Crystal Renn

For those of you who aren't familiar with Crystal Renn, she is most known for being the most wanted supermodel in the Plus Size modelling and fashion industry. I think one of the greatest reasons for her fame is the fact that she started out like any other model but, after struggling and overcoming an eating disorder, she gained some weight and started working the plus-size circuit. She's been on both sides of the industry and was beautiful! A lot of people rejected the idea of her as "plus size" because I think the largest she ever wore was maybe a straight-size 14. Plus size by Australian and UK standards, but not American.

Recently she's taken the weight off again and is sitting at about 140 lbs which, considering she's the same height as me, I'd wager puts her in about a US size 8 or UK/AU size 14.


Her as a plus-size model working a bikini. Probably obvious here why a lot of true plus size ladies rejected the idea of her as plus size but still, a healthier role model than an anorexic, no?


And here's some very recent shots of her as the face of the 2011 Jimmy Choo campaign looking much slimmer. Now, I've seen what they do in photoshop to these campaign models so, based on her weight, I know there's no way her tummy is anywhere near as flat as the campaign suggests. But still, good on her for getting even healthier still! She's at the ideal weight for our height now(she's the same age as me too which is cool :) ) so I think everyone should just back off. She said she'd have to develop a binge-eating disorder to maintain the kind of size the public wanted from her as a plus size model and that, at the end of the day, that's not healthy either.

Crystal Renn is the picture of health now and has a multi-million dollar campaign to boot. She's more of a role model than she's ever been. Where I used to look to her for inspiration since she was so gorgeous as a size 12 and that's a realistic goal for me to work towards, I look to her even more now that she's proven it's possible to pull the weight off even further and maintain that and be even healthier without having to go to a gym 6 days a week. I love her. :)

Happy

Looking back on my previous posts, it's unbelievable to see what a negative change occurred over the past 5 months. It's obvious even in my blog how emotionally shattered I was by the pressures of that job and I'm so glad to be out of that environment! I feel like I'm getting back to me now. :)

Chris had 10 days off for Christmas so today was my first day at home by myself since I left work. It's so nice to not be stressed any longer! I have SO much to do around the house that it's overwhelming (it's gotten in such a state!) but I'm just going to have to chip away at it a bit at a time. I have about 12 baskets of dirty laundry to wash (it's already sorted so at least there's that) a mountain of dishes and our bedroom looks like a bomb hit it. ahh! Boy do I miss the days where, when you let your mess get bad enough, your mom came in and cleaned it all up for you. ha!

Christmas



How was my Christmas? As good as could be expected. The only way I could get through it without being completely depressed was to pretend that it wasn't actually Christmas and we were just at Chris's family reunion-- silly, I know, but it is what it is. Since this is a public blog I'll keep the rest of my potential whinge-fest to myself and just say that I'm glad it's over. I was really glad to be able to talk to my sisters heaps and my parents for a little bit. The best thing that happened was when a package arrived the morning of Christmas Eve and it had all the presents from my mom and dad in it. Chris made us coffee and breakfast and we opened the package and it was like our own little Christmas morning. Next time I think what we'll do is go spend Christmas eve and Christmas morning with Chris's family and then leave to spend that evening of Christmas day as just the two of us and have the morning of Boxing Day be like our Christmas morning at home. That's when we'd open any gifts from my family and exchange the gifts we gave to each other and just pretend it was Christmas. Because why not? I wish we'd done that this year, but I hadn't fully though through how everything was going to work yet. Our next Aussie xmas is going to be infinitely better, guaranteed. Life is too short to be miserable over the holidays. :)

Fashion

I am SO excited to be able to bust out some cold-weather fashion in a few weeks. I haven't had an excuse to really fix my hair, let alone plan a real outfit in a loooooong time, so color me ecstatic. :) I've started a style file on my desktop (it lives next to my hair file. They're bffs.) and have started to accumulate a lot of cool looks I'd love to try. I made two day time and night time looks just for fun. I got the idea from the Polyvore website and just dragged each clothing item into photoshop and pasted it all together. It's really cool how easily you can fit a picture of a sweater from one designer onto jeans from an entirely different website because all the mannequins are the same size. It was fun! Here they are:


I'm in love with this look! I've seen a few different version of it now with the denim style shirt and ivory cardigan but this one I've put together is my favorite. I need to find a Chambray shirt, stat! And oxfords in my size. Wish I could have the green Balenciaga too but I don't think that's happening in this lifetime. :-D



I'm also loving the top-knot hair right now. I started seeing it two years ago in Brisbane (I swear Australians are more up on fashion trends than Americans on average, they're always two years ahead!) mostly on teenage girls, and I thought it was so cute. I called it the "brisbane bun" because it was literally everywhere. And now it was one just about every runway this fall and so I've been trying to rock it out lately. My hair is kind of short to make it as pretty as I'd like, but I still think it's working for me. I'm so relieved that something so incredibly easy to style is on-trend at the moment. You don't have to straighten or blow dry your hair for this one!

I love this look equally as much as the first one even though they're so different. :) This look is kind of technology/ space inspired. Definitely a modern 80's vibe. I think those hinged rings are so cool, they would make me feel like a robot. In a good way. I hope I can rock out something similar to this when we go out for my bday drinks next month. :)


Wii



We bought a Wii back in November and it's our first gaming system. I love it! My fave game is Epic Mickey. ^^ I play it all the time now when I'm avoiding cleaning the house. I think maybe I'll buy one of those Wii fit things or those personal trainer game things tomorrow to see how I like it because they're supposed to be really good. I need to get back into the swing of exercising again now that my job isn't going to be so active and I think using the Wii could be a fun addition to the gym. What do you think?

Movies


Tomorrow When The War Began (Theatrical Trailer)


I saw the movie "Tomorrow When the War Began" a couple days ago with beebs and it's REALLY good. I'm shocked at how well executed it was because, frankly, most Australian films I've seen have a painfully low-budget vibe and are full of bad acting. This movie was so good though! It's based on a book from one of Chris's favorite child-hood series by John Marsden so I'm really excited to read the series now.

I think Inception is my favorite movie of the moment though. If you haven't seen it, go rent it now! It reminds me of the Matrix in some ways (so of course I love it) but it's executed in a new way. It brings to life the fantasy of "what if I could control my dreams" or, if you've ever had a particularly fantastic dream, "what if I could make this last forever?" I really hope there's going to be a sequel because the way it ends would be INFURIATING without a sequel! Such a good ending, but I don't want it to be over yet.










That's all the blog I have for now! Hopefully it was enjoyable. :)