Little Checks

Every once in a while I am granted with a weekend day where I have absolutely nothing planned. These are the very best days. I wake up, with the whole day ahead of me, able to come and go as I please, and do whatever I want, eat whatever I want, and wear whatever I want.

Today is one of those days.

Sean set out early this morning for Hartford for ConnectiCon, a small comic convention, so I was able to peacefully sleep until 10:30. I pondered what I could do today, and vowed to not slave the day away cleaning and doing housework, which I all too often do.

I showered and got dressed, had some Koala Krispies for breakfast (the gluten-free version of cocoa crispies), and started my day. After showering and throwing all the dirty laundry from our bedroom floor into the washer (I swear, the only housework I did today), I stepped outside. Hot and muggy. A good beach day, perhaps. Definitely not a day for mowing the lawn or going for a walk around the lake. While I suppose it would be nice to just sit at the beach all day, I am planning plenty of that for my vacation in a couple weeks, so I decided to try to be mildly productive. I decided to do what any good, American girl should do on a hot day. Go to the air conditioned mall and try on pretty dresses!

Why would I need to try on pretty dresses? Well, as much as the angel on my shoulder tells me I could find perfectly nice ensembles that already exist in my wardrobe, life events just tug at that little devil on the other shoulder saying "When will you ever again have a bridal shower? Wear something new and cute!" or "That wedding next month is on a cruise around Manhattan, surely you need something jewel-toned and fabulous to wear!". So off I went, to Target and Ann Taylor, to try on some pretty dresses and see if anything struck my fancy. First up was Target.

Any 20-something girl on a budget knows you can find something perfectly respectable to wear at Target, if you're a savvy shopper. Discussing with my friend Mollie last week, she told me she only buys tank tops from Target, because they're cheap and she beats the heck out of them all summer. Why pay over $10 for something you're going to wear to the beach and get sweaty, sandy and wet, or to a party or baseball game where beer could get spilled on it or an impromptu wrestling match could occur (yes, that happened last weekend).

I wasn't all too impressed with the latest styles they had, but I decided to check out the clearance section (as any 20-something on a budget should always do) and found 2 dresses that I deemed worthy of trying on. One was an ivory sleeveless dress, knee-length, the top lace coming down to just below the bust and the skirt is khaki material, pencil skirt shaped. Very sleek and cute while still summer. On sale for $22. I tried it on, it fit like a glove AND made me look slim (not an easy feat as a size 12 in ivory). Sold. Dress 2 is a long, light cotton in the style that many summer dresses are in, minus the tiered, cupcake look. The pattern is subtle is light tones, very sophisticated, very casual. Perfect for say, throwing over your bathing suit to go to lunch on the beach for your honeymoon? The only thing is it's about 4 inches too long. However, for the sale price of $14, I can hem it. Sold.

So I bought my bridal shower dress and my very first honeymoon outfit. I was on a roll. Why not look at thank you notes? Knowing the shower is coming up, I wanted to be prepared to send my gratitude to anyone who is coming. I hemmed and hawed over getting the simple, boring 50-pack for $7.99 (white card, thin navy blue line for trim, very plain, boring font on front that says "Thank You") versus spending a wee bit more for something nicer. I found a box of 24 cards for $5.99, with a nice ivory metallic on ivory matte damask design that says "Many Thanks" in silver script across the top. Perfect. I bought 2 packs for $12 total.

I went on to try on a few dresses at Ann Taylor and thankfully confirmed that I did not like or really look all that great in the dresses I spotted online earlier this week. My frugality is winning this weekend, so I decided to hold off for another month to go dress shopping for the wedding in September. And when I do go shopping, it will probably be to Marshalls.

On The Knot message boards, whenever a girl accomplishes something, she posts her "Checks". Not all too exciting, but it's great to encourage each other and get excited over the little thing, because not everyone else in the world gets excited over finding your thank you notes! So feeling accomplished with my "little checks", I have the rest of the day ahead of me. The "plan" is to do some Photoshop design for myself that I've been wanting to do, do a little painting, make myself a burger and a skinny girl margarita for dinner, and watch some True Blood till Sean gets home. Not a bad "plan" if I say so myself.

Enjoy your weekend, loves!