Shopping for plus size clothing

I don't enjoy clothes shopping. I know what I like and I know what flatters me. This isn't what I find in the shops.

I am a size 18 but size 18 clothes don't usually fit properly which isn't so surprising, there are many different shapes of us out there! I find that tops are often too short and don't cover my generous tum, if they do they could do double duty as the family tent or will be something my grandmother would wear. I've also noticed that plus size women aren't supposed to have breasts, just one big blob that includes the stomach. This is why I regularly buy a 20 or even 22 so that I can adjust the fitting to be just a little more flattering.

My biggest bugbear is the lack of clothes available. As an 18 I am able to walk into most shops and find my size. But of the clothes that would actually suit my shape they are usually nowhere to be seen, just a rail of 10's and 12's with an occasional 16 (strangely the 14's don't often seem to be on show either). I understand that this is because it costs more to make the larger sizes so the result is that there are fewer available on the shop floor. I realise that some stores are better than others but this is certainly true for the cheaper end of the market where my budget currently dictates that I go.
I have come to accept this over the years but I spent yesterday shopping with my mother who is a petite size 10. She walked away from the experience shocked by how little choice I had and possibly with a little more understanding about why I choose to wear what I do.

I did, however, manage to pick up a few items. A couple of compromise tops all of which need adjusting to provide a better fitted bust and one strapless sack that looks a lot like this one from Primark . With my more generous though shorter figure it has a very different look to that of the model but it is definitely comfortable to wear in this current heat - the whole reason I went shopping in the first place. Just don't expect to see me to wearing it away from home!

A hot weekend

Blackboard

I don't think anybody here can have missed just how hot it's been this past week. I don't deal well with hot weather so it's been early mornings for me to get anything done.

As part of my, as yet unshared, latest project I decided that a blackboard would be a useful addition. After badgering J for a suitable offcut of wood I set to painting it with some blackboard paint I had found  hiding in the loft. My previous experience of this stuff is that it takes hours if not days to dry properly. Yesterday it took 5 minutes to be touch dry and I was nailing it up just over an hour later.

It was hot.

Roses in bloom

Rosa Mundi

I'm loving roses at the moment. This top image is Rosa Mundi, a rose I saw at Lytchett Minster open gardens. This particular example looked as if it was splashed with paint and really caught my eye. It's on my wish list now.

Rambling rose on the back of our house.

I have no idea of the names of the remaining roses, all I can say is that they are well established in my garden. This gentle yellow rose happily scrawls on the back of my house. It starts off as quite a bright yellow bud that pales as it slowly opens. When fully curled back it is a fluffy mess, reminds me of meringue. It has a great scent too. It is repeat flowering, there was even a few flowers in the depth of winter whilst we had snow on the ground.

Rose growing wild

Here is a pretty single that is currently living life free from pruning in a wild patch of my garden. I thought it looked so sweet with the wild flowers.



Scrambling over the arch

This final rose is currently taking over my rose arches, it is covered in buds waiting to explode. A delicate pale pink with a delicious perfume. Very vigorous. I have a similar one else where in the garden but a stunning magenta rather than gentle pink.

After 3 years of hating the overgrown prickly monsters that have needed taming in my garden I think that I may have, finally, fallen in love with roses.

Rose walk in my garden

Oak not so good

Oak tree with split down trunk

A few weeks ago we had some pretty windy weather, in fact the whole area lost electricity thanks to a lightning strike on a local substation at the time. We only noticed the damage to this tree a few days later.

 

It wasn't hit by lightning, just split. It's a really nice shaped oak tree. We've considered removing it before as it is in an awkward place but it is so lovely that so far we've allowed it to stay. It looks as if mother nature disagrees. With a split going straight through it's centre it is unsafe and will have to get the chop. I hate getting rid of nice specimens of mature trees but at least it will help fuel our heating next winter. Temporarily it has a brace around it, if we can put off felling until autumn we will! A tree without leaves is a lot easier to deal with.

Dauphinoise potatoes

I fancied trying something different for tea so, finding half a pot of cream ageing in the fridge, I googled dauphinoise potatoes. BBC good food came to my rescue with this recipe.

I highly recommend this meal, it was an easy, trouble free recipe that tasted delicious. I only had half of the required cream so I substituted with milk which worked well and is not quite so bad on the waist line. It did make a bit of a mess of my oven when it bubbled over! With all of the faff in one stage you can make it and then just forget about it until it is cooked, I will definitely be cooking this again.

Burning wood

Wood is an important part of our life here. Our central heating and hot water is supplied by a wood burning boiler. The cheapest way to buy wood in is by the timber lorry load! This should last us several years. The downside of this is that we have to process it ourselves which is quite labour intensive but has many side benefits. It has helped that we have made our heating more efficient so can get away with burning less.

 

The photo above shows the big stack on the left hand side, a horse in the middle to help chop and shorter lengths on the right hand side. These will be split and stacked outside to dry before getting moved into our woodshed, you can see some stacked wood drying in the back right of the photo. 

It's hard work but incredibly satisfying. Working with wood is a bit like gardening, it helps me to feel grounded. The tasks are repetitive allowing the mind to wander - but not too far! I can never get away from the fact that the timber I am handling is probably older than I am and deserves respect. What I most enjoy about this process is working in partnership with J. We know what we're doing and it takes surprisingly little time to create a good stack of logs.