Hello there everyone!

Today I'm going to be wrapping up my Bra series with Part 3. Here is how to find your perfect bra size and a guide to different bra styles (Part 1) and some tips for shopping and shops for the non-mainstream bra (Part 2).

In Part 3 I'm going to be discussing some tips that I have collected over the years in dealing with non-mainstream sized boobs

There will always be people that don't understand and belittle your plight
Always. I can't decide whether my least favourite is the 'Oh no, such a terrible ailment, you have big boobs, that's such a hardship' (super sarcastic voice) type or the 'yeah right, I don't believe you. I think you're lying - they don't even make bras in that size' type. Thankfully, these people are pretty easy to deal with. To be honest, your best bet is probably to just ignore them, because they are never going to understand and you're only going to get angry with them if you try. But, if you want to retort, here are some options.

From Busty Girl Comics

For the first type, you could always try something like 'Well, when you put it like that, I suppose they aren't such a problem. I mean, there is the neck and the shoulder pain and not being able to buy cheap bras or swimsuits. And the issue of halternecks giving me a headache. And not being able to wear strapless dresses. And the problem of being constantly sexualised, all the time. But nah, you're probably right. I guess they aren't a problem after all.'

Or something like 'Oops you got me. (sheepish smile) They aren't a problem at all. In fact, they are amazing at getting me whatever I want. I can use these to make the mankind succumb to my every whim and desire. The magazines are right - big boobs are better!!' (happy smile while boob jiggling for effect)

For the second type just shove your boobs in their face and yell 'Are they real now?! Do you still think I'm lying?!?!?!' In my experience, this has a 98% success rate of getting them to shut up and leave you alone. Or course, it may also lead to assault charges and possible murder charges on death by boob suffocation, depending on how big your chesticles are.

Resources for the Busty Woman and Tips for Everyone Who Wears a Bra | Part 2

Hello there everybody!

Today I am going to be covering Part 2 of my Bra series.If you missed Part 1 (in which I talked about finding your correct bra size and types of bra styles), you can find it here.

In this part I am going to be talking about where to buy bras that are not mainstream sizes. This is something that I struggle with every time I go to buy bras and if I had found somewhere that lists a whole bunch of places that sells bras in my size, or at least close to it, I would have been eternally grateful!

Do be aware though - in order to get a proper fitting bra you are going to have to be prepared to fork out some decent money. On average, I pay about $80-$90 for one bra, so it is an investment!

I'm going to split this post into two parts - the first being actual stores in Perth and the second being online stores. Obviously, if you don't live in Perth, just skip the first section (which is going to be pretty small anyway).

Also, this post is also not going to be anywhere near the colossal size of Part 1, so don't be scared. :)

Part 1 - Stores in Perth

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A Cup Above
I think I have mentioned this store before, but I'm going to talk about it again because it's great. It's located in Joondalup, very close to the hospital, and stocks Australian sizes 6-18, D-K. I've always had great success with the store - the staff are friendly, knowledgeable and always willing to help. They are also willing to go that extra mile to make sure your fit is perfect - they've always been happy to order in special sizes for me even if they don't normally stock. They also do have an online store, which I've personally never used. They also have a great swimwear line. Prices range from about $60-$100 (although I have bought a $133 bra from them before).

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Bonds Bra Line
This is a line of bras as opposed to an actual store, but I do feel it belongs on here. You can buy Bonds bras at most major department stores (Target, Big W, K-Mart, Myers) and online. Earlier this year they brought a new line or bras designed at more busty women. While that was a nice thought, I still feel their line is quite limited. They run in Australian sizes 8-18, A-G. However, they only go up to a cup size G in size 02 and over. The largest 8 cup size they have is a E because of course small ribbed women don't have large boobs... However, they are much more affordable at between $16.95 and $42 a bra (regular price) but you won't get the advice that you'll get from somewhere like A Cup Above

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Myers
Before I found A Cup Above, I used to shop exclusively at Myer for my bras. They have a lot of bras and anyone who has ever been in the lingerie section of Myers will know what I mean (the choice seems quite overwhelming). However, at closer look, there isn't that much variety. They stock Australian sizes 10-26, A-G (I think - it might go higher, but I couldn't find out on the website). While you can get good bargains, most bargains are found in the lower cup sizes - bra prices range from $20-$120ish (the ones over $100 will be speciality bras like strapless ones). I also wouldn't particularly trust their advice. I've been with my mum recently and the advice they were trying to give her was jut plain wrong. They kept telling her she needed to go band sizes but she didn't. She needed to go down at least two band sizes and go up about three cup sizes. I've also never found them to be all that sensitive or friendly. I once had a woman tell me 'Hmmm... Well something isn't right is it. It's a bit bulge-y, isn't it'. Well duh, it's a boob, and also your lack of knowledge and disapproving tone of voice isn't really making me feel great nor inspiring me with confidence.

Health at any Age?

Hi lovelies,

Would you look at me - another post after just two days! I am doing well, aren't I? Actually, I went a little gung-ho on the Halloween nail ideas and now I've had to boost up my posting frequency to make sure I get them all in. Also, isn't gung-ho the weirdest word to write down. When I first wrote it, I was convinced that it was actually made up, but it isn't, it's a real word. Anyway, moving on from the linguistics lesson, lets crack on with today's post, shall we?



I feel like this post might be a bit of a Unpopular Opinion one, but it's something that's been niggling at the back of my mind for a while now.

Can you be too young to be 'healthy'?

By itself, even I can see that's a pretty weird question. Being healthy and well is what we all aim for in life and so why would there be age restrictions on that?

Had you asked me that a year ago, I would have resolutely disagreed with my above question - health is for everyone! But now I'm not so sure...

Isn't this the cutest picture. Source

As some of you may know, I work in child care and a couple of months ago, one of the kids said something to me that sparked off the above question in my mind. I had been trying to get the kids up onto the oval because we had a soccer coach that afternoon and I was trying to get the kids enthused about going up playing with him. I had succeeded in convincing about half and was walking with them up to the oval. That's when one girl turned to me and said,

'I don't know why everyone doesn't want to come up to the oval and play sports. It's such a nice day and I love doing exercise because it makes me feel good and it makes me strong and it gets you healthy'

And I was like, 'Mmmmhmmm. That's nice, yes it's a nice day and I like sport too and what? Oh yeah, it does make you healthy, I guess?'

I don't even really know why I was so taken aback by the last bit. I guess because I wasn't expecting it. That's what I like about working with kids. They tell it like it is. They do what they want to do. And yes, sometimes that's infuriating, but for the most part, it's pretty refreshing. They don't have ulterior motives. They tell it too you straight.

Resources for the Busty Woman and Tips for Everyone Who Wears a Bra | Part 1

After all that deliberation over whether to post my last post or not, I decided to do a kind of follow up post.

Why? Well, because I didn't want to come across as just whiny and irritating, I wanted my contribution to be useful as well.

Mostly because I didn't want it to be a lot of venting - I want it to be useful as well. I originally planned for this to be one post, but by the time I had gotten through my first section, I was already at 3000 words, so I thought I had better divide it into 3 parts! These three parts are going to be covering:

Finding Your Correct Bra Size

Shopping For The Non-Mainstream Bra Size

Tips For Dealing With Un-'Ideally' Shaped/Sized Boobs

Got it? Everybody excited? Then lets do this!!

Finding Your Correct Bra Size
Although this may sound a little silly and even if you are 120% sure you know your bra size, I highly encourage you to do this anyway. It's gonna take you 10ish minutes and it is going to really help you out. Especially if you have big boobs. And I'm talking anybody that's a D cup or bigger. But even if you're smaller than a D cup - don't skip this section! Because I reckon about 80% of you are going to be surprised at the size you find. Do you know why I think that? It's because approximately 80% of women are in the wrong sized bra. Imagine that! 80%. That's ridiculous. So let's get on to changing that number. :)

Right. First, you are going to need to ditch your shirt and get on your best fitting bra. Even, if you know it doesn't fit perfectly, that's okay - we'll deal with this is a minute. Next, grab yourself a tape measure and go stand in front of a mirror. Doing this in front of a mirror makes it way easier to check that the tape measure is level. Or alternatively, get a friend to do the measuring - but really, it's pretty much just as easy to do it yourself with a mirror for guidance. I'm going to break this down into 4 parts, the band size, the cup size, troubleshooting for bra shopping and the different bra styles available.

And before I start, I'm going to be working in UK sizes, because it's easier to do when working out your own size (you'll see why in a minute). If you have no idea of the conversions between UK and US and Australian and other sizes, then you're in luck because I've made you a nice table. :)

When I Complain About My Boobs, It's Not a Humble Brag

Hi lovelies,

I hope you are all having a good week. This post is something I've been sitting on for a while, a sort of half formed idea that took a long time to manifest into a coherent post and then has been sitting around on my computer for even longer before I decided to post it.

Why?

Because I feel that maybe it doesn't fit with my blog, but then, it is my blog and I can do what I like with it, can't I? And also because I don't know what people will think of it. Will it come out the way I want it to? But then, again, it is my blog and I can't pander to the whims and desires of everybody, if I did, I wouldn't be here typing this to you. I guess I just feel that this is an issue and struggle that I'm still working through at the moment, rather than one I feel like I've worked through and moved on a bit from (like my exercise series) and I don't want to hit a wrong nerve with anyone because I don't have that secondary, past perspective to tamper and soften some of my ideas.

But then again, it is my blog, and this post is as good as I'm gonna get it and when I started this blog, I made a promise that I was going to be honest. And this is me being honest. I hope you enjoy and if you do, if you could let me know via commenting that would be amazing and if you didn't like it, I'd still like to hear why (I think.....) and if you have your own experiences, I would especially love to hear them!!

So, let us start at the beginning of this saga, shall we?

I've always had big boobs. It's just part of who I am. To be honest, I can't actually remember what it was like to not have big boobs.

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Exercise Can Be Really Scary. No, Really. | Exercise Part 3

Hi lovelies,

Today I'm going to be wrapping up my series on exercise and I'm mostly going to be discussing my current thoughts on exercise and what/why (if any) I doing right now.

I'm really sorry that this is so late but it wasn't coming together and I kept working on it and it just wasn't working. But finally, finally, I got it done. :)

If you missed the first parts of this series, here's Part 1 and here's Part 2.

Okay, so onto exercise.

After my epitome about exercise and suddenly realising that continuing to exercise as I was was going to end up killing me, I gave up exercise and for the first 2-3 weeks, it was really, really hard. My anxiety skyrocketed and the amount of nervous energy I was expending felt like it tripled. Equally, it was incredibly hard to keep myself still. I would have to literally force myself to sit down and not walk and pace and move constantly in order to keep expending energy. It also didn't help that my mother was not 100% behind my decision to stop exercise all together. Obviously, she supported my decision to do so, but she is a firm believer in the 'exercise makes you happy and healthy' and I had spent an awful long time convincing her that exercise was something I did because it made me happy, not as a way to lose weight and she was pretty desperate to see me happy again. Also, she is fairly fatphobic and didn't want to see me recover in an 'unhealthy' way.

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But, despite all that, I stuck to it and continued to abstain from exercise. And, surprisingly, after about a month, all the anxiety just left. It obviously was not gone all together, but all the extra anxiety, the exercise-related anxiety I had been experiencing for so long, it all left. For a while then, I felt more at peace with exercise than I had in a long, long time.

All About That Bass... Or Not

Hi everyone!

So, I don't know if you guys have heard of it, but I've heard a lot about Meghan Trainor's newest song and music video recently. And I have a lot of thoughts about it and I think the people around me are getting sick of hearing me talk about it, so I thought I might talk about it here. (And writing a post about it forces me to get my thoughts in a logical order so that the next time someone brings it up, I'll have a great list of concise and organised things to mention, rather than jumping around manically as I think of more things...)

In case you haven't heard the song or seen the video, I've conveniently added it here for you.



A couple of weeks ago, people kept telling me that I had to hear this song and it kept popping up on my social media sites, and everything was saying the same thing - that it was a great body positive song, that I'd love it so much and that we needed more songs like this.

Naturally I was intrigued. Of course I wanted to hear this amazing song that touted body positivity and made everyone that was not a conventionally attractive size feel great. And so many people loved. That meant that it had to be amazing, right? Especially since the people I surround myself with on my social media all tout positive messages and good stuff like that. It sounded almost too good to be true

And sadly, in a way it was.

Don't get me wrong, the song is still pretty good. It's really catchy and has some really good sections in it. I like that the people in it are fairly diverse and I really like some of the lyrics. And, it's a step in the right direction for what we do need in the music industry - particularly in the music video industry.

But, there were some elements about the song and it's video that I was really not keen on. This can pretty much be summed up in two sections, the skinny shaming and the emphasis on men as a decider of what sort of bodies are attractive.

Exercise Can Be Really Unhealthy. True Fact. | Exercise Part 2

Hi lovelies,

Today we are moving onto Part 2 of my exercise series. If you missed the first part, you can find it here.

This post covers my experiences with exercise during my eating disorder and talks a lot about what I was feeling and my reasons and rationale behind my decisions at that time. If you are triggered by discussions of disordered thoughts about exercise, maybe this post isn't for you. xxx

Last time I pretty much gave a run down of my early experiences with exercise and I finished up with me being happy and jolly while doing Tae Kwon Do. However, unfortunately, that wasn't going to last.

After I had been doing it for about 2-2.5years, things started to head downhill. At this point, I was heading into my eating disorder and was a very stressed person. At first, Tae Kwon Do was a lifesaver for me. I was somewhere I went, twice a week and escaped every other bit of my life. The people that I met there were amazing, amazing people and were completely different from anyone else in my life. There were very few, if any people my age (16-17 years) and so I spent my time with a couple of girls and a boy about 13-14 and a few older men and women (probably in their late 30s or early 40s). This was so extremely valuable to me because these were people with whom I had very little in common with in regards to everyday life. I don't really care what other people say, there is a world of difference between the everyday life of a 13 year old and that of a 16 year old. The fact that they both go to high school is fairly negligible.

And those that did go to school were at schools that were very different from mine. One girl went to the local public high school and was in a constant battle to pass her subjects so that she would be allowed to stay on the triathlon team. For me, this was world's away from my struggles, although equally challenging, and it was a relief to be around these people. People that didn't care about school in the way I did and people that were just lovely, lovely people.

I Have Some Really Confused Ideas About Exercise | Exercise Part 1

Hi lovelies,

So, exercise. I have so many mixed feelings on exercise it's not even funny. Or mildly amusing. It's actually just very, very confusing.

And just on a quick, definition-y note before we get started, I'm talking about formal exercise here. The term 'formal exercise' refers to exercise that's done with the primary goal being to exercise, rather than to socialise or to get places or stuff like that. So I'm not counting things like walking to work/school and I'm not counting social outings. Like, I go ice-skating with my friend about once a fortnight, and while that is exercise (skating around in circles for a couple of hours does burn calories) we do it because it gives us a chance to catch up and do something a little different, and because it's fun. But it's for socialising, not exercise, primarily, so I'm not counting it under the umbrella term of formal exercise.

Got that? Yes? Okay, lets move on.

But before we crack all these different feelings, lets recap my experiences with exercise...

Fair warning - my exercise stories are not going to be happy jolly gold-tinted things and joy. Also, who even looks like when running. When you look like me, running fucking hurts! Source here

I Had to Buy Pants for Fat People And the World Didn't End..

Hi lovelies,

Three weeks ago, I started my nail course in order to become a qualified nail technician. As part of the uniform, I had to go out and buy black professional pants and black shoes.

How I wished I would look in black pants. Source here

I was a little dubious as the last time I wore tailored pants was for school and the reason I stopped wearing them was that I thought they made me look fat. But, I was more excited about looking professional and starting the course than about how I felt 3 years ago. However, when I got to the shops and was perusing the racks, looking for pants that said 'short length', one pair stopped me in my tracks. They said 'short length, wide leg'.

My brain immediately went 'Pants for Fat People, Pants for Fat People! Put those down immediately! You'll get contaminated and ARGH! Run! Run far away! You really need to out them down! NOW!'

I found a bikini and watch me rock it!

First full picture of me in aaaaaaaaages. I'm so proud of myself.

Hi lovelies,

So, following on from my previous post on bathers and bikinis (and steering away from the huge amounts of nail posts recently), I am proud to announce that I know have purchased one. Yay! While it is unfortunately not the one mentioned in the previous post, it is still pretty good. Or at least I think so.

Why I Am Going to be Rocking a Bikini this Summer..

Hello everyone.

Well, so much for being a dedicated blogger and what not... I had exams and school was finishing and I was feeling pretty bad (no actually I was feeling like a fucking load of shit), so blogging took a definite back seat. But, I'm back and life seems to be looking up (but more on that later). This post I found from a couple of weeks back from when I was feeling a lot better, and so I thought I might post this, in the whole it might cheer me up a little.

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Hey guess what everybody?

I can feel the summer arriving! Yay!

While winter is all well and good (no not actually, I don’t really like it but I know it is necessary for the survival of an ecosystem yada yada yada), summer is really where my heart belongs. The scorching heat, the dry days, the sounds of crickets chirping in the background, the balmy evenings, the hours upon hours spent in the pool, at the beach, just lounging and swimming. I just love the way life slows down for summer in Perth. People move slowly, the days pass slowly, everybody is lethargic, trying to remain as cool as possible.

Hello and Welcome - A formal introduction

Hi lovelies,

A couple of days ago, I realised something. You might remember my post about make-up, photoshop and photos and this realisation was very much to do with this.

So, I was out at the zoo with my family and I was, as always, attached very permanently to my camera. I was snapping away happily, taking photos of everything from an interestingly shaped rock to some baby meerkats to my family and myself and realised – these are great photos. These are happy photos and I would be proud to show people these pictures. I look happy and healthy. I look pretty great in all of these. And that’s when I realised – I don’t have to post just one picture of myself. I can post as many as I want because this is my blog. And so, if I post lots and lots of pictures – I can build a more complete picture of myself. I don’t have to let people judge me on only one picture. I don't have to let the way people see me be defined by only one picture. By only one snapshot into my life. By one tiny porthole in a rather large ship. This is my blog and I need to remember that. So, that's what I'm going to do. :)

Fake It 'Til You Make It?

Long time no see - right?

Sorry about the long absence, I had exams and I was tired and to be honest, I just couldn't be bothered to do any blogging or posting. But I am back now. :)

This post took a while for me to write and a longer time for me to decide to post it. It might not seem like a big deal to some, but for me, this is a big deal. Body image is hard for me and it's hard for me to write about these fears and my insecurities. Also, I just don't want people thinking that I'm stupid for worrying over something as simple and as trivial as a photo... But, I decided to bite the bullet and go for it, as one of my aims when I created this blog was to be honest and to be truthful. Not only to you, to to myself as well. So, here goes...

Why My One True Love Is Myself

Hi lovelies,

I watched City of Bones the other day and it was fabulous and brilliant and I love it so much – especially Jace! Oh my god, he was so hot and I love him so much!!

Okay, moving on from my fangirl squealing over Jace and the rest of the movie, there was one line that really stuck with me. At one point, somebody says something about love to Jace and he replies with, ‘Sadly, my one true love remains myself.’

That really got under my skin. Like, so much. It wasn’t the fact that he was his own true love; it was the fact that he started the sentence with ‘sadly’. I think that is absolute bollocks. My true love is absolutely myself.

Why? Well, when you look at what you know about true love, it’s pretty easy.

Dear Society Part 3

Hi everyone,

Okay, I swear this one is the last one. I fully intended this to be just one post, but it sort of spread out and out and out and suddenly, it was three! If you missed Part One and Two and you would like to read them, you can find them here and here. Oh, and remember, I’m not an expert in the field of eating disorders, nor do I claim any scientific backing behind my words. These are my words and my feelings on my personal experience.

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