in which I recount a shopping trip for MFAOA and Uncle

Oh, to have a couple of hours alone at Anthropologie! a gift from someone dear to me...but first, I want to point out that it is counter-productive to compare photos of oneself to photos of headless mannequins from the Anthropologie website.

I went, on Sunday, to my local Anthro with my gift-card, wearing far too many accessories. (Don't bring a scarf and gloves and a cardi to a place where you plan on trying on lots of things!)

Here I am. Fully clothed. In too many clothes. And, YES. UGGS.

My goal: choose some items I would not normally purchase for myself. Forget about the I-need-a-better-brown-turtleneck theory and focus on some unique items. Anthro is, of course, the perfect place for that kind of shopping as everything they sell is unique...

Herewith, the hits...and the misses.

I've seen this terrible skirt in dozens of incarnations



You know it, it's the pencil skirt with the ruffle down the side. Yes, it does appear to be too large on me. No, I'm not telling you what size it was. It was stupid looking. I think I'm not tall enough to have a ruffle down my side.

I was very excited about this shirt-dress.



It is THE thing for Spring, according to the email I got. And, while I liked it well enough (it had some kind of crinoline thing going on underneath the top layer) I don't think it "did anything for me." Again, on someone taller I think it would have been a hit.



See me making that face? That face means the big black sweater dress is nothing to write home about.



Too tight. A return, greatly reduced, it was the only one of its kind.

The hits:



This top I like to call: someone threw-up some fabric on my shoulder! I have too many plain turtlenecks and this little number will add some interest when it's too warm for me to wear one of my three dozen scarves. (I'm exaggerating. I think.)



This marled (?) little wrap sweater, which I wore yesterday and sort of looked like a pregnant crewmember of The Starship Enterprise. Never mind - it's cute! And it has this wonderful label, so I could wear it inside-out!



Finally, this dress, described by a sales associate as A Yarn Dress:



I believe a deserve a medal of some sort for actually posting this photo of ME in this dress rather than, say, this one:



I mean, I look pregnant, washed out, saggy-necked, what am I doing with my hand? I could go on and on. Suffice to say, I bought this Yarn Dress and love it!



I wore it with a brown turtleneck underneath it and brown tights and my engineer boots and got compliments all day. And, the thing is, I would never have given it a second glance if I were spending my own money...it's pure luxury.
I need to experiment more with what I wear under it and also bought a cap sleeved tee for it on the advice of the aforementioned sales associate.

As for the rest of me - here's the hair I aspire to right now. I thought you should know.



My FAOA is working every single day to feel and be well and this post is, mostly, dedicated to her.