairs. I had to have them the day they came out. According to Marcy, the staff at the NY 34th Street Crocs location are top-notch. She was treated like a queen and given coupons for future Croc purchases. She has been back three times buying Mondo Crocs!!  I don't blame her. They are perfection. I totally love mine. The pattern is heck-a-cute and you can't find a more comfortable shoe to wear for summer. For all of those who have stuck your nose up at Crocs, I urge you to give them a try. They are not the ugly worker shoes of the past. With Mondo's prints, how can they be anything, but fabulous! Oh and did you see the packaging? Adorable!

Working from the tips of my dotty Crocs up, I wanted to create a mismatched polka dance of spots for this theme. Polka dots big, small, mix them up, I love them all. I wasn't sure it would all pull together in the end, but I think it did? I love it anyways!! I picked up my leggings at Torrid in size 2X. They are covered in sheer polka dot burn outs. What I loved about them was the prospect of layering bright colored tights underneath. I have some lime green tights that should work quite nicely for a future look. I opted to go for a layered dress look. This was a snap decision that I feel worked out in the end. I really could not decide which dress to wear and when I could not find my polka dot shirt for under my pinafore dress, I just layered the dresses instead. The under dresses I picked up some months ago from ASOS. It's unfortunately no longer available. The pinafore dress I got from City Chic in size XXL. I really enjoy a pinafore dress and have gotten lots of use out of this one. It's currently on sale for more than 50% off with free shipping. I would get on it if you like it, since it will soon be gone. To finish off my look, more dots! Vintage polka dots gloves from Etsy. I'm always hunting on Etsy for vintage accessories. I fell in love with these large polka dot print gloves. I picked up my sunglasses at ModCloth. They are currently out of stock. I found a comparable pair that are equally excellent on Ebay. Oh and they are only $6.95!!!

I love my mismatched mixed up Mondo dotty outfit. I had actually been kind of sweating this theme because mismatching prints is out of my comfort zone. I'm going to add mismatching to the list of styles to embrace this year. There's no dot about it, this look is on point! 

Stina

xx

Don't stop here! Check out all the chic, smart ways other bloggers from AHEAD OF THE CURVE interpreted this month's theme as well. Just click HERE.

Call me on the Ouija Board

For optimal viewing gratification please click and enjoy this wicked  themed video while perusing my post.

 

        

 

The Ouija Board, tool of the devil, quirky family game or porthole for the non-conscious mind? 

I'm super obsessed with Ouija boards. Ever since I was a little girl spirit boards have always intrigued me. The thought of the dead being able to communicate though the board is super wickedly spooky and awesome. About a year ago I started to create Ouija jewelry just because I loved the board so much. All of the jewelry I'm wearing was created by me. You can find it at Everyday is like Halloween.

I peeped this spooky skirt on Etsy a few months back and I knew I had to have it. The skirt is from a shop called Toot Sweet Skirts. The owner Linda is so rad. She creates amazing handmade vintage and novelty skirts. Items that really make you stand out in a crowd. Her skirts fit up to a size 28 waist. I do believe she also does custom so if you wanted larger I think she would be able to accommodate. I was a bit concerned about the length of the skirt, because it looked really short in the photo. As you can see it's not short at all on me at 5'6". This skirt has a gold ribbon at the waist and had I wore it high with a shirt tucked in I would have shown it. I decided to go with a longer shirt I picked up at Eshakti. I opted to have the embroidered hearts removed when I ordered this piece. The shirt was ordered with custom measurements. That is one of the things I enjoy about Eshakti. Any of their items can be tailored to your measurements for a fee of $7. 

As you can see I'm still big time into hats and gloves. I picked both of these up on Ebay for cheap. The gloves seem to be sold out so I can't post a link. However, there are tons and tons of inexpensive stylish gloves on ebay. I love looking around. 

Lastly I would like to talk lipstick. I'm so thrilled that bold, punky and goth colors have come back. As of late I have been experimenting with liquid lipsticks, stains and tars. I have found a gnarly company called Pretty Zombie Cosmetics. For this blog I'm wearing their liquid in Black Cat. If you are into the long last matte liquid lipsticks PZC has some wicked products. Their price point is sweet at $11 a stick.

I have found the pretty zombie products sell out super fast. If you see a color you want snatch it up quick.

I just ordered myself a blue that I'm super pumped to try. Blue lips aren't only for the walking dead.

I love putting together unique and interesting looks for my blog. If there's a brand you're interested in learning more about, let me know in the comments. If you know of any plus size brands that carry items you think I will dig, also feel free to drop me a note. I'm always looking for new brands to try. 

Thanks

Stina

xx