If you follow me on Twitter, you know that last week was pretty crazy. Wednesday was a family holiday to celebrate my husband’s 50th birthday. On Thursday I took my 14.5 year old calico cat Cleo to a specialist vet for a biopsy of the spot that had showed up on her liver during a recent ultrasound. (If you’re a fellow cat lover, you can read more about this at the bottom of today’s post.) In between these two events, my 22-year-old niece moved in with us from Florida! This is very exciting to me because she is my only niece who wears a D+ bra, so I have a LOT of blog post ideas to try out with her.

Now that I’ve given you a roundup of my life, let me give you a roundup of a few big bust items of  interest that have caught my eye this past week.

1. Are fashion magazines finally getting that “big bust” does not automatically mean “fat”? February’s issue of InStyle covers reader shape issues, and two of them focus on boobs!

A few pages later, they use Katy Perry as an example of “curvy” and recommend her “go-to” designer, Roland Mouret.

Since Katy Perry is often spilling out of her dresses, I’m not sure Mouret is actually giving her enough room for her famous curves, but some of his styles are definitely meant to flatter an hourglass shape.

It looks like this dress could even work with a strapless bra.

2. Octavia Spencer

First, isn’t Octavia Spencer an hourglass?

Next to the photos of Katy Perry, InStyle uses Octavia Spencer as an example of plus size and recommends her “go-to” designer, Tadashi Shoji. I agree with the Tadashi Shoji recommendation, but not only for plus-size women. Tadashi Shoji makes enough room for curves and uses fabric and styles that flatter them.

In the advice below her photo, plus-size women are told that “cinching a shirt, cardigan or dress can accentuate the waist and help give the illusion of an hourglass shape.” I may be blind, but from what I see, Octavia doesn’t need to create an illusion of an hourglass shape because she already has one. So maybe it’s one step forward but another one back–there’s acknowledgment that all busty women aren’t plus-size (or augmented); now we need acknowledgment that plus-size women can be hourglassy.

Second, is Octavia Spencer even plus size?

I’m not entirely persuaded. My theory is that it only appears as a possibility because of all the actresses who wear sizes 0-4 around her. Regardless of the label, she impressed me with this Facebook quote about her weight: “I am NOT WORRYING ABOUT MY WEIGHT! I AM NOT TRYING TO CONFORM TO an unrealistic model of beauty. I AM however being proactive in being the healthiest I can be.”

Third, did Octavia Spencer get the breast lift she was talking about after last year’s Oscars?

She’s only 42, so it’s hard to believe she even “needed” one, but if she seriously tried to get a better bra and it let her down, then I can understand the temptation. Below, the photo on the left is from October 2012 and the photo on the right is from this January.

 3. Empreinte

If you’ve ever wondered if a $100+ bra is worth it, check out the Empreinte review by the sister of the Bras I Hate and Love blogger. I didn’t have the same experience, but I’m hoping to give the brand another try someday soon–either when I can fit into their G cups or when I try their H cups.

Ali Cudby was even able to go to the Empreinte L’Atelier Lingerie in Paris this month! It would take a lot of courage for me to venture into their museum-like space, but it would be worth it to be sized there and then have “a rack containing every bra they stock in [my]  size . . . wheeled into the room”!

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More about my cat . . .

The liver spot is likely benign, but a chest x-ray revealed that fluid had filled up Cleo’s chest cavity, decreasing the room for her lungs so that she could barely breathe. When they removed the fluid and gave her an echocardiogram (my cat has seen a cardiologist!), they found another mass somewhere in the chest area, and we’re waiting to see what the lab will be able to discern about it from the fluids sent to them. In the meantime, I’m trying to coax Cleo to eat as much as possible, and anytime she snuggles onto my chest and blocks my view of the computer or newspaper I’m trying to read, I drop everything and just enjoy the vibrations of her purr.