Shopping was fun again and the polka dots won

Remember when shopping for clothes was fun? When you could browse through the racks without your husband nagging you to hurry up? The good old days when there were no kids crying in their stroller? When everything fit just right when you tried it on?

I actually had one of those days! It was last Monday, when my sister was in town and we went to Woodfield to peruse the fall fashion trends at our leisure. We stumbled upon a store called Dry Goods and it’s like all the stars aligned: I loved everything I saw, Arielle was taking a nap, and we had enough time to try things on.

I was drawn to tan and black/white that day for some reason, and each piece had something unique about it – lace here, cut-outs there, hi-low, or an interesting back.  In my head, this is supposed to play out like a fun dress-up montage with “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” playing in the background, but it ended up just looking like a series of selfies.  Dah, well…here goes:

Chevron blouse // cut-outs on the shoulder // fit just right:

Loving plaid // hi-low // sheer but not see-through // looks hot with boots:

Polka dot blouse // hi-low // sweet back:

Striped dress // dainty silhouette // cut-out in back:

Tan dress with sheer details:

Lace and chevron hi-low dress // my fave:

All the things I tried on were $30 or less! I wanted to buy them all; however, being on a budget and blah blah responsibility, blah blah, I don’t really need new clothes, blah blah blah…I talked myself out of all of them except for the one hi-low, polka dot shirt with the pretty cut-out in the back. It was cheap and practical – at only $14, I could wear it as a casual top anywhere or even wear it at work.

Here’s what I bought and how I paired it up with some existing stuff in my closet:

Front:

Back:

Infinity scarf // skinny black pants // boots:

So even a week later, I’m glowing from my joyous shopping experience even though I didn’t end up buying much. Heck, the only one I regret not buying is the lace and chevron hi-low dress, but I got over it pretty quickly since I probably won’t have any occasion to wear it to.  I’m pretty happy what I ended up with.

When was the last time you were excited about shopping?

xoxo // gracielle.