My 4-hr Homecoming shopping safari

Homecoming at Carly's High school is early this year, Sept 18th. It's the first school dance since she's been of eligible dating age. To not be asked, it seemed, would be the epitome of failure as a datable girl. There was serious, serious anxiety going on. Last Saturday night all fears were laid to rest with a welcome phone call from a boy named Craig. No big showy to-do of asking- just a phone call which was just fine with Carly. He had taken her to a movie earlier Saturday afternoon. On the phone, he told her that he had planned to ask her at the movie but chickened out. She was happy he had gathered his courage & happily accepted. They've been friends since 6th grade. They know each other well and have a good time together. More importantly, I know him and won't worry about her. I know she'll be in good company and safe.

So now that the being asked was out of the way, anxiety turned to finding a dress. Yesterday afternoon the planets aligned just right and chores were completed and dad was going to be home watching BYU football so he (and Rachel) could take care of the little kids and we could go SHOPPING!!!

We left the house at 4pm to see what the mall had to offer......

We parked outside Macy's and went in. Within 30 minutes we were loaded up with 4-5 dresses and in the dressing room. The 2nd one she tried on was it. How did I get that lucky? We knew, however, we'd need to find some accessories to make it modest.

We already had 2 bolero jackets with us to try. One was perfect. It clasps in front and has little rosettes all around the neckline and looks so cute with it, like they were made for each other.....

Again.... How did I get so lucky?

Carly was in love. She loved the frilly rosettes on the the bolero. She loved the purple. She loved the zebra stripes. Animal print couture has never, ever been something Carly was interested in. She rolled her eyes & shook her head on many occasions during Rachel's cheetah print stage. But there was something about this dress that changed her mind. Never say Never!

Next we headed to the lingerie dept in Macy's because there was one little problem Carly had pointed out when trying on the dress. When you are standing opposite her looking at her the dress looked fine but if you happened to be standing close to her and looked down, which is very likely going to happen when your date is dancing with you.... well... that was a completely different story. She told me "whenever I try on something I imagine Dad and if he would approve." We found this silky camisole that was a very close color and fabric match to the top black of the dress. It's hard to see that it's not part of the dress and completely takes care of the cleavage issue.

Next was the hunt for shoes and jewelry!

We went to Famous footwear where her friend Brianna works and tried on some strappy black heels and then were showed a pair of zebra slide pumps on the clearance rack. Perfect! but too small and on clearance so not many available in that store or when they checked other stores in the area. It was sad. She'd already decided she could paint her toenails bright purple and wouldn't that look cute! She wanted them so bad but push on we did. We looked in Claire's and at Icing for jewelry and at every shoe store we encountered. Finally at Payless Shoes we found some purple suede-look wedge pumps that were promising. She put them on and AHHH.... they were comfortable. She held the dress up in front and considered. The purple of the shoe is a slightly different shade but I thought it worked. Carly wasn't sure so we decided to think about it. Then we stopped 2 stores away at Maurice's to look at their jewelry racks. We found some promising purple and black jewelry and were given permission to take it into the dressing room to try it on with her dress. She tried on a purple necklace and earrings that we liked but decided if we went with the purple jewelry we really needed purple shoes so I left her in the dressing room, ran back to Payless and bought the shoes and rushed back.

We ultimately decided on a beautiful, delicate black necklace that continued with the flower theme of her bolero and found some black dangly flower earrings to match. They each have a rhinestone in the center for a little sparkle to dress things up.

We had seen a cute flower bracelet at Claire's earlier that she decided she had to have and then found a matching ring. Her Auntie Christy sent her a little $um'in in the mail after hearing she had been asked to Homecoming to "buy herself something special" and Carly was very grateful because without that gift she might not have been so well accessorized.

We left the mall at about 7:45 tired, but happy, to have her complete outfit for Homecoming. We even felt enough energy to head over to JoAnn's fabric store to buy 6 inches of purple satin and 6 inches of sparkly glittery black tulle to make a hair flower for her big night....

You'll have to wait 2 weeks to see it all on her but let me say

She's stunning!

Her dad even approved.

Her brother, however, asked if she was getting her Halloween costume ready when he saw the zebra stripes.....

Ahh.... Little brothers!