Manolo for the Big Girl

Can you even STAND it?! I’m dying!

Come meet Plumcake in her natural environment (read: the bar of a posh hotel) and get to know other superfantastic big girls at the first Manolo for the Big Girls Face to Face! Have a little drinkypoo, a lot of fun and all the glamour (and gossip) you can handle.

City (or cities?!) and details will be released next week. Can one bar handle so much superfantasticness?

Are you dying? I am DYING!

Francesca cannot stop looking at the elegantly sexy Karmen, by Vigotti. The black ones make Francesca wish to put on her swishiest skirt and place a long-stemmed rose in her mouth, and do a sizzling Spanish dance.

The brown and grey ones are simply so exquisite, I could break into song. I could sing “Ah! Sweet mystery of life, at last I’ve found you,” just as Madeline Kahn did in Young Frankenstein.

Happy shopping and happy weekend!

xoxo, Francesca

Wrapping up our recommendations of mysteries by Agatha Christie, here are two of Francesca’s favorites which feature neither Hercule Poirot nor Miss Marple, but are in any case gripping mysteries (don’t start reading them the night before a big meeting; you can’t put them down!)

And Then There Were None (also titled Ten Little Indians) (1939) Ten strangers are invited to an island, where one by one they are killed. Who has brought them here, and why?

This books was made into a play and many film versions. Here is a good one from 1945.

Ordeal by Innocence (1958) Jacko Argyle is imprisoned for murdering his own mother, insisting that he is innocent. Years later, after he has died in jail, the man who can corroborate his alibi suddenly appears. Indeed, Jacko was innocent. But then who killed Mrs. Argyle?

And . . . as you might expect, Francesca, as a mystery buff, LOVES to watch CSI. She is addicted to all the CSI franchises. Whaaaaat? You do not watch this show? We must catch you up!

C.S.I. Crime Scene Investigation (CSI: Las Vegas) – The Complete First Season

C.S.I. Miami – The Complete First Season

C.S.I. New York – The Complete First Season

Happy reading and happy viewing!

xoxo, Francesca

Man, I miss ALL the excitement. It’s just like that time in seventh grade shop class (what? I could have taken shop. You don’t know.) I asked for a bathroom pass and when I came back Coach Bragg had cut his finger off with a band saw. Life is So Unfair.

So we’re talking about whether it’s right to bare arms, right? Good gravy. This is not a hard question. Whether you want olives or a twist in the morning’s first martini is a hard question. Whether it’s morally right to go home with guys for the sole purpose of harvesting their organs for someone you love is a hard question. If you like your arms and want to jam out with your hams out (I stole that line from somebody, but I don’t know who) then so be it. If you’d rather keep an air of mystery about them, well, cover those bad boys up and git along, little dogie.

Personally I find nothing so flattering on my figure as a three-quarter length sleeve so that’s what I wear, but if I yearned to go sleeveless and my burning desire to do so outweighed any competing urges then I’d get myself spaghetti-strapped up to high heaven and give everyone two free tickets to my own personal gun show. It might not be the most flattering but as much as I hate to say it; flattering isn’t everything and it’s dangerous to put too much value on what “other people” think.

Case in point: I just bought this pair of Marc Jacobs heels and my first thought when I saw them was “wow, those look like something you could stab Superman with. I love them.”

And I’ll tell you another thing, even though they are most definitely not to everyone’s taste, and possibly the people who Do Not Know the difference between a $600 Marc Jacobs heel and stripper shoes will say unkind things, I will look kick-you-in-the-teeth fantastic in those shoes. It’s about attitude, and if you feel as good in your tank top as I feel in my Superman-stabbing shoes, then who cares what other people say? In the immortal (although edited) words of Jack Black in High Fidelity. “F’ them, let ‘em riot.”

The sad truth is there will always be people who recoil in horror when confronted with “teh fatt” just like there will always be people whose idea of heaven is a Rush album, two cases of Cool Ranch Doritos and a bong made out of a watermelon. We cannot fight them; we can only hope they eventually set themselves on fire.

Francesca loves art.

So we will be looking at art, especially fat women celebrated in art, every so often. Let us begin with Picasso, shall we not?

This painting evokes many feelings and thoughts for Francesca. First, she loves the colors. Second, see how the mirror creates a reflection which is not a true representation of reality. In Francesca’s eyes, the reflection in the mirror is less symmetrical and more sad-looking than the woman herself. Or is she even looking in the mirror at all? Can not we relate to this girl who sees something in the mirror other than what she truly is?

This image, Femme devant mirroir, is available at one of Francesca’s favorite internet sites, barewalls.com, whose owners Francesca once had occasion to speak with. They were truly very nice people, who said that their original and ongoing vision for the site is to sell poster prints at accessible prices, which will allow the average persons to surround themselves with beautiful things.

It was easy, when they started the site, to find posters online of scantily-clad women, rock stars, and the like. They created a site for people who want vintage magazine covers, fine art, old maps and the like. What Francesca loves is that one can browse by artist, or subject, or type of art. She has discovered so many many wonderful artists, who have created such extraordinary images for us to enjoy. Human creativity is a wondrous thing.

Francesca wishes to extend an itsy-bitsy reminder that she and Plumcake have created the superfantastic gift guides for the holidays. Look no further for your gift needs! It is Great Big Ideas for the big girl (and her friends. And her family. And her employees.)

See here and here!

Igigi just announced that they have limited quantities of this gorgeous silk wrap blouse, available in purple, peach, beige, and turquoise:

It is pricey, but if you love it or need something sparkly-but-not-too-shiny for a holiday party, it’s perfect. Just pair it with the black skirt or pants of your choice, a necklace which falls as shown, and fabulous earrings, and you are good to go. Don’t forget the cute clutch.

Note to apples: We have already discussed here that it is difficult for apple-shaped women to wear wrap dresses and shirts, but that it is possible if one finds the right product. The fact that this blouse has princess seams gives Francesca hope for it, though as always one never knows with a wrap (or anything else) until one tries it on.

Happy shopping!

xoxo, Francesca

Pssssst . . . come here . . . Francesca has a hot tip for you . . . .

If you are shopping online, and you realize that you had a coupon code but it recently expired, try entering it at checkout anyhow.

Sometimes, it will not work.

And sometimes, it will work!

I’m just saying.