Fashion is an exhausting business. Whether it’s trying to come up with a new name for the same shade of blue, or being a high-flying stylist jetting around the world for shoots, catwalk shows and parties – or whether it’s working for a blog or long shifts in a high street shop; this billion-pound industry has millions of people under its spell.

And it can be tricky tricky waters in there, especially as an industry which seems to create many of its clothes for super or quasi-human body shapes which are extraordinarily tall/thin/androgynous/intriguing.

However, our friends on the high street are the friendlier face of fashion, and this season there are plenty of fun styles and accessories to dresses that are inspiring us to experiment and express ourselves.

Springtime is around the corner, and with that in mind we’ve been spending a lot of time ogling Warehouse’s collection of new dresses for the (slightly) warmer weather.

One thing that’s big this spring is flirty shapes and florals – a classic look that often re-emerges at this time of year, dresses for 2012 have either a 1990s lightness, influenced by oldschool teen TV shows. Think simple sleevless or strapped tops, buttoned top-to-bottom, with a flared skirt just above the knee.

Our tip for picking a floral style for you? Don’t do crazy with details or tailoring. The combination of a cinched waist and too busy a pattern is distracting in the wrong way! The most important choice is comfort. What makes you feel good? Looking good always comes from a sense of confidence, well-being and fun within you.

If your hips are larger, try peplum styles, whose little flared edges just over the waist create a beautiful silhouette and ensure that the lower half tapers lightly to the ankles.

Happy Friday! It looks like I need to do a bit of Spring Cleaning on TheBigGirlBlog…

Today I realized that I have four giveaways that are unclaimed, meaning many people entered, I chose a winner but that person never got back to me to claim their prize.

Here’s a few things you should know about the giveaways on TBGB.

-Giveaways usually run for 1 week

-I usually choose a winner by replying to their comment in the comment section (make sure your comment notifications go to an email that you actually check )

-If no one claims their prize, I will reopen the giveaway for someone else to win

So, that’s what I’m going to do today… I’ve got unclaimed prizes including: Leading Lady Bras, 2 Plus Size Waist Cinchers and a $50 Igigi gift card.

That’s FOUR prizes that you can win… all you have to do is

1.) Subscribe to TheBigGirlBlog’s email list (click the “@” symbol on the right side of this page).

2.) Leave a comment telling my which of the 4 prizes you’d like to win.

I will choose FOUR WINNERS in a week and hopefully they will all claim their prizes

Last week I got a text from Robert: Wanna grab some late night pancakes? The text couldn’t have come at a more interesting time.

1.) I was sweating my behind off on the elliptical machine

2.) I was watching The Biggest Loser while I worked out

The combination of those things made me extra aware of my decision. On one hand, Robert and I hadn’t seen each other over the weekend and I missed him. On the other hand I was in the middle of a great workout session and I didn’t want to sabotage it with a meal of carbs and sugar. I knew there had to be a way to have my (pan) cake and eat it too, so I sent Robert a text agreeing to meet up, then I began to formulate a plan.

I reminded myself that 90% of me was going to spend time with Robert and 10% of me was going for the pancakes. Instead of thinking about how yummy a plate carbs drenched in syrup would be, I started thinking about the more protein heavy things I could get, like an omlette with veggies and maybe some turkey bacon. I also knew that since Robert supports my healthy lifestyle choices he would probably let me have a single pancake from his plate.

A few hours later, Robert picked me up and we headed to the new IHOP that opened here in the city. I ignored the delicious looking photo of their “cinni-stack pancakes” and noticed that they had an option of Egg substitute, 2 turkey bacon strips and 2 small pancakes.

I ordered it and gave myself kudos for sacraficing a real IHOP meal. I accepted the deprivation of a minimal meal and told myself that it would be worth it when I jumped on the scale later.

The funny thing is- after eating the meal, I didn’t feel deprived at ALL!

In my head, I was doing something extreme by only eating two pancakes, but I’m starting to realize that eating 5 pancakes smothered in cinnamon glaze and whipped cream is the extreme choice. Having the 2 small pancakes was just enough and adding the egg substitute and turkey bacon totaled around 400 calories. I think the Cinni-stack pancakes were 900+ calories.

Its a lesson I learn and re-learn all the time, but so much of what I eat is “in my head” I would never imagine that a carb-addict like me would be satisfied after 2 small pancakes, but I was!

I just need to remember that and keep ordering smaller portions, I know I’ll be surprised by how little I really need.

P.S. I lost 3 pounds this week!

I have 20/20 vision, but working in front of a computer all day has been making my eyes super tired by the end of the day. I mentioned this to my optometrist and he did a few tests. It turns out that while I have good vision, my eyes are having trouble focusing on the low contrast computer screen. He gave me a prescription to help and as I went through the glasses he had to offer, I quickly realized that prescription glasses could be a $300+ expense.

$300 for computer glasses is NOT in my budget, so I started doing some research and it turns out that there are a lot of stores online that offer nice eyeglasses at huge discounts.

One of these sites is GlassesUSA.com. From looking at their site it seems that I can get adorable glasses for around $100, which is much better for my bank account. Of course, buying glasses online can be a little scary since you’re not able to try them on like you would in a store. But GlassesUSA has some features to help with that; you can upload a photo and try on your glasses virtually and if you buy glasses from them and don’t like the way they look, there is a 30 day exchange period.

I’ve been going through their site and I’ve narrowed my choices down to these (below). I really want something quirky and fun, so I’m leaning towards the two on the left… Which do you think I should get?

Disclaimer: This is a subject I’ve wanted to write about for a while. I look forward to hearing your thoughts, but anything offensive or hateful will be deleted.

“Overheard in New York” is one of my favorite blogs. As the name of the site implies, people submit snippets of conversation that they’ve overheard while being in NYC. Here is a post that I found the other day (excuse the language):

When I read this, my first thought was what on earth does race have to do with size? I wrote this guy off as a lunatic, until I began to think back to my days at the BBW clubs in NYC. More specifically at Goddesses. On any given night, it seemed that

-most of the Black men were giving attention to the big White women

-most of the White men gravitated towards the big Black and/or Latina women

-most the Latin men were more open, spending time with all the women (as long as they could dance).

Every time I was at Goddesses I would notice interracial couplings all over the dance floor. One night I was sitting at the bar with Paige and Reese, when a stunning Italian looking guy with perfect teeth walked in. Paige let out a deep sigh and said “Look at Danny, he’s so HOT… too bad he only dates Black girls.” A few minutes later a gorgeous Black man came into the club. He grabbed a drink and spent the rest of the night cozying up to the biggest woman at the party, who happened to be white.

I’m starting to wonder this is just coincidence, or if a lot of these men will only date Plus Size Princesses of a certain race. More specifically, a race outside of their own.

I have more thoughts but I know race can be a complicated subject, so I’m going to stop here and let you guys chime in.

Are you a White/Black/Latina/Asian PSP who feels like your race has an effect on your dating life? Do you find that men of a certain race hit on you more? When it comes to Plus Size Dating… does race matter?

I met Richard online and we were having the usual initial phone conversation where are you from/what do you do/where do you live… blah blah blah.

“How tall are you?” he asked.

“I’m five foot ten,” I replied. Before I could ask him how tall he was, he said.

“Oh okay… so you’ll probably come up to my nose.”

From what he said, I assumed he was about 6’4/6’5, so I didn’t press the issue. As I’ve mentioned before, I like when a guy is taller than me. Being a Plus Size Princess, there’s a strong chance I will be bigger than any guy I date. At least if he’s taller, I wont feel like I’m completely dominating him (its my preference, I don’t apologize for it).

The next week when Richard picked me up for a date, you can imagine my surprise when he barely reached my nose. This dude was like 5’7. Then he had the nerve to look at me and say “Wow, you’re really tall”.

Um… duh!

Something I’ve learned is that guys under six feet usually add two inches to their height. In my experience, if a guy says he’s 5’10 he’s actually 5’8. If he says he’s 6 feet tall, he’s around 5’10. If he says he’s 5’5… well you get the idea. I guess because most girls are short, men can get away with fibbing on how tall they are. I mean, its hard to measure how far above your head someone is. But I am 5’10 so if a man is shorter than me, I know right away!

What’s funny is that guys above 6 feet don’t lie about their height. Guys who are 6’2 don’t say they’re 6’4 and guys who are 5’11 only add one inch to make them 6 feet tall.

Maybe there are so many girls (like me) that have a height preference and list 6 feet as their height minimum that these men resort to lying so that girls will give them a chance. But height is so definitive! so it confuses me when men think they can get away with this.

When it comes to online dating, I believe in full disclosure. I know I’m a big girl, so I make sure to put full body shots on my profile. Men lying about their height it similar to PSP’s only adding a close up photos in order to hide their bodies. Even if I hide my weight, when a guy meets me he will figure out that I’m big. And I will figure out that he is short.

Anyway, the next time you’re scrolling through online profiles, remember my rule. Whatever a guy lists as his height, subtract 2 inches and spare yourself the awkwardness/disappointment.