Mad About Plaid

Hello my dears! I am so glad to have gotten such wonderful feedback on my last two posts, this is such a great community and I have such amazing followers/blog friends. You're a great bunch ;) I hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far. 

As soon as it snowed I felt like all I want to wear is plaid (especially this green plaid, perhaps with red when I'm feeling christmassy). I have always been a fan of plaid, maybe it's a Canadian thing? It feels like a staple here, haha. I paired this top with my ruffled black dress to balance out the "masculinity" of the plaid. I love mixing typically masculine pieces with more feminine ones and this outfit felt like a great balance. And the bits of orange was a nice bright pop to contrast. 

xJennaD

Outfit: Dress&Belt&tights-H&M, Plaid-F21, Boots-Moms, Necklace-Gift and thrift

Blogging and Body Image Part 2

First off, thank you for the comments on yesterday's post, I really enjoyed reading everyones opinions and concerns!!
So there may be a perpetuation of a thin ideal being presented to us through multiple media avenues including style blogs, but guess what? It’s not all bad news. I really love the blogging community and have met so many wonderful individuals through it. At the same time that there are negative things going on there are also positives as well. I always smile when I check my comments, each and everyone makes me feel great and majority of them are genuinely so supportive. Even when there’s a negative one in the batch, the amount of support these ladies pile out greatly outweighs the negative. While there are a lot of extremely thin successful bloggers, there are also those that are outside this ideal and more on the “average” side of things. Again I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with those who fit in this ideal, it’s the positive diversity we need, to know that just because you aren’t a certain size doesn’t mean you can’t be successful and have a positive blogging experience!

Since blogging is a much more public and open arena there are several people speaking out against this ideal. Opinion’s on issues such as this are of course going to be varied but just speaking about them is great. Gala Darling did an amazing two part post on bloggers opinions on how blogging affects their body image. I really enjoyed reading the opinions of readers and some very influential fashion bloggers. Gala often writes about “self-love” and it is such a great topic not just for bloggers but for everyone.

Recently there was also a “love your body day” through blogs and I really wish I would have been aware of it sooner because it’s such a wonderful thing to take part in. It’s important in the world of blogging for participants to be able to talk about their bodies in a positive way. There are so many times in our lives where we get so hard on ourselves and these views can be expressed through our blogs “I don’t like ___ about myself” “I feel fat”. Obviously we’ve all had days where we feel less than great (or far below) and it’s so easy to express that annoyance, but why are we so bad at expressing what we love? You rarely read anyone say “Yeah I was having a great bum day, it looked good” a lot of the comments go along the lines of “I think my bum looks huge in this”. But why not express when you’re feeling particularly good about something? And even on those days when you’re not, I bet picking out something you like will make you feel better than focusing on something you hate.

We are so fortunate to have a forum to be able to express our styles, and I would hope that everyone feels they are able to participate whether you’re a size two or size twelve. And that we should support each other, no matter what. I know vast majority of bloggers have never said anything negative to another blogger and that is wonderful. We all go through our ups and downs about being happy with our own personal bodies, I just hope that this can be a positive space with increasing diversity and positive messages being sent out.
Thank you for reading :D

xJennaD

Blogging and Body Image Part 1

Disclaimer: I am in no way trying to shame or comment on those successful bloggers or individuals who fit the ideal of thinness, there's nothing wrong with being thin just like there is nothing wrong with not being thin. You're all beauties :)

I have often sat and searched for fashion inspiration on the blogosphere and ended up feeling upset and put off. Coming across blogs with 3,000 + followers where the images are perfectly lite, airbrushed and the blogger is tall, very thin and looks remarkably like those images presented to us in magazines. While I have come to expect this from TV and magazines, personal style blog’s seemed like some sort of escape from this, that is until you really look into what’s going on. I’m a very average individual (okay, average on the short end of average) 5’2 and 130 lbs. To me there is nothing wrong with this, in fact when I was thinner than this I felt very unlike myself and uncomfortable. The problem is in blogging I go looking for inspiration and something that works on a 5’8 woman who is 120 lbs just won’t work for me. I’m often trying to find bodies similar to mine when looking for fashion inspiration. In day to day life I see multiple shapes and sizes, yet in the personal style the diversity is not quite representative.

There are so many of us who have come across these blogs and thought “maybe if I were thinner, I would be successful like ____” this type of thinking can be very self-destructive. The amount of women out there that have issues with parts of their body is staggering. 80-90% of women have reported disliking part of their bodies. Can you imagine what we could do if we focussed this negative energy on something else?

I love diversity and seeing how different people make clothes work for their particular needs. We all have different body needs, tall, short, thin, curvy, boyish etc. I really do enjoy a lot of those popular blogs where the girls are thin or tall and have great style but I am also looking for the opposition to that. Personal style in and of itself is supposed to be an expression of oneself and there is no weight limit to that. Of course there are exceptions to this thin ideal in popular blogs, there are women who don’t look like models (which in no way makes them less beautiful) who are quite successful.

The problem is when we stray even slightly from this ideal we are being left open to criticism. Blogging is such a strange way of putting ourselves “out there” and sometimes the feedback is very negative. A lot of the hate comments received are related directly to weight and body image, I could list off countless examples from fellow bloggers who’ve received these kinds of insults. A comment of “anonymous said ‘you’re fat’” is of course rude and degrading especially in a platform where we’re not asking for feedback regarding our weight! In this way we are being reinforced of this standard thin ideal.
So, what now?
 Stay tuned for tomorrow's post ;)
xJennaD

Walk in the Park

Happy Thanksgiving to my american readers, I hope you had a delicious meal and spent time with family yesterday and are off to shop the sales today. I wish we had "Black Friday" here in Canada, but it's probably better for my credit card balance that we don't. We already had our Thanksgiving, so unfortunately no long weekend for me!

My friend and I decided to take Duke for an adventure walk and stopped along this bridge to take a few quick snapshots (truth be told, mostly of Duke, he's so handsome!) I think I have an addiction to this scarf huh? Maybe just scarves in general? They're the perfect way to top off any look. I really love the way this teal dress looked against my very cozy mustard cardigan. This dress has the cutest 3 leaf clover print except instead of clovers it's hearts!! I will take a close up photo next time I wear it ;) Have a great weekend darlings

xJennaD

Ps. I'm doing some posts on blogging and body image coming up so stay tuned!!

Outfit: Dress-UO, Cardigan-F21, Tights-H&M, Socks&Scarf-Ardene, Bag-Winners, Boots-Moms

Winter Florals

Good Morning!! I hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far, our weather has turned much better, much less chilly! Last night I went to listen to my absolute favourite author Michael Ondaatje at the Winspear and it was so amazing. He's so talented and I got an autograph and he shook my hand! Very exciting stuff, definitely made my week.

I really love fall/winter florals and wearing them all layered up, so naturally I decided to do it myself. I really do love this dress, the florals are perfect for fall and the cinched in waist gives it such good shape. I paired it with my grandpa cardigan and my new green scarf, which is very cozy. I really like the combination of a cute dress and thick sweater in the winter, so you can guarentee you'll see this kind of combination again this winter.

xJennaD

 

Outfit: Dress-F21, Cardigan-Thrift, Scarf&ring-Ardene, Tights-Winners, Boots-My moms

Good Morning Sunshine

Good Morning Dears!! I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I spent most of it indoors, because it was pretty chilly. It's looking better for this week though. 

This is my favourite skirt by far, the colour always makes me happy and it goes with everything! I especially like it with black and white, it's a nice pop of colour. Especially on a day when it's cold and you don't especially want to get dressed. This button up is pretty thick and wonderfully warm, and I am kind of obsessed with this circle scarf, I have a few now and they're my favorite kinds.
xJennaD

outfit: Top-Joe Fresh, Skirt-UO, Boots&tights-Winners, necklace&Belt-Thrift, Scarf-Ardene

Best of the week

I hope everyone had a good weekend!! Mine was basically spent curling up indoors, it was super chilly.

Best of the Week:

Pretty first snowfalls (unfortunately followed by crazy storms), Dukes hesistant reaction to the snow; Duke in his crazy adorable bomber jacket; Tasty chicken with mozerella and peppers; Parents getting home from Quebec; Hot drinks to warm you up on a cold day; Delicious dinners; Hot thai Soup!!; cozying up on the couch when the weather outside is frightful; Getting a haircut/colour feels so wonderful; Getting $174 worth of stuff for $62 at the American Apparel Warehouse Sale :D; Getting some christmas shopping done

xJennaD

Knits and Brights

Good Morning sweets, it's friday, thank god! I have been working my butt off for the past 2 days to get some projects done and I am so excited for the weekend. Too bad it's -15 with a windchill of -25. Ugh!! These photos were definitely taken before the crazy winter storm we had yesterday.

Here I decided to wear my bright and colourful dress to combat the chill and snow. Sometimes when it's gloomy out you just need to wear some bright colourful patterns right? I needed a nice thick cardigan and this one was perfect. As much as the cold sucks, the snow is gorgeous and gives me a reason to bust out my studded knee high boots I got last febuary! I love these boots and am happy to be wearing them again :)

Have a good Weekend My loves.

xJennaD

  

Look how big the Duke is getting!!

Outfit: Dress-The Bay, Cardigan-F21, Boots-Winners,  Belt-thrift, Necklace-Farmers Market

PS. It's My older brothers 28th Birthday, Happy Birthday Connor!! If any of you in the Vancouver area see him today, wish him a happy bday ;)

Louder than Silence

Hello my dears! I hope you week is going well, mine is good, super busy but good! It snowed this weekend and then again monday and it was a whole lot more on monday. It was crazy, and really pretty. Apparentley it's supposed to snow a  bunch more tomorrow! I guess winters here, but that means Christmas is coming :)

This is one of my new tops from Divine, I love the green gingham print and the ruffles all over the front is too cute to resist. I have a similar plaid one, with the same colours and it's one of my favourites. I decided to print mix it with my favourite striped skirt and then wanted some pop of colour with my orange nails and matching belt. I like a little pop of neon with darker colours.

xJennaD

Outfit: Skirt-F21, Top-Vintage (Divine), Belt and tights-H&M, Boots-Moms, necklace-thrift

Deep Blue and Purple

Good Monday Morning lovelies!! I hope you all had an exceptional long (long) weekend. 4 days off is apparently what I needed, even though I didn't really catch up on sleep, I really enjoyed myself :)
 *
This is from the weekend when my best friend and I went for a delicious lunch at the pourhouse on whyte ave. We then wandered down the ave sharing a Holiday London Fog and Candy Cane Latte from Second Cup. SO delicious, and much needed since it was raining on and off all that day. We started our Christmas shopping and I just couldn't resist going into Divine Vintage and ended up finding 3 sweaters (It was 3 for 2 vintage thursdays). I instantly fell in love with this crocheted deep blue sweater and when I got it I instantly threw it over the dress I was wearing. I love the way the dark blue and purple look together! I usually don't wear this kind of a silhouette with sweaters over dresses for some reason, but I actually liked it with this one. These pictures aren't the greatest because it had just started to rain again, boo.
xJennaD

outfit: Dress-The Bay, Sweater-Divine, Tights&Shoes-Winners, Scarf-Ardene, Rings-(Blue)payless, (silver)gifted

Best of the Week

 Best of the Week:

My wonderful best friends being in town; Nights out at OJs; Long weekends to catch up with friends and on homework; Candy Cane lattes; Gingerbread lattes; How cute and entertaining Duke is; Sunday morning cuddles; Cozy new sweaters; Christmas excitement; The first snow fall;  How great it feels to play soccer again; Lunch dates with my best friend; Laughing until it hurts; Vintage shopping treasures;
Best Friend

cozy scarf from ardene, sparkly sweater, ruffle gingham top, and crochet blue sweater all from Divine vintage

The boys playing tug-o-war with a gingerbread man