The Last Article of Clothing I Bought

 

 {Can you read my expression in the first picture? It says, "Angel, stop fussing me." For the record, Angel named this outfit "Raspberry Lemonade." He's very creative. Also for the record, it snowed the day I was wearing this--bright colors apparently don't bring warm weather}

So, I don't consider myself much of a "stuff" person. As far as furniture, kitchenware, or home accessories go....we might have many years to go before I grow up enough to want to spend hard-earned money on stuff like that. I genuinely enjoy having nice, clean, empty cupboards in my kitchen and empty closets in the guest bedroom.

When I was growing up, my family moved fairly frequently, and the impression that that lifestyle left on me was that I don't want to have a ton of stuff to carry  around with me whenever I move. Because packing is annoying.

There are a few things that I have a lot of, though. I have a lot of books, though it's probably been a year or so since I've bought any--I have so many through a lifetime of begging, borrowing, stealing, and occasionally buying. You know, the usual ways that people collect libraries full of books.

I also have a lot of shoes and clothes. Not a hugely overwhelming amount. Not a walk-in closet's worth or anything like that. I take good care of my clothes and I've been the same size since I was 12 or 13 so I have several years of clothing collecting under my belt. I stay on top of my closet and make sure that I actually like everything that's in there. Still, there are many times when I want new dresses. 

Or fuschia-colored jeans. Or shoes with studs in them.

I'm no impulse buyer, and I don't buy new clothes all the time. It has to be something special in order to convince me to part with my money. It's not unheard of for me to go a month or two without falling in love with anything new...but longer than that? That would be a stretch--but that's exactly what I'm attempting to do right now.

These polka-dot shoes were my most recent purchase, from the first week of March. I saw them at the store in February, and fell in love with them, and when I still hadn't forgotten about them two weeks later, we went back to the store and bought them. Aren't they cute? They didn't come with shoelaces, but colorful shoelaces are a signature accessory for me, so I took a pair out of my stash and laced them up. The problem: Keds don't have as many  holes for laces as Converse do, and the shoe laces were way too long. So I cut the ends off the shoe laces and had Angel scientifically hold the ends of the laces in the gas fire on the stove to melt them so that they wouldn't fray. Genius.

It's my intention that these beautiful shoes shall be my last purchase for a while. It's already been over a month since I bought them, and I haven't bought anything else to wear since then. You see, Angel and I are going on vacation in late summer. And plane tickets are expensive. Also, our destination is a place that I know has some awesome shopping. I'm going to refrain from buying anything to wear from now till then. I said before that going without buying anything new for a month or two is easy for me. But not buying anything to wear for  4 or 5 months? A little more challenging. I'll have to learn a lesson in not coveting, and I'll also have to hope that 50s era dresses with full skirts and petticoats don't suddenly become all the rage this summer while at the same time becoming very cheap, because that's pretty much the biggest temptation I could think of at this moment.

p.s. The grocery store has excellent lighting for pictures.

p.p.s. That yellow t-shirt is a children's size 14/16. I don't remember kids being so adult-sized until I stand next to some of my 'little' cousins.