A lot of you were asking about the dresses I wore while I was in Miami earlier this month, here’s the rundown!

Maxi Dress: Asos, Shoes: Avenue, Bracelets: Avenue, Bag: Steve Madden (see links below)

Silk Maxi Dress by FatPhrocks

Dress: Jessica Simpson, Shoes: Avenue, Bag: Old (see links below)

Shop the look…

I was on the M60 bus last night and there was a girl who was on her way to La Guardia Airport. She had the tiniest suitcase with her and I thought to myself… wow, I think I could fit one pair of my jeans in that carry-on… if I rolled them super tight

Even if I’m going away for a weekend and am bringing three outfits, there is no way I could fit everything in one of those black square suitcases that people wheel around. My bras alone need their own duffel bag and if its winter and I’m packing bulky sweaters? Forget about it!

I never realized that I probably pack for trips differently because my clothes take up more space. Little tricks like putting four pairs of socks into my bra cups to save space probably don’t come up for everyone but as a Plus Size Princess, things like that are second nature when I’m preparing for a trip.

I’m not even going to mention the fact that I’m a high maintenance PSP because that means that I’ve got lots of creams, powders, tubes, trinkets and accessories that I have to pack when I travel, so my luggage will probably always need to be on the medium-large end even if I’m only going away for a few days. Its nothing to complain about really, I’m just fascinated that I didn’t realize this before.

There are so many random things that come along with being a Plus Size Princess; we’ve got to combat chub rub or handle the sweat between our boobies or worry about the seatbelts on the plane fitting us. Now I’m adding “required to have roomier luggage” to the list.

*shrugs*

One of the cool things about not being anonymous anymore is that I can share ALL the aspects of my NYC life with you guys. If you’ve read TBGB for a while, you’ve heard me mention singing performances here and there. Music is a super important part of my life and a lot of my friends I know from performing.

When I was in Los Angeles last week, I spent a few days with my good friend Jonathon Grant (aka @YourCoverBoy). Jonathon and I met studying Musical Theater in NYC. Now he’s doing well on the west coast acting and doing acousitc covers. Get two singers together for a few days and something creative is bound to happen… we started messing around with some of our favorite songs and did an impromptu mash-up/cover… here it is, hope you like it!

xoxo

Greetings from Los Angeles!

So, I got on the plane in NYC and was able to click the seat belt closed with no extender! Then just as I was applauding myself for my weight loss acomplishments, I changed flights in Chicago and the seatbelt was *this* close to fitting, but it wouldn’t and I had to ask the flight attendant for an extender afterall (womp womp!). Goes to show, that its not always us… sometimes its the plane, so we shouldn’t be so hard on ourselves when we have to do the oh so embarrassing extender request.

I’m in my home state for a friends wedding. I’m not in the wedding and Robert had to stay behind for a family wedding of his own, so my main goal for this trip is to relax! I’m going to be by the pool and/or on the beach as much as possible starting tomorrow, so I tried really hard not to overpack. I’ve made some discoveries over the past few weeks that made my packing a lot more simple. So I thought I’d share!

First off, I revamped my travel outfit for the summer– remember when I wrote about plane comfy clothes for Plus Size Princesses? Well you can see that post come to life in this picture. The lip gloss I’m wearing is from the See & Be Seen makeup kit by Anastasia. I love the pink color and it pops on my brown skin, which is sometimes hard to find in a lip gloss.

Next, FullBeauty.com has done something I’ve been wanting a swimline to do for a long time… they’re making swimsuits with underwire in them! I always buy at least one halter swimsuit, but for a girl like me with DDD’s, that knot starts to dig into the base of my neck after a while and its not comfortable. Underwire in this vintage swimsuit cut is going to make my time by the pool perfect. Follow me on Instagram (PlusSizePrincess) and I’ll be posting pictures through the weekend. FullBeauty also has a great sheer swimdress that I like– I know everyone is doing the fatkini thing, but I’m just not ready, so these suits work well for me.

Lastly, Ms. Kathryn Finney from TheBudgetFashionista turned me on to the new Crocs… its not those crazy moon shoes anymore, they’re making cute little ballet flats with great support and the size 11w’s fit like a glove. I’m wearing them in the photo linked above!

Anyway, this is what I’ll be rocking all weekend until I have to put on real clothes for the wedding… I’ll post pics of that on my tumblr.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Every time I take a trip I try to do something adventurous. I’ve gone parasailing in miami, snorkeled with seals in La Jolla and each time that I do something like that I find that I conquer a fear of mine in some way. This year, when I went home for Christmas, I decided to conquer a fear that I’ve had forever– going places by myself. Its hard for me to have a cup of coffee on my own without a book or my laptop in front of me. So when I decided to take a trip to San Francisco on my own… I was beyond nervous.

The first thing I had to do was make sure that I could travel in an affordable way, I did that using two of my favorite discount sites.

Ideeli

Ideeli is primarily a fashion site that sells high end fashion at huge discounts. I love them because not only do they offer brands like Betsey Johnson and Rebecca Minkoff but they do regular “Plus Size Perfection” sales that are phenominal. A few months ago, they had an offering for a Travlocity.com gift card. The gift card was worth $100 but I was able to buy it for $50. I used the $100 gift card to book my hotel, so I was able to get 4 days/3 nights in the heart of San Francisco for $200! (This site is for members only, but you can sign up for Ideeli here).

Groupon

I am a Groupon fanatic! When I’m headed to a new city, I always sign of for groupon deals there. This trip I did something a little different though. I used the Groupon app on my phone and took advantage for “Groupon Now” deals for my meals. Groupon Now uses your GPS location to tell you what restaurants are offer discounts on dinner/drinks at that very moment. When I got hungry, I would see who in my area of San Francisco was offering a deal on lunch/dinner and if it was something I liked, I’d head over. It was a fun way to explore the city and find restaurants I wouldn’t know about otherwise. My favorite meal was at a restaurant called infusion, for $10 I got $20 in food and drinks (their edamame was AMAZING!) after a good meal and a glass of wine, my total was like $24. Score! (join groupon here).

All in all spending a few days in a foreign city was a lot of fun. I think 4 days was the perfect amount of time. Thanks to everyone who gave me tips on where to go via facebook/twitter, I used a lot of your recommendations.

Have YOU ever done a solo vacation?

I swear, traveling as a Plus Size Princess is an art.

There are so many opportunities for things to go awry; seatbelts not fitting… the person in front of you insisting on leaning back into your lap… and of course, the battle for the arm rest. Something that I’ve noticed is that what I wear can drastically improve the quality of my trip. Of course, when I fly home I try to wear things that will transition easily from frosty NYC weather to Sunny California temps, but there’s another reason I’m particular about what I wear when I fly.

It may sound random, but soft flowing fabrics make fitting into tight spaces sooo much easier in comparison to denim and/or bulky sweaters. For this trip, my “flying outfit” came from Rachel Pally’s Plus Size White Label. Rachel Pally is known for making beautiful flowing pieces in soft cottons. This skirt of hers (below) fit all my criteria… it would work with leggings while I was on the east coast, but would be fine with bare legs once I got home. It wasn’t bulky either, so in a plane seat where every inch counts… I felt like I had the wiggle room I needed.

I tucked a long sleeved top into the skirt, let the skirt sit high on my waist, wrapped a chunky belt around it and topped it off with a few (plastic/metal-detector safe) accessories.

What do YOU wear when you travel?

Side Note: I refuse to check luggage now that they charge a fee, I’ve been using this luggage by DVF and it fits all of my clothing even though its dimensions classify it as a carry-on. Love!

We arrived at La Jolla Cove 15 minutes early. Although I was completely stoked about snorkeling, there was one thing that had me nervous.

The website said Providing a mask, snorkel, fins, and a 7-millimeter wetsuit, the water-recreation emporium outfits squadrons of snorkelers for guided sightseeing at La Jolla Cove Underwater Park.

A 7 millimeter wetsuit? *sigh* I wasn’t sure that they would have a suit that fit me, but I really wanted to go. I called the company and expressed my concerns. They said they had suits up to a XXL but that meant nothing to me, I had a feeling that XXL would be for a well built man not a Plus Size Princess. But the company also assured me that if I didn’t fit into the suit, I could go on another excursion instead like stand up paddleboarding or kayaking (which had a 350 pound weight limit, but I’m under that *whew*).

So my sister, Denise, and I get to La Jolla and meet up with our instructor who is the typical pot head surfer. I walk up to him and say “hey, we’re here early so I can see if I can fit into the wetsuit”.

“Cool,” he says with a grin. Then he just stares at us in that spacey way that only a pothead can.

“Soooo, can you give us a suit?” I say, waving my hand in his face.

“Oh, right… yeah– totally!” he says, then he reaches into his box of equipment and pulls out a suit. I go into the bathroom and attempt to pull the suit on which is like trying to pull a tiny water balloon over my entire body.

Awkward.

I look into the suit and see that its a size XL not and XXL. By this time I have the suit up over my knees, so I waddle out and ask the instructor if he has an XXL like the guy on the phone promised he would. He blinks at me a few times and then says “yeah… I do”. I try to step out of the suit but its like glue around my legs.

Denise and I walk/waddle, respectively, to a bench nearby. We decide that I will sit and hold onto the sides of the bench while she pulls the suit off of my legs.

“Ready? One… Two… Three… AHHHHHHH!”

The suit budges like an inch down my calves and people walking by are trying not to look, but looking. Usually I’d be mortified by this situation, but being with my sister tends to put me at ease and situations like this become hilarious. Five minutes later we have the suit off and are both panting and laughing.

“a size XXL isn’t going to be much better than the XL,” I say breathlessly, “we might have to do the kayaking.”

We go back to tell the instructor that the suit isn’t fitting me. Of course at that moment there is another snorkeler who is like 5’1 and 90 pounds whining that her suit is too big! (I did my best not to give her the major **sideeye**). As I explain my situation to our pothead instructor, he calmly says “why don’t you just snorkel without the suit?”

“That’s an option?!” I ask incredulously… why he didn’t say that in the beginning, I have no idea!

Anyway, we had an amazing time in the water looking at the beautiful fish and then the seals who live in the cove came and swam with us too. They came within arms distance of us and were showing off… it was so cute! I didn’t take my camera into the ocean, but here’s a photo of the seals on the rocks where they hang out. Overall it was a beautiful day with nature and I’m glad I did it. First parasailing in Miami last year, now snorkeling! Another extreme adventure concquered by a Plus Size Princess!

TRAVEL TIP: We snorkeled for $35 using a groupon! A few weeks before I traveled to San Diego, I updated my groupon account so that it would send me deals for San Diego. I figured it would help save money on the trip and maybe we’d get a good deal on a restaurant or something. If you’re not a Groupon member, sign up here, its free, it has saved me sooo much money and it can help you do fun things on vacation.

Have any of you gone snorkeling or scuba diving? If so, have you managed to get into a wetsuit?

Hello Lovelies,

I’m packing my bags and heading to San Diego for a bit of vacation… This New York rain is getting to be too much for me. I need some sun!

Anyway, I’ve got some fun adventures planned that I can’t wait to share with you!

xoxo,
CeCe