First off, most of the people who know me well will realize that the title that includes "Clothes Shopping" doesn't really sound too much like me. They are right. I will tell you why:
This story begins after prom last year. Every junior and senior who went to post prom was given $50 at the conclusion of the night. I was shocked! The parents who plan post prom give away the extra money that they fundraise to the kids! My friend Steph and I immediately said that we should go clothes shopping because we needed some dressier things.
 |
| Steph's the one in the blue dress. |
Fast forward to two weeks ago and these things had happened since we determined we needed to buy stuff:
1: I came across the money (I'd been keeping it in a safe place) and told Steph we should go shopping soon, because I found the money.
2: Steph said sure, but she had to find her money again.
3: A lot of time passes and when we talk, she says that she's found the money.
4: I inform her that I cannot find my money.
5: I deep clean my room and find the money exactly where I thought it was.
6: We determine that we need to go buy clothes before either of us loses the money again!
A couple of weeks ago, Steph and I, along with
Lauren, whom we invited, went to
Plato's Closet, a very large, very nice consignment store in West Des Moines.
You would think that it would be easy. I walk into a store with reasonably priced merchandise and $50 to burn. What could be easier?
Almost anything.
I think that we spent over 2 hours in the store all together. Most my time was spent wandering in a dubious, confused, overwhelmed haze.
I looked at the scarves.
I looked at the shoes.
I looked at the skirts.
I looked at the jewelery.
I looked at the scarves again.
I looked at khakis.
"Oh look! Dresses!"
"Skirts!"
"Tops!"
"Vests. Interesting."
"Maybe I should check out the scarves again."
"Wow! They even have guys clothes here.
Maybe I'd have better luck with some gym shorts. . ."
"Hmmmm. . . I need a belt."
"I've never worn a maxi dress before. . ."
And then it became. . .
"Kelli would look adorable
in this!"
"I know Kelli's been wanting a skirt like this for a long time . . ."
"Kelli mentioned liking this type of belt. . ."
"I should get this for Kelli. . ."
After a while, we all got together and figured out where we were at as far as finding thing we liked. Lauren and Steph had so many clothes that they had to leave some outside the dressing rooms so that they'd be under the limit of clothes they could try on at a time. Steph ended up making her purchase, and got a variety of things. She also got 20% off everything with a coupon that she had. Lauren had found some things that she was going to try on. And then there was me.
"I found this black dress. . . *nervous laugh*. . .There's a dress over there I think I might buy for Kelli. . .I have no clue what I'm doing, guys. . .Help Me!"
At this point, my friends staged an intervention. It went like this:
"Kara, you came here to buy clothes for you, not Kelli.
"But it's so much easier to buy stuff for other people!"
"Well, you need to buy yourself some things. What would you say your style is? Is it like mine?"
"Well, I like you style."
"Ok, I'm just going to pick out some shirts and you tell me what you think. How about this one?"
"No."
"Ok, do you like this one?"
"Not really. . ."
"What! I think it's cute! How 'bout this one?
"What! No!"
"Ok, we totally don't have the same style!
"I like simple, classy stuff. Not really bright colors or prints."
"Here's one! What do you think?"
"It's okaaaaaayyyy. . ."
"I don't get it! Here's what I'm going to do. I'm just going to pick out a bunch of clothes and not ask your opinion and then make you try them on."
"Good idea. That'll be easier."
At this point, Lauren joins in and we all proceed to go through a whole wall of shirts. I found two. Lauren found some for her, and Steph found 10. She would have had more, but she asked my opinion a couple times and I said no. =)
When I went to try them on, two of the three that I chose didn't fit, so I moved on to the things that Lauren and Steph had picked for me.
It usually went like this:
Step 1: Try on the shirt.
Step 2: Look down at the shirt and question whether I'm hip and stylish enough
to wear that type of print
Step 3: Slowly walk out of the dressing room with something akin to
a face that looks like I drank sour milk.
Step 4: Steph and Lauren
"ohh" and
"ahh" and comment about how great the shirt looks on me, how they love it.
Step 5: My sanity is called into question if I say that I don't really like the shirt.
Step 6: Deliberation.
Step 7: Put the shirt in a "maybe" or a "no" pile.
Step 8: Repeat steps 1-7
By the end of that, I had three things that I had picked out and a shirt that Steph had picked out.
I didn't take a picture of it, but it's just a casual, grey tee. She said I could wear scarves with it, so we waltzed over to the scarf wall and picked out two.
This is the first one. It is from Kohls and still had the tags on it. It will be a nice scarf to wear in the winter because it is soft and fuzzy. I think I paid $7 for it.
This is the next scarf we found. (Note: All the scarves were folded up on hangers.) It is a lighter material and I liked the color. I showed Steph and we both agreed that it had a paisley print on it, and since I do love me some paisley, I snatched it up for $6.
When I brought it home and showed Kelli, this is what we discovered:
There are Buddhas all over my scarf! Upon closer inspection later, I found a sticker that said it was made in Bengal. (This explains so much!)
Well, I think my Buddha scarf, as I now call it, is really unique, and there's a funny story behind how I ended up with it!
The other thing that I got that I didn't take a picture of is a simple black dress that was originally from Target. After I borrow one of my aunt's chunky necklaces, I'll be wearing it for Academic Awards Night, which is another blog post all together.
This is were part two of this comedy comes into play. Kelli and I went shopping on Friday and ended up going to two other consignment stores in Ames. It was the tax free weekend, so I didn't pay tax on the two things I got, and they both happened to be 50% as well!
At the first store, I got this tank top. I really enjoy wearing tank tops in the summer, but I only have two, and they are solid colors, so this is a fun, new one!
 |
| I got this for $1.75! |
At the other store, I found a solid color, long sleeve shirt, which I was glad about, because of two other things I had bought on the trip with Steph and Lauren.
The dark pink shirt is from Kelli's and my trip and the two sweater type things are from the previous trip
 |
| The long sleeved shirt was $2.50 and the vest was about $7. |
 |
| This was also about $7. |
All in all, I got all of this for under $50! It's crazy and I'm exhausted!
Of course, after shopping, you have to relax with some food! Steph, Lauren, and I went to Fuddruckers, a fun burger place. (They'd never been before!) We took pictures in the mirror next to our table.We're really mature!
After Kelli and I finished shopping, we stopped at Wal Mart and bought a Jamba juice smoothie mix, apple juice (for the smoothies), and Flavor Blasted Cheddar Goldfish so that we could have a fun movie night (which we did).
We also redeemed all of the bags of cans that were in the back of the car, cuz that's just the kind of people we are!
Thus ends my epic saga about clothes shopping! *exhales*
Stay tuned for:
Band Camp
Back to School
Academic Awards Night
UNI visit
Room Switch up
Birthday party!!
