Some people DO just love neutral clothes, so I am not dissing those people, just letting you know that if you ARE afraid to branch out, maybe you could try some of these colours or tips to help yourself build a colourful outfit for spring/summer!!

Okay, so lets start with the basics: Neutrals!

From left to right: Red (YES, it’s a neutral!), brown, navy, light grey, dark grey, black, white, beige

Every single one of these colours can be used as a base for any other color. If you are going to use red as a neutral, keep it on the deep side as opposed to a bright lipstick red.

Use any one of these colors as your pants, top, skirt, jacket – as a way to tone down a pattern or play up a color, the uses for neutrals are ENDLESS. They are also an amazing way to showcase an amazing accessory of a wonderful shoe.

And, Navy is THE neutral of the moment, pair it with white, red and gold accents to really feel that nautical look.

Here are a few of the colours I own and a lot of my favourite combos.

Starting with Red. Here’s a bright red cardigan I wear. I put a bunch of my camis/sweaters around it to show how these colors can look against it. I find that the colors on the right hand side compliment the sweater the most. In fact, that’s a good way to see what base your red is, it goes better with the blues (and the blue based purple, second from the bottom on the right, more than the peach and coral on the left hand side). However, in small doses, I think all these colours could work really well with the red. I LOVE the baby blue (just a small swatch at the upper right corner). I think a peek of baby blue or even the royal blue under the cardigan would look amazing. I think pairing the cardy with a patterned skirt with corals, pinks and peaches would really pop. Maybe wearing a bright right shirt and accessorizing with some amethyst or emerald jewellery would look amazing.

Next is hot pink. Again, you can see a slightly blue base to the sweater as the peach and coral camis clash slightly. I LOVE the look of the apple green next to it, as well as the royal and light blues, and the orchid color in the top left. I think a hot pink top with coral beads (as shown) looks fresh and summery! Also, pairing some emerald coloured heels with a pink skirt would look very “look at me” without looking overdone.

Since I love apple green, I wear this color a LOT! I think my faves with this are the orchid colour (3rd from the top on the left), the baby blue in the bottom left corner and the raspberry (2nd from the bottom on the right).

I also love using green to showcase a lot of the bright accessories I have, especially this chunky red bead necklace from Stella and Dot. I also use this sweater a lot over a deep purple dress that I have, as well as the peach cami with a belted pencil skirt. It’s a really unexpected combo, but the colours really compliment each other and people are often shocked at how well they work together.

Personally, I think this deep purple goes really well with almost everything! I even threw in the red cami (2nd from the bottom on the left) to show you that red and purple really DO go together. Again, think about the base of your purple – if you are using a plummy red-based purple, pair it with reds and pinks. If you are using an eggplant, blue-based purple, then pair with blues/greens.

Lastly is this gorgeous buttercup yellow…which, in my opinion, goes with every single color here. I have worn this cardigan (why are all my pictures cardigans??) with the coral tank and a turquoise necklace. The colors all complimented each other and I got tons of compliments when I wore the outfit. personally, I think this yellow (as opposed to a deeper or brighter yellow) could be used as a neutral because it really holds it’s own but lets the other color shine. For instance, I love the orchid colour against it, but I think that while the orchid stands out, the yellow still shines.

So colour isn’t obviously something to be taken lightly, but it is a lot easier to work with than people think!

And keep in mind, I’m not saying go out and pair red jeans with a royal blue top and top it off with a purple sweater, but you DEFINITELY can layer colors – for instance a bright coloured tee under a different coloured vest or sweater. Or keep it to your accessories. And if you ARE wearing dark colours, that is your time to REALLY showcase your accessories or shoes. If you were wearing a little black dress, don’t wear black shoes, go for the flash and wear a punch of colour on your feet.

Oh and the most IMPORTANT thing to wear with colour is CONFIDENCE. If you feel like your outfit is too flashy or you feel uncomfortable in it, DON’T WEAR IT! If you feel off in the colour, people will notice that. So start small or jump in feet first!

And I HATE when people say they can’t wear colour, you just obviously haven’t found the right SHADE yet! Embrace colour this spring/summer and come back and let me know what you experimented with and what you thought of it!!

Enjoy, fashionistas!

I have been dealing with some junk in my personal life that I know I won’t get into yet on here…once I get a little closure or maybe some better news in that department, then I will probably talk about it. Right now I just have a lot of negative feelings and i really hate writing when I am negative. So I think I will just focus on the positives!!

I am hoping to be able to post more often – probably not back to every day, that really depends on whether I receive some news or not this week or next.
But I definitely want to get back into my friday posts…I was a little self conscious about posting due to the weight I have gained in the past year…but you know what, then it can also show that just because you are plus sized doesn’t mean you need to wear oversized or sloppy clothing. So I am hoping to kind of work that in a little in my posts.

What else…this week was a crap week because I have been having some back issues…which sucks.
I took an epic face plant a couple of weeks ago and I think the traveling to Halifax just aggravated it a little bit from sitting in the seat for so long…so basically I have been sitting around (literally) for the past week with my best friends: Robaxacet and the heating pad. That at least will help me get together my blog post for tomorrow!!

So yeah…that’s about it! I am back! And really hoping for some good news!

AMBER!!! Over at “Girl With the Red Hair” she left the comment:

CONGRATULATIONS AMBER!!! I hope that “Off with her Red” is everything you hoped it would be! Shoot me an email or contact me on Twitter with your mailing information and I will get the parcel out to you this weekend!

I DO plan on having a giveaway every month – I am going to keep it around beauty/fashion products. So if you didn’t win this one, there will be another one coming soon!

(and just to let you know how I do this: I log every comment, tweet, link back in the order that I receive them and keep them in a spreadsheet, then use the random integer generator – just so you all know how I did it!! –> and if there is a better way of tracking them for the next time, let me know!!)

Thanks for everyone who participated!! I loved hearing your memories of “Alice in Wonderland”!

Anyway, I wanted to get this out last week to have the giveaway date for the release of the movie, but it took a while for them to get here, so I had to wait a little while extra!

So, I am a HUGE fan of Alice in Wonderland – and I always have been! It started out with the Disney movie, then I was in the play in grade 4 (I was the door mouse!), then there was the book, there was a made for tv movie that scared the crap out of me (I was terrified of the Jabberwocky)…I fell in love with the video game “Alice” by American McGee (yeah, that one is a little messed…Alice’s family dies in a fire and she is in an insane asylum…then she is lost in “wonderland” in her head and she kills the bad guys with her vorpal blade and croquet mallet)…and then in my University English class I wrote an essay on the “Jabberwocky” poem.

I think I have made my point there…needless to say, I was SUPER excited when I saw that Tim Burton was re-making a live action Alice in Wonderland (AND in 3D!!) – I am unsure how I feel about the idea of the movie…I love Johnny Depp and how they did the character…however, the Mad Hatter just wasn’t THAT big of a role in any of the traditional Alice stories…I am also not a huge fan of his depiction of the Red Queen – I love that they cast Helena Bonham-Carter, but I don’t love how they made her small with a huge head…I always see her as a big booming character (in fact, I thought Disney did a good job)…I almost died at Alice though…I love her. She is classy and beautiful, very vintage looking. SO yes, in short (since when is this short!!) I am looking forward to seeing the movie!

ONTO THE GIVEAWAY!!!

OPI came out with an Alice in Wonderland inspired collection of four polishes – and I thought those would make a lovely gift to one of my readers!! So I am offering up all four polishes (FULL size) to one lucky reader!!

The polishes are as follows:

“Off with her Red” – described as a “glowering, empowering hot red”

“Thanks so Muchness” – described as a “muchhave” red shimmer

“Absolutely Alice” – described as an “absolutely amazing blue shimmer”

and MY personal favourite

“Mad as a Hatter” – described as a “madly marvellous multi black glitter” (though I would say it’s just more multi than black!)

I am also throwing in a bottle of:

Seche Vite fast dry top coat – this is a MUST have with most polishes, especially glitters – I hate that grainy feeling of glitters, but this thick, quick dry topcoat gets rid of the grainies!

So – you can win this prize three ways (i’m sure you know what they are!):

1. Comment on this post telling me your favourite color from the collection and your best “Alice” memory (if you have one!)

2. Tweet about it: “I want to win @realgirlsdiary very merry un-giveaway http://tinyurl.com/ybmoxub” (and send me an email about it at diaryofarealgirl(at)gmail(dot)com – sometimes twitter doesn’t catch all the tweets!)

3. Blog about it: link to this post and then send me an email at diaryofarealgirl(at)gmail(dot)com

The contest will close on Friday, March 12th at Midnight. The winner will be chosen used a random integer generator and will be announced on Saturday, March 13th.

Good luck to you all!!!

One question I copped out on yesterday and I thought of it as I was falling asleep, so here is the answer:

What is one thing we don’t know about you?
That my biggest fear in life is that I will end up like my mom. That really might sound like a terrible thing to say…but my mom is a hypochondriac, manic depressive, bipolar and, in my opinion, is on far too much medication.
I love my mom, and it saddens me ALL the time when I talk to her on one of her dark days.
I KNOW she wants more for me as well…so I fight it all the time…I’m not sure if I would go to the extremes, but I KNOW that I fight depression, and I think you guys have seen it on here in the past year too.
So I fight this every day, and concentrate on the good things I have going in my life…she started to get depressed around my age though we are at VERY different times of our lives (she had 2 children in school, no career and a broken marriage – I don’t love my job, but I have 3 loving pets and an amazing husband).

So…sorry for the cop out answer of “I’m shy – and I play the flute”…this is the more real answer…if I am going to do this thing, I am going to do it right!

So if you have something you want to ask me! DO IT!!! Just go here