The dress.

No, not a wedding dress. Well, it's a different kind of wedding dress. This is a different kind of post for me, but since let's give it a try.

To answer Meagan's question... because I get asked about that dress a LOT. I wish I could tell it was bought somewhere special for a ridiculous amount of money, but the dress is by Suzi Chin and I got it at Nordstrom last fall. And you're welcome to raid my closet, but it won't be thrilling for too long. It's quite empty. I haven't been able to look at clothes as an investment for the past couple years since it is hard to know how much wear I might get out of something before I get too small for it. So I try to limit purchases to the fantastic. And I've been told I have done pretty well. This dress sure turned out to be a smart purchase, for sure!

I bought two dresses at the time because this one was a bubble skirt and I didn't know if my larger lower half could handle it. But my desire to wear something more interesting won out so I kept this one and the decision has done me well. I first wore it to a high school friend's wedding. One of my friend's wives asked me if it was vintage and the object of my tween years crush complimented it... twice. KS (who was KM at the time) asked to borrow it and wore it to a wedding a week or two later since we're twins and all.

I actually wore that dress to both weddings in June. I enjoy it so much and the guest list overlap was limited to just the two of us. That poor dress got dry cleaned 3 times in 3 weeks! I had never taken it in before and it needed freshening up so it went in before J&M's, and well, it was hot that day so it went back the very next week, and then half a tray of champagne was spilled in my lap at K&R's, so bam, dry cleaning #3. At least since I was already smelling strongly of bubbly I decided I could get away with drinking as much of it as I liked! Oh, and it even threw off K's mom when I was waiting for the ceremony to begin. I saw her looking at me from a distance. I waved and called out, "It's who it always is when you think it's her!" "Oh! Hi there!"

Nordstrom still has it on their web site, but there's only a size 4 left. Anyone? Anyone? I saw the same dress in different fabric at Macy's a few weeks ago. The print was not nearly as cute though, I thought it was a knock-off. It was actually the same brand. I was there helping Ms. TDP pick out a dress, I made her try on the one I would have wanted if I needed a new dress and it turned out to be lovely and flattering when tried on. With all the summer sales going on I don't know if you'll be able to find it in stores still. By the way, we had T in this dress in about 20 or 30 minutes of shopping, she left, I sent a text message to LT at the gym who had asked me to keep an eye out for a dress for her and it turned out she was on her way over right then. So I did a little shopping and came back to the Macy's dress department and had HER in a dress to wear to a wedding in about another 20 minutes. I felt like quite the bad ass personal shopper.

There's a lot of really cute dresses out there right now. You just have to open your mind a bit, and try stuff on before you judge it. Fit is important so you can't judge it on the hanger. But I say the feel is important too. If a dress makes you feel special and spectacular, you will exude the confidence that makes people line up to ask, "Ummm, do you mind if I ask where you got that?"