MY FIRST FATKINI: CURVY GIRL STYLE

Hello My Gorgeous Divas,

I am back from my week long vacay in Panama City with my family and I must say we really enjoyed ourselves.

PCB has become our annual family trip for the summer. It is very kid friendly and only a four hour drive from where I live in Georgia.

This was my first time ever taking an entire week off from work. Yes, I know that is crazy. But, I will be taken a week vacation from work from now on. I am refreshed, renewed and refocused.

So, let’s get into... 

What is a Fatkini?

It's a two piece bathing suit worn by a curvy yet confident plus size diva.

After seeing so many other curvy girls rocking their fatkini’s, I decided to step out of my shell and rock my first ever fatkini.

I was very nervous purchasing these swimsuits from Forever 21. I came up with every negative thought and excuse on why I shouldn’t buy them. But, after doing my research and seeing other bloggers such as everythingcurvyandchic.com reviews on theses swimsuits, I said what the heck. 

When I received the swimsuits in the mail I was super excited and nervous at the same time. I tried them on and I instantly fell in love with them especially, the tropical one.  Even my daughter agreed that the fatkini's looked nice on me and coming from her that is a great compliment.

Let's start with my favorite fatkini that I named....

Tropical Paradise

Swimsuit/Fatkini: Forever 21 (currently sold out online check your local Forever 21 store)

Shades: Forever 21

Hat: Wet Seal

I love the tropical colors in this swimsuit because it can compliment any skin tone. The bottoms does run bigger than the top, which I liked being that I am bottom heavy. The top support is okay if, you are not top heavy. I wear a 40 DD and I could of worn this without a swimsuit bra but, I opted not to because who wants to have a saggy chest on the beach.

I ordered my strapless swimsuit bra from www.fullbeauty.com It dries very quickly once out of the water and gives the "girls" great support to pull your look together. I actually order a 40DDD in this swimbra and the fit was perfect.

Pink & Tribal Print

Swimsuit/Fatkini: Forever 21 (currently not online check local Forever 21 store)

Tribal Skirt: Walmart (PS. you will see me remix this skirt)

Shades: Old Navy

Pink & Black are my two favorite colors. This swimsuit is simple, yet chic. The color is magnificent. It’s not your ordinary pink it's more of an electric/neon pink.

Instead of doing a kaftan or a swim cover up, I opted for long maxi skirt which I purchased from Wal-Mart

YES WAL-MART!!

The only complaint I have about this two piece is that the bottoms are kinda see thru and I would suggest wearing a cover up. Other than that it was a beauty.

I am so glad that I purchased these bathing suits. I am so proud of myself for stepping outside my box and  not letting my fear get in the way.

Hopefully this post can inspire others to not limit themselves on what society may deem as acceptable. Go for it and ROCK YOUR CURVES!!

I saw this question on Instagram that said "How to get a bikini body? "

Answer: Get a bikini on and go to the beach. Period.

CONFIDENCE!?!?

Hello My Gorgeous Divas, 

I was inspired to write this post after watching a video on confidence by Chasity Garner “The Curvy Girl Guide to Style”. As I watched her video while nodding my head in agreement to her advice on how she achieved and accepted confidence in herself, I started thinking when did I finally gain self-confidence?

In my teenage years, I was somewhat of a popular girl in high school but, I was still considered “the big girl”. I’ve had my moments of being teased but, for the most part I was very confident in myself during my high school years. My confidence started to diminish in my early twenties. I had my first child at the age of 19 just when I was getting ready to start nursing school. I wasn’t with my child’s father. I didn’t have a job. I had no motivation to even start nursing school and I was fresh out of high school. After my daughter was born, I started working and I became so caught up into everyone else’s life I began to forget about me. My weight was out of control and I didn’t like the way I look. It led me to not dress up and not have confidence in myself anymore.

I remember looking at myself and feeling disgusted with the way I looked. Even when I attempted to put on clothes I still didn’t feel good about myself. I am a firm believer that if you don’t feel good on the inside it will show itself in your outer appearance. I was looking for acceptance from my peers, my friends and my family, whom can be the worst critics, But, how could I expect acceptance from them when I couldn’t even accept myself first?

When I turned 30 I said to myself that no matter who doesn’t accept me for who I am today I am beautiful. I started putting myself first. I let go of negative people, negative thoughts & negative energy and released them out of my life including family. I started loving me again.

Building your confidence and self-esteem is daily process. It is not easy when you hear comments about your weight and how “your” weight affects other people’s views of you.  It’s sad but that is the world in which we live in today.

Some days I still wake up and feel like crap but, then I go to my closet, pick out a fly outfit for the day, thank God for giving me life to even pick out a fabulous outfit and boom my confidence is back up.

Now, when people see me in person or my pictures on FB & Instagram they think it’s the clothes but, it’s not. I wear my best accessory with every outfit I put on now and it is CONFIDENCE!!

 By being happy with myself, loving myself and accepting myself cellulite and all, I have grown to be a better mother, a better friend and most definitely a better me.

My advice for women and men who are struggling with building their confidence is…

Love yourself exactly how you look now. If you don’t start now, you may regret it later.

It takes time to build your confidence, it doesn’t happen overnight.

When you do build your confidence up, guard it, protect it and don’t let anyone take it away from you.

NEON COLORS 2013 VERSION

Hello My Gorgeous Divas,

Back in the day, I can remember rocking neon shorts, shirts, pants, bows, heck even shoe laces. If you didn’t have or rock neon colors back in the day then you were wiggity wiggity wack.

The neon trend faded and has now made a major comeback. In my personally opinion neon colors never went out of style, it was just taking a much needed break from the fashion scene because it was over used in the 80’s & some part of the 90’s.

Now, it is back alive and well and even though I wouldn’t rock any of my 80’s neon fashion now at the age of 32 ,I will rock my own new school version of it with a bit of class just for neon sake.

Check it out below.

Let me know how you feel about neon colors. Woud you leave them in the 80/90's or revamp it and rock in 2013?

Shirt: Target

Skirt: Kiyonna (Gwynnie Bee)

Shoes: Nine West (my fav)

Belt: Cato's

Jewelry: Charming Charlie

Purse: Michael Kors

SUMMER IS HERE!!!

Hello My Gorgeous Divas,

Well, the weather has final set in Georgia and for us it is officially summer time. It has been extremely humid and I can already tell it is going to be a very hot summer this year.

How is the weather in your city?

I am not a big fan of the summer weather but, I love summer fashion.

I am still in my learning phase of stepping outside of the box when it comes to summer fashion such as wearing shorts, which I haven’t worn since I was 13 years old and crop top tanks.

I will definitely try a crop top tank before I try a pair of shorts. It is hard for me to find a nice pair of jeans. I know it will be even harder for me to find a pair of shorts that will actually fit the way I would want them to.

So, I will stick to my maxi skirts, maxi dresses and capris.

Until then, check out one of my favorite maxi dresses for the summer... 

Dress: ASOS Curve

Belt: It's Fashion Metro

Braclet: BCBG

Shades: Oscar de Renta

Earrings: Cato's Fashion

Shoes: DSW Steve Madden

I love this dress & everytime I wear it everyone else loves it to.