Retail Therapy Marathon Shopping Day

Today’s Attire: Today I’m wearing signature “I’m too lazy to think about what the hell I’m wearing go to dress” black maxi dress (Old Navy $11). I’m wearing my leopard print Ann Klein flats (DSW $26). Black bandana as a headband. 

Outfit Justification:  I woke up feeling like crap. My back hurts and I’m hot.  These do not bode well for putting together an outfit when you feel like this.  This outfit says “Be glad I’m clothed, because I’d rather be wearing my pajamas”.  In case you hadn’t figured this out, this is my I don’t give a damn outfit.

Retail Therapy Marathon Shopping Day:

Some of you may have seen that I went on a shopping spree over the weekend.  I’m going to go into details about this in a minute.  I only wrote my blog once last week.  Last week was an awful week for me.  My emotions were all over the place and none of them in a good way. I don’t  like spreading that kind of negativity so I opted not to write my blog last week.  The meltdowns of the previous weekend were just the beginning of what was to come last week. I’m still not feeling all that fabulous but I had a decent weekend to quell some of the awfulness of last week. So there it is.

So after having a bad week I needed to do something to make me feel better. I realized that I had a few upcoming events and I needed outfits for them.  Since nothing in my closet was bringing any since of joy I opted to set out and find options to make something in my wardrobe work for any of these events.  I haven’t had the best of luck with shopping trips recently because I’m between sizes. Or things were too expensive for what they were. Or frankly I was just in a bad mood and the shopping spirits weren’t working in my favor.  Well on Saturday the shopping force was with me.  I swear, I was a shopping Jedi or something.  (I’m not sure why I’m throwing in all these Star Wars references.  Maybe it’s to keep my husband interested in this particular blog)

I’ve got some events coming up.  This Saturday night I have a gig. The gig is an unconventional one because it isn’t a set stage and I’m singing a song. It’s an interactive musical experience and the focus isn’t just on the performers.  Also I’ll be moving around a lot and it going to get hot. So I was trying desperately to find something cute to wear that I can sweat in.  The next event is my second wedding anniversary. Since I, along with my husband, have become enamored with the whole pinup look, I really wanted to find something appropriate for our wedding anniversary trip and dinner that fell in line with the pinup culture. Then a few weeks after that is Halloween.  I would like to find a sexy costume that  satisfies all my requirements: must be sexy, must be something easily recognizable and I don’t have to explain what it is, must not get me arrested. So with all of this in mind, I headed out with my partner in crime.

First stop on the shopping tour was a place down the street from our apartment called My BabyJo.  This store sells vintage pin up inspired clothing for women and men. And since it was down the street from where we lived it made  the most sense to start there.  It was ridiculously hot on Saturday and this place had no AC, so it was difficult shopping. But Jeff and I found so many cute things to try we pushed through the miserable heat and had a ball. I tried on a bunch of dresses that I thought would be appropriate for my anniversary.  And I was pleased that some of them actually fit. In a previous trip to this store I was still too big to fit in their attire despite the fact that they had plus sizes.  I still find that even the pin up shops the plus sizes still run relatively small.  At the end of the trip, I left there with a gorgeous blue and black pencil skirt, two sassy off the shoulder tops: one in black, one that was black and white striped, and one black lace halter wiggle dress.  The black and white top went so well with the shorts I was wearing, I wore it out of the shop.

Next on our shopping tour was lunch. And since I had received an invite to a pin up store yard sale in a few weeks, I decided to take a trip out to the store in advance to see if there was anything this store that would fit me. The store is in Burbank.  Since we were heading to Burbank, Jeff asked if we could have lunch at the original Bob’s Big Boy.  Since he was so enthusiastic when he asked I of course agreed.  We had a lovely lunch and even posed with the big Bob’s statue outside.

After lunch we headed to Pin Up Clothing in Burbank.  This place was like Disneyland to Jeff and myself.  I’ve never seen Jeff get so excited about being in a clothing store.  In all fairness I’m thinking his ADD medication might have kicked in along with the caffeine in his cherry Coke he had Bob’s Big Boy.  The store was big, air conditioned and had all kinds of fantastic and gorgeous things. I picked up one or two items to try on and Jeff went to town and picked out half the store for me try on.  Once I was in the fitting room it was magic. The things in this store were made for my body.  80 percent of everything I tried on fit me so well.  Jeff was enjoying the fashion show. He wanted me to buy almost everything I tried on.  We had a hard time narrowing it down.  We left the store with a gorgeous leopard print swing dress.  With a vow to be back for everything else Jeff and I fell in love with.  In two weeks, we’ll be back for the yard sale event fully prepared.

After this successful venture, we headed to Glendale Galleria.  We stopped at the Macy’s there. We picked out a bunch of stuff try on.  Some of it was for comical purposes because some of the items we saw were ridiculous.  We were pleasantly surprised when one of the items I tried on was a this beautiful gold goddess dress 3 sizes smaller than I normally wear.  It actually fit!  That was the major score of the day because it was a size 10 and on sale for $19.99 when it was originally $150!  After leaving there we headed over to my favorite store White House Black Market. There we scored a beautiful black and white patterned dress that looked so cute on me in the store and was super on sale.  We left there and then headed to Torrid.  We scored a pair of to the knee black boots that actually fit my very large calves.  That was a major success.  The boots were the end of a very successful shopping day.

I was so happy with all my purchases, I decided to put everything thing on again and photograph them post them Facebook.  The thrill of having a successful shopping day really brought my spirits up and improved my self-esteem which had been in the toilet most of the week.  It was indeed retail therapy.  I have to spend a special shout out to my husband Jeff, who’s enthusiasm really helped to make this trip a special one.