The Story Of The Travelling Red Dress

Today's post is somewhat unusual. But I'm not going to apologise in the slightest. Not so long back, I came across something online called The Travelling Red Dress, an idea set up by the fantastic Jenny Lawson:

"I want, just once, to wear a bright red, strapless ball gown with no apologies. I want to be shocking, and vivid and wear a dress as intensely amazing as the person I so want to be. And the more I thought about it the more I realised how often we deny ourselves that red dress and all the other capricious, ridiculous, overindulgent and silly things that we desperately want but never let ourselves have because they are simply “not sensible”. Things like flying lessons, and ballet shoes, and breaking into spontaneous song, and building a train set, and crawling onto the roof just to see the stars better. Things like cartwheels and learning how to box and painting encouraging words on your body to remind yourself that you’re worth it."

The idea is to wear a vivid red dress just for the hell of it, to wear something that reminds us that we are special, that we are worth it and that we shouldn't be embarrassed to wear something that will make us feel as amazing as we really are. And do you know what? As I stood in that photography studio, I did feel amazing. The whole experience was just completely mind blowing, the photographer really put me at ease and made it so much fun. It was so nice just to let loose and really be myself for a bit; I'm not going to lie, the past few months have been rather difficult for me health wise so it was nice to just let my hair down and have some fun while wearing this absolutely spectacular red dress.

Not only that, the whole experience has made me feel better about myself. I wore the hell out of that dress and it has made me realise I can do anything. It made me realise that I can get the book written that has been in my head for the longest time, it made me realise that I shouldn't let the stress get to me so much. It made me realise that I should just do those things that I never thought I could do before, that I should just have fun, that there is no harm in me letting my hair down. And now I can send the dress on to another fabulous lady and make her feel as special as she really is!

I just wanted to say a massive thank you to Claire for sending me this spectacular gown, and really making my day; and to Jenny "The Bloggess" for coming up with this fabulous idea. I couldn't have done this without either of you.

Now, the travelling red dress is up for grabs. Please do contact me via email if interested. The dress is a UK size 12!

And now back to your regularly scheduled history blog posts......