Influencing Fashion

Lil'Gal and I had plans this morning to go get our 'tonie' nails done (her heals are so callused and cracked) and then we were going to head to 'Justice' for their big 40% off sale.

Well, I woke voiceless, and throatless, but unfortunately NOT phlemless.  The boys left for haircuts and errands.  I drag myself and my half box used kleenex's (ew) from the couch and the floor surrounding and piddle a daddle here and there to finally find my way to the shower.  All the while throating out in my mind, "I think I can, I think I can along with Don't be such a BABY."

Shower and Netti pot earned me...  Clean skin and hair.

I resolved that I'd feel better after some ibuprofen and then proceeded to dry my mess and purdy myself up.

About 9:15 I limped into the kitchen and downed something allowable-edible for Good Friday and off we went.  We made it eventually to the nail salon which was PACKED-PIE BUSY.  Rare for that time of morning but then again, it IS a Holiday.  And, I hadn't called to make an appointment because I didn't want to be tied to it.  We get all that done, and stomach growling, call Hubby to find that he is INDEED still in town (with John Deere dude now in tow as well) and they are at -- wait for it -- the marine shop again.

Those boys need to buy stock in that place to get more bang for the buck$ they spend there, LOL!  Though, they also do a lot of 'window shopping'.  Who ever says men don't like to shop needs to reevaluate.  Men DO like to shop; they just shop different venues than most women. :-P

To the point.  After enjoying a delightful lunch with the family and JDDude sitting out over the oceanic water, Lil'Gal and I headed off to 'the sale'.

The point of this sale was to get Lil'Gal to 'pick out clothing' with me in an effort to influence her 'fashion' style and allow her to actually invest herself in our purchases.

She.  LOVED. IT.  Not to say that she hasn't picked out clothes for herself with me before.  We hit the sales before back to school and found some good finds.  Still?  She wore a few of those a time or two only and left them in hopes of warmer weather's return.  This was different.  See, this is where her cousin -- my sweet and well fashioned (but not overly fashioned) -- niece gets most of her outfits.  At least as Lil'Gal will say, "She gets everything at 'Justice' except for like two outfits."

So we hit the big 40% off everything sale.  Including the already marked down for clearance section (we only found one thing there *insert unhappy face*).  We found a semi-dressy long skirt and top for Easter.  I find that she is outgrowing those awesomely fancy and adorably dressy Easter dresses *insert second unhappy face* but this she liked.  She had noticed her cousin (as had I) a few weeks ago in church wearing a similar skirt and top and we both commented on how adorable it was.

So, long story short we walked out with most of what we tried on.  Easter outfit, and outfit Daddy would love (cammo), some shorts that she felt comfortable in AND could be worn to school with tops that adorned them beautifully.  And, everything can fit OVER a cast.  *sigh* The ever-looming permanent cast.... Oh, but we took into consideration the color of said permanent-cast-to-be when making our clothing selections. :-P

She insists on holding her large bag of clothes in her lap on the way home.  She wants the boys to come see them immediately (but you know the boys, they are in the barn doing stuff I don't want to know about lest I cry 'SAFETY OFFENSE, SAFETY OFFENSE'.)

She is thrilled with her clothes.  She helps me hang them in her closet.  She then re-organizes her closet with school and fashionable clothes up front, play clothes to the side and those utterly-unliked winter clothes waaaaaay to the back.  This leads to a room review and redo, cleaning and styling.

Who knew!??  The influence of fashion is truly a powerful thing!  And, all I really set out to accomplish was a daughter who would 'like' the clothes 'I liked' and found acceptable for the general public and thus eliminating anything stretchy, spandex, and especially too small.  [She doesn't know it yet but the cute shorts she is currently wearing which I have discovered to be a little too small will soon disappear as well; those gremlins will most likely get them.]  >:-D

Oh and guess what?  They gave me coupons for 1/2 off my next purchases AND she gets an additional coupon all month long for her birthday month (ahem, May.)  SCORE!

Influencing Fashion