Five (New!) Things...

A new set of my current loves & hates, and an update on last year's. What more could you ask for? :)

Five Things I'm Totally Loving Right Now

1. Schoolgirl-Inspired Shoes
Chalk it up to the Style Network re-running Gossip Girl from the beginning, in all its plaid-skirt-private-school-uniform glory, but I'm really drawn to Oxford and Mary Jane style shoes right now--with a twist, of course. A pop of color, a healthy sprinkling of glitter, anything to make it special; the style is really what I'm getting at here. Some flat options: smoking slippers are big right now, and I love the color of this Nine West pair (the turquoise), or for a true Oxford style, check out this Not Rated pair with just the right amount of sparkle. And for my fellow heel-lovers: I am obsessed with these Betsey Johnson sequin-tipped pumps, which after ogling online for weeks, and legitimately considering buying them even a full size too small just in case I could actually smash my feet into them (they only have size 5.5 & 6.5 left, and I'm a pretty consistent 7.5-8), I actually found in store in my size, making me a very happy camper. This Fergalicious pump is another great option--those colors are sooo fall!

2. Anything Red Violet
This is my new favorite go-to color for fall, perfect for the transition from summer to winter. It's just a little more feminine than your standard fall oranges, browns, and reds. Try just a pop of it with a pair of flats, or if you're really feeling it, go all out with a skinny jean in this color.

3. Colored Bottoms
The colored skinny jean is a big look lately (Old Navy carries them in nearly 30 colors!), but why stop there? Pencil skirts are coming in all kinds of colors this season! This lime green skirt from Target is FAB--more so than it looks in the picture, I promise!--and Banana Republic has got some great options in color and pattern alongside the traditional neutrals.

4. Jackets
Yes, just jackets. I'm suddenly all over this classic layering piece in all different styles and colors. Some current faves: this cheery yellow blazer from Macy's, and Express's faux-leather moto jackets. I already have the diagonal zip version in classic rock star black and the regular zip in crimson--and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if I snag a couple more the next time they go on sale.

5. Pumpkin Spice Lattes
This one is so easy it's almost a cop-out, but let's face it, Starbucks' pumpkin spice latte is THE absolute best thing about the weather turning cold. You haven't lived until you've tried one.

Five (Minus One) Things I'm Totally Over
I'm drawing a blank on a fifth item to be totally over. Frankly, I'm a little disappointed in myself--usually I'm a bit more cynical about current trends than this. ;) But here are four I feel really strongly about.

1. Project Runway
I've been a fan of this show for a long time, but I don't know, this season just hasn't grabbed me. I feel like I'm watching the same show over and over again every season, and after so many years, even the "craziest" "unconventional challenge"s are kind of a yawn, and the designs are rarely anything fresh and new. I haven't given up on it completely, but my viewing has consisted of the first five minutes to hear the details of the challenge, and then just watching the runway show. The clothes are still (mostly) pretty even if they've ceased to be exciting. After all, as Heidi says, in fashion, one day you're in, and the next day you're out.

2. Printed Pants
I should preface the rest of my list by saying it's hard to say these are things I'm "over", as I have never been in favor of any of them to begin with. It's just they seem to have cropped up recently as trends, and this is my way of saying it's not okay. So, with that said...printed pants? Who thought this was a good look? When the trend first emerged, it was mostly florals, and it reminded me of the early 90's--not in a good way--but now the prints have gotten bolder, and I can't say it's an improvement. Take the ensemble Halle Berry wore at the Toronto Film Festival last week. Waist up, she looks pretty good (though the top could stand to be less sheer, see #3), but I can't get over those pants. What happened to good old classic pinstripe or herringbone if you wanted a little extra detail on the bottom? Most of what I'm seeing lately looks more like sleepwear--which as we know, should never be worn in public.

3. Bras Used as Accessories
There are two categories of this offense--the intentional use of your undergarments as part of your outfit a la Quailman, and the unintentional or uncaring use of, say, a regular bra with a halter top shirt. Let's be clear. Neither one is acceptable. I don't care how cute your bra is. It's a bra. It's not meant to be seen in public. And you can imagine my appall when I was home for lunch a couple of days ago and spotted none other than the Carrie Bradshaw as an offender. Yes, unbelievably, one of the fashion icons of our time was wearing her bra like an accessory. It matched her dress, so clearly it was offense type number one, the intentional kind, but no. Just no.

Let's face it, if Carrie Bradshaw can't pull off this look, neither can you. Don't even try.

4. "Fancy" Sneakers
Haven't you ever thought to yourself, "If only there was a heel I could go to the gym in! What? Nine West makes sneakers with a wedge heel?? What great news!" ...No? Yeah, me either. Ew. Can you believe there are more than that one atrocious pair? And that's just from Nine West, who really ought to know better. Other brands have gotten in on this action too. Color me confused by this one, to say the least.


 Last Year's Updates
1. Crossbody Purses--Well, I just bought three new ones, so it's safe to say my love of this style of handbag isn't going anywhere.
2. Old Navy's 5in Inseam Shorts--You know what, actually Old Navy let me down this year. Nothing but plain old neutral colors on these shorts. Come on, Old Navy--I've had all the neutrals I need for years. But take heart! Victoria's Secret makes a very similar pair that not only comes in a variety of colors (there were more options back when the season started, but they're down to just a few as we approach fall) but four different lengths! Consider me a convert.
3. Country Music--Pop music has stepped up its game in the last year, so we'll call this one a draw.
4. Miranda Lambert's Wedding Bouquet--Funny enough, one of my friends just posted this to our engaged friend's Facebook wall a few days ago as a suggestion for her own wedding. Looks like I was just ahead of the curve on this trend!
5. Coppertone Sunscreen--I didn't have time for much fun in the sun this summer, so this one is less relevant than it was a year ago--but no less important! Wear suncreen! Public service announcement brought to you by The Fabulous Life.

1. The Snooki Poof--Actually, the other day I was doing my hair, and I came this close to revisiting the poof. And then I didn't. Maybe I'll give it a shot just for kicks and informed blogs.
2. Ke$ha--I'm not sure she's had a new song since the last blog, and honestly, I miss that glitter-loving party animal. In any case, I've been cranking up those few hits on the rare occasions I hear them on the radio. Welcome off the totally-over list, Ke$ha. (But I wouldn't complain if you used an S in your name like a normal person.)
3.  Katy Perry & the song "Forget You"--"Forget You" doesn't make me want to crawl out of my own skin when I hear it like it used to, but it hasn't exactly reestablished itself as a go-to song for me. And Katy Perry? The songs are new, but the radio-overplaying is exactly the same. So, mostly, still over it.
4. Those Listerine Whitening Strips--I actually finally threw these out a week or so ago. Every time I would go to do it, I would think, but no, what if you get really desperate and don't have time to go to the store? And finally I said to myself, they're just as effective as doing absolutely nothing to my teeth. And out they went.
5. Platform Shoes--Last year was evidently just the beginning of the onslaught of this trend. I've sort of adjusted to it, but I'm still not terribly happy about it. Will sensible 4-inch heels ever return to shelves?


And one bonus item I'm totally loving right now--houndstooth! Okay, okay, I know, talk about a cop-out. But this pattern is no longer just appropriate Bama-fan gameday-wear--it's everywhere! Making it that much easier to rock it on gamedays. Just a few current houndstooth items on my wish list: shoes, belt, picture frame (for all my favorite gameday memories!)...seriously, it comes in everything these days. Roll tide!

E is for Expecting!

So it's official! I made it through hosting my first baby shower without too many hiccups (broken paper punch turned out to not be a bad omen at all, thank goodness!), and since I couldn't actually blog about the planning while it was happening, what with the theme and all being a surprise for my pregnant guest of honor (and since it's three p.m. on a Friday before a long weekend, thus leaving me work-less at work), I think it's time for a shower blog!

When we got started, Christy pointed me to some blogs she had found online dedicated entirely to baby showers, the one I visited the most being an awesome site called bumpsmitten.com. They had so many cute themes and ideas...and Christy, I can tell you the truth now, this blog TERRIFIED me. :) How in the world was I ever going to give her a shower that could live up to these? Everything home-crafted and cutesy, unique and inventive themes not readily found in the party store (theme-in-a-bag, anyone?)...if I could even come up with the stuff in my head (and getting started, that seemed like a HUGE if), when was I going to find the time to do it? And execution of cutesy, home-crafted theme items is a whole other ball game than an image in my head. I won't lie to you, Christy--I had my doubts. People kept saying to me that I was SO crafty, and SO creative, and they were sure everything was going to turn out SO great. I'm glad someone had faith all along.

We had talked about a couple of potential themes, so that I knew whatever I picked she would like it, even if WHICH theme it would be was a surprise. Honestly, I don't even remember what else we talked about, because as soon as Christy said she thought elephants would be cute, I was sold. (It's football season, y'all. I think about it all summer in preparation. Scratch that, my brain never totally leaves football season mode. But in these last few months of withdrawal, I do get a little extra rabid anytime I see something crimson or houndstooth in a store. Anyway...) But somehow, it didn't sit right with me. I couldn't just call elephants a "theme" and throw shakers everywhere like a tailgate party. (But I do own pink shakers from gymnastics meets, and the party store has houndstooth napkins, so for a while that route was tempting.)

Finally, one day I was looking at bumpsmitten.com and came across a post for a shower where the theme was "B is for Baby" (here's the link if anyone's curious where the inspiration came from...or if you just want to see a cute baby shower) and it hit me. E could be for elephants. E could be for Eden. E could be for expecting. And thus, the theme was born.

The first thing I did was go to a Scrabble cheat website (which I never ever use for Words With Friends...) to look up words that started with E, and made a list of everything I thought I could incorporate into the shower. There are a lot of E foods, though they by and large didn't go with baby showers (enchiladas?), but the more generic Eating also starts with E. I wrote down a lot of things, but in the end narrowed it down to Eating, Embellish (for the headbands and onezies), Enjoy (favors), Encourage (advice for the mom-to-be), and the original E for Expecting, to cover the whole theme of the shower. Those five things got painted into signs to be hung in the appropriate area of my house.

You know, I legitimately thought I had taken individual pictures of all five signs until just now. Oh well. You get the idea.

The next, possibly most pressing, order of business was getting the invitations. I don't know if you know this, but invitations are shockingly expensive. And I hated to spend so much money on invitations I wasn't even that crazy about. Cue friend-who-majored-in-graphic-design-in-college. So thanks to Ryan (and the "upload your own file!" option on Vistaprint) I got the perfect invitations, cute AND theme-inspired!

I also thought I had an actual file of this on-hand, with the front and back. Clearly, I should have pre-planned for this blog a little better. Moving on.

By the time the invitations came in, I had purchased, used for a short time, and subsequently broken my paper punch (which, by the way, I can now tell you was the shape of a tiny elephant--here are the toothpicks that originally inspired the purchase of the paper punch, and still for sale, might I add; probably a good idea, since this idea clearly falls into the "don't try this at home" category), and since the punch did NOT magically repair itself as I had hoped after my last blog, I had a bit of a problem. Less confetti that I wanted and a lot of leftover paper. But whatever crafty gene everyone else thought I had kicked in, and I started making little square confettis out of the paper I had cut the tiny elephants out of, and all the printed paper that I'd been most excited to use but hadn't gotten around to before the punch broke.

What was I going to do with them? Honestly, when I started making them, I had no clue, I just knew they had to be good for something. Fortunately, as it happened, I could do a lot with these little squares. They ended up on the favor boxes I bought at the Dollar Tree (score!), suddenly transforming them into theme favor boxes...

...on the pink index cards we had people write their advice on...

...and, most noticeably, on the popsicle sticks that went into the cake pops that Whitney made for the party, hastily glued on about 30 seconds before we let people into the food area. Thank goodness that Elmer's is quick-dry stuff!

And what was leftover after that, I just sprinkled down the middle of the food table with the basic confetti. (Which I thought I had a close-up picture of, but look closely at the food table and you can kind of almost see it if you know what you're looking at.)

After all that, everything else decoration wise was pretty easy. It did all come ready-made from the party store, but plain hot pink decor, no pre-made themes or loud "it's a girl!" banners. Just a healthy sprinkling of hot pink, and stuffed elephants from mine and my mom's personal collection. Christy asked me where I'd found so many elephants. Answer: "upstairs". Seriously, you should have known. ;) And the elephants are just sitting in/on layers of hot pink tulle--so easy!

All in all, everything turned out even better than I'd hoped (when WILL I learn to have a little faith in myself? Maybe I'll make a career out of party planning yet...), and I think everyone had a good time. Plus Christy & Eden made out like bandits in the present department! ;) And, if you're wondering, my outfit was a big hit, too. Can you really go wrong with neon pink heels for a girl baby shower? I think not.

So there you have it--Christy and Eden's "E is for Expecting" shower!

The Ones That Got Away

With the shower finally behind me (a great success, by the way, but a blog for another time), I have now actually had time to go through my closet and weed out all those shoes I said I was getting rid of after the great shoe challenge. In the spirit of full disclosure (and in part to memorialize our time together), here are the 18 (one more than originally planned!) pairs of shoes that I sadly bid adieu to. Thanks, shoes. I will always cherish our time together.

Is This Why I'm Not on Pinterest?

People tell me all the time I should be on Pinterest. And I confess, I browse from time to time, but most of the time I just look at all the cute crafty projects and think, "I could never do that." Which, of course, prompts the response, "Sure you could, you're so crafty!"

I don't know where this myth that I'm the next Martha Stewart came from. Maybe from being the person always designated as writer whenever working on anything that required good handwriting--posters, pep rally signs, Homecoming t-shirts, you get the idea. And yes, I dabble in painting, but I don't do anything out of my own imagination. I copy images from online. So I've never thought of myself as a particularly crafty, Pinterest-y person.

But now that I'm knee-deep in baby shower planning and execution, I've decided to put some of these supposed craft skills to work. I found a seller on Etsy who made decorative toothpicks in conveniently the style of my (secret--from Christy, anyway) shower theme. But then after a while, I thought to myself, I could do that. How hard could it be?

So I found this paper punch online, and after careful comparison, realized it was exactly the same shape as those toothpicks. So I ordered it. Imagine what I could do with it myself! Not only toothpicks, but I could make my own confetti, decorate cards, whatever I needed to do. I got a bunch of paper and finally, today, sat down with all that paper and my brand new paper punch--Martha Stewart, no less.

Things were going quite swimmingly for a while. The paper I bought was just slightly too thick to do two pieces at once, but once I got into a rhythm, it was going pretty quickly anyway. And then I picked up a different sheet. A little thicker, but certainly no worse than two sheets of the other paper. Or I didn't think so. But as it turns out, this paper was quite a bit worse than the first stuff. Because it completely jammed up my paper punch, or got it out of alignment, or something, so that now I have to spend half a second making a punch and then a good four or five seconds prying the punch back apart with a pair of scissors. Not very time efficient. But I want this homemade confetti really badly, so I press on. (Save this little jaunt into the blogosphere; my hand needed a break.)

Seriously, only I could be SO un-crafty as to counteract the craftiness of Martha Stewart and her (apparently not-that-well-made) paper punch. Some instinct must be responsible for my aversion to joining Pinterest--"don't do it, you know you're not one of them!" But alas, Pinterest or no Pinterest, my illusion of craftiness has brought me to this point. Maybe it's time to reconsider store-bought decorations. Or maybe my paper punch will have magically healed itself with a bit of rest. Here's hoping!

Walk A Mile In My (Own) Shoes

It was just after the first of the year, and for no reason in particular that I can recall, when I got dressed that morning, I picked out a pair of shoes that I hadn't worn in a while. I'd bought them in high school, and though they were among the cutest shoes I'd owned at the time, they weren't quite up to snuff with the rest of my wardrobe as of late.

By the end of the day, I'd made the always-traumatic decision to give them away. (If you know me, you know I'm abnormally attached to inanimate objects, and yes, everything I've ever given to the thrift store has suffered brief abandonment issues.) It helped greatly that I'd spent the whole day in them, though, thus making an informed decision that these shoes were maybe no longer best suited for me, instead of just the off-the-cuff "well, I haven't worn these in a while" giveaway that would surely cause me to run back to the thrift store and buy them back. (For the record, that has only ever happened one time.)

Leave it to Christy to take this one tiny morsel of information about my closet and turn it into a six-month-long project.

"Hey," she says to me, "Why don't you wear ALL the shoes you haven't worn in a while and see if you can give any of them away? And while you're at it, how about just wearing every pair of shoes you own? Remember, we're almost the same shoe size, but this is in no way related to my suggestion...but if it were, I'll take anything you don't want anymore. Out of the goodness of my heart, of course."

Or something like that. ;) Christy, darling, I kid. But seriously, she was the mastermind behind this game plan. It became a challenge: wear every pair of shoes in my closet. From the most comfy flats up to the most ridiculous pair of stilettos (shockingly, it only took me a month or so to dig out the gold glitter pumps--it was Mardi Gras!), I was to make my way through my entire shoe closet, top to bottom, and wear everything in it.

First we set some ground rules: 1. I was only allowed one pair of shoes per day (no midday wardrobe changes), and 2. I had to wear every pair before repeating any. Piece of cake, right? The next thing I did was check out a calendar, see just how long I was going to be wrapped up in this little challenge of ours. Imagine my surprise when I realized it was going to carry me all the way into summer! (I shouldn't have been surprised, I know.) So I had to develop a strategy. Wear all my boots before the inevitably brief Alabama winter gave way to warmer weather. Make sure I set aside an appropriate pair for a wedding I already knew about, and a couple more pairs for any I didn't. I started out trying to balance flats with heels, but unfortunately the bulk of my heels are sandals, and that didn't work out well even for Alabama winter conditions, which ultimately led to me wearing high heels almost nonstop for the last month and a half or so...but we'll get there.

In the beginning, it was just fun, picking out my lesser-worn shoes every day and taking them out for a spin--though rationing them was admittedly a bit of a challenge from the get-go. What if I waste a pair of rainboots on a drizzle and I don't have them later when it's pouring? But this is my only pair of red pumps, what if I absolutely have to have red pumps for something down the road? Do I even have enough red and houndstooth shoes to get me through a whole spring sports season? Eventually I had to just bite the bullet and wear what I wanted, when I wanted. I mean, just when I thought it couldn't possibly take me any longer to get dressed in the morning...

It was nice, too, to get back into my old fashionista habits. I used to wear heels all the time, but out of necessity broke myself of it when I was hiking across campus to class every day for four and a half years, and never really got back into it after I left college. But sitting at a desk all day with the occasional walk around the office to talk to a coworker or get some coffee is no more prohibitive to heels than the short walks to change classes were--on the nicely tiled hallways of my high school, that is. So why wasn't I already taking the opportunity to channel my inner Stacy London? I suddenly had no idea.

But aside from the fun of it, the challenge quickly revealed itself to be a productive endeavor, too. There were a few pairs right off the bat that I knew I could part with, either out of discomfort (and you know it takes a lot for me to consider a shoe too uncomfortable to put up with), or the fact that they were from a less-refined style of my youth. In fact, as I sit here looking at my list, the most recent purchase of any that are under consideration for thrift store fate is from my freshman year of college (almost six years ago--yikes! Am I that old already?), so that's really what's done most of them in, though I can name a couple of pairs that weren't particularly easy on my feet. At the final count, there are 17 pairs that are either for sure to get rid of or question marks--but I think if I'm even considering it, I ought to just part ways with shoes that have well-served me for over half a decade. But let's face it, we won't know for sure if that's really going to happen until I make the drop at the thrift store. (I did, after all, just tell you previous donations had abandonment issues. It's not like I'm talking about a puppy I left at the pound, here.)

As we went along through the weeks and months, it got to be more of a challenge picking out shoes in the morning as I ran further and further out of options (take that with a grain of salt--we're talking dilemmas like only having two pairs of black pumps to choose from instead of five), and the options that I did have were looking crazier and crazier as they became undiluted by the sensible flats, pumps, and sandals of my collection that I was fast running out of. Example: I don't think I thought through the decision to buy the slutty-looking five-and-a-half-inch platform gladiator heels any further than "These are going to fit right in on Bourbon Street" when I purchased them not long before the bachelorette party that took me there. But did I wear them to work last week, down to single digits left in my shoe challenge? Yes, yes I did.

Fortunately, even pairs that I would consider pretty normal registered as "crazy Laura shoes" with my coworkers, so I don't know that any particular pair fazed them more than any others. And in an office with a more corporate dress code, there's no way this challenge would have even made it off the ground, so by and large, the challenging part was me actually walking around in five-inch heels all day. Not that I couldn't (or didn't) do it, mind you, but it altered my daily routine a bit. Like, just how badly do I need these things on my grocery list? Do I need to go to Wal-Mart in my five-inch heels, or can it wait until tomorrow for a lower heel?

It stopped mattering about a month and a half ago, when I realized that I was down to an alarmingly low number of flat shoes. As much as I love my stilettos--the crazy, the five-inch, the slutty-looking, all of them--I can now say after over a month wearing next to nothing but heels that it actually may not be the best thing for your body. My feet are looking a little veiny-er than they used to, and my legs are in desperate need of a better stretching routine. Am I going to quit wearing them? You're kidding, right? But am I going to reward myself with a straight month of flats now that this is all said and done? Yeah, probably. Also, I have newfound respect for the Queen of the High Heel, my idol Stacy.

Admittedly, this wouldn't have been quite the problem that it was if it weren't for the shoe addiction that brought this on in the first place. Originally, I was supposed to be finished over three weeks ago, on May 28.  But here's a fun fact: the average woman owns 19 pairs of shoes. (Yeah, I find that hard to believe, too.) This may or may not be (okay, it is) the same number of pairs that I managed to buy for myself in the approximately five months since the beginning of this project. Hi, my name is Laura, and I'm a shoeaholic.

Plus, most everything that I bought over this period was a high heel. Christy had no objections to my carrying on in my normal shoe-buying habits--which at this point consists mostly of increasingly outrageous heels, because let's face it, you've got to dig pretty deep in DSW to find a pair I don't have something similar to already--but going out and buying shoes to suit a particular purpose after exhausting all current resources was deemed a no-no, after I complained that none of the outfits I had packed for our trip to Texas matched my existing rainboots and mentioned that I was considering buying a more versatile pair before the trip (it was supposed to rain the whole time, but fortunately it did not). I should have just not mentioned it to her and gone on and done it. But in any case, this rule meant that buying myself new flats just for the sake of giving my feet a break was out of the question. So onward and upward went my high heel collection.

All in all, though, this did turn out to be a good experience. Five-plus months and 165 pairs of shoes later (for those of you who didn't do the math), I can now say, this was a good idea. I got to wear every pair of shoes I own, weeding out some, and for others, reminding myself how much I loved them in the first place. And Christy will never again be able to complain that I own shoes I have never worn (there actually were a few that I've owned for years and either never worn or worn about once). And as much as it does always pain me to part with anything, I realize that the shoes I'm giving away will find another good home (Maybe with Christy? You know I always feel better about the stuff you take!), and the 140-something pairs I'm left with won't be quite so crammed into their current home, of my little brother's conquered closet. At least for a little while.

Misadventures in Baby Shower Planning

So without a doubt the most exciting thing happening in my life right now is the imminent arrival of a tiny fashionista-in-training, my soon-to-be "niece" Eden, who currently resides in the abdomen of one Boho Chic Christy. We just found out that it is in fact a girl, which sent Christy and me both into a frenzy. The things we can plan now! The pink things to buy! We'd both been holding out until we knew the sex of the baby, but in the few days since my earliest suspicions were confirmed (I first declared this baby a girl way back on March 9, and I was THE ONLY vote for girl at the time. Take that, Y chromosome!), both of us have already been on a bit of a shopping spree, and we've already had several conversations about the baby shower I get the honor of throwing for her.

Let me tell you, I am pumped about this baby shower. Christy is (unsurprisingly) the first of my close friends to have children, so just as she was the wedding guinea pig, jumping the gun first at the ripe old age of 19, she now becomes the baby guinea pig as well, my trial run on all things infant. The difference this time being that at 24, I now have a much greater budget to work with than when I was trying to plan bridal showers on the $20 a week I got from my dad as a school-time stipend. So this go-round, I'm out for redemption. (Plus just the sheer joy of throwing a really awesome party for one of my besties.)

But workable budget notwithstanding, I'm nothing if not thrifty. So when we decided to hand-paint onezies as a craft at the shower, I started looking for the best place from which to purchase these, and throughout the course of my research, discovered that it's a little bit cheaper to buy plain white ones than to buy them pink (not to mention I've only found one brand so far that even comes pink in a multi-pack). Thus my genius plan: buy the white ones and dye them pink. But not with dye; too messy, too much trouble. I'll just throw them in the wash with something red; people who actually separate their whites and colors tell horror stories of the red sock that snuck in and turned an entire load of pristine whites into pretty-in-pinks. And for someone with my domestic skill, it's a wonder I don't do this accidentally every time I do laundry! (Actually, I'm not surprised--Shout Color Catchers are a wonderful invention. But without them? Talk about disaster potential!)

So yesterday, I decided to test my theory. I went to Wal-Mart and bought a 4-pack of white onezies and a super-convenient single pair of 50 cent red socks. (Really, I thought it would be harder to find them than that; does anyone still wear colored socks?) So I threw two of the onezies (in case this went horribly wrong) and one of the new red socks (so as not to waste all the dye on my first load) in the wash on hot water, a setting of our washer that hasn't been used...well, possibly ever. (It actually kind of made a sound like it was dying when it first kicked on.)  And waited.

But in addition to not dying, the washer also didn't do any DYEing. You can imagine my surprise when the load finished, and I pulled out one red sock and two perfectly white onezies. Not a drop of pink anywhere in sight. How is that possible? A brand new red sock? Shouldn't I have been wringing red dye out of that thing when I pulled it out of the machine? Apparently not.

When I reported this outcome to Christy, she actually said she wasn't surprised it didn't work. Maybe the maternal instincts that supposedly kick in when you get pregnant include suddenly being a laundry genius, because honestly, it's a whole day later, and I still can't believe it. I mean, I did a regular load of laundry the day before, and being a particularly colorful load, I put in two of the aforementioned Color Catchers instead of one, and they both came out purple, full of loose dye. So how, how did my red sock not do any of my intended damage to the white onezies? You'd think I dropped them in there with a capful of bleach.

So all that to say, that the first tiny step of planning my first baby shower did not exactly go as anticipated. But there are still two months of planning time in which to not be vanquished by the fact that I'm even bad at being bad at laundry.

And maybe to buy some fabric dye.

The Stacy London Project

It's no secret that Stacy is pretty much my hero. I have thought many times about letting TLC know that whenever Stacy decides to retire from What Not to Wear, I am fully available to step in. I even come with my own Clinton & Carmindy! (Though I am still looking for a Nick Arrojo/Ted Gibson of my own.) And for once, this weekend, I actually got to take myself on a little trial run of just what it would be like to be Stacy (minus the sky-high heels. Shocking, I know, but I couldn't bring myself to run around town with them on all day, so I stuck with flat boots instead).

A girl I work with presented me with an interesting proposition a month or so ago. She was expecting about a $1000 tax refund, and she wanted to spend it all on a new wardrobe. And she wanted my help.

Granted, she's nowhere near needing the kind of help that would land her in Stacy and Clinton's capable hands, but she does suffer from the common WNTW affliction of Mommy-Itis. She has an almost 3-year-old, and claims she hasn't bought new clothes pretty much since she had him. (How does anyone go three years without shopping? I have no idea. It defies my grasp on reality.) So the problem is not that her wardrobe is bad, just that it's limited.

So honestly, how could I say no to a proposition like that? She vowed to let me spend the whole day playing dress-up with her, like a life-size Barbie doll, and she vowed to spend that whole thousand dollars on clothes and shoes and anything else I could throw at her over the course of a single Saturday out shopping. It's like What Not to Wear, the smaller, southern version. (Sort of like Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta.)

We started with Old Navy. A classic. I figured that was the best place to start and get her stocked up on basics. As promised, she was completely open to anything I suggested she try on, and we went to the dressing room completed loaded down with stuff. She got more excited with every outfit she put on, and before long, she was trying out outfit combinations of her own. Plus, in true What Not to Wear fashion, I pushed her just a few baby steps out of her comfort zone.

Our second round in the dressing room included the dress that she had wrinkled her nose at slightly (saying that she doesn't own or wear or like dresses, how many times have the dynamic duo heard that one?), but added to her pile at my insistence. And then she flung open the dressing room door wearing it and proclaimed that she LOVED the dress! Suddenly I understood how Stacy and Clinton could say that this job was rewarding. I mean, I obviously find shopping very rewarding, but for people who don't shop, I can see how they wouldn't get it. But making other women feel great about themselves is in fact a rather rewarding thing.

The day only snowballed from there. We went to TJ Maxx and got at least as much stuff as we did at Old Navy. (Keep in mind we're on a tighter budget than WNTW, though granted, $1000 in Alabama probably goes about as far as $5000 in Manhattan. Just imagine what I could do down here with the full budget! Think about it, TLC. Same show, southern accents? You know you want to.)

Of course the day wouldn't have been complete without a visit to my very favorite store, DSW. And let's face it, any day in which you buy 9 pairs of shoes is a good day.

So the final total of what we got for her:

9 pairs of shoes
19 shirts
2 dresses
1 skirt
5 pairs of pants
1 pair of shorts (which she also resisted at first, but they looked great!)
1 pair of leggings
1 lounge pants 

Yes, I did allow those last two, but only for lounging purposes. And she's so excited about all the rest of her clothes, I don't think I have to worry about it. She told me earlier that for the first time in years, she's actually excited about picking out what she's going to wear that day. Years! She feels great, I feel great about helping her, everybody wins!

And seriously, this is totally what I should be doing with my life...If anyone else has a tax refund they need help spending, you know where to find me. :)