Make it Plain

How in the world do you pronounce Habakkuk?

Image via BreatheConference.com

I was going to come on here and talk Tall style.

Yes. I am still passionate about it.

Yes. I will still share about it in every way.

But right now I am smack in the middle of a very amazing period of growth and I would be remiss if I didn’t share what was actually going on in my life.

I am in a season of building. Building my faith, my brand, my ideas, my personal life, my circle and my health (both metal and physical). You see, when you work somewhere for 13 years straight, you get comfortable in a lot of areas. As you know, nothing ever grows in prolonged comfort. Thus, a lot of the facets of my life had been stunted right under my nose. Once I took the leap, the ugly parts swam to the surface and waved at me. They are being addressed and it has been nothing short of beautiful. Painfully gorgeous.

Working through the muck is taxing but the worst thing that could ever happen to you is making a home in it. Kicking back in rubbish isn’t cute. I shutter at the thought of remaining the person that I was a little under 8 months ago. The Alicia you are listening to right now, is not the same one that you have known. She is far better, far stronger and a heck of a lot wiser. She knows who she is and what she brings to the table. She knows what she deserves and more importantly what God wants for her life. She is ready to actualize all of the purpose He has placed in her heart.

I am changing and that means that TallSWAG will be changing too. I am working behind the scenes on so many things that I can’t wait to share with you but know this…

we are going to work this out together.

I am not on this journey alone. God has built me to share my story and I will. I will reveal this portrait not at once, yet stoke by stoke of the brush.

Right now the color is named vision. We are going to be talking a lot about her. We can’t accomplish anything without it being in the forefront. God literally gives us a vision for our life in different ways. It’s our job to recognize it, write it down and move our feet so vigorously that there is no question that we will catch it at the exact right moment.

Mine is on paper in permanent ink. I recite them every morning. Speak them into existence every day. Work on them in complete faith that they will come to fruition in the exact way that they should. It’s a process that takes patience, prayer and persistence. You are not seeing what God is doing but please believe your works are seen, heard and used all up and through His plan for your life.

Sounds overwhelming right? It can be but His promises supersede any doubt that you could ever muster up to block it. Breathe. Get out a piece of paper and physically write down the vision. Make a word map of what you are going to accomplish and get ta following it.

No like I’m serious. Get out a piece of paper right now and write those bad boys out. I will wait. As a matter of fact, everyone who is depending on you to actualize the vision are currently waiting too. Don’t disappoint them.

WRITE THE VISION and make it plain, so that he who reads it may run. [Habakkuk 2:2]

Poshmark

Like many people, I’m trying to minimize everything I own (for the record, I have not watched Tidying Up yet but it’s on my list). I have way too many things and instead of giving them to some random thrift store, I decided to sell them to Tall Girls that truly need them. Enter postmark!

This is the first wave (around 33 items). in my mind I was going to go through everything and list it all at once but man is it hard to get rid of things. I think for us in particular, we think ‘when will we ever find this item again?’ So we keep everything we can and end up needing an extra closet for things that we don’t even wear. But the thing is, in order to make space for the new things in our lives, you must clear the old. I am doing that in more ways than one and I am waiting in anticipation to see how God honors it.

So, check out the store and tell me what you think. There are jeans, shoes, maxi dresses, floor length bridesmaids dresses and a couple of things that haven’t even been worn yet.

Here are some things that are posted. I can’t wait for you to rock them!

Audience of One

Photo - Nikki Notarte

Entire outfit - Long Tall Sally

To say that this time of my life has been formative is an understatement. It’s been almost 7 months of discovering things about myself that I never would have if I didn’t follow the step of obedience of resigning from the job that I had for 13 years.

It’s been beautiful. It’s been terrifying. It’s been a ball of every emotion that you could ever have. There are so many unknowns in my path but the one thing that I do know is; I am on the right one.

I have been grinding behind the scenes on some pretty amazing things. As an entrepreneur you always have multiple irons in the fire. Some of them come to fruition, some aren’t meant to be and most you have to relentlessly pursue and simply make them happen. As they say, often the ones that succeed aren’t the first to do it, they are just the people that never gave up. 

And I am one of those people. I won’t give up on the things that God told me to do but that doesn’t mean that I don’t feel every emotion while I am doing it. I have felt the warmth of joy and the sting of tears running down my cheeks on a regular basis. I don’t care how much faith you have, nobody is immune to feeling feelings.

With that breakdown in tow, fear is the main culprit right now. Not a fear of God not coming through but more a sheer fear of what people are thinking of my path.

Is she crazy? What is she even doing? Is she just sitting at home? She made a mistake. She isn’t a success.

All of these statements flow through my mind and at times have literally kept me captive. Not since I found my confidence have I cared what people thought, until now. 

So I sat with those feels for awhile. I interviewed them, broke bread with them and stared intently into their eyes so that I could figure out a way to handle them. You see. Feelings will always be there. You must pinpoint a way to get them on the side of right.

Every analysis boiled down to this fact: God is the only audience we should care about.

If God tells you to do it, no matter what it may look like to the world, do it for His applause and his applause only. No worldly opinion should matter. Do not let yourself, social media, haters or even friends and family supersede the ovation of God. No matter the size of the stage you find yourself on, let His claps guide the way to His purpose for your life.

So moving forward, let’s mute the approval of the world and look to God for everything that we need. Stand tall in the certainty that there is only one stamp of approval you need and that is from Him.

Moving forward I will be adding an audio version of my blogs for the visually impaired (or any else that wants to listen instead of read:). Thank you for the suggestion Patricia! I am sorry I didn’t think of it before!

Too Tall to Model

Me at 16:-)

This contest is now closed. Thank you for all of your amazing entries. Stay tuned for more from Alloy Apparel.

I have been modeling since I was very young. As I grew, modeling agencies started telling me that I was too tall to model. They told me that they loved my look but that nothing could fit me off the rack and thus I couldn’t be a model. This continues to happen to this day.

There are many problems with this false reasoning. Not only should there be clothing for all body types represented in the fashion industry, telling someone that height is holding them back is ridiculous. Any woman at any time should be able to thumb through a magazine or runway and see clothes that fit her and someone that looks like her. While there have been many strides made, there are still so many women and body types that remain unrepresented.

Recently I was blessed with the opportunity to model for Alloy Apparel. Not only did everything fit like a glove, I felt completely seen and heard. Alloy gets it. They understand that there is a void in fashion and they are doing their part to fill it. It’s an opportunity that I will always be thankful for and you have the chance to do it too!

Alloy Apparel just launched their model search. They are looking for new faces. It’s a great opportunity for us and I hope that you enter. Check out the logistics below. I straight up copied and pasted them so you get all of the accurate details:-)

Alloy Apparel's first model search! Show us your best pose and tag us @alloyapparel on Instagram with the hashtag #myalloy

Winner Receives:

• Flight and accommodations  

• Professional hair and make up

• Photoshoot to be the face of our next collection

Rules:

• Ages 18+ 

• Sizes 4-24 and 5'9" or taller

• Must be able to fly to California 

• Must be from the Continental US 

• THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. PLEASE STAY TUNED FOR MORE FROM ALLOY APPAREL.

Here is another fun BTS photo from the shoot. It was so much fun! Can we talk about how beautiful Jamie Lea is though! Check out my story about the shoot in my instagram highlights.

I can’t wait to see your entries! Opportunities like this may seem small but every movement towards change for the inclusion of all women in the fashion industry is one that needs to be celebrated. A win for one of us, is a win for all of us.

Best of luck in the contest but if you don’t get picked, DO NOT GIVE UP! The people who need to see you, will. Your opportunities are coming. Continue to move your feet and your purpose will unfold in the exact way that it should. You are set apart and will achieve exactly what you were meant to conquer. Don’t let anyones perceived limitations stop you from being who God created you to be!

Christmas Past

These are pretty pictures but I didn’t wear this dress to any holiday parties. As a matter of fact, I wasn’t invited to not a one.

It’s been strange. Actually even more strange than not working in an office anymore. Being apart from the corporate situation for nearly 6 months now, there have been many changes but for some reason this change is bizarre. When you leave your job you don’t think about things like that. You think of the overall picture, know that it’s not painted for you and free yourself but you don’t think of your situational social scene being snatched from you.

I grieved for a moment and shortly realized it was just that, situational. Who wants a holiday party full of faux cheer? I certainly don’t. A lot of revelations have occurred since I chose faith and this isn’t a mistake. When you take a path to purpose everything can’t come with you. While you don’t know what’s ahead, you must be different when you get there. That difference isn’t merely internal. You will lose a lot of external things. Many won’t make sense but what does, is God’s plan. He knows what needs to go. You gain much more than you lose when you trust him with the loss.

Do not pity me. She is truly the happiest she has been in years. Mourn for those that remain in the comfort of a Christmas party that is no longer serving them. This unused holiday dress is a revolution in growth.

Applaud the faith and pray for the woman that I am becoming. She looks strong to me. I can’t wait to see what God does with her life. He is already working wonders. Believe me.

Multiway Dress - Long Tall Sally (shown in a size 10)/ Shoes - Payless/Accessories - Forever21

Photos by Lakeela Smith

*This moment of truth is brought to you by a woman who is finally walking in hers. It’s a gorgeous walk and she is thankful for every step.

Just Give me the Light

Warning. I really liked this outfit and photos so there are a plethora of them. Like 12. There is also different lighting in almost every photo because the sun was going bananas. It’s cool though because it shows you that you should never compare yourself to others because what you are comparing yourself to could just be great lighting. Love yourself, love your lane and by all means, take 1000 selfies in some bomb lighting. Let’s get to outfit shall we?…

Can we talk about this jean jacket? It’s from Alloy (which is clearly one of my favorite tall retailers). Also, If you have been on their site, the beautiful Jamie Lea is rocking it in the fiercest way possible. As you can see on her and I, this jacket has an amazing cut and is super flattering. Alloy really constructed it right. It’s tall in the right places. You know what I mean. Some “tall” clothes out there are just tall all over. The arms, the body, even the dang pockets are over cut. This jacket does not do that. I love the wash, quality and price. It’s only $64.90. Also, Alloy always has some sort of amazing coupon code so if you don’t see it on their site, google that bad boy.

I’m geeked about the jacket and also pumped about the sneakers…here’s why…

As you may or may have not seen, I recently took a trip to the Nike World Campus in my hometown of Beaverton, Oregon to visit one of my High School basketball coaches. His name is Sam McCracken. He was a great coach and now he is the founder, General Manager and visionary of the Nike N7 fund and collection. These kicks (specifically the Nike Air Huarache City Utility Premium N7) are one of my favorites from the line. I love them but I love what they do even more. All of the proceeds from the Huarache (and entire line), are given back to youth sport and physical activity programs in the Native American Community. The line is fire and the power of change that it provides is phenomenal. I am so proud of my coach and his entire team for all that they do.

Tall Sofia Trucker Jacket - Alloy Apparel (shown in size L)/Nike Air Huarache City Utility Premium N7 (shown in a 10.5 in mens, I always run a half size larger in Nike’s)/Slashed Powerstretch Skinny Jeans - Long Tall Sally (shown in a 10/38”)/Essential Roll Neck Top - Long Tall Sally (shown in a size M)

Photos by Lakeela Smith

Whhhhhhew that was a lot of scrolling. I hope you are still with me!

I seriously love this outfit because it’s very much the direction I am going with my style. I am changing in so many ways right now and the way I am dressing is one of them. This is me 76% of the time (hence the 1000th time you have seen these skinny jeans).

I look forward to sharing all of these changes with you and what I am rockin along the way. Thank you for being there, thank you for being you, thank you for giving me your light and love. I appreciate it more than you will ever know.