I did my nails!

Hi there! It's been a while. I haven't been feeling particularly fashion-y lately. I've been pretty much living in this sweater from Lands' End in various colors, and cords from Lands' End as well (I swear they are not sponsoring this blog in any way!). You can choose your own inseam for the cords, which is extremely helpful. They're not made for Plus Petites, but they fit OK.

One thing I have been excited about is nail polish. I managed to grab an Essie Holiday Kit while they were in stores.

I just did my nails with the basic red in the set (2nd from the right), Forever Yummy.

It's a little darker than I'd expected, but it's growing on me. I don't know why I've been wanting red nails lately - I don't usually go for red - but why not?

Also managed to get my hands on the Essie Winter 2013 Collection.Great colors. So far, I've only tried the light blue (Parka Perfect). Actually, it looked blue in the bottle, but it's really more gray. I wasn't so happy with it by itself, so I put a coat of clear sparkly polish over it and that was much better.

I'm getting sort of excited for the Peter Pilotto for Target collaboration coming out on February 9. You can find the lookbook here. I don't know if any of it is really my style, and I won't know until I see it in person. It's very bold.

I will certainly be selling items from it in my eBay store, so if you don't have a Target near you or if there's a certain item you just can't get your hands on, check it out after the launch! If there's anything specific you'd like me to try to get for you, please comment here or send a message to me via eBay. (Of course, I can't charge the same price as Target does, or I'd go (more) broke. But I'm reasonable.)

In the meantime, I've still got some great Phillip Lim stuff left, gorgeous plus size Daniel Rainn shirts, and Nick & Nora pajamas in size XL.

DRESSES!

I feel so lucky right now. Even with all the trials and tribulations that come with finding clothing that fits someone shaped like me and who is similarly modest, I've had some great retail therapy finds lately. I have to share these with you!

First up: dresses. I have spent many a spring/summer searching for that perfect dress, the one I can dress up to wear to work and dress down to wear casually that doesn't have to be dry cleaned and is comfortable. Being petite and a large size, I rarely come up with anything spectacular. Usually, dresses are too long, too big in one area and too small in another, and/or just the wrong shape or cut or fit or...you get it, I'm sure. A week or so, I went out on a limb and ordered some dresses from Macy's. Macy's has long been one of my favorite stores, but for the past few seasons I've been pretty disappointed with their offerings.

Here's what I got in today's mail:

(Sans models, of course.) By some stroke of sheer luck, I managed to order the correct size for each one. (In the first dress, I needed a 2X; in the second, a 20W; and in the last, a 1X!) That was some crazy guesswork.

Usually, for every dress I find that fits me and maybe looks good, I have to try on about 20. I held my breath as I put on the solid purple one, the first one I tried, an A-Line dress by ING. I had no idea whether this would fit or not, since it's technically a "Juniors" dress and I am, uh, probably a few years older than most who shop in the Juniors section.

It is adorable! It fits closely on top, which ordinarily would turn me off as I like things loose and comfy, but it just looks good that way and feels fine. It's got a nice scoop neckline in front and in back. And the best thing? It comes to just above my knees. Above-the-knee dresses make me look better, since I'm such a shorty; but I can never find them in my size! Even "Plus Petite" dresses are too long. So, yay Juniors! I could probably get away with wearing this to work, to a party, or just wherever. And it looks great with my scarves (yes, I own one of each of these as well as trying to sell them on eBay--they are fantastic), and any long scarves in general. 

Then it was on to the purple multicolor dress below, the one that has sort-of-but-not-quite horizontal stripes. (I despise the horizontal stripe fashion trend, but these are cool and uneven-looking and besides, these are my colors!) Again, perfect fit. This Keyhole A-Line dress by Elementz is looser than the first dress, even though they are both "A-Line." Whatever. Anyway, it's loose but not too loose. It's flattering. It goes down to about knee-length on me. Again, great for any occasion. Not so sure about the metal thingy on the keyhole part of the neckline, but I can work it. Also, since I'm pimpin' my scarves, it looks great with this one.

Finally, the black dress with the black and white pattern by AGB. I wasn't expecting to like this--but once again, perfect fit and super-flattering. This one I see more as a business casual than a casual dress. It looks awesome with a string of pearls. The waistband actually sits at my natural waist (not below, like most dresses of this sort, or above like empire-waisted dresses). It goes down a little below my knees, but it doesn't look too long. 

I am so, so, so happy with these! I look good in them! My husband really likes them! I do not often wear dresses, but that may change in the very near future because these 3 are so great. Now I just need the right shoes...

An apology and some summer pics

I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post. I've been unable to buy clothing for a while, which limits my fashion blogging potential a little (or at least the ability to post pictures of myself wearing cute stuff). I have also been having a lot of difficulty finding clothing that's decent for petite plus-sizers, or at least those who are built like me. Don't worry--I'm not giving up! I'm sure I'll have plenty of new blog fodder soon, when I actually start exploring the Fall styles.

Here I am on my mom's birthday, May 30th. Yeah, it's been a while since this was taken, but this is one of my favorite tops so I thought I would share. It's made by Daniel Rainn. I'm wearing a size 1X, but it turns out the XL also fits. In fact, the XL is a completely different fit, with a much shorter high-low hemline. I'll get a pic of myself in that one eventually. Anyway, I like the relaxed fit of this one, too, so I've kept both! It is a semi-sheer shirt, but I haven't found that I need to wear a camisole underneath, at least not if I'm wearing a nude-colored bra.

(This top is also on sale in my eBay store now through Sunday at 20% off. Here is a link if you're interested.)

And here I am the next evening, ready for date night with my husband. I'm wearing an Old Navy ruched-neck t-shirt in Petite XXL. I have this shirt in a rainbow of different colors. It was very inexpensive and I love the fit, and it's great for hotter days. I haven't been brave enough to go sleeveless this summer due to big stretch marks on my upper arms, but these are close enough to sleeveless to be comfortable. (I've seen some blogs preach body acceptance to the point of "loving" your stretch marks, but I'm sorry, I'm just not there yet and I don't know if I ever will be!) The skirt is actually a size XL from Max Studio that I bought a long time ago, and it always fits because it's got a very elastic waistline and a loose fit. It's made of a heavy cotton.

My usual Clarks sandals in both pictures!

Re: my last blog post, I am still trying to lose weight (I'm down a few pounds so far). It's a struggle because I tend to binge eat and I don't exercise much, but I'm working on those things. My goal--which I will try not to beat myself up over if I don't meet--is to be down to a size 16 again for my cousin's wedding next June. I hope that's realistic for me.

Geeky casual, my sweet tooth, and some pretties

My OOTD: comfy, casual, geeky.

That's my "The Time Job" T-shirt from Teefury, men's size 2XL because that was the only size I knew would fit me. I'm wearing it with my dark wash Old Navy Sweetheart jeans, which are bootcut and very stretchy and flattering. These are size 16P.

I'm sorry about the photo quality, but that rather dark hallway with the full-length mirror is the only place I have to take pictures of myself, and no one else is around to take one...so that's what you get!

Here's a better quality photo for you. My mom came over yesterday, and we ate these:

Mmm, macarons. My sweet tooth is one reason why I've never really been "thin," and I accept that. I don't like to deprive myself of sugary goodness. I usually try not to go too overboard, though. I just love sweets.

I know there is a whole debate over whether a plus size person can be healthy or not. I'm not going to get in the middle of that one. My answer to that is, I don't know. I've had health problems since way before I became obese. I just try to be the healthiest version of me that I can be, and that is all I can do.

In the meantime, I try to make myself feel attractive (when I'm not totally dressing down like I am today!) with tops like the ones that can be found at The Smiling Turtle eBay store. Maybe I will eventually lose the weight again, but I'm not holding my breath, and I'm not going to wait until then to feel good about my appearance.

Speaking of the eBay store, I've just gotten in some amazingly beautiful fair trade scarves from India, so please feel free to check them out at the link above if you'd like. They're being auctioned at a high-ish price for eBay, but like I said, they are fair trade (from an organization that is certified by the Fair Trade Federation). And did I mention they're amazingly beautiful?

I'll post more about fair trade eventually. It is one of my passions. It bugs me that everything I buy/sell cannot be fair trade, but the world just hasn't progressed that far yet.

The Awkward Introductory Entry

Hi! My name is Alexis (aka Lex). I have my own business called, you guessed it, The Smiling Turtle. This consists of a small Etsy store in which I sell my handmade creations and a small eBay store in which I sell a whole bunch of things, including plus size clothing.

I am newly plus size as of about a year ago. The correct fashion term would be "Plus Petite," since I am only 5'2". I recently pointed out to my husband how little sense the term "Plus Petite" makes (Plus implies "big" and Petite means "small"), and he likened it to "jumbo shrimp." Mmm, I love jumbo shrimp. Maybe I should just call myself a Jumbo Shrimp? LOL. It's close enough to the truth: I am a big short person.

I've never really been a small size (well, except for about a year sometime in my teens). I was a size 10 for a while, then a 12 for a long time, then a 14, then a 16; then I went on Weight Watchers and got back to 12; then I went off Weight Watchers and gradually (edited to add: actually, not so gradually! Pretty quickly!) got to where I am now. I'm not especially proud of it, but here I am.

Now that I am plus size, I've realized that there's a distinct lack of clothing in my size that I actually like. I do not like to wear tight clothing (this has always been true), and I do not like to wear tents. I am not super-trendy. I'm in my 30's, I don't want to dress like a 20-something or a teen, and I don't want to look frumpy. I'd like to avoid having to take all my clothes to the tailor to be altered. This seems to be a lot to ask of the fashion industry for someone my size and shape, so I'm going to be trying to take The Smiling Turtle to a new level to try to help people like me find clothing that makes us feel and look good, and I'm going to use this blog to document some of my experiences.

I invite you to come along on this journey with me. As well as blogging about my own eBay store, I'll also share where I've found some of my own clothing essentials, and I'll blog about fashion trends and other related things - and maybe some unrelated things. I'll probably offend at least a few people along the way. Honestly, I don't really know what direction(s) this blog will take, but maybe it'll at least be a fun ride.