Thinking Spring Fashions

Incredibly, although it was in the high 20's when I left for work this morning, it felt so COLD out there!  LOL!  That is a gauge of how abnormally warm this winter in general has been.  Now we're into March and I want 60 degrees!  It's already happened, too, we've hit 60 and above several times already, which is just surreal!  Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and in the high 50's -- I'll take it!  We got dumped on with a lot of rain a few days ago and the strong winds that have been here for the past 4 days are only now abating, thank Goddess!  We need lots of sun to dry out my soggy backyard.  I'm already itching to get back there and start spring clean-up; but realistically, that probably won't happen for at least another month.

I window shop at Sam Moon online a lot.  Now they're offering a flat shipping fee of $5.99 for UPS Ground (with some exceptions).  Still not low enough when you only want to order one $5.99 necklace :)  SM is a great source for inexpensive accessories.  I'm not very fashionable; I don't change my accessories out every other week.  I don't own dozens of handbags and totes or dozens of pairs of shoes.  In fact, the shoes that I have are in dire danger of falling apart at any second and I really really need to get off my duff and order some from online (I've written about the trials and tribulations of trying to find WWW shoes at the Mall - what a frigging waste of time).  It really really irritates the hell out of me to have to pay $80 to $100 for a pair of shoes just because I have wide feet that tend to swell as the day goes on.  I wish SM sold shoes!

Normally this time of year I'm shopping the clearance racks for extra warm sweaters and winter coats at deep discounts, while the stores are pushing mountains of bikinis and expensive lawn furniture at us.  I normally don't pay any attention until June, when the winter stuff is being put out.

But this year I'm paying attention - it's Sam Moon's fault, I'm sure, for emailing me every day with gorgeous teaser ads :)

I love this bag!  It's $27.99.  Item #: 378094 
The inset looks woven but it's probably printed vinyl.  Doesn't make a difference to the look and I expect that if that inset actually was woven the bag would cost a heck of a lot more!  Additional colors are black, cream and a pale "ice" blue that is very pretty.

These bead colors look luscious!

I snipped this image from today's email ad.  Reminds me of watermelon and honeydew melon and spring!

My local GO TO department store for most of my clothes is Boston Store (part of Bon-Ton stores).  Right now the Goodwill Sale is going on, which is very popular locally:  if you donate a wearable item at the store for Goodwill, you get a 20% off coupon that is good for ALL items, no exclusions.

According to Boston Store's 2012 Spring Trend Guide, among the trends the following are (still?) in:
-- Color blocked fashions
-- Exotic Prints
-- Feminine Blouses (frou-frou)

I'm shocked!  How could these trends from a year (and more) ago still be "trends?"  Unless Bon-Ton is pawning off on backward, conservative Wisconsin last year's (and the year before's) unsold merchandise...hmmmmm.....

Well, I don't wear "trends,", I'm too backward and conservative for that.  But I know what I like, and I like this dress.  It's described as "color-blocked" -- don't know about that.  I suppose, technically, black/white/tan would be considered "color-blocked."  Hmmm, those are the colors in my bedroom, in addition to my ancient pale grey carpeting.

Evan-Picone® Geo Colorblock Sheath Dress Original: $99.00 Sale: $69.99

This dress looks like a reject from the flower-child era.  I know the fashion industry has been bringing all of those generally crappy looking fashions back but, REALLY?  This dress is just bad fashion all around.  What was Ellen Tracy thinking???

Ellen Tracy® Surplice Floral Print Faux Wrap DressOriginal: $118.00, on sale $87.99.  Not worth it.