Houndstooth Peplum -- Retro Inspired

Something about the shape and styling of this houndstooth peplum has always felt very Mad-Men to me.

Weekend Away Date Night

The hubs and I were lucky to have a chance to get away for a weekend up in beautiful Huntsville, Ontario.

Canadian Comfort Wear

While this is not the type of outfit I usually share with you on the blog I was inspired because last weekend the hubs and I went away for some great outdoor fun in beautiful Huntsville, ON. More pics from our trip in an upcoming post - but one of my favourite stores EVER is up in Muskoka and it's called Muskoka Bearwear.

Navy and Wine

I love when I say the name of these two colours that they immediately make me think of drinking wine on a boat. Of course, I did neither of those things while wearing this outfit, but I still love those colours.

Winter Uniform

Do you ever wear something so often that it starts to feel like a uniform? Well, if I had to have a uniform for winter - it would be this: jeans, tank/tee, button down, vest, moccasins/boots. Done. Voila.

Peach and Plaid

Wearing skirts in the winter can be tricky up here in Canada. Tights or not there are days when you still need a rather thick layer of fabric between your skin and the cold.

Frankly, my deer...

Everyone has a few items in their closets that aren't necessarily fashionable, don't quite fit perfectly, but are so comfortable and so full of memory that it just feels good to break it out and wear it occasionally. That's how I feel about this deer cardigan.

Denim on Denim

Wearing anything that's denim-ish on both the top and the bottom walks a very fine line between being comfy and stylish and being a full-on Canadian tuxedo. And given that I'm a Canadian - that danger is even more present.

Plaid and denim

This plaid shirt is quickly becoming a wardrobe favourite for me. It has a great loose, comfortable cut, soft flannel fabric and yet enough structure to be worn on it's own and not look like I'm wearing my Dad's shirt (which I totally used to do, I'll admit it - it was the 90s....).

Confident Twosday: Navy & Cobalt

I am so excited to be co-hosting Confident Twosday today with Laura from I do deClaire!

I do deClaire (Bloglovin) | What Mama Wears (Bloglovin)

Summer dress, Winter Weather

I love being able to translate summer pieces into winter wear. It can be tough, and I have a few rules in order to make sure it works.

Mama's Measurements

This post is a little different from my regular posts. First off - I've been grossly and viciously ill since just after New Year's and I know I'm totally failing you with outfit posts - I will be back with a vengeance next week - I promise!

In lieu of an outfit post today I wanted to go over something that happened just recently: I received a nasty facebook message.

Let me preface this by pointing out a few things:

1) I am a Mom. A woman. A Canadian. AND a blogger. Yes: I take pictures of myself and put them on the internet and Yes: I realize that that opens me up to a certain amount of scrutiny. I am not a fool. I was prepared for that before I hit post for the very first time.

2) I am not a "fashion expert". There is no where on my blog that you will find me saying that I am such a thing. I am just a plus size, Canadian woman who wears clothes and takes pictures and puts them on the internet. The end.

3) I am not okay with body-shaming. I try my best to dress the body that I have in a way that I think is stylish, comfortable and appropriate. I don't make claims to be a model, to be a designer, to be a stylist, none of those things. I don't like to shame anyone for being big, small, skinny, thick, curvy, flat, boob-a-licious or WHATEVER. Let's stop telling people they're too big to be this or too small to be that or too anything to be anything.
We. Are. People.
We. Are. All. Different.
THAT. IS. AWESOME.

SO - having said those 3 things I was, frankly, shocked when I received this message in my personal facebook "other" folder in the past week.

You dont know me and i dont know you. But I have read you're blog and i am pissed off at you always saying your plus sized or whatever. Your not a plus-size woman your just fatter than you should be but your not like a natural size 24 or whatever. In all your pics you can tell that your just fat and you shouldnt be calling yourself plussize and saying stuff about being "hard to fit". plus size and fat arent the same thing. Nobody cares about you"re stupid cothes blog so stop posting.

Wow.
Yeah.
That happened.

This person - who I am not naming, because what is the point - took the time to figure out who I am, my real name (since you will realize that I don't use my "real" name here on the blog) and then find my facebook and send me a message via fb to tell me that I'm not a plus sized woman (I'm just fat) and no one cares about my outfits anyways. Um... what?

First, apparently, I'm not plus-sized. Well - I am totally baffled, because I have no idea why I own all these size 14, 16 and 18 clothes! I've been wearing the wrong size all along! Also - evidently until I'm a "natural size 24 or whatever" I'm not plus-sized. Someone alert the media! We've been labeling plus clothing all wrong!


Here's the thing, readers: I don't care.

I don't really care whether this person (or anyone) thinks I'm plus-sized or skinny. I don't care. I live in this body. I have to dress it. I know that I carry extra weight on my body and where on said body it is. It's MY body.

FYI - In case anyone's wondering. I DO wear plus-sized clothes. I'm not sure how there's necessarily a difference between being plus-sized and being fat. Does the writer think I'm too fat to be plus-size? Not fat enough? I'm confused. In any case, generally I'm a size 16. And for kicks - here's my measurements just to give some accuracy!

So, even though no one cares about my "stupid cothes blog" (clothes blog? They're probably right; as evidenced by my 2 blogloving subscribers and 0 other actual followers - oh well! lol) I'm just going to keep on keeping on. And if you're reading this, letter writer - click on by - I don't do this for you. I do it for me.

Tea.

Cables and Velvet

I love lush, rich, wintery fabrics like velvet.

2014 Darts & Laurels

2014 is over, and 2015 has begun, and I thought it would be a great time to take a look at the last 6 months and share some of What Mama Wears' Darts & Laurels.

You probably thought this when you saw these the first time... maybe you're too nice, I don't know, but I'll share what I thought were some of the best, and worst of 2014.

Navy, Red & Retro

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

This sweet, basic little navy dress (with pockets!) was one of the boxing day deals I happened to pick up at Target. It was a great deal at 50% off and I ended up paying less than $14 for it.