Does your little girl need a special dress?

These beautiful dresses (and others)

were featured on the Vision Forum blog.

Go check them out and bookmark them.

I love Goodwill

We had errands to run today. To a book warehouse out in in the middle of nowhere for Ethan's first grade math books and to the dump to properly dispose of the old computor monitor. But to get there we had to go past the Goodwill nearest to a rather well to do population. I'd yet to find my Easter dress. I was out last night and finally found a store that had several I liked, but they were $35-40 each! Way too much in my tightwad book. SO - I decided to give Goodwill a try. For the $35 I would have spent on one dress, I got my Easter dress (on the left) as well as three everyday dresses AND 6 videos.

Fashion Meme

This is a meme from Emma at Charming the Birds from the Trees.
Any guys who may have shown up here can skip this.

A: What accessories do you wear everyday? I at least wear earrings every day, usually hoops or dangly ones. And my wedding and engagement rings, of course. Do they count as accessories?

B: What is your beauty routine? I'm not sure how routine it is, but at some point I manage to accomplish showering, styling my hair, dressing, and applying make-up. :^)

C: What was the last item of clothing (for yourself) that you purchased? I think it was at Christmas when I bought a long skirt and matching fitted jacket in black velvet and a long sleeve cream lace shirt that was fully lined except for the sleeves (at Walmart!-wonders never cease.)

D: Do you use a dresser, closet, or both? Both. A large dresser and half of a large closet, but I think I have more momentos and photographs in my closet than clothes.

E: What type of earrings are in your ears right now? Gold dangle earrings with gold and amber colored beads.

F: What type of figure do you have? I am short with a small bone structure and have too much leftover baby weight, so to the average person I'm probably an average size short person.

G: Do you wear glasses? Only for the shortest time possible until I can get my contacts in in the morning. The eye doctor actually said that contacts like mine should only be worn for 12 hours a day. Who's he kidding? I wear mine 16-20 hours and they're doing great!

H: What type of handbag do you carry? For the past several years I've been carrying oversized purses that can double as a diaper bag. My favorite is my pink denim bag. none of them have brand names.

I: What is your ideal style? Ideal? As in, I get to set the trends? I love Edwardian clothes, and pretty much all of the clothing styles from 1800-1915, and forties clothes, but they can keep the weird corsets and stuff. Realistically, I love long ankle length skirts that are A line, or floaty fabrics or twirly; and sleeveless sheath dresses and beautiful watercolor or floral fabrics, as well as boot cut jeans.

J: What jewelry are you wearing right now? The dangle earrings, and my wedding and engagement rings.

K: Do you wear knee-hi stockings? I hate nylons and avoid them as much as possible, so if I have to wear them, and knee-high nylons, or regular knee-highs can work, then I'm definitely wearing them.

L: Do you *have* to wear matching lingerie? I would in a perfect world, but in this one, I'm on a budget. :^)

M: Do you wear makeup? If yes, what products do you use? Foundation, blush or bronzer, lipstick, eye liner (usually), eye shadow, mascara, sometimes loose powder

N: Do you wear nightgowns? Brrr! Not if I can help it; flannel PJs are the best! I would in the summer if I had a pretty one that was modest enough to cook breakfast in.

O: What outerwear do you put on when going out on a typical winters day? Typical? Did I mention that I live in the South. Typical may lean in favor of none at all, but if it's cold, my khaki field coat or long wool knit sweater usually do the trick.

P: What is your favorite perfume? I've had lots of favorites in the past, including Tea Rose, but none of them are probably true perfumes. I tend toward fruity or citrusy or vanilla scents. White florals give me an instant headache.

Q: Is your motto "quality over quantity" when it comes to clothing and accessories? Not really. I've worn too many different sizes in the past few years.

R: Do you wear rain boots? No, but I do have duck shoes that I wear on muddy days in the garden.

S: Do you wear socks or slippers when your feet get cold? Either.

T: Do you have a set of travel luggage? Used to. I think most of the pieces are still around. We've got lots of luggage, but not much in the "sets" idea.

U: What is your daily uniform? In cold months, jeans and a nice sweater and in warmer months dresses if I'm not nursing, more capris and long cotton skirts with short sleeve knit tops if I am.

V: If you are married, did you wear a veil with your wedding dress? If not, how did you do your hair? I had a floor length veil attached to a rose wreath, but no face veil.

W: Do you wear a watch? Not since college.

X: What item of clothing always makes you feel eXtremely beautiful? My short fitted denim jacket, right now. And my lace shirt.

Y: What is your favorite type of yarn? The kind I get on sale.

Z: Do you prefer zippers or buttons? I like buttons best on blouses and jackets, because front zippers don't lay as smoothly, but zippers on skirts and dresses, because they do give a smoother look.

Let me know if you give it a try!

My Twinn Sale and the Modesty Survey

Remember my modest clothing links? Well. My Twinn is having a big sale. Don't be mislead. When the page comes up it shows the normal prices, but if you click on them you can find $4-10 dresses, jackets for under $10, shoes under $5, etc. I have ordered a dress from them before and it seemed to be running a bit on the large side. Also most of these items are available only in a few sizes and mostly XS and S which would range from about sizes 4-8 (?). So go check it out!

P.S. My modest clothing links aren't necessarily sites where all of the clothes are modest, but where it is typically easy to find modest clothing. :^)

P.S.S. In case you haven't heard, The Rebelution has released the results of their comprehensive modesty survey. 1600 men's opinions and input on how their sisters in Christ can show their love for their brothers by dressing (and acting) modestly.

Modest Clothing Links

Kim's post inspired me to share these links I've found over the years for those of you trying to find modest clothing online.

Chadwick's - especially their clearance section
The Scarlet Thread - beautiful old-fashioned handmade clothes
Hannah Lise - collection of beautiful, if somewhat pricey, girl's and women's clothing
My Twinn - this is a very unexpected source, but their end of season clearances can produce very nice girl's dresses for under $15

Ramblings of a Guilty Mind

I've just set a new record for spending money on clothes in one day.

And it blows my mind.

Because I'm pretty much a tightwad. I like to get really cute clothes - at the Salvation army - for $3. But the situation was getting desperate. You know the drill. You have a baby and you think, "this will get better, I'll lose more weight soon, I don't want to spend money on clothes that won't fit next year..." But next year is here. And, unfortunately, they would have fit after all.

But Walmart had nothing. And Burlington Coat Factory had nothing. And the thrift stores I used to find things at aren't open in the evenings for child-free-hours-in-the-dressing-room-to-find-one-thing-that-fits.

So I had a closet of a few mostly fits, several almost fits, and a couple of actually fits and looks nice. But all of those were in the laundry. And it was Sunday morning. And that's when the straw broke the camel's back.

After some desperate searching and trying on of outfits, I said to Brian, "if you can find anything to match either of these two remaining tops in my closet, I'll be going to church, otherwise... " Well, he found the same outfit I'd had on a few minutes ago. The sweater I've had since high school (or was it junior high) and a very nice khaki skirt that was given to me and makes me look like a whale. A combination I usually wouldn't want to go out of the house in. (Do I sound as shallow, as I think I do?) And then, of course, I didn't have any tights or shoes that went with it. So I went to church in 50 degree weather in a sweater, khaki skirt, and birkenstock-type sandals hoping I didn't look as bad as I thought I did.

So sweet Brian took me shopping, and encouraged me to keep buying things, and tried to take such complete responsibility for it that I wouldn't even feel guilty. But I do anyway. I told my mother that I thought maybe I shouldn't wash them yet, because surely I should return some of them.

She told me not to. She said that sometimes mothers have to actually buy clothes for themselves.

And I did get some great deals at T.J. Maxx and they were having a huge sale at J.C.Penney's (yes, I actually went to the mall, it was that bad).
The upside is I don't think I'll have another day (at least before spring) when I'll say "I don't have anything to wear." And thanks to all the basics that I found, I think I'll be able to redeem virtually all of the matchless orphans in my closet.

And I still feel like I should take something back. But it's too late. I've washed them.