A Rose By Any Other Name

It's possible that I'm a little frugal. Or cheap, depending on your point of view. My winter coat tends to be the same one year after year because ... it works, so why get a new one? Periodically, though, my coat will tear or get stained (I hate winter salt and muck!) or simply become something I can't imagine putting on even one more time.

Fortunately, that tends to happen at the end of the year when the winter coats are all on sale. Of course, the selection then also tends to leave a bit to be desired, but I can get over that. I had to buy a new coat not last year but at the end of the winter before.

Living in Chicago, I needed to find a coat that would keep me warmer than the one I had at the time. My mom had bought a coat that she loved that promised to keep you warm to 15 below zero. It sounded good to me, and I liked the style. I couldn't get the same color as my mom (she dressed my sister and I too alike for too long growing up for me to ever be matchy matchy with anyone), but they offered more than the chocolate brown she'd purchased.

I went to the store and found the coat on sale for $15. Marked down from $138 (which my mother had paid). The only downside? There was one coat in the color my mom had gotten and one in gold. Gold! I can't wear a gold coat.

Smart me, I went to the online version of the store to see if they had a better selection of the coat. And amazingly, they did. As I recall, they had it in silver (it was a muted beautiful silver), white and something else. For $45.

And the frugal in me warred with the I-can't-wear-gold part of me. I vented to my mother who talked me into the gorgeous gold coat - her words, not mine. And really, for $15, how can you not love a coat that will keep you that warm. Because of course I went back to the store to get the coat, and the only one left was the gold coat. So I bought it.

It went into my closet for the next winter (which was really last winter). And when winter came last year, it stayed in my closet. I couldn't wear it. The coat was gold - GOLD. I just don't have that much fashion pizazz (ok the fact that "fashion pizazz" was the best phrasing I could come up with should tell you something) to pull off a gold coat.

And so it gathered dust in the closet.

Late in the winter, my mom borrowed it one day to get Little Miss off the bus. And she realized it still had the price tags on it because ... I hadn't done anything with it since the day I bought it. She convinced me to try it on.

I reluctantly wore my coat after that. And you know what, it really is warm. And sorta fashionable - just obviously not in that picture from a horrible angle. Trust me on this one. That doesn't mean I was comfortable wearing it, but I wore it.

The other day? A random woman gave me a great compliment. I love your coat. Champagne is such a great color on you - and so trendy right now, too!

Oh. My mistake. It's not a gold coat. It is simply champagne. I'm not sure why, but I can totally wear a champagne colored coat. And I do. With pride - and warmth.

Fashion Show!

Go check out my two giveaways (reeeeaaaaallllllly good odds here) here and here.

Plus, I just put up a review of a totally awesome caramel apple factory. If you want to see how they're made and drool, go visit here.

***

Spring has finally sprung here in Chicago - and oh my, I really hope I didn't just jinx that! That of course means that the wee ones have started to wear outfits that don't involve covering them from head to toe. In fact, we even had a record high 83 degrees on Thursday that necessitated a mid-day clothing change.

And that mid-day clothing change made me realize that the wee ones are truly growing. It isn't just my imagination. In fact, Mister Man has grown three inches since his checkup less than six months ago.

With that in mind - and knowing that they had to have something suitable to wear for Easter today - I insisted that we do their least favorite activity. Yep, it was fashion show time. I promised them something fun once we finished, and they reluctantly agreed, provided that they got to choose the five outfits we were going through that day.

We'll start with Little Miss, since ironically she was far more cooperative in this endeavor, although she is usually the more difficult of the two. Maybe my little girl is really turning into a little girl (ignore the hair please - she had just woken up from her nap, and my mom didn't use conditioner in her hair after swimming class).

As a reminder, they got to choose which outfits they'd try on.  Our first selection is a lovely 2009 Fourth of July ensemble.  This is one that I am going to have to hide until the holiday this year, as I recall she greatly enjoyed putting it on repeatedly last summer.  Unfortunately, the entire outfit still fits.  On the plus side, the elastic waist on the skirt is now close enough to fitting that she will be able to run without holding the skirt up.  Am I the only person who has an issue with Faded Glory being placed prominently on a t-shirt that displays our flag?  (Yes, my mom bought this one, not me.)

Her next selection was, not shockingly, a Twins ensemble.  This is a t-shirt that passed down from Mister Man after he outgrew it.  I see that she will also be wearing this one frequently this summer.  The capri pants are getting a little short, but this will at least get us through the first part of summer.

I had a difficult time approving this outfit, as she's worn it for the past two summers already.  Yes, you read that correctly.  This has a second skort that she also tried on that she has finally outgrown.  While they fit in the waist, they were a sligthly indecent in their length.  That skort?  24 months.  This one?  3T.  The shirt is a 4T, and I can see that again, we will only be able to wear this for the first few weeks of summer before it is gracefully retired.

Once again, Little Miss has chosen a Mister Man hand me down for her outfit selection.  Is anyone noticing a trend?  My poor mom.  She so isn't getting her girly-girl.  On the plus side, the Willie t-shirt will definitely make it through the summer.  I'm reserving judgement on this skort, however.  It seemed loose, and at four and a half, running around holding up your pants just isn't going to be allowed.

For our final outfit, Little Miss went with the un-shocking choice of Tinkerbell.  She was thrilled to note that this 5T selection passed muster.  These pants, however?  They went into the donation pile.  I don't think we can justify wearing them any longer.

With Little Miss being as compliant as she was, I was able to sneak in all her summer dresses, as well, in the guise of seeing what she could wear for Easter today.  Her first selection was a lovely dress that would look much better on a girl four inches shorter.  This was also placed into the donation pile.

Our second attempt was last year's Easter dress that was ankle length at the time.  Although definitely shorter, this may be our winner.  I'm thinking that 6pm on the day before Easter was not going to yield a new dress for her.

We moved on to one of her favorite dresses last year.  Little Miss long torso is definitely outgrowing this dress.  However, while we won't be wearing it for Easter, I am holding on to this one for a few weeks until I am certain that she has something else to wear when needed.  This one is at least decent.

Little miss's final selection was this once mid calf-length dress.  After deciding that she looked like she was headed to a 60's minidress party, I told her that this also had to be placed in the donation party.  However, after seeing the green dress that one woman wore to Easter services this morning,  I am rethinking that decision.

Mister Man was next on the docket, and he proved to be less happy about the fashion show. Actually, he was fine with the fashion show aspect, but he did not like the picture taking portion. Go fig.

Interestingly, Mister Man's first choice was to pair a shirt I'd bought him last year purposely too big with a pair of soccer shorts from last summer.  The shorts will stay until I can buy a new pair, but they're quickly headed for Little Miss's closet.  The shirt confirmed that Mister Man is not yet into size M clothing.

Next up we have a pair of shorts that my mom bought last year - size 7 - that apparently will fit all summer long.  Thank goodness I have some clothes I know he can wear.  That shirt may last us for a few weeks into summer, but it appears destined for the donation pile.  I was quite proud of him for matching nicely - relatively - for his first two outfits.

His next outfit also matched beautifully, and this shirt looks like it might make its way through at least half the summer.  The shorts only prove how much he's grown in the past year.  Yikes.  I'm amazed he was able to button those without giving himself a hernia, but he said they actually felt fairly comfortable.

I lost all faith in his fashion sense here, although it's possible that he grabbed five shirts and then five shorts and only tried to match them up after they were out of his closet.  That's the theory I'm going with anyway.  These shorts are also headed for the donation pile.  And yep, this is another M shirt that I bought him last year for the future.  The future has not quite yet arrived.

So far, five outfits, and we're only able to keep about half the clothes.  I did a quick peek at some of their other clothes in the closet and saw a few 2T shirts and such in Little Miss's closet and some 4T and 5T clothes in Mister Man's.  Apparently we'll be doing more fashion show, soon.  And I might put up some of the more entertaining outfits - if they let me!

In the meantime, I'm begrudgingly making my shopping list.  I suppose Little Miss needs at least one dress to get her through the summer.  And Mister Man might need more than one pair of shorts this summer.  time to start clipping those coupons!