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a new dress for the occasion. When I was growing up, that was the one sartorial rule Mom absolutely adhered to: the kids always had a new Easter outfit to wear to church. I still always want a new dress (or skirt) to wear on Easter, though I don't always get one, often for the reason mentioned in the subject header. There's been years I started the search two months in advance, going from store to store without success. Also, in the past few years, the places I've had the most success finding a dress have gone under: Dress Barn, Peeble's, Steinmart, even Sears some years (I don't have a lot of luck at JCPenney's for some reason).

This year? I've bought three dresses, all at Ross Dress for Less.

Last Friday, I tried on a half dozen dresses at the RDFL in Mayfield. Only three fit well, and one of the three fit but looked a lot better on the hanger. I debated between two dresses but ultimately chose one that looked almost exactly like this one But when I got home, I started second guessing myself. Is 56 too old for flounces and ruffles? Is the dress cute or is Little House on the Prairie calling and asking for it back?

But I couldn't stop thinking about the dress I didn't choose: a black sleeveless sheath with a gather at the waist on the right side and a spray of pretty violets down the same side (I couldn't find anything online that adequately resembled the dress I didn't buy). So while I was running a few errands over in Mentor this afternoon, I popped into the RDFL there just to see if they had the dress I didn't buy. Not only did they have it, they had it in a size smaller, which fit better, AND it was now on sale. The dress I bought was only $30...this one was $16. And then I saw a second sleeveless sheath dress, this one navy with a floral pattern and a tie in front (again, I can't find anything--I just looked and saw both dresses are from Connected Apparel but I can't even find them on their website). And dang it, it too was adorable and fit me well. It was $23...so I bought both and now plan on returning the first dress. Luckily, I have both a purple cardigan and a navy cardigan because no way is it going to be warm enough in NE Ohio to go sleeveless on Easter <g>.

To show y'all I have *some* restraint, I also saw, and tried on, an adorable pair of wedge sandals. They fit, they were comfortable, they were very reasonably priced at $17.99...and I couldn't think of a thing I owned that would match them, so I put them back. With either of my previous two jobs, I would've just bought them and figured out what to wear them with later--it's hard to find shoes in my size and harder still to find CUTE shoes in my size and hardest of all to find cute shoes in my size that don't cost $100 or more--but I just couldn't justify them today, especially since I'd just stopped at JoAnn Fabric and bought more beads and more pretty paper*

*I'm realizing I'm basically a paper hoarder. I keep meaning to DO something with all the pretty paper I have, and I do, on occasion, cut the pretty paper into strips, roll the strips into beads and make jewelry out of the beads. But I could make beads every day, all waking hours of each day, and not use up all my paper for at least a month <g>.