Day Three Hundred Sixty-five Sunday 8/29/10 THE FINAL DAY!
Dress: White/Cream/Pinkish Fairy Princess Dress
Purchased From: Hand-me-down from Ms. Mishel, aka Violet Temper, of the Philly Roller Girls, and host of a clothing swap I attended.
Year or Era Purchased: Summer 2010
Price: $FREE
Accessories: Silver ballet slipper flats, two flower hair clips, pink slip, heart locket and lock necklace
Hair and Makeup: Front poof and the rest curled (this dress begged for a fancy hair do) and lots of black eye shadow plus the usual makeup
Comments/Compliments/Complaints: Lots of dress compliments, blog compliments, questions about what I'd wear the next day, etc.
It's taken me over a week to write this final day. I think it's because of several factors. One of which being that I'm not totally ready to end this whole thing. Don't get me wrong, it's over like a cancelled TV show, one that I was really, really fond of. I've already worn shorts, a skirt, jeans, and even reworn a few dresses from the past year, number one hundred ninety-six, number one hundred ninety-four and number two hundred forty-seven to be exact. But all good things must end, right? Right. That doesn't mean I have to be totally comfortable with it. I guess I'll start off this blog just like any other. I'll tell you about my dress and my day- both of which were pretty damn special.
I woke up and felt a little blah. It had been my original intention to wear my wedding dress on my last day of dresses and maybe go to the grocery store or around the corner to a bar buuuuutttt, my fat ass wouldn't fit into it. Okay, actually my ass fit into it just fine but my boobs and back fat refused to budge and I was not trying to wreck its zipper in any way. I love that dress and I'll spend the next year getting these ten pounds off so I can fit into it again. I still had about five dresses to choose from since I'm crazy and actually own about 375 dresses. I went with this beautiful fairy/princess inspired dress. I got it at the last clothing swap I attended when my friend Mishel dug through her stuff and produced it, saying she'd never wear it again. Man, I'm a lucky girl cause this dress is gorgeous! I felt all kinds of like Baby from Dirty Dancing in it. Since the dress was a little over the top for every day wear I decided to make my hair and makeup match. I teased and sprayed and created a big poof and pinned it up and curled the rest. I went with lots of black eyeshadow and lots of blush. The combination of lots of hair, makeup and a super dressy dress made me feel a little bit better.
Michael tried to work on the Element but to no avail since he couldn't reach what he needed to, so he drove me to my jobs. He was all about us eating something before we left and forced half an english muffin on me. Around this time is when I should've realized something was up. He drove me to my jobs, was patient, stalled even, and then suggested we go to 700 for a record swap since he talked to our friend Bob and he was there. I was all, I'm hungry dummy, why would I want to go to a record swap without records to swap?!? He was all, we're stopping by so shut it. I pouted a bit, dreamed of an avocado, tomato and veggie turkey sandwich and sucked it up. We parked and went in and I saw my friends, Georgia and Rica and didn't think anything of it. We headed upstairs to the record swap. When I first walked up the stairs I saw my friend, Spano, and thought, okay that makes sense, he's really into records so of course he'd be at a record swap. When I turned the corner and saw the rest of my friends and then heard surprise I was like, huh? what? and I was met with a room full of giant ass posters of me on the walls, stars with pictures of me hanging all around, a huge banner, food, books consisting of all of my blog entries and people yelling surprise. I was so shocked I was borderline mortified. Have you ever walked into a room with giant poster sized images of you all over a wall? Try it some time! Despite my embarrassment, which is not like me usually- I generally dig the whole center of attention thing-I was so honored and touched to have such awesome friends and family and such an amazing husband. He decided the last day of the blog needed a party and got lots of people involved to help. Again, I felt like such a brat because really, let's be honest here, what did I actually do? I wore clothing, took my picture and wrote about it- can you be anymore narcissistic? But since I have so many awesome people in my life they helped and joined in for a celebration of my commitment to narcissism. Thanks everyone!
Sue and Rica were the decorating committee and Sue made chocolate oreo cupcakes and chocolate peanut butter cupcakes. Nicole made strawberry lemonade cupcakes and her and her man friend picked up a pretzel tray while my mother-in-law made fruit tarts in a variety of flavors. Yum. Spano made a playlist and he and Jody picked up the hoagie trays, and did I mention giant posters of me all over the walls that Michael printed at work? Creepy. Kristin made a banner and my mother-in-law made me two beautiful books of my entire blog. Jake bartended an open bar, and lots of people took time out of their Sunday afternoons to show up. Wow. Despite the embarrassment I was beyond flattered, I felt amazingly special. I tried to hang out with everyone, but barely drank since I was still not feeling one hundred percent from Friday. I think the most asked question of the day was "what are you going to wear tomorrow?" to which I replied I didn't know yet but maybe probably a dress. Teehee. I actually did wear a dress, a black cotton one that was not featured in this blog, but was obtained at Mishel's clothing swap. I couldn't help it; it was 95 degrees and dresses are ust the best option for it. Here are some photos of the lovely event:
I spent the last week thinking a lot and also doing a few calculations. Turns out I spent a total of $2843.46 on all 367 dresses (there were two days in which I wore two dresses). My average price per dress was $7.75. How rad is that!?! Thrift stores, clothing swaps, vintage stores, buying dresses on the street, bargain shopping all pay off apparently. I hope I helped to show some people that you don't have to spend a ton of money to put together a cute outfit. And if you don't think my outfits are cute, well then, I think you're dumb.
This whole experience has been absolutely amazing. I'm so thrilled to have a year of my life recorded and expressed through writing and fashion. So many things have happened this year and it flew by at warp speed. I found out my best friend was pregnant on day two and now she has a four month old baby. I went to France (and Italy for a few hours) for my proper honeymoon and got beaten up by the Mediterranean Sea. I went to my first of several clothing swaps and relearned how to thread a bobbin and a sewing machine. I decided to go back to school and am now in my third semester at CCP on my way to completing a certificate in creative writing. I got my first of many Brazilian waxes. I pooped outside. I lost fifteen pounds and then gained back a few. I made a giant paper mache head and a dress and some other components to be Moishe for Halloween. I put my kitty lady Easter to sleep, which was the first time I've ever had to do something like that, and now in her honor I'm fostering a little black kitty lady. Michael and I finally moved on to our third floor, our master bedroom with bath, and I've taken many baths in our amazing claw foot tub. I don't know if it was because I wanted more to write about or because I was just feeling good about life due to this project but I definitely felt more motivated and generally happy. Thanks so much to everyone who read along with my narcissistic journey. I plan to do something else in the future but I'm still crafting it in my brain so stay tuned I'll post future endeavors here as they come.
Now it's time for me to concentrate on my Fall classes, and finally clean our guest room/my new closet. I will be purging a lot of the dresses that didn't work for me as to make room for new ones in the future. If this blog did nothing else it certainly fueled my addiction for a good (and cheap!) dress. I hope to also maybe finally become an organized and fabulous adult lady with an amazing guest room/closet. Ha!
I've found several other blogs the readers of this blog may be interested in so please follow and support them as well. I know I will be using them to cope with my own withdrawals.
New Dress A Day This lovely lady is spending $1 per day on her dresses and altering them to fit her frame. I dig her alterations and style. I bet you will too.
The Uniform Project This is that amazing same dress every day for a year blog but beyond. People can now apply to be part of it and wear one dress for a month and raise money for charity. That's awesome and super stylin'.
The Great American Apparel Diet No clothes shopping for one year! Oh dear. This one would be insanely hard for me. I think clothing swaps are okay so I might just have to become a professional clothing swapper if I ever tried this.
What I Wore Just a cute daily outfit fashion site that my friend Sue sent me. Love it.
And here are a few fun street fashion blogs I dig on:
Street Teeth
Click/Clash
And... There's a HUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGEEEEE clothing swap soon in Philly. I am beyond excited for it! Check it out HERE. Check back here sometime after October 3rd. I may update with a clothing swap blog and details on any new or upcoming ventures. Until then, thanks so much for coming along on this journey with me. It's been swell!
