Happy, Happy!! Joy, Joy!!

I have successfully found several acceptable things to wear!!

(the major gasp from the faithful readers causes the weather fronts to shift changing everyone's forecast by 3 days!!)

This morning after walking the dogs, I convinced the spouser to head with me up to the Vacaville Premium Outlets. He was to be the arbiter of stylin' or stupid. My own personal "Clinton".

I gave him the groundrules:

Must not be tucked in; must be size large or extra large.

Scenario: A sales rep or techie walks into his office at 3:30 pm and invites us both out to dinner, (or I go with him to STLE in Calgary this May). Find 2 or 3 tops that I can throw on over my jeans and be acceptable no matter where we go.

First 2 stores were a total bust, and he was starting to understand the frustration I faced.

Then we walked into the Dress Barn outlet store. There were actually 8 things I tried on. Some were OK.. several made us both screw up our faces. One purply blouse was almost perfect. Fit perfect, looked nice. If they had more in my size, in "not ugly" colors, I'd have bought them and called it a deal. (note: ugly colors.. on me.. limey, yellow-green and bright orange. In fact anything with a yellowish cast).

Steve also found a cute little crocheted "capelet" to dress it up!!

Outta there with less than $25 spent.

Four more stores with no joy... Then we found the Chico's outlet. I gotta tell ya, based on the prices at the outlet, I would NEVER shop at the regular stores.

Took a while to figure out thier sizing. What is it with this size 0, 1, 2, & 3 instead of S,M,L, XL? Like the people looking at 3s don't know they're really 14s?? Steve actually found the information before me and TOLD me what size I was. He also found 5 tops for me wear. I added one myself.

And bought two.

A Chinese red silk blouse with embroidery on it. Again, if they had my size in more colors, I'd have bought them. Originally $102, with markdowns etc. a more acceptable $25. This is the one I found).

Then he found a nice black and white print top. I can wear it alone, layered with a shell underneath, all seasons. NOT marked down further, so about $50. (probably $100 new at the regular stores).

Happy, happy!! Joy, joy!!

These are 3 pieces that I can build on. They may work with my black skirt and black sleevess dress.. maybe even the navy dress. If I ever find my waist again, I might find a pair of gray slacks that fit... or for summer ivory!! (oooh... those thing would mean thinking about stuff like shoes...).

I might actually try and get him to take photos of the things... so stay tuned.

And I've learned my lesson. One goal I have this year is to upgrade the wardrobe bit by bit. And now I know. Forget the malls. Drive the 30 minutes or so up the Outlets.

And maybe take my personal shopper with me...

Who knew??